Ft. Park Howell, Thinkific course creator and founder of The Business of a Story
Experts everywhere are grappling with a changing digital world. Park Howell—advertiser, founder of Business of Story, and Thinkific course creator—says that making your online course stand out comes down to effective storytelling.
“Storytelling is critical in online course creation because stories are how we make sense of the madness of being human,” he shares.
Surprisingly, he believes that the art of storytelling hasn’t changed since the Stone Age—even with the rise of AI. “I believe that what separates us from other creatures is our innate ability to plan, organize and act using stories as our ultimate learning tool,” says Howell.
He notes that the digital age isn’t all that different from way back in the Middle Paleolithic era, when humans started to take over—not because we were the strongest, but because we knew how to tell stories.
“If an online course creator wants to hack through the digital noise and hook the hearts of their audience, then the primal power of a structured story is the only vehicle,” he says.
In 2008, Howell created the 10-step Story Cycle system—which acts as the foundation for his online courses—to help businesses drive growth through storytelling. This year, he launched the StoryCycle Genie
Despite adding AI to an innately human process such as storytelling, his perspective on combining the two is unique.
“AI can amplify your voice by replacing the blank page and the blank stare with brilliant inspiration,” he says.
So how do experts leverage technology while still staying human? Howell has five tips to do so:
Skip ahead:
- Learn the two fundamental storytelling frameworks
- Don’t abandon your human creativity
- Be audacious
- Balance brevity and specifics
- Speak from the heart
- Focus on the last 10%
1. Learn the two fundamental storytelling frameworks
So now that we know that storytelling—as a vehicle for making meaning, creating connection, and sharing knowledge—hasn’t changed, experts (like you!) can learn the tools to create the best possible story to relate to your audience.
According to Howell, story frameworks help provide you with a solid foundation. The primal framework is simple, and is called the ABT (and, but, therefore) framework.
He breaks it down this way: You want something, and it matters to you, but there’s something standing in your way, therefore imagine what could happen if you overcome it.
This primal rhythm of desire, tension, and resolution mirrors how we naturally make sense of the world—and, according to Howell, it’s the key to crafting stories that truly connect. “This is the most primal way that our brain makes meaning,” he says.
Maintaining a story framework is what makes human-created content stand out in the age of AI.
“When our brain gets bombarded with AI-driven content that isn’t written with a particular story framework, our uniquely human, subconscious, meaning-making brain will swat it to the side. It knows that it’s inauthentic.”
He believes that to break through the noise of AI into the hearts of your students, you need to understand how and why story frameworks work. “Then, it’s about bringing your own unique, authentic, and authoritative voice into that framework as the chassis to express your story,” he shares.
As well as the ABT framework, he recommends learning Joseph Campbell’s model of a Hero’s Journey. “Every step is essential in helping business leaders truly understand the journey their customers are on, as well as how the brand plays the role of mentor to help the customers get what they want on their journey,” he says.
“But keep it simple, clear and concise,” Howell encourages. “The ABT is the DNA of story and the one tool that will build your narrative intuition to make all of your content land right the first time, every time. Then, you can build on it by sprinkling in little anecdotal stories that make your business points for you.”
By applying these frameworks, Howell has helped businesses nearing bankruptcy grow by 600%—simply because they refined their story and attracted the right audience. “I’ve been on Thinkific for ten years now, and I’ve had tremendous success because I understand how story frameworks work,” he says.
2. Don’t abandon your human creativity
For those who don’t want to compete with AI—and instead want to use it in a way to optimize their human creativity—he has some wisdom to share.
Howell shares that while AI can help you get a basic story created, unless you bring your humanity to the story, no one will believe it. “People know how to sniff out a bot-written story versus a human-written one,” he says. “We just know what’s real and what’s not.”
According to Howell, AI is skilled at giving experts ideas on stories. But unless you use your human creativity to create the story itself, it will come across as inauthentic. His advice: use real-world anecdotes crafted on proven narrative frameworks to show instruction in action.
“Everyone can and oftentimes will argue with the opinions and assertions communicated in your instruction, but they can’t and won’t argue with a true, well-told story that makes your instructional point for you,” he encourages.
“Show, don’t tell,” he continues. “Lead with emotion, and then support your instruction with logic and reason. Most online course creators have it backward, providing they use stories at all.”
3. Be audacious
Howell replaces the commonly used adjective ‘authentic’ with ‘audacious,’ instead.
“Authenticity has become such a buzzword that it’s hard for people to really understand it,” he says. “I want people to be audacious and do crazy, fun, surprising things in your courses that are uniquely human and that AI just doesn’t know how to do because it comes from the bot world.”
He continues, “Be irreverent. Be surprising. Be kitschy. Be funny. Make yourself nervous in your presentation for fear that you think people are going to think you’re dumb, stupid, silly.”
Howell recommends Mark Schaefer’s new book, Audacious: How Humans Win In An AI Marketing World, for inspiration.
The main driver behind his encouragement to be audacious? To have experts do things their way instead of following the herd. “Do something that’s quirky enough to get people’s attention,” he shares.
For example, Howell incorporates Thinkific’s quiz feature in his course. Here, he’ll add some unexpected questions—some of which don’t have anything to do with his course. The purpose? Throw people off-center and have them wonder what he’ll do next; he points out that entertaining your students is crucial. “If you’re not delivering a performance that captures and arouses the attention and curiosity of your audience, you’re boring them—which means you’re going to lose them,” he says.
“You have to think about your course as performance art—that’s where you bring your own unique self, full of jokes and puns and whatever makes you human,” continues Howell. “You want to keep your audience at the edge of their seat, wondering what’s going to happen next—and everything that happens next has a decided educational, strategic, tactical reason for it happening. That’s how you become memorable.”
4. Balance brevity and specifics
Howell believes in “lighting up the theater of the audience’s mind,” and to do that, it’s about balancing brevity and vigor in your story.
“The best storytellers get to the point while still using specificity in their stories, because the power of story rests in the specifics,” he says. “This is what gets an audience viscerally engaged.”
“Great storytellers can read a room, know the frameworks to use, and be brief yet specific in order to get the audience engaged and experience the story as if they were in it,” he says. “That storyteller becomes memorable, engaging, and teaches their audience something useful.”
5. Speak from the heart
When asked what the most successful storytellers have in common—even if they work alongside AI—he replied: “They’re real; They speak from the heart.”
“I don’t want AI to take the risk out of people communicating their true, authentic voice—and I think that’s what’s happening for a lot of people,” he adds.
For him, it comes down to being yourself. “People will buy you before they’ll buy into what you have to offer.”
While putting yourself out there may feel scary, Howell encourages experts to feel the fear—and then do it anyway. “We all have impostor syndrome. People like you because you’re uniquely you.”
6. Focus on the last 10%
AI can take you far when it comes to creating content, but it’s not the finish line. “Typically, AI can get us 80 to 90% of the way there,” says Howell. “Then, we need to bring our human voice to it.”
That final stretch—the last 10%—is where your humanity matters most. “This is where you bring 100% of your creative energy,” he explains. “If your story were a meal, this last 10% is where you add the spices, herbs, and seasoning to turn a good story into a great story.”
According to Howell, this last bit isn’t just an afterthought—it’s everything. It’s where your perspective, vulnerability, and presence transform AI-generated content into something meaningful and memorable.
“AI is a powerful and collaborative tool,” he says, “but it will only take you so far. You still have to show up, bring the rest of yourself, and have the guts to put it out into the world.”
Interested in standing out in the digital landscape in a human-centred way? Don’t wait—sign up for Thinkific for free today.
To read part 1 in this series, click here.
The post Keeping it Human: Standing Out in the Age of AI (Pt. 2) appeared first on Thinkific.
