The Part You're Afraid to Show

A few years ago I was on a subcontracted shoot for a regional health system going through a merger. Our job was to interview surgeons about the change.

The surgeons weren't happy about it. Not angry, exactly. Worried. They'd spent their careers caring for patients, and they didn't know what the merger would mean for that care. You could hear it in every answer.

I remember thinking: this is the film. Not the merger. The people who care enough to worry about it.

We didn't make that film. We were asked to keep it positive, so we shot the standard version and handed it off. It was fine. It just wasn't true to what we saw in that room.

I think about that shoot a lot, because I see the same thing with the family businesses we talk to.

The fear is real…

When I bring up a story film with an owner, the hesitation usually isn't budget. It's fear of being seen. "We're bigger now, people will think we're a factory." "Dad doesn't farm anymore." "If we show that, someone's going to judge us." the fear of what if.. and the fear of our story isn't perfect yet…

Those are fair concerns. Nobody wants a video that invites a lawsuit or an angry comment section.

But hiding it has a cost

Businesses that avoid the hard part end up with content that says nothing. Product shots. Smiling staff. "Family owned since..." It's safe, and it's forgettable. Meanwhile your customers still have the question in the back of their minds. You just aren't the one answering it.

The worry is the proof

Those surgeons' worry was proof they cared. The same is true for you. If you're worried people will think you've gotten too big, that tells me you still care about being a business people trust. That's the story. Not how big you are, but what you refused to lose while you grew.

Why story still matters

A lot of marketing advice today treats sales as the only thing that counts. Run the ad, track the click, cut whatever doesn't convert this month. I understand why. Numbers are easy to measure.

But I keep coming back to one question: why? Why does this business exist? Why does it matter that it's still here? If you never answer that, you end up competing on price and convenience, and a bigger company will usually win that fight.

People have always passed down what matters through stories. It's how families remember where they came from, and I'd argue it's a big part of how communities hold together at all. Businesses are no different. The ones that last are the ones people can explain to someone else: who they are, what they care about, and why they're worth choosing.

Sales keeps the doors open. Story is the reason people walk through them.

What this does for your business

I hear it a lot: brand marketing is for big companies. Small businesses should stick to ads and promotions that sell something this week.

I get it. When money's tight, every dollar needs to bring someone in. But I don't think the choice is brand or sales. A good story film isn't a billboard. It's something you use right where people decide: on your website when someone's comparing you, in a meeting with a new buyer, on the job post a good worker is reading, in the follow up after someone's first visit. The issue is that a bad brand film sometimes is the thing that gets made and it just lives on your website doing nothing. A film that is just a historical piece focusing on your views is not the type of film I'm talking about. A proper film should have something at stake and show your customers why you are different, their are 1000s of businesses in every genre you can imagine but how and why and what it cost you is what makes your story different. Now we understand that ads get attention. They don't build much trust. And when someone is choosing between you and a bigger brand, trust is what tips it. Especially when most ads look like everyone else youre not standing out with marketing copy and pretty images.

Showing it safely

There's a difference between human tension and operational risk. A person's worry, a hard decision, what they care about: that builds trust. Anything a lawyer or activist could pull out of context isn't the story, and you don't need it. You approve the questions, you see the cut, and you have final say.

Why now

There's more content every week that nobody actually made. AI writes the post, generates the photo, even makes the video. People can feel it, and they're tired of it.

That's why real matters more now, not less. A real person on their real farm, talking about something they actually worry about, is the one thing a bigger competitor can't buy their way into. It's like a farmer's calced hands, you can try to replicate it but it took years to build your hands to that level. No one can take that away from you.

 When word of mouth is the story that is forgotten, when it's not told and those stories to tell, no matter how big or small your business has gotten you forgot to tell them, you make a simple brand film and you are not remembered, these are the stories that I think about. “What is it like to be the 2nd generation of a winery, what is the cost or things you had to prove, what does it mean to be family owned in this day in age” 

The part worth telling

We only take on businesses we believe in, because you can't honestly tell someone's hard story if you don't. That shoot is a big part of why Evey and I make the films we make now. If there's a part of your story you've been nervous to tell, it's probably the part worth telling. 

Want to talk it through? Book a Story Strategy Call at www.jbawproductions.com