There’s a frustration occurring that I see in so many brilliant, thoughtful leaders and business owners right now.
You sit down to write a post, to prepare something that gets you visible and actually matters… and nothing comes. The stumbling block is wanting to say it the right way.
So that it’s strategic, optimised and effective. But the overthinking and second guessing lead you to opening more tabs, signing up to more courses and adding more frameworks.
And over time, this builds a belief that maybe you’re not good at articulating yourself, or not able to tell a story that truly connects with your audience.
I have news. And deep down, you already know it.
Storytelling isn’t a modern marketing skill. It’s not something that was invented on LinkedIn. And it’s not something you unlock after your next qualification.
It’s something humans evolved to do long before business existed.
If you zoom out far enough beyond strategy, language as we know it, and even beyond civilisation itself, you’ll find something fascinating.
For millions of years, humans survived above all others because we could communicate, cooperate, and create shared meaning at scale.
Before we had polished words, we had gestures, before frameworks, we had shared experiences. Before we had “content”… we had stories.
Stories helped us build trust, signal safety, share knowledge and belong to something bigger than ourselves.
This was an adaptive advantage.
Which means: Your ability to connect through story hasn’t gone anywhere, and it’s not a new skill you need to learn from scratch. It’s already there!
So why does it feel so hard?
Because somewhere along the timeline we overrode this instinct with performance. We’ve been swept up in constant algorithm shifts, endless new AI tools and pressure to optimise everything.
We have constant noise telling us we’re always one step behind, and we’ve been taught to add more, when what actually creates connection is often far simpler.
You build trust by sounding human. And humans don’t connect through perfectly structured frameworks. They connect through honesty, meaning and shared experience
The same underlying mechanisms we’ve been wired for across thousands of generations. So if you’re facing a stumbling block right now, try asking:
What do I already know, feel, or see… that someone else needs to hear?
If you’re someone who loves going down rabbit holes, who’s curious about why humans behave the way they do, and wants to understand storytelling at a much deeper level than “hooks and frameworks”…
I’ve just released a podcast episode that goes all the way back to where this actually began.
Featuring Marek Kohn and inspired by his book As We Know It — we explore:
how early humans communicated before language
why trust had to exist before words could
how storytelling became part of our evolutionary advantage
and what that means for how you show up today
Start with episode one. Then this one.
If this sparked something… I’d love to know:
When did storytelling start to feel like something you had to “learn”… instead of something you already had?
Listen here https://podfollow.com/words-that-change-lives
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