Recently I re-watched a movie called Saving Mr. Banks. It's premise was simple, yet complex. In essence, this real-life story portrays what it took for Mr. Walt Disney to make the movie Mary Poppins. And that sentence, could've indeed summed up the entire movie. However, the truth is always more complex then it seems. Thus, the movie is actually about the real story of how the writer, P.L. Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff) of "Mary Poppins" saves herself, by redeeming her past and her father through her storytelling.

Watching the movie for the second time, I found myself particular moved by the Walt Disney character during the climax of the movie. In one of the most telling quotes of the movie, Disney says to Travers “George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.”

From this movie I thought about the power of a story, and the power of storytelling. Though this movie focuses on fiction, I believe there is power in many stories. There's power in even what we tell ourselves about our own story.

“George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.”

One story that my brother always tells from his childhood, is one where he decided what his narrative was going to be instead of those around him. Initially, how the story goes, is that it was raining one morning as he was getting ready to leave for school. So my mother wrapped his shoes in bread sacks and put a rubber band around each of his legs to keep them up, before he went off to school. At this time in my parents life, they had been working four jobs between the two of them, while attending bible college, owning one car, and having to raise two small children, all at the same time. They didn't have the money to afford rain boots for my brother, as they could barely afford food. But, my mom was creative, and she wasn't going to let my brother ruin his shoes in the rain.

"...my mother wrapped his shoes in bread sacks and put a rubber band around each of his legs to keep them up, before he went off to school. When my brother got to school that day, he saw one of his buddies wearing brand new red boots."

When my brother got to school, he saw one of his friends wearing brand new red boots. The little boy in the red boots came over to my brother and said "why are you wearing bread sacks?". Instead of my brother feeling self-conscious about what he was wearing, he said "these aren't bread sacks, these are Superman boots, that's why you can see through them." At that point, the little boy was taken back and said "Superman boots, wow...what if we traded?" to which my brother replied something like "well I don't know, all you have are regular boots, and mine are special see-through Superman boots." After everything, my brother ended up trading his bread sacks for brand new red boots. That is, until my mom found out...but still.

See the power of telling a story worked for him, just as it works in life, in business, and in ourselves. In his mind, my brother wasn't a poor kid with bread sacks for boots, he was a super hero who had the coolest boots in school! His perspective shaped his internal environment.

I believe that storytelling is a powerful tool in business for so many reasons, as well. One being that, it communicates to people the possibilities of what your company, service, or product can do for them. There's many ways to use storytelling to grow your business. You can tell the stories of clients and how you've helped to make their life better, aka testimonials. You can tell the stories of why you went into business in the first place, especially if you go deep and have an altruistic reason. And ultimately, every form of marketing is storytelling on some level.

"One being that, it communicates to people the possibilities of what your company, service, or product can do for them. It creates a new story for their life as well."

Even being a small business owner, the stories you tell yourself about your company, your products, can determine your success. Every business that ever succeeded did because a person, told their own self that they could create a company that didn't exist prior, or improve on a company. They saw potential somewhere and believed in the story they told to their own heart.

How many of us, tell ourselves that only the smart, special, interesting, beautiful, charming, people are the ones who are successful? When we believe that, we're actually creating a story. And the more we tell the story, the more it becomes true whether it is or not. See, in the same way Travers told a story of her father as being a redeemed man, she was creating a new reality. While, when we tell ourselves a bad story for so long, it too creates a realty.

Your identity, your businesses identity, your mindset are shaped for better or for worse by the stories you tell. In the end, are you gonna be someone who sees yourself, your employees, your business as just a set of flaws, or can you create a story that sees the best in yourself and others. Your thoughts are shaping your story, so choose the good ones, the redeeming ones, the ones that inspire you...tell that story!