Most marketers will tell you to think about your customer’s journey as a funnel.

You’ve probably seen it before:

• Awareness — your audience realizes they have a problem or desire. They’re asking, What’s going on here? Why am I stuck?
• Interest — they’re curious, wondering, What’s out there that can help me? Who could help me solve this?
• Consideration/Intent — they’re learning the landscape, evaluating options, and asking, Why should I choose you?
• Evaluation/Decision — they’re ready to buy, but hesitating: Will this really work for me?

You know. Like this:

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It’s a perfectly fine model. But it always felt abstract and disconnected to me—even though I’ve sat on plenty of calls nodding along with fancy marketing departments as they pulled up funnel diagrams.

I’m not a corporate marketer by training. I’m a fiction writer.

So when I tried to wrap my head around funnels for my own business, I turned to the tools I knew: story structure.

Funnels, but make it story

If you’ve ever read a book on plot, you know the basics:

You’ve got a protagonist who starts in a “status quo” world. Something disrupts their life, sending them into struggle and rising action until they finally win their battle and arrive in the promised land.

That’s a plot.

And if you look closely, your customers are on the exact same kind of journey. At first, they’re just noticing the problem. Then they’re searching for solutions. Eventually, they weigh their options, fight through doubt, and—hopefully—end up working with you.

That’s why marketing funnels exist.

But here’s where it often goes wrong: people treat the funnel like a plot—a sequence of external events—instead of a story.

And what makes a story different from a plot is this:

—> In a story, the character changes. It’s about the internal journey, not just the external events.

That’s what makes an audience feel something. And in marketing, that’s what moves people to take action.

What makes a selling story magnetic

In a novel, transformation keeps the reader turning pages. In your business, transformation keeps your audience leaning in, thinking, I see myself in that. I want that shift too.

A good selling story doesn’t just tell people what happened. It helps them feel the internal journey of someone just like them.

That’s what makes it magnetic.

And to tell a magnetic selling story, you need to understand two key dichotomies at the heart of your customer’s journey:

Desire vs. Need

Desire is what they say they want. Need is the deeper transformation they’re actually searching for.

Examples:

• Desire: “I want viral content.” → Need: “I want to connect with buyers.”
• Desire: “I want a boyfriend.” → Need: “I need to heal and love myself again.”

When you show both, your audience feels seen on a deeper level.

Misbelief vs. Truth

Misbelief is the false story keeping them stuck. Truth is the shift they need to make to move forward.

Example:

• If their misbelief is “I’ll never be good at marketing because I’m not creative,” the truth is “Marketing is a system you can learn—creativity grows out of clarity.”

This misbelief/truth dichotomy is critical. If their desire was easy to get, they wouldn’t be looking for you. (And they wouldn’t be forced to understand their actual need.)

Shedding their misbelief and embracing the truth is the only thing that will help them achieve the transformation.

These two tensions—Desire/Need and Misbelief/Truth—create the narrative pull that makes a story irresistible.

Using stories at each stage of the funnel

Once you understand your audience’s journey, you can map stories to each funnel stage:

• Awareness → Stories that make them feel seen. Show their desire/need tension. Origin stories work here.
• Interest → Stories that educate and inspire. Challenge their misbelief gently and point them toward truth.
• Consideration/Intent → Stories that show expertise, values, and results. Customer stories and case studies shine here.
• Evaluation/Decision → Transformation stories. Show someone just like them who overcame the misbelief, embraced the truth, and found their promised land.

At every stage, the story should reflect your audience’s internal journey, not just external events.

This email is just a high-level overview, so stick with me. We’ll dig into all of this more over the next few weeks, and start exploring exactly what kinds of stories to tell at each stage of the funnel.

For now, though, my challenge to you is this:

The next time you sit down to write content, don’t just think in terms of funnels or marketing jargon. Think like a storyteller.

Ask yourself:

• What does my audience desire? What do they actually need?
• What misbelief is keeping them stuck? What truth will set them free?
• How can I show someone’s transformation—internal and external—through story?

When you do this, your content stops feeling so salesy, and becomes a story your audience can step into. A journey they want to continue with you.

Talk soon,

Jessie