Nathan Baugh

World Builders

Founder / Writer

Senior Consultant

Clemson University

Tutor

Teach For America

Accelerate Fellow

Consultant → writer. I study the best storytellers ever and share with you what I learn. Writing fiction and writing to 77K storytellers every Saturday. Join us 👇

Founder

Roast my potential book covers. 

What do you like? What don't you like? Which would get you to pick it up off the shelf?

Ghostwriter. Exploring the art and science of storytelling. Debut fantasy novel this fall. Building something new.

A few years ago, I went to a $15 open mic in Austin. First comedy show I’d seen.

Dude gets on stage. The crowd goes nuts. It’s Shane Gillis, one of the most popular comedians in the world.

He pulls out a notebook and a pen, grabs the mic, and starts telling jokes.

When the crowd gives one of those loud, genuine laughs, he jots down a note. When the crowd looks at each other, confused, he jots down a note. When the crowd stares at him, expecting more, he jots down a note.

You get the idea. He’s testing jokes. Making a note of what’s connecting and, even more importantly, what’s not.

Then, I imagine, he cuts or changes the parts that don’t connect. Tests them again another night. And repeats the process until the joke, his story, is tight and compelling throughout.

He made me realize:

This is how you can treat Storytelling, too.

Your story is flexible. You can constantly test, get feedback, improve, repeat. Like Shane, what you’re looking for is moments of connection:

- Your boss starts nodding along.
- Someone leans forward in their chair.
- Your beta reader leaves a great comment.
- There’s a spark of interest in your partner’s eye.

You get the idea. You’re searching for that visceral reaction in your audience. When you see it, you double down.

Stories are iterative.

I've created 2 new landing pages over the last 6 months. One converts horribly while the other converts incredibly well. Some weird stats:

- The horrible converting one is priced at $99.
- The incredibly well converting one is priced at $499.

The obvious answer is an audience mismatch -- people expect story related stuff from me, not 'grow your writing business.'

Sure that matters but let's be real not a <1% to 18%+ jump.

So what's the difference?

Very simply -- I ran the second LP through 🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner's entire Transformational Landing Pages training... and haven't put that effort into the first.

One idea that -- in my opinion -- made the biggest difference:

Fascinations

Eddie says a fascination is "any sentence designed to conjure intense curiosity and compel action, in that order."

Capture the attention, then direct it.

I loved the idea. Loved the entire course.

Eddie's running a crazy BFCM sale. From $999 to $249.

This is my affiliate code, which I'm proud to share: https://lnkd.in/gbKDPAqr

Hands down the most effective course I've taken all year. If you'd like your landing pages to convert more people, it is a no brainer.

PS. Here's the LP that actually converts: https://lnkd.in/gZwScNBr

LinkedIn constantly shocks me how helpful people are. So many people took time to share great feedback on the covers for my novel.

Thank you thank you thank you.

To keep up w the project - just monthly notes - plop your email here for the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gTeaFfwE

Fable

Speaker and Coach

Lingua Nua Consulting

Dr. James McCabe is a European story expert, dramatic writer, as well as a strategy adviser to Flowfactory.

'Lingua Nua' - Returning to the pureness and essence of language - is a boutique story agency specializing in transmedia narratives deploying classical story design from the worlds of drama, fiction and film. 

We function both as school and studio, providing a range of coaching, consulting and creative services including keynote addresses and conference talks, seminars and workshops, primary research and content generation. 

We are experienced in crossing language and cultural borders for a global audience. We bring technology solutions to real life using timeless dramatic and narrative techniques. 

Our suite of services spans journalism, copywriting, speechwriting, ghostwriting as well as script doctoring. Our projects to date have been conducted in Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Britain, Ireland and Austria. 

As new trends in brand journalism, native advertising, gaming and transmedia storytelling gain traction, we develop and deliver a full range of video, graphics and story content. Our mission is to transform traditional marketing and communication into unique Story IP for business leaders, communicators and their agencies.

The Story Doctor

area22

Chief Storyteller

The Story Doctor - Speaker & Author

Dr James McCabe is a pioneer in adopting classical story design from the world of arts to commerce. Classical storytellers such as dramatists, novelists and screenwriters are the professionals when it comes to human attention, because narrative is their only intellectual property. As the commercial world learns narrative IP rules in an attention economy, the opportunity exists for replacing rhetorical devices with narrative ones. Where rhetoric seeks to persuade, narrative seeks to involve - a much deeper connection involving not only hearts and minds but - uniquely - both hemispheres of the human brain. Storytellers know how to transform ideas into feelings so they live on in the audience around them. James is a master in transforming the authority, logic and proof of business rhetoric into the universal empathy, suspense and surprise now required to attract customers, investors, employees and the public. Your enterprise and your career exist between human attention and memory - two resources governed by the narrative faculty.

James McCabe

The perfect illustration for how story propels artistic value, just as it propels product and service value. Now imagine the life of Vincent if the story had accompanied the art simultaneously.

Senior Sales & Business Development Leader | 20+ Years Driving Revenue in SaaS, Technology & International Markets | Bilingual (English/Spanish)

The moment I realized I'd been doing storytelling all wrong.

For years, I knew storytelling mattered. Every sales training, every marketing book, every successful pitch I witnessed—they all hammered home the same point: stories sell.

So I told stories. Lots of them. But here's the uncomfortable truth I had to face: knowing storytelling is important and actually doing it effectively are two completely different things.

I had the raw material—my experiences, my insights, the lessons I'd learned—but without a methodology, I was just... talking. My stories lacked structure. They meandered. They didn't land the way I hoped.

I was missing something critical. Then I met Steve Rawling and 🎴 Charles Burdett, the creators of Storyteller Tactics and Pip Decks. That's when everything changed.

They showed me that storytelling isn't just an art; it's a craft. A learnable, repeatable process. They gave me the frameworks to turn my lived experiences into strategic communication tools.

Suddenly, I wasn't just sharing anecdotes. I was architecting narratives with purpose, impact, and structure.

It was the missing piece in my arsenal—for my entrepreneurial ventures and my professional career alike. Now? I'm ready for showtime.

Want to see masterful storytelling in action?

Watch this brilliant piece by Istok Pavlovic below. He tells the untold story of Johanna van Gogh—the woman who transformed her brother-in-law Vincent from an unknown artist into a legend.

This is what storytelling methodology looks like when it's executed flawlessly. Istok is an absolute master, and his creations are brilliant. 
 
What's been your most significant breakthrough in how you communicate?

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The Battle

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James McCabe

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nathan Baugh's LinkedIn Performance

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