Hey, hey Reader,

Yesterday marked the first live call inside Emma Stratton’s Make It Punchy messaging course.

I honestly didn’t realize how much my brain needed it.

So much of messaging work (and freelancing in general) happens solo. You, your laptop, your thoughts, your Slack tabs.

Being in a room, even a virtual one, with other smart marketers thinking deeply about messaging and story felt like the back-to-basics reset I needed.

The hardest part was choosing which client’s messaging to work on… because every single one of them has asked me to help clarify theirs lately.

A good problem to have, but still a problem.

What really got my creative juices flowing was the storytelling exercise Emma gave us in the pre-work.

The core idea (which she also teaches in her book) is this:
Your product isn’t the hero; your customer is.

Your job is to build the story around them and identify who (or what) their villain is.

Because every great story has both:

• Star Wars: Luke = hero, Darth Vader = villain
• The Hunger Games: Katniss = hero, the Capitol = villain
• The Matrix: Neo = hero, the system = villain

When brands do this well, their messaging stops sounding like everyone else's and becomes uniquely theirs.

Here’s the framework + prompt I used. Feel to steal it. (I mapped this out first myself and then compared what AI did. I recommend stretching your brain muscles first, refining after.)

The “Blockbuster Brand Story” Prompt

Let’s pretend we’re turning into a movie. Write the story following this structure:

Paragraph 1: The Shift:

Write 1-2 sentences about the shift happening for .

The shift is a recognizable change that’s happening to customers. Nothing vague; must be obvious. It can be a trend that’s happening in the world, ,a new approach, or a new mindset. Examples: shift to the cloud. The shift could be internal: now customer wants more purpose in their own work, etc.

Paragraph 2: The Villain and 3 Obstacles.

Write 2-3 sentences stating who or what the villain is.

The villain is the face of the core problem. It's distinct and omething you can picture. Example: Blackberries were Steve Job’s villain when he released the iPhone. A villabin can also be an approach like an outdated approach; it could be a concept, like a blindspot, for example, an advanced hacker. Salesforce's villain was software. Slack’s villain is email.

The 3 obstacles are the key challenges, or the sub challenges of the core problem. For example, with email there are nonstop alerts. The obstacles are 'smack in the face' daily challenges that agitate fear, worry, or a lack of confidence. Example: Slack’s obstacles created by email include: you can’t find what you need, attached in different emails; you're missing out on important things in email chains;and replies take too long.

Paragraph 3: The Dream

Write 2-3 sentences about what your target aud. wishes things could be like. The outcome or the thing they want. Think about how they’d feel when they achieve that outcome. Example: For Slack's audience, they wish collaboration could be more productive without all the admin of email.

Paragraph 4: The Solution

The solution is the promise of value. Think of the one big win. The main value proposition and the 3 superpowers and benefits.

For example, Slack customers want insta-support not a never-ending mountain of emails. Make it something you can picture.

I’ve used a lot of frameworks over the years, but this never goes out of style. We all want to hear a story instead of facts and features.

Our brains are hard-wired for it thanks to the hundreds of years of fireside chats.

Writing out this story made my client’s messaging clearer, more emotional, and more human in about 30 minutes.

Hope this helps you. If you try this, tell me what villain shows up in your brand story. Reply and let me know.

See you next Wednesday.

And as always, I'm rooting for you, Kelly