the 3 stories every brand must tell

Summary

In this episode, Jerred discusses the importance of storytelling in building a brand and engaging an audience, emphasizing that tactical content alone is no longer sufficient. He introduces a simple framework of three types of stories every brand must tell: “what happened,” “what’s happening,” and “what’s going to happen.” Jerred shares his personal journey from military aspirations to becoming an online fitness entrepreneur, illustrating how these stories create emotional connections and foster trust. He argues that as AI advances, authentic storytelling becomes a crucial differentiator for brands.

Key takeaways:

• Jerred identifies three essential stories for brand storytelling: “what happened,” “what’s happening,” and “what’s going to happen.”
• Sharing personal and brand origin stories (“what happened”) helps audiences understand and resonate with your journey.
• Providing insights into current projects and behind-the-scenes activities (“what’s happening”) builds transparency and engagement.
• Casting a vision for the future (“what’s going to happen”) can inspire and attract followers who align with your mission.
• Authentic storytelling is a key differentiator in an AI-driven world, fostering trust and emotional connections with your audience.
• Jerred emphasizes that storytelling should complement tactical content to enhance brand engagement and growth.

Transcript

why storytelling is your competitive edge

So I have analyzed over a million spoken words and a million written words that I’ve published online over the last 10, 15 years and I’ve boiled it down to three types of stories that help you really resonate with your audience. Here’s the deal. If you’re not telling stories in your business, in your personal brand, your brand in general, you are already falling behind.

That tactical level content that used to be really effective is not going to work anymore. If you are a strength and conditioning coach, teaching someone just straight up how to do a kettlebell swing, that content is not going to land. Or if you are a physical therapist saying, here’s how you get out of back pain, that content is not going to land.

You need to start weaving in stories into your brand if you want to survive. So like I mentioned, I have been doing online content for somewhere between 10 and 15 years. I haven’t actually counted up all the numbers, but it’s been a long time. And interestingly enough, I have published over 1 million words of written content that’s in blog format, which in all honesty is kind of a dying format.

So I’m not suggesting you go do that, but I’ve also done over a million spoken words and podcasts. The only thing that’s new to me is video content like I am creating on YouTube and everything else. And when I sat down with AI to analyze what’s effective, what has really helped build audiences and has been the most downloaded or engaged podcast. Like that’s, that’s what we’re looking for.

the problem with only tactical content

We’re not just looking for, you know, what is the clickbait type thing? We’re looking for the thing that’s actually getting other human beings engaged because as AI starts to take over the world, you need to learn how to build those relationships. So what it comes down to is telling stories. And I’ve done storytelling frameworks before, uh, in different episodes.

But today I’m going to be talking about the types of stories you really need to tell. That’s going to resonate with people and build an engaged audience. So let’s dive straight into it. They’re very simple and there are three. So the three types of stories are what happened, what’s happening and what’s going to happen. Okay. So one more time, that is what happened, what’s happening and what’s going to happen.

It could not be any more simple. So let’s start with what happened. So what happened for a brand or a personal brand is how did you get here? What is your origin story? What lessons have you learned? What pain points have you gone through? Or just talking about the whole reason you’re doing any of this at all, right?

That’s what you need to talk about. So for me, what happened? Like how did I get here? What was the main thing? And for me, I was in the military. That was the thing I wanted to do. But then once I had the fighter pilot dream ripped away from me due to an injury, I had to go a different route. And the only route that I could go was the fitness route because that’s what I was most passionate about.

how i analyzed 2 million words of my own content

But then I had to even go one step further and I had to take my fitness business online before online was really a super common thing because I was still full-time active duty air force. And the only way to build a legitimate business for me at that time was to do it online. So I did that through search engine optimization, Googling, writing articles, doing podcasts, everything that you can think about.

That’s what happened. But that kickstarted a whole bunch of stuff for me, self-development, scarcity issues, anxiety, all these things as I started to go down the entrepreneurial path, I discovered self-development. That’s a lot about what I talk about now, just in personal and business growth. That’s what happened to me.

You see how I’m weaving in a story right now and you are understanding and maybe resonating with me a little bit more. Next is what’s happening. Okay. What’s happening. What’s happening in your business right now. What are you doing? Give me some behind the scenes. What are you building? Like what are you working on? Show me what your office looks like.

Show me how you work with people. Don’t make everything so polished. So for me, what’s happening right now, I’m in a brand new studio, so I just bought a new home. We have a 1200 square foot shop, gym, barn, whatever you want to call it that we just finished building out. It has an 800 square foot gym on the other side of the wall that’s behind me.

story type #1 : what happened

I’m in a new studio right now over there is my office and that’s what’s happening right now. I am building out the resources I need to be able to create content for a long time because I’m going all in on it. I am going all in on content. I’m not dabbling anymore. This is what I want to do and I really enjoy it and what’s happening behind the scenes is I’m putting all the pawns in place and all the pieces in place to be able to do this for a very long period of time so I can help more people so I can get my message out there so I can build my personal brand, tell more stories, help things resonate. That’s what’s happening now.

I am trying actively to grow a personal brand outside of any other, my current brands because I own a lot of different types of companies and I no longer want to create content just for one singular company. I want to have a personal brand so I can help more people. That’s what’s happening right now. What are you doing right now?

What’s the story that you need to tell? What’s happening right now? What are you building? What are you working on? And then you can share this in Instagram stories, you could podcast, whatever you talk about it behind the scenes. Now what’s going to happen? And I feel like this is where you can really start to build a following, right?

This is where you can get people bought into your mission, your vision, whether that’s local in your community. Like, Hey, I’m building this thing in my city, like this business in my city, so I can help more people do X, Y, or Z. You know, we’re on this health journey together. You know, what is it that you want to see happen over the next several years?

You need to tell that story too, because people can really get bought into the future of that right now. For me, I want to make people better and it’s a very wide ranging, you know, scheme here. But what I learned, and the biggest tools that I’ve developed are, you know, the things that I’ve learned in entrepreneurship is you have to develop yourself for, in order for your business to grow.

story type #2 : what’s happening

That’s the whole idea. The concept behind the better podcast, the better brand, you know, my personal brand is you have to get better. You have to get better. You have to get more mentally tough. You have to exercise, you have to eat right. You have to create content. You have to do all these things. You have to read, you have to make yourself better if you want your business to grow.

Now what I want to build slowly over time are all the tools and resources for making self-development a little bit more of a clear path and journey for people so they can progress further, both personally and professionally. That’s what I ultimately want. I want everything that I’m creating to be a resource for personal and professional growth. I want you to learn how to get better here.

That’s what I want you to do. And I want to go down to the tactical level of here’s how you get better specifically at email marketing, but also how do you get better at being a father? How do you get better at showing up on a day to day basis? That’s what I want and I want all the tools and resources to be in one spot.

So someone’s thinking about self development, they’re thinking about getting better. They’re thinking about growing their business in order to become a better person. This is the spot. That’s what I want for people. That’s what I want to build over the next decade. And I want this to be a very great resource for people who want to do that.

That’s what I’m building. So what are you building? What’s going to happen? Like what are your plans? Don’t be afraid to share those. You don’t necessarily have to say, my goal is to do X, Y, and Z, make a million dollars, whatever it is. You don’t have to talk about those things. You can just kind of cast your vision for the future.

story type #3 : what’s going to happen

This is good for your employees. This is good for people who consume your content. But if you can start to weave more stories into your brand, you are going to start to get more engagement. People are going to start to know you. They’re going to start to like you. They’re going to start to trust you because you are being vulnerable and you’re sharing those three things. What happened? How’d you get here?

What are you doing now? What do you plan to do in the future? These are very simple things. But look, AI, I’m not trying to like, you know, set off the alarm bells or be an alarmist or anything with AI, but AI is going to be able to do a lot and replace people very easily. Like we see it happening in all industries and it’s only going to accelerate in massive amounts.

I truly think the only hedge you have left right now is you. It’s you. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be you specifically building a personal brand. It could just be your brand in general, but it’s that authentic story behind your brand. Why people should work with you there. Why do they resonate?

What are you trying to build? All of those kinds of things. If they can get with you at that level, then they will want to work with you. If we take a strength and conditioning coach and I have two of them and they’re both like, yeah, I get you stronger, faster, fitter, boom over here. I get you stronger, faster, fitter.

how these stories build trust & connection

And one guy tells me all the trials and tribulations that he went through to get to where he is and why he’s so knowledgeable. And then he tells me a little bit behind the scenes of like what it looks like. And then he tells me his vision for the future, what he’s creating versus the strength and conditioning coach.

Who’s just telling me, yeah, I sell a strength and conditioning package at 600 bucks a month and I’ll make you stronger, faster, fitter. Yeah. I’m going to go with the guy who gave me more, the guy who gave me some more emotional ties, right? The guy who I feel a little bit more bought into now because I know his story and I understand it.

the only hedge you have against AI

And I think that we can oftentimes be scared to tell these stories. We don’t want to be vulnerable or we think our audience isn’t paying attention to your audience. Like whether it’s a niche or whatever, they’re just, they’re humans. There are other human beings who want to hear stories. They’re fascinated by story. Everyone is fascinated by story.

It hijacks the brain to where you can’t focus on anything else. When a story is being told, it helps calm people’s mind when you’re telling a story as opposed to just throwing data stats and facts at them. So if you want to build your brand and you want to go on this journey with me of like, Hey, let’s go all in. What kind of content do we need to be creating?

Make the helpful tactical stuff, but do not forget to weave in what happened, what’s happening and what’s going to happen. Try harder.