After everything they’ve seen and felt, your audience now reaches the edge of real transformation.
The Ordeal is where things get personal. Not polished nor performative. It’s the part of the journey where the stakes rise, the doubts deepen, and they choose — again — to stay with it.
Stage 8 of 12 in the Hero’s Journey Framework — a series helping you build story-aligned brands, offers, and content that actually connect.
What is the Ordeal?
In storytelling, the Ordeal is the moment of greatest challenge. It’s the climax of the inner conflict — where the hero must choose to face what they fear most in order to transform.
This is not always loud or dramatic. Often, it’s quiet and internal. It’s the moment a person almost gives up — and chooses not to.
In your brand, the Ordeal is about creating the space for your audience to commit more deeply. To make an emotional investment. To stay with the process long enough to experience a shift.
This is the emotional cost of transformation — and the choice to keep going.
Why It Matters in Your Message
By this point, your audience has made small moves. They’ve taken interest, followed, subscribed, maybe even signed up. But they haven’t yet crossed into full belief.
This is where you:
- Share vulnerable stories from your own turning points
- Highlight moments of struggle inside the transformation
- Bring forward the emotional and identity-level stakes of the journey
How to Use It in Your Brand
Where to use it:
- Launch stories or sales sequences: During a launch, this is where you share the “turning point” — the part of your story (or a client’s) where things almost fell apart, but didn’t. It brings emotional depth to an otherwise strategic sequence.
- Mid-journey email or video content: This refers to content sent after someone’s taken an initial step (like signing up for a waitlist or challenge), but before they’ve fully bought in. Here, you deepen their emotional connection with the work.
- Case studies and testimonials that highlight real struggle: Instead of only featuring polished results, showcase moments where clients struggled and made a decision to keep going. That’s the emotional payoff of the Ordeal.
Tone to aim for:
- Raw, steady, honest
- Grounded in emotion, not drama
What to write:
- A key emotional low point that preceded a shift
- A decision that required trust, risk, or surrender
- The real cost of growth — and what makes it worth it
Prompts to explore:
- “What almost made you give up?”
- “What did it take to keep going?”
- “What shift did you see in yourself or your clients that changed everything?”
Example lines:
- “This is the moment most people walk away. But you didn’t.”
- “You were never doing it wrong — you were doing something brave.”
- “Everything changed when they stopped trying to get it right and started listening to themselves.”
3 Practical Applications
Sales Page Turning Point Section
- Use: “This is where it gets hard — and that’s a good sign.”
- Why it works: Normalizes the discomfort of growth
- How to apply: Place just before or after your offer for emotional resonance
Launch Video or Reel
- Share: “Here’s what almost made me quit — and why I didn’t.”
- Why it works: Builds connection and trust through vulnerability
- How to apply: Keep the focus on emotional honesty, not outcome
Client Testimonial or Case Study
- Highlight: “They almost stopped right here.”
- Why it works: Shows transformation is earned, not handed out
- How to apply: Emphasize process and turning points, not perfection
Questions to Reflect On
- What’s the hardest choice your audience will have to make?
- Where do most people give up — and why?
- What’s the emotional payoff of pushing through?
- How can you help them trust the process without pretending it’s easy?
Final Thought
The Ordeal is the turning point, where belief is earned, resilience is tested, and emotional trust deepens.
Continue the series → Stage 9: The Reward
Explore how to highlight small wins and signal what becomes possible on the other side.
