The best stories are already there.

New Orleans is my second home. My family goes back eight generations there, and after Hurricane Katrina my grandparents’ house was practically destroyed. I was still in high school. The best thing I could do was tell people what I had seen, so I did. Then I started bringing people down to rebuild.

For the next decade I organized volunteers to rebuild homes, and I made sure every group met the city the way I knew it: the music, the food, the people, and finally dinner at Leah Chase’s table. That is where I learned what a story can do. It can carry a city’s history, help it heal, and move someone hearing it for the first time.

I started out making documentaries, and I still work the same way. I listen until the real story surfaces. Then I define it, because the right story is more than a campaign. It is the strategy, not just for go-to-market but for the whole company: what we build, who we serve, and why it matters.

When that story becomes the business strategy, and everyone from product to sales to the board rallies behind it, that is when real growth happens. My talent is finding that story, then building the go-to-market engine that makes sure people find it: the brand, the website, the pricing, the events, and the team.

Adrian Cohn