Wolfgang Hammer helps founders and CEOs, at both startups and massive fortune 100 companies, use storytelling to better understand what they do, and why it matters. In many ways, this conversation is a manual for how to find that story and communicate it in a way that resonates. Wolfgang (@Beuysaunt) is a film producer and executive who helped create House of Cards and ran several major studios. He’s now building a new kind of film studio with support from Mitch Lasky and Marc Andreessen. We talk about how stories work, what great ones have in common, and why understanding your own story can be transformative. Wolfgang explains the three layers every story must have — the external, the emotional, and the philosophical — and how they apply to building companies and leading people. So many CEOs have Wolfgang to thank for changing how they think and talk about their business, and I hope this episode gives you the tools to do the same. Enjoy! Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:50 The Three Layers of Story 04:44 Prompts for the Three Layers 05:54 Why Companies Struggle to Tell Their Story 08:11 The 80/20 Rule: Familiar vs. New 10:17 Suspense from Minimal New Information 11:16 Understanding the Customer's Story First 14:07 What CEOs Can Learn From Filmmakers 15:30 The CEO's Job: Master Communicator 17:12 The Definition of an Iconic Character 18:23 All Stories Are About Death 19:20 Two Kinds of Stories: Desire Fulfilled or Anxiety Purged 21:09 Story as an Ultimate Concern 23:31 Deconstructing Great Stories 26:25 The Relentless Role of Status 30:57 The Story So Big It Terrifies You 32:29 Inner Conflict: The Heart vs. Itself ...