Transformative Story Experiences | Amanda Johnson - The Story Oracle - Ep 159

0:02 Dr Steve: So I'm actually recording this 2 different ways, just in case you never know. Dr Steve: Because now, the only thing I don't have. Maybe you sent it to me, but I can't find it Dr Steve: is like a like a bio. Did you send me a bio. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I sent a bio and some notes, I believe, last week, after we chatted. Dr Steve: This is here. Dr Steve: Hang on. Dr Steve: See? Dr Steve: This, is it? Dr Steve: Okay? Okay, it just it kind of wrapped weird. Alright, give me a second. I'm gonna print it. Dr Steve: Yeah, I mean, alchemizes 25 years of transformative experiences.

0:46 Dr Steve: I think that's what you're referring to. Right. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: Okay, I'm gonna do this. Let me Dr Steve: let me put this in another file. Dr Steve: Okay, that we're good. Everything's good. Dr Steve: Where do you live. I think you told me San Diego. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Whiskey, Arizona. Dr Steve: Oh, Arizona, yeah. Duh, okay, this has been kind of a crazy week. I've got a lot of. Dr Steve: you know, with podcasting, you get like streaky, you know. You get like a week where you're doing like 9, and everybody's reaching out to you. It's very active, and then, like nobody cares for a week.

1:34 Dr Steve: This in Arizona. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: It's been a busy week. Dr Steve: This week's been kind of average if there is such a thing. But I've had a lot of interest because I was just on this trip. And one of the things I talked about on the trip was, Hey, if anybody wants to be on a podcast I'm booking for the spring and the summer. Dr Steve: So all right. Dr Steve: let's just do a little tech check just to say Hello, let's talk for like 30 seconds. So let's make sure this sounds good. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Okay, let's check the tech. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: How does my microphone sound. Dr Steve: It's clear, but it's a little soft. I think. Last time did we do some kind of adjustment? Was that you. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: About this. Is that better? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Little better? Yeah, it's good. Okay.

2:16 Dr Steve: All right. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to like countdown 3, 2, 1. We'll kind of bring it in. Dr Steve: I will read your bio. And what is the 1st question you want me to ask you? Or what's the 1st thing you would like to talk about? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Well, I think we talked about my notes here were talking about to entrepreneurial parents, about Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: bringing personal growth in their writing projects. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and then also bringing their families along with them. That's 1 of the fun things that Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I've done in my career. Dr Steve: So let's start with that basically writing projects.

2:56 Dr Steve: Okay, alright, I got. I got it. I got an idea. Dr Steve: And again, you know, probably about halfway through it. I'll kind of pause and do like a little commercial for the podcast Dr Steve: at any point. Don't be shy about offers freebies. How people can get them. All the links and stuff will be in the show notes. So you can refer to that. Dr Steve: although if you want to say, you know, like whatever you know, your link is Dr Steve: things like this. So story oracle, whatever. Okay, you ready to rumble. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I am. Dr Steve: Okay, let me get everything where I like it doing good.

3:38 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Wait. You missed one of those hairs. Oh. Dr Steve: Whenever I get my hair cut it always sticks up, and I just give up on dealing with it. Dr Steve: All right, ready. Dr Steve: So 3, 2, 1, hey, everyone! Welcome back! Dr Steve: Welcome back. Dr Steve: Today Dr Steve: you are listening to the make, the great experience podcast. Your host, Dr. Stephen Green. We have a guest today all the way Dr Steve: from Arizona. Dr Steve: Yeah, make it sound like it's a foreign country all the way from Arizona, the other side of the country from me, where the weather is much nicer. The landscape's much nicer.

4:18 Dr Steve: probably the food's better. I don't know we can address this, so let me introduce real briefly. My guest today is Amanda Johnson. She goes by the story oracle, or at least that's her business, Amanda. How you feeling today. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I'm feeling great super excited to have this conversation with you. Dr Steve: There we go, love the positivity. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah. Dr Steve: Let me tell you a little bit about her, and then we're going to get right into this. Dr Steve: Manna. Johnson alchemizes 25 years of transforming experiences through story literacy. Dr Steve: through writing and narrative medicine, to fulfill her mission. Dr Steve: This is her mission to equip individuals, to use humanity's most innate tools to transmute the pain of their backstory into more magically than ever for themselves.

5:04 Dr Steve: their loved ones, and whose they serve. Dr Steve: That's a lot we got to unpack that. Dr Steve: Yeah, it's known today as the story oracle. I think of the oracle I think of, like Greece, right? The Greek, Delphi Amanda partners with organizations, individuals helping professionals, creative coaches, Ceos educators and parents will learn how to use story writing and community to open portals of connection, reconnection, belonging building, rebuilding, resilience, trust Dr Steve: claiming leverage, latent superpowers in themselves, and that's important. Late superpowers. You got to bring them out right everywhere with their families, their workplace, their communities. She partners with something called saved by story.

5:46 Dr Steve: She also midwives, paradigm, changing brands, content. Dr Steve: more thought leaders and stories within the world. Dr Steve: Wow, okay, so where to begin? That is, I gotta tell you if I read 300 bios. Dr Steve: and there are more sat words in that bio Dr Steve: seen. So either you have an incredible vocabulary. You got a really thick thesaurus. Dr Steve: or both. But it doesn't really matter, because your message is clear. Your goal. If I'm interpreting this correctly, I want to hear you really define. It is to help people Dr Steve: to move forward in the lives kind of dissolve any trauma that's built up and hidden somewhere through the power of telling stories, either writing them down, or orally, or verbally, or whatever. So let's talk about this.

6:32 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: How'd you come up with this idea? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I know it looks like I know you've been doing it for many years, and and maybe just tell us how this process works. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Sure. Well, how did I get here is a funny. It's a funny question with kind of a a i'll try to make it short answer, but. Dr Steve: We got 23 min. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: This is not something. This is not something that you go to school for. Right? Dr Steve: Okay. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I didn't get a degree in this. I was going to be a journalist, and then I decided to become a history teacher. When I realized when I started to engage great stories in college and realized the importance of understanding, not just the stories and the themes, but really wrestling with the context and the history in which that story was written.

7:18 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I decided to take what I had learned all the Socratic method and critical thinking back to the high school. I landed in a really tough district during a really challenging time of my life. The kids were. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: They didn't believe that they were going to make it to see graduation. Lots of gang activity, lots of lost family members, lots of drugs happening overdoses. And so I did not feel like I had what it took. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and I certainly did not have allies or mentors in that space to really help me to figure out how to connect with them with story and still get the job done. So I bounced out of that, and I was offered an online writing instruction job where I was able to take care of my little guy, and while he was napping I would help people learn how to write more powerfully online.

8:10 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I went out to share that that service because I was so excited about the results that we were getting, and I went to the wrong market. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Have you ever done that? I went to the I have. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: yeah, I went to a whole bunch of entrepreneurs who said, I'm not exactly sure that you can teach me how to write better. But can you fix what I've written? So I started to help people with their their manuscripts, adjusting those. Dr Steve: More of like an editing role, as it were. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: More like an editing business. But what I realized was there were 2 things that were happening or not happening. I should say one was they weren't getting things done quickly, like there was so much time that they were taking to make something effective, and I thought if I could help them from the beginning. I could shave years off of this, and not just years, but Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: probably energy and tears and sanity, and all of that stuff that goes into writing a book. So I started working with people from the beginning, and I quickly realized I had to. You asked how I had to start kidnapping them with consent. Of course I invited them away, for you know, 3 days and early on it was 3 days at a time. Now we do 7 day retreats Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: where I would help them to figure out, what's the story? What's the core message? Let's organize it. Let's get you into the writing process. And at that very 1st retreat.

9:39 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I heard a voice say, while I was watching this woman in tears on the floor. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: the voice said, this is actually the real work here. Dr Steve: Hello! Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Part of what you're doing. The more important work that you're doing is walking people back to who they were before the story started, before it happened to them. And that's what I realized was one of the main challenges that people were having. You know, these high performing, overachieving, helping professionals, winning awards in different places, like being superhuman in their domain. And yet, when they sat down to write a book Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: after writing a thesis. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: you know, you think that would be harder. But there was something about this project that they could not get to themselves, and I found that almost every time it was there was a story in there that still had some pain that still had some tenderness, and you know they weren't sure. Should I share this story? Is it going to affect the people that I love? I rebuilt these relationships. I don't want to talk about how hard it was right.

10:44 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: something people don't always think about? Yeah. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: yeah. And they had. They had no idea that it was those things that were under the surface that were giving them a headache every time they sat down to write the next chapter. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and and the story Oracle was born. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yep. Dr Steve: So let let me let me. There's a lot to unpack. Here, let me break this down a little bit. Dr Steve: so let's dispel one myth, because I've written a few books. Okay? And I can tell you it is work. Dr Steve: I mean, it's fun. It's certainly good when you get done. Dr Steve: But the process can be difficult, and it takes a lot of discipline always takes longer than you think. You tend to like. Write it, and you re-edit it 17 times. But Dr Steve: when you say a book, does it have to be like war and peace? Is it going to be 7,000 pages with 500 things can it be? You know, 20 pages, 50 pages. It doesn't have to be predefined in terms of scope, right? Or how do you look at that? What's your viewpoint on that.

11:44 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I think it's you know. It depends on what you're trying to achieve with it, and how. Dr Steve: Quickly, next. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Can be done. Dr Steve: Because some people yeah, sorry, keep going. Keep calling. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I had an author early on who had this vision. She came in like, I'm going to write a 250 page book, and I mean the depth. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: That's a lot, by the way, folks Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: right? Right? The depth of transformative work that she did in the 18 months that it took her to start it and and send the manuscript to me. It was enormous. And then, when she saw the page count, she was like. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Oh, my God, it's only 150, I mean. She was mortified, and I thought every reader that we have had read this has called me texted me and told me how incredibly transformed they are by the stories that you told in this book.

12:31 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Like 150 pages. Her powerful storytelling got the job done. Some people need a little bit more space, and some people can do it in a shorter timeframe. But you know it also depends on what type of book you're writing. If you're trying to share your story, you know some people feel like, well, I couldn't write this in any less than 3,000 pages. Nope, that's not going to work right now. We have to figure out. Dr Steve: You need a whole life to read it so many days here. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: There are others who, you know they're writing a quick how to. You know they're writing it with a a very specific agenda in mind. You know, I'm going to get these things into the book, and then I'm going to push people into. Dr Steve: So. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: A program that I have for them on the other side. So it really depends on the aim.

13:15 Dr Steve: So here's a question. Dr Steve: Do you see your role? Dr Steve: And, by the way, my guest, Amanda Johnson, the story Oracle Dr Steve: Amanda, do you see your role Dr Steve: as more helping the writer have this sort of, and this is my word. Maybe you agree with it. A cathartic experience, almost. Dr Steve: By creating this, this memoir-ish thing, that kind of gets out what they have bottled up inside of them? Dr Steve: Or is this more to educate or to motivate, or to inspire, or Dr Steve: whatever word you want to use the reader? Or is it both? Dr Steve: Because sometimes people produce things just because they just want to get it out? They don't care if people read it right. But what's your what's your what's your opinion here.

14:01 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, I've met people who are just prolific. They just have a bunch of great ideas and a bunch of good stories, fiction and nonfiction, and their, you know, their motivation may be some catharsis, and they might not know that that's a motivation. But for some reason they don't have the Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: hiccup right? The people that I work with tend to have the hiccups because they're already operating. They're already high performing over overcoming a lot of things in their lives. And yet there's this one part that they can't get to. And so I really see my role as both Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: a partner in writing and a partner in transformation, because it is true that some people, you know, I had a an amazing author. I mean, this is one of the most beautiful gripping stories I have ever seen fiction a few years back he sends me the the Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: outline for it. It's giant. No scene work, no character development. I'm bawling by about halfway through this outline. Why? Because the themes are so good. The ideas for how the story is going to build are so good, but he's a second language learner.

15:08 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: He! He spent 25 years in the States, but when he writes, his English is still not quite powerful enough to accomplish the job. So my partnership with him was a lot of rewriting and adjusting and amping up the story Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: right, whereas I have someone like my partner or one of my partners that saved by Story Carlynn. She's an avid reader, but she's also an exceptionally gifted writer. So a lot of the work that I'm doing with her is around ideas. How do you take which which character is the most important which one gets the most Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: transformation out of the arc of this story. Which perspective should this be from? You know? How do we insert this idea? Where should we put it? So? It was a lot more like of thought partnership in that process. And then her writing was that way. But in every case, fiction and nonfiction.

16:01 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I see that people have the opportunity to have that cathartic experience. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I've seen people reveal a story to themselves that they didn't realize they were living at all, and it took them 18 months and a whole manuscript to see it. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and I've seen people I mean, we would argue, Carlynn and I, that she digested some ancestral Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: trauma or some secret in her family, because then it got revealed 2 weeks later, after Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: that scene, so like these weird little synchronicities that happen there are these opportunities that if you don't know if you're sitting in your office by yourself trying to accomplish something, and you run into a writer's block, you may not know that that's some of the material that might be coming up that wants to be witnessed.

16:50 Dr Steve: I got a lot of questions here. I'm trying to think of good order to ask them. So let's dispel a myth. Dr Steve: Can anybody, yes or no. Can anybody write a book obviously a 3 year old? Can't? But you don't have to be a certain education. You don't have to be a certain age. You don't be certain anybody can produce a work that's valued to them right. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yep. Dr Steve: Okay, number 2 is Dr Steve: while it's a challenge. And it might be emotionally challenging in your experience with the hundreds of people you've worked with. It's rewarding when they get done right. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Oh, yeah. Dr Steve: Yeah. So without violating any confidence, if if that's such a thing or confidentiality, can you just maybe Dr Steve: to be specific share? Maybe some of the things people have revealed.

17:38 Dr Steve: Or maybe some of the things that people are focused on in some of these stories. I mean, is it like. Dr Steve: I'm almost thinking. It's like sort of Shakespearean idea. Where, like, you know, there's a character and a character with some challenge. And then there's some what do they call it Shakespearean. Dr Steve: the climax event, or something. I forget. I forget. I didn't have Shakespeare since college. You're talking 30 years ago. You know. And then there's like that 5 stage thing in Shakespearean drama. I can't remember. You probably remember it way more than I do. Dr Steve: But but does it have to be some sort of release sort of thing. Can it just be like a story, or is it? Is it this just how it works in your. Dr Steve: in, in your channeling. I'm going to use that word.

18:18 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, yeah, I definitely believe that people write books all the time and don't necessarily have a cathartic experience. Dr Steve: And I think that's 1 because of their goal for the book. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Could be very different if they're very business oriented entrepreneurs, you know they can, absolutely, if they're not writing story. If they're writing more of a how to or you know something in that department. It's much easier to, let's say, not have to take a look at any of the stories right. But when people are digging in the deepest parts of their soul and Psyche for old memories Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: to share through the process of writing a memoir, or even, you know. Where else do you get content for a really good novel? Right? Carlynn is a great example, and she wrote about Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: this, and has shared a little bit about it in different spaces, but one of the things for her was, you know, she came to retreat, and she started to. She was trying to write, and she was just stuck. I don't know what's happening, and I said, Well, why don't you jump ahead in the story? Maybe you can write a scene that you're more comfortable with, and then it'll inform this one that you feel stuck on, you know. Just kind of. I was hoping that she would write an easy scene. Tons of dopamine would light her up, and she'd come back and just be able to like.

19:41 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: you know. Get through the rest of it. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: She chose the hardest scene of the book to write. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and it was a scene because the whole story is about what happens when a family keeps a secret. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: What happens to the mental health of the family, and especially the children, when secrets are held well. Dr Steve: Which isn't something that doesn't happen all the time. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Exactly, and she's she's a therapist who's run a community of care for almost 3 decades. And so she knows this, inside and out. But she wanted to write a novel about it. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and so I thought, I don't know is this personal stuff, and she'd say, No, I don't think so. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: And so she had this really cathartic experience, but didn't know what it was about until 2 weeks later, when something emerged in her own family and she looked at me, she called me up and said.

20:31 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Do you think that this is maybe related? I mean, how long have I been, you know, looking at Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: my family tree, looking at understanding it. And yet there was this one piece that maybe did I process this. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Another example is A woman who came to me. She's a a social worker who helps families through high conflict divorce. So she has seen some things, and it's always. Dr Steve: That that might have a little that might have a little drama in it, so. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, what's in the best interest of the child? And how do you get ready for one of these custody evaluations? Well, she's like, I don't really want to write anything that's super dry. Thanks. I want to write something that is engaging and fun, and I'm thinking I don't know how you make that engaging and fun. But she had this great idea. What if I made it like almost like one of those? Choose your own adventure stories that we used to read when we were little.

21:24 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Where are you? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: You get to the end of a chapter, and you get to make a choice with the character, go this direction or this direction, and see the outcome. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: So she did that for these, for this family inside of her book the father and the mother. Both get 3 choices each, and they all sound really like really good choices, and you get to see what's underneath those choices and what the outcomes are. And so she's writing. And of course we're talking about things happening in the background of her life. And as she's writing these characters, I'm starting to see some of the characters that she's been talking that she's been talking about in her life, and I'm starting to think. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: -oh! Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I wonder if she's writing about her life, and she doesn't know it. And so I would gently oracle like right? Because I don't like to shove anything in anyone's faces. I believe people need a certain amount of safety before they'll let themselves see something.

22:15 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and so I would bring it up. And I would say. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Do you think there might be a connection between this or that. Oh, no, no, no, no! For 18 months. But all of these other things happened inside of her life that set her up for a moment where she could see it. And then I got that phone call. That was like, why didn't you tell me that I was writing about my life. Dr Steve: Yes. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I did. I did. I tried in so many ways. Dr Steve: It's not always obvious to the Dr Steve: our guest is Amanda Johnson, the story Oracle. This has been a fascinating conversation so far. This is Dr. Steve Green. This is the make the great experience. Podcast I hope you're enjoying this. So far. Dr Steve: the goal of this podcast is simple, this is all about success. This is all about any tool that you can have that's going to help you take anything in your life to the next level, where it's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, educational, and all the above. So Dr Steve: let's get back to this. So Dr Steve: it, it is okay, quick answers. Once here.

23:20 Dr Steve: you're coaching people. You're you're running retreats. Have you produced a book yet? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: Is it like a shoemaker in the shoes, or. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, I it took me 6 years, but yes, I. Dr Steve: No. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Of helping other people, and I've written I have my my name on 4 books, 2 of them I wrote myself, and 2 of them. I co-authored. Dr Steve: Congratulations. There we go, see. So she's walking the walk. She's not talking the talk just Dr Steve: What? How would somebody find you like? Let's say somebody. There's got to be plenty of people out there, and hopefully some of them are listening who are thinking. You know, I could write a book I got so many good things to tell. I got so many things to share. How would somebody find you.

24:02 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: The best place to find that work is@savedbystory.house. It is a writing and publishing company. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Story.com. Yeah. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Helps people from inspiration to impact. So I only have the idea all the way to how do I put this into the world at scale? Dr Steve: Okay, Dr Steve: just to set an expectation. What? What would be someone's experience if they came to one of your retreats? I'm sure there's many, many ways you could answer this, but. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: Somebody signs up for a 3 or 7 day retreat. Right? I'm sure they're probably excited. They're probably mixed emotions. They're excited. They're probably a little frightened, maybe their uncertainty. What would you expect, you know, in like the thirties? The 1 min version I condense 7 days into a minute. Here.

24:50 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah. So there are usually 2 goals that we have for the 7 day retreats. The 1st one is to address anything that is standing in your way. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: and how we do that is looking at the different stories. I use a bunch of Pop culture stories, and we use those to kind of unpack the stories that maybe we're unable to see for ourselves. That might be holding us back. So we spend 3 days in usually circled up in little breakout rooms, and we have lots of people Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: where we're working through some of the greatest stories ever told, and our own stories at the same time. That's kind of the medium that we use to create that space and a little bit of buffer make it easier for people. So we spend 3 days Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: in person doing that the the best content that I ever get, and that people enjoy happens kind of in between all of the actual training, you know, over the meals on the walks, these sorts of things where.

25:50 Dr Steve: This is a resident. This is resonant. You're you're there. People are living there. It's almost like a camp. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Very communal. Dr Steve: And how many people are involved in this at a time. Obviously, it's you Dr Steve: and you might have a do. You have a co-facilitator? So it's you and. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I have people who help me run the when we have to do breakouts and those sorts of things. Dr Steve: So if you and your co-facilitators, and then 20 people, 10 people. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, 10 to 20 is the average. My hope is that those 1st 3 days we'll start filling rooms of 50, because every time we get to the end of one of those retreats, and every time I hear back from someone who says, You know the work I did at that 3 day retreat. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Look at how it's showing up in my life right now. Every time I think Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I really just want more and more people to get this opportunity so hopefully those 1st 3 days. Then we take a day to kind of just be community, just have fun, just digest, maybe go to a Spa or whatever, wherever we're close to. And then we spend 3 days doing the work. So people at different phases of the writing, publishing, launching process usually are all around the same table, working on their content. And, as you know.

26:58 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: with any sort of background in education, when you have these opportunities where people are sitting around a table at all different phases, learning happens much faster, and it creates those Dr Steve: Yeah, I can tell you, having been at many business events. In fact, I was just at one for 9 days that some of. You have listened to podcasts, know about Dr Steve: it. It's it's you never know what happens. There's kind of an X factor that happens when even you get 2 people, but even more so, a 6, 8, or 10, who are all kind of trying to accomplish the same thing, but from different perspectives. Dr Steve: And it all kind of blends together, and tremendous things can come out of it, assuming they don't start arguing. But no, no, I mean differing opinions can happen as well.

27:47 Dr Steve: What what are there Dr Steve: is? Is there like any like singular experience you've had that stands out from all the rest, like one particular project or or author that you think has just been like. Dr Steve: like just way way out there in terms of their idea, their success. And are any of these commercially successful is that even the point. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Well, sometimes it is the point, and sometimes they realize that's not the point as they get into the project. Dr Steve: Okay. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I have worked on some phenomenal content and curriculum with thought leaders who are global. Now, who are taking the training into global spaces, you know, winning awards and those sorts of things, just brilliant, brilliant humans who didn't realize the importance of their story being included in even an academic piece of work.

28:41 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: So that's 1 example. I love watching her on social media. She's lighting up the world with her brilliance right now, and using story and even talking about the importance of storytelling in her work now, from a neurobiological standpoint. So that's 1 of the entrepreneurial ones. One of my very 1st clients is extremely successful commercially, you know, written, I think, maybe 5 books. I think she's working on her 6 now. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Such a powerful way to build trust with an audience and keep bringing them along the journey right? Because everything new that she learns it goes in a book, and then it gets people ready for the training that just keeps getting better and better and better in her world.

29:24 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: And then I do. I have these books like this one that I was telling you about the client who has written this novel that made me cry just on outline form every time I read it. Every time I touch, because it's a giant volume. We're working on the second book release. Right now. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I just think this has to get out like, I want this to be commercially successful. I want it to be on big screens. You know these sorts of things. Because it's that powerful. It deserves a spot there. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: And so. Dr Steve: I I can tell you this. So so this isn't. This is not an endpoint. In some ways it's a starting point, right? So you have this experience.

30:05 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: People come to these retreats, or maybe you can coach them one on one as well. They create their magnum opus. Dr Steve: Maybe magnum opus 2, 3, 4, and 5 as well. Now it could open a lot of other doors. Dr Steve: Because I you know a part of what I do is I coach people on creating content. It's not anything nearly as Dr Steve: deep as what you're doing. It might just be like a 6 page ebook on, because it's all about education in my world. But sometimes in my world people create books so they can become speakers. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: And that's there's often a connection there. And no, I'm saying more like a business and entrepreneurial kind of sense like they won't hire you as a keynote speaker, if you're not a published author with some amount of notoriety. But that's a huge transition, right? So you write this book. Now you're out there. Now, people want to put the face with the story right Dr Steve: so Dr Steve: now, you can create like a little book tour, like even my local library, which is, I don't know how many people can hold, maybe a couple 100. They have authors there every couple of weeks.

31:07 Dr Steve: So writing and reading is not dead folks. Yeah, we got the Internet. Yeah, we got phones. Yeah, we got tablets. But there are people still out there writing serious, profound content personal content that can be very moving can be very powerful. Dr Steve: and we got a person here to help them do it. But let's kind of to bring this a little bit to a close. So somebody wants to engage with you, or maybe they just need one. Do I even have a story that's worth telling. Dr Steve: I wanna make sure I say it right. It is Dr Steve: Where'd I put it? Here? Saved by Story dot house. Right? You're on Facebook. And this is all going to be in the show notes everybody, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram all the fun places.

31:53 Dr Steve: is there something that you could do like? Is there a giveaway? You have a little freebie, or something that people can engage through these sites that might help them guide them through at least the early stage of this process, right? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Absolutely. Yes, there is a Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: save by story. Dot house forward slash foreshadows, which are kind of like our freebies. Right? And so it just kind of depends because people come to us because they want to write, or because they want to publish, or because they want to brand Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: that matches what they're doing in the world. And so there's a foreshadow for each one of those, so they can kind of pick and choose what feels like the right thing? Do they need more clarity for the writing? Do they need a little help with understanding what this story saving transformation stuff is about, or are they getting ready to work on a brand, and just want to kind of see Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: how we do that.

32:43 Dr Steve: This I to me. This is so interesting because I deal with a lot of people, and I I always think Dr Steve: it's like one of these stillwaters runs deep thing. I think there's always more there than is being revealed. Dr Steve: But you know, in our society this is how we react right? We're not going to go and see what's really happening. You know what happened to you in 3rd grade when somebody bullied you on the playground that's still impacting your life. Dr Steve: But this is reality, right? And you know I'm by trade, education, psychologist. I have some training in this, even though most of my life was in education and coaching, but I do believe I agree with you. Dr Steve: and I'm not that you need to be agreed with, because I think you have such a body of work to prove it already, that Dr Steve: if you can harness these things seem very powerful, and you can learn to harness it right, like just writing can be mechanical. But if you learn to harness something that's almost like a muse, in a sense.

33:37 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes. Dr Steve: Right. I don't know if this is one of the 7 Muses. I don't know. I keep doing these Greek mythology references. I know there's a there's a certain number of Muses right? And and I don't know if one of them is like trauma, but but it has almost the same motivational power. If it's driving you to have this thing going on so. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, all right. Is there anything we did not get to that you want to talk about? Briefly as we come into closing here? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: No, I would just say what you were just saying before the Muse. You know it didn't take me too long to get. You know. I got the inspiration for my book series, and then I got into the process of trying to get it on paper, and I myself found myself thinking I have more work to do, because I don't know that I could Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: share this from the stage and and do it a hundred percent authentically, or do it with 100 integrity like it felt like there was some things that I had to still work out, some old pain I need to let go of before I could walk other people through it.

34:40 Dr Steve: Kind of experience your own process before you could teach the experience. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes, yes, and I really believe that those are the things that you know. People have great ideas about how to change the world. Powerful messages, powerful stories. And yet sometimes this is the thing that keeps them from taking a stage. You know we have one author right now. Who Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: do you want to be a speaker? No, I don't want to be a speaker. I just want to write this book. Well. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: looks like there are other plans for her, because she's getting Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: until somebody asks you to come. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Ninky. Dr Steve: Yeah, yeah, I've seen that, too. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Good, right. Dr Steve: I've seen some very introverted people become very good speakers because they get coaxed into doing it the 1st time, and then they get all excited, and it's like an adrenaline thing to a degree as well.

35:27 Dr Steve: Well, listen. I'm going to challenge my listeners here. I'm going to say I know I don't know how many people are listening to this right now. But typically an episode gets 3, 5,000 listens right. And I know some of you, maybe many of you Dr Steve: have got something in there that needs to get out there, and you want to get out there. Maybe you don't even know it yet. Maybe this is the trigger. Maybe this is that Trigger Point tipping moment that's going to bring you forward and say I am going to take action on this. I waited long enough to get this out, and now's the time, and we've got the person to help you do it. Are your? Are your retreats near. Are they in Arizona? You do them all over the country. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I do them in Southern California, cause that's where. Dr Steve: In California. There we go. Okay, so not too far. Nice weather. That's not so. It's.

36:11 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: And. Dr Steve: Terrible out here today. So let's not even talk about that. Dr Steve: All right. So, Amanda Johnson, thank you so much for coming. You want to play. I need to tell you this. I'm not telling. I didn't tell her about this. You want to play a little game I play with all my guests. It's called my 5 Favorites. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Sure. Dr Steve: Okay. I don't tell anybody. This is all on the spot, right? And those of you with my podcast. Know this, these are very easy things. Let's just learn a little bit about you. I used to do this in the beginning of the podcast but then we'd go in all these weird directions. We get anything done so very simple. And there's no right answers. Or I have right, answers Number One. What is your favorite color? Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Gold! Dr Steve: Gold. You know what the right answer is. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: What's the right answer? Dr Steve: Green. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: That's what we're name.

36:52 Dr Steve: Well, I am wearing a green shirt today. Yes, also my last name. See, there's a little prejudice there. Gold, beautiful favorite food. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Chocolate, Dark Chocolate. Dr Steve: Was that? Was that a food. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yes, 100%. It's so good for you. It keeps the dementors away. Dr Steve: And it's got a lot of antioxidants. Dr Steve: There we go. Okay, you heard it here first.st Dark chocolate is a food. It's 1 of the food types, right? Carbohydrates, protein Dr Steve: fats, chocolate, got a favorite song, music. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Oh, favorite song. Dr Steve: That's a tough one, because most people say there's so many I can't pick one. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: It's true.

37:33 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah. I would say, who we are by lifehouse Dr Steve: It's kind of deep. It's got sort of a deep piece to that. It's not one of those lightweight kind of. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: No. Dr Steve: It's not like something tells me I'm into something good. It's like Herman. Dr Steve: No, I have some of those, too. But Dr Steve: well, we might have tipped the scale on this one already, but favorite ice cream flavor. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, definitely, chocolate. Dr Steve: Double. You're double dipping. No pun intended. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Right. Dr Steve: Favorite place to vacation. Dr Steve: You live in sort of vacation area, but sort of but. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: I do. It's nice, you know. I I still love going back to Southern California and the beach.

38:18 Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: You know. I miss the ocean, so I would say. You know, Carlsbad grew up in Carlsbad, and I just there's something about that. Dr Steve: Not too many oceans in Arizona. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: No, unfortunately. Dr Steve: Hey, lakes! Do you have a lake? Maybe somewhere. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: We do. We have lots of lakes. Dr Steve: You want a bonus question, you. You're 5 for 5. You got a hundred on Dr Steve: who is your favorite podcast. Host. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Well, you are, of course. Dr Steve: There we go. She's 6 for 6 extra credit. Thank you very much. Listen seriously, everybody. This to me is a fascinating topic, because I got to be honest, I've always thought of writing as a functional art. It's definitely an art. It's definitely a science and an art. And there's technique. And I've always sort of approached it functionally, like we write to kind of produce something of sort, of technical value or of educational value.

39:11 Dr Steve: But clearly there's a genre, and maybe a very large one, where it's a therapeutic aspect to it, right? And I don't know if there's the same words Amanda would use, but I believe based on what we've talked about there, at least in the ballpark. So this is something to explore whether you want to start reading some of these things, or produce them yourself. Dr Steve: and and we roll from there. So Dr Steve: last thing for you, Amanda, do you have anything you want to pitch like you an event coming up specifically? Do you have a workshop, one on one? You got a consultative Dr Steve: webinar or something? You want to pitch real quick. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: We're starting our the next content cocoon cohort in in March. It's a big 12 month program, but the 1st 30 days is what I call the greatest messenger portal. It's kind of like the way that you decide whether you want to fully step in or not. If you're not 100 in. So people can go to the website and learn about that. The greatest messenger portal. It's it's a way to kind of lay the foundation for the whole journey. And I don't just mean writing, you know, really looking at Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: all of those different stages that you get to go through as someone who wants to change.

40:19 Dr Steve: No, I didn't ask this, and we're running low over time, but I don't care right now Dr Steve: it can. Is there like a typical person that works with you, or is it all over? The place like is, is your is. Do you have like a Dr Steve: sort of a profile of I'm kind of curious who your most common Dr Steve: you call them clients, partners. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah, clients. And then friends. Usually they come in as really high performing helping professionals, often entrepreneurial coaching leadership. Dr Steve: I mean men, women, more of one than the other. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: No, it's kind of a good mix right now. Dr Steve: Okay? Oh, I mean young old both.

40:59 Dr Steve: You got this. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Our youngest author was 20 when she. Dr Steve: I think most people would. Most people would consider that young. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah. And our oldest one publishing this year is 70. Dr Steve: Wow! There you go! Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Yeah. Dr Steve: So all over the place, very eclectic. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: But I will say, usually the people that find me are the ones that are in that transition from Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: like being in life and building something to wanting to make it legacy right like taking that step from. I'm in it all the time to now. I want to take what I've learned from it, and make sure that it gets to the next generation in some way.

41:42 Dr Steve: Yeah. And I can tell you, I think people at that point when they feel like Dr Steve: they've kind of reached a financial stature like, I've made enough money if there is such a thing, and I guess in some people's mind I've kind of proven that I can be where I need to be in my professional field. I need to do something, maybe a little more intangible. Dr Steve: Yeah, wow, beautiful! Dr Steve: All right, this is awesome. It is February. It's early February 22,025. So if you heard this, you will get into this year long thing. You gotta hustle a little bit. I wish you really good luck with everything you're doing. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Thank you. Dr Steve: I think this is great. I hope people take advantage of what you're doing.

42:23 Dr Steve: on whatever scale, right? This can be. A small project, a giant project, a life-changing project. Dr Steve: So we'll go from there. So let's call it a day. Dr. Stephen green. Dr Steve: This is the make the grade experience. Podcast if you want to be a guest. Dr Steve: just make some comments. I will send you the forum. Please share this more importantly, I really, this is not self-serving, but it kind of sounds that way. I really believe the more people to get this information the better. I think this is here to help people to get where they want to get to achieve their goals to up level and whatever they're doing. So please share this. Please subscribe all the stuff we need to support these type of ventures. But really it's about the right people listening to this and taking action.

43:04 Dr Steve: So we'll see you next episode, Amanda. Thanks again. Amanda Johnson | The Story Oracle: Thank you. Dr Steve: And it's a wrap.