Edutainment Storytelling
Win attention by being educational and entertaining — and get trained to do it.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 78%
Shukla found he had far more success talking about things unrelated to SEO than talking about SEO itself — personal stories are of the utmost importance. He points to Gary Vaynerchuk, who is as much an entertainment figure as a motivational speaker, neither of which directly relates to what his business does. Shukla calls the goal 'edutainment': content that is both educational and entertaining, ideally with a segue back to your value. His key leverage point: most marketers are untrained storytellers, so paying for storytelling training — a book, audio, video, or a course — becomes a huge differentiator as everything moves to video and audio.
Origin
Shukla noticed his non-SEO, personal-story content consistently outperformed his expert content, and framed the pattern as 'edutainment' — a trainable storytelling edge in a field full of untrained storytellers.
Core principles
- 01Personal stories outperform pure niche/technical content.
- 02Content must be both educational and entertaining — 'edutainment'.
- 03Most marketers are untrained storytellers, so training is a real edge.
- 04As everything moves to video and audio, storytelling becomes the core skill.
How to run it
- 1
Lead with personal stories
Prioritize personal stories over pure sector expertise — they connect and travel further than niche content.
Pro tip Shukla got more traction talking about anything but SEO than talking about SEO.
- 2
Blend education with entertainment
Make every piece both useful and enjoyable — the 'edutainment' standard.
Pro tip Study Gary Vaynerchuk as an entertainer-plus-educator whose persona outruns his business category.
- 3
Segue back to your value
Find the bridge between the entertaining story and what you actually offer, so attention converts.
- 4
Get trained in storytelling
Pay for storytelling training — read the book, get the audio, watch the video, take a course — to outclass the untrained majority.
Pro tip A little training is a huge differentiator because most marketers have none.
Watch out As media shifts to video and audio, untrained storytelling becomes an increasingly visible weakness.
In the wild
Shukla cites Vaynerchuk as someone people plug into because he's an entertainment figure as much as a motivational speaker — neither of which directly relates to what Vaynerchuk Media actually does.
→ The entertainment-plus-education persona builds an audience far larger than the underlying business category would attract on its own.
Common mistakes
Being a single-sector specialist only
Talking exclusively about your niche limits reach; personal stories and entertainment pull in audiences that pure expertise can't.
Skipping storytelling training
Most marketers stay untrained storytellers, so the ones who invest in real training gain an outsized, easy-to-capture edge.
Is it for you?
Best for
Experts and marketers who want their content to stand out as media moves to video and audio.
Not ideal for
Purely transactional or reference content where entertainment adds no value.
From the transcript
“I have had a lot more success by speaking about things that don't relate to SEO than I ever have by talking about SEO.”
“Something that I'm beginning to call like edutainment, that you need to be educational but you need to be entertaining.”
From the episode
Deepak Shukla: Ranking No.1 In Life & On Google
Deepak Shukla