Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that’s me) shares one way to be happier and more effective at work — and build a career or company you love.
Everyone tells you to make “content” — newsletters, social posts, videos, and more.
Doesn’t it feel exhausting and draining?
Here’s the solution: Stop making content — and start telling stories.
That may sound like a semantic difference, but it’s not.
Content is a thankless task. You pump it out, like widgets on an assembly line.
Stories are our natural way of connecting. Great stories get attention and build trust — and that trust leads to new customers, bigger jobs, and deeper relationships.
Stories are also the most under-appreciated and important part of communication — and most creators use them wrong.
That’s because stories can be intimidating. So today, I’ll tell you where to find great stories, how to use them most effectively, and how to improve your “content” (lol) to get the attention you deserve.
Why “content” is so harmful
First, let me admit my bias: I despise the word “content.”
I use it sometimes, because there’s no better alternative. But I think it’s demeaning. Content is bland and colorless. It flattens all forms of communication — because when a lovingly crafted essay is “content”, and an AI-written tweet is also “content”, then why bother making great things? The word encourages mediocrity.
So how do you rise above? How do you create something that captures people?
First, stop thinking of your work as content. Nobody wakes up in the morning excited to “consume content” — so if you want to make things that people love, you need to think about what they (and you!) will genuinely love.
Maybe you’re making a newsletter, a blog, a LinkedIn post, a presentation, a sales pitch, a video, or just a friendly email. Either way, you should use…
My three-step formula for communication
Here’s how I structure almost everything I make:
- Identify a relatable problem
- Tell a compelling story that illuminates the problem and/or solution
- Create a useful exercise, so that the solution becomes practical
The first and last parts are obvious: You hook people with a relatable problem, and you help them with a useful exercise.
But the story holds it together. Stories are memorable, because our brains naturally love narrative. Stories also create space for your audience: They might imagine themselves in the story you tell, or want to learn from the people you tell stories about.
To be clear: A story can be anything, so long as it’s colorful and human. It can be a quick anecdote or a lengthy tale. It can be about you or someone else. There are no rules.
To see examples of how I use this formula, just look at some of my past newsletters…
- This was about the downsides of chasing success, brought to life by stories about a century-old inventor and Malcolm Gladwell
- This was about ending relationships, brought to life by a story of me getting fired
- This was about increasing productivity, brought to life by a story about Notion’s CEO, and another about my own productivity struggle
Now that you know the formula, the next step is…
Where to find great stories
People often ask me: “Where do you find your stories?”
The answer is: I don’t find them. I collect them.
Starting right now, think of yourself as in constant story-collection mode. You can collect stories all day, every day — because they’re all around you! Did someone say something interesting in a meeting? Did you just help a client? Were you asked a good question?
WRITE IT DOWN. USE IT LATER.
If anything made you curious, excited, confused, or anxious, then it might have the same effect on your audience. This is a story to tell.
This is what I do. As I interact with people throughout my day, I’ve trained myself to always wonder: “Is that a good newsletter topic? Or maybe a good social media post?” Then I add it to a running list on my phone.
But what do I actually do with these stories? Well…
Next, make the story useful
Your stories must drive toward a lesson, reveal an insight, or contain a truth. You must be able to say: “Here’s why this happened, and here’s why it’s relevant to you.”
That’s why I always ask myself: “What is the point of this story?”
The answer isn’t always clear. Sometimes it requires research — but that research can take all forms. Here are four ways to do it:
- Discuss with friends. If a story is on my mind, I often weave it into conversation — and my friends’ responses can become ah-hah moments.
- Search online for backstory. Facts are sorta interesting. Explanations are very interesting. So if something seems interesting, go find the backstory!
- Ask follow-up questions! Did someone say something interesting to you? Dig deeper with them. You’re seeking to understand why they made the decision they made. Ask things like: “What were you thinking when…” and “What problem were you trying to solve by…”
- Track someone down! Want to understand something? Call an expert. Want to know why something happened? Call the person involved. You will be shocked at how responsive they are.
Once you start chasing your curiosities, you’ll discover things you’d have never expected. You’ll learn more. You’ll have more to share. And you’ll just have fun — which is what storytelling should be all about.
Lastly, remix your stories
Maybe you’re thinking: This all sounds really time-consuming!
It’s true, good storytelling takes time. But get this:
Once you have a lot of stories, you can remix them in endless ways.
I do this all the time. I’ll start with a new observation, and then connect it to stories that I’ve told in the past. Or I’ll stumble upon a new story, and then make it meaningful with an insight I learned long ago.
Great stories can also travel: You can use a story in multiple formats, for multiple purposes. My stories might start in this newsletter, but then evolve into podcasts, keynote talks, book chapters, or more.
How it all comes together
Let’s use last week’s newsletter as an example.
Quick recap: I opened by writing, “When you relentlessly chase one goal, you struggle. But when you embrace uncertainty, you achieve. Why is this?” Then I told the story of a scientist from 1925, who predicted life in 2025. Then I connected it to a quote from the 13th century poet Rumi and advice I got from Malcolm Gladwell.
Where did all this stuff come from?
In truth, it was a mishmash of work from across many years.
Step 1: Finding the story. This 1925 “prediction” idea wasn’t new. I once hosted a history podcast, and learned how to search through newspaper archives. Back in 2021, I found a bunch of funny predictions from 1921 — and wrote a viral article based on them. I repeated the trick in 2023, making a podcast about predictions from 1923. So I decided to try it again, looking for 2025 predictions from 1925.
Step 2: What does it mean? I found a great prediction from 1925, then did a little research. But what was the point? Why tell you about this prediction? I toyed around with a few ideas, then realized: This is really a story about how poorly we predict the future. That reminded me of…
Step 3: The remix. At the end of 2023, a newsletter reader sent me that Rumi quote. At the time, it reminded me of something Malcolm Gladwell had told me in 2018. So back then, I put the two together into a short end-of-year newsletter. As I wrote this new newsletter in 2025, I dug up that old newsletter, re-used chunks of it, and turned it into something fresh.
The result: It felt new to readers, but was easy and efficient for me to write.
Here’s the point of all this
Content is a thing to produce. Stories are a way to connect.
Treat your audience like you’d treat yourself. Do you like half-baked content? Do you want stuff made by AI? No, you don’t — because you’re a real, intelligent, curious human being, whose time deserves to be valued.
Your audience is the same as you. Treat them like respect. Produce the things that you’d want to read. This takes time — but the more you do it, the faster you’ll get, and the more people will consume your work, trust you, and want to work with you.
That’s how to do one thing better.
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