How has your storytelling strengthened community, inspired collaboration, or built connections? Please share a link to your work.

My most impactful storytelling happens when I help someone exchange a story of personal failure for one of unrecognized strength. Many people with ADHD grow up with a narrative that they are lazy, broken, or not trying hard enough. That story is isolating and deeply damaging. I work to replace it with a new one: "You have a Ferrari engine for a brain, but you were given bicycle brakes." This simple analogy instantly changes everything. The problem is no longer a personal flaw but a mechanical mismatch. It reframes the struggle from "What's wrong with me?" to "What tools do I need to handle this powerful engine?" This new story builds a powerful connection, first with oneself. It allows people to see their creativity, energy, and intelligence as the features they are, not bugs. It also builds community by giving parents, teachers, and partners a clear and empathetic way to understand the person they care about, inspiring collaboration on strategies rather than conflict over symptoms. You can see more of my work on reframing mental health topics here: https://www.acespsychiatry.com/2024/04/20/mysteries-of-adhd/

Our internal social media platform has transformed how our employees connect by giving them a space to share personal and professional stories. This storytelling initiative created unexpected bonds as staff discovered shared interests through their posts, leading to spontaneous collaboration on community service events and other activities. Unfortunately, as this was an internal platform for our employees, I cannot share a public link to this work, but the results in workplace morale and team cohesion have been remarkable.

Our team developed a recent narrative which assisted a local cooperative bakery to restore customer trust following a pricing dispute. The team conducted baker interviews while capturing their early morning dough preparation process to create a story that followed the bread-making process from start to finish. The article generated numerous comments which resulted in a neighborhood potluck event that brought in 22% more customers throughout that month. The physical act of bread kneading through human hands creates stronger connections between people than any discount promotion would achieve. The complete story appears on our website at https://zaturn.com/stories/cooperative-bakery-turnaround.

At Vericast, I launched a video blog series called Keeping Up with Kevin to support a new solution launch and simplify complex, evolving regulations for our target market. By turning subject matter expertise into approachable storytelling, we built significant pipeline increased our SMEs' LinkedIn connections by 22% and profile views by 110%. More importantly, the series positioned us as a trusted provider in a new market and laid the foundation for future content initiatives that strengthened both community and brand authority. Learn more about me and my work at brandybmortonmarketing.com.

I've found that authentic storytelling has been the cornerstone of building meaningful connections with our customers. By sharing not just our successes but also our failures through behind-the-scenes content, we've been able to humanize our brand in ways that traditional marketing simply cannot achieve. This approach to transparency has made our company more relatable and trusted, which has significantly strengthened our community of loyal customers who feel personally connected to our journey.

Storytelling has been a cornerstone for building meaningful connections and fostering collaboration in corporate learning. By weaving real-world scenarios, employee experiences, and industry insights into training programs, it encourages teams to engage, share perspectives, and solve challenges collectively. This approach has consistently strengthened learning communities, making knowledge more relatable and actionable while inspiring cross-functional collaboration. Examples of these initiatives and their impact can be explored here: https://www.edstellar.com/corporate-training