Cut 80% of your story (I'm serious)

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Welcome back, friend!

I've recently been obsessed with something that's been driving me crazy.

Yesterday, 5 of you replied with dialogue exercises.

Client calls. Partnership arguments. Bedtime negotiations with kids.

And honestly? I loved reading every single one.

But as I was going through them, I kept noticing the same pattern over and over...

You're trying to tell me EVERYTHING.

The backstory.
How you met them.
What happened the day before.
The entire 30-minute conversation. What happened after.
The lesson you learned three days later.
The weather that day.

(Okay, maybe not the weather lol)

But you get what I mean.

So I asked myself:

"What's the fastest way to help founders write stories that actually land with minimum fluff?"

I sat with this for a bit.

And although no story structure is perfect, I came up with something that I think almost everybody can use to turn their rambling stories into content that hits hard.

Here are the 3 ways to find your ONE moment (the only part that actually matters).

Your competitors are already automating. Here's the data.

Retail and ecommerce teams using AI for customer service are resolving 40-60% more tickets without more staff, cutting cost-per-ticket by 30%+, and handling seasonal spikes 3x faster.

But here's what separates winners from everyone else: they started with the data, not the hype.

Gladly handles the predictable volume, FAQs, routing, returns, order status, while your team focuses on customers who need a human touch. The result? Better experiences. Lower costs. Real competitive advantage. Ready to see what's possible for your business?

See it in action

1. Where Did You FEEL Something Intense?

Not "I was nervous."

I mean where did your stomach drop?

Where did you get pissed off?

Where did you want to walk out?

Where did everything suddenly click?

Let me show you what I mean using Rachel's story.

Nicole runs a design agency in Georgia. She replied yesterday with 6 full paragraphs about a discovery call:

• How she found the lead on LinkedIn

• Their company background (B2B SaaS, 10 employees, blah blah)

• The entire 40-minute conversation (all of it)

• The follow-up emails they exchanged

• What she learned from the experience

• How she'll approach it differently next time

All good information.

But here's the thing...

I only needed ONE moment from that entire story.

The moment when the prospect leaned forward and said:

"Nicole, we've worked with four agencies in two years. Every single one overpromised and underdelivered. Why the hell should you be different?"

THAT'S the moment.

That's where the emotion lives.

That's where we feel Nicole's stomach drop.

That's where we're sitting in that Zoom room with her, watching her decide how to respond.

Everything else? Setup or aftermath.

You see:

Spielberg nailed this years ago when he said:

"A movie is just life without the boring bits."

Your stories? Same exact rule.

2. Where Did Something Actually HAPPEN?

A decision got made.

Someone said something that changed everything.

The entire direction shifted in an instant.

This is different from feeling something this is about ACTION.

Here's what I mean:

Don't tell me about the entire negotiation process.

Tell me about the moment your co-founder slammed his laptop and said, "I'm out."

Don't tell me about your entire product development journey.

Tell me about the moment you realized the feature you'd been building for 6 months was solving the wrong problem.

Don't tell me about your marketing strategy evolution.

Tell me about the moment you killed your entire ad campaign at 2am because the math finally clicked.

That's your peak action moment.

Everything leading up to it? Cut it.

Everything after it? Cut it.

Focus on the moment the thing happened.

3. When Did the Lightbulb Actually Go Off?

This one's different from the first two.

This is about REALIZATION.

The moment you realized you'd been wrong.

The moment you saw the pattern you'd been missing.

The moment it all made sense.

Example:

Don't tell me about your entire journey of learning to price your services.

Tell me about the moment you were on a call, quoted your price, and the prospect said "That's it?" and you realized you'd been undercharging for 18 months.

Don't tell me about your whole experience with hiring.

Tell me about the moment your "perfect candidate" on paper completely bombed the trial project and you realized credentials don't mean shit.

That's your lightbulb moment.

And that's the only part of the story we need.

In this model, you only need:

• The ONE moment where emotion peaked

• OR the ONE moment where action happened

• OR the ONE moment where realization hit

Everything else? Cut it.

Which isn't easy, but it's certainly doable.

If you already captured dialogue from yesterday, you can probably find your peak moment in less than 60 seconds.

Either way...

Here's what I want you to do:

Take yesterday's dialogue exercise.

Now reply with JUST the peak moment.

The one exchange that mattered most.

The line that made you feel something.

The moment something actually happened.

Nothing else.

Just that.

Tomorrow, I'm showing you a trick my 5-year-old son uses to make stories 10x more immersive.

(Yeah, I'm learning storytelling from a kindergartener. And it's working lol)

Till tomorrow...

Stephen

P.S. Nicole took my advice. Cut her post from 6 paragraphs to 2. Focused only on that one question and her response. Result? more engagement than her average. Less really is more.

P.S.S. If you want help identifying your peak moments and building them into a content system that actually converts, reply "STORY" and tell me what kind of business you run. I'm working with a small group of founders who are tired of posting content that gets likes but doesn't get clients.

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