Most strategists I know didn’t start at an agency or have formal training in strategy, which I’d say is a strength. Today, I’m a senior creative strategist at Teak, a boutique agency based in San Francisco, but my path began far from the world of advertising. As a kid, I spent most days flicking through magazines, memorizing every story so I could present the latest trends and tips (like how to avoid sweaty palms when holding a boy’s hand for the first time) to my small-town, prepubescent flock. Magazines gave me insight into worlds I didn’t have access to, and I was fascinated. To no one’s surprise, I turned to publishing, spending the first 12 years of my career publishing interior design magazines, academic literature, and celebrity cookbooks.

I believe storytelling is the most powerful way to change someone’s mind, and publishing, as I saw it at the time, was a means of getting ideas out to a wider audience. As my career progressed, I wanted to move beyond being an author and help more individuals and brands tell their stories, so I took a job as a creative strategist. Although I felt more energized than ever, a career change in my thirties wasn’t ideal. And then a pandemic hit, and I was stranded, with no mentors or resources to help me. I didn’t know how to approach creative strategy or what the end result should be. All I could do in those early days was repurpose what I’d learned from publishing: ask myself, “What story is worth telling here?”

It’s been four years since I refocused, and I still rely on my publishing fundamentals. Here’s what I’ve learned through publishing to be an effective creative strategist:

1. A bestseller starts with a clear problem that needs to be solved

I worked with an innovative nonfiction publisher that was using keyword data at the time to identify niche opportunities in the market. If a term like “vegan cookbooks” had a lot of searches and few search results, it might be worth pursuing. These insights may have pointed us to opportunities, but they didn’t tell us what problems people were trying to solve by going vegan. We had to read reviews, observe other resources that this audience was using, and ask them questions about cooking, nutrition, and lifestyle to understand why they would consider purchasing a vegan cookbook. By digging deep into readers’ motivations, we always learned something unexpected that helped us create more targeted content.

When planning campaigns, I’ve found that clients often struggle to articulate the real problem they’re solving for their audience. Many briefs describe the brand problem as something general, like low sales or declining subscription rates, but fail to identify the audience’s problem. Their problem statements don’t provide enough information to tell a compelling story. It turns out there’s a strategic concept called “The 5 Whys Technique” that’s similar to what I use in publishing: By asking “Why is that?” five times in a row, you get to the heart of why your audience isn’t growing or why more people aren’t signing up.

2. If you can write a book outline, you can plan a campaign

Outlining a book is more than just breaking an idea into chapters; it requires thorough research into the content, the target audience, and the competition. For both books and advertising campaigns, you need to think about a few things: Does this concept fit with my brand or imprint? What have my audience or readers criticized about the competition? What are the current sentiments and growing trends within this genre or category? Etc.

Through publishing, I’ve learned that the foundation for building something truly impactful is a deep understanding of the audience, the topic, and the environment. Planning made that clear to me. In planning, there’s a framework called “the four Cs,” where you research the company, culture, category, and consumer to better understand how to build a campaign that will resonate with your audience.

3. Compelling stories evoke emotions, no matter how dry the topic

Solving your audience’s problem will get you in front of your audience, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll buy. Ultimately, buying is an emotional experience. Every touchpoint in our publishing strategy, from outline to marketing, was driven by an ambition or emotion. It wasn’t just about solving a problem; it was about showing our readers that we understood them.

How do you do that for a product or brand? By listening carefully. Your audience will tell you what they want and, more importantly, who they want to be—if you ask the right questions. A key role of a creative strategist or planner is to read between the lines and have a conversation that leads to an insight. (This was one of my favorite campaigns that accomplished just that.) Another strategic concept I wish I’d known in my publishing career is an empathy map, a technique you use to filter out what your audience hears, sees, thinks, feels, says, fears, does, and wants. This holistic view can lead you to insights that resonate on an emotional level.

4. Your brand plays a big role in the success of your product launch

I think the reason I was able to pursue this career is because I see storytelling and brand as synonymous. What is a brand but a story you tell over and over again to an audience that believes it? A crucial step in finding a story worth publishing was choosing the author. I spent a lot of time looking for authors with a clear and established point of view (for whom the book was simply an extension of their brand). That’s not to say you have to be a celebrity to write a successful book (or even a previously published author), but having a brand that is established in a community plays an important role. People believe why you do something, and finding an author with a compelling motivation supported our strategy of selling books that create an emotional connection.

Understanding your “why” is also a strategic framework I’ve used with many clients to help them reinvigorate their brand voice or story. In the words of Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do merely proves what you believe.” He developed the famous Golden Circle exercise that I often use to help companies clearly define their brand positioning.

So what has my career in publishing taught me about being an effective creative strategist? A lot. If you’re interested in creative strategy or planning, there are established frameworks that can guide you. But perhaps the most important lesson for me was not to indulge in imposter syndrome. Great strategists can come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but they’re all thoughtful, deeply curious people who like a good story.