We’re surrounded by narratives dressed up as stories; about mental health, health, wellbeing, and how to hack your way beyond any challenge - curated narratives shaped, shortened, or filtered for an outcome, an agenda, or an algorithm.

So, what happens when we see authentic storytelling in the midst of the endless impressions and return to something more human?

In this conversation, Hailey Hechtman (Unsinkable) and Jimmy Westerheim (The Human Aspect) explore the power of storytelling as a way to connect, compared to narrative marketing as something we construct to persuade or simplify.

Because while narratives can inform, polarize and impact us, authentic stories, shared in someone’s own words, with all their nuance and contradiction, have the power to connect for us to shift how we understand ourselves and each other.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as someone saying “Let me share what I have experienced” in a way that makes us pause and listen more deeply. As we connect in this way, stepping out of our intellectual mindset, judgement softens, and new perspectives and insights come to us as we recognize our mutual humanity, and connect in a more emotional, human way. 

This conversation will also look at how today’s digital landscape is shaping the stories we see and how narrative tellers fueled by big tech polarize society but also numb us all down.
Algorithms tend to reward what is fast, certain, and polarized, leaving little room for complexity, cultural context, or the reality that people and their experiences evolve over time.
In that environment, storytelling can easily become narrative-telling content: flattened, performative, and disconnected from the person it came from. But when we make space for authentic, lived experience storytelling, something else becomes possible.

We start to:

• See beyond assumptions and stereotypes
• Widen our perspectives and connect with others
• Question the narratives we’ve been given and the ones we tell ourselves

This is especially critical in leadership and at systems-level, where lived experience is often positioned as separate from, or secondary to, clinical or academic expertise.
It is not either/or, and when we honor both, we create a wider understanding of mental health and connect with a more meaningful, inclusive reality.

At its core, this session is about uplifting storytelling as something more than content or communication. It is about connection, insight, and the possibility of transformation, both individually and collectively.

The following topics will be covered: 

• Storytelling vs. Narrativetelling - The difference between sharing a lived experience to connect, and shaping a narrative to achieve a specific outcome – why that matters
• The Impact of Algorithms on Story - How digital platforms reward certainty, polarization, and speed, and what gets lost when perspectives, nuance, complexity, and evolving stories are pushed aside
•  From Content to Human Story - What happens when lived experiences are turned into bites, and how to re-connect with depth, dignity, and responsibility in the storyteller
• Why Real Stories Change Us - How authentic storytelling creates space for insight, softens judgment, and allows us to see ourselves in others, across labels and narratives
• Lived Experience as Expertise - Challenging the narrated divide between “expert” and “experience,” and how integrating both can deepen understanding and strengthen mental health systems
• Storytelling in Leadership - The role of story in building trust, psychological safety, and more human-centered organizations
• The Stories We Tell Ourselves - How storytelling can shift internal narratives, support self-understanding, and open the possibility for change
• Connection as a Human Need - Why we are wired to seek out real stories and how they help us connect to a deeper why