how to explode your business with storytelling

MMatt Gray
Advertising/MarketingSmall Business/StartupsManagementInternet Technology

Transcript

00:00:00What if the reason your social media isn't growing
00:00:02has nothing to do with your strategy
00:00:04and everything to do with the way that you tell stories?
00:00:08Most people post randomly,
00:00:09then wonder why they never get views,
00:00:12the money and the opportunities that they want.
00:00:15In this video,
00:00:15I'm gonna show you how to go and make your stories addictive
00:00:19and the six part framework that turns any story into profit.
00:00:22So as you're going through this as well,
00:00:24I want you to think about one story you've already told
00:00:27or want to tell and I put together a short storytelling
00:00:30growth assessment that you can use after this video
00:00:32to map that story
00:00:34and then see whether it can actually scale into sales.
00:00:37Watch this first and then go and diagnose your story after.
00:00:40Step one, make your stories addictive.
00:00:43First, you need to understand
00:00:44how to make your stories addictive.
00:00:46In my How to Work Less and Earn More video,
00:00:48which hit over 598,000 views,
00:00:52I opened up with,
00:00:53if you thought of someone making $730,000 per month,
00:00:56how long would you guess they're working?
00:00:58Most would guess 12 to 14 hours a day.
00:01:01I'm doing the complete opposite.
00:01:02Then I held that tension through the whole video.
00:01:06I didn't explain how until several minutes in
00:01:09and the result, people couldn't click away.
00:01:11The reason this works is the Zeigarnik effect.
00:01:13Your brain genuinely hates unfinished business.
00:01:16Once you open a loop in someone's mind,
00:01:19their nervous system craves that closure.
00:01:21You literally can't stop thinking about it
00:01:23until it's resolved.
00:01:24You know, when you're going and creating any video
00:01:27or maybe you're writing something, right,
00:01:28the main goal here is to actually go
00:01:30and retain people to the end.
00:01:32And when you're thinking, say, about a YouTube thumbnail,
00:01:34the core currency and emotion you're trying to drive there
00:01:37is intrigue.
00:01:38Intrigue is gonna go and drive the click.
00:01:41But once someone's in the video,
00:01:43it's tension that you wanna go and create.
00:01:45That retention is gonna be created
00:01:47when people are really sucked into the story.
00:01:49And in order to do that,
00:01:50you wanna go and open up different loops
00:01:53and then go and create that tension
00:01:55and don't close it for a few minutes later in the video.
00:01:59You wouldn't believe what happened next.
00:02:01And this nearly killed my business.
00:02:03This was crazy, but nothing yet
00:02:05compared to what happened next.
00:02:06These kinds of questions keep people diving in.
00:02:10Now their brain leans in and it needs the answer.
00:02:13You know, what you'll often see
00:02:14is when you use these kind of tactics multiple times
00:02:17throughout a video, you're gonna make sure
00:02:19that people are hooked in the story all the way through.
00:02:22On the other side of things, shitty stories
00:02:23basically go and get someone hooked at the beginning,
00:02:26but then the story just seems to fall flat
00:02:28because there's no more curiosity gaps.
00:02:30And so when you're going and getting that story dialed in,
00:02:33make sure you put the right curiosity gaps throughout it
00:02:36to keep the viewer retained.
00:02:38Step two, use storytelling as your growth engine.
00:02:41Storytelling is your fastest path to revenue.
00:02:44People remember stories 20 times more than facts.
00:02:47Stories get people emotionally involved in your brand.
00:02:50You know, as much as we like to think that we're just
00:02:52these rational beings, the reality is
00:02:54we make emotional decisions,
00:02:56especially when we're purchasing.
00:02:58And so your story is an amazing opportunity
00:03:00to develop that emotional resonance
00:03:02and that emotional bond with your core dream customer.
00:03:06This explains the psychology behind luxury brands.
00:03:09You know, a Birkin bag costs $50,000.
00:03:12And trust me, it's not because the leather
00:03:14is something special, but because of the story,
00:03:16the artisans, the waiting list, the heritage.
00:03:19Someone will wait three years for that story.
00:03:21Your story is your strategy.
00:03:23But more than that, a story is a funnel.
00:03:26A funnel is the path someone takes from never hearing
00:03:29about you to becoming a paying customer.
00:03:31Most people think it's linear.
00:03:32You know, traffic leads to calls, leads to sales,
00:03:35but that's not actually how humans buy.
00:03:38The real funnel is this.
00:03:39It's attention to trust, to belief, to action.
00:03:43Attention gets people to stop scrolling.
00:03:45Trust makes them listen.
00:03:47Belief makes them think.
00:03:48This could work for me.
00:03:50Action is when they finally buy.
00:03:52For me, when building founder-wise,
00:03:53I could have said, you know, we just teach systems.
00:03:55Instead, I told the story of the 15 hour days
00:03:58I was working at 22, miserable, trapped, and depressed.
00:04:02And the transformation then to building a portfolio
00:04:04of businesses doing over $13.8 million a year,
00:04:07all while being able to travel the world
00:04:09and really enjoy my life.
00:04:10So show people where you are
00:04:13and tell that story of that journey.
00:04:15The founders with the best stories win.
00:04:18You know, what are those stories that, you know,
00:04:20people can really get gripped to around your brand?
00:04:22It may be your founder story.
00:04:24It may be big crucibles of leadership you've had to overcome.
00:04:27Maybe it's the best stories from your customers
00:04:30that have gotten amazing results.
00:04:32That's how you move them from attention to action.
00:04:35That's how you make profits way faster.
00:04:37And so now you might be wondering,
00:04:38well, what if my story isn't good enough?
00:04:40That's where most people are dead wrong.
00:04:43Step three, your story is really your unfair advantage.
00:04:46And I have proof here.
00:04:47There's one thing Kim Kardashian understands about business
00:04:50that most founders ignore.
00:04:52Kim Kardashian's Skims versus every Shopify shapewear brand.
00:04:56There's some obvious things that stand out, right?
00:04:58Same product, same factories, but Skims crushes them.
00:05:02Why?
00:05:03People buy into Kim's story.
00:05:05Her journey, her obsession with shapewear
00:05:07because of the insane outfit she wears.
00:05:09That's the moat generic brands can't copy.
00:05:11For me, sharing one of my worst periods of my life
00:05:14had the same effect.
00:05:15I'd gone through business school
00:05:17and honestly felt like the whole investment
00:05:19in going to business school
00:05:20was a complete fucking waste of time.
00:05:22You know, this was the genesis of why I went
00:05:24and created BitMaker, my first company.
00:05:26The goal there was to go
00:05:27and train full stock software engineers seven months in,
00:05:29crushing it, 200K per month.
00:05:31And then the government comes and raids my business.
00:05:34Two agents walk in after seeing an article
00:05:36in the Globe and Mail.
00:05:37And they tell me that we got to shut down
00:05:39because they think that I'm operating
00:05:40an unregistered private career college,
00:05:42which was pretty insane
00:05:44because we weren't giving any grades.
00:05:46We were certainly not a university or a college.
00:05:48We were just a training program,
00:05:50getting people jobs at top tech companies in Toronto,
00:05:53like Shopify, Facebook, and Google.
00:05:55I could go to jail for a year,
00:05:56find up to a million dollars, fucking insane.
00:05:59And the main thing that I know to do in that moment
00:06:02was tell the story to as many humans as possible.
00:06:06Sure enough, I went and stayed up for 48 hours straight,
00:06:09emailed over 3000 people personally
00:06:12and told the story of why we had created BitMaker
00:06:15and the impact it was having
00:06:16across the Canadian tech community.
00:06:18The story went viral and within one week,
00:06:20the government backed off.
00:06:22We got the only exemption of its kind in Canada.
00:06:24Fast forward one year later,
00:06:25we trained over 2000 software engineers
00:06:28and the business was acquired for a life-changing sum.
00:06:30That story did more for my credibility than any credential.
00:06:34It wasn't polished.
00:06:35It was my actual life story.
00:06:38And one of the craziest experiences I'd ever gone through.
00:06:40It was the story that saved me, right?
00:06:43Because when thousands of people ended up hearing this story
00:06:46of what we were going through, they couldn't help but act.
00:06:50You know, Ben Horowitz famously said,
00:06:52"Your story is your strategy, your authenticity,
00:06:54"your challenges, the things you've overcome,
00:06:56"the stuff that you wish you had known five years ago."
00:06:59So run with the five-year test.
00:07:01What blueprints or challenges
00:07:03do you wish someone had shown you five years ago?
00:07:05Share the chaos that almost broke you, right?
00:07:07Those moments that shifted you.
00:07:09Those are the stories your audience needs right now.
00:07:12You have a story, right?
00:07:13And what we now need to do is go and uncover
00:07:16what that story is for you.
00:07:17This is where the five-line story framework comes in.
00:07:19And the reason it works is the same reason
00:07:21the biggest movies make billions of the box office.
00:07:24Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"
00:07:27analyzed myths all over the world.
00:07:29Greek, Norse, African, and Asian.
00:07:31He realized they all followed the same structure,
00:07:34the hero's journey.
00:07:35Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter.
00:07:37Every story you love follows this arc.
00:07:40This is why I use a five-line framework for business stories.
00:07:43Step one, the mirror, where they are right now.
00:07:47You want them thinking,
00:07:47"Holy shit, this guy is literally reading my mind."
00:07:51Example, you're stuck in slack all day.
00:07:53Message after message, it feels impossible to keep up.
00:07:56You keep feeling like you're on this treadmill.
00:07:59The day ends, you look yourself in the mirror,
00:08:01you're brushing your teeth,
00:08:02and you can't help but think to yourself,
00:08:04"How long can I keep going like this?"
00:08:06Every win still requires you.
00:08:09Step two, the friction, why they're stuck.
00:08:11This is the personal cost and not just the business problem.
00:08:14So an example here might be
00:08:16you keep missing your kids' birthdays,
00:08:19no real vacation in three years,
00:08:21your partner asks when things will slow down,
00:08:23and you have no good answer.
00:08:25Step three, the realization.
00:08:27This is the epiphany no one tells them.
00:08:29For example, the problem isn't your work ethic,
00:08:32it's that you are the system.
00:08:33Replace yourself with systems and everything will accelerate.
00:08:37Step four, the shift, your transformation.
00:08:40I went from 15 hour days to four hour days,
00:08:42burnt out to energized and trapped to free.
00:08:45And last, the invitation.
00:08:47This is the natural next step.
00:08:48If this resonates, here's what to do.
00:08:50At this point, most understand the framework,
00:08:52but you still don't understand where your story breaks.
00:08:55That's exactly why the storytelling growth assessment exists.
00:08:58It forces you to map one story using these five lines
00:09:01and then shows you which of your line is killing scalability.
00:09:05If your stories aren't converting,
00:09:06well, this is gonna make it obvious why.
00:09:08People don't buy conclusions,
00:09:09they buy clarity about themselves.
00:09:11The mirror and friction earn that early,
00:09:14and then most people rush to the solution, don't.
00:09:17Make them feel understood first
00:09:18because if you can describe someone's lived situation
00:09:21better than they can, they're gonna trust you then
00:09:24to go and provide them with the right improvement or solution
00:09:28through your product or service.
00:09:29This becomes a skill that I find I can pick up
00:09:32by actually just going and getting outside of the room
00:09:35and just talking with customers.
00:09:37It's from these actual stories that I hear from your mouths
00:09:40that I'm able to then go and weave those
00:09:42into the different stories that I tell on this channel
00:09:45and all through founder OS.
00:09:47The best copy just exists
00:09:49in the words of your dream customer.
00:09:51And so the same thing goes for the best stories you can tell.
00:09:54All right, so you've got the structure now,
00:09:56but here's one fatal mistake people make,
00:09:59but stops them from making money even with this framework,
00:10:02which is why you need to understand the right way
00:10:04to turn your story into sales.
00:10:06If you wanna sell without sounding salesy,
00:10:08here's what you need to do.
00:10:10Where most people go and screw this up
00:10:12is that they go and have some sort of call to action
00:10:15that just jolts people out of this story.
00:10:17They'll go and tell this amazing story.
00:10:19They'll captivate people.
00:10:21And then they'll say something generic as hell like,
00:10:23hey, if you like this, go and join my newsletter.
00:10:25Or if you like what I'm talking about right now,
00:10:27you should go book a call, right?
00:10:29Well, the thing that you really wanna focus on
00:10:32is making sure that the call to action is tightly coupled
00:10:35with the story itself.
00:10:37A good CTA is inevitable.
00:10:39It's a natural next step.
00:10:41The story opens up a loop
00:10:42and then the lead magnet closes it.
00:10:44An example is if I told you about being stuck at 22,
00:10:48working 13 hour days, and then said,
00:10:50if this feels like what you're going through,
00:10:52go and grab this guide so you can systematically
00:10:54remove yourself from operations.
00:10:56You see, that's connected, right?
00:10:58Not random.
00:10:59You wanna be insanely generous.
00:11:01When you give genuine value for free,
00:11:02selling becomes natural.
00:11:04People think, if this stuff is free,
00:11:06what's inside the paid stuff?
00:11:07So after every piece of content, ask yourself,
00:11:10what loop did I open?
00:11:12What problem did I surface?
00:11:14What's the smallest, most valuable thing I can give
00:11:16that starts solving it?
00:11:17Where I see a lot of people screw up
00:11:19as they think that they're just done at telling the story.
00:11:22Most people I see online don't give anything away.
00:11:25Clearly go and guide them to the logical next step
00:11:28that's gonna help them solve that problem.
00:11:30And the good news here is that as they go and download
00:11:34that lead magnet as an example,
00:11:36you're gonna go and be able to collect that email.
00:11:38And as you probably know from watching this channel,
00:11:40email is the most powerful way you can sell to people.
00:11:43In any business, it's typically your email list
00:11:45that is your most valuable asset.
00:11:47So if you want the email, make sure that you have
00:11:50lead magnets that are tightly coupled to your story.
00:11:53This is how you create stories that convert.
00:11:55If you think everything I've shared sounds like a lot of work,
00:11:58then the good news here is you don't need new ideas every day.
00:12:02Most people are creating content on hard mode.
00:12:05Let me save you here, okay?
00:12:06Here's how to do it on easy mode.
00:12:08Now you just need to apply the content waterfall system.
00:12:11Before this system, I was posting randomly, inconsistent,
00:12:14burning out, trying to be everywhere all the time.
00:12:17So let me walk you through it.
00:12:18This is the content waterfall.
00:12:20My system starts with content creation,
00:12:22which is around two to four hours a week,
00:12:24one long form video, and then I turn that
00:12:26into one deep newsletter essay.
00:12:28I record different coaching calls,
00:12:30which are also content gold mines,
00:12:31and then distribute that on.
00:12:33But that's all my team handling it, right?
00:12:35Each editor is able to generally pull a bunch
00:12:37of the best moments from these long form pieces of content
00:12:40and then distribute that in places like YouTube Shorts,
00:12:43Instagram Reels, and TikTok videos.
00:12:45On the Instagram side, we typically use carousels, right?
00:12:49And it's my designer that goes and takes our core frameworks
00:12:52and puts them over there.
00:12:53From there, my copywriter can turn scripts
00:12:55into different long form content
00:12:57for platforms like LinkedIn, as an example.
00:12:59And we also will typically go and take my raw writing,
00:13:02which I have in different journals,
00:13:04or I'm sharing right now on X articles,
00:13:06or in my YouTube videos.
00:13:08And then they can go and take that and cut that up
00:13:11into 20 plus other pieces of content.
00:13:13To be clear, we don't just do this with everything, okay?
00:13:17The kind of way you wanna view your content system, right?
00:13:20Is that you're putting all of these stories
00:13:23out there to the world.
00:13:24And there's gonna be some of your stories
00:13:25that are either insanely important,
00:13:27or you see them perform extremely well.
00:13:30And so what you wanna go do is take those winners,
00:13:33and then what we do is call it waterfall them.
00:13:36Waterfall meaning that you take that core story
00:13:39and you go and break it up into smaller pieces
00:13:41and distribute those smaller pieces.
00:13:43When you waterfall content, you go and you multiply it.
00:13:47The dark side of building a founder led brand
00:13:49is the fact that it's you.
00:13:51So if you're not careful about multiplying your content,
00:13:54quickly it could feel like you're on a content hamster wheel.
00:13:57And this is why it's important to have the right team
00:13:59in place, editors, social managers, video producers,
00:14:02and the right systems in place
00:14:04like this content waterfall system.
00:14:07You know, you get it, right?
00:14:07Having the right tools in place, the right people in place,
00:14:10and the right system to make this way more seamless,
00:14:13scalable, and effortless.
00:14:15For me, when I go and view building this story engine
00:14:18in my companies, right?
00:14:20It's moving from just being the creator of a personal brand
00:14:23to being the CEO of a personal media company.
00:14:26A personal media company, right?
00:14:27Is gonna remove you from a lot
00:14:28of the actual content operation.
00:14:31It's gonna build leverage through your team and systems.
00:14:34And most importantly, it's gonna give you longevity.
00:14:37The best storytellers stay in the game
00:14:39for a long, long period of time.
00:14:41And that's what we wanna set you up for.
00:14:43Pick one story from your business.
00:14:44You know, maybe it's your origin story,
00:14:46some crucible story, or some story like,
00:14:48you know, this almost killed us.
00:14:49Film it, write it, map it everywhere it can live.
00:14:52YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, LinkedIn, email,
00:14:55then repurpose it to all of these platforms.
00:14:58Most people invent something new daily,
00:15:00and I think that's a mistake.
00:15:02And honestly, it's exhausting.
00:15:04And that's why most people burn out,
00:15:06and most creators just give up.
00:15:09Go deep on one story.
00:15:11You know, pour your creativity, your authenticity,
00:15:14your vulnerability, your genius into that one story.
00:15:18Make it undeniable.
00:15:20Now let your distribution multiply it.
00:15:23Build once, distribute forever.
00:15:25So here's where you go and take action.
00:15:27So buckle up.
00:15:28Step one, use the storytelling growth assessment
00:15:30to map your story,
00:15:31and then identify the first line that breaks conversion.
00:15:34Step two, I want you to go and book a call
00:15:36with me and the team,
00:15:37and then go and bring that assessment to the call,
00:15:40because we're gonna go and then pair that with our systems
00:15:43to see where your stories could be driving more revenue.
00:15:45Don't forget to hit subscribe,
00:15:47and I'll see you in this next video
00:15:48where I break down how to build a profitable personal brand
00:15:51in just seven steps.
00:15:52So I'll see you over there,
00:15:53and let's continue to win together.

Key Takeaway

To scale a business rapidly, founders must move from random posting to a systematic media approach that uses psychological storytelling loops to turn attention into trust and profit.

Highlights

The Zeigarnik effect and curiosity loops are essential for maintaining high viewer retention in video content.

People make emotional purchasing decisions, making storytelling the fastest path to building revenue and trust.

The Five-Line Story Framework (Mirror, Friction, Realization, Shift, Invitation) provides a structured template for high-converting business stories.

A successful 'Founder-led' brand relies on treating your story as a moat that generic competitors cannot replicate.

The Content Waterfall System allows creators to multiply one core story into over 20 pieces of content across multiple platforms.

Effective calls to action must be 'inevitable' and tightly coupled to the narrative to avoid jarring the audience out of the experience.

Timeline

Making Stories Addictive Through Tension

The speaker introduces the concept of making social media content addictive by utilizing the Zeigarnik effect, which is the brain's tendency to crave closure for unfinished business. By opening 'curiosity loops' at the start of a video and delaying the resolution, creators can generate the necessary tension to keep viewers from clicking away. The section emphasizes that while intrigue drives the initial click on a thumbnail, sustained tension is what maintains retention throughout the story. He warns against 'shitty stories' that hook viewers early but fail to provide subsequent curiosity gaps to keep them engaged. Ultimately, the goal is to lead the viewer through a series of questions that their brain feels a biological need to answer.

Storytelling as a Strategic Growth Engine

This segment explains why storytelling is a superior business strategy compared to simply listing facts, noting that stories are remembered 20 times more effectively. The speaker highlights that luxury brands like Hermes use heritage and artisan stories to justify high price points, proving that consumers buy the narrative rather than just the material product. He redefines the marketing funnel as a psychological journey from attention to trust, then to belief, and finally to action. By sharing his own journey from a miserable 15-hour workday to a successful $13.8 million portfolio, he illustrates how vulnerability creates resonance with a dream customer. Founders are encouraged to identify their own 'crucible' moments to move their audience emotionally toward a purchase.

Your Story as an Unfair Competitive Advantage

The speaker argues that a personal story is a 'moat' that generic brands cannot copy, using Kim Kardashian's Skims as a primary example of a brand winning through a founder's obsession. He shares a dramatic personal anecdote about his first company, BitMaker, being raided by the government and how telling that story viral saved the business. This real-life crisis led to a unique legal exemption and a subsequent life-changing acquisition, proving that credibility comes from lived experience rather than just credentials. He introduces the 'five-year test,' asking founders to share the blueprints and challenges they wish they had known half a decade ago. Authenticity and sharing the 'chaos that almost broke you' are presented as the keys to building an undeniable bond with an audience.

The Five-Line Story Framework for Business

Drawing inspiration from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, the speaker reveals a simplified five-line framework designed specifically for business conversion. The steps include the Mirror (reflecting the user's current reality), Friction (the personal cost of their problem), Realization (the epiphany or shift in mindset), Shift (the speaker's own transformation), and the Invitation (the call to action). He stresses that the Mirror and Friction steps are critical because they earn the audience's trust by describing their situation better than they can themselves. Instead of rushing to a solution, the narrator must make the viewer feel deeply understood first. This framework is intended to provide clarity for the customer rather than just presenting a conclusion.

Turning Stories into Sales and the Content Waterfall

This section addresses the common mistake of using generic calls to action that jolt the audience out of a narrative flow. The speaker advocates for 'inevitable' CTAs that serve as a natural next step, where a lead magnet specifically closes a loop opened during the story. To avoid the 'content hamster wheel,' he introduces the Content Waterfall System, which involves creating one high-quality long-form video and a newsletter essay per week. This core content is then broken down by a team into YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikToks, carousels, and LinkedIn posts. This methodology allows a founder to scale their presence without needing to come up with entirely new ideas every single day. The goal is to build a system where the best-performing stories are multiplied and distributed across all relevant social platforms.

Becoming the CEO of a Personal Media Company

In the final segment, the speaker discusses the transition from being a simple content creator to the CEO of a personal media company. This shift involves using teams and systems to achieve leverage, longevity, and freedom from the daily operations of content production. He urges the audience to pick one defining story—whether an origin or a crisis—and pour their maximum creativity and vulnerability into making it undeniable. Once a 'winning' story is identified, it should be distributed forever rather than replaced by a new, less impactful idea. The video concludes with an invitation to use his storytelling growth assessment and book a strategy call to map out high-revenue narratives. He promises continued growth for those who treat their brand as a scalable media asset.

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