Business Storytelling Applications

In March 2024, and for the fourth consecutive month, #Arctic sea ice reached a record low (based on Copernicus ECMWF Climate Change Services data) - setting the stage for unprecedented geopolitical, commercial, and environmental implications. What does it mean for global commerce and strategy? 🚢 New Shipping Routes Emerging: Soon, previously inaccessible Arctic passages will open, drastically reshaping global shipping lanes, supply chain logistics, and trade economics. Businesses must prepare for these changes and the geopolitical complexities that come with them. 🔋 Resource Rush and Strategic Interests: As ice retreats, critical minerals, energy reserves, and new commercial opportunities emerge, setting the stage for intensified geopolitical competition in the region. ⚠️ Climate Risk and Responsibility: The Arctic melt accelerates global warming through feedback loops—the diminishing ice exposes dark ocean waters that absorb more heat, further intensifying global climate impacts. The ripple effects on weather patterns and extreme events globally pose serious risks for supply chains, infrastructure, agriculture, and insurance sectors. Climate change is not a distant threat. It is reshaping our global landscape today, redefining strategic priorities, operational risks, and competitive advantages. 👉 Companies that proactively integrate climate intelligence into strategic planning will lead. Those that wait will inevitably be left behind. We are witnessing firsthand how these shifts reshape our world and how climate science can guide companies through the emerging complexities, anticipate risks and identify opportunities in this new global frontier. How is your company preparing to navigate these new global realities? #ClimateRisk #SustainabilityLeadership #GlobalBusiness #Geopolitics #ArcticOpportunities #StrategicRisk #BoardroomLeadership Source: Financial Times

When I started building my brand ecosystem publicly, everything shifted. The traditional advice says, "build it and they will come." But after studying founder brands, I've learned that most founders are stuck choosing between getting attention and maintaining integrity. Last year, I watched a brilliant entrepreneur struggle with this exact paradox. When I shared my Brand Trust Equation with her, something beautiful happened. Here's what I learned about building in public through systematic brand development: 1. Identity System Transparency Share your core messaging, positioning, and values openly. Building your identity in public creates accountability for authentic choices. Your audience connects with the journey, not just the destination. 2. Content System Broadcasting Document your strategic output across all platforms transparently. Sharing your content framework helps others while establishing your authority. Your systematic approach demonstrates professionalism and intentionality. 3. Experience System Documentation Show how people interact with your brand at every touchpoint. Building your customer journey in public creates better experiences for everyone. Your process transparency helps prospects know exactly what to expect. 4. Conversion System Sharing Reveal how attention becomes revenue in your business model. Building your funnel in public demonstrates the value of systematic thinking. Your transparent approach shows prospects the clear path forward. 5. Lighthouse Content Strategy Create cornerstone pieces that attract your ideal audience while repelling everyone else. Building your manifesto, methodology, case studies, and vision in public establishes authority. Your transparent philosophy becomes a filter for quality connections. This approach builds long-term brand equity instead of short-term attention. 6. Platform Synergy Framework Show how different platforms serve different purposes in your ecosystem. Building your multi-platform strategy in public creates strategic alignment. Other founders learn how to maximize impact across channels. This isn't just about building brands, it's about creating beautiful, systemized, and authentic businesses that serve both founders and their communities. When you build your brand ecosystem in public, you're not just attracting attention. You're building trust through the Brand Trust Equation: (Consistency × Authenticity × Value) ÷ Self-Promotion. The solution isn't choosing between integrity and attention, it's building systems that deliver both simultaneously through transparent, value-first brand development. The future belongs to those brave enough to build their brand systems in public. __ Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Matt Gray for more. Curious how this could look inside your business? DM me ‘System’ and I’ll walk you through how we help clients make it happen. This is for high-commitment founders only.

You cheer for women one day and ignore them tomorrow. Two weeks ago, my LinkedIn was flooded with brands paying anything to book women creators for Women’s Day. It happens every year. The grand celebrations, the inspiring quotes, the LinkedIn love. But what happens on March 9th? As a woman entrepreneur, I don’t just deal with challenges once a year, I fight them every damn day and every woman entrepreneur will relate to it. The funding battles, the societal expectations, the constant need to prove myself. And yet, once the hashtags stop trending, nobody talks about it. Here’s what people conveniently forget: → Investors hesitate when they see a woman at the helm. Less than 2% of VC funding goes to women-led businesses. The bias is real. We’re told to “think big,” but when we do? We’re “too ambitious.” → Women are expected to run businesses like they don’t have families and manage homes like they don’t have businesses. The pressure is relentless and the guilt is huge. → Speak up, and we’re “aggressive.” Play it safe, and we’re “not leadership material.” We’re stuck in a game where the rules were never made for us. Women don’t need a holiday. We need funding, hiring, investments, opportunities and recognition EVERY DAY. Not just when it’s trending. So if you really want to support women in business, put your money where your mouth is. Invest in them. Hire them. Fund them. Amplify their voices. And don’t just remember us when it’s convenient. #womenentrepreneurship #womencreators

Investment Opportunities in Climate Adaptation and Resilience 🌎 Climate change is intensifying physical risks across regions and sectors, placing climate adaptation and resilience (A&R) at the center of global strategic priorities. While mitigation addresses emissions, A&R solutions tackle the immediate and long-term risks to infrastructure, economies, and communities. Investment in Climate A&R remains at an early stage despite its scale and urgency. The BCG and Temasek report projects global A&R financing needs of $0.5 trillion to $1.3 trillion per year by 2030. This presents a significant opportunity for private capital to drive both financial returns and systemic resilience. The Climate Adaptation & Resilience Investment Opportunities Map provides a framework to assess where capital can be most effectively deployed. It structures opportunities into seven impact themes and offers a granular view of subsectors and solutions across industries. Investors will find diverse entry points—from early-stage ventures focusing on pure-play A&R innovations to established industrial players integrating resilience solutions into broader portfolios. This dual landscape enables a mix of venture, growth, and buyout strategies tailored to different risk appetites. Adaptation markets are inherently localized. Flood defense strategies, water efficiency technologies, and agricultural resilience solutions vary by geography, creating fragmented but scalable market opportunities that respond to specific climate risks and regulatory frameworks. The report highlights the importance of co-benefits. Nature-based solutions, for example, deliver protective functions while enhancing biodiversity and ecological health. At the same time, material-intensive interventions require careful scrutiny to balance resilience gains with environmental impacts. To capitalize on these trends, investors will need to navigate sectors where regulation, insurance incentives, and risk disclosure frameworks are evolving rapidly. Competitive advantages will accrue to those with deep technical expertise and the ability to scale proven solutions across markets. The Climate Adaptation & Resilience Investment Map identifies seven key impact themes: - Food Resilience - Infrastructure Resilience - Health Resilience - Business and Community Resilience - Water Resilience - Energy Resilience - Biodiversity Resilience Climate adaptation is shaping a new investment frontier, where value creation is tied directly to long-term societal and economic stability. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange

People don't make decisions based on facts, logic, and reason. Facts; logic and reason sound like this: “ACME increased sales by 2.4m dollars.” “BETA saved 37 FTE hours.” “We generate a 120% ROAS.” Numbers don't make people feel anything, so they don't leave a lasting impression. Meanwhile, stories connect personally and emotionally, making the information more memorable and persuasive. What story can you tell in a cold email? The story of change. Start with a before version of the prospect and end with an after version. How? Use this framework: With A, you do B, and C happens without D. Example for Uber. “With Uber, you press a button, and in 15 minutes, a Mercedes takes you to where you want to go without taking out your wallet.” Example for Notion “With Notion, you can categorize, tag, and search for LinkedIn posts so you can find them later without going on a scrolling quest.” Example for Calendly: “With Calendly, you paste a magic link into your email and schedule meetings without going back and forth to find the perfect time.” Example for Grammarly: “With Grammarly, you type your text, and it automatically corrects spelling and grammar errors without needing to proofread manually.” This shift? Stats -> Story

📢 New report out – A practical guide to seizing the opportunities of adaptation finance Developed by Climate X in collaboration with leading banks, insurers, investors and sustainability experts, this report shows how adaptation finance can become a scalable, profitable and urgently needed investment frontier.  It provides practical insights into:   - The business case for adaptation and resilience   - The role of banks, insurers, real estate and private equity   - Public and private adaptation finance solutions   - Case studies from supermarkets and logistics chains   -Predictive analytics as a tool to close the adaptation finance gap  By reframing resilience as opportunity, adaptation finance can protect revenues, preserve asset values and unlock entirely new growth markets.  This is a must read for business leaders navigating a climate adjusted world.  👉 Download here: https://lnkd.in/e3urr5nR  #climatefinance #sustainability #adaptation #climaterisk #esg #sustainablefinance 

We posted one personal story for a client and they gained 50 followers in a day. What made this post different from their usual content? Instead of sharing another business tip or industry insight, they opened up about a real challenge they faced while building their company. Here's what I've learned after helping 50+ founders with their content strategy- People don't connect with perfect business advice. hey connect with the human behind the business. When you share your real experiences, your struggles, and your behind-the-scenes moments, your audience stops seeing you as just another founder trying to sell something and starts seeing you as a real person they can relate to. Think about it - as a founder, you have countless stories from your journey. The late nights, the difficult decisions, the failures that taught you everything, the small wins that kept you going. But here's where most people go wrong: they think their personal stories aren't "professional" enough for LinkedIn. So, they stick to safe, generic business content that sounds like everyone else. The truth is, authentic storytelling doesn't just perform better than generic content - it builds the kind of genuine connections that turn followers into customers and customers into advocates. Your personal experiences are what make you unique in a sea of similar businesses. Stop hiding behind corporate speak and start sharing the real stories that shaped your journey. Because at the end of the day, people don't just buy products or services.  They buy from people they know, like, and trust. P.S. - Are you a founder who wants to build a personal brand? DM me "BRAND" and let's turn your stories into content that converts.

ℍ𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 𝕎𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕟'𝕤 𝔻𝕒𝕪: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐢𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚? 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠.   Mass media has a colossal responsibility—it doesn’t just report stories, it creates, educates, and shapes entire narratives. The way it talks about women in business? That’s a masterclass in unconscious bias (and sometimes, very conscious bias). From labeling women as “women entrepreneurs” (because apparently, entrepreneurship needs a gender tag?) to the selective achievements highlighted in their stories—it’s all telling. 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧: 📌 A female CEO walks into an interview, and the journalist assumes she’s not the co-founder. The junior male colleague? That guy 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 be the brains behind the tech. 📌 Women on panels get the "𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭?” 𝘢𝘯𝘥 “𝘈𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘮 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵?” questions. Their male counterparts? They get asked about business strategy and market expansion. 📌 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴 —some of these biases come from female journalists themselves. Why? To cater to clicks? To reinforce generational conditioning? To play into easy narratives? I have picked up a heated debate with many a journalist on gender insensitivity and more so with my female friends in the community. Better to have them stand corrected then and there rather than have them repeat it with someone else. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐲: 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐂𝐄𝐎𝐬—𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡. 𝐀𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜. Should we be relieved it wasn’t a 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 ? 🙃 Also, did any of the men on that list pause to ask, “Where’s the gender diversity here?” 𝐍𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. Wonder if DEI and Gender Equity is a paragraph they parrot off a document brief or they really mean it. 𝐍𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. Wonder if Business Today intentionally put this out now to rile all the women in the workplace and anticipate a windfall of clicks. 𝐍𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. It’s time for #Behencode to take center stage. Because the Bro Code has had its moment. Take a moment to look at what Dipika Singh & Vasudha Madhavan have to say about this #BroCode moment 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 : 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 👇 #MediaBias #WomenInLeadership #GenderDiversity #PR #ReputationMatters #RepresentationMatters

Back in the day, the smartest, savviest entrepreneurs told jokes and stats. Today, they’re telling stories. Why? Because stories stick. ‣ They're easy to remember. ‣ They make an emotional connection. ‣ They inspire. Think about it: ‣ Nike doesn't sell shoes. It sells heroes. ‣ Apple doesn't sell tech. It sells creativity. ‣ Tesla doesn't sell cars. It sells innovation. All through the power of storytelling. And listen, you don't need to have a heroic adventure to tell a good story. ✅ Tell your why. ✅ Tell your struggles to make it your business. ✅ Tell your successes that came after from many defeats. I saw the impact of this in real time during a recent networking event. I was on a panel and gave a brief introduction of myself. The attendees were somewhat interested, but I wouldn’t say they truly cared. They had no reason to root for me. Then, I was asked about my role as a keynote speaker. I told them about my most popular keynote, The Resilience Roadmap. I shared how it was based on various challenges I’ve experienced over the past 10 years which include battling alcohol addiction, unemployment and losing my son. That’s when the attendees really took notice, and that's when they began rooting for me. I wasn’t just the guy who did a bunch of stuff, I was the guy who highlighted the transformative power of resilience. It’s been three days since that event and people are still messaging me about it. And, oddly enough, they’re also asking me to remind them what I do again. So don’t make the same mistake I did, whether it be in person or online. Don’t just share what you do, share the journey you’ve been on as well. People will remember your story, it forms a connection. And people give you opportunities when they feel connected to you. So, are you ready to share your story?

Last month, I talked to 40+ finance professionals working across the climate capital stack. Here are the most pressing challenges, opportunities, and insights that emerged: ⚙️ Hard Problems - Even proven tech struggles to scale: EV chargers and energy storage are mature technologies, but their merchant risk makes traditional project finance models break down. - First-of-kind (FOAK) projects remain fundamentally hard: LPO funding is likely ending, and few alternatives exist. The good news? Several new funds are targeting this gap - worth watching closely. 💬 Communication Challenges - The climate finance ecosystem speaks multiple languages: VCs talk TAM and dreams, project finance talks DSCR, insurers talk actuarial risk. Getting deals done requires translating between all of them. - Risk/reward misalignment plagues deals: Startups and VCs chase upside, but deployment partners bear downside risk. This fundamental tension delays scaling. - Climate still fights for credibility: "Senior stakeholders don't even understand Scope 1, 2, and 3," one banker shared. "Anything labeled climate gets immediately written off as concessionary." 📚 Knowledge Gaps - Deal structures remain bespoke: While startups have SAFEs and mature sectors have established project finance precedents, new climate technologies lack standardized financing models. Knowledge sharing between successful deals is almost non-existent. - The "finance-ready" paradox: Capital exists, but most projects aren't structured to receive it. Companies often start thinking about project finance years too late. 🌡️ Climate Risk - Insurance is the canary: Companies are pulling out of high-risk regions and wildly hiking rates. - Markets haven't caught up: This risk repricing isn't reflected in broader valuations...yet. - This disconnect is both terrifying and the biggest opportunity in the space. 🔥 Hot Topics - Nature & Biodiversity: Hard to quantify but drawing serious LP interest - Resilience & Adaptation: Finding new momentum as climate impacts accelerate and we prepare for a "don't-say-climate" presidency - Data Centers: Energy use + AI boom = unavoidable focus - Geothermal: Rising star for baseload power, especially post-Fervo - Global Standards: EU's CSRD and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will reshape supply chains regardless of US policy, with real ramifications for manufacturers in Asia and beyond. These conversations revealed just how hard—but also how essential—it is to align incentives, build trust, and bridge knowledge gaps across the climate finance ecosystem. As Eugene Kirpichov just wrote—we need systems thinking if we're going to tackle these wider problems. Anything missing here? What's on the top of your mind for 2025?