What makes a brand story powerful enough to move millions of people on the world’s most complex issue? Not more data. Not louder messaging. Not a bigger ask. The answer, according to serial entrepreneur Ryan Kohn, is radical simplicity — and a single theme that makes your audience feel the truth of your idea before they ever think about it.
Ryan Kohn is the founder of Point One, a global business initiative that asks companies to commit just 0.1% of their revenue to accelerate the clean energy transition. That is one dollar for every thousand in revenue. A rounding error for most businesses. But pooled together, it is enough to fully fund clean energy access for the entire world within 15 years.
In this episode of the Business of Story, Park Howell sits down with Ryan to unpack how he turned one of the most fatigued conversations in modern business — climate change — into one of the most compelling brand stories in the world. And what every brand builder can steal from it.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
How to find the single brand theme that compresses your biggest idea into your most powerful message. Ryan and his team distilled an impossibly complex global challenge into four words — almost nothing changes everything — and built an entire movement around it.
Why leading with your cause is killing your message. Ryan explains why Point One never leads with sustainability, climate, or clean energy — and why that counterintuitive decision is the reason the brand resonates where others have failed.
How to meet your audience inside the cultural moments they already Love. Point One builds brand awareness through sport, music, art, and film rather than issue-led campaigns, reducing friction and expanding reach without alienating anyone.
Why simplicity is not a shortcut in brand storytelling — it is the destination. Ryan’s rule is simple: if it is not simple, it does not land. This episode shows you exactly how to apply that principle to your own brand story.
How a 0.1% corporate commitment could change everything. Park runs Point One through the StoryCycle Genie live on air, surfacing the brand’s core positioning statement and unique value proposition — and revealing just how precisely Ryan’s team has already nailed their story.
ABOUT RYAN KOHN
Ryan Kohn is the co-founder of PROPER Snacks, the UK’s leading premium snack brand and one of the first B Corps in the sector. From a kitchen-table idea to a global company selling over eight million snacks a month, he scaled PROPER into a household name and led its 85-person team before exiting to private equity in 2021. Alongside building PROPER, Ryan launched ventures spanning carbon-neutral property development and the UK’s largest student events business, earning recognition as EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
Beyond business, Ryan has long championed impact initiatives — from co-founding campaigns alongside Riz Ahmed and HRH Prince William to serving as a board member of environmental charity Hubbub. He has co-authored a B Corp guide to achieving net zero, and has mentored the next generation of entrepreneurs through programmes including Virgin Start-Up and Tesco Back It.
Most recently Ryan founded Point One, a global initiative making it radically easy for businesses to support the clean energy transition. Point One asks companies to contribute just 0.1% of their revenue into a shared fund that helps unlock and accelerate clean energy projects, particularly in developing markets. By pooling these small fractions across everyday economic activity, Point One aims to create a new funding engine for global cooling and help fully fund the clean energy transition within 15 years.
WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS FOR BRAND BUILDERS
This is not an episode about climate change. It is an episode about what happens when a brand story is so clear, so simple, and so true that it makes even the hardest yes feel like the easiest decision your audience has ever made. Ryan Kohn just happens to prove that principle in the most difficult storytelling arena in modern business.
If you have ever struggled to simplify a complex message, lost an audience to jargon, or wondered why your brand is not moving people the way you know it should — this conversation is for you.
CONNECT WITH RYAN KOHN AND POINT ONE Website: pointone.world
ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF STORY The Business of Story is the top-ranked podcast for brand storytelling strategy, hosted by Park Howell — founder of the Story Cycle System and one of the world’s leading brand narrative strategists. Each week Park interviews the world’s brightest brand builders, marketers, and communicators to reveal how purposeful storytelling drives Growth, loyalty, and lasting impact.
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