Fear of the unknown

In the Transformation Economy, people aren’t just buying products or services, they’re investing in experiences that reshape identity, values, and behavior. But it isn’t easy to transform. In Alain Thy’s The Transformation Code, the chapter Transform Yourself dives deep into the leap from your current known experiences and surroundings to the new and unknown state that will follow transformation.

Fear, anxiety, and procrastination surround you as you grapple with change. Transformative brands will have to meet that personal challenge head on with encouragement, reward, and non-linear paths that support their customers and guide them through a transformation.

But that’s a tall order. How do you address your customer’s fears? How can your brand and brand storytelling guide people through their own feelings of the unknown, the obstacles, and the challenges? This is a key opportunity to leverage brand storytelling that utilizes the transformational arc narrative that Joseph Campbell surfaced and now permeates good cinema.

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell outlines several of these narrative arcs and they all start with a protagonist who is unaware of what’s to come, but then there is an inciting incident that sets them on a quest that is full of challenges, conflicts, and even death experiences. But as our hero overcomes each obstacle, they get closer to realizing their potential and becoming someone new. How as a marketing or brand specialist do you frame you brand story to help your customers see what’s possible and work their way down the path forward?

Suspension of Disbelief

Along with the transformational arc, another key facet of visual storytelling is the audience’s own suspension of disbelief. It appears in film, magic, theme parks, wrestling, and even comedy. The tools storytellers use to encourage your suspension of disbelief can also be used to help your audience overcome their fears.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the actual phrase in 1817, saying:

“…to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith“.

Moving from your current state to a new state of being is scary. Where do I start? Am I doing it right? All these fears make you feel like you don’t believe you can change, but through suspension of disbelief, your brand story can help your customers work through their fears and setbacks.

Let’s look at some of these storytelling tactics and how your brand can use them to help customers move beyond their fears:

Immersion: The darkness of the theater, the bright visuals, engulfing sound, and lack of commercials all help keep you immersed in a film and distracted from the outside world, your problems, and your phone.

Symbolism & Archetypes: Universal symbols (the mentor, the quest, the rebirth) bypass rational resistance and speak directly to the subconscious. Visual cues and colors can also do a lot to set the tone. For example, using the metaphor of a “bridge” to represent transition helps someone visualize moving from old habits to new. OK, the “X” in The Departed isn’t the most positive example out there, but it highlights the point of symbols like no other.

Temporal shifts: Comedy uses tactics like base reality and heightening to create a world that is familiar, but one aspect of that familiar world is turned up for comedic effect. A prime example is Monty Python’s Argument Clinic sketch. Everything seems normal as John Cleese walks into the office for his appointment in his business suit. You feel comfortable because this is all familiar, but then when he sits down the base reality shifts when we realize that the appointment is for John Cleese to have an argument. Not because the person across the table did his taxes poorly or provided bad customer service. Just for the sake of wanting to have an argument.

Rituals: the Lazzo (repeat, repeat, repeat) in comedy and bookending and the chiasmus in film help to create guideposts that remind the viewer of where they are in the story. The idea of bookending, using the same scene at the beginning and end of a film (Forrest Gump and the feather, Pride Rock in The Lion King) help the audience visualize the transformation by seeing the character before and after in the same scene or location.

These same ritualistic tactics can be built into a transformational brand story to help keep a customer on track.

Symbolism, archetypes, rituals, and temporal shifts are impactful since they do a great job of presenting reality and the everyman (everyperson) to your audience so that they can see themselves in the story. Once they can relate to the brand story, case studies, and testimonials they’ll be more likely to picture themselves in the transformation.

But it isn’t just that initial hook. There will be stumbles and setbacks (just like in any hero’s journey) and along the way your customer will need more encouragement and reminders that they can flourish. The suspension of disbelief isn’t just for the start of the journey; it’s essential throughout your customer’s transformation.

Suspension of disbelief isn’t about tricking people; it’s about liberating them from the tyranny of their current narrative. By stepping into a story where change feels possible, individuals rehearse new identities until they become real. In the Transformation Economy, this is the bridge between aspiration and lived experience.

Why does it matter?

Suspension of disbelief applied to transformative experiences has several benefits.

Neutralizes Inner Critic: By entering a story, individuals suspend the harsh rational voice that says, “this isn’t possible.”

Creates Emotional Safety: Story worlds allow experimentation without real-world consequences.

Builds Narrative Momentum: People begin to see themselves as protagonists in a larger arc, which sustains motivation.

Reframes Obstacles: Challenges become narrative plot points, games, steps on a path rather than insurmountable barriers.

Now it’s your turn

In a world where change often feels out of reach, storytelling offers a bridge, one that spans the gap between who we are and who we’re becoming. By stepping into symbolic narratives, trying on new identities, and meeting our future selves in imagined worlds, we suspend disbelief just long enough to rehearse transformation. These tools aren’t just creative, they’re catalytic.

So, whether you’re guiding others or navigating your own journey, start with story. Use metaphor to reframe resistance, ritual to anchor change, and immersive arcs to make the impossible feel inevitable. The Transformation Economy isn’t built on transactions; it’s built on belief.