A significant part of the reason why marketing—and the people who work in it—gets a bad rap is it’s not very straightforward. It’s often very story-driven. 

Done well, the story is almost completely ignored; it’s presented, and often received, as evidence and facts. It’s entirely believable, not only because of charisma, but because the marketer has done a lot of work to find and figure out facts, to build trust, and to wield that trust very carefully. 

That’s a lot of work. And that’s why most people aren’t able to do it well. Instead, they shortcut through. 

Instead of building an actual working car, they roll it down the hill. They fake results. They masquerade their organization as a software company. 

This illusion is not cheap. They burn millions and millions and millions of dollars maintaining it. Hiring. Shipping everything except for actual real product and real results. Which would be great if they were in the entertainment business. But they’re not! (And that’s why these stories do sell when they get picked up as podcasts and TV shows. I’ve clearly been watching a lot of prestige TV.)

It’s important to get the story down right, of course. But way more important to get the reality down right. To make actual products. To produce actual results. To tell creative stories, yes, but not to lie about the past and to exaggerate very carefully about the future. Unrealistic expectations can work for a while, but only if you can actually deliver.