The Beginning of Us

Before I Ever Built a Marketing Lab, I Told Stories for a Living

By Ashley, StoryBrand Lab

Ashley Canelon leads a night tour at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada

Most people don’t realize this, but before I ever stepped into the world of marketing, content calendars, and client strategy…
I told stories for a living.

Actually, I consider myself a storyteller above all other titles I’ve carried.

I stood in front of groups of strangers of all walks of life. Families, solo travelers, retired couples, curious kids; I told them the stories of people who lived and loved and fought and failed long before any of us arrived.

I learned how to read a crowd. I learned when to slow down, when to lean in, when to let a silence hang in the air just long enough for everyone to feel it. Without knowing it, I was learning the exact skill that would shape everything I do now: The ability to make someone care.

The Difference Between Noise and Meaning

Most of what we consume online is noise. The nice pictures, rushed captions, sales; all disguised as inspiration, recycled trends. The key is, the things we remember, the things that connect us… those are stories. The stories aren’t just your origin story, but the reason you get up every morning to do what you do best— serve your clients.

When you spend years telling stories face-to-face, you learn something that no marketing textbook really captures: It’s the simple fact that people don’t respond to information, they respond to emotion. They want to feel a connection. They want to see themselves in something. They want to understand the why, not just the what. And that’s what I carried with me when I transitioned from guiding tours to guiding businesses.

What Storytelling Has Taught Me About People

When you tell a story in person, you can see everything.

The head tilts. The spark of curiosity. The moment someone leans in because they realize, “Oh… this is about more than history.” You start to understand that storytelling isn’t a performance, but rather a relationship. There’s a responsibility to it—to get it right, to honor the truth, to respect the human being at the center of it. That same responsibility shows up in marketing.

Because behind every business is:

A person who took a risk.
A family with roots.
A dream that didn’t come easy.
A choice to keep going even when it felt ridiculous.
A “this has to work” moment they probably don’t tell anyone about.

When you treat marketing like a checklist, you miss all of that. But when you treat it like storytelling, you start to see the real heart of a brand. Authenticity sells more than anything else in the current climate we are experiencing. It’s harder to get clients being a generic “fit-the-algorithm” brand than it

The Moment It Clicked

I didn’t switch careers because I fell in love with algorithms or trends (though I do enjoy figuring them out). I switched careers because, one day, I realized that the same magic I saw on people’s faces during a story was missing from so many small businesses online.

Beautiful shops. Local makers. Heritage brands with decades of history. Tour companies with actual passion behind them. The problem wasn’t that they had a lack of content; it is that they didn’t have time to curate it online because they were too busy living the story in the every day. They were inconsistent, missing the mark. The day I realized I could take the two things I loved most and make a living from it was the day my life (and my client’s lives) changed.

Once you’ve spent years guiding people through history, you start seeing patterns in human nature.

You learn what people actually care about. What details catch their attention, what makes someone feel something. Most importantly, you notice what makes them hang onto that information and take it with them.

That’s what storytelling really is… a shortcut to human connection.

And in a world overflowing with content, connection is the only thing that still cuts through. I didn’t build StoryBrand Lab to be another marketing service.

I built it because I know what story can do. I’ve watched people light up when a narrative finally makes sense. I’ve seen strangers bond over a shared moment of curiosity or wonder.
I’ve watched entire groups go silent because a story touched something deeper in them. That same spark lives inside every business, most owners just don’t know how to bring it out to the right audience.

What I Want This Space to Be

A place where marketing finally feels human again. Where your story matters, where your business is seen and where you don’t have to choose between tradition and relevance.

This blog will be part teaching, part behind-the-scenes, part “here’s what I’ve learned the hard way,” and part love letter to every business that’s trying to build something meaningful.

Because if I’ve learned anything from years of storytelling it’s this:

People will listen when you give them something worth listening to. People will care when you give them a reason to care. And every brand, every owner, every small business has a story worth telling.

All we have to do is find it and tell it well.

I can’t wait for what this journey holds for us all.

-Ashley