the hero's journey in business

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The Hero's Journey Is Your Path to Winning Over Customers for Life The same formula that worked for 'Star Wars' and 'Harry Potter' can work for you, too.

By Ian Khan • Apr 1, 2021

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

There are many formulas for storytelling. My favorite one is outlined in Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey . Over the years, I've consistently used its method to drive messages home to my audiences. It details the hero's journey, or the monomyth, a template for storytelling that revolves around a central character — the hero — who is taken on a journey of test, tribulation, adventure, learning and victory. The hero's journey has been the driving narrative force in many successful films. Ever heard of Star Wars , The Matrix , Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings ? That's the hero's journey at work.

Here are time-tested steps inspired by the hero's journey that I frequently use in my business and highly recommend you incorporate into your next big idea.

Identify your main character and their motivation

In any story, whether it's a documentary film, corporate video or marketing strategy, you need your viewers to have an emotional response. Start by creating the main character, one who exists in a world that's already defined. Then ideate a call for change that will threaten that world's order. It's doesn't necessarily need to be exciting, but it must command our hero's attention. That could mean changing the status quo, building something new, challenging a rival or slaying a proverbial dragon. The hero's initial, default response is typically refusal, which you can choose to build into or exclude from your story. I prefer to select parts of the hero's-journey format that best suit my narrative and my overall objective.

Meeting the mentor

After a hero has accepted their adventure, they meet their mentor or guide. Conventionally, this could be someone who assists in figuring out the best skill set for slaying the aforementioned dragon. But in the story of your business, it could simply take the form of a skill or lesson learned, whatever or whomever the source.

Slaying the dragon

Now it's time to conquer the mountain, do the unthinkable and deliver the results you've been waiting for. In lieu of real dragons, your obstacle could be a cause waiting to be fulfilled, a group of people waiting to be helped, a change needing to be made, etc. As the writer and director of your success story, it's your job to articulate the hero's narrative and mission.

Return to a new normal

After slaying the dragon, i.e. accomplishing one's mission, the hero returns to a world that has transformed. In most cases, this will be a better world — a new normal.

There is ample correlation between what the world has been going through over the last year and the hero's journey. There have been so many people who have risen to the challenge that this pandemic has posed, stood up to help others or went above and beyond what they expected they were capable of. There are countless stories and examples of the hero's journey in everyday life.

As a storyteller in business, you must find the formula behind your message, and then add the relevant parts that make it resonate. You have to create empathy and help audiences identify with your story for it to be accepted and embraced. I am always trying to incorporate the hero's journey into how I market my company, and so should you.

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Linda DeLuca

| Poking brains since 2007

Understanding the Hero’s Journey for Business

CAUTION: Learning the hero’s journey will change forever how you see yourself, others, and your world. Not to mention how you view movies or read books.

Before the Hero

I love helping people get their ideas out of their heads and into the world. It’s why I crafted what is now the presentationYOU approach as part of my professional development and coaching business.

One of the more surprising discoveries in creating this approach was the power of storytelling in business. Specifically, an understanding of the hero’s journey.

When I set out to learn about storytelling, I had one goal: to learn enough to create a single lesson within my presentationYou program. What I actually learned (and am still learning) changed everything.

The Search for Story

I started where we all do: with a google search.

Focused only on storytelling in business, I came across the usual suspects in presentation design including Nancy Duarte ( Resonate ) and Garr Reynolds ( Presentation Zen ).

Most notable was Duarte’s contribution to the presentation for Al Gore’s talk on climate change.

Many Storytelling Mentors

A Deeper Look at the Hero

My research led me to Christopher Vogler and ‘The Memo that started it all.’ In 1985 Vogler wrote a memo while working at Disney that provided a ‘Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces .’

Vogler brought the classic key elements of Campbell’s hero’s journey into familiar storytelling format of current films. The most widely sited film for demonstrating the hero’s journey is Star Wars. Yes, George Lucas was influenced by Joseph Campbell’s work.

The Ultimate Storytelling Mentor

I had to cross the decades to 1949 and find out for myself. What was this amazing work from Joseph Campbell? I dove into his book: The Hero with a Thousand Faces .

On The Hero’s Journey

I found myself on a hero’s journey to learn about the hero’s journey. And true to form, I met with resistance – my own.

At I first I resisted diving into what appeared to be a theory of religions myths. How would I ever be able to tie this to a business purpose?

It was helpful to dive deep into the roots of the hero’s journey, but I found Vogler’s work in The Writer’s Journey  more helpful for my business storytelling objective, and still use it as a reference.

Staying Open To New Ideas

As I turned the pages of these two iconic books from Campbell and Vogler (yes, I had to purchase actual print copies as these works were not available in ebook) I became more and more intrigued.

I found myself reminded of the existential philosophy that informed my very coaching practice. The hero’s journey expressed so eloquently that life journey we all take in our search for meaning.

Business Uses of the Hero’s Journey

Though the hero’s journey evokes images of ‘meaning of life’ and life-long story arcs, I found myself thinking about the smaller events on the journey itself.

With time it became clear how the individual obstacles we face on our roads to success can each be a seed for great stories.

Each decision, cross-roads, and hurdle on the road provides us with knowledge about ourselves and priceless life lessons we could share with others. These are the seeds of great stories for our careers.

Page by page I began to see how this journey would tie closely to what I was hoping to help my business clients express: their own hero’s journey!

Sharing My Lessons

My research journey lead to writing not just a single lesson for the presentationYou approach, but a full book and workbook on using storytelling in your career .

The Final Lesson

The reason there are so many reference to the hero’s journey (including this one) is the impact it has on the way we see the world.

Each person that feels compelled to share their hero’s journey with the world is sharing their boon to help save the world in their own way. Once we learn a life lesson that brings us such value it changes our worldview.

I’m still learning how The Hero’s Journey can be interpreted and have recently enjoyed the newest video interpretation from another mentor, Michael Wesch The Wisdom of Heroes .

A Call to Adventure

Once you understand the Hero’s Journey, it becomes part of you. The challenge then, is what you will do with it on your own hero’s journey? How will this change the way you see others and their struggles? How will this change how you view your own struggles? Are you ready to share your hero’s journey with others?

We all learn in different ways and sometimes a little comedy can help drive home a point. Enjoy this clever version of The Hero’s Journey from Glove and Boots (warning: not safe for work)

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The Best Story Framework for More Engaging Storytelling [Example]

Published: September 09, 2022

Even if you’re not a professional storyteller, you can use storytelling frameworks to share more engaging narratives in your content marketing copy. You’ll not only be able to tell your company’s story more effectively to stakeholders, but you’ll be able to write more effective, readable material that converts users into loyal customers.

Whether you’re writing for your website, blog, social media profiles, presentations, or online offers, the framework discussed below will help you gain confidence in storytelling and start telling better stories in business and in life. Let’s get started.

Why use a storytelling framework?

As content strategists, we should spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of storytelling in marketing , but we don’t — mainly because it’s so intimidating. The pressure-filled process of creating a framework and telling a story can keep a lot of people from even making an attempt. When the subject comes up, we understandably get nervous.

The thing is: storytelling is part of what makes us human. We don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway to be good at it. We can use a storytelling framework to guide us in the writing process.

Storytelling frameworks make our copy and content feel familiar to readers, while providing us with an easy “ formula ” to follow. The good news is that your content will never feel formulaic, because you can (and should) diversify how you write individual pages or posts. However, the bare bones stay the same.

Storytelling Template: The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling template from author Joseph Campbell, and it’s everywhere. It’s one of the most relatable storylines because it basically mirrors the journeys of our own lives. Understanding The Hero’s Journey can give you insight into how to frame your own stories, whether it’s the true story about your company or a fictional story that stirs your imagination.

The following diagram breaks down this Hero’s Journey template, step by step.

Typically broken down into three acts, the Hero's Journey goes as follows:

• Ordinary World: A character (either you or your customer) is living a regular life.
• Call to Adventure : The character becomes aware of a problem or a task that must be completed.
• Refusal (of call): The character initially shows refusal — think of a customer who refuses to switch from their current provider despite their pain points.
• Meeting with the Mentor : The character meets a person who’ll guide them in the process of completing the task — think of a sales person guiding a lead toward conversion.
• Crossing the Threshold (into new life/experiences) : The character officially starts their journey of solving the task, like a customer who’s just made a new purchase.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies : The character faces different trials in the process of completing the task.
• Approach to Innermost Cave : The character approaches the final battle — think of a professional who must now get their entire team to adopt a solution.
• Ordeal : The character goes through a battle or showdown — like in-team disagreements or discussions with stakeholders.
• Reward: The character emerges triumphant.
• The Road Back : Typically, the challenge isn’t over, and the character must deal with “blowback” from their previous battle.
• Resurrection : The character emerges with a new power, internal lesson, or external change.
• Return with Elixir : The character returns home or moves forward into a new adventure.

This is the Hero’s Journey, which—modified in various ways—we see repeated in stories throughout history. We have an ordinary person (what is), and we have adventure that lies ahead (what could be). The transference from one to the other is the journey.

Another great story template comes from comedy writing. It starts similarly: A character is in a zone of comfort. But they want something, so they enter into an unfamiliar situation. They adapt, and eventually get what they’re looking for, but end up paying a heavy price for it. In the end, they return to their old situation, having changed.

The Hero’s Journey: Fiction Example

The greatest story ever told...

Yes, we’re talking about Star Wars. Let’s step through a crude synopsis to see how well it matches Campbell’s pattern:

• Ordinary World : In the first Star Wars film, we begin with the rather ordinary Luke Skywalker. He lives on a farm on a desert planet.
• Call to Adventure : One day, he meets some robots who need help. They need to find a local hermit named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke takes the robots to Obi-Wan, who basically says, “Luke, you need to go out and help save the universe.”
• Refusal of Call, Meeting with Mentor, & Crossing the Threshold : Luke initially says, “No, I have all this stuff going on,” but Kenobi, who becomes Luke’s mentor, convinces Luke that he should go. Kenobi trains him how to use a lightsaber, and Luke goes on an epic space adventure.
• Test, Allies, Enemies : On the journey, Luke meets the villain, Darth Vader. He battles evil stormtroopers. He makes friends: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia.
• Approach to the Innermost Cave: Luke then has to help defeat the super-weapon, the Death Star.
• Ordeal : Nearly everything goes wrong, but in the end, Luke succeeds in blowing up the Death Star.
• Reward : The last scene of the movie is of Luke getting a metal put over his neck by the princess, who kisses him on the cheek.
• The Road Back, Resurrection, & Elixir : Now he is in his new home, a changed man, emboldened by the great power of the Force, which he can use on future adventures.

The Hero's Journey: Business Example

In business, the Hero’s Journey can most apply to case studies. (Most of them are a little less entertaining stories than Star Wars, unfortunately.)

A case study is the story of where a customer was, where they wanted to be, and how they overcame that gap.

If you listen to podcasts, you’ll hear this story told in almost every ad. You’ll also see it in “About us” pages. For example, check out Harry’s :

“Our founders, Jeff and Andy, created Harry’s because they were tired of overpaying for overdesigned razors. Instead, they wanted simple, high-quality products that felt good to use, all at a fair price. When they asked around, they learned lots of guys were upset about the situation too, so they decided to do something about it.”

The problem with most brands’ stories is that they don’t walk us through enough of the steps of the Hero’s Journey to capture our attention.

That’s why these frameworks are so useful. They’re a really easy way to ensure that we’re more creative when we’re coming up with stories or trying to convey information. This framework helps you focus your creativity.

Need more? Check out The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You for more detail on using the Hero's Journey in your business writing. 

How to Bolster Your Storytelling Framework with the Benjamin Franklin Method

As you continue using storytelling templates, you can use Benjamin Franklin’s writing method to strengthen your skills and create better business stories .

What is Benjamin Franklin’s method, you ask?

Benjamin Franklin devised a system for mastering writing. He collected issues of a publication that contained some of the best writing of his day, and reverse engineered the prose. He took notes at a sentence level, sat on them for a while, and tried to recreate the sentences from his own head, without looking at the originals.

Upon comparison, Benjamin found that his vocabulary was lacking, and his prose was light on variety. Despite that, he did it over and over. Unlike the more passive method most writers use to improve their work (reading a lot), this exercise forced Franklin to pay attention to the tiny details that made the difference between decent writing and great writing.

Here’s how you can use this method to bolster your storytelling template.

Step 1: Reverse engineer your competitors’ copy.

Take a piece of copy that you particularly admire from your competitor’s website. It can be a webpage, a case study, a white paper, or an article. Read it while noting what’s particularly effective about it, then set it aside and rewrite it in the best way you know how. Be sure to use your notes to guide your rewrite, and try to identify the storytelling template your competitor is using.

Note : Don’t publish this material, as it can be flagged as plagiarism! But you’re welcome to keep it in a private doc.

Step 2: Compare your reworked version to the original.

Set the two versions side by side. How does yours compare? What is it missing? What did your competitor do well? How did you do well? Note your findings in a separate document. Do this again and again with your competitors and even your own copy. Once you have enough insight and experience, you can begin applying your findings to your new copy and even use it to rewrite your old copy.

A Storytelling Framework is Essential for Great Copy

By using storytelling frameworks, you’ll learn to write stronger business stories in no time. The Hero’s Journey is a best-in-class example for writing case studies, advertisements, articles, and even tutorials. Remember: People don’t remember brands. They remember stories. Use this to your advantage.

Note: This post contains excerpts from The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You by Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How the Hero’s Journey framework creates powerful business stories

Putting hero’s journey narratives into practice, how to get started writing a hero’s journey narrative, how to use the hero’s journey for content marketing: a good story goes a long way.

• Departure: The hero prepares for a journey into the unknown with help from a mentor.
• Initiation: Enemies put the hero’s new knowledge and abilities to the test in a series of trials.
• Return: The hero earns his reward and begins the trip back to the known world.

Content marketers (hero) are discovering the world of AI-generated content (journey). Experienced digital agencies (mentor) are offering knowledge to help content marketers outsmart search engines (enemy) to achieve page one ranking (reward).

Prompted by the financial crisis of 2008, an anonymous developer (hero) seeks an alternative (journey) to traditional finance (enemy). He encounters other developers (allies) who share his goal and provide knowledge that helps him develop blockchain. The developers are thwarted by the banking industry (enemy), which spreads misinformation about blockchain (trial) because it threatens their power.

• Writer onboarding . Ask new writers to read the narrative as part of their onboarding process. Have them read the boring keyword analysis too, but a captivating story will help them understand the business in a way that buyer survey data cannot. Writers need to be steeped in every plot twist and turn so they can infuse the story into everything they create.
• Employee buy-in. Bring the story to life by enacting a dramatic reading of the narrative at your next company meeting or sales kick-off. Theater is a fun approach to helping employees adopt the mission and understand their purpose within it. Bonus: employees who believe in the hero’s journey will be more willing to help you create content.
• Point-of-view articles. Write about reasons to start the journey, the right tool to defeat the enemy, and how the hero’s life will be better if he overcomes adversity. Publish the articles on your blog or pitch to media as a bylined piece.
• Customer interviews. Use the narrative to inspire questions for a customer interview and help them tell their own heroic story. You’ll discover why they went on a quest, the mentors who helped them, and the villains who stood in their way.
• Explainer video script. The basic story outline is an excellent way to explain your product or solution. Engage and educate viewers by describing who (hero) benefits from your solution, the problem (trial) your product solves, and what it helps customers achieve (reward).
• SEO pillar pages. Some of the highest-ranking web pages describe a concept in its entirety, answering every conceivable question about it. Key narrative elements are also common questions. For instance, who (hero) uses widgets? What are the best practices (mentor) for using widgets? What are some emerging alternatives (journey) to widgets? What are the biggest threats (enemies) to the widget market?
• Social media campaign. Good stories tend to naturally stimulate creative visuals like illustrations, animations, and diagrams. Develop a campaign based on the story arc with accompanying creative for an engaging and memorable social media campaign.

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About the Author - Ann Smith

Versatile B2B marketing executive, specializing in integrated content strategy. Talented writer, storyteller, messaging strategist, and visual design enthusiast. Extremely pragmatic with a DIY, get-stuff-done approach. Masters in Speech Communication which is the study of rhetoric, persuasion, and meaning. Dogs, Golden State Warriors, true crime, the 80s. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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The hero's journey: a story structure as old as time, the hero's journey offers a powerful framework for creating quest-based stories emphasizing self-transformation..

Table of Contents

Holding out for a hero to take your story to the next level? 

The Hero’s Journey might be just what you’ve been looking for. Created by Joseph Campbell, this narrative framework packs mythic storytelling into a series of steps across three acts, each representing a crucial phase in a character's transformative journey.

Challenge . Growth . Triumph .

Whether you're penning a novel, screenplay, or video game, The Hero’s Journey is a tried-and-tested blueprint for crafting epic stories that transcend time and culture. Let’s explore the steps together and kickstart your next masterpiece.

What is the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey is a famous template for storytelling, mapping a hero's adventurous quest through trials and tribulations to ultimate transformation. 

What are the Origins of the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey was invented by Campbell in his seminal 1949 work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces , where he introduces the concept of the "monomyth."

A comparative mythologist by trade, Campbell studied myths from cultures around the world and identified a common pattern in their narratives. He proposed that all mythic narratives are variations of a single, universal story, structured around a hero's adventure, trials, and eventual triumph.

His work unveiled the archetypal hero’s path as a mirror to humanity’s commonly shared experiences and aspirations. It was subsequently named one of the All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books by TIME in 2011.

How are the Hero’s and Heroine’s Journeys Different? 

While both the Hero's and Heroine's Journeys share the theme of transformation, they diverge in their focus and execution.

The Hero’s Journey, as outlined by Campbell, emphasizes external challenges and a quest for physical or metaphorical treasures. In contrast, Murdock's Heroine’s Journey, explores internal landscapes, focusing on personal reconciliation, emotional growth, and the path to self-actualization.

In short, heroes seek to conquer the world, while heroines seek to transform their own lives; but…

Twelve Steps of the Hero’s Journey

So influential was Campbell’s monomyth theory that it's been used as the basis for some of the largest franchises of our generation: The Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter ...and George Lucas even cited it as a direct influence on Star Wars .

There are, in fact, several variations of the Hero's Journey, which we discuss further below. But for this breakdown, we'll use the twelve-step version outlined by Christopher Vogler in his book, The Writer's Journey (seemingly now out of print, unfortunately).

You probably already know the above stories pretty well so we’ll unpack the twelve steps of the Hero's Journey using Ben Gates’ journey in National Treasure as a case study—because what is more heroic than saving the Declaration of Independence from a bunch of goons?

Ye be warned: Spoilers ahead!

Act One: Departure

Step 1. the ordinary world.

The journey begins with the status quo—business as usual. We meet the hero and are introduced to the Known World they live in. In other words, this is your exposition, the starting stuff that establishes the story to come.

National Treasure begins in media res (preceded only by a short prologue), where we are given key information that introduces us to Ben Gates' world, who he is (a historian from a notorious family), what he does (treasure hunts), and why he's doing it (restoring his family's name).

With the help of his main ally, Riley, and a crew of other treasure hunters backed by a wealthy patron, he finds an 18th-century American ship in the Canadian Arctic, the Charlotte . Here, they find a ship-shaped pipe that presents a new riddle and later doubles as a key—for now, it's just another clue in the search for the lost treasure of the Templars, one that leads them to the Declaration of Independence.

Step 2. The Call to Adventure

The inciting incident takes place and the hero is called to act upon it. While they're still firmly in the Known World, the story kicks off and leaves the hero feeling out of balance. In other words, they are placed at a crossroads.

Ian (the wealthy patron of the Charlotte operation) steals the pipe from Ben and Riley and leaves them stranded. This is a key moment: Ian becomes the villain, Ben has now sufficiently lost his funding for this expedition, and if he decides to pursue the chase, he'll be up against extreme odds.

Step 3. Refusal of the Call

The hero hesitates and instead refuses their call to action. Following the call would mean making a conscious decision to break away from the status quo. Ahead lies danger, risk, and the unknown; but here and now, the hero is still in the safety and comfort of what they know.

Ben debates continuing the hunt for the Templar treasure. Before taking any action, he decides to try and warn the authorities: the FBI, Homeland Security, and the staff of the National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence is housed and monitored. Nobody will listen to him, and his family's notoriety doesn't help matters.

Step 4. Meeting the Mentor

The protagonist receives knowledge or motivation from a powerful or influential figure. This is a tactical move on the hero's part—remember that it was only the previous step in which they debated whether or not to jump headfirst into the unknown. By Meeting the Mentor, they can gain new information or insight, and better equip themselves for the journey they might to embark on.

Abigail, an archivist at the National Archives, brushes Ben and Riley off as being crazy, but Ben uses the interaction to his advantage in other ways—to seek out information about how the Declaration of Independence is stored and cared for, as well as what (and more importantly, who) else he might be up against in his own attempt to steal it.

In a key scene, we see him contemplate the entire operation while standing over the glass-encased Declaration of Independence. Finally, he firmly decides to pursue the treasure and stop Ian, uttering the famous line, "I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence."

Act Two: Initiation

Step 5. crossing the threshold.

The hero leaves the Known World to face the Unknown World. They are fully committed to the journey, with no way to turn back now. There may be a confrontation of some sort, and the stakes will be raised.

Ben and Riley infiltrate the National Archives during a gala and successfully steal the Declaration of Independence. But wait—it's not so easy. While stealing the Declaration of Independence, Abigail suspects something is up and Ben faces off against Ian.

Then, when trying to escape the building, Ben exits through the gift shop, where an attendant spots the document peeking out of his jacket. He is forced to pay for it, feigning that it's a replica—and because he doesn't have enough cash, he has to use his credit card, so there goes keeping his identity anonymous.

The game is afoot.

Step 6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

The hero explores the Unknown World. Now that they have firmly crossed the threshold from the Known World, the hero will face new challenges and possibly meet new enemies. They'll have to call upon their allies, new and old, in order to keep moving forward.

Abigail reluctantly joins the team under the agreement that she'll help handle the Declaration of Independence, given her background in document archiving and restoration. Ben and co. seek the aid of Ben's father, Patrick Gates, whom Ben has a strained relationship with thanks to years of failed treasure hunting that has created a rift between grandfather, father, and son. Finally, they travel around Philadelphia deciphering clues while avoiding both Ian and the FBI.

Step 7. Approach the Innermost Cave

The hero nears the goal of their quest, the reason they crossed the threshold in the first place. Here, they could be making plans, having new revelations, or gaining new skills. To put it in other familiar terms, this step would mark the moment just before the story's climax.

Ben uncovers a pivotal clue—or rather, he finds an essential item—a pair of bifocals with interchangeable lenses made by Benjamin Franklin. It is revealed that by switching through the various lenses, different messages will be revealed on the back of the Declaration of Independence. He's forced to split from Abigail and Riley, but Ben has never been closer to the treasure.

Step 8. The Ordeal

The hero faces a dire situation that changes how they view the world. All threads of the story come together at this pinnacle, the central crisis from which the hero will emerge unscathed or otherwise. The stakes will be at their absolute highest here.

Vogler details that in this stage, the hero will experience a "death," though it need not be literal. In your story, this could signify the end of something and the beginning of another, which could itself be figurative or literal. For example, a certain relationship could come to an end, or it could mean someone "stuck in their ways" opens up to a new perspective.

In National Treasure , The FBI captures Ben and Ian makes off with the Declaration of Independence—all hope feels lost. To add to it, Ian reveals that he's kidnapped Ben's father and threatens to take further action if Ben doesn't help solve the final clues and lead Ian to the treasure.

Ben escapes the FBI with Ian's help, reunites with Abigail and Riley, and leads everyone to an underground structure built below Trinity Church in New York City. Here, they manage to split from Ian once more, sending him on a goose chase to Boston with a false clue, and proceed further into the underground structure.

Though they haven't found the treasure just yet, being this far into the hunt proves to Ben's father, Patrick, that it's real enough. The two men share an emotional moment that validates what their family has been trying to do for generations.

Step 9. Reward

This is it, the moment the hero has been waiting for. They've survived "death," weathered the crisis of The Ordeal, and earned the Reward for which they went on this journey.

Now, free of Ian's clutches and with some light clue-solving, Ben, Abigail, Riley, and Patrick keep progressing through the underground structure and eventually find the Templar's treasure—it's real and more massive than they could have imagined. Everyone revels in their discovery while simultaneously looking for a way back out.

Act Three: Return

Step 10. the road back.

It's time for the journey to head towards its conclusion. The hero begins their return to the Known World and may face unexpected challenges. Whatever happens, the "why" remains paramount here (i.e. why the hero ultimately chose to embark on their journey).

This step marks a final turning point where they'll have to take action or make a decision to keep moving forward and be "reborn" back into the Known World.

Act Three of National Treasure is admittedly quite short. After finding the treasure, Ben and co. emerge from underground to face the FBI once more. Not much of a road to travel back here so much as a tunnel to scale in a crypt.

Step 11. Resurrection

The hero faces their ultimate challenge and emerges victorious, but forever changed. This step often requires a sacrifice of some sort, and having stepped into the role of The Hero™, they must answer to this.

Ben is given an ultimatum— somebody has to go to jail (on account of the whole stealing-the-Declaration-of-Independence thing). But, Ben also found a treasure worth millions of dollars and that has great value to several nations around the world, so that counts for something.

Ultimately, Ben sells Ian out, makes a deal to exonerate his friends and family, and willingly hands the treasure over to the authorities. Remember: he wanted to find the treasure, but his "why" was to restore the Gates family name, so he won regardless.

Step 12. Return With the Elixir

Finally, the hero returns home as a new version of themself, the elixir is shared amongst the people, and the journey is completed full circle.

The elixir, like many other elements of the hero's journey, can be literal or figurative. It can be a tangible thing, such as an actual elixir meant for some specific purpose, or it could be represented by an abstract concept such as hope, wisdom, or love.

Vogler notes that if the Hero's Journey results in a tragedy, the elixir can instead have an effect external to the story—meaning that it could be something meant to affect the audience and/or increase their awareness of the world.

In the final scene of National Treasure , we see Ben and Abigail walking the grounds of a massive estate. Riley pulls up in a fancy sports car and comments on how they could have gotten more money. They all chat about attending a museum exhibit in Cairo (Egypt).

In one scene, we're given a lot of closure: Ben and co. received a hefty payout for finding the treasure, Ben and Abigail are a couple now, and the treasure was rightfully spread to those it benefitted most—in this case, countries who were able to reunite with significant pieces of their history. Everyone's happy, none of them went to jail despite the serious crimes committed, and they're all a whole lot wealthier. Oh, Hollywood.

Variations of the Hero's Journey

Plot structure is important, but you don't need to follow it exactly; and, in fact, your story probably won't. Your version of the Hero's Journey might require more or fewer steps, or you might simply go off the beaten path for a few steps—and that's okay!

What follows are three additional versions of the Hero's Journey, which you may be more familiar with than Vogler's version presented above.

Dan Harmon's Story Circle (or, The Eight-Step Hero's Journey)

Screenwriter Dan Harmon has riffed on the Hero's Journey by creating a more compact version, the Story Circle —and it works especially well for shorter-format stories such as television episodes, which happens to be what Harmon writes.

The Story Circle comprises eight simple steps with a heavy emphasis on the hero's character arc:

• The hero is in a zone of comfort...
• But they want something.
• They enter an unfamiliar situation...
• And adapt to it by facing trials.
• They get what they want...
• But they pay a heavy price for it.
• They return to their familiar situation...
• Having changed.

You may have noticed, but there is a sort of rhythm here. The eight steps work well in four pairs, simplifying the core of the Hero's Journey even further:

• The hero is in a zone of comfort, but they want something.
• They enter an unfamiliar situation and have to adapt via new trials.
• They get what they want, but they pay a price for it.
• They return to their zone of comfort, forever changed.

If you're writing shorter fiction, such as a short story or novella, definitely check out the Story Circle. It's the Hero's Journey minus all the extraneous bells & whistles.

Ten-Step Hero's Journey

The ten-step Hero's Journey is similar to the twelve-step version we presented above. It includes most of the same steps except for Refusal of the Call and Meeting the Mentor, arguing that these steps aren't as essential to include; and, it moves Crossing the Threshold to the end of Act One and Reward to the end of Act Two.

• The Ordinary World
• The Call to Adventure
• Crossing the Threshold
• Tests, Allies, Enemies
• Approach the Innermost Cave
• The Road Back
• Resurrection
• Return with Elixir

We've previously written about the ten-step hero's journey in a series of essays separated by act: Act One (with a prologue), Act Two , and Act Three .

Twelve-Step Hero's Journey: Version Two

Again, the second version of the twelve-step hero's journey is very similar to the one above, save for a few changes, including in which story act certain steps appear.

This version skips The Ordinary World exposition and starts right at The Call to Adventure; then, the story ends with two new steps in place of Return With Elixir: The Return and The Freedom to Live.

• The Refusal of the Call
• Meeting the Mentor
• Test, Allies, Enemies
• Approaching the Innermost Cave
• The Resurrection
• The Return*
• The Freedom to Live*

In the final act of this version, there is more of a focus on an internal transformation for the hero. They experience a metamorphosis on their journey back to the Known World, return home changed, and go on to live a new life, uninhibited.

Seventeen-Step Hero's Journey

Finally, the granddaddy of heroic journeys: the seventeen-step Hero's Journey. This version includes a slew of extra steps your hero might face out in the expanse.

• Refusal of the Call
• Supernatural Aid (aka Meeting the Mentor)
• Belly of the Whale*: This added stage marks the hero's immediate descent into danger once they've crossed the threshold.
• Road of Trials (...with Allies, Tests, and Enemies)
• Meeting with the Goddess/God*: In this stage, the hero meets with a new advisor or powerful figure, who equips them with the knowledge or insight needed to keep progressing forward.
• Woman as Temptress (or simply, Temptation)*: Here, the hero is tempted, against their better judgment, to question themselves and their reason for being on the journey. They may feel insecure about something specific or have an exposed weakness that momentarily holds them back.
• Atonement with the Father (or, Catharthis)*: The hero faces their Temptation and moves beyond it, shedding free from all that holds them back.
• Apotheosis (aka The Ordeal)
• The Ultimate Boon (aka the Reward)
• Refusal of the Return*: The hero wonders if they even want to go back to their old life now that they've been forever changed.
• The Magic Flight*: Having decided to return to the Known World, the hero needs to actually find a way back.
• Rescue From Without*: Allies may come to the hero's rescue, helping them escape this bold, new world and return home.
• Crossing of the Return Threshold (aka The Return)
• Master of Two Worlds*: Very closely resembling The Resurrection stage in other variations, this stage signifies that the hero is quite literally a master of two worlds—The Known World and the Unknown World—having conquered each.
• Freedom to Live

Again, we skip the Ordinary World opening here. Additionally, Acts Two and Three look pretty different from what we've seen so far, although, the bones of the Hero's Journey structure remain.

The Eight Hero’s Journey Archetypes

The Hero is, understandably, the cornerstone of the Hero’s Journey, but they’re just one of eight key archetypes that make up this narrative framework.

In The Writer's Journey , Vogler outlined seven of these archetypes, only excluding the Ally, which we've included below. Here’s a breakdown of all eight with examples: 

1. The Hero

As outlined, the Hero is the protagonist who embarks on a transformative quest or journey. The challenges they overcome represent universal human struggles and triumphs. 

Vogler assigned a "primary function" to each archetype—helpful for establishing their role in a story. The Hero's primary function is "to service and sacrifice."

Example: Neo from The Matrix , who evolves from a regular individual into the prophesied savior of humanity.

2. The Mentor

A wise guide offering knowledge, tools, and advice, Mentors help the Hero navigate the journey and discover their potential. Their primary function is "to guide."

Example: Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid imparts not only martial arts skills but invaluable life lessons to Daniel.

3. The Ally

Companions who support the Hero, Allies provide assistance, friendship, and moral support throughout the journey. They may also become a friends-to-lovers romantic partner. 

Not included in Vogler's list is the Ally, though we'd argue they are essential nonetheless. Let's say their primary function is "to aid and support."

Example: Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings , a loyal friend and steadfast supporter of Frodo.

4. The Herald

The Herald acts as a catalyst to initiate the Hero's Journey, often presenting a challenge or calling the hero to adventure. Their primary function is "to warn or challenge."

Example: Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games , whose selection at the Reaping sets Katniss’s journey into motion.

5. The Trickster

A character who brings humor and unpredictability, challenges conventions, and offers alternative perspectives or solutions. Their primary function is "to disrupt."

Example: Loki from Norse mythology exemplifies the trickster, with his cunning and chaotic influence.

6. The Shapeshifter

Ambiguous figures whose allegiance and intentions are uncertain. They may be a friend one moment and a foe the next. Their primary function is "to question and deceive."

Example: Catwoman from the Batman universe often blurs the line between ally and adversary, slinking between both roles with glee.

7. The Guardian

Protectors of important thresholds, Guardians challenge or test the Hero, serving as obstacles to overcome or lessons to be learned. Their primary function is "to test."

Example: The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail literally bellows “None shall pass!”—a quintessential ( but not very effective ) Guardian.

8. The Shadow

Represents the Hero's inner conflict or an antagonist, often embodying the darker aspects of the hero or their opposition. Their primary function is "to destroy."

Example: Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender; initially an adversary, his journey parallels the Hero’s path of transformation.

While your story does not have to use all of the archetypes, they can help you develop your characters and visualize how they interact with one another—especially the Hero.

For example, take your hero and place them in the center of a blank worksheet, then write down your other major characters in a circle around them and determine who best fits into which archetype. Who challenges your hero? Who tricks them? Who guides them? And so on...

Stories that Use the Hero’s Journey

Not a fan of saving the Declaration of Independence? Check out these alternative examples of the Hero’s Journey to get inspired: 

• Epic of Gilgamesh : An ancient Mesopotamian epic poem thought to be one of the earliest examples of the Hero’s Journey (and one of the oldest recorded stories).
• The Lion King (1994): Simba's exile and return depict a tale of growth, responsibility, and reclaiming his rightful place as king.
• The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo: Santiago's quest for treasure transforms into a journey of self-discovery and personal enlightenment.
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman: A young girl's adventure in a parallel world teaches her about courage, family, and appreciating her own reality.
• Kung Fu Panda (2008): Po's transformation from a clumsy panda to a skilled warrior perfectly exemplifies the Hero's Journey. Skadoosh!

The Hero's Journey is so generalized that it's ubiquitous. You can plop the plot of just about any quest-style narrative into its framework and say that the story follows the Hero's Journey. Try it out for yourself as an exercise in getting familiar with the method.

Will the Hero's Journey Work For You?

As renowned as it is, the Hero's Journey works best for the kinds of tales that inspired it: mythic stories.

Writers of speculative fiction may gravitate towards this method over others, especially those writing epic fantasy and science fiction (big, bold fantasy quests and grand space operas come to mind).

The stories we tell today are vast and varied, and they stretch far beyond the dealings of deities, saving kingdoms, or acquiring some fabled "elixir." While that may have worked for Gilgamesh a few thousand years ago, it's not always representative of our lived experiences here and now.

If you decide to give the Hero's Journey a go, we encourage you to make it your own! The pieces of your plot don't have to neatly fit into the structure, but you can certainly make a strong start on mapping out your story.

Hero's Journey Campfire Template

The Timeline Module in Campfire offers a versatile canvas to plot out each basic component of your story while featuring nested "notebooks."

Simply double-click on each event card in your timeline to open up a canvas specific to that card. This allows you to look at your plot at the highest level, while also adding as much detail for each plot element as needed!

If you're just hearing about Campfire for the first time, it's free to sign up—forever! Let's plot the most epic of hero's journeys 👇

Lessons From the Hero’s Journey

The Hero's Journey offers a powerful framework for creating stories centered around growth, adventure, and transformation.

If you want to develop compelling characters, spin out engaging plots, and write books that express themes of valor and courage, consider The Hero’s Journey your blueprint. So stop holding out for a hero, and start writing!

Does your story mirror the Hero's Journey? Let us know in the comments below.

Using the Hero’s Journey to Craft Your Brand Story

Brands using the hero’s journey as a form of brand storytelling isn’t a new concept; it is an easily recognizable format popularized  by mythology professor Joseph Campbell in 1949 . A character goes on an adventure, faces a crisis, and returns home having been transformed by the journey. In total, Campbell identified 12 steps of the hero’s journey: 

When we think of “hero,” we tend to immediately think of characters with superpowers from the Marvel or DC universes. We might also think of Olympic athletes or notable celebrities with humble beginnings. However, brand storytelling has gradually shifted from glorified protagonists to everyday people with diverse backgrounds and realistic struggles. From “hero” to human, the consumer is now able to relate to the journey. They are able to extend empathy, as they can see themselves more realistically in the character’s shoes.  

Since the hero’s journey is an easily recognizable storytelling format, brands can truly exercise creative liberty in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. The beautiful thing about this narrative technique is the fact that all 12 steps are not necessary to complete a story. In fact, the stages do not have to be in chronological order. Brands can be selective with which stages they want to incorporate and amplify to create amazing content.  

We’ve compiled three great examples of brands using the hero’s journey storytelling format but molding it in their own unique way.  

A Call to an (Unordinary) Adventure

Lyft’s “Yes, You Are a Bike Person” campaign, advertising its new bikeshare capability, incorporates the introductory stages of the hero’s journey. This example is perhaps the closest to a more traditional approach to the hero’s journey from a brand perspective; it calls the consumer (the hero in this case) to go on an adventure. Yet it applies the hero’s journey in a more “normal” or realistic setting. 

STAGE 1 (Ordinary world): 

Lyft portrays the monotony of the ordinary world by capturing typical scenes, such as in an office, a bathroom and a random street.   

STAGE 2 (Call to adventure):  

The seemingly ordinary people release their disguises and get on their bikes to go start their adventure, emphasizing that anyone can embark on this adventure. 

Highlighting Real Struggles

Similarly to Lyft’s, LinkedIn’s “#FindYourSpace” campaign also applies the hero’s journey in a more humanistic way. What’s different about this campaign is how it encompasses the gist of the hero’s journey without having to touch on every stage.  

STAGE 8 (Ordeal, death, rebirth):  

The main character could either be unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic or could be looking for a new job opportunity that meets their needs and values.  

STAGE 6 (Tests, allies, enemies):  

The different communities of working parents, corporate executives, recent college graduates and more serve as tests for the main character to figure out which community they truly fit in. 

STAGE 9 (Reward, seizing the sword):  

The main character finally finds their community among musicians and subsequently decides to use her experience to help someone starting on the same journey.

Positioning Diverse Families As the Hero 

Aflac’s animated short “The Park Bench”, featuring a family of color, pulls at the heartstrings by carefully selecting which stages of the hero’s journey will simultaneously represent the brand and foster empathy from the audience. Similarly to LinkedIn’s video, the animated short begins with the ordeal. 

A small family goes through emotional hardship as the father experiences the effects of a chronic illness. This leaves the only child alone, as the mother is trying her best to take care of the father before he ultimately becomes hospitalized. 

STAGE 4 (Meeting the mentor):  

While alone outside, the child finds a duck. The duck quickly becomes the child’s mentor; it teaches her to still enjoy hobbies and to have fun even while the father is in the hospital. This mindset slowly reaches the mother, and she begins to spend more time with the daughter.  

STAGE 9 (Reward):  

Persevering with a positive attitude, the father comes back from the hospital. The whole family is reunited and is able to spend quality time together.

TL;DR  

Here are some key takeaways you can bring back to your brand’s next campaign:

From hero to human

Use a protagonist that is more representative of the average consumer. Representation can produce more relatability and even brand loyalty. 

Focus on 2 to 3 key stages

Select stages that are not only representative of the whole hero’s journey, but also stages that will set your brand’s campaign apart from the competition.

Get creative with different formats

Though all of our examples were short videos, you can challenge your brand to accomplish the same hero’s journey effect with a series of graphics, VR, audio, etc. 

Want to become a master at storytelling? We recommend checking out  “7 Effective Storytelling Tricks and Tips To Win Your Audience Over”  and  “The Future of Storymaking: How Stories Persuade Us To Change Our Minds and Actions”  to understand what makes an effective story.  

This blog post was originally published on August 20, 2015 by Alex Herring and has been updated and republished. 

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The Hero's Journey: 12 Steps to a Classic Story Structure

The Hero's Journey is a timeless story structure which follows a protagonist on an unforeseen quest, where they face challenges, gain insights, and return home transformed. From Theseus and the Minotaur to The Lion King , so many narratives follow this pattern that it’s become ingrained into our cultural DNA. 

In this post, we'll show you how to make this classic plot structure work for you — and if you’re pressed for time, download our cheat sheet below for everything you need to know.

FREE RESOURCE

Hero's Journey Template

Plot your character's journey with our step-by-step template.

What is the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero's Journey, also known as the monomyth, is a story structure where a hero goes on a quest or adventure to achieve a goal, and has to overcome obstacles and fears, before ultimately returning home transformed.

This narrative arc has been present in various forms across cultures for centuries, if not longer, but gained popularity through Joseph Campbell's mythology book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces . While Campbell identified 17 story beats in his monomyth definition, this post will concentrate on a 12-step framework popularized in 2007 by screenwriter Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer’s Journey .

The 12 Steps of the Hero’s Journey

The Hero's Journey is a model for both plot points and character development : as the Hero traverses the world, they'll undergo inner and outer transformation at each stage of the journey. The 12 steps of the hero's journey are: 

• The Ordinary World. We meet our hero.
• Call to Adventure. Will they meet the challenge?
• Refusal of the Call. They resist the adventure.
• Meeting the Mentor. A teacher arrives.
• Crossing the First Threshold. The hero leaves their comfort zone.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Making friends and facing roadblocks.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. Getting closer to our goal.
• Ordeal. The hero’s biggest test yet!
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Light at the end of the tunnel
• The Road Back. We aren’t safe yet.
• Resurrection. The final hurdle is reached.
• Return with the Elixir. The hero heads home, triumphant.

Believe it or not, this story structure also applies across mediums and genres (and also works when your protagonist is an anti-hero! ). Let's dive into it.

1. Ordinary World

In which we meet our Hero.

The journey has yet to start. Before our Hero discovers a strange new world, we must first understand the status quo: their ordinary, mundane reality.

It’s up to this opening leg to set the stage, introducing the Hero to readers. Importantly, it lets readers identify with the Hero as a “normal” person in a “normal” setting, before the journey begins.

2. Call to Adventure

In which an adventure starts.

The call to adventure is all about booting the Hero out of their comfort zone. In this stage, they are generally confronted with a problem or challenge they can't ignore. This catalyst can take many forms, as Campbell points out in Hero with a Thousand Faces . The Hero can, for instance:

• Decide to go forth of their own volition;
• Theseus upon arriving in Athens.
• Be sent abroad by a benign or malignant agent;
• Odysseus setting off on his ship in The Odyssey .
• Stumble upon the adventure as a result of a mere blunder;
• Dorothy when she’s swept up in a tornado in The Wizard of Oz .
• Be casually strolling when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of man.
• Elliot in E.T. upon discovering a lost alien in the tool shed.

The stakes of the adventure and the Hero's goals become clear. The only question: will he rise to the challenge?

3. Refusal of the Call

In which the Hero digs in their feet.

Great, so the Hero’s received their summons. Now they’re all set to be whisked off to defeat evil, right?

Not so fast. The Hero might first refuse the call to action. It’s risky and there are perils — like spiders, trolls, or perhaps a creepy uncle waiting back at Pride Rock . It’s enough to give anyone pause.

In Star Wars , for instance, Luke Skywalker initially refuses to join Obi-Wan on his mission to rescue the princess. It’s only when he discovers that his aunt and uncle have been killed by stormtroopers that he changes his mind.

4. Meeting the Mentor

In which the Hero acquires a personal trainer.

The Hero's decided to go on the adventure — but they’re not ready to spread their wings yet. They're much too inexperienced at this point and we don't want them to do a fabulous belly-flop off the cliff.

Enter the mentor: someone who helps the Hero, so that they don't make a total fool of themselves (or get themselves killed). The mentor provides practical training, profound wisdom, a kick up the posterior, or something abstract like grit and self-confidence.

Wise old wizards seem to like being mentors. But mentors take many forms, from witches to hermits and suburban karate instructors. They might literally give weapons to prepare for the trials ahead, like Q in the James Bond series. Or perhaps the mentor is an object, such as a map. In all cases, they prepare the Hero for the next step.

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5. Crossing the First Threshold

In which the Hero enters the other world in earnest.

Now the Hero is ready — and committed — to the journey. This marks the end of the Departure stage and is when the adventure really kicks into the next gear. As Vogler writes: “This is the moment that the balloon goes up, the ship sails, the romance begins, the wagon gets rolling.”

From this point on, there’s no turning back.

Like our Hero, you should think of this stage as a checkpoint for your story. Pause and re-assess your bearings before you continue into unfamiliar territory. Have you:

• Launched the central conflict? If not, here’s a post on types of conflict to help you out.
• Established the theme of your book? If not, check out this post that’s all about creating theme and motifs .
• Made headway into your character development? If not, this character profile template may be useful:

Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

In which the Hero faces new challenges and gets a squad.

When we step into the Special World, we notice a definite shift. The Hero might be discombobulated by this unfamiliar reality and its new rules. This is generally one of the longest stages in the story , as our protagonist gets to grips with this new world.

This makes a prime hunting ground for the series of tests to pass! Luckily, there are many ways for the Hero to get into trouble:

• In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle , Spencer, Bethany, “Fridge,” and Martha get off to a bad start when they bump into a herd of bloodthirsty hippos.
• In his first few months at Hogwarts, Harry Potter manages to fight a troll, almost fall from a broomstick and die, and get horribly lost in the Forbidden Forest.
• Marlin and Dory encounter three “reformed” sharks, get shocked by jellyfish, and are swallowed by a blue whale en route to finding Nemo.

This stage often expands the cast of characters. Once the protagonist is in the Special World, he will meet allies and enemies — or foes that turn out to be friends and vice versa. He will learn a new set of rules from them. Saloons and seedy bars are popular places for these transactions, as Vogler points out (so long as the Hero survives them).

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave

In which the Hero gets closer to his goal.

This isn’t a physical cave. Instead, the “inmost cave” refers to the most dangerous spot in the other realm — whether that’s the villain’s chambers, the lair of the fearsome dragon, or the Death Star. Almost always, it is where the ultimate goal of the quest is located.

Note that the protagonist hasn’t entered the Inmost Cave just yet. This stage is all about the approach to it. It covers all the prep work that's needed in order to defeat the villain.

In which the Hero faces his biggest test of all thus far.

Of all the tests the Hero has faced, none have made them hit rock bottom — until now. Vogler describes this phase as a “black moment.” Campbell refers to it as the “belly of the whale.” Both indicate some grim news for the Hero.

The protagonist must now confront their greatest fear. If they survive it, they will emerge transformed. This is a critical moment in the story, as Vogler explains that it will “inform every decision that the Hero makes from this point forward.”

The Ordeal is sometimes not the climax of the story. There’s more to come. But you can think of it as the main event of the second act — the one in which the Hero actually earns the title of “Hero.”

9. Reward (Seizing the Sword)

In which the Hero sees light at the end of the tunnel.

Our Hero’s been through a lot. However, the fruits of their labor are now at hand — if they can just reach out and grab them! The “reward” is the object or knowledge the Hero has fought throughout the entire journey to hold.

Once the protagonist has it in their possession, it generally has greater ramifications for the story. Vogler offers a few examples of it in action:

• Luke rescues Princess Leia and captures the plans of the Death Star — keys to defeating Darth Vader.
• Dorothy escapes from the Wicked Witch’s castle with the broomstick and the ruby slippers — keys to getting back home.

10. The Road Back

In which the light at the end of the tunnel might be a little further than the Hero thought.

The story's not over just yet, as this phase marks the beginning of Act Three. Now that he's seized the reward, the Hero tries to return to the Ordinary World, but more dangers (inconveniently) arise on the road back from the Inmost Cave.

More precisely, the Hero must deal with the consequences and aftermath of the previous act: the dragon, enraged by the Hero who’s just stolen a treasure from under his nose, starts the hunt. Or perhaps the opposing army gathers to pursue the Hero across a crowded battlefield. All further obstacles for the Hero, who must face them down before they can return home.

11. Resurrection

In which the last test is met.

Here is the true climax of the story. Everything that happened prior to this stage culminates in a crowning test for the Hero, as the Dark Side gets one last chance to triumph over the Hero.

Vogler refers to this as a “final exam” for the Hero — they must be “tested once more to see if they have really learned the lessons of the Ordeal.” It’s in this Final Battle that the protagonist goes through one more “resurrection.” As a result, this is where you’ll get most of your miraculous near-death escapes, à la James Bond's dashing deliverances. If the Hero survives, they can start looking forward to a sweet ending.

12. Return with the Elixir

In which our Hero has a triumphant homecoming.

Finally, the Hero gets to return home. However, they go back a different person than when they started out: they’ve grown and matured as a result of the journey they’ve taken.

But we’ve got to see them bring home the bacon, right? That’s why the protagonist must return with the “Elixir,” or the prize won during the journey, whether that’s an object or knowledge and insight gained.

Of course, it’s possible for a story to end on an Elixir-less note — but then the Hero would be doomed to repeat the entire adventure.

Examples of The Hero’s Journey in Action

To better understand this story template beyond the typical sword-and-sorcery genre, let's analyze three examples, from both screenplay and literature, and examine how they implement each of the twelve steps. 

The 1976 film Rocky is acclaimed as one of the most iconic sports films because of Stallone’s performance and the heroic journey his character embarks on.

• Ordinary World. Rocky Balboa is a mediocre boxer and loan collector — just doing his best to live day-to-day in a poor part of Philadelphia.
• Call to Adventure. Heavyweight champ Apollo Creed decides to make a big fight interesting by giving a no-name loser a chance to challenge him. That loser: Rocky Balboa.
• Refusal of the Call. Rocky says, “Thanks, but no thanks,” given that he has no trainer and is incredibly out of shape.
• Meeting the Mentor. In steps former boxer Mickey “Mighty Mick” Goldmill, who sees potential in Rocky and starts training him physically and mentally for the fight.
• Crossing the First Threshold. Rocky crosses the threshold of no return when he accepts the fight on live TV, and 一 in parallel 一 when he crosses the threshold into his love interest Adrian’s house and asks her out on a date.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Rocky continues to try and win Adrian over and maintains a dubious friendship with her brother, Paulie, who provides him with raw meat to train with.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. The Inmost Cave in Rocky is Rocky’s own mind. He fears that he’ll never amount to anything — something that he reveals when he butts heads with his trainer, Mickey, in his apartment.
• Ordeal. The start of the training montage marks the beginning of Rocky’s Ordeal. He pushes through it until he glimpses hope ahead while running up the museum steps.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Rocky's reward is the restoration of his self-belief, as he recognizes he can try to “go the distance” with Apollo Creed and prove he's more than "just another bum from the neighborhood."
• The Road Back. On New Year's Day, the fight takes place. Rocky capitalizes on Creed's overconfidence to start strong, yet Apollo makes a comeback, resulting in a balanced match.
• Resurrection. The fight inflicts multiple injuries and pushes both men to the brink of exhaustion, with Rocky being knocked down numerous times. But he consistently rises to his feet, enduring through 15 grueling rounds.
• Return with the Elixir. Rocky loses the fight — but it doesn’t matter. He’s won back his confidence and he’s got Adrian, who tells him that she loves him.

Moving outside of the ring, let’s see how this story structure holds on a completely different planet and with a character in complete isolation. 

The Martian 

In Andy Weir’s self-published bestseller (better known for its big screen adaptation) we follow astronaut Mark Watney as he endures the challenges of surviving on Mars and working out a way to get back home.

• The Ordinary World. Botanist Mark and other astronauts are on a mission on Mars to study the planet and gather samples. They live harmoniously in a structure known as "the Hab.”
• Call to Adventure. The mission is scrapped due to a violent dust storm. As they rush to launch, Mark is flung out of sight and the team believes him to be dead. He is, however, very much alive — stranded on Mars with no way of communicating with anyone back home.
• Refusal of the Call. With limited supplies and grim odds of survival, Mark concludes that he will likely perish on the desolate planet.
• Meeting the Mentor. Thanks to his resourcefulness and scientific knowledge he starts to figure out how to survive until the next Mars mission arrives.
• Crossing the First Threshold. Mark crosses the mental threshold of even trying to survive 一 he successfully creates a greenhouse to cultivate a potato crop, creating a food supply that will last long enough.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Loneliness and other difficulties test his spirit, pushing him to establish contact with Earth and the people at NASA, who devise a plan to help.  
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. Mark faces starvation once again after an explosion destroys his potato crop.
• Ordeal. A NASA rocket destined to deliver supplies to Mark disintegrates after liftoff and all hope seems lost.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Mark’s efforts to survive are rewarded with a new possibility to leave the planet. His team 一 now aware that he’s alive 一 defies orders from NASA and heads back to Mars to rescue their comrade.
• The Road Back. Executing the new plan is immensely difficult 一 Mark has to travel far to locate the spaceship for his escape, and almost dies along the way.
• Resurrection. Mark is unable to get close enough to his teammates' ship but finds a way to propel himself in empty space towards them, and gets aboard safely.
• Return with the Elixir. Now a survival instructor for aspiring astronauts, Mark teaches students that space is indifferent and that survival hinges on solving one problem after another, as well as the importance of other people’s help.

Coming back to Earth, let’s now examine a heroine’s journey through the wilderness of the Pacific Crest Trail and her… humanity. 

The memoir Wild narrates the three-month-long hiking adventure of Cheryl Strayed across the Pacific coast, as she grapples with her turbulent past and rediscovers her inner strength.

• The Ordinary World. Cheryl shares her strong bond with her mother who was her strength during a tough childhood with an abusive father.
• Call to Adventure. As her mother succumbs to lung cancer, Cheryl faces the heart-wrenching reality to confront life's challenges on her own.
• Refusal of the Call. Cheryl spirals down into a destructive path of substance abuse and infidelity, which leads to hit rock bottom with a divorce and unwanted pregnancy. 
• Meeting the Mentor. Her best friend Lisa supports her during her darkest time. One day she notices the Pacific Trail guidebook, which gives her hope to find her way back to her inner strength.
• Crossing the First Threshold. She quits her job, sells her belongings, and visits her mother’s grave before traveling to Mojave, where the trek begins.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Cheryl is tested by her heavy bag, blisters, rattlesnakes, and exhaustion, but many strangers help her along the trail with a warm meal or hiking tips. 
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. As Cheryl goes through particularly tough and snowy parts of the trail her emotional baggage starts to catch up with her.  
• Ordeal. She inadvertently drops one of her shoes off a cliff, and the incident unearths the helplessness she's been evading since her mother's passing.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Cheryl soldiers on, trekking an impressive 50 miles in duct-taped sandals before finally securing a new pair of shoes. This small victory amplifies her self-confidence.
• The Road Back. On the last stretch, she battles thirst, sketchy hunters, and a storm, but more importantly, she revisits her most poignant and painful memories.
• Resurrection. Cheryl forgives herself for damaging her marriage and her sense of worth, owning up to her mistakes. A pivotal moment happens at Crater Lake, where she lets go of her frustration at her mother for passing away.
• Return with the Elixir. Cheryl reaches the Bridge of the Gods and completes the trail. She has found her inner strength and determination for life's next steps.

There are countless other stories that could align with this template, but it's not always the perfect fit. So, let's look into when authors should consider it or not.

When should writers use The Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey is just one way to outline a novel and dissect a plot. For more longstanding theories on the topic, you can go this way to read about the ever-popular Three-Act Structure or here to discover Dan Harmon's Story Circle and three more prevalent structures .

So when is it best to use the Hero’s Journey? There are a couple of circumstances which might make this a good choice.

When you need more specific story guidance than simple structures can offer

Simply put, the Hero’s Journey structure is far more detailed and closely defined than other story structure theories. If you want a fairly specific framework for your work than a thee-act structure, the Hero’s Journey can be a great place to start.

Of course, rules are made to be broken . There’s plenty of room to play within the confines of the Hero’s Journey, despite it appearing fairly prescriptive at first glance. Do you want to experiment with an abbreviated “Resurrection” stage, as J.K. Rowling did in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Are you more interested in exploring the journey of an anti-hero? It’s all possible.

Once you understand the basics of this universal story structure, you can use and bend it in ways that disrupt reader expectations.

Need more help developing your book? Try this template on for size:

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When your focus is on a single protagonist

No matter how sprawling or epic the world you’re writing is, if your story is, at its core, focused on a single character’s journey, then this is a good story structure for you. It’s kind of in the name! If you’re dealing with an entire ensemble, the Hero’s Journey may not give you the scope to explore all of your characters’ plots and subplot — a broader three-act structure may give you more freedom to weave a greater number story threads. ​​

Which story structure is right for you?

Take this quiz and we'll match your story to a structure in minutes!

Whether you're a reader or writer, we hope our guide has helped you understand this universal story arc. Want to know more about story structure? We explain 6 more in our guide — read on!

6 responses

PJ Reece says:

25/07/2018 – 19:41

Nice vid, good intro to story structure. Typically, though, the 'hero's journey' misses the all-important point of the Act II crisis. There, where the hero faces his/her/its existential crisis, they must DIE. The old character is largely destroyed -- which is the absolute pre-condition to 'waking up' to what must be done. It's not more clever thinking; it's not thinking at all. Its SEEING. So many writing texts miss this point. It's tantamount to a religions experience, and nobody grows up without it. STORY STRUCTURE TO DIE FOR examines this dramatic necessity.

↪️ C.T. Cheek replied:

13/11/2019 – 21:01

Okay, but wouldn't the Act II crisis find itself in the Ordeal? The Hero is tested and arguably looses his/her/its past-self for the new one. Typically, the Hero is not fully "reborn" until the Resurrection, in which they defeat the hypothetical dragon and overcome the conflict of the story. It's kind of this process of rebirth beginning in the earlier sections of the Hero's Journey and ending in the Resurrection and affirmed in the Return with the Elixir.

Lexi Mize says:

25/07/2018 – 22:33

Great article. Odd how one can take nearly every story and somewhat plug it into such a pattern.

Bailey Koch says:

11/06/2019 – 02:16

This was totally lit fam!!!!

↪️ Bailey Koch replied:

11/09/2019 – 03:46

where is my dad?

Frank says:

12/04/2020 – 12:40

Great article, thanks! :) But Vogler didn't expand Campbell's theory. Campbell had seventeen stages, not twelve.

Comments are currently closed.

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Hero's Journey 101: How to Use the Hero's Journey to Plot Your Story

Dan Schriever

How many times have you heard this story? A protagonist is suddenly whisked away from their ordinary life and embarks on a grand adventure. Along the way they make new friends, confront perils, and face tests of character. In the end, evil is defeated, and the hero returns home a changed person.

That’s the Hero’s Journey in a nutshell. It probably sounds very familiar—and rightly so: the Hero’s Journey aspires to be the universal story, or monomyth, a narrative pattern deeply ingrained in literature and culture. Whether in books, movies, television, or folklore, chances are you’ve encountered many examples of the Hero’s Journey in the wild.

In this post, we’ll walk through the elements of the Hero’s Journey step by step. We’ll also study an archetypal example from the movie The Matrix (1999). Once you have mastered the beats of this narrative template, you’ll be ready to put your very own spin on it.

Sound good? Then let’s cross the threshold and let the journey begin.

What Is the Hero’s Journey?

The 12 stages of the hero’s journey, writing your own hero’s journey.

The Hero’s Journey is a common story structure for modeling both plot points and character development. A protagonist embarks on an adventure into the unknown. They learn lessons, overcome adversity, defeat evil, and return home transformed.

Joseph Campbell , a scholar of literature, popularized the monomyth in his influential work The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949). Looking for common patterns in mythological narratives, Campbell described a character arc with 17 total stages, overlaid on a more traditional three-act structure. Not all need be present in every myth or in the same order.

The three stages, or acts, of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey are as follows:

1. Departure. The hero leaves the ordinary world behind.

2. Initiation. The hero ventures into the unknown ("the Special World") and overcomes various obstacles and challenges.

3. Return. The hero returns in triumph to the familiar world.

Hollywood has embraced Campbell’s structure, most famously in George Lucas’s Star Wars movies. There are countless examples in books, music, and video games, from fantasy epics and Disney films to sports movies.

In The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (1992), screenwriter Christopher Vogler adapted Campbell’s three phases into the "12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey." This is the version we’ll analyze in the next section.

For writers, the purpose of the Hero’s Journey is to act as a template and guide. It’s not a rigid formula that your plot must follow beat by beat. Indeed, there are good reasons to deviate—not least of which is that this structure has become so ubiquitous.

Still, it’s helpful to master the rules before deciding when and how to break them. The 12 steps of the Hero's Journey are as follows :

• The Ordinary World
• The Call of Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Meeting the Mentor
• Crossing the First Threshold
• Tests, Allies, and Enemies
• Approach to the Inmost Cave
• Reward (Seizing the Sword)
• The Road Back
• Resurrection
• Return with the Elixir

Let’s take a look at each stage in more detail. To show you how the Hero’s Journey works in practice, we’ll also consider an example from the movie The Matrix (1999). After all, what blog has not been improved by a little Keanu Reeves?

#1: The Ordinary World

This is where we meet our hero, although the journey has not yet begun: first, we need to establish the status quo by showing the hero living their ordinary, mundane life.

It’s important to lay the groundwork in this opening stage, before the journey begins. It lets readers identify with the hero as just a regular person, “normal” like the rest of us. Yes, there may be a big problem somewhere out there, but the hero at this stage has very limited awareness of it.

The Ordinary World in The Matrix :

We are introduced to Thomas A. Anderson, aka Neo, programmer by day, hacker by night. While Neo runs a side operation selling illicit software, Thomas Anderson lives the most mundane life imaginable: he works at his cubicle, pays his taxes, and helps the landlady carry out her garbage.

#2: The Call to Adventure

The journey proper begins with a call to adventure—something that disrupts the hero’s ordinary life and confronts them with a problem or challenge they can’t ignore. This can take many different forms.

While readers may already understand the stakes, the hero is realizing them for the first time. They must make a choice: will they shrink from the call, or rise to the challenge?

The Call to Adventure in The Matrix :

A mysterious message arrives in Neo’s computer, warning him that things are not as they seem. He is urged to “follow the white rabbit.” At a nightclub, he meets Trinity, who tells him to seek Morpheus.

#3: Refusal of the Call

Oops! The hero chooses option A and attempts to refuse the call to adventure. This could be for any number of reasons: fear, disbelief, a sense of inadequacy, or plain unwillingness to make the sacrifices that are required.

A little reluctance here is understandable. If you were asked to trade the comforts of home for a life-and-death journey fraught with peril, wouldn’t you give pause?

Refusal of the Call in The Matrix :

Agents arrive at Neo’s office to arrest him. Morpheus urges Neo to escape by climbing out a skyscraper window. “I can’t do this… This is crazy!” Neo protests as he backs off the ledge.

#4: Meeting the Mentor

Okay, so the hero got cold feet. Nothing a little pep talk can’t fix! The mentor figure appears at this point to give the hero some much needed counsel, coaching, and perhaps a kick out the door.

After all, the hero is very inexperienced at this point. They’re going to need help to avoid disaster or, worse, death. The mentor’s role is to overcome the hero’s reluctance and prepare them for what lies ahead.

Meeting the Mentor in The Matrix :

Neo meets with Morpheus, who reveals a terrifying truth: that the ordinary world as we know it is a computer simulation designed to enslave humanity to machines.

#5: Crossing the First Threshold

At this juncture, the hero is ready to leave their ordinary world for the first time. With the mentor’s help, they are committed to the journey and ready to step across the threshold into the special world . This marks the end of the departure act and the beginning of the adventure in earnest.

This may seem inevitable, but for the hero it represents an important choice. Once the threshold is crossed, there’s no going back. Bilbo Baggins put it nicely: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Crossing the First Threshold in The Matrix :

Neo is offered a stark choice: take the blue pill and return to his ordinary life none the wiser, or take the red pill and “see how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo takes the red pill and is extracted from the Matrix, entering the real world .

#6: Tests, Allies, and Enemies

Now we are getting into the meat of the adventure. The hero steps into the special world and must learn the new rules of an unfamiliar setting while navigating trials, tribulations, and tests of will. New characters are often introduced here, and the hero must navigate their relationships with them. Will they be friend, foe, or something in between?

Broadly speaking, this is a time of experimentation and growth. It is also one of the longest stages of the journey, as the hero learns the lay of the land and defines their relationship to other characters.

Wondering how to create captivating characters? Read our guide , which explains how to shape characters that readers will love—or hate.

Tests, Allies, and Enemies in The Matrix :

Neo is introduced to the vagabond crew of the Nebuchadnezzar . Morpheus informs Neo that he is The One , a savior destined to liberate humanity. He learns jiu jitsu and other useful skills.

#7: Approach to the Inmost Cave

Time to get a little metaphorical. The inmost cave isn’t a physical cave, but rather a place of great danger—indeed, the most dangerous place in the special world . It could be a villain’s lair, an impending battle, or even a mental barrier. No spelunking required.

Broadly speaking, the approach is marked by a setback in the quest. It becomes a lesson in persistence, where the hero must reckon with failure, change their mindset, or try new ideas.

Note that the hero hasn’t entered the cave just yet. This stage is about the approach itself, which the hero must navigate to get closer to their ultimate goal. The stakes are rising, and failure is no longer an option.

Approach to the Inmost Cave in The Matrix :

Neo pays a visit to The Oracle. She challenges Neo to “know thyself”—does he believe, deep down, that he is The One ? Or does he fear that he is “just another guy”? She warns him that the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

#8: The Ordeal

The ordeal marks the hero’s greatest test thus far. This is a dark time for them: indeed, Campbell refers to it as the “belly of the whale.” The hero experiences a major hurdle or obstacle, which causes them to hit rock bottom.

This is a pivotal moment in the story, the main event of the second act. It is time for the hero to come face to face with their greatest fear. It will take all their skills to survive this life-or-death crisis. Should they succeed, they will emerge from the ordeal transformed.

Keep in mind: the story isn’t over yet! Rather, the ordeal is the moment when the protagonist overcomes their weaknesses and truly steps into the title of hero .

The Ordeal in The Matrix :

When Cipher betrays the crew to the agents, Morpheus sacrifices himself to protect Neo. In turn, Neo makes his own choice: to risk his life in a daring rescue attempt.

#9: Reward (Seizing the Sword)

The ordeal was a major level-up moment for the hero. Now that it's been overcome, the hero can reap the reward of success. This reward could be an object, a skill, or knowledge—whatever it is that the hero has been struggling toward. At last, the sword is within their grasp.

From this moment on, the hero is a changed person. They are now equipped for the final conflict, even if they don’t fully realize it yet.

Reward (Seizing the Sword) in The Matrix :

Neo’s reward is helpfully narrated by Morpheus during the rescue effort: “He is beginning to believe.” Neo has gained confidence that he can fight the machines, and he won’t back down from his destiny.

#10: The Road Back

We’re now at the beginning of act three, the return . With the reward in hand, it’s time to exit the inmost cave and head home. But the story isn’t over yet.

In this stage, the hero reckons with the consequences of act two. The ordeal was a success, but things have changed now. Perhaps the dragon, robbed of his treasure, sets off for revenge. Perhaps there are more enemies to fight. Whatever the obstacle, the hero must face them before their journey is complete.

The Road Back in The Matrix :

The rescue of Morpheus has enraged Agent Smith, who intercepts Neo before he can return to the Nebuchadnezzar . The two foes battle in a subway station, where Neo’s skills are pushed to their limit.

#11: Resurrection

Now comes the true climax of the story. This is the hero’s final test, when everything is at stake: the battle for the soul of Gotham, the final chance for evil to triumph. The hero is also at the peak of their powers. A happy ending is within sight, should they succeed.

Vogler calls the resurrection stage the hero’s “final exam.” They must draw on everything they have learned and prove again that they have really internalized the lessons of the ordeal . Near-death escapes are not uncommon here, or even literal deaths and resurrections.

Resurrection in The Matrix :

Despite fighting valiantly, Neo is defeated by Agent Smith and killed. But with Trinity’s help, he is resurrected, activating his full powers as The One . Isn’t it wonderful how literal The Matrix can be?

#12: Return with the Elixir

Hooray! Evil has been defeated and the hero is transformed. It’s time for the protagonist to return home in triumph, and share their hard-won prize with the ordinary world . This prize is the elixir —the object, skill, or insight that was the hero’s true reward for their journey and transformation.

Return with the Elixir in The Matrix :

Neo has defeated the agents and embraced his destiny. He returns to the simulated world of the Matrix, this time armed with god-like powers and a resolve to open humanity’s eyes to the truth.

If you’re writing your own adventure, you may be wondering: should I follow the Hero’s Journey structure?

The good news is, it’s totally up to you. Joseph Campbell conceived of the monomyth as a way to understand universal story structure, but there are many ways to outline a novel. Feel free to play around within its confines, adapt it across different media, and disrupt reader expectations. It’s like Morpheus says: “Some of these rules can be bent. Others can be broken.”

Think of the Hero’s Journey as a tool. If you’re not sure where your story should go next, it can help to refer back to the basics. From there, you’re free to choose your own adventure.

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The Hero’s Journey: Telling Your Small Business Story Online

Your small business story is a hero's journey. Share it online and you'll be amazed how it connects you with new and existing customers.

My first blog post was horrible. When I look back at it now, I wonder if it was written by a first grader. It was not my fault. After all, I was not trained as a writer, and had not written that much after college. It still amazes me today how far I have come in my hero’s journey. I am not an award-winning journalist, but I make a living from my writing. My success has as much to do with my story as my persistence.

For three years, I wrote on my blog every day. Slowly but surely I got better. Then, something changed. People believed my story about how I was a blogger. You see, at the beginning I was like every other amateur on the web. However, I continued to work on my craft and developed a story and style all my own.

So why am I telling you this? Because every business needs a story. Something that goes beyond the lowest price offer or the canned, “We provide good customer service.” My story is that I kept at it until people gave me an opportunity to write for them.

That led to other opportunities and now you’re hearing my voice in this article.

The biggest question I have for you is, what is your story? What is your voice? In a crowded market where 2 million blog posts are written every day, 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, and 293,000 status updates are posted on Facebook every minute, you need a story that allows you to stand out from the crowd.

The Elements of the Hero’s Journey

Every great story has universal elements, from the hero, to the guide, to the challenge, to the great plan and the eventual resolution. This is as true in business as it is in the movies. That is because, as Park Howell says, “Our brain can only go 30 seconds without creating meaning in our environment, and our subconscious sees the context with curiosity.”

To do that, every hero’s journey story should have the following elements:

1. A Promise to Hook the Reader

Every story needs a promise that hooks the viewer. As film maker Andrew Stanton said, “All stories should start with a promise. Sometimes it’s as simple as ‘Once upon a time,'” Allow the audience to understand right away why they should want to listen to your story.

2. The Hero (Your Customer)

Naturally, every hero’s journey has a hero! What would Star Wars be without Luke Skywalker, or Hunger Games without Katniss Everdeen? Here is the catch when you tell your business story online. You are not  the hero of the story. I know this might be massively disappointing, but stay with me here. You want your customers to listen to your business story. To do that, they need to create meaning, as we discussed earlier.

That requires people to picture themselves in your story. They do this best as the hero. Let them be the hero, because they will immerse themselves in your story.

If you do not think that every customer can be a hero online, look no further than Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite word is immersive. That is because when people go onto Facebook, they immerse themselves in a world of their own making. A timeline that centers around their friends and connections. Posts that show people in their lives.

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3. A Problem You’re Going to Solve

The biggest reason a person or company approaches your business online is because they have a problem. If they need to buy a property, they are looking to speak with a real estate agent. If they want to buy a bike, they check out a sports store.

For whatever reason, they have a gap in their life between where they are now and where they want to be. That is why, in your story, you need to lay out the problem and then show them how you can solve it.

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4. A Guide Who Helps You Along the Way (That’s You!)

To solve their problem, you need to be the guide. We discussed above that you are not the hero of this story. Any great company is not the hero, but the guide. You must be the Gandalf, Yoda or Dumbledore that your customers need. The wise person who points the way.

Yes, your experience owning a business for decades is important. However, the heroes (your customers) want you to use that wisdom for their benefit. Otherwise, they see you as the evil sorcerer (Darth Vader, Sauron or Voldemort) who has the experience to help, but is in it for themselves. Part of this relies on creating a human connection with them. For this reason, Bryan Kramer says that business is not about B2B or B2C, but H2H (Human to Human). A guide cannot help the hero if the hero does not trust them.

Let’s take an example closer to home: FreshBooks is a great guide for small business owners. We help small business owners (our personal heroes) navigate the icky paperwork associated with running a business. With our blog , we also provide all kinds of resources for helping small business owners thrive. Gandalf, eat your heart out!

5. A Guide Strategy That’s Easy to Follow (Your Tool or Service)

Once you have gained their trust, you need to help them devise a strategy. Donald Miller from Storybrand says that you need a “simple plan (your) customers must follow.” They’re turning to a guide for a solution to the problem they face.

This goes to the essence of why you are in business. What problem do you solve for your customers? As long as you know that, you can help them with their story on a very primal level.

Again, let’s look at FreshBooks : Our hero customers went into business because they were passionate about their skill or service. But now they need a tool that helps them capture expenses , track time , send invoices and all that other pesky stuff. Enter FreshBooks! Hello, painless invoicing and accounting.

6. A Call to Action That Entices

Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces , said, “The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”

The challenge with any story is that sometimes the hero does not know what they want. As the guide, you not only provide them with a strategy, but help them say yes to their adventure with you. Especially online, where so much clutter exists, you need to not only tell them how you can help them with their problem, but also have a clear call to action (CTA).

This is why landing pages have higher conversion rates than sidebar email forms. The landing page has a clear CTA that the user can follow. The sidebar is one among many CTAs on the page.

7. A Success Conclusion

When you put together all of the elements we discussed above, the story can come to a successful conclusion (a sale).

Just remember that this is not the time to slip back into sales mode. The story should end similarly to how it started, by focusing on the hero. Remind them of the benefits and make the process natural to them.

Especially when selling online, this is not the time to make customers jump through hoops. Instead, make it extraordinarily simple. A good example of this is Amazon. Their one-click purchases and free delivery ideas are the stuff of legend.

They experience massive success because they allow their hero to see the benefits and quickly find success with their purchases.

The Power of Sharing Your Hero’s Journey to Connect People

Stories have this amazing way of connecting people. At a time when we are overwhelmed by the sheer number of blog posts, social media updates and videos, the right story captures our imagination. Thinking of your business story as a hero’s journey can do just that.

By using the formula discussed above, your company can add a loyal throng of heroic customers to your business. Just make sure that you guide them down a path where they can succeed with your services, and anything is possible.

In the meantime, let us know in the comments below how you plan on telling your business story online.

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Posted on May 17, 2017

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Using the Hero’s Journey in Your Sales Pitch

• November 27, 2023

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Storytelling is the best way to convey ideas and emotions, both of which you need to hook your target audience. If your sales pitch doesn’t tell a story, you’re likely not going to have many bites. But storytelling has existed in our society for far longer than sales. Authors, scriptwriters, video game developers, and other creatives use a number of tools and techniques to tell a good story.

One of the most popular is the Hero’s Journey, the idea that every story follows the same essential trajectory and beats. The Hero’s Journey is also something you can use in your sales pitch.

What Is the Hero’s Journey?

Star Wars. The Lord of the Rings. The Hunger Games. Even most rom-coms that you see. What do they have in common? It’s usually the Hero’s Journey. This outline includes all the typical beats that make a universal story people can relate to. These beats include:

• The Call to Adventure – The initial issue that opens the door to change in the hero’s life
• Refusal of the Call – The hero’s initial reluctance to answer the call
• Crossing the Threshold – The hero embarking on their journey for the first time
• Point of No Return – The hero’s life is changed, unable to go back
• The Road of Trials – All the challenges the hero finds along the way
• Making Allies – The people who help the hero on their quest
• Gaining Skills – New skills and accomplishments that help the hero on their journey
• The Climactic Battle – The hero faces their foe or uses all the skills and allies they’ve gained along the way to accomplish their goal
• Returning Home – The hero returns home triumphant to live out their days in peace.

How To Use the Hero’s Journey In Your Sales Pitch

Now that you understand these universal steps in most stories let’s discuss how you can include them in your sales pitch:

Keep It Simple

The list of steps above is an abbreviated version of the Hero’s Journey. However, for your sales pitch, you may want to condense those steps even further. A good sales pitch should be under two minutes. Don’t get so lost in the details of a good narrative that you forget actually to describe your product and what it does. Try to stick to the important points of the hero’s journey, the points that will stand out the most.

Make the Customer the Hero

Your company should never be the “hero” in the story. To position yourself as the hero is to position the customer as your ally — your sidekick, essentially. Instead, you want to frame the customer as the hero. Your company is their ally, the tool they need to defeat the antagonist or the wise mentor. Your company is Gandalf or Yoda, not Frodo or Luke Skywalker. Better yet, your company is the sword that King Arthur pulls from the stone in order to vanquish his foes.

Make Your Company Indispensable

You might not be the hero, but no hero goes through their journey alone. Make it clear in your sales pitch that your product or service is what’s necessary for the hero to accomplish their goal and defeat the antagonist. Make the hero excited about teaming up with you, and about the results that follow. When you get to that happy ending, make sure it’s clear that it wouldn’t have been possible without your company’s help.

Set Up a Strong Antagonist

Every story needs a villain. What is your customer’s antagonist? What problem is upsetting their daily routine and making it difficult to live peacefully? If your product offers some form of pain relief, maybe the villain is chronic pain. If you offer a convenient cleaning product, it might be their old cleaning products. Let your story show how much this antagonist is hurting your hero and why it needs to be vanquished.

Give It a Happy Ending

Not every story has a happy ending. In the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus fails at the last minute by turning around and looking for Eurydice, thus condemning her to the Underworld. Other stories may have the hero vanquish the foe but return home shell-shocked after everything they saw and experienced.

But a tragic ending is not likely to sell your product. Your story needs an indisputably happy ending. The hero returns home triumphantly, saving the day. The antagonist is gone forever, or if they’re not gone forever, they’re clearly no match for the hero. This happy ending is what you’ll ultimately need to sell the product.

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Business Storytelling Models for L&D: Data and the Hero's Journey

So far in this blog series, we’ve discussed the importance of data storytelling and covered how to use the STAR model to share your achievements as you might during a job interview. Now, we’ll explore how to draw from Hollywood’s version of storytelling—using the Hero’s Journey framework (departure, initiation, return)—to create an engrossing, transformative story.

You already know data holds invaluable information that can help you prove the impact of your L&D programs, gain stakeholder buy-in for learning analytics , and earn your seat at the table, just to name a few.

So, when it’s time to share your insights, you need to hold people’s attention by entertaining them with a great story—not a boring 20-page report with confusing charts and spreadsheets. After all, when something is easy to understand and digest, chances are you’ll get exactly what you want.

Departure: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!

Get started by setting your story’s departure (or situation)—which can be broken into two key elements from the Hero’s Journey archetype :

• Identify the ordinary
• Call to adventure

Identifying the ordinary world is the most literal interpretation of setting the situation. In other words, when and where is this scenario taking place? Really, this is about setting the environment through which the rest of the story will take place.

For instance, consider the opening credits to any of the Star Wars films . You immediately see all the details about the setting: time, place, and context. In terms of data storytelling, you want to explain the situation, plot, or dilemma prior to having all that wonderful data in hand.

From here, things get shaken up by the call to adventure, part of which is identifying the vehicle or person through which you will tell the story. By framing your story within an appropriate environment and establishing a point of view, you’re better able to capture your audience’s attention and have created the foundation for the rest of the story.

Princess Leia’s now-famous plea to Obi-Wan Kenobi, for example, was the call to adventure that set off a series of events that led to Luke Skywalker’s mission to find Obi-Wan.

A call to adventure can take many different forms. For instance, you may have the realization that your industry is experiencing significant transformation and, as a result, so is your business strategy.

A Real-World Call to Adventure

As Visa began a massive digital transformation, see how their learning and development team begin their journey to understand how this change would impact their programs across the organization.

Initiation: Red Pill or Blue Pill?

This section goes by different names, so we’ll summarize it here as “Tests, Allies, and Enemies.” If the call to adventure sets the story in motion, this is where the meat of the conflict resides.

Neo begins his journey into the Matrix with his first test. By choosing the red pill, he acknowledges that he’s committed to this quest and to freeing his mind. It’s at this point he awakens from his slumber to see the Matrix for what it really is, and his journey begins in earnest.

Just like Neo or any other fictional hero must pass a series of trials and tribulations, you likely encountered challenges and roadblocks en route to discovering the revelation you want to share with your peers. Remember, going into detail here adds credibility to your story and process. Don’t shy away from describing what went wrong; instead, use challenges as opportunities to showcase how they were overcome.

LISTEN NOW:  The podcast “ You Are Not So Smart ” gives great examples of narrative persuasion—specifically doing so in the public health sphere in the episode “The power of fiction to change people’s minds."

Return: Mount Doom

Now, it’s time to conclude your story and describe the outcomes of your project. Keeping with the Hero’s Journey, the last part of your story ends with these stages:

• Reward: the knowledge and experience that leads to better understanding and reconciliation
• Road Back: when you find that old ways are no longer effective and set new goals based on what you’ve learned
• Resurrection: the tipping or turning point
• Elixir: the final insights and lessons learned along the way

A great example is from J.R.R. Tolkien's classic “Lord of the Rings” series . When Frodo must destroy the One Ring in “The Return of the King,” nearly everything goes wrong because he’s succumbed to the ring’s power. Although Gollum and the One Ring are finally destroyed, that’s not the end of Frodo’s journey.

The ring’s destruction is just the tipping point leading to the defeat of Sauron. After his rescue, Frodo retires to the Shire for a time. He’s learned important lessons from passing many trials and documents them in a manuscript before sailing off with the elves.

This, too, is where you “return with the elixir” from your L&D journey. It’s time to document how you’ve surpassed and grown from this experience and summarize the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Use the last stages of the Hero’s Journey to help you describe the outcomes of a project.

For instance, what’s the biggest or most impactful challenge you faced as a result of all your hard work? By overcoming that difficulty, what new L&D insights have you learned and how will they affect future learning programs?

What's next? That depends on the desired outcome of your data storytelling.

Now that you have a recipe for building a story based on the Hero’s Journey method, try exploring other storytelling tropes to create compelling data-driven narratives. Then, join us for our next post, when we explain the importance of understanding different audiences.

NOTE: Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Lord of the Rings are used here only to illustrate the examples in this blog post. Watershed is not associated with, sponsored by, or affiliated with Lucasfilm Ltd. Production; Twentieth Century Fox; Warner Brothers; or New Line Cinema.

About the author

Tim Dickinson is skilled in leading organizations through strategic changes, getting positive results through learning analytics, and translating complex ideas and trends into easy-to-understand explanations.

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More From Forbes

The unsung heroes holding your company together.

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The Life of a Middle Manager

Middle managers are the unsung heroes of the modern workplace.

They’re overworked, underpaid, and often overlooked.

While often unnoticed, these critical professionals are the glue that holds organizations together and the key to driving sustainable change.

Despite their vital role, middle managers are frequently stretched thin, caught between the demands of senior leadership and the needs of their teams. Many middle managers are tossed into these roles without training or ongoing development.

No wonder so many of them fail miserably.

Investing in the development and support of these individuals is essential for companies that want to thrive in today's rapidly evolving business landscape. By equipping middle managers with the skills, resources, and autonomy they need to succeed, organizations can unlock a host of benefits.

Empowered middle managers are better able to align their teams with strategic objectives, foster a positive and productive work culture, and drive innovation from the ground up. Ultimately, the success or failure of any major organizational transformation hinges on the middle management layer.

Companies that recognize the power of the middle and prioritize their development will be poised to outpace the competition and deliver lasting value to customers, shareholders, and employees.

One Size Fits All Fits No One

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Google makes a new sale offer to pixel 8 buyers, the best reading glasses plus expert tips from an ophthalmologist.

Granted, some companies do provide resources to develop managers. However, many companies make the mistake of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to middle manager development. They offer generic online courses or a library of business books, assuming that a single curriculum can meet the diverse needs of this crucial leadership layer.

However, as an expert in leadership development with seven books, including the recently released third edition of, Suddenly in Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding All Around and dozens of courses under my belt, I can say with certainty that this generic approach doesn’t work.

People learn and grow in different ways, and middle managers have unique challenges, strengths, and learning styles that require a more personalized touch.

The Power of Tailored Development

To truly unleash the potential of your middle managers, you need to invest in training and support that is customized to their individual needs.

This means:

• Assessing each manager's current skills, knowledge gaps, and development goals.
• Designing targeted learning programs that address their specific needs and equip them with the critical competencies they need to succeed.
• Providing ongoing coaching, mentorship, and opportunities to apply new skills on the job, rather than relying solely on one-time courses or workshops.
• Empowering middle managers to actively shape their own development rather than simply handing them a pre-determined curriculum.

By taking this tailored approach, you can help your middle managers develop the strategic thinking, people management, and organizational leadership skills essential for driving sustainable change and performance across the organization.

The Ripple Effect of Empowered Middle Managers

When you invest in the targeted development of your middle managers, the benefits extend far beyond just those individuals. Empowered middle managers are better able to:

• Align their teams with strategic objectives
• Foster a positive and productive work culture
• Drive innovation from the ground up

In short, the success or failure of any major organizational transformation hinges on the middle management layer. Companies that recognize the power of the middle and prioritize their development will be poised to outpace the competition and deliver lasting value to customers, shareholders, and employees alike.

Don't let your middle managers remain the unsung heroes any longer. Invest in their tailored development today and unlock the full potential of this critical leadership layer.

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Screen Rant

Frieren teases a new villain who could be the hero's perfect match.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is teasing a new villain in the manga, and what little has been shown about them already sets them up as Frieren's foil.

• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 's new villain may be a major rival to Frieren going forward in the series.
• The new villain being an elf leading a villainous organization, could make them a perfect foil for Frieren and her adventuring party.
• Previous events in the story make it clear that the new character could easily put up a fight against Frieren.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Frieren: Beyond Journey's End chapter #128. One of the biggest hallmarks of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has always been Frieren’s status as one of the strongest characters in the story. Some characters can and have beaten her in a fight, but her strategic mind and overwhelming power have still allowed her to win every fight she’s been in throughout the story, even if she sometimes needs help to do so.

There are very few characters who can rival Frieren, but the series is teasing the appearance of someone who can do just that. The current arc of the manga revolves around Frieren and other first-class mages fighting against the Empire’s most elite forces, and among the organizations included in that, one new group in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End appears to be led by an elf just like Frieren and Serie .

Nothing is known about the new character, but it’s easy to assume that they could be a perfect foil to Frieren, and that would be great to see how these events will play out.

Frieren Beyond Journey's End Season 1 Review: The Best Fantasy Anime in Years Ends on a High Note

Why frieren’s new villain might be the perfect foil for its hero, original story created by kanehito yamada; art by tsukasa abe.

There are numerous reasons why Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ’s new villain could be a great foil to Frieren. The new villain being an elf like Frieren is an obvious parallel between them and ther iconic protagonist , but with the new villain leading the Court of the Sacred Staff, one of the Empire’s deadly covert organizations, that means Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ’s new villain, unlike Frieren, herself, is someone who uses magic as a means of killing others for selfish reasons . Something like that would make them entirely antithetical to Frieren’s character, and that, in turn, would make them a great foil.

Why Frieren’s New Villain Might Be Able To Take Frieren In A Fight

While friren is recognized as being the strongest in the world, this ew threat may be able to match up to her power.

Beyond their ideologies as a possible parallel to Frieren’s, there’s plenty of reason to assume that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ’s new villain could fight against her. For starters, the Court of the Sacred Staff is set on the same level as the Shadow Warriors, an organization that can create warriors skilled enough to get the jump on Frieren and nearly kill her. By that logic, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ’s new villain is essentially confirmed to be capable of killing Frieren , so they’re bound to give Frieren one of her biggest fights in the series.

Hit New Fantasy Anime Dethrones Fullmetal Alchemist For Top Anime in Two Big Rankings

Something else worth considering is how the new villain might be someone who’s already defeated Frieren in the past. Frieren once said that she was beaten by an elf who had less power than her, and with an elf set to be the new villain in the upcoming arc, it would make sense for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ’s new villain to be the elf who once defeated Frieren . A prior connection like that could work to emphasize potential parallels between them even further, and with any luck, it won’t be long before Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End sees fit to capitalize on it.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is an animated adventure-drama series based on the manga series created by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe. Following her parties' victory against an all-powerful demon king that threatened to destroy their world, Frieren, an elf, attempts to find her place in a new world with an undetermined future fifty years later.

AFK Journey: Reinier Guide (Skills, Strategies, & Comps)

Reinier holds the title of the best Support and is considered one of the deadliest Heroes in AFK Journey; here’s how to master him.

Quick Links

Reinier: hero overview, reinier’s skills & effects, how to unlock reinier, best team & comp for reinier, strategy tips for reinier in all battle modes, should you pull for reinier.

Reinier has been consistently topping all tier lists in AFK Journey , largely owing to his versatile skill set that caters to both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment matches. However, being a rare Hero, Reinier is not commonly seen in many team compositions, which may leave you unfamiliar with his stats and abilities.

This comprehensive guide will provide you with all the essential information about Reinier , covering his stats, abilities, strategic approaches, and optimal team compositions. If you aim to become proficient in playing Reinier, the formidable Hypogean, your search ends here.

AFK Journey: Florabelle Guide (Skills, Strategies, Comps)

Also known as the Symmetric Sin, Reinier is an S-Level Hero from the Hypogean Faction who falls in the Support Class. His unique ability is Dimensional Manipulation , allowing him to teleport himself and another ally or foe. Stat-wise, he boasts a total Power of 150K and 1668K HP at maximum level.

Reinier’s Full Statistics

Reinier's primary skill revolves around teleportation, allowing him to deliver long-range damage, exchange enemies with allies, and temporarily remove an enemy from combat. Here's a detailed breakdown of his abilities:

• Skill 1 (Dynamic Balance) : If Reinier stands adjacent to an ally positioned symmetrically with an enemy trooper, he swaps the two. Additionally, if the swapped enemy sustains damage, the swapped ally regains 45% of this damage as HP.
• Skill 2 (Golden Ratio) : Following a multi-shot damage attack, Reinier launches the enemy into the air, causing them to be stunned for several seconds.
• Ultimate Skill (Mutual Reflection) : Inflicting 240% damage, Reinier teleports one enemy to another dimension, removing them from the board for ten seconds.
• Exclusive Skill (Tuned Art) : Using Dynamic Balance, Reinier injures one enemy, causing them to receive increased damage while dealing less ATK.
• Hero Focus : Reinier's Dynamic Balance either enhances an ally's ATK or diminishes the enemy's damage output.
• Enhance Force : When an ally stands symmetrically with an enemy, Reinier boosts their ATK.

AFK Journey: How to Increase Guild Activeness

As a Hypogean, Reinier is not accessible through All-Hero and Epic Recruitments . The exclusive means of acquiring Reinier are either by purchasing his Soulstones for 30,000 Guild Medals or by pulling for him in the Stargaze Station . However, access to the Stargaze Station is unlocked only after accumulating 400 pulls in other banners.

You earn Guild Medals by participating in Guild Challenges and fulfilling weekly objectives.

Reinier thrives in a standard T-T-M-H composition alongside Thoran (Tank), Antandra (Tank), Cecia ( Marksman ), and Smokey (Healer). Additionally, characters such as Temesia, Odie, and Rowan synergize well with Reinier.

Regarding positioning, Reinier should be situated in the backline due to his susceptibility to damage owing to his low endurance.

When employing Reinier, consider the following pointers:

• Influence the enemy's lineup. Utilize Reinier's teleportation capabilities to manipulate the enemy's formation. Position a sturdy Hero in a tile symmetrical to the enemy's crucial character (e.g., their Healer) at the match's onset. This tactic allows you to swiftly eliminate the targeted trooper while your infiltrating ally distracts the enemy's support line.
• Pair Reinier with Rowan for increased disruption. Reinier's Ultimate skill banishes an enemy Hero for ten seconds. With Rowan on your team, you can repeatedly utilize this ability, effectively keeping key opponents out of the battle, granting a significant advantage in all Battle Modes.
• Do not rely on Reinier's ATK and HP. Reinier is not suited to serve as a primary damage dealer and lacks durability. Moreover, he is susceptible to attacks from enemy assassins ( Rogues ). Ensure Reinier's protection at the rear lines and focus solely on his disruptive capabilities.

Reinier stands as one of the top-tier Heroes in AFK Journey , undoubtedly justifying his value. Whether acquired through the Stargaze Station or purchased with Guild Medals, Reinier proves invaluable across all Battle Modes , encompassing both PvE and PvP encounters. This versatility mirrors that of only one other Hero, Odie.

AFK Journey

'Unsung Hero' sheds light on the Smallbone family's incredible journey to musical stardom

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Unsung Hero', an upcoming American Christian drama film directed by Richard Ramsey and Joel Smallbone, is based on a remarkable true story.

Starring Joel as David Smallbone, Daisy Betts as Helen Smallbone, Kirrilee Berger as Rebecca St. James, Jonathan Jackson as Eddie DeGarmo, and Candace Cameron Bure as Kay Albright, the film delves into the story of the Smallbone family, focusing on siblings St James, Joel, and Luke, as they navigate their path to becoming Christian recording artists.

The official synopsis of the film reads, "David Smallbone, his pregnant wife, and their seven children leave Australia to rebuild their lives in America. David and Helen realize the musical talent of their children, who become two of the most successful acts in Inspirational Music history."

The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on Friday, April 26, 2024, by Lionsgate. 

Let's discuss the real-life story of 'Unsung Hero'.

The film delves into David Smallbone's remarkable journey from Australia to the United States

'Unsung Hero' chronicles the pivotal journey of David Smallbone, who made the life-changing decision to relocate his family from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1991.

After his music company collapsed, David, a music promoter, decided to seek a fresh start in the United States, as reported by The Tennessean.

Despite the challenges that lay ahead, David's resilience and determination to overcome adversity served as a beacon of hope for his family.

With just their children, a few suitcases, and a deep love for music, David and his pregnant wife, Helen Smallbone, embarked on a journey to rebuild their lives.

According to The Tennessean, the journey from Australia to Nashville was neither easy nor inexpensive for the Smallbone family. They had to use the majority of their family's savings to cover the cost of airfare.

As the imminent birth of their seventh child approached, David remained unemployed. Despite the uncertainty of their circumstances, Helen gave birth to their seventh child, marking a poignant moment in their journey.

After the Smallbone family settled in Nashville, David actively searched for employment. He also took his oldest daughter, St James, who was 14 years old at the time, up and down Nashville's Music Row, aiming to secure her a record deal.

Two years after their move to Nashville, St James' dedication and talent paid off when she was signed to ForeFront Records.

Who is Rebecca St. James?

Rebecca St James, the daughter of David and Helen, is an Australian-American contemporary Christian singer, songwriter, and actress.

St James achieved fame in the late 1990s with her RIAA-certified Gold albums 'God' and 'Pray.' The album 'Pray' notably won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best Rock Gospel Album, solidifying her status as a talented and respected artist in the music industry.

During this time, St James' music not only garnered commercial success but also connected with listeners on a deeper level. 

According to a report by Solo Parent Organization, Helen, St  James' mother, played a crucial role in her daughter's career, offering unwavering support and encouragement throughout her journey to fame.

St James is also best known for films like 'Left Behind: The Movie,' 'The First Easter,' 'Unidentified,' 'Sarah's Choice,' 'Rising Stars,' and 'Faith of Our Fathers.'

How family values fueled For King & Country's rise to fame

Joel and Luke joined forces to establish the band 'For King & Country' in 2007. Their shared passion for music and deep-rooted family values the foundation for their musical journey.

In 2008, Joel and Luke released their first EP, 'A Tale of Two Towns' in the comfort of their parents' home, which served as a creative sanctuary for the brothers. 

Over the years, despite their rising success, the brothers faced various hardships. In 2011, the duo, now known as For King & Country, returned to the studio to record what would become their first three singles: 'Busted Heart,' 'Proof of Your Love,' and 'Middle of Your Heart.'

In 2013, Joel also embarked on his acting career, taking on the role of King Xerxes in 'The Book of Esther' and portraying Jake Reeson in 'Like a Country Song.'

One of his most notable roles came in 2016 when he was cast in the leading role of James Stevens in the film 'Priceless.'

Joel has embarked on an intriguing new chapter in his acting career, as he is set to portray his father, David, in the upcoming film 'Unsung Heroes.'

'Unsung Hero' trailer

'my 600-lb. life' stars then and now: plus-sized show participants transformed their lives.

Madagascar: Hero's Journey - How UNFPA Helps Mothers in Madagascar to Access Emergency Obstetric Care

Androy — It was time to leave for the hospital. Samueline Razafindravao had intended to give birth at her home in southern Madagascar, but after encountering difficulties, decided to go to her local health centre.

Once there, health staff realized she required urgent care they couldn't provide - she would have to go to a specialist hospital 200 kilometres away. For that, she needed an ambulance, something rarely available in rural Madagascar.

In recent years, three in five deliveries in Madagascar have occurred at home, many unassisted by skilled birth attendants. These circumstances can put mothers at risk of complications and deadly consequences, especially if emergency obstetric care is hard to reach.

For Ms. Razafindravao, the ambulance ride to the hospital felt like a race against time. "The baby was pushing a lot and then suddenly not moving," she said.

"I thought I was going to die and lose the baby as well."

A holistic hospital

After Ms. Razafindravao's ambulance brought her to the Ambovombe Regional Referral Hospital, she underwent surgery and safely delivered a baby girl.

With its happy ending, her story diverges from that of many other women, according to Dr. Sadoscar Hakizimana, UNFPA's sexual and reproductive health expert in the region; given the shortage of qualified medical staff, he has also put his skills as a surgeon at the service of the hospital.

"Perhaps 60 to 70 per cent of pregnant women who arrive here have already lost their baby because they have sought medical help too late," he said. "But we have a 100 per cent success rate of healthy births, either natural or via Caesarean section, for those mothers who arrive on time, as we have a range of care options we can offer them."

The hospital in the Androy region has two ambulances at its disposal, one of which was provided by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, with funding from the Government of Japan. With this support, the hospital has developed into a specialist facility offering a range of services, including emergency obstetric and fistula repair surgeries.

Meanwhile, two midwives are on hand to help with delivering babies and provide advice on family planning; incubators are available for premature babies.

Midwife Jeanne Bernadine Rasoanirina said, "In the last week I have delivered three babies and over the past month I attended over 330 ante-natal and postnatal consultations - so there is definitely a demand for services."

The result of these changes and others have been life saving: According to Dr. Germaine Retofa, the acting regional director for public health in Androy, maternal and infant mortality rates are down.

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"We can offer a more holistic approach to health care, which may include maternal health services alongside nutrition advice and care for malnourished children," she said.

Free care saving futures

Ms. Razafindravao is just one of millions of women who intended to give birth at home in Madagascar in recent years. For her, it was a financial decision: "I was worried about the expense of going to hospital," she said.

To address constraints like these, the Ambovombe Regional Referral Hospital offers all its care for free - a significant consideration in a country where more than 80 per cent of the population confronts persistent poverty .

The hospital's services are complemented by others provided by the UN agencies UNDP , UNICEF , WFP and WHO , which work together to provide medical supplies, nutritional advice and support, care for children and services for people with disabilities.

Back at the hospital, Ms. Razafindravao and her now four-day-old baby girl were doing well on the maternity ward. As a young mother, she was learning how to breastfeed her baby, who she named Fandresena. Before long, it would be time to make the long journey back home, but this time not in an ambulance called in an emergency.

Adapted from this story on UN News .

Read the original article on UNFPA .

How One Woman Went Into Labour As Cyclone Freddy Slammed Into Madagascar

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When asked who or what inspired him the most, Brian Martinez had a ready response. 

“My family inspires me the most,” said Martinez, now in his third year at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. “My parents are immigrants and they both work hard as restaurant cooks. They sacrificed a lot to make sure my siblings and I had a good education.”

The promise of a good education and staying close to home is what brought Martinez to SDSU where he chose to major in finance. “When I looked over SDSU’s course curriculum, I saw classes in topics that interested me such as investment and portfolio management,” he said. “Finance also has one of the most diverse ranges of career opportunities. I found that to be extremely attractive since I wanted a degree that granted me a good deal of career flexibility.” 

The financial burden of pursuing a college degree weighs heavily on many students and their families.  For Martinez, his good grades, tenacity and focus on meeting educational goals played a major role in helping to overcome this challenge. He applied to every scholarship where he was eligible and it paid off in a big way. 

The Best Way to Pay for College “Scholarships are the best way to finance a college education,” said Martinez, who was invited to be part of the Fowler Scholars Program prior to his freshmen year. “The Fowler Scholars Program comes with a scholarship that had a huge impact on me and my family. I remember when I got word that I had been accepted into the program — I immediately called my parents to let them know that I won a scholarship and they did not have to worry about how they would pay for my education.” 

The Fowler Scholars Program was created to build ethical business leaders through weekly group meetings, mentorships, student consulting projects and other experiences that offer students real-world business skills. The program also offers class credit and financial resources to the 18 students who are accepted into this prestigious program. 

“The moment I was able to share that news with my parents brings me great joy to this day and I have no doubt that scholarship has played a great role in my success as a student,” said Martinez who will embark on an eight-week internship with Stifel Financial Corporation in New York City for the second summer in a row. 

Finance and Investment Society In addition to his involvement with the Fowler Scholars program and his internships, Martinez was the president of SDSU’s Finance and Investment Society (FIS) during his sophomore year.  FIS is a campus organization that offers students opportunities to learn and participate in various financial investment scenarios. Kamal Haddad is a finance professor within the Fowler College of Business, who also serves as the faculty advisor for FIS. 

Haddad got to know Martinez through FIS and was impressed with his sense of motivation. “Brian is disciplined and success-oriented and he learned much of his investment and equity knowledge through his own research,” said Haddad. “As president of FIS, he was a superb leader and team player. He also greatly increased membership in the organization.” 

Once he completes his internship with Stifel, Martinez will return to SDSU to complete his senior year.  He plans to graduate in the spring of 2025 and has set his sights on a career in investment banking shortly thereafter. “Once I gain a lot of experience and build a track record of being a strong performer, I would eventually like to launch my own investment fund,” said Martinez. And though he might move from San Diego to launch his career, family is still a top priority for him. “As the oldest of four children, I’d also like to help my parents out and I would love to help my siblings pay for their college educations to help them get into the workforce.”

Join the Fowler Family

See inside the eerie, abandoned Air Force base that spawned conspiracy theories and inspired 'Stranger Things'

• Camp Hero is a state park in Montauk, the easternmost tip of Long Island, New York.
• It used to be Montauk Air Force Station, which reportedly inspired Netflix's "Stranger Things."
• Last summer, I visited the state park and understood why it's the subject of conspiracy theories.

Fans of "Stranger Things" know that all the interdimensional problems that have befallen our friends in Hawkins, Indiana, are because of the secret government facility known as the Hawkins Lab.

But did you know that Netflix's "Stranger Things" was originally called "Montauk," named after the real-life New York town that's at the center of multiple conspiracy theories ?

Since its debut in 2016, "Stranger Things" has become a phenomenon, spawning millions of dollars in merch, tie-in novels and comics, a stage adaptation , mobile games, a tabletop game, and more. It's one of Netflix's biggest franchises.

Camp Hero, formerly known as the Montauk Air Force Station, has been plagued with conspiracy theories since the book "The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time," written by Preston Nichols, was published in 1992. Its unsubstantiated claims included that researchers at the base had repressed the memories of employees who'd been subjected to experiments throughout the '70s and '80s.

Today, it's possible to visit Camp Hero, which opened to the public as a state park in 2002. As someone who has been to Montauk dozens of times but never to Camp Hero — and as someone going through "Stranger Things" withdrawal as we await a release date for season five — I jumped at the chance to check out the base, which is now abandoned.

I came away from my visit last summer understanding where the Duffer brothers, who created "Stranger Things," got their inspiration. Camp Hero would certainly be on my list of the creepiest places I've visited.

Look inside the park, from its beautiful ocean views to the mysterious 90-foot radar tower that still stands now.

If you've seen an episode of the Netflix smash-hit "Stranger Things," the creepiness of Hawkins Lab has probably stuck with you.

" Stranger Things ," which dropped its first season in July 2016 and has become a pop-culture juggernaut in the years since, began as the story of a group of pre-teens who, after one of their best friends goes missing, become tangled in a dangerous web of government conspiracies, alternate dimensions, the Cold War, and more.

One of the show's breakout characters is Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown ), a young girl born with telekinesis. Immediately after she was born, she was abducted by a scientist whom she calls Papa (Matthew Modine) and taken to Hawkins Lab, where she and other children were experimented on.

The upcoming fifth season will also be its last.

The show's creators, the Duffer brothers, were inspired by a real-life government base in Montauk, New York, called Camp Hero.

In 2016, Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that "Stranger Things" was originally sold as "Montauk" before they decided to switch the name and the location to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.

"We liked Montauk, because we liked the coastal setting," Matt Duffer said, adding that Montauk is the basis for Amity Island, the fictional location of "Jaws," which is one of their favorite movies.

But the setting changed when they realized "it was really going to be impossible to shoot in or around Long Island in the wintertime," Matt Duffer continued.

A filmmaker, Charlie Kessler, sued the brothers in 2018, claiming they stole the idea of "Stranger Things" from his script "The Montauk Project," Thrillis t reported. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the Duffers denied his claims, and Kessler dropped the lawsuit in 2019.

The base shut down in 1982 and reopened to the public as Camp Hero State Park in 2002.

According to signs in the park outlining Camp Hero's history, the US Army commissioned Camp Hero in May 1942 — five months after the US joined World War II in December 1941 — to defend against German submarines and boats.

The Army deactivated the base in 1947 and turned it over to the US Air Force in 1951, which remained there until 1982.

The New York Times reported following a 2006 visit that Camp Hero, named for Major General Andrew Hero Jr. — who served as the chief of coast artillery from 1926 to 1930, according to Arlington National Cemetery — opened to the public in 2002.

Naturally, I had to check it out, which I did in summer 2023.

As a huge fan of "Stranger Things" with a mild interest in secret governmental conspiracy theories, I figured I'd drive out east and laugh with my mom (who made the trek with me) about the wildest things we'd learn about Camp Hero.

Instead, I came away feeling like "Stranger Things" got the atmosphere of this place exactly right.

Camp Hero is on the easternmost tip of Long Island, New York.

Montauk is commonly known as The End. It's the last town on Long Island, making it the perfect spot for an Army base scanning the oceans for submarines hiding in the depths below.

The park is 123 miles outside New York City. I'm from a town on Long Island that's 99 miles west of Montauk, so it took me around two hours to drive there.

When there's no traffic, it can be a fun drive. You pass through picturesque towns that are worth a stop, like Amagansett, East Hampton, Southampton, Wainscott, and more.

It's located past the town center of Montauk, a favorite of celebrities and locals.

Curbed reported that celebrities including Julianne Moore, Ralph Lauren, and Robert De Niro have owned real estate in the town.

I grew up on Long Island and have been to Montauk dozens of times, but I've never really explored Camp Hero before.

When you turn off the highway to drive into the park, you have a good view of the Montauk Lighthouse, which is a Long Island landmark and part of the adjacent Montauk Point State Park.

Montauk Lighthouse, according to the Montauk Historical Society , was the first lighthouse to be built in New York after George Washington commissioned it in 1792.

It's also the fourth-oldest working lighthouse in the US and just one of 12 lighthouses to be named a National Historic Landmark.

There are plenty of signs, so you won't get lost on your way in. The park is open every day from sunrise to sunset and entry costs $8.

Or, if you're a New York resident with an Empire Pass like I am, it's free.

According to  New York State's Parks Department,  the Empire Pass "permits unlimited vehicle access to most facilities operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation."

Essentially, it gets you into most New York state parks for free. A card costs $80 per year (or $72 a year for a digital card), or you can purchase a lifetime pass for $750 (or $742 for a digital card). Three-season and five-season passes are also available, as shown on the parks' website .

As my family are big fans of Jones Beach , another state park, we've had an Empire Pass for as long as I can remember.

When you pull in, you're greeted with a map of the park, which covers 754 acres of land.

I was surprised to learn that a decent chunk of land is off-limits to visitors and is a wildlife and plant sanctuary.

First, you see some of Montauk's famous bluffs and a view of the Atlantic Ocean.

There are a few parks in the Montauk area that offer a good view of the bluffs, including Shadmoor State Park, Montauk Point State Park, and Ditch Plains Beach.

Just to the right of the water is one of the many trails throughout the park — along with a caution sign warning people to stay away from the cliffs.

This wouldn't be the last warning sign I'd see that day.

Plenty of signs about the steep edges of the bluffs were posted throughout the park. Erosion is also a huge problem on Long Island's beaches, so I stayed as far back as possible.

The Patch reported that the town of East Hampton, which includes Montauk, was given a $350,000 federal grant to address the erosion issues along the coastline in December 2022.

Officials told The Patch that, according to measurements by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Montauk's shoreline "eroded more than 44 feet inland between 2000 and 2012."

In the years since the erosion has only continued — so I heeded the sign's warnings.

I also spotted the base's defunct radar tower, which is at the center of many conspiracy theories about the camp — more about those later. We decided to head there.

The radar tower looms over Camp Hero. I knew I needed to make my way over there to get a good look.

One of the first remnants of the base we saw was this concrete battery, built for artillery when the US Army commissioned the base in the '40s.

According to signs in the park, the Army built batteries throughout the base. Batteries 112 and 113, which are both still standing, contained two 16-inch guns each. The artillery was removed in 1947.

We eventually reached a parking lot adjacent to the radar tower, but we couldn't get too close.

Even from a distance, you can see just how big it is.

The 90-foot tower and its 40-foot-wide dish are visible throughout the park, and they gave me the eerie feeling I was being watched. But being up close was somehow even more unsettling.

According to signs in the park, the "giant" radar, specifically an AN/FPS-35, was built in 1960, and it remained operational until 1980.

Its radar dish was built to detect an attack on the US. As The New York Times reported in 2006, it was once "able to detect airborne objects more than 200 miles from shore."

The tower was built when the Air Force took over the base in the 1950s. At the peak of the Cold War, multiple towers were located throughout the eastern US, but now, the Montauk tower is the only one left.

The radar tower is central to many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Camp Hero.

Filmmaker Christopher Garetano , who directed a docudrama about Camp Hero called "Montauk Chronicles" in 2014, spoke about the radar dish during a History Channel documentary called " The Dark Files ."

"Every 12 seconds the radar tower would rotate and there would be animals freaking out and people getting headaches and bad dreams," says Garetano in "The Dark Files," claiming "people's electronic equipment would go haywire" when the dish rotated.

"I don't want to add fuel to the fire because I don't believe all the zombie stuff," one resident of 40 years told The New York Post in 2020. "But the impact that tower had on the town was real. I don't know if it affected our thoughts like some people say, but it was a force."

There seemed to be unofficial trails along the fence protecting the tower, but a sign warning about the dangers of ticks put me off getting any closer.

Ticks are frequent carriers of Lyme disease . That was more than enough to keep me away from any heavily wooded areas.

According to the map and a sign, one road led to another overlook of the bluffs. But we weren't heartened by this writing on the path that declared we were in a "hazardous area."

The New York Times reported in 2006 that visitors to Camp Hero were given pamphlets about what to do in case they spotted an undetonated grenade or other unexploded ammunition — it did use to be an active military base, after all.

We barely saw anyone else while we explored Camp Hero, but my mom told me she couldn't shake the feeling that people were watching us from the woods. At first, I scoffed, but as the day went on, I started to see what she meant.

It was spookily silent as we walked through the woods, even though we weren't too far from the beach or a busy highway. I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

We came across another sign pointing to the overlook, so we knew we were headed in the right direction.

But as you can see, it looks like we were just about to walk in a heavily wooded forest.

These woods really reminded me of the woods where Eleven was discovered during the "Stranger Things" pilot episode, and later the place she'd call home.

In the first episode of "Stranger Things," Mike, Lucas, and Dustin search the woods for their friend Will after he goes missing while biking home. The trio are searching on a rainy night when they suddenly come across Eleven, who had just escaped Hawkins Lab.

At the end of season one, Eleven returns to the woods to escape the Lab's clutches.

After about a mile, we glimpsed the ocean and a treacherous path that seemed to lead down to the water.

I've read one too many stories about tourists falling to their deaths while trying to take the perfect selfie. Staying on the flat path was enough for me.

I was content to sit on this rock and take in the views from a safe distance.

This rock was helpfully in the perfect place for me to pose for a photo.

And the views were, admittedly, pretty great.

Fishing is one of Camp Hero's biggest draws, and I saw a few fishermen on the beach casting their lines.

On our walk back to the car, a dog came running out of the woods and scared both of us — but he was just a friendly pet running back to his owner. Safe to say, we were both on edge.

I didn't even have the presence of mind to take a picture of this dog — that's how you know my mom and I were truly freaked out.

Our next stop was what was known as "downtown Camp Hero." This building used to be a gymnasium.

The sign in front of this roped-off structure explained more about downtown Camp Hero. When the base was built in 1947, 600 men and 37 officers lived in this area and the structures were disguised as a "seaside fishing village," with artificial wood siding and fake windows.

This structure, the gym, was designed to look like a church. It's the only structure left from the original "downtown" Camp Hero, though other newer buildings are still standing.

Here's one of the buildings that housed barracks. It's seen better days.

I was half-convinced that someone was just going to pop out of the windows if I got too close.

The idea we were being watched turned out to be pretty plausible — we came across a doe and her fawn behind one of the buildings.

We didn't want to scare the deer away, so we kept our distance while exploring the buildings.

So what exactly happened at Camp Hero? There's the official version, and then there's the conspiracy-theory version, which was popularized after the publication of "The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time" in 1992.

According to a comprehensive summary of the conspiracy theories surrounding Camp Hero written by Thrillist in 2016, the events that conspiracy theorists claim happened in Camp Hero were actually pretty similar to what happens in "Stranger Things."

Author Preston Nichols brought the theories into the mainstream when he published " The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time ," which detailed his reported experiences working at Montauk Air Force Station — he claimed he'd recovered repressed memories of his time at the base in the '70s and '80s. 

Nichols claimed he worked with another former employee on something called the "Montauk Chair," which used electromagnets to strengthen psychic powers. In season four of "Stranger Things," Eleven uses something similar to recover her powers.

Nichols also claimed scientists at the base used abducted children (like Eleven and her "siblings") to perform experiments on and that some were even sent to an unknown dimension (like the Upside Down).

Eventually, these experiments were shut down when one of the children summoned an interdimensional monster, Nichols wrote — just like Eleven bringing the Demogorgon to our world.

A Montauk local once told the New York Post that Camp Hero is "a place that's dominated my life and my nightmares."

Joe Loffreno told the Post in 2020 that he believes he's one of the children who was abducted and experimented on and who were mentioned in "The Montauk Project."

"I didn't believe it until two years ago," Loffreno said. "I was hypnotized [by a certified hypnotist] for about 40 minutes and all these memories flooded back. They did a very bad thing to us out there. We were just little kids. They had no right to experiment on us. It was a very dark, very evil thing."

One theory also posits that a vast network of underground tunnels still connects the structures of Camp Hero.

Garetano, director of "Montauk Chronicles," spoke with Newsday in 2017 about the reported tunnels. He said that when the History Channel was filming for "The Dark Files," they found proof the tunnels existed.

"Something extraordinary was found, which goes against all the official statements that there isn't anything there," Garetano said. "We didn't get into them, but we have footage of them that was taken by someone else." He added that they saw something on the "electric resistivity imagery tests" that were conducted.

Another local, Paul Fagan, told the New York Post that he believes a nuclear reactor might've secretly been buried at the base in the '50s, and that any conspiracy theories are actually meant to distract from the reactor's existence.

The New York Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The Army and the Air Force have never appeared to go on the record about the claims either, and they did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

According to the signs at Camp Hero, and other historical sources, the base was actually used as a coastal defense site.

When the Army built the base, it was used to surveil the surrounding area for German submarines, and it was also an antiaircraft artillery training station. At the time, according to the sign, all antiaircraft units in New York were sent to Camp Hero for a few weeks to train.

The sign also said it was home to other surveillance and height-finding radar that "guarded the New York City area against a surprise attack by Soviet bombers or other missiles."

The base was also used "extensively" as a live-fire training range until it was shut down in the '80s.

All I know for sure is that I would never want to walk around Camp Hero alone or at night. There are no lights and very little signage — I could see myself getting hopelessly lost in the woods.

The lack of lights is why the park closes at sunset.

When we left the park, the road forced us to pass the Montauk Lighthouse, which slightly relieved the tension.

Even though it was just a few minutes down the road, the atmosphere was completely different. The parking lot was bustling and I could hear kids laughing as they explored the beach. I felt like I had just been to a completely different world.

I'd recommend making the drive if you're already in Montauk or the Hamptons.

I don't think I'll go back to Camp Hero. If I need my conspiracy-theory fix, now I know I can just fire up "Stranger Things" and get the same experience.

Do I really believe that there were scientists using abducted children to contact a different dimension at Camp Hero?

But I understand the fascination with Camp Hero — the fact that the radar tower and other disguised buildings are still standing decades later, the secluded location, and the idea that there could be secret tunnels underground are all compelling fodder for urban legends.

Anyone interested in military history  or  conspiracy theories would learn a lot at Camp Hero, and I'd recommend visiting — during the day, and not on your own.

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