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Welcome to 1% Better. A weekly newsletter where I provide simple playbooks to grow your following, earn more revenue, and live a happy life.

Today at a Glance:

• How to vastly improve your content/life with storytelling

• A practical example of storytelling (pay close attention to how I wrote this newsletter)

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How to Tell a Story That Doesn’t Blow

Let’s be honest, 99% of the content on X is fucking terrible right now.

Everyone is giving the same advice, the same growth tips, the same algo breakdowns, the same self help advice.

The feed is almost unreadable.

There’s one skill that’s separating the 1% from the 99%.

There’s one skill that’s making the top content creators stand out amongst all the crap.

That skill is storytelling.

Storytelling is the most powerful skill in the world. It’s started wars, ended empires, and saved lives. A single story can change how someone operates completely. A pen is mightier than the sword, but a pen only has power if it writes a story.

Storytelling is the only thing separating good content from shit content right now.

Here is my basic storytelling structure for everything I write (use this structure in the next piece of content you make):

Background

To start the story, you need to set the stage for your story with the background and context. Why does anything you have to talk about matter? If your story is about a failure you had in the past, talk about where you were in life at this time period.

Example from this newsletter:

“Let’s be honest, 99% of the content on X is fucking terrible right now.”

Challenge

What is the challenge you’re facing? Now that people are generally familiar with you or the subject of your story, what is the challenge you need to overcome? This is going to be the challenge we solve in the narrative we tell.

Every great piece of content has a challenge solved.

Example from this newsletter:

“Everyone is giving the same advice, the same growth tips, the same algo breakdowns, the same self help advice.”

Raise the stakes

Now that we understand the challenge we need to solve, we need to make it clear why it’s so important to solve it. This will ensure the reader gets invested in the outcome of this story. If the challenge isn’t high stakes, people won’t care if you solve it or now.

Low stakes challenge: “Some content on X is bad”

High stakes challenge: “99% of content sucks. Yours probably sucks and you’ll never get ahead unless you do this.”

Low stakes: “I lost some money”

High stakes: “A Russian mob hacked me and stole a life changing amount of money”

Example from this newsletter:

“There’s one skills that’s making the top content creators stand out amongst all the crap.”

Plan

This is our plan to solve the challenge we’ve introduced. We need to go over the plan with our reader and explain to them how we’re going to overcome the challenges we’re facing. This keeps the story moving towards our solution.

If you’re writing a narrative that is educational in nature, the more actionable and practical this plan is the better.

Example from this newsletter:

The section you’re reading now.

Transformation

After we’ve executed on our plan, we need to describe the transformation we’ve gone through. This is the payoff to the story.

If your narrative is around how you overcame a tough time in your life, this section of the story shows how that challenged changed you. How you got better. How you became a new person.

When I talk about failures in my life, I’ll talk a lot about how they changed me and turned me into who I am today. This transformation section is critical to making it feel like there was a payoff to your story.

Takeaway

This is the message you want your reader to take away. After you’ve gone through your background, the challenge, how you got through it, and how it transformed you, you need to give your reader something to walk away with.

Typically for me this will be actionable steps they can take, advice, or motivation. This is the last taste in their mouth when they’re done reading your story.

Final structure:

1. Background

2. Challenge

3. Raise the stakes

4. Plan

5. Transformation

6. Takeaway

Since I’ve focused more on storytelling structure in my posts and newsletters, my growth and engagement has skyrocketed.

Everyone and their mothers is giving advice now on X. It’s become a desert of self help advice.

The only way you’re going to stand out is by telling a compelling story.

Advice won’t do it anymore. Lists won’t do it anymore. Stories are the only thing that works now.

It’s not just a content skill, it’s a major life skill. Storytelling is how you excel in sales, marketing, and really any field you’re in.

Challenge to you: use this structure in at least one piece of content/somewhere in your life this week. Let me know how it goes.

Any storytelling structures you use? Let me know by replying to this email.

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Also on Friend Tech for those that use the app. Have a great weekend everyone!

(PS, the masterclass is coming back in October)

-Alex