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Hammer: Business narratives must align external, emotional, and philosophical layers

Wolfgang Hammer · How Great Founders Tell Their Story · Invest Like The Best · Nov 11, 2025 · at 3:57

Film executive Wolfgang Hammer breaks down his three-tiered storytelling framework for business leaders on Invest Like The Best.

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“The external would be, what are we doing? Right? What are we making? What are we selling? What are we buying? Whatever it may be as a, the core function of the company. The philosophical is the why on a more abstract level. So you believe in certain, certain ideals, a certain way you believe that the world should be on an abstract level. The emotional is a personal why. In the founder's case, it's very often why they are doing it. Right? So there is an origin story. Around that, they will recruit people consciously or unconsciously that is in the similar vein, and you can get very theoretical about this if you want to, right? I think for the majority of people it's a visual, visceral personal experience that other people can relate to if it's a larger organization, why one does this on a personal level, and it's these three things working in concert, picking up where the other leaves off, and sort of having a trifecta dance.”

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