What does engaging The Narrative Office look like day to day?

You have direct access to me. Not a team, and not an account manager. We typically work across a standing weekly conversation, async review of what's going out, and real-time input on the high-stakes moments. The shape adjusts to where you are in the engagement.

How long does a typical engagement run?

Three to six months is the standard starting point. Most clients extend. The work has a natural rhythm: the first month is orientation and architecture, the second and third is where the narrative starts to hold, and by month four you're operating from a different foundation. How many clients do you work with at once? A small number by design. This work requires full attention at the strategic layer. If I can't give you that, I won't take the engagement.

What size of organization is the right fit?

Mid-to-large enterprise tech with a marketing motion that depends on narrative precision. If your story needs to work across a board deck, a sales deck, a keynote, and a LinkedIn post, and all four are currently telling slightly different versions, that's the right fit.

Do you work with in-house teams or directly with the CMO?

Both, and the relationship between the two matters. I work at the CMO level on the strategic architecture. Where execution is needed I bring trusted contractors who work inside the standard I've set. The CMO has one relationship and one person accountable for the outcome.

What's the first step?

A single conversation. You tell me where you are. I tell you whether and how I can help. No deck, no proposal, no process before the conversation earns one.

The Narrative Office · Narrative Counsel for B2B Enterprise · Lianne Stewart

You can't build a reputation on words that could have come from anyone.Or anything.

I'm Lianne and I dig into your business, find the exact truth of what you do better than anyone else, and put it into words that are unmistakably yours.

If your story could be copied by anyone tomorrow, it was never really yours.

If you haven't started your narrative (or it's still collecting comment bubbles), let's talk.

Reach out to chat →

Nobody's name is on the company narrative. Someone still answers for it. That's who I work with.

You may need me because...

01
Your company is repositioning and the story the market knows no longer matches the company you've built.
02
You're about to speak at a major conference and you have the expertise but not yet the point of view that makes it travel beyond the room.
03
Your GTM motion is working but the narrative layer underneath it isn't holding. Different teams are telling different versions of the same story.
04
You're a new CMO inheriting a narrative you didn't build and need to make it yours before you can lead it.

How this works.

You don't hire me off a job description, and you won't find a menu of packages here.

You come to me with a problem. A narrative that isn't landing, a positioning fight that won't resolve internally, a leadership team that agrees on the strategy but not the sentence. I build the scope around that specific problem, with you, before either of us commits to anything.

What that looks like varies. What doesn't: one person accountable for the narrative from diagnosis through delivery. No handoff between a strategist, a PMM, and someone from a department you're hearing about for the first time. One pen. Mine, specifically.

Let's talk about where you are →

Why work with me

A decade at Meta, building the North America Thought Leadership function and running Executive Communications for Global Business Marketing.

Recent client work: Amazon Ads, Pinterest, Shopify, Dolby.

What a broken narrative process actually costs.

01
A project gets scoped at two to four weeks for a single narrative deliverable.
02
The brief is thin or absent. The writer asks questions. The marketer says to get started anyway.
03
The first draft arrives. The marketer responds to sentence and word choice rather than the strategy.
04
The marketer raises concerns internally. A second reviewer joins. Then a third. Each adds comments to show they had input. Some feedback contradicts other feedback.
05
A VP or director sees the work for the first time and provides a completely different direction. The people who shaped earlier drafts move into react mode and request all of the feedback gets addressed, even if it's conflicting.
06
The project scoped at two weeks is now at six. The content that eventually ships is technically correct and internally approved, but it isn't landing as anticipated and gets scrapped after three weeks in market.

These are the costs that don't appear on a budget. And that's why it never gets fixed.

This is the Safety Tax. The organizational cost of optimizing a narrative for internal comfort rather than external clarity.

The framework

The Safety Tax.

Every marketing organization optimizes for one thing above all others: internal approval.

Not market impact. Not narrative precision. Approval.

The result is a story that everyone signed off on and no one believes. Technically correct. Internally safe. Commercially inert.

That's the Safety Tax. The gap between what your market needs to hear and what your organization was willing to say.

The Narrative Office exists to fix it at the level where it starts, before the brief is written and before the committee convenes.

Don't pay the Safety Tax

The Narrative Council stops expensive review rounds before they begin. Paste your brief below, and receive insights from the seven independent stakeholders who typically show up in round six of review. This council offers suggestions. You make decisions.

Reviews live only in your browser. Nothing is saved unless you email yourself a copy.

Read how the Council works.

Three steps. About ninety seconds.

Seven lenses, in parallel

The Executive, Engineer, Competitor, Analyst, Buyer, Skeptic, and Legal each read the brief through a fixed lens. Independently. No groupthink.

The Chairman synthesizes

A single editorial verdict. Where the council agrees, where it clashes, and the decisions you own.

You decide

Nothing is saved on our side. No account required. Email it to yourself, print it, or just close the tab, the verdict is yours to act on.

Read the full methodology →

Questions worth answering.

What does engaging The Narrative Office look like day to day?: You have direct access to me. Not a team, and not an account manager. We typically work across a standing weekly conversation, async review of what's going out, and real-time input on the high-stakes moments. The shape adjusts to where you are in the engagement.
How long does a typical engagement run?: Three to six months is the standard starting point. Most clients extend. The work has a natural rhythm: the first month is orientation and architecture, the second and third is where the narrative starts to hold, and by month four you're operating from a different foundation. How many clients do you work with at once? A small number by design. This work requires full attention at the strategic layer. If I can't give you that, I won't take the engagement.
What size of organization is the right fit?: Mid-to-large enterprise tech with a marketing motion that depends on narrative precision. If your story needs to work across a board deck, a sales deck, a keynote, and a LinkedIn post, and all four are currently telling slightly different versions, that's the right fit.
Do you work with in-house teams or directly with the CMO?: Both, and the relationship between the two matters. I work at the CMO level on the strategic architecture. Where execution is needed I bring trusted contractors who work inside the standard I've set. The CMO has one relationship and one person accountable for the outcome.
What's the first step?: A single conversation. You tell me where you are. I tell you whether and how I can help. No deck, no proposal, no process before the conversation earns one.

Let's get to work →