The Infinite Possibilities of A Storytelling Mindset

Last week’s #BusinessGateway event on Marketing was a valuable reminder of your USP as a small business – it's you. Sometimes, putting down your market analysis and just being yourself is enough.

I wrote a blog last year about the transformative power of storytelling and creativity, looking at the Wizard of Oz as a template and the magical world of L. Frank Baum.

The blog was aimed at individuals, but the advice lands nicely for businesses too.

This is the business version.

When Dorothy's house is whisked into the air in L. Frank Baum's The Wizard Of Oz (1900)?it leaves behind a scorched and lifeless landscape in Kansas. The dull repetition of colourless days has bled into the land and the hearts of those around her.

In the 1939 film version, Dorothy has a different problem. No one is taking her seriously. No one cares about her fight with the influential Miss Gulch and the threat to Toto. Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and even the farmhands are too busy to lend her their ears.

Sound familiar? A grey, unchanging landscape of days stretched out in front of you, where weekdays blend into one another, and the stories and the to-do list remain unchanging.

Or are you struggling to capture the attention of others? No one is listening. No one has time to read your Linked In post properly or respond to your brilliant new idea.

Maybe you’re trapped in a world that seems unchanging, but at the same time, we’re all too busy with the status quo to stop and listen to one another.

You can't change what others decide to listen to or act on, but you could try a new storytelling mindset as an antidote to bland days.

L Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum, born in 1856 in New York State, knew a thing or two about changing worlds — he had more than a few different lives before he started writing The Wizard Of Oz.

Kicked out of military college, he failed to graduate from high school, and it wasn’t until he was age 40 that he started writing down his Wizard of Oz stories.

Baum spent a lot of time cultivating his imagination as a youngster and throughout his life.

In ‘Baum’s Bazaar’, a retail store he opened (in Aberdeen! Alabama) and one of his failed ventures, he would receive crowds of youngsters who would turn up after school every day to hear his fantastic tales.

These children forecasted his future; they saw the genius of a storyteller he would become-?The Literary Traveller.

Baum had that most valuable tool for creative writers, a curiosity about people’s inner stories.

His journeys exposed him to different characters, and while he suffered a few financial disasters, he maintained faith in people’s ability to transcend their circumstances.

Baum’s template for storytelling is also a good template for life or business changes when the landscape looks bland. Below are a few top takeaways for onboarding a storytelling mindset.

1: Leaving The Metaphorical Home

First, you've got to get out of the metaphorical house.

Make a change to a new realm where different ideas, people and conversations dwell. New walls, a new garden, perhaps no roof. A new way of thinking.

David Hume, Scottish Enlightenment Philosopher, believed that?‘ideas come from impressions’?— they don’t just float up out of nowhere.

As impressions are senses to the world, staying in the same place all the time is sure to dull them. Likewise, adventure rarely knocks on your door if you’re in a dreary state of mind.

So if you're sitting in front of your laptop or at your desk looking for inspiration, you are searching in the wrong place.

From the moment Dorothy leaves her house in the new world of Oz, her senses are on overdrive. Her transformation has commenced.

The little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sights she saw -Baum, p7.

2: Setting Yourself A Quest

Sometimes your quest only becomes evident once you’ve left the house; other times, it makes you leave the house. The two steps are interrelated.

A quest, a search for something, will always put you on the path of adventure. Sometimes you get what you want; other times, you get what you need, rarely both, but at least one, opening up your imaginative space.?

The imagination is a powerful tool.

Imagination had given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that daydreams with your eyes wide open are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. —Frank Baum,?Literary Traveller.

It’s only through having a well-articulated quest or purpose that Dorothy can face dangers on the road; it's the quest that drives her on.

There are endless possibilities for a small business quest – an award, a publication, a new contact, a new title or contract. But you'll only get the valuable ones if you know what you want. Accidental victories are not as worthy as intentional ones.

Thre are also extra points for an ambitious quest, but that's a subject for another article.

3. Embracing New Characters

Whether or not you subscribe to the?Jim Rohn theory that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, there is validity in embracing new characters to experience a new way of looking at the world and open up new opportunities.

The super-quick take-up of video conferencing in the short COVID period has opened up new avenues to meet people.

While some lament the lack of tactile contact, a different mindset might celebrate the fact that you can now have a conversation with many parts of the world — albeit by VC without having to fork out for a flight or other significant investments of time or money.

And not flying has the obvious additional advantage of not polluting the planet.?

For Baum, one game-changing person was the illustrator William W. Denslow, who he met at the Chicago Press Club. The two worked on a few ventures before settling down to create their blockbuster illustrated story, Wizard Of Oz.

Baum was interested in creating new forms in his genre. As a child, the European fairy tales of Andersen and Brothers Grimm terrified him.

“The time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors point a fearsome moral to each tale.” -Baum, p1.

Within moments of landing on the ground, Dorothy’s previously held bias about all witches being evil is upturned. Her transformation of consciousness has begun, and with each new meeting, she encounters a character that takes her closer to her quest of getting back to Kansas.

What new characters can you introduce yourself to? What other businesses do you find interesting, even if they're not in your industry? Social Media has opened up new pathways for inspiration for those willing to be bold and embrace new characters.

4. Fallibility and Transformation

Being fallible and capable of making mistakes is a trait that runs through all thinking beings, and if we want to aim for infallibility, we had better not leave the house in the first place.

The infallible mindset makes us critical of others trying to do something different and prevents us from trying new things.

Baum encountered many real-life humbugs; from the merciless masters at a military school who would try and beat his imagination out of him. To the bookkeepers that drove his business to closure and bankruptcy, to business partner fallouts.

But throughout these setbacks, he continued to move forward, recognising his fallibility and others in his journey.

For I have lived long enough to learn that in life, nothing adverse lasts very long. And it is true that as the years' pass, we look back on something which, at that time, seemed unbelievably discouraging and unfair. The eventual outcome was, we discover, by far the best solution for us. — Literary Traveller.

Embrace the fallible uncertainty because anything else is an illusion, like the Wizard of Oz himself.

Human fallibility runs through most of the characters in the Wizard of Oz.

Neither Dorothy nor her friends recognise the inherent power they have within to realise their desires. The Wizard, outed as a humbug for pretending to be an almighty and all-powerful wizard, is perhaps the most fallible of all.

“The Wizard may be a huckster — a short bald man born in Omaha rather than an all-powerful being — but meek and mild Dorothy, also a mere mortal, has the power within herself to carry out her desires.” —?Chloe Schama, Smithsonian.

5. Return

A return to an old world with a new mindset is the ultimate cycle of a storytelling journey.?Joseph Campbell,?the supreme wisdom on storytelling, calls the hero’s final work; the act of return.

What does the old world look like after an adventure? After a transformed consciousness experience? What does yours look like?

Mine feels lighter after writing this blog, where I've stepped into a new world, made the blog my quest, encountered new characters and returned to my work a little more hopeful than before.

It can all be so simple.

In the book, Dorothy returns to a new house and a transformed Aunt Em.

"so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears."-Baum, p4

But when Dorothy appears back on the dry Kansas plains, her response is new.

“My darling child!” she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses; “where in the world did you come from?”-?Baum, p143.

Here we have a transformation of consciousness, not only from Dorothy changing from a meek girl to an adventure-hardy leader but also Aunt Em.

She has once again discovered life inside her niece; in turn, learning life renewed inside her.

What will your return involve?

Takeaways

You can achieve a transformation of consciousness with a simple roadmap.

If this feels self-interested to you in a world where things are so unequal, consider the good that Dorothy's journey did to her friends and remember that a storytelling mindset can exponentially impact others.

1.?Get out of the house, digital or real; try a new route in your walk, join a book club, turn off aggressive Twitter channels, and step out of your silo.

2.?Set yourself a quest. Having a mission or an investigation is just good fun; a purpose, however small, to learn a few phrases in a different language, play a recorder, and build a world or community. We’re meaning-seeking, curious creatures, and we can forget this in a world of loud shouting voices and notifications. If there’s no one to discuss your ideas with on your path, choose another one.

3.?Embrace new characters. In the film version of Wizard of Oz, the farm workers are all transformed into different characters — are you ignoring the people around you? The postman. The man with the golf sign. In Anais Nin's words, you see the world as you see yourself, so if you do not see magic outside, it is time to start, and maybe that will help your transformation.

4.?Treat yourself and the people around you as fallible and capable of changing. How can we be courageous without the possibility of making mistakes, and those who make mistakes have shown themselves to be brave in trying? Mostly.

5.?Remember that returning home from an adventure often brings an unexpected reward; the courage to leave the house, follow your quest, meet new characters, and see the world with emotional intelligence will surely change your world.

Thanks for reading.

I help people shine a new light on their business with a storytelling approach. You can read more here.