Chief Change Officer
#247 Chris Hare: When the Story Guy Becomes the Story — Part One
Fri, 21 Mar 2025
Chris Hare usually helps execs polish their pitches—but now he’s in the hot seat. In this three-part series, we flip the script and unpack the art (and occasional chaos) of storytelling.• Part 1 dives into the world of corporate storytelling—what works, what bombs, and how to not sound like a robot in a boardroom.• Part 2 gets personal—Chris shares stories that shaped him, including a few that left lasting impressions (for better or worse).• Part 3 puts theory into practice—Chris hands us the tools to craft our own stories, and I test them out… possibly with tissues nearby.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Stories Fuel the Narrative“In my mind, stories are time-bound: this happened, it started here, it ended there. But the narrative is ongoing—it’s an architecture shaping the direction of an individual or company.”Storytelling’s Overplayed? Think Again“For years, I wouldn’t even call myself a storyteller because it was so overplayed. Everyone is using frameworks like the hero’s journey as if they’re paint-by-numbers. But storytelling is far more complex.”The Narrative Flywheel: Stories That Drive Strategy“The stories are the fuel that flows into the flywheel. We synthesize them, find patterns, and decide where to play and how to win. Then, with experimentation and learning, we create more stories—and the flywheel keeps spinning."Human-Centered Design in Action: Logitech’s Transformation“Bracken Darrell took Logitech’s failing narrative and reframed it with a vision: human-centered design across every part of the company. This vision wasn’t pushed from the top but inspired teams, driving Logitech’s turnaround—from 30-day financial reporting to just two.”_____________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Chris Hare______________________--Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.130,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Chris Hare and what's his expertise in storytelling?
In this three-part series, we'll journey through Chris' experiences in three stages. Today, in part one, we'll explore his expertise in helping businesses compelling corporate stories and understand the connection between story and narrative. Tomorrow in part two, we'll look at storytelling for personal transformation as Chris shares some of the best and worst stories he's ever heard
he will also open up about his own mental health challenge. Then in part three, he'll introduce tools we can use to develop our own stories and narratives. And here's a personal confession. I told him one of his exercises might just make me cry. I'll also be sharing my own experience with an other exercise, highlighting both his challenges and insights.
So let's dive into the first chapter of Chris' story. Good morning to you, Chris. Welcome to Chief Change Officer.
Good morning, Vince. Thanks for having me.
Chris is also a podcast host, so it's a pleasure to have him on my show today. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to return the favor and join his show one day. Now, Chris has a ton of experience in storytelling. And as many of my listeners know, I ask every guest to share their story.
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Chapter 2: What is the concept of Atomic Storytelling?
So inviting a storyteller like Chris to dive into his personal journey and share his approach to storytelling feels like a perfect fit for this episode. Chris, let's kick things off with your story. Give us an overview and then we'll dig into different elements of your journey.
I actually love to start with the future that I'm working to create. So for me, I'm working to create a future where business leaders and just humans in general are celebrated and remembered, not just for what they've built, but for how they built it. who they took with them and also who they became in the process of getting there. So very much anchored in the future.
Chapter 3: How has Chris Hare's narrative focus evolved over time?
My background, I started a very meandering career and then went into advertising, then went to Amazon and Microsoft, started my company in 2016, focused on marketing. And ultimately, probably around 2019, 2020, started to shift into strategic narrative practice.
So essentially translating the business strategy of a company into a narrative that aligns everyone from the board to the buyer who may want very different things around shared and differentiated future. And then now I still do that work, but I'm also significantly focused on the leaders and the narratives that drive them and to help them create that future that I was talking about.
So you started your storytelling journey by helping corporations shape and share their narratives. And now you've shifted the focus to individuals. Is that right?
Correct. I still work with corporations, but yes, I would say the seasons of it where I started with marketing, which is just oftentimes can be talking at people and then started to discover the power of narrative, which is more talking and co-creating with your audience. And then now I still do that some, but most of my focus now is on marketing.
leaders and the narrative that they need to create to bring their audience with them, but then also the internal narrative that's gotten them here and how that potentially needs to shift to get them to the future.
We hear the term storytelling used so frequently. But before we dive into your approach, I notice that you also frequently use another term, narrative. Could you explain the difference between stories and narratives and why that distinction matters?
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Chapter 4: What is the difference between stories and narratives?
Yeah, so it's tricky, right? I had a meeting with the chief marketing officer of a big tech company once and I asked her, how do you define narrative? And within a matter of minutes, she defined it at least three different ways. So there is a bit of a language challenge in that everyone uses these terms interchangeably, and oftentimes they can be the same thing.
What I've found helpful is to tease them out into, we all have stories that we tell ourselves and others constantly, and I view those as time bound. This happened, it started at this time, this thing happened and then it ended. And I view narrative as ongoing, but it's more of the narrative in my mind is more of an architecture that shapes a direction that an individual or a company is heading.
So the stories, in my mind, are really, as I conceive of it, are really the fuel for the narrative. And so we take those stories, we synthesize them, and then we create a narrative out of them, and then we follow that narrative, and it propels us, whether we're talking about a business or an individual.
In mass media, we hear the term storytelling used almost everywhere, maybe even overused. It seems like everyone is calling themselves a storyteller these days. But when you mention narrative, it seems like you are getting at something different. Could you use an analogy to help illustrate the difference or even the link between a narrative and a story?
Chapter 5: How can narratives influence business strategy?
Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing I would say to your point about the mass media, I absolutely agree. So for years, I wouldn't even... call myself a storyteller just because it was so overplayed. And I think on the one hand it's positive because it's sparked lots of conversations about it.
But I think what's also happened is it's very reductionistic where people say, okay, here's one framework, like the hero's journey. And it's a paint by numbers. We take these elements and we shove them into this framework and it's going to work for us. And I think it can be a lot more complex than that.
So one of my favorite examples, one of my clients, so he was a VP of Amazon Marketplace, took them from about eight employees to 4,000 and probably about 150 billion. And what was interesting is his name was Pete. At a certain point in time, their belief, I would say their narrative within the company was that the entire future of their business was resellers.
So people who had a product and they were from whatever brand and were reselling it on the platform.
And if you were to look at their data, and if you were to look at the stories that were hidden in those data, the stories that they would tell each other in the hallway about XYZ seller did this thing and had this success, it all pointed to the idea that it was just resellers and that was the future. So the stories were Vince has a product and has been selling this product successfully.
Therefore, we need to keep doing this. That's the story example. The narrative is that belief of the future of Amazon Marketplace is resellers. Therefore, we must invest in those resellers. And then as a result of that narrative, the business then changes. throws everything at that and pursues that.
What then happened then where a story actually shifted that narrative was Pete was invited to visit Brooklyn and met a number of multi-generational family-owned businesses. For example, an immigrant family potentially came over in the 30s or 40s. They may have started out repairing vacuum cleaners.
get to the third generation and now they're inventing new products and consumables for vacuum cleaner bags, for example, and they're the brand owner. So all of a sudden he met brand owners and had conversations with them and just incredibly compelling stories that move you both emotionally, but also you're seeing the business potential of this.
They didn't have a way to measure that or look for that in their data, or they weren't. If it was there, it was hidden. And so they took those outside stories, what I would call them as atomic stories, these small moments of energy and matter, so that peat collided with these people.
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