storyOS

In this season finale, Harris, Kate and Michael reflect on STORY 2025, and the transformative experience of storytelling events, emphasizing the importance of environment and creativity in engaging audiences. The discussion highlights how changes in format and atmosphere can lead to moments of awe and wonder, creating lasting impressions on attendees.

In their reflective conversation, they cover topics like:

• The experience of storytelling can be profoundly transformative.
• Environment plays a crucial role in shaping audience engagement.
• Creativity in format can lead to unexpected and delightful experiences.
• Moments of awe can significantly enhance the storytelling experience.
• Collaboration with creative individuals can elevate the overall atmosphere.
• The impact of storytelling is often felt through shared community experiences.
• Visual elements can create a sense of wonder and engagement.
• Tweaking traditional formats can lead to innovative storytelling.
• Audience reactions can be a powerful indicator of success.
• Creating memorable experiences requires attention to detail and creativity.

In this episode of the Story OS Podcast, hosts Michael McRay and Harris III discuss the importance of leadership within the family unit, emphasizing the need for intentionality and proactive engagement. They explore how family dynamics can mirror organizational leadership, the role of children in shaping family vision, and the integration of work and family life. The conversation also touches on the American dream and its implications for modern family structures, ultimately advocating for a more unified approach to leadership that includes all family members. In this conversation, we cover some key takeaways such as:

• Leadership starts at home and is essential for family dynamics.
• Intentionality is key in maintaining healthy family relationships.
• Children can provide valuable insights and wisdom in family decisions.
• Proactive leadership in families can lead to better outcomes.
• Integrating work and family life is more effective than balancing them.
• Storytelling is a powerful tool in leadership and family engagement.
• Vision casting helps families align on shared goals and values.
• The American dream may not serve modern family needs effectively.
• Including children in decision-making fosters a sense of belonging.
• Leadership and creativity are intertwined, driving positive change.

Coming Up Soon

Tune in this week as Michael McRay welcomes Brittany and Geoff Anderson, co-authors of brand new book Living Room Leadership and founders of Renala, for a conversation about why world-changing leadership begins at home. The Andersons share their powerful story of a marriage that nearly ended in 2019 during Geoff's time as an Air Force One pilot, and how coaching - not traditional therapy - helped them challenge the stories they were telling themselves and rebuild their relationship. Rather than letting that fracture define their future, they discovered that family is the most vital leadership training ground and created a coaching program that helps families co-create vision, values, and rhythms using research-backed tools and playful practices. Their approach focuses on the entire family system - not just individuals or couples. Renala helps parents and children understand their unique strengths, build shared mission and vision statements, and practice saying yes to each other. In this episode, they also discuss:

• Why 98% of children test as creative geniuses but only 2% of adults retain that genius
• How understanding that weaknesses are often just overused strengths can transform family dynamics and build compassion for each other
• Why play activates up to 80% of the brain compared to just 15% for talking alone
• How creating a family mission and vision statement provides the same clarity and direction that thrives in business and military environments

Coming Up Soon

In this week's episode, Michael McRay sets the table for next week's conversation with Brittany and Geoff Anderson, authors of Living Room Leadership. After his divorce, Michael crafted a framed set of commitments that define how he and his son show up together. This episode explores the radical but simple claim that world-changing leadership begins at home, and that the tools we treat as normal at work - vision, mission, values - matter even more in our living rooms. Michael introduces key themes from next week's conversation: moving from deficit to strength-based family culture, understanding families as systems rather than just individuals, and reclaiming play as a leadership technology that accelerates learning and disarms defensiveness. In this episode, Michael also shares:

• How to shift from organizing family life around what's wrong to organizing around what's already strong
• Why individual growth isn't enough if the family system doesn't change with you
• How excavating your story requires gentle patience, slowly uncovering what pain and shame have buried beneath the surface
• Why the person you are at home is the person you are
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Coming Up Soon

Michael McRay welcomes listeners into a different kind of episode - a celebration of his fifth book, The Wild Way: Navigating the Space Between the Old Story and the New, releasing today. Tune in for an intimate invitation into the heart of a project years in the making, born from more than a decade of coaching conversations, story facilitation, and personal notes from the dark forest. Michael reads from the opening pages of the book, sharing the concept of the wild twin - the exiled, instinctual part of ourselves that knows the way into the woods, the part we sent away for being too much, too loud, too alive. In this episode, Michael also shares:

• The inspiration behind the title The Wild Way
• How the book's dispatches function as reports from someone who's been in the thick of it, and found paths through
• What the "worthy if wanted" narrative is and how it keeps us chasing validation by tying our worth to whether others choose us
• Why your story needs patience while carefully uncovering truths buried beneath pain and shame

Resources Mentioned