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THE STORY COMPASS

  • Writer: Jeremy Connell-Waite
    Jeremy Connell-Waite
  • May 21
  • 2 min read


Only it’s not quite finished... 


Most people only share the finished product.


The polished keynote.

The completed book.

The perfect idea.


But some of the most important thinking happens long before something is “finished.”


While I was off work for 7 months I was working on a draft guide which ended up being called “The Story Compass”. It centres around a framework I’ve been developing for the last 14 years (yes, fourteen!) which helps business leaders think more intentionally about storytelling and audience impact.


It asks the question – WHERE do you want to take your audience?


It’s an exploration into why some business stories work, but others don’t:


✅ Stories that work do six things well but ONE thing brilliantly.

❌ Stories which DON’T work focus on what the presenter wants to say, instead of what the audience needs to hear.


It’s a work-in-progress. Rough and badly written in places. Some ideas will evolve. Some may even be wrong. It needs a good edit.


But I wanted to share it anyway.


Because writing is not just about publishing. Writing is how we discover what we think. The process is often more important than the finished product.


“Everyone should write a book, but not everyone should publish one!” - Seth Godin

Too often we wait until everything feels polished before contributing anything at all. And AI is creating a LOT of very polished (but quite vanilla) content right now – especially on platforms like Linkedin. 🤯


But drafts have value. They invite conversation. They sharpen thinking. They remind us that creativity is a process, not a performance.


So here’s my unfinished work!


A compass still being calibrated… 🧭


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  • The Story Compass [DRAFT]

  • Free PDF download (24.7MB)

  • 98 Pages

  • 35,344 words

  • Full of cheat sheets, research, frameworks, case studies, AI prompts, story structures and a few thoughts about the future of storytelling.

  • Part of my new project: www.StoriesThat.Work 🙌🏻



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