One year and two seasons into podcasting, I want to use this final episode of Season 2 to peel back a few curtains in the world of stories and business.

If you’ve got a LinkedIn feed or a TikTok reel or even a Substack account, then it’s hard to miss the blinking red light that indicates the importance for telling stories.

I’ve talked about this before – but it warrants a repeat: When we look at stories through the platform of the bandwagon, then it’s easy to believe that story is the magic bean that we need to plant into the ground if we want it to grow into a beanstalk.

What we forget, however, is that the beanstalk – even if it grows – is going to lead us to some treacherous journeys. We’ve got to fight the giant if we want to claim the treasure.

Storytelling isn't always easy OR natural, and it gets even harder when you tune into and believe these 3 storytelling truths.

Catch this final episode of Season 2 to hear the 3 storytelling truths that you need to forget.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Free guide: How to own your calling and grow your impact

STORYHOUSE is a production of Storyhouse Fifteen, a strategic coaching and branding studio that helps small business owners and do-good organizations find the clarity, the story, and the strategy to reach more people and grow their impact.

Find Lindsay at storyhousefifteen.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

How do you tell stories in a world that's so highly divided?

How do we invite audiences and team members into a brand story when they share different ideas on how the world SHOULD look and think and act?

Even more, SHOULD we be telling stories that seek to pull others into our shared moral understandings?

I think the answer lies in the words of John Milton, and when we lean in and hear what he has to say, I think we might be surprised at the answer we receive.

Mentioned in this episode:

Karen Swallow Prior

John Milton: “He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian.I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised & unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat."

STORYHOUSE is a production of Storyhouse Fifteen, a strategic coaching and branding studio that helps small business owners and do-good organizations find the clarity, the story, and the strategy to reach more people and grow their impact.

Find Lindsay at storyhousefifteen.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

We hear so much about purpose these days -- so much so that people are starting to push back against it.

In this episode of Storyhouse, I talk about where we've gone wrong with purpose, and why understanding the difference between purpose and calling is so important for leaders who are trying to build strong cultures.

A few highlights:

• The differentiating definitions between purpose and calling
• The unearned criticism faced by today's leaders (and when meaning and purpose shouldn't be a leader's responsibility)
• The one thing you can't do with your calling
• How brands like SPANX activate CALLING inside of its brand purpose

STORYHOUSE is a production of Storyhouse Fifteen, a strategic coaching and branding studio that helps small business owners and do-good organizations find the clarity, the story, and the strategy to reach more people and grow their impact.

Find Lindsay at storyhousefifteen.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.