Storytelling Is Not A Soft Skill, It’s The Skill

Startup founders love their tech.

They work like hell to build something brilliant.

A product they believe will change the game.

Politicians love their policies.

They prepare laws they think will change lives.

But no one’s noticing.

And they tell themselves it’s a marketing problem.

It’s not.

It’s almost never the product.

It’s the story.

Nobody buys a line of code or a policy paper.

They buy the story behind it.

That’s why Geoff Ralston, former Y Combinator president, snapped back when Carmine Gallo called storytelling a “soft skill”: 

“Soft?” he said. 

“You might call it soft. I call it fundamental.”

He’s right.

The reason most businesses aren’t selling more has nothing to do with their product, their ads, or even their website. 

It’s the words they’re using. 

Words don’t just decorate ideas — they sell them.

And in both business and politics, selling the story is a survival skill.

Think about it.

A startup founder’s real job isn’t building features.

It’s painting a picture of a future that doesn’t exist yet, and convincing customers, investors, and employees to believe in it.

A politician’s job isn’t drafting policies.

It’s framing those policies in a way that makes people feel, act, and vote.

That’s what storytelling does.

It translates the abstract into the vivid.

It turns a prototype into a movement.

It turns a line in a manifesto into something you’ll march for.

“ I like to think of storytelling as a way to connect technology to our humanity… a startup creates a reality for its customers, its partners, its employees...it's not real today, it's real in the future…Yes, you're doing that with extremely cool technology, but to transform that technology into something that matters to people, you have to tell a story. You have to connect.” - Geoff Ralston

Exactly.

And you can only pull that future into the present by telling a story people want to be part of.

So let’s stop calling storytelling a “soft skill.”

There’s nothing soft about the ability to raise billions, win elections, or move markets with words.

It’s not fluff.

It’s firepower.

The spark behind every breakout founder.

Every winning campaign.

Every leader people actually follow.

Ignore it, and your ideas stay stuck on the page.

Master it, and your words move the world.

PS. If you don’t know jewellery, know your jeweller. That’s Buffett’s rule. It’s the same with messaging. Smart ideas die in boring words. If you don’t know the game, find a partner who does, because your reputation is on the line. I help thinkers, rebels, and disruptors say what they mean and make it stick.  Step up. Bring your message. I’ll bring the punch. You’ve got one shot to say it right. I’ll help you take it.