About Protagonist
I get it.
You’ve worked hard to get to the top of your field. In fact, you might’ve even helped establish it in the first place, or shape it into its current form.
And it’s not like there’s anything wrong with new competition. It’s a healthy part of doing business: it drives innovation, it keeps us on our toes, and that’s good for everyone. We were all newcomers at one point, after all.
But they’re not playing the same game you are—not yet, not really. They’re smart and energized, but they haven’t seen all the ways a project can go wrong, or right. If they’re being innovative, it’s probably not because they developed a novel solution to an impossible problem, but because they read about it. Maybe from you.
What they have done is learn to tell a story that resonates with clients.
In a rapidly growing category, a lot of new business comes from clients who just learned of its existence in the past year. For them, you and the upstarts are on equal footing. So it comes down to who’s expressing their expertise in a way that earns trust and credibility.
But you have something they don’t: real expertise. You’ve got more of everything a new client is actually looking for. More experience, more reliable process, a deeper bench of talent, a broader network. All you need to do is let them know. And that takes the right story.
The Protagonist Network
Carl Alviani
FOUNDER
Glasgow, UK
I’m the founder and primary force behind Protagonist Studio. Over the past 15+ years, I’ve helped dozens of organizations and individuals tell their stories, grow their networks, and establish thought leadership through research-based narrative. I’ve published in WIRED, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Gizmodo, Forbes and elsewhere, on topics ranging from service innovation to urban planning and the ethics of interaction design—anywhere innovation affects human experience.
I spent five years shaping content and marketing strategy for Ziba Design; before that, I edited and wrote at two of the world’s longest-running design websites, Core77 and Coroflot. Previously an industrial designer, a high school science teacher, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in East Africa, I hold a BS in Structural Engineering from UC San Diego and a Master of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute.
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Quinn Slocum
SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST
Los Angeles, CA
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Patrick Pittman