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The Gentle Rebel Podcast

The Gentle Rebel Podcast

Written by: Andy Mort
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 The Gentle Rebel Podcast explores the intersection of high sensitivity, creativity, and the influence of culture within, between, and around us. Through a mix of conversational and monologue episodes, I invite you to question the assumptions, pressures, and expectations we have accepted, and to experiment with ways to redefine the possibilities for our individual and collective lives when we view high sensitivity as both a personal trait and a vital part of our collective survival (and potential).Andy Mort Art Self-Help Social Sciences Success
Episodes
  • Exploiting Trust With Storytelling Frameworks

    Exploiting Trust With Storytelling Frameworks
    May 15 2026
    The moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf is generally that liars aren’t believed even when they tell the truth. But I wonder if that story actually tells us less about the boy and more about the village. The boy’s behaviour didn’t change. What changed was how the village responded. Each false alarm conditioned them to doubt what came next. Once that trust was gone, the villagers were living in a subtly created new reality. That feels uncannily familiar right now. In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we explore the storification of everything and its impact on our ability to trust what we hear about almost anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iN-FtQieUU A while back, my attention was caught by an Instagram carousel titled “8 Storytelling Frameworks Used by Million-Dollar Personal Brands (that you can steal).” It might have been the image of Mel Robbins on the front cover that did it. I love stories. Storytelling is a wonderful way to unlock our creativity and deepen our experience of humanity. But when I see storytelling packaged into marketing funnels with the aim not to tell better stories, but to become more persuasive and influential in shaping people’s behaviour, I feel a bit of the ick. For me, the purpose of storytelling is to deepen empathy, compassion, and insight. There is nothing inherently wrong with a brand telling stories. What rankles me is when storytelling frameworks are used not to explore a truth but to manufacture one, with the goal simply to turn attention back to the storyteller and get people to part with their money. The storification of influencers and brands may give us insight into why so many of us are starting to feel jaded, cynical, and tired. The Fastest Way to Build Trust (and Destroy It) In branding and marketing, storytelling aims to persuade people to take a pre-designated action. The Instagram post reinforced this, saying: “Storytelling is the fastest way to build trust online. It makes people feel like they know you, and people buy from those they know.” But if this becomes disingenuous or dishonest, each fabricated story becomes another cry of wolf. We are naturally poised to trust, but we are also highly adaptable. If we are told enough stories that turn out to be untrue, it erodes our trust. We struggle to believe anything, even when it is real. Look at how many comments say “staged” or “fake” on videos that aren’t staged at all. Storytelling may be the fastest way to build trust, but it can also be the fastest way to destroy it. I include examples to show that this isn’t about whether storytelling frameworks work. I know they do. Rather, it’s about what happens when they are exploited. What happens to our faith and trust in what we hear and read in everyday life? The Storytelling Frameworks Here are the eight frameworks from that Instagram post. Before → After → Bridge – Show where you were, where you are now, and the specific bridge that got you there.Aha Moment – Tell the moment your perspective changed and the lesson behind it.Micro-Moment Story – Take a tiny, ordinary moment and extract a deeper truth from it.Mistake → Lesson – Share a mistake, then the lesson learned, and how it shaped your expertise.Enemy of the Hero – Define the villain your audience is fighting (fear, confusion, burnout) and position yourself as the guide.Scar → Skill – Reveal a vulnerable moment, then show the strength or transformation it built.From My Client’s Eyes – Tell a story from a client’s transformation, focusing on the emotional shift.Depth in 30 Seconds – Deliver a full story arc (tension, insight, outcome) in one punchy micro-story. These eight storytelling frameworks are widely taught in marketing circles. But as I explore in the episode, each one can either deepen trust or erode it, depending on the intent behind the story. What Can We Do About The Boy Who Cries Wolf? We might think of ourselves as the villagers in The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Enough of the village is still responding in good faith to dishonest stories. But the more we permit and encourage these tactics, the more good faith will erode. We will assume nothing is true and wonder what the storyteller is trying to squeeze from us. That is a bleak place to be, not least because we start writing off those who have taken the time to create honestly, as we cannot distinguish between truth and fabrication. What are we willing to tolerate? What are we helping to amplify? How are we equipping and rewarding the cries of wolf?
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    28 mins
  • How would you know if you’re satisfied?

    How would you know if you’re satisfied?
    May 12 2026
    What would you say makes something satisfying for you? How do you recognise that you’re satisfied? It’s not always easy to answer those questions. It’s something I’ve explored a lot over the past few years, both personally and in conversations with others who feel caught in a tug-of-war between doing what they feel they ought to do and what actually brings them an intrinsic sense of satisfaction. If you’re trying to make creativity part of your life in some way, it can be difficult to balance sustainability and intrinsic satisfaction. We may hand it over to external measures and signals, such as numbers, praise, and money. Because they’re easier to measure, we often associate satisfaction with outcomes and goals. But if our actions are only motivated by those kinds of extrinsic metrics, especially when they’re personally pretty meaningless, we can end up feeling disconnected from what we’re doing. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed in my work with people is helping peel back the layers of story that can build up like a fog and identifying their own unique signals of satisfaction shining through it. When we recognise these things, we can develop greater confidence in our creative voice and follow a more meaningful pathway through our projects and lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6uaYjKFVKU Satisfaction in the process What brings you satisfaction in the process? What brings you glimmers of connection along the way? When you’ve enjoyed the journey towards an outcome in the past, what made it meaningful for you? Maybe it was working alongside other people and feeling a sense of camaraderie. Perhaps it was figuring things out, solving problems, or seeing things come together that you couldn’t have foreseen before you started. Satisfaction with the response What brings you satisfaction in the response? What kinds of responses give you a sense that your effort was worthwhile? Maybe it’s when you realise someone gets it. Perhaps it’s feeling seen and appreciated for the care you’ve put into something. Maybe it’s when people tell others about it, or it might be receiving some form of reward or recognition. I always remember someone coming up to me after I played a gig to an almost empty room, saying they had almost decided not to come, but were really glad they did. They said, “There’s nowhere else in the world I would rather have been this evening.” That stuck with me. Of course, it’s nice to play to bigger crowds. But moments like that changed how I think about satisfaction. Some of my favourite memories come from small shows that might look like failures on paper but felt deeply meaningful once I moved beyond judging everything by numbers and vanity metrics. Satisfaction with the impact What brings you satisfaction in the impact? When you see something you’ve done making ripples in the world around you, what gives you a sense of satisfaction? Maybe it’s seeing people follow your example and pay something forward. Perhaps it’s seeing someone change in some way because of your effort. Or maybe it’s simply knowing that your work brings more curiosity, laughter, appreciation, understanding, or joy into the world. I find it deeply meaningful when I hear from people about how my music has helped them. Knowing that a song has helped someone through a challenging time in their life feels very satisfying. It can’t be forced, though. Part of that satisfaction comes from the surprise of receiving messages from people, which is why I choose to keep the doorways for communication open. Satisfaction with the result When the endeavour is complete, what gives you that feeling of satisfaction? Maybe it’s the money. Perhaps it’s holding the finished thing in your hand. Maybe it’s seeing it out there in the world. Or finally being able to let go and move on. Knowing it’s done, it’s complete, it exists. How do you know when you’re satisfied? What does it feel like in your body? Between The External and Internal Locus of Evaluation The psychologist Carl Rogers drew a distinction between an external locus of evaluation and an internal locus of evaluation. An external locus might mean waiting for applause, approval, or recognition before allowing yourself to feel satisfied. An internal locus is more about trusting your own felt sense of meaning and alignment, even if nobody else fully gets or appreciates it. When we rely exclusively on external evaluation, we can become trapped in the tug-of-war between what we genuinely connect with and what others validate. We end up waiting for permission to feel satisfied. We might also avoid speaking up about things people don’t want to hear, and shrink back from doing things we anticipate will be criticised, even when they are important to our deeper values and principles. An internal locus helps us stay connected to satisfaction on our own terms. It reminds us that even if the ideal response never comes, there may ...
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    12 mins
  • There’s No One To Blame But You – The True Power of Positive Thinking

    There’s No One To Blame But You – The True Power of Positive Thinking
    May 8 2026
    Like other self-help gurus of the time, Norman Vincent Peal targeted the lonely travelling salesman. But his message was also marketed to corporate executives, who were promised that the true power of positive thinking lay in the great dividends it would yield if they could sell it to their workforce. This episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast builds on the first part of this mini-series, where we saw Peale’s roots in the New Thought movement of the 1800s. In this one, we examine how Peale encouraged a corporate embrace of positive thinking so that individuals would attribute all of their success and failure to the quality of their mindset and attitude. We look at the surprising role of Positive Thinking in the 2008 global financial crash. https://youtu.be/4U0Yk4Zryrw?si=JBLU4f-7VbPA6ZWU The Lonely Travelling Salesman and the Birth of a Corporate Tool In The Power of Positive Thinking, Peale recalls his encounters with travelling salesmen. They were on the road, feeling dejected, struggling to make sales, and lacking confidence. He prescribed visualisation, encouraging followers to “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade.” Peale treats this lonely reality as an unchangeable and natural state of being. He doesn’t question the corporate culture that has made this a way of life for an increasing number of people. Instead, he offers a hand on the shoulder, with advice to ease the natural despair and unhappiness that accompany it. He quotes psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger, who said, “Attitudes are more important than facts.” He adds, “That is worth repeating until its truth grips you… You may permit a fact to overwhelm you mentally before you start to deal with it actually. On the other hand, a confident and optimistic thought pattern can modify or overcome the fact altogether.” In other words, it doesn’t matter what is true. What matters is what you want to be true. Believe wholeheartedly, and it will come to pass. This reminded me of a quote from Ivanka Trump’s self-help book, The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, which is a descendant of Peale, with the family attending his church and being greatly influenced by his teaching. Ivanka wrote: “Perception is more important than reality. If someone perceives something to be true, it is more important than if it is in fact true. This doesn’t mean you should be duplicitous or deceitful, but don’t go out of your way to correct a false assumption if it plays to your advantage.” Motivational Downsizing and the Rise of Outplacement Firms Barbara Ehrenreich suggests, “In the hands of employers, positive thinking has been transformed into something its nineteenth-century proponents probably never imagined—not an exhortation to get up and get going but a means of social control in the workplace, a goad to perform at ever-higher levels.” The book also paved the way for “motivational downsizing”. Between 1981 and 2003, about 30 million full-time American workers lost their jobs due to corporate downsizings. Ehrenreich highlights how workplaces deliberately instil a positive outlook. Employers bring in motivational speakers and distribute free copies of self-help books. The 1998 mega–bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? was a big favourite for this, cleverly encouraging an uncomplaining response to layoffs. Shifting Responsibility Onto The Individual Companies were learning to shift responsibility from themselves to individuals. Outplacement firms were employed to groom laid-off workers, limit ill will, head off wrongful-termination suits, and protect against bad-mouthing by former employees. The owner of such a firm said, without irony, that “Losing a job is a step forward in your life.” This double-speak casts redundancy as a growth experience. A self-retreat. A deserved time out. Something for which you should be grateful. Ehrenreich recounts the story of an employee who was compelled to work with an outplacement firm after being laid off. He was advised not to discuss his job loss with anyone for a month. He later recalled, “It was good advice. I was so bitter, I would have said things that would have been bad for me.” This is a shrewd move that not only keeps potentially disgruntled employees quiet but also leads them to believe their greatest enemy is internal. In examples like this, the power of positive thinking really does pay dividends…for organisations. Did The Power of Positive Thinking Cause a Global Financial Crash? Ehrenreich writes that some of those who predicted the 2008 financial crash were warned to change their attitude or risk losing their job. Mike Gelband, who ran the real estate division of Lehman Brothers, expressed fears about what he believed to be a real estate bubble. He suggested to Lehman CEO Richard Fuld during his 2006 bonus review that they needed to rethink their business ...
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    23 mins
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