In a world that celebrates big wins and visible milestones, what if the most meaningful growth is happening quietly?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Kyle explores a different way of understanding success. He unpacks how we’ve been conditioned to measure our lives through wins and losses and why that framework often misses the deeper, more transformative story unfolding within us.

Kyle shares insights from his own coaching journey, reflecting on the slow, often invisible process of growth that doesn’t always translate into immediate results. This conversation invites us to reconsider the metrics we use to define progress and to notice the quieter forms of becoming that shape who we are.

Through a Whole Story Living lens, this episode challenges the dominant narrative that success must be loud, fast, and externally validated. Instead, it offers a more grounded, human-centered perspective: growth is often subtle, nonlinear, and deeply personal.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re “behind,” stuck, or not seeing the results you expected, this conversation will help you reframe your story and recognize the growth that’s already happening.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why measuring life by wins and losses can limit your perspective
• The difference between external validation and internal transformation
• How to recognize progress when nothing “big” seems to be happening
• A Whole Story Living approach to redefining success

Learn more about Kyle's creative work as co-founder of Homeplace Creative, here.

What would happen if you decided to become the author of your own life story?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Dr. Meg Adams shares the behind-the-scenes reflection from the first month of her Whole Story Living experiment—a year-long practice of stepping out of algorithm-driven living and reclaiming agency over the stories that shape our lives.

January was designed as a reset month: slowing down, creating space to think, and building habits that help us live more intentionally in a world that constantly pulls our attention elsewhere.

Meg shares what she learned from protecting her mornings for writing, creating a dedicated space for creative work, stepping back from social media noise, and reconnecting with the deeper narrative of her life and work.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the pace of digital life—or like your story is being written by everything except you—this episode will help you begin reclaiming your role as the storyteller.

This conversation explores:

• What it means to become the author of your own story

• Why digital culture makes it easy to lose narrative agency

• The first steps of the Whole Story Living framework

• How small habits—writing, reflection, and attention—help reshape your life narrative

• What Meg learned during the first month of her year-long experiment

This episode is a reflection on agency, creativity, and intentional living—and an invitation to start paying attention to the story you’re telling with your life.

• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• Whole Story Living Substack (follow along with the experiment)

Follow the Whole Story Living journey:

Instagram: @drmegadams
Substack: Whole Story Living

If you paused long enough to listen to your life right now…

What story is asking to be written next?

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to The Story Craft Podcast, share it with a friend, and follow along with Meg’s Whole Story Living field notes on Substack.

What does it take to believe in yourself when others don’t? And how do you build a thriving small business rooted in relationships instead of algorithms?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Dr. Meg Adams sits down with Jenny Young, founder of SHE Did It Videography, to explore the power of self-trust, community-centered entrepreneurship, and storytelling as a force for local impact.

Jenny’s journey from Akron, Ohio to becoming an award-winning videographer serving small businesses and nonprofits across Northeast Ohio is a story of courage, resilience, and returning to your creative roots. A graduate of The University of Akron, Jenny spent years honing her craft—filming up to five videos a week across cities like Wadsworth, Medina, and Cleveland—before launching her own business in 2018.

But her success didn’t come from chasing trends. It came from investing in relationships.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How to believe in yourself when support feels scarce

• Why community is the strongest marketing strategy for small business owners

• What it means to build a brand people talk about (“SHE did it!”)

• The courage it takes to leave stability and start your own creative business

• How serving small businesses and nonprofits can create ripple effects of kindness

Jenny shares how SHE Did It Videography was born from a desire to serve “small first” — making high-quality, accessible video production available to local entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations. Her work isn’t just about content creation; it’s about strengthening the conversation around storytelling, visibility, and generosity in Northeast Ohio.

At its core, Jenny’s story is a Whole Story Living story.

Whole Story Living is about stepping into authorship — choosing courage over comfort, connection over competition, and contribution over comparison.

Jenny embodies:

Narrative Aliveness – Returning to the creative spark she had as a child with a camera.
Relational Intelligence – Building a business around trust, community boards, and collaboration.
Human-Centered Rhythms – Designing a business that works alongside motherhood and family life.
The Sacred Ordinary – Seeing videography not just as a career, but as a way of giving back.

Her story reminds us that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful. It can be local. It can be relational. It can be rooted.

If you’re a creative entrepreneur, small business owner, nonprofit leader, or someone trying to build something meaningful while staying connected to your community — this episode will encourage you to trust your story and take the next brave step.

If this episode resonated with you:

• Subscribe to The Story Craft Podcast

• Share this episode with a small business owner or creative who needs encouragement

• Leave a review to help more community-driven entrepreneurs discover this conversation

And for more reflections on building a life and business rooted in connection, follow along with Whole Story Living on Substack and Instagram @drmegadams.

Because when you believe in your story — even when others don’t — you don’t just build a business.

You build a community!

What happens when you stop letting algorithms shape your life and start becoming the author of your own story?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Meg introduces Whole Story Living — a human-centered framework for reclaiming your attention, reconnecting with your values, and showing up more fully in your work and relationships.

After growing disillusioned with social media, hustle culture, and performative productivity, Meg shares why she’s treating 2026 as a living research experiment: slowing down, listening more deeply, and rebuilding her rhythms around connection, creativity, and meaning.

You’ll hear:

• Why algorithms quietly shape how we think, create, and relate

• What it means to become the author of your own life instead of a passive consumer

• The origin of Whole Story Living — and how it blends storytelling, leadership, and embodied presence

• Simple practices for reclaiming your mornings, your voice, and your inner narrative

• How small, intentional habit shifts can restore confidence and clarity

This episode is both a personal reflection and an invitation — especially for women leaders, creatives, and thoughtful humans who feel tired of being optimized and ready to feel alive again.

If you’ve been craving slower mornings, deeper connection, and a more honest relationship with your own story, this conversation is for you.

👉 Follow along with the Whole Story Living experiment

Subscribe to Meg’s Substack for monthly field notes, research reflections, and behind-the-scenes insights from this year-long journey — and connect on Instagram @drmegadams for weekly story prompts and practice ideas.

Have you ever noticed how suddenly everyone is talking about the same thing online?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Kyle Adams explores how social media algorithms quietly shape what we see, what we think about, and even what we believe matters — using the flood of posts surrounding the Super Bowl halftime show as a real-time example of collective attention being redirected.

But this conversation goes deeper than trending topics.

Kyle unpacks how algorithmic feeds can:

• Hijack our attention and emotional energy

• Create manufactured consensus

• Pull us away from our own values and lived experiences

• Replace meaningful connection with performative engagement

More importantly, he offers grounded, practical ways to resist the pull.

This episode is an invitation to reclaim your agency — to slow down, stay rooted in your values, and choose face-to-face human connection over algorithmic validation.

You’ll walk away with simple practices for:

• Becoming more aware of how algorithms influence your thinking

• Re-centering on what actually matters to you

• Prioritizing real relationships over digital noise

• Living and leading with intention in an attention economy

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by social media, exhausted by online discourse, or disconnected from your deeper sense of purpose, this episode will help you reconnect with your humanity — and remember that you still get to author your own story.

We are living in a moment where stories shape everything—what we believe, who we trust, how power moves, and whose voices are heard.

In this solo episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Dr. Meg Adams explores the urgency of telling your story and what it means to live—and lead—a Whole Story in a time when narratives are constantly being written for us.

Drawing from her Whole Story Living framework, Meg unpacks the idea that storytellers are not just content creators or communicators—we are meaning makers. The stories we tell (and the ones we silence) shape culture, build communities, and influence how power is understood and distributed.

This episode is a call to presence and authorship. To stop outsourcing your story. To show up with confidence. And to recognize that your lived experience carries weight—whether you claim it or not.

• Why storytelling is not optional in today’s cultural moment

• What it means to live a Whole Story—not a curated or fragmented one

• Why confidence comes from ownership, not performance

• How storytelling builds community and shifts narratives

• The responsibility storytellers carry as cultural meaning makers

This episode is especially for leaders, creatives, educators, and anyone who has ever felt hesitant to take up space with their story—but knows, deep down, that it matters.

If you’ve been waiting for permission to own your voice, consider this your invitation.

What if growing your business didn’t require louder marketing, trend-chasing, or burning yourself out—but instead, clarity, alignment, and better listening?

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Dr. Meg Adams sits down with Amy Traugh—bestselling author, business strategist, and founder of The Metrics Maven—to explore how data, storytelling, and authenticity work together to create sustainable business growth.

Amy has built and scaled three businesses in under five years without a business degree or burnout by doing what most online “gurus” overlook: paying attention to metrics that actually matter. In this conversation, she challenges outdated growth tactics and invites solopreneurs to stop guessing—and start leading with clarity, confidence, and ease.

Through a Whole Story Living lens, this episode explores what it means to portray yourself honestly, curate a brand that feels aligned with who you are, and use metrics not as pressure—but as feedback. Amy reframes data as a form of listening: to your audience, your energy, and the story your business is telling over time.

• Why buyer behavior has changed—and why old growth strategies no longer work

• What it means to curate a brand that feels authentic and honest to you

• How solopreneurs can align numbers, narrative, and values

This episode is especially for solopreneurs, creatives, and service-based business owners who want to grow without losing themselves—and who believe that success should feel aligned, not exhausting.

If you’ve ever felt tension between “being yourself” and “doing what works,” this conversation brings those two worlds back together.

Some of the strongest leaders don’t command the room.
They hold it.

In this episode of The Story Craft Podcast, Kyle Adams talks about confident, quiet leadership, and why listening may be the most underrated leadership skill we have.

Kyle draws from his decade-long career as a television journalist and meteorologist, where listening carefully—to people, to context, to what’s unsaid—was essential. From live broadcasts to documentary storytelling, Kyle learned that trust isn’t built through volume or performance, but through presence and discernment.

Through the Whole Story Living framework, this episode centers on relational intelligence: the ability to lead with empathy, attunement, and intention in a world that often confuses speed with wisdom.

This conversation is an invitation to rethink leadership, not as something we project, but something we practice in relationship with others.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to be louder, faster, or more visible to be taken seriously, this episode offers a different—and deeply human—path forward.