As AI reshapes recruitment marketing and candidates grow ever more sceptical of EVP claims that don’t survive first contact with the business, employer brand and talent acquisition expert Bryan Adams has a message for the industry: the advantage isn’t more content, it’s more honesty. In his new book, Sell The Truth, the Happydance founder and former Ph.Creative agency chief argues that authentic storytelling, not AI-generated polish, is what earns candidate trust and drives quality of hire.

Written for CEOs, HR leaders, employer brand leaders, marketers and entrepreneurs alike, Sell The Truth is a practical playbook for anyone shaping how an organisation is perceived by the people it wants to hire and keep. At its centre is The Truth Cascade, a framework showing how truth creates clarity, clarity shapes culture, culture builds capability, and capability delivers lasting competitive advantage, a direct challenge to EVPs built on aspiration rather than evidence.

Author Bryan Adams says, "After working with some of the world's biggest organisations, I’ve learnt that the strongest employer brands aren’t built on the perfect EVP statement; they’re built on trust, and truth isn’t soft. It’s the hardest commercial advantage to copy. 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 in the fight for talent."

Adams points to a powerful example from his consultancy work with Virgin Media, a case study he returns to often with EB and TA audiences. When an engineer discovered that an elderly customer would be spending Christmas alone with a broken television, he bought the man a new TV with his own money. This single act of generosity captured exactly the kind of person Virgin Media wanted to hire and inspired a short film based on the story. The company used it to show the empathy and compassion it wanted to see in all its employees. Candidates instantly understood the organisation’s values without a single competency question being asked. For Adams, it perfectly illustrates the central message of Sell The Truth: authentic stories, told well, communicate values and culture more powerfully than any careers page copy or list of corporate values ever can.

Sell The Truth has received high praise from global thought leaders and best-selling authors:

"Most organizations 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 shows why facts alone don't change behaviour and reveal a practical framework for turning honest stories into clarity, trust, and real performance. If you want to build belief, shape culture, and create lasting advantages, 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 story and plugs it straight into the messy reality of culture, hiring and leadership. Bryan gives you a clear framework that helps you talk less about what you do and more about why it matters. If you lead a brand, a team, or a company, this book will make every message sharper."

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 deeply practical, but also deeply human. A book that doesn't simply teach you 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 candidates can spot an inauthentic EVP a mile off, Sell The Truth offers employer brand, talent acquisition and recruitment marketing leaders a practical blueprint for building an organisation people actually want to join, and believe in once they get there.

Title: Sell The Truth – Leadership Storytelling For All Cultures That Win

Author: Bryan Adams, Founder & CEO, Happydance

Publisher: LID Publishing

Publication Date: 17 September 2026

Format: Paperback

Price: £19.99

ISBN: 9781918215236

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For book review copies and national/consumer media enquiries, contact Kaitlyn Humphrys, LID Publishing. M: +44 (0)7377954763; E: kaitlyn.humphrys@lidbusinessmedia.com

For interview requests with Bryan Adams, employer brand/TA industry comment, or Happydance product and customer data, contact Melanie Murphy, Happydance. E: melanie.murphy@happydance.love M: +44(0)7934104024

LID Publishing is an award-winning business book publishing house. To find out more, visit: https://lidpublishing.com

About Happydance: Happydance is an AI-powered careers website platform used by some of the world’s leading employers (Canva, General Motors, Uber and Dominos) to turn candidate experience into a competitive advantage, combining high-performing careers websites, AI-powered content discovery and real-time candidate insight. Visit www.happydance.love

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 appeared in Harvard Business

Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur. An international keynote speaker, his TEDx talk "Culture Eats Competition for Breakfast" has been watched by more than a million people.

Sell The Truth is available to buy from Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1918215235 and West End Lane Books: https://www.welbooks.co.uk/shop/p/sell-the-truth-by-bryan-adams

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