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"Where can I find a baby sun hat?" I asked the Walmart employee.
She didn't answer. She started walking.
"Oh, you don't have to walk me there!" But she did. Silently leading me through the labyrinth that is Walmart, all the way to said sun hats.
I felt like I'd stumbled into some alternate reality.
The next evening, at the pharmacy.
"Where can I find nail clippers? Also, is there a bathroom my child can use?"
Again, no words. Again, footsteps - first to the bathroom, then to the nail clippers.
Not a sigh. Not an eye-roll. But service.
I paid and walked to the car, only to realize - next child also needed the bathroom.
Oh no.
I went back in, apology loaded on my tongue: "Sorry, she also needs the bathroom."
Just a smile and a nod. No New York dagger-stare that says you're-the-reason-I-drink-after-work.
This was Panama City Beach—technically Florida, but this was no Miami or Orlando. This was the SOUTH, y'all.
And us New Yorkers? We were flummoxed.
An employee not treating my request as a personal attack?
A cashier not giving the silent treatment because we dared return for a second bathroom stop?
Someone actually WALKING us to what we needed instead of that half-hearted gesture toward some distant aisle?
Be still, my beating heart.
That's CULTURE.
When you're drowning in it, you don't even notice until someone pulls you to shore and shows you what breathing feels like.
And your brand? It's choking on the same problem.
In YOUR head, it's crystal clear. You know what sets you on fire. You know your values. You know what you want to sound like.
But your marketing? It's like a New Yorker in a seersucker suit.
The culture of your brand doesn't match the culture in your brain. And that's scaring customers off.
Why did this happen?
Because you started with tactics before truth. Assets before knowledge.
You're hiring agencies and copywriters who worship at the altar of templates and "best practices" without ever bothering to understand the essence of YOU and what drives your customers.
So those customers you're trying to reach? The ones you built your brand for? They hit your website and feel like a Southern belle in a New York Walmart—disoriented, disoriented, unwelcome, and ready to RUN.
But don't despair. (Actually, do despair—just for a moment. Feel it. It's real.)
Then get excited.
Because we can fix this.
With Tell Your Story, a voice + messaging guide gets all those burning, brilliant fragments of YOU out of your head and onto paper (Google Docs, to be precise). So your brand can stop scaring off those perfect customers and start speaking consistently in a voice that's just right and says what you want to say.
Y'all gonna be plumb tickled you done it,
Chavy