A few hours after this founder—let’s call him Femi—hit publish, radio silence followed. Femi’s post managed to get a few likes and a reasonable number of views. But no messages. No leads. No change. 

Femi decided to tweak his next post. Instead of going through the highly analytical route, he chose to share his frustrations using the everyday experiences of Nigeria’s road users. Femi told the story of his last-mile delivery gone wrong. A customer waited for two days. The driver tried three different routes. Costs went through the roof. He shared the photos, the emotions, and finally, the method he discovered for navigating Nigeria’s frustrating transport system. 

Which of the two posts do you think made people connect with him? Which one do you think got him DMs? 

While writing about Femi’s road nightmare, I instantly remembered Onyeka Akumah, founder of Treepz, and it occurred to me that he wasn’t building just another transport app. He was solving his own frustration with unreliable buses in Lagos. 

“I never knew how frightened I would be getting on a 30-year-old bus with torn-out parts and worn-out chairs. I literally had to hold one of the doors throughout the trip to stop it from falling off. That was the day the concept of Plentywaka started,” he told TechCrunch in September 2021. 

His story isn’t abstract. It’s a story every commuter in Lagos knows. By telling that story often,Treepz, through Akumah, built authority. It moves the audience because many can relate.

Bright Simons saw people dying because the medicines they trusted were fake. 

He didn’t just build mPedigree to solve the problem; he shared stories—of people mistrusting medicine, of families losing hope, of pharmacists fearing reputational ruin. 

Why “Move the Audience” Matters

Relevance > Reach: A post seen by 1,000 people who care about your message is more valuable than one seen by 100,000 who scroll past. 

Trust comes from shared reality: When you tell your own stories of pain, challenge, and triumph, your audience knows you’ve felt what they feel. They don’t see you as a brand—they see you as someone who understands. 

3 Practical Ways to Craft Content That Moves

Start with your own frustration — not what you think people want to hear. The real stuff: the things that woke you up in the middle of the night. 

Use anecdotes and specifics — routes, names, numbers. The blood, sweat, and cost of that challenge. Data + story = authority.

Invite the audience in — at the end of your content, ask questions that let them share their similar stories. When readers say “Me too,” you know you’ve moved them.