Fix your story structure, not your posting schedule.

I'm sure you heard schedule schedule schedule

Author

Stephen Stanberry
November 25th, 2025

In partnership with

friend!

I used to shrug when people said things like:

“Build a brand, not a business.”

Sounded like one of those cheesy lines people put on Canva graphics when they don’t know what else to write.

But after a few years of posting, failing, learning, and getting my face kicked in by the algorithm more times than I care to admit…

I realized the line was annoyingly true.

And instead of explaining it, let me show you something.

Open LinkedIn or Threads. Scroll for fifteen seconds.

Notice anything?

Everyone sounds like clones.

Same recycled tips.
Same frameworks.
Same watered-down “value posts.”

You can almost predict the next line before they type it.

And under all that sameness sits a painful question:

“How do I stop blending in with the army of AI-written copy-paste creators and build something nobody can rip off?”

Simple answer?

You stop building “a business” and start building a brand.

Because here’s the ugly truth nobody wants to admit…

Businesses get copied.
Brands get remembered.

Especially today, where AI pumps out templated content and every “storytelling guru” online is regurgitating frameworks they got from someone else who got it from someone else and now the whole ecosystem looks like a creative inbred family tree.

So I ditched the generic approach and built something based on me.

Here’s what that looked like.

Pillar 1: Lived Story > Generic Positioning

Before, my bio was the classic oatmeal line:

“I help entrepreneurs tell better stories.”

Clean. Safe. The digital version of unsalted crackers.

Then I asked myself:

“What’s the lived story behind that line?”

For me?

I got fired twice.
Three kids under five.
Writing became the one skill that always saved me.
Storytelling became the one thing people kept coming back for.

Same offer.
New heartbeat.

And when I started putting that into my content?

People stopped seeing me as “a guy who writes” and started saying:

“Bro, when I think storytelling… I think you.”

That’s brand.

Pillar 2: One Core Belief Under Every Post

Most creators are digital ping-pong balls.

One day it’s mindset.
Next day it’s sales.
Then a random rant about morning routines.

There’s nothing holding it together.

I picked one belief:

“Stories work because they make people feel seen.”

Now no matter the platform, the angle, or the topic…

That belief shapes every post.

Suddenly your content stops feeling like noise and starts feeling like a world people enter.

Roots & Routes Jamaica“Stories of Jamaica’s people, culture, and places told through the roads that connect them and the roots that define them.”

Pillar 3: Lead with Conflict, Not the Lesson

My old content looked like a textbook.

Steps. Tips. Frameworks.

Neat. Boring. Very LinkedIn.

Then I flipped it.

Instead of starting with the advice, I start with the tension.

Not fake vulnerability.

Real moments.

Like the time I sent a “perfect” launch email and watched the clicks crawl like a dying snail.

Here’s the difference:

Before:
“Here are three storytelling tips.”

After:
“I once watched a launch email die in real time. Here are the three tweaks that revived the next one.”

Same advice.
Different emotional punch.

Guess which one people reply to?
Guess which one sells?

Pillar 4: Platforms as Stages, Not Silos

When I ran “a business,” every platform felt like a chore.

Instagram had to look pretty.
Threads had to be fast.
TikTok had to be funny.
LinkedIn had to be boring enough for executives.

Now?

Same story told four ways:

Instagram = the feeling
Threads = the belief
TikTok = the moment
LinkedIn = the outcome

This is how you build something people follow everywhere, not something people forget after they scroll.

Here’s your small but powerful tweak for the week

Before you post, ask this:

Where’s the conflict in this story?

Name the messy part.
Name the fear.
Name the moment things weren’t working.

Put that line near the top.

Watch how fast people lean in.

Weekly Prompt

Add one conflict line to your next story.

Then send me your before + after.

I’ll reply with one note to sharpen it.

Till tomorrow,

Stephen “brands beat businesses” Stanberry

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