You can only go as far as who you are today.

That might feel limiting… unless you remember this:

You're not stuck with who you are today.

In this final episode of the 3-part Narrative Identity series, I walk you through Step 3: Reframe — the intentional rebuilding of your narrative identity so you can expand what's possible for you and your team.

Because you don't create from strategy alone.
You create from identity.

This episode builds on:

• Reframe to Create Episode 123 – Reveal

• Reframe to Create Episode 124 – Reclaim

• And earlier identity foundations in Reframe to Create Episode 122 and Reframe to Create Episode 31

In this episode, I share:

• Why you cannot skip the process and jump straight to slogans
• The difference between identity work and strategy work
• The powerful rallying phrase your team must define:
We are… We believe… We belong to…
• The bonus clarity statement:
We do… so that… the people we serve can…

When your narrative identity is clear, alignment increases, shadow narratives lose power, and innovation gains momentum.

You are not limited by who you are today.
You can build a new you.
And your team can too.

Ready to reveal, reclaim, and reframe your narrative identity?

Email me at joy@reframetocreate.com with the subject line: Narrative Identity

It's time to reframe to create.

Referenced Episodes

Reframe to Create Episode 124 - If You Won't Choose, The Choice Will Be Made For You (Part 2 of 3): Reclaim

Reframe to Create Episode 123 - What You Won't Look at Will Kill You (Part 1 of 3): Reveal

Reframe to Create Episode 122 - It All Starts With and Goes Back to Who You Are

Reframe to Create Episode 31 - You Can Only Go As Far As You Are

About: The Reframe to Create podcast is hosted by Joy Spencer, an Executive Leadership and Storytelling Coach, Speaker, and Organizational Development Consultant working with professionals and leaders at all levels within organizations. Joy leverages over 17 years of experience she gained while working to champion change in social justice movements, including those related to global access to essential medicines and consumer advocacy for online privacy. This work required a dogged commitment to not merely challenging the status quo, but to reimagining and working towards creating an ideal future. It is this commitment to creating that has shaped Joy's coaching philosophy and approach today. Using her signature C.R.E.A.T.E. framework, Joy guides her clients through a process to become incomparable in work so they can get paid to be themselves.

Follow Joy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-spencer/

In Episode 123, we talked about Reveal—the courage it takes to finally look at what's already shaping your behavior, your decisions, and your results.

Today, we move into Part 2: Reclaim.

Because once you can see your narrative identity, you don't get to stay neutral anymore.

Not choosing… is still choosing.

And that choice always comes with consequences.

In this episode, I explore why reclaiming your narrative identity is fundamentally about making intentional choices—especially as teams and organizations that want to create something new, meaningful, and lasting.

• Why avoiding a decision doesn't protect you from consequences—it guarantees them

• How passive choices quietly shape team culture and outcomes

• What it really means to reclaim your narrative identity (hint: it's not about keeping everything)

• Why teams that don't choose their narrative identity end up being driven by shadow identities

• How unspoken assumptions sabotage alignment, strategy, and innovation

  Why narrative identity work must be done together and out loud

In Episode 125, which is the final episode of this 3-part series, I'll walk you through Reframe—the step where you intentionally reconstruct a new narrative identity that sets you up to create and innovate in power.

Reveal shows you what's there.
Reclaim helps you choose what stays.
Reframe is where the future gets built.

If you're ready to reclaim your creating power and help your team reveal, reclaim, and reframe its narrative identity, email me at:

📩 joy@reframetocreate.com
Subject: Narrative Identity

Let's build the narrative identity that can actually support the impact you're here to create.

Referenced Episodes

Reframe to Create Episode 123 - What You Won't Look at Will Kill You (Part 1 of 3): Reveal

Reframe to Create Episode 122 - It All Starts With and Goes Back to Who You Are

Reframe to Create Episode 31 - You Can Only Go As Far As You Are

About: The Reframe to Create podcast is hosted by Joy Spencer, an Executive Leadership and Storytelling Coach, Speaker, and Organizational Development Consultant working with professionals and leaders at all levels within organizations. Joy leverages over 17 years of experience she gained while working to champion change in social justice movements, including those related to global access to essential medicines and consumer advocacy for online privacy. This work required a dogged commitment to not merely challenging the status quo, but to reimagining and working towards creating an ideal future. It is this commitment to creating that has shaped Joy's coaching philosophy and approach today. Using her signature C.R.E.A.T.E. framework, Joy guides her clients through a process to become incomparable in work so they can get paid to be themselves.

Follow Joy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-spencer/

It's time for us to leave our ostrich ways behind.

In Part 1 of this three-part series, I'm calling us in to stop avoiding the things we don't want to see. Because what we refuse to look at doesn't disappear. It quietly works against us—undermining our creativity, momentum, strategy, and our ability to create real impact together.

This episode is about revealing your narrative identity: making the invisible visible, giving voice to what's been assumed, and naming what's already shaping (and sabotaging) what you're trying to build.

• Why "not looking" is one of the most common and costly patterns for individuals and teams

• How narrative identity silently determines how far we can create, build, and innovate

• The critical difference between thinking something and saying it out loud or writing it down

• Why making the implicit explicit is a lost art and essential leadership work

• How avoidance shows up as "spinsville" in teams, strategy, and planning

• Why clarity requires contrast (and why that discomfort is necessary)

This first step—Reveal—is grounded in six foundational questions. I especially want you to do this work with your team, organization, or movement:

1. Who are we?

2. Who do we belong to?

3. Why do we exist?

4. What are our values—lived, not laminated?

5. What do those values mean for what we will and won't do?

6. What do we believe—and invite others to believe with us?

These questions don't create a mess. They reveal the mess that's already there so we can finally do something about it.

I've learned (sometimes the hard way) that:

• We can't fix what we won't see.

• We can't create beyond who we believe we are.

• Teams divided on identity will always pull apart, not together.

• Strategy, vision, and goals fail when identity work is skipped.

Asking these questions doesn't cause misalignment. It exposes what's already working at cross-purposes.

If you're thinking, "This feels too messy to do on our own," you're probably right. I share why facilitated space, patience, and structure matter when teams do this work and how I support groups through Revealing, Reclaiming, and Reframing their narrative identity so they can move forward with real momentum.

• Part 2: Reclaim — Choosing the parts of your narrative identity that are lost that you want to keep, and which ones you want to get rid of

• Part 3: Reframe — Rebuilding a narrative identity from the parts that work and which will let you create what you're here to create

🎧 Related listening: Episode 122: "It All Starts With and Goes Back to Who You Are" sets the stage for this series.

If you're tired of what's quietly killing your creativity, focus, and forward motion—this is where the work begins.

About: The Reframe to Create podcast is hosted by Joy Spencer, an Executive Leadership and Storytelling Coach, Speaker, and Organizational Development Consultant working with professionals and leaders at all levels within organizations. Joy leverages over 17 years of experience she gained while working to champion change in social justice movements, including those related to global access to essential medicines and consumer advocacy for online privacy. This work required a dogged commitment to not merely challenging the status quo, but to reimagining and working towards creating an ideal future. It is this commitment to creating that has shaped Joy's coaching philosophy and approach today. Using her signature C.R.E.A.T.E. framework, Joy guides her clients through a process to become incomparable in work so they can get paid to be themselves.

Follow Joy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-spencer/