Storybuilding
Your Brand From Their* Standpoint
Your company is changing. Your story needs to change with it.
We help leadership teams at pivotal moments build their brand story from their customers’ standpoint — co-created, co-owned, and ready to land.
Leadership teams form all types and sizes of organisations trust Storybuilding at their pivotal moment.
* Customer, User, Investor, Donor, Partner, Supplier, Boss
Does this sound familiar?
You’re not just growing.
You’re changing direction.
Maybe your management team has just taken ownership and you’re ready to build something new. Maybe you’re entering a market where nobody knows you yet. Maybe your brand no longer reflects what you’ve become.
You have something real to work with: customers who value what you do, a team that believes in it, results you can point to.
But when you try to put the story into words—for investors, for a new market, for your own leadership team—something doesn’t land the way it should.
You’ve tried to fix it. A positioning workshop. A new agency brief. Internal sessions to get everyone aligned. The output seemed logical — and it fell flat.
Here’s what went wrong
The problem wasn’t your offer.
It was where the story started.
Most positioning starts from inside your company, from your standpoint. That’s why it doesn’t land.
❌ Old way
✅ New way
Your positioning is from the inside out
An agency asks about your company, synthesises your answers, and produces messaging that describes your offer—from your perspective. It’s professional. It’s logical. And it doesn’t land, because customers don’t buy your perspective. They recognise their own.
Your brand story lives in your customers’ world
Start from their identity, their aspirations, their challenges, their standpoint. Co-create your story with your team. A story they built, they will understand, own, and use naturally from day one.
The methodology
Storybuilding: a structured co-creation methodology
Your leadership team builds your new brand story together—guided by a process that starts in your customers’ world, not yours.
Because you are the expert on your customer. And because a story your team co-created, they’ll own, understand, and use naturally.
No agency handoff. No document that sits on a shelf. A story that travels—because it belongs to you.
“We are not a branding agency. We build the foundational story—so every future expression has something solid to stand on.”
How it works
A focused series of workshops.
A story that’s entirely yours.
We work with your leadership team online, over a few weeks.
Structured, human, and built to produce something real.
Start from your customers' standpoint
Who they are, what they aspire to, what's in their way, the moment they knew they needed you.
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Co-create your story
Name your standpoint, your category, and the transformation you create—together.
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Test it with real customers
Put the story in front of real stakeholders. Refine until it clicks for them.
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Walk away with a story that's yours
Built, understood, owned, and ready to use—by everyone who helped build it.
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What changes
Three things clients describe after Storybuilding
This isn’t our list of benefits. These are the words clients use, in the workshop debrief, when we ask: “What’s different now?”
01
Alignment
For the first time, everyone is telling the same story—in their own voice, because they helped build it. Pitches. Investor calls. Sales conversations. Everyone sounds like one company.
02
Shifted perspective
Seeing your company the way your customers do changes what you say—and how confidently you say it. The pivot isn’t internal anymore. It’s in your language.
03
Market validation
When you test the story, something shifts. Clients lean in. “That’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.” Your story isn’t a pitch anymore. It’s a mirror.
In their own words

Speqqle
Iris Crassee, Founder & CEO
“His framework is like a fast track to understanding what they truly need”

Chilax!
Sudharshini Ariarajah & Thomas Kropf Co-founders
“…helped us think outside the box, leading to a significant refinement of our value proposition”
Working with John at Standpoint was an excellent experience. Despite being conducted mostly through video conference, the process was seamless and highly effective. John’s expertise and innovative approach on storybuilding not only challenged us but also helped us think outside the box, leading to a significant refinement of our value proposition for our product, “Chilax!”—an innovative process documentation SaaS solution.
His insights were invaluable and we very much appreciated his dedication to support us throughout. We highly recommend John and Standpoint for anyone looking to elevate their business strategy and achieve meaningful growth.

Appik
Mathilde Igier & Anthony Peguet
“helped us to clarify our ideas and objectives to the essential”
Using these storytelling methods, John helped us to clarify our ideas and objectives to the essential. This approach has had a positive impact on the way we communicate and prospect for the projects we’re passionate about. His experience and listening skills have been a great help in defining the strategies of our development agency.

MCI Group
Karen Bhavnani, Innovation and Implementation Manager
“sparked open discussion and new ways of thinking about our assumptions”
John delivered a hands-on interactive business model workshop helping us in framing our thinking and identifying and evaluating the business potential of our new initiative.
John used varied group methods that sparked open discussion and new ways of thinking about our assumptions, the marketplace and key stakeholders. We recommend John for his expertise and his detailed approach to workshop preparation and delivery to meet outcomes.

ACTAGIS
Jeff Primus, CEO
“exceeded our expectations and allowed us to significantly increase sales”
Starting ACTAGIS, we knew that digital channels are indispensable to business development. Standpoint has exceeded our expectations and allowed us to significantly increase sales.
It would be hard to find a better service!

Bluebotics
Matt Wade
“define our customers’ key challenges in a way that speaks to anyone”
John has become a valued marketing partner for BlueBotics. We worked with him to update our brand messaging in the Storybrand style. Instantly respected by our entire team, he both carefully guided and brought a fresh (but relevant) perspective to these brainstorms. He helped us to define, in particular, our customers’ key challenges in a way that speaks to anyone. We’ve since used John’s consultancy to stress-check our plans for our messaging rollout and I can imagine this won’t be the last time we enlist his expertise.

Linalis
Christophe Monnier, Directeur
“listening and delivering valuable results”
Most consultants are good at talking, John is all about listening and delivering valuable results. Our Value proposition workshop was straight to the point and allowed the management team to agree on common goals.
Later, we contacted Standpoint to help us with our website copywriting and content creation. Once again, John delivered great content in no time.

1959 Advisors
Serge Ledermann
“Returns from customers and prospects are excellent and business is boosted”
John quickly understood the needs of my company: understanding the business model, analyzing the profile and needs of customers, the quality of the message, and sensitivity to the “touch and feel” of the digital vector. Returns from customers and prospects are excellent and business is boosted.

TieTalent
Jovana Rotula, Marc Trillou, Founders
“coming up with creative solutions”
John is a great coach for our team. He helped us on the general strategy, digital marketing and communication areas. Always thinking outside of the box, listening carefully to our challenges and coming up with creative solutions. John is not a talker, he is a real doer.

Gmelius
Florian Bersier, Founder
“consolidate its market approach”
Coaching a startup is hard! John quickly found a way to help Gmelius consolidate its market approach and processes in various fields going from marketing to human resources. He is a very smart and committed person who is always ready to lend a sympathetic ear.

Quantreex
Rahman Belyan
“offers simple, pragmatic and clear advice”
John always tries to understand even the most complex projects. He identifies with the client and offers simple, pragmatic and clear advice. Sensitive and human, he offers a new perspective on the good development of the product. Thank you.

ENVOY
CEO
“shepherded me to a place where my message is a lot clearer”
I’m pleased to have worked with John at Standpoint on my storytelling and strategic positioning.
We conducted multiple sessions via video and that format worked above expectation, really powerful and efficient use of time.
John went deep into my companies situation. He clearly understands tech, product and the business challenges that a company like mine faces.
John then has a real knack for synthesising this context, applying a couple of really powerful frameworks, and has shepherded me to a place where my message is a lot clearer and customers will find it a lot easier to listen….an easy story is a better story! Thank you John, I look forward to working with you again.
A pivot without a clear story is a pivot that stalls.
Every month you wait is another month of being underestimated—by the market, and sometimes by your own team.
- A new market won’t understand what you’re offering
- An MBO loses momentum before it starts
- A rebrand feels like a logo change
- A new product category never gets a foothold
- Your team keeps improvising in pitches
Picture this
Your pivotal moment isn’t just happening internally anymore.
It’s landing.
Picture the moment your leadership team finishes the last workshop. You’ve spent the session in your customers’ world—their language, their frustrations, the future they’re trying to reach. You’ve built the story together, tested it, sharpened it.
“This is the first time I feel like we’re all saying the same thing.”
You take it to market. A potential client reads the deck. Leans forward. “How did you know that was exactly our situation?”
Your story isn’t a pitch anymore. It’s a mirror.
What we don’t do.
We think it’s important to be honest about where Standpoint ends.
❌ Create taglines without strategy underneath them
❌ Skip the tough conversations about why your story isn’t working
❌ Design trendy logos or build snazzy websites
❌ Hand you a document and disappear
The methodology, in full
Storybuilding:
Your Brand From Their Standpoint
The book that explains the full methodology—from why most brand stories fail, to the complete Storybuilding sequence of canvases, to how to apply it across B2B, B2C, investor, and internal contexts.
Used in workshops, business schools, startup programs, and by leadership teams navigating their next chapter.
Start here
Tell us about
your pivotal moment.
A 30-minute conversation to understand where your company is going—and what a story built from your customers’ standpoint could do for you. No pitch. No obligation.