How meaning becomes connection: the impact of narrative on salience

Narrative is the emotional bridge between your value proposition and the heart of your public.

A value proposition articulates a promise. It clarifies how you intend to help, the kind of value you aim to generate, and why that value should matter to your stakeholders. It is an essential tool because it helps you organise your efforts, focus your energy, and remain coherent over time, and in that sense it primarily serves you.

A value proposition also acknowledges something fundamental: a significant part of success depends on the ability to touch emotions, since value that is purely functional rarely travels far, while emotional value makes relevance possible.

The value proposition, however, does not create connection on its own. It defines intent and direction, but it does not make people feel involved, and this is precisely the role that narrative plays.

Narrative as a generator of meaning

The fundamental role of narrative is to generate meaning for your public, allowing people to connect what you say with their own experience, their aspirations, and their struggles.

I have dedicated an entire issue of this newsletter, issue #16, to the concept of meaning. I have argued that meaning is the currency of connection and the condition for a deep relationship with your public.

Narrative is the mechanism through which meaning emerges, as it organises facts, intentions, and promises into a form that people can interpret and integrate into their own lives.

Putting your public at the centre of the story

A strategic narrative places each individual in your public at the centre, because the story is not primarily about you but about them: their ambitions, their doubts, their tensions, and the distance they perceive between where they are and where they want to be.

At its core, a story is about struggle, about what stands between a person and the life, career, or outcome they desire, and about the obstacles, uncertainty, fear, and effort that define that path, together with the transformation required to overcome those barriers.

Your role in the story is normally not that of the hero. Most often, you are the one who understands the struggle, who has walked alongside similar journeys, and who can contribute to making progress possible.

If you do not offer a solution, you are doing literature, which is another job.

Narrative as a relationship-building system

There is a second, equally fundamental role of narrative, deeply connected to meaning, which is the establishment of a relationship with your public.

As in life, professional relationships are not built through isolated interactions, but through familiarity, coherence, and the accumulation of time. Narrative provides the infrastructure for that relationship. Through repeated exposure to a coherent story, your public learns what you stand for, how you think, and how you relate to their world. Familiarity grows, and trust finds a stable ground.

This requires presence, which means showing up where your public already is and where they are prepared to engage with the type of help you can offer.

Here, context becomes decisive. The construction of meaning is strongly influenced by context, and ignoring context while expecting resonance is naïve.

This is precisely the fundamental flaw, and the absurdity, of the endless advertising interruptions we are subjected to when watching videos on YouTube. Messages appear when no one is ready to listen and in moments that have nothing to do with the promise being made. Expecting meaning to emerge in those conditions is an illusion.

Rhythm, respect, and relevance

Strategic narrative requires rhythm, which means showing up consistently with a cadence that is sustained yet not excessive, because presence builds familiarity and excess creates fatigue, while absence erodes memory.

Relevance is equally important, and a strong narrative addresses the flaws, doubts, and limitations of your public in a respectful way, naming what is difficult, pointing towards ways forward, and making it clear that improvement is possible and that help exists.

You are there to help on a difficult path towards a better professional and personal life.

Salience is a consequence

When narrative generates meaning, connection begins to form, and when that connection is nurtured over time through coherence, rhythm, and relevance, familiarity takes hold.

At that point, your public starts to notice not only what you say, but how you show up, as intent becomes legible and attitude becomes visible.

Salience is not forced. It emerges.

Once meaning, familiarity, and relevance reach a sufficient level, being remembered and considered becomes a natural outcome of the relationship you have built.

That is how narrative turns value into presence, and presence into salience.