Confusion Isn’t a Strategy: Create Success By Controlling Your Narrative | EP 19

Episode Title: Confusion Isn’t a Strategy: Create Success By Controlling Your Narrative

Episode Summary:
If people can’t explain what you do in five seconds, they’re not “still warming up”… they’re gone. In this episode, Jonathan breaks down a simple narrative control playbook to help you get clear, build trust faster, and stop competing on price. You’ll learn how to write a sharp “I help” statement, set narrative pillars so content gets easier, and create weekly narrative assets that act like receipts for your brand. Plus, how to handle messy moments and brand hiccups without making it worse.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why clarity speeds up sales (and confusion kills momentum)
• How narrative control makes you a category of one
• The “I help” statement formula that makes your value instantly obvious
• The 3 narrative pillars that guide your content: POV, Process, Proof
• How to create one narrative asset per week (so your brand has receipts)
• What to do in a crisis: name it, own it, anchor what happens next
• Simple homework to clarify your narrative this week

Key sound bites:

• “Clarity speeds up sales.”
• “Be truthful and honest in crises.”
• “Confusion is not a brand strategy.”

Episode chapters:

• 00:00 Owning Your Narrative
• 00:51 The Importance of Clarity in Sales
• 02:05 Establishing a Unique Position
• 04:42 Crafting Your “I Help” Statement
• 05:25 Defining Narrative Pillars
• 06:54 Creating Narrative Assets
• 09:17 Handling Narrative Crises
• 12:21 Homework for Narrative Control

Homework (do this after you listen):

1. Write your “I help” statement and make it pass the 5-second test.
2. Choose your 3 narrative pillars:
   • POV: what you believe that changes how people think
   • Process: how you do what you do
   • Proof: results, receipts, transformations
3. Post one narrative asset this week (client win, behind-the-scenes, belief flip, or mini case study).
4. DM Jonathan your “known for” statement and he’ll tell you if it’s clear.

Connect with Jonathan:

• Follow/subscribe to The Story Lab
• Leave a rating + share this episode with a friend who’s ready to stop sounding like everyone else
• DM Jonathan your “I help” statement for a quick clarity check

Keywords/SEO tags:
narrative control, storytelling, personal branding, clarity, messaging, sales, marketing, content creation, brand strategy, narrative pillars, crisis management, reputation management

Transcript

Why Your Narrative Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today, we're talking about the importance of owning your own narrative. Those things that people say about you, how can you control those by building your own narrative, sharing your own story, and connecting with people by providing clarity, repeating your message, and providing proof that you are who you say you are. So today that's what we're talking about because we know that we want to help you make your story the one that we remember. And this is how we do it.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

This is the kind of all righty.

Four Reasons To Control Perception

Crafting Your Known-For Statement

Content Pillars: POV, Process, Proof

Weekly Narrative Assets That Convince

Crisis Playbook: Name, Own, Anchor

Homework And Clear Next Steps

Closing And Listener Support

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Excellent. Welcome to another episode of the Story Lab. My name is Jonathan Howard. I'm the um owner of Success on Social and the host here of the Story Lab, where we help you make your story the one they remember. Today we are talking about owning your narrative. And the first few things I'm going to talk about is why it's so important to own your narrative. And then I'm going to give you kind of a narrative control playbook that helps you do three things, help you manage what you're putting out there. So I want to share three, maybe four reasons why it's so important for you to control your narrative. And the first one is clarity speeds up sales. When you're clear about who you are, what you do, and why you do it, that's going to help people trust you faster. And that's going to allow you to show up and be the person that they trust. Number two, you're not competing on price anymore. When you have a strong narrative, when you're putting out really strong pieces of content that speak to who you are, what you do, what you value, all of those things, when you have those strong pieces of content, you become a category of one business, somebody that does something that nobody else does in a way that nobody else does it. And when you're doing that, you're not competing on price anymore. You're putting yourself out there and you are the person that they can trust, the person that they know to go to, the person that is that category of one for them. So whenever they have that problem that you're you talk about, they're going to you to solve it. And the third reason, and then I'll have an extra bonus one there for you, is consistency gets easier. When you're controlling the message that you're putting out there, when you're reinforcing your story, when you're really putting out the same thing over and over again, your content becomes easy. It's just going to be reinforcing what you do. It's just going to be saying what you do and how you do it and why it matters to them. So there's also the fourth one. Now, in this fourth one, we don't like to talk about. But if something comes up, there's a problem, your brand hits a hiccup or does something that maybe isn't the best thing. When you control the narrative, when you're out in front of the story, when you are speaking to something that you did wrong, you can control that narrative by automatically being the first to talk about it, being the first to admit it, sharing that you have done this, but you've got a solution, or you've come up with a solution, or you apologize for a mistake you made. Controlling the narrative and being the first person out allows you to really have a much stronger presence and impact on what people think about you. So let's talk about how you can control the narrative. Number one, write and be very clear about what you're known for. Write down your known for statement. This is your I help statement. This is the thing that you want people to think about you. Think about your legacy. What do you want it to be? Who do you help? How do you help them get results without what pain? And what is their impact of that on their lives? So let's start with an example or two. Something you could write. I help burned out service providers get consistent leads without posting every day so they can grow without living online. So see how that works. It's I help people do something so they get the result without a pain that they're feeling so that they can have a better life. When you're clear about that, when you have that clear narrative that people can take away, they understand it and they know what you can do for them, and they're more willing to actually buy in if they've got this problem. Another one would be I help coaches turn their story into client attraction into a client attraction system without sounding like everybody else, so that they can be recognized and booked. That says very clearly what I help people do so that they can get something that they want, a better life, a better identity, a better system, whatever it is you're providing them with that. Now, if you have this takeaway, this what you want to be known for statement, then it makes it very clear what you should be creating content about and how you should be creating it so that people get to know you for that specific thing. That's controlling the narrative in the sense of you're saying what you want to be known for. If people can't read it and understand what you do in five seconds, you need to rewrite it. You need to be super clear about what you do and how you do it and what their outcome is. That's how you start controlling the narrative because then you will be starting to be known for that one thing. And keep in mind, this can be part of your legacy. This is the thing that you want to be known for. I personally want to be known for helping people show up on social media so they can reach their clients, but really so they can make an impact on this world. I talk about stories because I want people to make an impact on this world. And they can do that through their business and helping people by sharing what they what they've experienced, what they know. So the second thing in this in this really narrative control playbook is your pillars. You need to know what you want to be known for, and you need to have things that you talk about that fall into several pillars. One pillar is your point of view, what you believe that changes how people think. What is it that you do that's different? What is it that you believe that helps people think differently? What is your point of view that really is focused on what makes you special? For me, again, I talk about having to be yourself on social media, being yourself, showing up as yourself, sharing your story, connecting with your people based on being a real ass human. That's my POV. All my content fits into that POV. Or it fits into the process, which is how I do what I do, the different things that I include in my process, the 90-minute content engine, the establishing your own consistency, all of those are part of the process and what I how I do what I do. And I share those so people understand how I do things differently. What I do differently is my point of view, how I do it is my process. And then I need a pillar that includes proof, results, examples, receipts, transformations. You know, Chef Victoria accomplished this after she did this, and Mimi accomplished this after she did this. These are people that I work with that I can provide value, I can show what they appreciate about my program, what they're doing that's helping them move forward. So then each post strengthens my narrative. It's not noise, it actually works to strengthen my narrative and it helps people understand what I do. All right. Third takeaway. Third thing you can do to really solidify your narrative and make sure that you're controlling it. Build one narrative asset per week. Now, what does this mean? This means that when you have proof of something working, people are going to be more likely to buy it. So pick something each week to create content around that proves that you know what you're doing. So pick maybe a client story with a really great win or a client story where they got to the next level of your program and what happened after that. Be very, very specific about this. You want to be very clear and specific about what you're doing and how you're proving it. The more details, the more believable it is. You can do a behind the scenes. So you can show how you do something. So this is speaking to your process, and it shows that you know how to do something and you're helping them do it, and you're showing them what you're doing. So behind the scenes proves that you know what you're doing. You can also do uh a story about what they used to think and what they think now. What is the change and how do they arrive at that change? Something like a belief flip story. What do they used to believe before they started working with you and what do they believe now? And how do they arrive at that belief change? Show the details of where how they got there. And then, of course, you could do a mini-case study post. You could talk about something that some happened in your in your program, in your coaching with another client, and do a mini case study that's going to show what is going on and give the details. So here's a prompt that you can use that might help you get kind of started with this. Start with something like here's what my client believed before. Dot dot dot. Let's share what they believed. Then share, here's what we changed. Here's a thing that we made that was different, here's a belief change that happened, here's something that moved stepped forward, and then here's what happened after. This is where you landed after. And that change how it helped them. So using something, a simple prompt like that is gonna help you actually reach your reach your clients and provide that proof. We want to create one proof piece each and every week. Let's just say something happens and something goes wrong. What do you do? How do you control your narrative in that messy moment? And this is what I truly believe. This is the area where you need to believe in yourself, you need to know what you do, and you need to know that your system, the way that you do things, is right. Now, if you have come across something and it goes wrong, name what the problem is. What happened. Own your part in that problem. Say what you did. Do not try to hide what you did. Do not try to provide part of the story. Own your part of the story and say, This is what I should have done differently. If you need to apologize, you apologize. If it's something that happened in your life and is not going to change, own up to it. But you've got to own your part. When you're controlling the narrative, you need to be the first person that that speaks on it, and you need to be a hundred percent open and honest about it. And then anchor the narrative in what you're gonna do going forward and what you stand for, what you truly believe, what you know is true, what you are doing, how you're changing what happened this in this current situation, and how you're going to step forward. You want to control the narrative. When things go wrong, things go wrong, and they can go terribly wrong, and you can lose your business over it. And we don't want that to happen. We want you to be able to say this is what happened. I hear your concern, you're right about this when this happened. I was wrong. Then you're gonna own your part and say what you should have done differently. And then anchor in the narrative of how you're gonna move and work your business going forward. Now, a couple things. If you lie here, you're gonna get caught in the lie. You're gonna get caught in the lie, and people are going to probably destroy you for it. Don't lie. You don't want to get caught in a lie. If you if something happened that's so terribly wrong and there's no way out of it, own it. And if your business loses, your business loses. It's something that happened and there's nothing you can do about it. But whenever possible, be truthful, be honest, get in front of the story, let people know what's going on. If it's something that you can say before something comes out, maybe you should look at what the benefit of saying that is. I know that I've talked about a lot of my issues, things that have happened in my life, my attacks, me being gay, other issues that I've spoken about them. So people can't own that narrative on me because I've spoken about it. Just keep in mind if things go wrong, you gotta name it, you gotta own your part, and you gotta anchor it in the narrative of what you're gonna be doing better as you go forward. All right. Those are some things that you can do to really control your narrative and understand how to control your narrative if something happens that goes wrong. I'm gonna give you a quick little bit of homework, and then we're gonna wrap it up because you know what? I want you to be able to make your story the one they remember, and that doesn't involve listening to me talk on this podcast for hours. So I want you to do some simple homework when you when you're done listening to this. Write your I help, your I want to be known for statement, the thing that you want to be known for. Write that out. Choose your POV pillar, your process pillar, your proof pillar, and what types of content you're gonna put out in that. And then post one narrative this week. One narrative that's gonna help you prove that you are you are what you say you are. Confusion is not a brand strategy. Clarity is. So you're gonna get these things done, and you know what? We're gonna make your story the one that you remember because you are an amazing person. You are gonna be able to be very clear about what you do, and you understand what you need to do to prove that you are just as good as you are. So thank you for listening to another episode of the Story Lab. I hope this was valuable. Make sure if you haven't already, go over to your favorite platform and give us a rating and maybe share with a friend so that somebody else can get the benefit of this podcast. And I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Story Lab. Take care.