Customer as Hero, Business as Mentor
In your business story you are never Barbie — you're the one who tells Barbie where to go.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 90%
Fussman applies his six-step story structure to business and inverts one crucial casting decision: in a business story you cannot be the hero, because the hero is by definition the vulnerable person. The customer is the hero — vulnerable, wanting better, unable to get the right product. Your company enters at step four as the mentor, showing the client how to get what they want and carrying them past the obstacles to transformation. He is explicit that entrepreneurs must not cast themselves as Barbie: you want your product to be the solution, not the character that needs one.
Origin
Fussman developed the six-step formula for storytelling generally, then hit a problem when teaching it to entrepreneurs at corporate talks: the structure demands a vulnerable protagonist, which is exactly what a business must not look like to its buyers. Rather than abandon the structure he swapped the casting, putting the customer in the hero slot and the business in the mentor slot.
Core principles
- 01The hero must be vulnerable — therefore the hero cannot be your business.
- 02The customer is the hero; your product is the solution, not the character needing one.
- 03Your business occupies the mentor role: it has been through this and has the ideas.
- 04The customer's intention to improve is the engine; your job is to remove the obstacles.
- 05Casting yourself as hero forces you to perform vulnerability, which is the opposite of what a buyer needs to see.
How to run it
- 1
Cast the customer as the vulnerable hero
The customer has an issue that needs resolving. That vulnerability is the story's engine and it belongs to them, not to you.
Pro tip Write the vulnerability in the customer's own words, not your category's jargon.
Watch out Never put your own struggle in this slot in customer-facing material.
- 2
Establish their intention
The customer wants better and intends to improve. Make that desire explicit before introducing anything you sell.
- 3
Name the obstacles
The customer can't get the right product, or can't get past whatever is blocking them. These obstacles are what your mentor role exists to address.
Pro tip Obstacles that name a real, specific frustration outperform generic pain-point language.
- 4
Enter as the mentor
Your company appears at the mentor beat, showing the client how they can get what they want and that they don't have to be vulnerable anymore.
Pro tip Mentor energy is 'I've been through this and here's the idea', not 'look how impressive we are'.
Watch out Entering as a hero here makes the customer a spectator to your story instead of a participant in theirs.
- 5
Take them past the obstacles
Show the mentor carrying the client through the remaining obstacles to the point of transformation.
- 6
Deploy the transformation across channels
End on the customer's transformation and happiness, then run that story through presentations, the website, and social media so people can see themselves as the hero.
Pro tip The test is whether a reader can relate to the story and feel they could be that hero.
In the wild
Having just walked Hala through Barbie's hero journey, Fussman flipped it for business: the customer is vulnerable, the customer wants better and has an intention to improve, but the customer can't get the right product. Then the mentor comes in — your company. Your business shows the client how they can get what they want, takes them past the obstacles to a point of transformation, and makes them happy.
→ The same six-step structure produces business narrative that a buyer can inhabit, while keeping the business out of the vulnerable-protagonist slot that would undermine it.
Common mistakes
Making your company the hero
The hero must be vulnerable. Casting your business there means performing vulnerability to the exact people who need to trust your competence, and it strands the customer with nobody to identify with.
Skipping the customer's intention
Jumping from 'customer has a problem' straight to 'here's our product' removes the desire that makes the story move. The intention to improve is what makes the mentor's arrival welcome instead of intrusive.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders, marketers and copywriters building brand narrative, website copy, or sales presentations.
Not ideal for
Genuine founder-story content on a personal brand channel, or investor storytelling where founder resilience is the point.
From the transcript
“In the business story you cannot be the hero. The hero is a vulnerable person — when you're telling your business story the hero is…”
“The customer is vulnerable, the customer wants better, they have an intention to improve, but the customer can't get the right product. The mentor comes…”
“You don't want to look vulnerable — you want your product to be the solution, not the character that needs a solution.”
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