4-step Storytelling Marketing Strategy For Founder-led Brands
Online marketing is littered with hand-me-down content strategy advice. Traditional marketing frameworks get boiled down into bite-sized, Instagrammable posts and iterated on until it’s reduced to meaningless buzzwords you can’t scroll away from fast enough.
Storytelling is one of those buzzwords.
Everyone talks about storytelling. And, if you’re like me, you get turned off by the bandwagon’s obsessions. When anything gets too popular (I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones) makes me want to hit the mute button. But, despite its buzzworthy status, storytelling is among the few tactics in online marketing that’s worth the hype.
While there are thousands of posts on storytelling, few people understand how to implement a storytelling marketing strategy — especially when you’re not a big company.
They’ll start — and stop — with a brand story that answers, “why did I start my business?”
Storytelling marketing strategies is so much more than writing a brand story.
If you’re not satisfied with “niching down” or can’t nail down your “customer avatar,” then a storytelling marketing strategy is an alternative way to carve your own lane sans old-school marketing tactics never designed for one-person brands in the first place.
By the end of this article, you'll know how to:
Tell stories that make you the go-to expert: Share your experiences in a way that highlights your knowledge and skills, without sounding like a know-it-all “guru.”
Tell stories that attract the right people: Use your values, beliefs, and vision to create brand messaging and storytelling content that represents who you are, what you stand for, and why people should listen to you.
Become the leader your industry needs: Use your story to lead by example.
Here’s how to create a storytelling marketing strategy as a solopreneur.
Start Your Storytelling Marketing Strategy
A storytelling marketing strategy is built on the premise that the niche is you.
The traditional internet marketing formula for success says:
“Pick a profitable niche.
Create an irresistible offer.
Build a “proven acquisition funnel.”
One problem: The main reason creatives start businesses doesn't factor into this formula.
And that’s to help people through work they’re passionate about.
When you’re building a business on service and passion it’s not as easy as one, two, three.
It’s not as simple as listing pain points and answering frequently asked questions.
In 2024, AI can do that in an instant. Good enough content isn’t good enough anymore.
That’s not meant to scare you. It’s meant to inspire a better way to share your message.
Successful solopreneurs who grow by sharing content online need to create community around their insights and unique approach to problem solving.
Anything less a bot can do. Insight over information is the motto of successful content creation in a post-AI world.
By successful, I mean content creation that gives you:
Freedom to use your time and resources as you see fit.
Satisfaction from creating meaningful work that impacts others.
Why A Storytelling Marketing Strategy Is Best for Soloprenuers
It makes sense. People understand through storytelling.
People connect with people, not brands. Story makes us human.
You’ll spend your time and energy on meaningful work, not creating for algorithms.
With your story as a foundation, your brand grows seamlessly with you. While others get stuck in the pivot phase, you’ll have clarity for the long haul.
Is A Storytelling Marketing Strategy Right For Your Brand?
There is nothing inherently wrong about niching down. It works for companies.
Storytelling marketing is for people — especially people who are the face of their brands —who want their contributions to be more than a cog in a mass marketing machine. David Loewen, in “How to Build in ‘The Creator Economy’ and Keep Your Authenticity Intact”, perfectly highlights the difference:
“Do you want to ‘grow’ fluffy, fake, inauthentic metrics attached to ‘Followers’ or ‘Subscribers’ or ‘Likes’? Or, do you want to ‘grow’ personally, authentically, and in genuinely sustainable business ways?”
A storytelling marketing strategy is for people who want the latter. A storytelling marketing strategy begins at the intersection of your experiences, skill set, and interests.
It’s a sustainable way of creating impactful by tapping into the themes we love exploring, the problems we intimately understand, and the vision that fuels our everyday actions.
Good strategy isn’t semantics. It’s actionable based on insights.
Storytelling marketing strategy is no different.
It follows the traditional hero’s journey framework with the four storytelling must-haves:
Character: It starts with you and the traits your brand embodies.
Conflict: All stories have conflict or a problem. What ones does your business solve?
Resolution: Your unique approach to problem-solving.
Lesson: The themes, messages, and actionable takeaways from your content.
This article outlines how to use the hero’s journey framework to create a storytelling marketing strategy for solopreneurs and personal brands, I call it the StoryCraft Method.
If you’re a manager or c-suite leader, I suggest Story Brand by Donald Miller, which is geared toward companies, unlike the StoryCraft, which is for one-person brands.
StoryCraft Marketing Strategy
StoryCraft is a storytelling framework I’ve used for years with my content marketing clients as well as in my past career as an award-winning journalist to foster deep connection with audiences.
Here, I’ll walk you through how to create a storytelling marketing strategy for your personal brand.
Character: Brand Identity For Founder-Led Brands
Imagine a movie without a protagonist, a novel without a main character.
It would be a hollow experience. The same is true for your brand.
Without a compelling character, there isn’t an interesting enough reason to follow along.
As a solopreneur, you’re the character. Your personal journey, vision, values, quirks, and passions are front and center in an authentic and authoritative one-person brand identity.
Think of your favorite influencers, entrepreneurs, or creators. What makes them stand out?
It's not just their expertise or their products; it's their personality, their story, their unique way of seeing the world.
They've built a loyal following of fans and buyers because they've created a character people want to connect with, learn from, and be inspired by.
They lead by example. They show their followers what’s possible through storytelling content, and charge people to learn the unique approach to their success inside of digital products, services, and books.
Brand Identity Starts With Vision
Consider Oprah Winfrey and Mel Robbins. They didn't have a niche. They had a vision.
Oprah's vision to empower women through storytelling expanded into a media empire, with television, film, publishing, conferences, and philanthropy.
Mel Robbins' vision to help people overcome self-doubt led to a multi-faceted career as an author, speaker, and life coach, impacting millions through her books and courses.
You do not have to be the next Oprah or Mel Robbins to use this model.
You need a vision for a better future and a process to achieve that outcome.
Create A Shared Vision to Find Your Ideal Audience
Who your audience desires to become is a part of their identity.
There is nothing more connective than giving your audience a shared goal around a vision for a better future.
Like Oprah’s visionary goal for women to love themselves or Robbins’ vision for a world without self-doubt, you can create a shared vision for your audience around what you want to see in the world, too.
Humans crave purpose and meaning.
A shared vision taps into this psychological need with a vivid image of a better future—one where your audience's problems are solved, their desires fulfilled, and their values upheld.
Instead of focusing on a niche, develop a connective vision:
What impact do you want to make?
What change do you want to see in the world?
What do people need to stop doing to have a better life?
What have you overcome that you want to help others with?
What problems do you want to have conversations about solving?
When you answer these questions, you’ll land on transformations much bigger than a niche can hold, you’ll have a well-defined purpose that helps you and others.
Character Development
A big picture vision with a common goal is the heart of a storytelling marketing strategy.
Translating that into posts, copy, and content starts with beliefs, values, and voice.
Beliefs: Why do you think people deserve the desired outcome you defined?
Values: What standards do you hold yourself and your brand to?
Voice: How do you want your audience to feel when they interact with your brand?
In the final section, I’ll walk you through how to incorporate these lofty brand messaging elements into content that voices your expertise and connects people to you in every day posts.
If You Get Stuck: Create An Anti-Vision
The goal is to turn the struggle into an inspirational story. But what if you don’t know the vision? What if you're stuck? What if you haven’t achieved the desired outcome?
This anti-vision exercise was the catalyst for my one-person rebrand, it gave my business and me personally hope when everything felt chaotic and overwhelming. It got me through the “burn it all down” phase of solopreneurship. If you’re stuck, this exercise will move you.
If you keep going on the same track, how do you end up?
What don’t you want your life to look like in six months from now?
Our brains have a negativity bias — we're more motivated to get away from a bad situation than to move toward a positive one unprompted.
Getting clear on what isn’t working motivates you to change it.
Not just you, your audience, too.
This brings us to the next chapter in your storytelling marketing strategy, the conflict.
2. Conflict: Pinpoint Your Audience’s Problems & Pain Points
Without conflict there is no reason to change. If people can’t understand how your story, service, and brand helps them achieve a positive outcome, there’s no reason to engage. Conflict is the problem your audience must overcome.
There are two types of problems. A successful storytelling strategy needs both.
External: Surface-level issues, such as low engagement, lack of clients, or overwhelm and burnout.
Internal: Emotional byproducts of the external problem, such as feeling invisible, inadequate, or unfulfilled.
Think of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. Her external conflict is winning back the love of her life, but her internal conflict is proving to herself (and the world) she is not a dumb blonde. Both conflicts trigger her transformation into an inspiring Harvard Law grad.
It’s All About The Transformation
Your audience has the same external and internal struggles. They're likely similar to yours.
What I love about one-person business is that when I help myself, I help others.
All stories centered around overcoming obstacles. All businesses do too.
A storytelling marketing strategy for solopreneurs is where two transformations collide:
Your Transformation:
Struggles you've overcome
Lessons you've learned and use
"Aha" moments that shaped you
2. Your Audience’s Transformation:
The change, growth, and evolution you want to inspire.
An easy way to pinpoint these transformations is to reframe your story.
Reframe Your Struggle into an Inspiration Story
Your experiences – both wins and setbacks – are the raw material for storytelling content.
What have you overcome?
How did you feel before?
How did you feel after?
What did the experience teach you?
What advice would you give your past self?
When people see themselves in your struggle, they become the hero of your storytelling.
You become their guide who’s been there, done that, and got the outcome they desire.
You are the Yoda to their Skywalker. The Emmett to their Elle Woods.
Former strategy session client, Ashley Lemieux, does this beautifully in her wellness coaching business.
She helps her 489K+ following by sharing her journey toward finding herself again after loss, giving women the tools and encouragement to do the same in her Healing Her podcast.
Former strategy session client, Ashley Lemieux, does this beautifully in her wellness coaching business.
She helps her 489K+ following by sharing her journey toward finding herself again after loss, giving women the tools and encouragement to do the same in her Healing Her podcast.
Find Conflict In Common Enemies
It’s easy to overlook the power of common ground, especially when prevailing wisdom tells us “standing out” is the only way to succeed online.
If “Social Media is Fake”taught us anything it’s that being your relatable self gets noticed.
ICYMI - “Social media is Fake” got more than 50 million views on TikTok in March 2024, featuring creators going viral by confessing secret struggles.
Think: A life coach skipping self-care despite preaching it in posts.
Is it because people are being purposefully fake? Straight-up dishonest? Sometimes.
But for most one-person businesses, it’s fear that authenticity will cost them credibility or that struggling undermines their expertise. Ironically, the opposite is true.
Alex Hormozi wrote in $100M Offers that when you can articulate your audience's problems better than they can themselves, they’ll view your approach as more credible and valuable. It’s human nature to gravitate toward people like us.
Smokers are more likely to trust advice on quitting from a former smoker than a doctor who has never smoked.
There’s no better way to articulate it than to live it. (More on articulating the problems you solve in the next section).
Communities are built on commonalities. Overcoming common enemies you share with your audience makes them feel seen and heard.
Leading by example is the most authentic way to create content people care about in 2024.
It’s worth noting if you want to build an online community that sticks with you amidst ever changing algorithms. You build a community with stories that say, “you get me.”
B2B Storytelling Marketing Example
What’s on your shit list?
I’ll bet my marketing credentials there’s a strong reason why it irks you.
What “enemy” do you and your ideal client share?
In the storytelling marketing example above, online marketer and podcaster Amy Porterfield calls out “second-guessing,” “shiny-object syndrome,” and “not-enoughness” as the common enemies.
These are feelings she shares with her readers. She overcame them.
It’s best to think of the enemy that embodies a concept rather than a person.
10 Common Common Enemies
The 9-5
Busyiness
Hopelessness
Perfectionism
Hustle Culture
Procrastination
People-Pleasing
Not Enough Time
Not Good Enough
Corporate Culture
Defining your brand's "enemy" builds camaraderie around something to push against, which becomes the tension, problem or conflict all stories require to be interesting.
It’s the regular, everyday, normal moments that make us relatable to others.Relatable moments + larger context = “you get me” vibes.
Those connections are made by sharing what matters to us — our interests, aspirations, struggles, and experiences. These factors build a community.
An online community is invested in you as a person or brand, and their support goes beyond just liking posts. These are the real MVPs who:
Regularly engage with your content.
Participate in events you organize.
Recommend you to others.
Become repeat customers
Turning fans into customers is the next step in the storytelling marketing strategy.
3. Resolution: Sell Services as a Founder-Led Brand
If it were as easy as saying “I did it and you can too” you’d have fans but no customers.
There are a lot of broke freelancers, consultants, and coaches with big followings because they miss this step in their storytelling marketing strategies. They’re popular, but poor.
At the beginning of this article, we talked about how personal brands monetize their mission by showing what’s possible through storytelling content and charging people to learn the unique approach to their success inside of digital products, services, and books.
Imagine your ideal client on one side of a cliff.
They want to make the leap but if you just tell them to jump while shouting, “you can do it,” their fear of falling will win out over their desire to get to the other side.
They need to know exactly what’s going to happen before they’ll trust you enough to leap.
Having a roadmap or step-by-step plan is how we quell their fears with logic.
Dan Koe, founder of a million dollar one-person business with even more followers, does an exceptional job of conveying this through content.
He gives a map for one-person business success.
He clearly states the plan for change and charges for in-depth learning. Each step is a digital product, group program, or free resource that leads to those paid products.
Other one-person brands opt for a signature framework, but the concept is the same.
Think of it like this: You're not just selling an offer; you're selling a transformation. You're offering your audience a way to go from point A (their current struggle that we talked about in the last section) to point B (their desired outcome that we spoke about in the first).
Your resolution is the bridge that connects those two points.
What skills or traits does your audience need to develop to win?
What action does your audience need to take to get to the desired outcome?
Once they purchase, what are the steps they need to take to ensure their success?
Be as specific as possible, and talk about it often.
Without a detailed plan for the desired transformation, it sounds too good to be true.
Why You (And Not the Competition)
“What makes you different?” is a question that strikes fear into the hearts of solopreneurs.
The differentiator in a one-person business is the culmination of your experiences, your knowledge, your skills, and your personality. But writing a clear “unique selling point” is like flying too close to the sun. You’re so immersed in it that it’s hard to say clearly.
Prompts to voice your USP:
What do you think is missing in the market?
What makes you uniquely qualified to solve the problem?
What perspectives do you bring to the problem no one else does?
It’s a challenge to answer these alone while staring at a blank Google doc.
A good way to gain clarity is to poll your audience, include a “why did you pick me” question on your onboarding forms, or look at your testimonials to see what clients loved.
Whenever I do this for my brand or for each individual offer, I bring in help from a fellow strategist. Outside perspective is invaluable when it comes time to sell an offer.
Pinpointing differentiators is the most common problem I solve for clients during one-on-one content strategy sessions, too, for the same reason.
Once we can state why people should choose my client over someone else, we have a foundation for the next and final step: content creation.
4. The Lessons: How To Create Storytelling Content
As a solopreneur, you’re both the visionary and the person who translates the vision into everyday actions, like content creation. This is where most people get stuck. But not you.
Figuring out what to talk about, what platforms to use, and how often to post are secondary to why you’re posting in the first place. Knowing the why naturally clarifies the rest.
The why is baked into a storytelling marketing strategy. Providing the tools and encouragement to deliver the transformations outlined in the first sections is why.
The rest of this section is dedicated to translating the why into content for everyday use.
What to Post
"If You Want to Be Interesting, You Have to Be Interested"-David Ogilvy
This advice is inside every book written on writing: if you’re bored, your audience is bored.
Post what you’re passionate about is not feel-good bumper sticker wisdom.
It’s the definition of authenticity and it will help you avoid creator burnout.
The sustainable way of creating impactful content centers on the topics we enjoy, the problems we love solving, and the perspectives that guide our everyday action.
You are going to spend a lot of time writing content. Liking it is requisite for happiness.
It’s not just for your sake. Enthusiasm is contagious.
When you share your passion through your content, your audience picks up on those positive vibes, triggering a dopamine release that makes them more likely to engage with your content, share it with others, and ultimately become loyal followers and customers.
Topics For Transformation
Interest in the subject matter aside, the topics should relate to the transformations you provide if you want to sell an offer.
The goal is to get yourself and the people you help closer to your vision.
The beauty of a storytelling marketing strategy is that when you help yourself, you help others. As you work towards your ideal future, ask yourself:
What skills and interests are going to help you get there?
Think beyond the obvious. It's not just about mastering a new software or learning a specific marketing technique. It's about developing resilience, cultivating creativity, or improving your communication skills.
And if you're already on your path, what skills and experiences got you this far:
What skills, interests, and expertise have helped you achieve your goals?
Our brains are wired to learn and grow through observation. When we see someone else succeed, our mirror neurons fire up, making us feel as if we're experiencing that success ourselves. This is why stories of overcoming challenges and achieving goals are so inspiring.
Let's say an accountant’s goal is for women to have financial freedom.
In addition to talking about how her accounting services get them closer to the goal, she could talk about topics that help along the journey.
Discipline
Self-reliance
Basic budgeting
These work because understanding those concepts goes a long way toward financial freedom. Personality is a factor.
Let’s say this accountant doesn't care for discipline.
She could discuss financial flexibility on the way to financial freedom, more specifically the mindset, skills, and professional help needed to achieve flexibility on the way to freedom.
A broader scope for the problems you want to solve is a great place to start.
But it's not a good place to end.
Storytelling Content Requires Perspective
Expertise isn't a piece of paper. It's practical experience that gets results.
Connect the dots between topics and your expertise through experiences.
How are you navigating these topics in real life?
What conversations are you having with clients and peers?
How are you handling the ups and downs as a pro in your field?
Insights and viewpoints make generic topics unique to you.
As a solopreneur, your story is what makes you different from other one-person businesses who sorta do what you do. Use it to create an original niche of one.
The 5 Minute Habit of Great Storytelling
People tell me all the time they have no stories. Then they tell me a story about why they have no stories.
The good news is you’re already telling stories by virtue of being human.
The great news is that once you’re aware of that fact, you can make the choice to get better at storytelling. Observation is the first step.
Have you ever zoned out while driving, only to snap back much farther along than you remember going? The stories we create in our minds happen in that autopilot mode.
There's no official count of how many stories we tell in a day, but research confirms it's a non-stop process. From the internal monologues that shape our actions, to regular conversations, story is the primary way humans communicate and understand the world.
We're constantly interpreting events, validating emotions, and making sense of what happens to us through narrative. While not every moment is story worthy there are story worthy moments in every day. The trick is to switch off autopilot thinking to catch them.
In his TED Talk, best-selling author and award-winning storyteller Matthew Dicks shared the 5-minute habit he uses to capture stories daily.
He calls it “Homework For Life.”
It goes like this:
Reflect: At the end of each day, ask yourself, "What was the most important moment of this day? If I had to tell a five-minute story, what would it be about?" I do this practice in a Google spreadsheet, fancy systems and correct grammar aren’t a requirement at this stage.
Document: Write down a few sentences. It doesn’t have to be the entire story. Include enough detail to capture what happened. I take inspiration from my senses — sights, sounds, smells, and textures during everyday moments. In addition to the facts of the situation, I also include how I felt and lessons or insights. Those details make stories interesting and believable. You’ll have more to write than you think!
Repeat: The goal is a daily 5-minute habit of reflection and writing. With regular practice, we become more aware of the richness in our everyday experiences, which makes telling stories much easier when it comes time to write content. For me, it’s also become a practical way to practice gratitude and celebrate small wins.
Regularly jotting down observations, reflections, and ideas deepens your insights so you can find storytelling content ideas that help people do life better and sell services.
Remember — the most impactful stories aren’t grandiose. They celebrate commonalities and give “you get me” vibes. We want your readers to see themselves in your stories.
People will relate more to your trip to the gas station than that one time you were pulled up on stage at an Usher concert.
Storytelling Content Strategy Results
What makes good storytelling? Simply put: a good story inspires action.
That action could be to book a free call or that action could be a mindset shift. A good story prompts the reader to do something with the information shared..
When you create storytelling content that expresses your expertise, ask yourself:
What's the one thing people need to understand?
How do I want them to feel after reading this?
Working backwards from the big point while keeping the emotional impact top-of-mind saves you time writing and eliminates a common storytelling mistake: too much context.
These guiding questions reduce irrelevant background info and overexplaining, which undermines credibility. Here’s more on how to write with authority online.
Traditional marketing metrics — likes, shares, and reach — are the byproducts of real-life emotions felt by readers on the other side of the screen.
An early sign your message resonates is the quality of the reactions you receive, not always the quantity.
Emotionally resonate content scales.
If someone was scrolling and saw your post, how do you want them to feel?
Hit on that deeper emotion, and engagement naturally follows.
Emotional doesn’t mean sappy.
For example, most people don’t think of educational problem-solving content as “emotional.” That is a missed opportunity.
With problem-solving content we’re aiming to give readers an ‘aha!’ moment, make them think “I never thought of it that way,” or believe “I can use this!”
When you want to inspire or validate your audience, go for responses such as, “thank you for saying the words in my head” or “this is the message I needed to hear today.”
If you’re not sure what emotion to aim for, go for relief.
Relief that they are not alone.
Relief that they are in the right place.
Relief that there is a solution to their problem.
People won’t remember what you say. They’ll remember how you make them feel.
On the other hand, if you’re not getting any response or the comment section is full of generic lines like “great post”, that piece of content is likely not resonating emotionally.
If this happens, know you still have usable insights from a flop. Storytelling content is a cycle of creation, analysis, and refinement.
Feedback is valuable for refining your storytelling skills. Just like comedians learn from audience responses to perfect their jokes, you too can learn and grow by actively seeking and understanding feedback.
Experimentation is the only way to find what works. Don’t get discouraged as you’re levelling up.
A learning curve unveils itself when you're learning storytelling.
People get anxious when it doesn’t come together right away. But it's normal.
The only way to improve is to practice.
