A Guide To Personal Brand Storytelling That Resonates

Feb 28

Written By Cyndi Zaweski

Who’s your favorite content creator?

Do you need to be “hooked” before you check out their posts?

Or does your thumb just stop instinctively to hear what they have to say?

We all have those creators we stop our scroll for.

Their posts pop up, and you know they’re worth your time.

Those people aren’t fighting for your attention. They don’t have to.

Because when you see yourself in their content, you stop everytime—regardless of the hook.

It’s not rocket science. It’s not persuasion.

And it’s not something you can’t do—starting today.

Let’s dive into how to get consistent engagement with storytelling.

Persuasion Is For People Who Need To Prove Themselves

Ever feel like you’re constantly proving you know your stuff?

Like no matter how well you explain, people just… scroll past?

That’s persuasion. And persuasion is exhausting.

It’s a constant game of catch and release.

Catch attention with a hook.

And off they go, after they get your unpaid expertise, of course.

We’re told the answer is post more.

But if your message isn’t sticking, then that’s what you’ll always have to do to stay top of mind.

After a decade-plus of writing content, one thing I know for sure is:

Fighting for attention is a losing battle.

Because there’s always another distraction.

Another trend. Another hot creator-of-the-moment.

But when people see themselves in your work, they’ll come back—no matter what trends.

Resonance Keeps You Relevant

There’s a psychological reason for this…

It’s called resonance.

No one likes feeling ‘sold to.’

The moment someone senses persuasion, they put up a wall.

They resist. They argue (even if they would have agreed before).

Resonance is different. It doesn’t even try to convince.

It works by making people feel understood.

When something resonates, people feel it.

Their reaction isn’t logical first, it’s emotional.

This is the foundation of how storytelling works.

When you see something that resonates, you think things like:

✅ “This is exactly what I needed to hear.” (Perfect timing. Feels like it was written for you.)

✅ “How did they get inside my head?” (It puts words to something you’ve felt but never articulated.)

✅ “I thought I was the only one.” (You feel seen and instantly understood. It’s the root of deep connection.)

✅ “I’ve never heard it explained this way before.” (A fresh perspective shifts how you think about the problem.)

Subconsciously this plays out as “I know, like, and trust this person.”

And we know where that leads: interest, engagement, sales—for the long haul.

So how do you do it in real life?

StoryCraft Storytelling Framework

This week’s storytelling prompts are for writing stories that resonate with the right people so you don’t have to convince people you’re worth their time and attention, they’ll just feel it in their bones. Here’s how:

🔹 Write down a thought you keep coming back to.
Not something polished—just a raw observation.
💬 “I feel like I have to prove I know what I’m talking about.”

🔹 Describe the moment when that thought hit you.
Give a real-life example so people feel it.
💬 “I spent an hour writing a valuable post. Someone else wrote ‘Mondays are hard’ and got 100 comments.”

🔹 Name the real problem.
Say what’s actually happening beneath the surface.
💬 “It’s not that people ignore great content. It’s that they engage when they feel seen.”

🔹 Shift the perspective.
Give them words for what they already know but haven’t put into words.
💬 “It’s not that people don’t care about your message. They just don’t see themselves in it.”

That’s it. That’s resonance.

And it’s why some creators never have to chase attention.

If you want to tell stories that don't need to fight for attention, my Short-Form Storytelling Course breaks it down step by step with frameworks and templates.