The One Thing We Can All Agree On—100%

There are a few things in life we all agree on. Pineapple on pizza? Divisive. The Oxford comma? Controversial. But scammers? Everyone hates scammers.

A close friend of mine recently got scammed. One minute, their account was fine; the next, it was emptier than a post-modern poetry reading on a Friday night.

Thankfully, they got their money back after a stressful few days and some serious back-and-forth with the bank. But the experience left them rattled—and me down a rabbit hole of scam-busting content. Determined to understand how these scams work.

That’s when I discovered Jim Browning. He is the internet’s answer to Batman if Batman’s arch-nemeses were scammers. Jim Browning doesn’t just expose scammers; he scams them. He hacks into their systems, watches them in real-time, and sometimes, in a glorious turn of events, even shuts them down.

I watched Jim Browning’s videos for hours. They are riveting. Not just because justice is being served but because Jim understands storytelling.

There’s something at stake. The victims aren’t just losing money; they’re losing security, trust, and sometimes life savings.

High stakes = high tension. Ruthless scammers? Check. The victims – innocent people we care about? Triple check

A hero we root for. Jim isn’t just exposing scammers; he’s fighting back, making every video feel like a heist movie.

The lesson? Your story needs stakes. If nothing is on the line, no one cares. Whether you pitch an idea, give a speech, or write an email, ask yourself: What’s at stake? If the answer is ‘not much,’ it’s time to dial it up.

In business storytelling, you (hopefully) don’t deal with criminal gangs or shadowy underworld figures—unless you count Janet from accounting, who went rogue after one too many ‘urgent’ budget revisions and now operates strictly off the grid.

But stakes still matter.

Let’s say you’re pitching a new product. If your pitch is just, “Look, we made this cool thing. Buy it.” Yawn. No tension, no stakes, no sale.

But what if you frame it like this?

“Our client, Sarah, was drowning in spreadsheets, manually tracking 500 invoices with a system that was basically held together with duct tape and hope. She was pulling all-nighters, missing payments, and considering a career change to llama farming…”

Now, there’s something at stake—Sarah’s sanity, her business, and maybe even her newfound llama obsession. People lean in when there’s tension, a challenge to overcome, or a dramatic shift at play.

So next time you’re crafting a business story, ask yourself: What’s at stake? Because even if you’re not battling cybercriminals, your audience still craves a story worth caring about.

Now, excuse me while I go watch just one more video…