28 Jan 2026 · 1 min
Jim James explains why schools, McDonald's, and Google all cast customers as the hero in their marketing. He uses his daughter's graduation and Google search ads as examples of how centering the customer's journey, not the brand's, drives better PR and campaign results.
Who does the best job of putting their customers first and making the hero's journey? It's schools. I've just been to my daughter's graduation ceremony, and I can tell you that they do a fabulous job of doing what the textbooks say, and that is to make your hero the customer. The hero's journey is a common narrative in theater movies, but also it's the best way to generate productive public relations for you and your business. Google does the same thing. The adverts are simply the search box, asking you where your search is going to take you. Big brands are putting their customers center stage in their stories. Let's take a cue from those, and let's start to do that with our own businesses. Let's find ways to make our customer at the heart of our story, make them into the heroes, and then the campaign carries itself.
How can this be easy? The mindset approach approach to change how you build your business.