On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, organisations are facing challenges such as AI, misinformation, and declining trust. In light of these obstacles, leadership expert and bestselling author Bryan Adams argues that the most valuable competitive advantage is not technology, but truth. In his latest book, Sell The Truth, Adams reveals the importance of authentic storytelling as a crucial leadership skill in building trust, inspiring teams, and driving business performance.
Sell The Truth is more than just a book on communication; it is a practical leadership playbook. Whether you are a CEO, HR leader, marketer, or entrepreneur, this book provides the necessary tools to align people around a shared purpose and turn strategies into action. At its core is The Truth Cascade, a framework that illustrates how truth creates clarity, clarity shapes culture, culture builds capability, and capability delivers lasting competitive advantage.
According to Adams, “After working with some of the world’s largest organisations, I have learned that the strongest businesses are not built on perfect strategies, but on trust. And truth is not soft, it is the most challenging commercial advantage to replicate. Companies that communicate honestly build stronger cultures, better teams, and greater resilience. In a world increasingly shaped by AI, authentic human stories will become every organisation’s greatest competitive advantage.”
Adams points to a powerful example from his consultancy work with Virgin Media. When an engineer discovered that an elderly customer would be spending Christmas alone with a broken television, he purchased a new TV for the man using his own money. This act of kindness captured the kind of person Virgin Media wanted to hire and inspired a short film based on the story. The company used the film to showcase the empathy and compassion it valued in its employees. Candidates were able to understand the company’s values without being asked a single competency question. For Adams, this perfectly demonstrates the central message of Sell The Truth: authentic stories, told effectively, communicate values and culture more powerfully than any list of corporate values ever could.
Bryan Adams’ Sell The Truth has received high praise from global thought leaders and bestselling authors:
“Most organisations don’t fail because they lack truth; they fail because they don’t know how to make the truth matter. In Sell the Truth, Bryan Adams explains why facts alone do not change behaviour and reveals a practical framework for turning honest stories into clarity, trust, and real performance. If you want to build belief, shape culture, and create lasting advantage, this book shows you how truth actually moves people.”
-Nir Eyal, Bestselling Author of Hooked, Indistractable, and Beyond Belief
“Sell The Truth takes the power of storytelling and applies it directly to the complexities of culture, hiring, and leadership. Bryan provides a clear framework to help you focus on why your work matters, not just what you do. If you lead a brand, a team, or a company, this book will sharpen every message you deliver.”
-Jonah Berger, Wharton Professor and bestselling author of Contagious and The Catalyst
“Bryan Adams has written something rare: a book that is not only intellectually rigorous and highly practical, but also deeply human. A book that teaches not just how to tell the truth, but how to make the truth matter.”
-Mark Schaefer, Author of Marketing Rebellion and Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World
At a time when trust is increasingly difficult to earn and easy to lose, Sell The Truth provides a practical blueprint for leaders who want to build organisations that people believe in.
Notes to editors:
For all media enquiries, please contact Kaitlyn Humphrys at +44 (0)7377954763 or via email at kaitlyn.humphrys@lidbusinessmedia.com.
LID Publishing is an award-winning business book publishing house. For more information, visit: https://lidpublishing.com/.
About the author: Bryan Adams is a bestselling author and the Founder and CEO of Happydance, an enterprise SaaS careers website platform used by some of the world’s leading employers. He previously founded Ph.Creative, an award-winning employer brand agency, and has spent more than two decades advising leaders on culture, communication, and talent. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur. As an international keynote speaker, his TEDx talk “Culture Eats Competition for Breakfast” has been watched by over a million people. To learn more, visit www.happydance.love.
