the ONE job you can't outsource (even to AI)
Everyone is a storyteller.
Anybody who tells you otherwise is talking nonsense.
To be human is to tell stories.
Lest you think this storytelling hype cycle is just a 2025 thing, there have been many others.
In 2014, the legendary Stefan Sagmeister published a viral video with a similar message:
He argued that unless you are writing novels or making feature films, you are stealing a title you didn’t earn.
Today, I know plenty of out-of-work novelists, filmmakers, and marketers.
Storytelling, meanwhile, has never been more widespread or in demand.
LinkedIn posts…storytelling.
Entrepreneurship…storytelling.
All-Hands…storytelling.
Investor pitch…storytelling.
Job interview…storytelling.
You get the idea.
Leadership is storytelling whether you like the label or not.
Barbarians At the Gates: Insecurity Disguised as Standards
It feels like a defense of quality. But it’s not.
When someone insists you’re “not a storyteller,” it’s rarely about standards.
It’s about fear. Fear that if storytelling isn’t scarce, their position isn’t special.
They’re threatened. Because if everyone is a storyteller, why would anyone need them?
Here is the truth they don’t want you to know:
To be human is to tell stories. Humans are wired for storytelling.
We don’t store facts. We store meaning. Every experience is encoded as a narrative about what it meant. And what it says about us.
To be a storyteller is an identity frame for describing a basic human function.
Everyone does it, like breathing and having sex. Of course, some do it better than others.
But you don’t have to be a “breatharian” or a “sexologist” to be a great communicator.
The Meta-Skill of Our Times
Where the rubber meets the road for your leadership.
Narrative is the #1 competency required to advance to a C-suite or VP role.
What AI has shown us is that “thinking” is the meta-skill of our times.
You cannot think without telling a story. Narrative is how thinking becomes legible to other people. It’s how you structure thinking. It’s how decisions get made. Investing in a startup. Selling the future. Analyzing data.
You cannot think without words. Organizing them. Choosing them. Editing them.
AI can do a lot of that for you.
But the human interpretive layer is the part that makes anything memorable.
This means Storytelling is no longer a “soft skill.”
It is EVERYBODY’S job description.
And the most important skill to differentiate yourself or your business.
I saw this clearly this week with a client. A technical VP at a massive tech company.
Here’s what they told me:
“Our President DMed me out of the blue to say ‘love your recent posts’
People multiple levels above me are quoting my ideas in planning meetings.
Politically, it’s left people confused. My formal authority doesn’t match my growing visibility.
It’s ok for now. Having an oversized impact with plenty of growing headcount and mandate.”
That’s the power of narrative. It resolves the gap between your official title and your true influence. If you have influence that exceeds your box on the org chart, it is because you told a story that stuck in someone’s head.
This is the ultimate power move.
Are You Putting in the Reps?
So, how do you move from “unconscious narrator” to “conscious storyteller”?
You don’t walk into the gym and bench press 300 pounds on day one.
You start with your life.
If you can’t tell a compelling story about what you ate for lunch, you definitely can’t tell a compelling story about your Q3 strategy.
Here’s a quick start inventory:
What you’re reading: The idea currently rewiring your worldview
What you’re watching: The character whose dilemma feels uncomfortably familiar
What you’re eating: Your ability to describe texture, not just calories
What you’re obsessed with: Where your curiosity goes when no one is paying you
What you’re wrestling with: The friction you’re actively trying to resolve
What you’re a paradox about: The two opposing truths you hold at the same time
This is just some of the surface area for how you metabolize your life.
When you get better at sharing the small stories, the big stories that really matter stop feeling like performance and start feeling like truth.
You Have a Choice
You can let the “experts” shame you into silence because you don’t have the same expertise.
You can continue to outsource your voice, waiting for someone else to tell you what you believe.
Or you can just play your own game.
Next time someone tells you that you aren’t a storyteller, tell them:
“That’s your f-ing story, not mine.”*
*(Of course, you should probably find a more polite way of saying it)
Keep telling stories. It’s the only thing you actually control.
Now, it takes work. It takes practice. It takes reps.
So keep breathing. Keep schtoopin’. And keep storytelling.
Storytelling is hard because to master storytelling is to master life itself.
Here’s a hot take from CES on why the future belongs to the storytellers.
This is the work. I’ll see you in the gym.
Michael
P.S. Some weeks you have to use profanity to get your point across.
P.S.S. Three ways I can help when it’s useful:
If you want a second set of eyes on your narrative, reply and tell me more
If you need narrative architecture, I help founders & operators do just that. Apply for Q2
If you want a storytelling keynote, I do them on a select basis. Let’s talk