At Creative Blue, we’ve spent over a decade crafting brand narratives, marketing materials, and investor pitches for startups and established companies alike. But before we dive into design or messaging tweaks, there’s one non-negotiable step: defining the core story.

Why? Because if you get the story right, everything else falls into place—who you pitch to, who invests, and even the color of your website. Your core story is the foundation for everything your brand says and does. And now, with AI, that story has even more potential.

The Evolution of the Core Story

We’ve created countless core stories for our clients, using them as a tool to align teams, generate sales material, and build investor pitches. But until recently, the document itself wasn’t being fully utilized. Then, we had a breakthrough: What if you could take your core story and use it to power your own AI—a custom GPT trained on your brand?

By feeding your core story into a custom AI model, you can generate first drafts of blogs, PR materials, social posts, and more in seconds. No more blank page syndrome. No more waiting days for content. Just instant, aligned messaging.

But for this to work, you need a strong foundation. That’s where the core story comes in.

The Six Components of a Core Story

Every great business story follows a structure. Get these six elements right, and you have a compelling, coherent narrative:

1. Origin – Where did this start and why? Why are you the right people to solve this problem?
2. Mission – What drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
3. The What – What makes you different? What do you do that no one else does?
4. Value Proposition – What pain points do you solve? What have real customers told you about their struggles?
5. Proof – What evidence do you have that your solution works? What traction, momentum, or market indicators support your success?
6. Vision – Where is this going? How does your product change the world?

Once you have these pieces, you can weave them together into a story that anyone—investors, customers, partners—can understand and rally behind.

Expanding the Story: The Message Playbook

Your core story is just the beginning. To enhance it (and make your AI even more effective), you’ll want to build out a message playbook. This includes:

• Key Audiences – Who are you talking to? Investors, customers, stakeholders?
• Core Innovation – What’s the big breakthrough? Explain it in layman’s terms.
• Analogy – Can you compare your company to something familiar?
• Brand Personality – How do you talk? What words do you use (or avoid)?
• Key Vocabulary – Any unique terms or industry phrases you own?
• Competitive Landscape – Who else is out there, and how do you win?

Bringing It All Together

With a strong core story and a well-defined message playbook, you can:

• Align your team with a single, compelling narrative
• Streamline content creation using a custom AI model
• Quickly generate consistent, high-quality messaging across all platforms

If you want to give this a try, we’re happy to share a blank template of our core story and message playbook framework. Just shoot us an email with the subject line “Core Story & Message Playbook Framework” and we’ll send it your way.

We know doing this work can feel hard- especially when there are a thousand other priorities. If you’re feeling stuck, not loving what you’ve created so far, or feel there is something that’s not quite right yet… let us know. Creating and leveraging Core Stories is our bread and butter, and we’d love to collaborate with you to craft a narrative that not only powers an entire suite of AI-driven content, but gives your brand momentum across fundraising, sales, marketing, and more.