Have you ever watched a king, a queen, a superhero, or a great leader in a movie? Do you notice how they speak? Their words are not messy or confusing. They are clear. They are strong. One sentence from them can make a whole room get quiet. One idea from them can make hundreds of people jump into action.
What is their secret? It is not a magic spell. It is not just a loud voice.
Their secret is that they edit their story before they speak.
Think of it like this: Imagine your favorite video game character. Before a big battle, they do not just run in. They check their armor. They choose their best weapon. They look at the map and make a plan. Powerful people do this with their words. Before they walk into an important meeting, a speech, or even a tough talk, they get their "word armor" ready. They choose their best "word weapons." They make a plan for their message.
This is not about being fake or lying. It is about being smart and kind to your listeners. It is about taking the messy, exciting movie playing in your head and making a cool, clear trailer for it, so others want to see it too.
This skill has a very important name in the grown-up world. It is called storytelling. But this is not just for telling fairy tales. This is for making things happen. There is a whole storytelling business. Grown-ups study how to grow your business with storytelling because a powerful story can make people believe, buy, join, or follow. We will learn about storytelling marketing, brand storytelling, and storytelling for business pitch. Do not worry about these big terms yet. By the end, you will see they are just fancy ways of saying "telling a story that connects."
So, how do the most powerful people edit their story? Let us open the door to their secret workshop and learn their best storyteller tactics. This is your guide to business storytelling where to start.
Part 1: The Big Why – Why Do They Bother Editing?
First, let's understand why they work so hard on their words. Why not just say the first thing that comes to your mind?
Reason 1: To Be Understood.
Your brain is amazing and fast. It has feelings, pictures, memories, and ideas all at once. If you just dumped everything from your brain out of your mouth, it would be a confusing mess! Like a toy box turned upside down. Editing is cleaning up that toy box. You pick up the best, shiniest toy—your main idea—and you hold it up for everyone to see clearly.
Reason 2: To Be Remembered.
People forget facts. They forget lists. But they never forget a good story. If you edit your message into a mini-story, it will stick in people's minds like glue. This is the core of how business storytelling works. You are turning "information" into an "experience" for the listener's brain.
Reason 3: To Build Trust.
When someone speaks in a clear, calm, prepared way, they seem more in control. They seem like they know what they are doing. This builds trust. Would you follow someone into a jungle if they seemed lost and confused with their own map? No! You follow the guide who checks the map, points the way, and says, "Our adventure is this way!" Editing your story makes you the trusted guide.
Part 2: The Toolbox – What Do They Edit With?
Okay, so they edit. But what tools do they use? Let us look inside their toolbox.
Tool #1: The Chopping Knife – Cutting the Weak Stuff.
This is the most important tool. A powerful editor chops away words that make them sound weak or unsure.
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Chop "Um," "Ah," "Like." Instead, they use a pause. Silence is stronger than a nervous sound.
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Chop "I think," "Maybe," "Kind of." Instead of "I think maybe we should kind of try this," they say, "Let's try this."
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Chop extra, confusing details. They keep only the details that help the story. If a detail about the "blue sky" does not matter to the point, they cut it. The sky can just be "the sky."
Tool #2: The Magnet – Finding the One Big Idea.
Before they start, they find the center of their message. They ask: "If my listener remembers only ONE thing, what should it be?" That one thing is their magnet. Every other word, story, or fact they use must be attracted to that magnet. It must help explain that One Big Idea. This is the first step in storytelling in business communication.
Tool #3: The Paintbrush – Painting Pictures with Words.
They do not just use plain words. They use words that make your brain see a picture.
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Plain: "Our company helps the environment."
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With Paint: "Our company turns plastic bottles from the ocean into backpacks for kids." Can you see it? The bottles, the ocean, the backpack? That's brand storytelling. It is painting a picture of what your "team" (or company) stands for.
Tool #4: The Heart Connector – Making People Feel.
Powerful people know that facts tell, but feelings sell. They edit their words to create a feeling.
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Do they want their team to feel excited? They use words like "breakthrough," "launch," "victory."
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Do they want them to feel safe? They use words like "steady," "reliable," "protect," "foundation."
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Do they want to show a problem? They make you feel the problem. "Remember how frustrating it is when your video game lags right at the best moment? That's what our customers feel every day." See? You just felt a little frustration. Now you want the solution!
Part 3: The Superpower of Silence – The Power of the Pause
This might be the biggest secret of all. The most powerful tool is not a word. It is silence.
A pause is like the dramatic music in a movie. It tells your brain, "Pay attention! Something important just happened or is about to happen."
How do they use pauses?
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Before they start: They stand up, smile, look around, and wait. They do not speak until everyone is ready to listen. This instantly makes them the leader of the room.
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After a big idea: "We are going to change the game... (pause)... starting today." The pause lets the big idea ("change the game") sink in.
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Instead of rushing: When they need a moment to think, they stay silent and calm instead of saying "um." This makes them look wise, not nervous.
Editing is not just about the words you put in. It is also about the quiet space you leave between them. This space is where your message grows in the listener's mind.
Part 4: The Simple Recipe – The Story Structure They All Use
Every great speech or pitch follows a simple recipe. You can use it for a book report, a lemonade stand sale, or a giant business storytelling where to start project. The recipe has three parts:
1. The Problem (The "Ouch!"):
You start by talking about a problem your listener understands. You make them nod and think, "Yes, I know that feeling!"
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For a class project on recycling: "Isn't it confusing? One bin for paper, one for plastic, but what about this wrapper? It feels like you need a manual just to throw away trash!"
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This grabs attention because you are talking about their world.
2. The Struggle (The "Journey"):
You talk about the search for a solution. Maybe old ways did not work. This shows the problem is tough, which makes your solution more valuable.
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"People have tried simple signs and ads, but the confusion remains. The old system is just too complicated for our busy lives."
3. The Solution (The "Aha!"):
Now, you reveal your idea. It is the hero that fixes the Problem.
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"So, we designed a simple, one-color-coded bin system and a fun app that scans your trash to tell you where it goes. Learning to recycle becomes as easy as a game!"
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This is your storytelling for business pitch. You presented a problem, showed why it's hard, and then offered your hero-solution.
This simple structure—Problem, Struggle, Solution—is the engine of storytelling business. It works every single time.
Part 5: You Can Do It! How to Edit Your Own Story
Now, how can you use this? Let's practice with something you know.
Your Mission: Convince your parents you are ready for a later bedtime.
Step 1: Find Your One Big Idea (The Magnet).
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Messy Thought: "I'm older now, I'm not tired, my friends stay up, I can do more homework, I promise I'll wake up..."
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The Magnet (One Big Idea): "A later bedtime will help me be more responsible and successful."
Step 2: Use the Recipe.
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The Problem (The Ouch): "Mom, Dad, I know you worry that if I go to bed later, I'll be tired and grumpy the next day. That's a real problem."
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The Struggle (The Journey): "The old schedule was perfect when I was younger. But now, sometimes I have more homework, or I'm in the middle of a creative project, and the early bedtime interrupts my focus."
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The Solution (The Aha!): "I believe a 30-minute later bedtime, on school nights, will let me finish my work better and learn to manage my own energy. To prove I'm responsible, I will set my own alarm for the morning and be ready on time without any reminders for one week. This is how I learn to be in charge of my own sleep."
Step 3: Paint a Picture & Choose Feeling Words.
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Instead of "do homework," say "finish my science project properly."
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Instead of "be responsible," say "learn to manage my own energy and time."
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The feeling you want? Trust. Your words are calm, clear, and offer a fair test.
Step 4: Plant Your Pauses.
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"I know you worry... (pause)... and that's a real problem."
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"This is how I learn... (pause)... to be in charge."
See? You did not just whine, "But all my friends get to stay up!" You edited your messy thoughts into a clear, respectful story. That is storytelling in business communication for your family "business"!
Part 6: Storytelling in the Real Grown-Up World
Let us see how this editing works for the big terms we talked about.
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Storytelling Marketing: This is just telling a story about a product so people want it. A toy company does not just say "Buy this doll!" They tell a story of adventure and friendship that you can have with the doll. They edited their message from "buy this" to "join this adventure."
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Brand Storytelling: This is the big story of what a company stands for. A shoe company might not just sell shoes. Their story is about athletes breaking records, or about comfort for people who are on their feet all day. Every ad they make is a small piece of that bigger, edited story.
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How to Grow Your Business with Storytelling: A new restaurant owner tells the story of their grandmother's secret recipes from Italy. That story is more interesting than just a menu. It makes people want to come taste that history. The story makes the business grow.
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Storyteller Tactics in Action: A boss wants her team to work hard on a new project. She could just say, "Work hard, deadline is Friday." Instead, she tells a story: "Remember how proud we were when we launched Project Sky last year? Our customers loved it. Now, we have a chance to do it again, but bigger. This project, Project Lightning, is our next big victory. Let's make it legendary." She edited from a command to a shared mission.
Conclusion: Your Words Are Your Power
Powerful people are not born with perfect words. They learn that words are a choice. They learn to edit. They learn that storytelling for business pitch, for leading a team, or for inspiring a class, is simply about sharing your true idea in the clearest, most exciting way possible.
You have this power too. You are the author of your story.
Before your next big moment—asking for something, presenting a project, standing up for a friend—be your own editor.
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Find your Magnet: What is your one big idea?
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Use the Recipe: Problem, Struggle, Solution.
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Paint Pictures: Use words that help people see and feel.
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Be Brave with Silence: Let your pauses do the talking.
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Chop the Weak Words: Be clear and strong.
Remember, all the storytelling marketing, brand storytelling, and storytelling business ideas are just fancy ways of saying one thing: Connect with people. When you edit your story before you speak, you are polishing your connection. You are making sure your light shines so brightly that everyone can see it, understand it, and want to walk toward it.
Now, go edit your story. The world is waiting to hear it.
How a powerful story can inspire people to change
Storytelling is one of the most powerful and valuable skills a leader can have.
In brief
- People are wired to respond emotionally to change, therefore stories can help coherently communicate the narrative for change.
- When listening to stories, our brains release oxytocin which makes audiences more compassionate.
- Leaders who deliver compelling stories make them catchy, impactful, authentic and simple.
How EY can help
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Change management and experience
Amongst growing disruption, increased complexity and heightened employee expectations, new approaches to change management can drive improved transformation outcomes.
In times of great organisational transformation, storytelling can be a leader’s most powerful communication tool. This article explores the psychology of stories and how you can harness their power for leading transformational change in your organisation.
As a leader, it’s highly likely that your people are sharing stories about your leadership, your handling of the change and about the organisation itself. You may not like it, but it will be happening.
People are wired to respond emotionally to any kind of disruption, and in the absence of coherent and well-communicated storytelling from leadership, it is natural for narratives to be made up.
Instead of letting these ‘corridor’ stories influence people’s perceptions, leaders can take ownership of the ‘change story’ themselves by crafting an authentic narrative that shifts hearts and minds in the direction you are taking the organisation.
With a story, you can spark action and inspire people to join and trust you. It can also get them to do the work of spreading your message about the big changes your organisation is making, such as a culture change, a new leader, a rebrand or even a restructure.
A brilliant example of a leadership speech, using a story, is Barack Obama’s “Fired up, ready to go” speech. Obama’s story starts with a small event about himself and ends with a rallying call to change the world together. He turns a small idea into a big vision, starting with “I” and finishing with “we”.
Another excellent example of using personal stories which promote a social message is this TED Talk by Susan Cain, author of Quiet Revolution. Cain is on a mission ‘to unlock the power of introverts for the benefit of us all’.
For a powerful reality check, and world-class example of using personal experience to influence change, consider Malala Yousafzai. At 15, Malala survived an attempted Taliban assassination in Pakistan, and has gone on to campaign and speak on the world’s stage for girls’ rights everywhere.
The neuroscience behind storytelling
Humans have been telling stories for tens of thousands of years, which means our brains are hardwired to engage with the narratives we read and hear. This makes storytelling extremely effective when used with purpose and a clear direction.
Paul J Zak, director of the [US] Centre for Neuroeconomics Studies and a professor of economics, psychology, and management at Claremont Graduate University, discovered that when an audience listens to a compelling, character-driven story containing a dramatic arc, the brain releases oxytocin — the ‘love’ neurochemical — which makes the audience more generous, compassionate and trustworthy.1
Based on his research, Zak says “stories that are personal and emotionally compelling engage more of the [listener’s] brain, and thus are better remembered than simply stating a set of facts.” He advises that. “stories are an effective way to transmit important information and values from one individual or community to the next.”
This means that even if your audience starts out as critical, by using a storytelling technique, you can shift your audience’s mood into empathy, cooperation and support of your message.
Not everyone is born with the natural charisma or command of Barack Obama, or had the life-altering experience of Malala Yousafzai, but you do have the power to craft and share an authentically crafted story yourself. You can then use this story to affect the change you want to see in your organisation.
How to craft a story as a business leader
- Understand why you’re sharing the story
Approach creating your story strategically. This means getting clear on the business objective, e.g. to encourage conversation between people and leaders. - Decide your message
The message your story send is core to the form it should take. If you want listeners to hear you say “your view is important to me: I want to hear what you’ve got to say” the you need to keep that message in focus during the creative phase. - Make it catchy
Turn the message into a simple statement that will be repeated. Get your people behind the message and they will repeat this statement to others, creating a ripple effect throughout your organisation. - Know your audience
Focus on who you are trying to reach. Use the language they use and consider what is important to them. If your story feels too remote from your people, they won’t engage. - Visualise the impact
Be purposeful about the mood and response you want to elicit from your people. - Authenticity is the key to good storytelling
It is a myth that vulnerability weakens your status. Authentic storytelling comes from personal experience and some of the best storytellers share vulnerable moments in their lives. This helps their audience connect to them.Just look at John Chambers on his dyslexia and Steve Jobs about the permanent separation from his mother as a baby and later his journey with pancreatic cancer. Take a tour through your past to choose some key events or people in your life that taught you something, helped you overcome a barrier or even transformed you. It’s ok to mention an imperfection or setback; don’t be afraid to share these if they serve your story’s message. - Use characters
We’re exposed to stories all the time, so try to capture elements of storytelling that will feel familiar to your audience. Use characters like you would find in a novel and give your story a dramatic arc to build tension and keep people’s attention. The best stories take the audience into the character’s world. - Make your audience the hero
You may have heard of the ‘hero’s journey’ as a storytelling technique. A hero goes on an adventure, hits a crisis, wins a victory and transforms as a result. Inspire your people to join you by making your audience the hero, not you (even though you still feature as a central character). This is fundamental. - Keep your story simple
Less is more. Only include detail if it adds to the dramatic tension. - Once you’ve got your story: practice, practice, practice Cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner suggests we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has formed part of a story.2 So, dedicate yourself to the art of storytelling if you truly want to bring people with you.
How to tell powerful stories in your speeches
Why tell stories in speeches? Because they are interesting, they help people remember what you say, and they are a good way to convey information and emotion memorably.
Mark Turner, a writer and philosopher who has been associated with the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Center for Neural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Maryland, goes even further. In his landmark book, The Literary Mind, published by Oxford in 1996, he says, “Story is a basic principle of mind.” In other words, he argues that we think in terms of stories. We learn from the high chair that if we push a glass of milk over, white liquid spills on the floor, a parent comes running making noises, mops it up, and kisses us on the top of the head (if we’re lucky). That’s a story, and it’s a basic understanding of cause and effect by which we make sense of our world.
There are actors, actions, objects, and results. It’s all good fun, it’s memorable, and it’s how we continue to think long after we’ve left the high chair.
How does that apply to public speaking? Most people organize their talks in lists of information. (Five reasons to join our exciting investment program.) Unfortunately, the human mind is not constructed to remember lists very well. Once you’ve told me 3 or 4 things, to remember the 4th or 5th I’ll have to forget the first. ‘In one ear and out the other’ pretty describes how we respond to lists. Yet everyone who has heard, seen, or read it once remembers the story of Romeo and Juliet.
So if you give speeches more like Shakespeare and less like the phone book, you’ll be much more memorable. That’s why stories are important.
How do you create a great story for the purposes of public speaking?
My favorite structure for a persuasive speech is the problem-solution structure.
You begin by describing a problem that the audience has, and then you describe a solution. You can either hold to that structure, and tell stories at various points along the way, as examples and supporting evidence and so on, or you can treat the whole speech as a story.
Think of your stories as having three acts.
The first act presents an idea or a situation that will engage the audience (Romeo meets Juliet and falls in love). It’s best if this idea or situation is one that, once it has happened or been told, cannot be undone. (Romeo cannot ‘unmeet’ Juliet.) If you give your audience some information at the beginning of your speech that they don’t know, it has the same effect. (Our customer base has been eroding for the last 16 quarters, and just today I learned that it’s official — we’re now down for 17 quarters. We can’t afford to go on like this…).
Needless to say, it should be information that is of interest to the audience — it should be about a problem they have.
The second act raises the stakes on the earlier idea or situation. (Romeo marries Juliet despite the feud between the two families.) Once again, it should be something that cannot easily be undone. (If we have another down quarter, we’re going to have to close manufacturing plants in Chicago and Ohio.)
The third act precipitates a resolution, either favorable or unfavorable, by posing a question that must be resolved. (Romeo kills Tybalt in a duel, thus resulting in his banishment. Will Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after? Answer: no.) (To turn things around, I’m starting a new product line, code name Lemmings, that will excite customers once again and bring them flocking back to our stores.) Just as no one in the play Romeo and Juliet ever literally asks the resolving question out loud, you don’t have to in your speech. You do have to resolve it, and the best way is to get your audience to undertake some action to enlist them in your persuasive moment. (I’ve put prototype Lemmings underneath your chairs. I’d like you now to please take them out of their boxes and try them out.)
Just as the rest of Romeo and Juliet fills in around these key moments with scenes that explore the consequences of these interesting, fateful actions, your speech should too.
That’s the basic structure of a good story. But there’s more.
Western society contains a few basic stories that everyone knows and resonates to, so if you can invoke one of those stories, you’ll get instant buy-in from your audience.
For example, if you ask your employees to embark with you on a long and arduous journey to develop a new product, they’ll complain about the obstacles along the way, unless you invoke a Quest story. Then, the obstacles are to be expected because that’s what happens on a quest. The heroes (your audience) meet obstacles and suffer reversals — but eventually overcome them all to reach the goal. Don’t make the mistake of casting yourself as the lone hero — always bring the audience along with you.
The Quest story is the most basic one, and audiences get the idea very quickly because the story is so deeply ingrained in our psyches. Quest stories have heroes, journeys, obstacles, mentors, and most importantly a goal at the end. For more information on the subject, read Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces the definitive book on the subject.
After the Quest, the other fundamental stories are: Stranger in a Strange Land, Love Story, Rags to Riches, and Revenge.
The way to think about these stories is as thematic ideas that you invoke as you go through your speech. You might do it with a specific reference to a particular, well-known Quest story, like the Holy Grail, the Wizard of Oz, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, or you might use the elements and the language of a Stranger in a Strange Land story in order to bring the audience into that magical space without actually telling them bluntly that ‘you’re on a quest’. It’s better in this case not to be blunt, but rather to evoke the stories with their unconscious power to orient us and bring us into a space where we see the outcome as ordained by the structure of the story.
Once you’ve picked your thematic story and you’re off on a Quest or you’re all Strangers in a Strange Land, then you want to think about using archetypes to get further storytelling mileage out of our common mythology.
Basically, an archetype is a model of a character, or part of a character. The word and concept have been around for a long time, but they were made famous, so to speak, by the great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
When Jung talked about archetypes, he meant primarily aspects of a person — the Self, the Shadow (your Dark Side) and the Persona (the face you put toward the world). But he also talked about a host of other kinds of people, and aspects of people and the natural world, that could be archetypes, from the child, hero, mother and wise old man to the fish.
The idea is that your particular mother resonates for you with the archetypal mother in some ways, and not in other ways. You may develop a mother complex as a result. We live at our best and most fully when we’re in harmony with all the archetypes we summon up.
Jung believed that archetypes were real — a kind of bridge between our inner psychological world and the real world out there. More than that, we all have access to universal wisdom and understanding through and with these archetypes.
OK, so what does that mean for speakers?
I think we can invoke the power of the basic archetypes by naming them at appropriate moments in our stories and by using them as ways to connect with the audience. Words like ‘child’, ‘mother’, ‘father’ and so on have enormous resonance for just about everyone in your audience. The trick is to let your audience do the work, creating the associations, by giving them enough detail to get their minds working, but not so much that you stop them from using their imaginations.
Archetypes work best in simple stories that allow audiences to fill in the blanks. You need to craft these stories — really parables — with great care so that they are not hackneyed or silly.
If you do it right, you can create powerful, memorable stories — on a variety of levels — in your speeches that call us all to our best, archetypal selves and move your audiences to action.
For a great example of successful storytelling in a speech, watch Malcolm Gladwell’s TED.com talk on Howard Moskowitz, spaghetti sauce, and the platonic dish. Gladwell’s story artfully weaves together the food industry’s quest for understanding human food-eating behavior with a three-act drama about Howard Moskowitz’s search for the perfect spaghetti sauce. The result of the search will surprise you; in part because Gladwell has constructed the story so well, and in part because you may think you know what you want in a spaghetti sauce, but you really don’t.
🌸 About Neeti Keswani
Neeti Keswani is the founder of Plush Ink and host of the Luxury Unplugged Podcast, where luxury meets spirituality. As an author, storyteller, and self-improvement coach, she helps conscious creators and professionals align with purpose, identity, and abundance through mindset transformation and emotional healing.
Her mission is to empower people to live with intention, authenticity, and joy — blending inner work with outer success.
Connect with Neeti:
🎙️ Luxury Unplugged Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/luxury-unplugged-podcast-where-luxury-meets-spirituality/id1551277118
📖 Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/luxuryunpluggedpodcast/
💼 LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/neetikeswani/
🌐 Plush Ink — https://www.plush-ink.com/