Every business has a story | Going Solo

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Starting a business on a simple idea sounds romantic.

Keeping faith in that idea when nobody else sees it, that’s the part nobody talks about.

This column is for anyone still building something, and for anyone trying to figure out how to tell the world what they do.

My idea thirteen years ago was this: businesses should tell their stories through video. Not expensive productions. Not crews and equipment and six-figure budgets. Something smaller. More human. The way a journalist works is to find the detail, the emotion, the moment that makes a story memorable.

Three decades in broadcast journalism taught me how to do that. Now I wanted to do it for businesses. Trade the news desk for the conference room. Tell customer stories. Share what made a company different. Be a reporter for hire, just without a newsroom.

I thought it was a great idea.

The market did not agree.

Not pitch perfect

Cup of coffee after cup of coffee, with business owners, ad agencies, marketing directors, the conversations went something like this:

“Content marketing is way down the road for us.”

“Interesting concept, but probably too expensive.”

“Do you have examples?”

I didn’t even know it was called content marketing. I had no idea what to charge. And no, there were no examples, just a genuine belief that the same instinct that took me into living rooms and firehouses across Rochester could work just as well inside a boardroom.

After enough of those meetings, you start to wonder if they’re seeing something you’re not. Sustained rejection isn’t just discouraging; it starts feeling like a verdict.

And here’s the honest part: they weren’t entirely wrong.

The market wasn’t there yet. No Instagram video strategy. No TikTok. No expectation that a business should be producing short-form content regularly to connect with customers. What I was proposing didn’t just feel new, it felt unnecessary.

But I kept going anyway. Not because I was certain. Because I believed in the power of storytelling even when the timing was off.

The market always catches up

Early clients took a chance before there was a roadmap, small businesses, nonprofits, schools, and a credit union that wanted to share their good work, let their employees shine, and have real members tell their story rather than executives. There was no template. No guarantee it would work.

But it did. Because good storytelling connects every time, across every platform, in every era.

And slowly, the market caught up.

What felt radical then is expected now. Every business has a social feed to fill, a brand story to tell, a message that needs to cut through. Video isn’t a luxury anymore; it’s the default language of communication.

What businesses won’t admit

Here’s what I still hear from business owners and leaders more than you might expect:

“We have the expertise. We have the team. We have real results. But we can’t seem to communicate it in a way that actually lands.”

That’s the problem. And it’s more common than most are willing to admit.

The companies gaining traction right now aren’t necessarily doing more. They’re saying it better.

The story behind the service is what turns a prospect into a customer.

Video, done simply and with intention, is still one of the most direct paths to that connection. Not because it’s trendy. Because it’s human. You can have all the messaging points you want, all the facts and figures ready to go, but will someone actually remember them? Maya Angelou said it best: people won’t remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. That’s not just a philosophy. That’s a content strategy.

The people who can translate complexity into something a real person actually wants to engage with are increasingly hard to find. That skill used to live almost exclusively in news and media outlets. Now every industry is competing for it.

The ones who recognize it early have an advantage.

Titles change; skills don’t.

That’s the part that gets lost when industries shift. It’s easy to focus on what’s disappearing: newsrooms shrinking, roles evolving, familiar paths closing. It can feel like the floor is falling out.

But it isn’t.

The floor is just shifting.

And movement creates opportunity if you’re willing to move with it.

When I look back at a career that took an unexpected turn, the years spent out in the field or in a studio weren’t left behind. They were repurposed. The core abilities remain: curiosity, empathy, clarity, structure, and the instinct to make something meaningful out of information and a conversation.

The skills that made you good at what you did don’t disappear when the industry shifts. They’re waiting to be applied somewhere new.

Sometimes you’re just early

If you’re still walking into rooms explaining an idea that hasn’t fully clicked yet, stay with it.

There will be meetings that go nowhere. Pitches that land flat. Stretches where you wonder if you’re the only one who sees it. That’s not a sign you’re wrong. That’s the part of building something nobody warns you about, and nobody talks about.

Find the clients willing to say yes before there’s proof. Take exceptional care of them. Let those relationships become the foundation on which everything else is built.

And if you’re navigating a career shift, wondering whether what you know how to do still has a place, the answer is almost always yes. It may not live in the same industry. It may not carry the same title. You may have to explain it differently than you ever have before. But don’t be too quick to let go of it.

Sometimes the gap between where you are and where the market is going isn’t a sign that you’re off track. Sometimes it’s a sign that you’re early.

Every business has a story. Most people just don’t know how to tell it – yet.

Robin De Wind is a former Rochester broadcast journalist who now runs Robin De Wind Media Group, a video content marketing business. Learn more at rdwmediagroup.com.