<aside> 👇 Your synced menu goes here.

</aside>

Using this template

There are 5 key questions that drive the Brand Story exercise.

• Which story are you in?
• Which are the driving forces?
• What's wrong with the current story?
• What's the change you'd like to make?
• What defines the character needed?

By spending some time with each of these questions, we can begin to formulate our Mission, Vision and Story, as guided below.

Leave the Mission Statement and Vision Statement callout boxes for the very end—after you've collected the bits and pieces needed to fill them in.

Mission Statement

<aside> 🚀 In [this story’s setting], my business helps [influence the desired change] by [doing what the ideal character would do].

</aside>

Vision Statement

<aside> 🌄 **[**A clear description of the desired change, instantiated.]

</aside>

Setting

<aside> 🖼️ *What is the broader context of the story you and your business are operating in? Is it a technological story? A cultural one? What types of characters are involved? What does it feel like?

Think of this as setting the scene for a fictional novel or story. 'Once upon time, in a ___________________________________, there was a...'*

</aside>

Key Forces

ALLIED

• Positive trend or force #1 (e.g. growing interest in online learning)
• Positive trend or force #2
• Positive trend or force #3
• Positive trend or force #4
• Positive trend or force #5

COUNTERACTIVE

• Negative trend or force #1 (e.g. negative stigma around online learning outcomes)
• Negative trend or force #2
• Negative trend or force #3
• Negative trend or force #4
• Negative trend or force #5

What's Wrong In The Story?

Drawing from some of the negative forces above, and the main problem as you see it, write a paragraph describing what exactly is going wrong in this story as it currently sits?

e.g. Many students are seeking online, self-service sources of education, but are unable to filter quality from low-quality information. This leads to more confusion than good, and eventually they give up.

<aside> 😭 DYSTOPIAN ENDING: If we were to extrapolate on the 'what's wrong with this story?' above and write the most dystopian ending to this particular story... what would that look like?

</aside>

E.g. If things continue this way, high quality education will remain off limits to most and the online education space will shrink.

What's The Change?

You've got a description of what's going wrong—now it's time to describe the change you'd like to make.

What Character Is Needed?

With the desired change identified, now you can start to reflect on the type of character that would be needed to influence that change. Are they bold, extraverted and ambitious? Or more modest, approachable and communal?

• Brand Character trait #1
• Brand Character trait #2
• Brand Character trait #3
• Brand Character trait #4
• Brand Character trait #5

You can learn more about this brand story exercise here.