Storytelling is dead! Do this instead

The ONE Reason most YouTube videos suck is…

Because the editors never aim to improve Video Retention.

YouTube promotes videos that have high Video retention cause they don’t want people to get off YouTube.

The more retention your videos have, the better YouTube promotes them.

And the most important hack that will save your retention?
STORYTELLING.

But wait, why is that dead then?

Storytelling has become the “buzzword” to gaining attraction on social media platforms. It’s hard to find a creator who hasn’t talked about it.

But why?

Humans have a natural attraction to stories, which is deeply embedded in us childhood.

When someone shares a personal experience in an engaging manner, it captures our attention, draws us in and speaks to our emotional brain.

Now you’re probably thinking…

“Okay. Storytelling is the game. Then how is it dead?”

See…

In the past, we used to spend a lot more time playing board games like Chess and Monopoly.

These days?

Half of our day is spent scrolling TikTok.

RIP attention span.

This means capturing the attention of your audience has become a lot harder than before…

“So what do I do Sayujya?”

StoryShowing.

Yes.

Not Storytelling. Storyshowing.

What’s the difference between these two?

Well as the name suggests storytelling is when you narrate the stories, and with a good narration, when you add visuals, it becomes Storyshowing.

How do you actually implement this in your videos?

You Show. Stories. Get it?

No?

Okay. Lemme go deeper.

I’ve used this framework to gain Millions of views for my clients and I can assure you this works.

BUT

You do need to invest time thinking and figuring out answers to the questions that I’ll be giving out the frameworks that will generate the views for yourself.

Let’s talk about a framework that’s gonna help you stick viewers like Gorilla Glue:

Make sure you have a shit ton of b-rolls for your videos

The edit, the pacing, the journey, the sound design even the storytelling won’t be of any use if you didn’t “show” them “Your Journey.”

Okay. Enough primer. Now let’s get into it.

1. Who?
   
   Before you even start creating the video, question yourself who is your target audience.

   
   Answer these questions:

   1. What are they struggling with?

   2. What are they passionate about?

   3. What series, shows, and movies do they love?

   4. What are they afraid of?

   Once you have identified your target audience, you can focus on addressing their pain points and problems in order to make your story more relatable to them.

   
   What would happen if you never did it?

   
   Well, imagine you’re talking about Valorant problems like not getting a gun, to an audience who hates gaming.
   

   You’re gonna lose their interest in the blink of an eye.

   And that’s exactly what we don’t wanna do.
   

2. Hook with Pain

   Now that you know who your target audience is, it’s time to attack their pains.

   Start the story with a pain or a problem they can relate to.

   Let’s say you’re a Fitness Influencer.

   You can say: “I was never able to focus on my diet and I always came back to eating refined food”

   Bam!

   By sharing your experience of facing a similar problem with your audience, you establish a connection with them.

   This connection can lead them to seek out your solution as they feel “Understood” and “Heard”.

   And THAT…eventually builds the KLT (Know Like Trust) factor as they watch more of your videos and keep relating to them.
   

3. Journey Begins

   Now that you’ve hooked them to the problem, it’s time to take them on a journey.

   A journey where they are the main character

   A journey which they want to be a part of but can’t.

   What kind of journey?

   Up to you to decide what kind of journey you want to take the viewer through.

   In the previous example, you took them on a fat-to-fit journey.

   But here’s the ONE problem most people face when creating a relatable and retention-focused journey for the viewer.
   
   It's important to "show" the story instead of just telling it.

   A study by Forbes shows that 91% of consumers prefer visual content.

   This is why videos like "I did this for x days" have become so popular.

   Creators like Matt D'Avella and Brandon William have successfully used this strategy to build their brands and make Millions of dollars using this.

   Now the question is, how do you frame your video in a way where you take your viewers on the journey with you?

   Dan Harmon has the answer with his Story Circle.

   

   Dan Harmon’s Story Circle

   
   All the Hollywood blockbusters from Interstellar to The Dark Knight follow The Story Circle.
   
   Niklas Christl used it and created videos that went viral and reached tens of millions.
   
   His videos like Dopamine Detox and Running a Marathon follow this exact format.
   

   (Reply to this mail if you want a separate newsletter on how can you use the Story Circle to take your YouTube videos to the next level.)

You can’t just open the camera and start talking about the story, you need to go deeper and shoot yourself and your journey.

It’s sure hard, a lot harder than most people can do, and that’s why it works.

Just try watching BTS (Behind the Scenes you know…) of people who are top of the game and You’ll get what goes into making a so-called “Viral” video.

They put in so much effort in their videos and make it seem like it was nothing for them, or you can say “effortless”.

That’s exactly what you need to do as well!

Storytelling with Showing is the best weapon you can use on any social media platform to move at rocket speed.

Like MrBeast says, “It’s better to make one world-class video than 10 good videos” and this is what you should aim for.

And with that…my phone just buzzed telling me I have to write an amazing thread for you guys.

So if you found this valuable let me know if you have any questions.

I’ll respond to each and every one of them.

Until then.

Show Like A Dream
Sayujya Gupta

P.S. Something big is coming soon so keep your eyes peeled.