By: Abby Sandoval 

The instinct during a downturn is to go quiet. Cut growth budgets, pause the outreach, and wait for conditions to improve. It feels responsible. It is almost always a mistake.

Nine percent of brands actually grow through recessions, and the separating factor is not product quality or pricing. It is present. Research consistently shows that Brands that stay visible and communicate consistently through downturns grow 275% more during the recovery phase than those that cut aggressively. What that body of evidence does not capture is the type of presence that actually moves the needle when confidence collapses. It is not ad spend. It is the story of who built the company, why, and how they are moving through the same environment as their customers.

When Trust Is the Only Currency That Matters

A downturn changes what buyers are purchasing. They stop buying on momentum and start buying on conviction. They want to know the brand they are betting on will still exist next year, and they want to feel something about the person behind it. Fear that business leaders deliberately lie increased by 12 points between 2021 and 2025, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. Institutional credibility is collapsing precisely when people need something to believe in.

That gap is where founder stories live. Corporate messaging cannot fill it, because it is exactly what audiences have stopped trusting. A founder who speaks plainly about what they are building, what went wrong, and how they are adapting offers something a press release never can: a reason to believe.

Carson Spitzke, founder of Spitz PR, works with executives and entrepreneurs to build that kind of credibility through strategic media placement. “The brands that survive a downturn aren’t the ones that go silent and wait,” Spitzke says. “They’re the ones that keep showing up with something real to say. People are not buying products right now. They’re buying into people.”

What Earned Media Can Do That Paid Media Cannot

Paid budgets are typically among the first casualties when revenues tighten. Earned media scales in value precisely when everything else is being cut. A feature in a credible publication, a podcast interview, or an expert column each borrows trust from the outlet carrying it. That borrowed trust compounds over time in a way a display ad never does.

The mechanism has become even more consequential as AI-driven search reshapes how buyers discover brands. Large language models increasingly pull from high-authority editorial sources when generating answers, which means a founder who appears consistently in respected outlets is shaping discovery for customers who may never see a traditional ad. Earned media has become a legitimate performance channel rather than a secondary consideration, particularly as companies tighten budgets during downturns.

Spitz PR’s model is built around exactly this logic. Rather than tracking press volume, the firm measures how media presence translates into credibility, authority, and downstream business outcomes. The goal is not coverage for its own sake. It is coverage that works across sales and marketing processes long after the article runs.

The Argument a Downturn Makes for You

There is a counterintuitive advantage to building a founder narrative when conditions are hard: the difficulty itself becomes the story. Audiences respond to founders who speak plainly about what they are working through. That kind of honesty is rare in corporate communications, which is exactly why it cuts through.

Mentions of “storytelling” on earnings calls and investor days reached 469 times in 2025, up from 359 in 2024, while LinkedIn job postings including the word “storyteller” doubled over the same period. Boardrooms are catching on to what communicators have understood for years: a founder who can articulate their conviction and their plan for working through difficulty is more persuasive than any product announcement.

Journalists are also actively seeking that voice. Generic press releases and promotional announcements are increasingly ignored, while narratives rooted in leadership experience, market understanding, and real-world challenge continue to earn coverage. Founders who speak beyond their products and show a genuine understanding of their sector are far more likely to be sought out as recurring experts and commentators.

“A downturn doesn’t kill brands. Silence does,” Spitzke says. “The founders who keep putting their name and face to what they do are the ones their market remembers when things turn around. And that’s when the growth actually happens.”

The Window Most Companies Leave Open

Most brands go quiet when markets tighten, creating a gap their competitors are often too cautious to fill. During the 1981 to 1982 recession, companies that maintained their marketing spend saw 256% more growth over the following five years than those that cut back. The mechanism was not the spending itself. It was the compounding of visibility and trust while everyone else disappeared.

That same dynamic plays out through earned media and founder storytelling today. The brands that define their category on the other side of a downturn are not the ones that waited it out. They are the ones that kept showing up in credible spaces, with a real person behind them, saying something worth believing.