A Religion of Story: A Powerful Way to Cultivate Character and Preserve Freedom in Our Children and Culture

A powerful (and fun) way to raise:

Leaders, not Followers. Unifiers, not Dividers.

When her son was born, Amanda Johnson was in the middle of a spiritual crisis that had stripped her of her foundations, family, and physical health. All she had to offer him was an oath to protect his mind and heart from disempowering messages and teach him how to think and feel for himself. Her efforts quickly led to stunning results, but it wasn’t fun until she realized Story could be their medium. Her classical training had shown her how to engage messages socratically, and she was able to use this pathway to keep her promise.

It took sixteen years for her to grasp the impact of this approach, but only a minute to realize they had to share it.

A Religion of Story is Amanda and Aaron’s collaborative effort to share their most profound conversations about their favorite stories and lessons learned, and show parents a powerful way to:

• Get to know your child’s thoughts, feelings, and dreams and share yours with them
• Discover ways to nurture your child’s character and strengths, and let them hone yours
• See the world anew, and help your child develop compassion for other perspectives
• Get ahead of your child’s developmental stages and have uncomfortably important conversations
• Allow your child to develop a worldview that will astonish you and even evolve your own

By mindfully engaging Story, we can cultivate character that isn’t easily tempted by obsessions for pleasure or power; develop critical thinking that isn’t easily manipulated or devoid of compassion; and raise children who can thrive individually but choose collaboration because they know how to think, feel, and communicate clearly.

What could be more fun than learning while enjoying popcorn, dark chocolate, and epic stories?

As the founder of True To Intention and co-founder of Saved By Story Publishing, Amanda Johnson partners with seekers and storytellers devoted to writing truer individual and collective stories.After years of helping others question, recognize, and articulate powerful messages as a Teacher and Writing Coach, Amanda uncovered her own true intention and began a lifelong quest to embody it. Alchemizing lessons, skills, and tools gathered from experiments with self-image and psycho cybernetics, the classics and the Socratic method in the honors program, the child development and psychology of learning classes in her teacher training, the social-emotional literacy workshops required to become a facilitator, and the adventures of motherhood, Amanda committed her life to changing the world with more powerful messaging. Quickly, she realized that True To Intention was more about the messenger than the message, as she witnessed individuals heal their stories as they wrote and shared them. As a Strategist, Facilitator, Storyteller, Guide, and Ally, she midwifes paradigm-changing brands, content, and more whole change agents into the world through her st*ry-healing quests and message-manifesting retreats. From inspiration to impact, she and her team help divinely-inspired souls dissolve the lies, reorganize their sacred material, and become truer to intention with every piece of content they craft, love offering they launch, and system they structure to change the world. As a momma, a wife, a messenger, an entrepreneur, and a friend, Amanda is determined to empower a generation that challenges the narratives handed to them with curiosity and love, heals the st*ries that hold us back, and co-authors a messy magically-ever-after.

Entrepreneurial at heart, Aaron Johnson has been both deeply involved with start-ups since he was a child and mesmerized by Story and the hero's journey. When he began paving his own non-traditional education and career paths and rediscovered some of his own potential through Improv, Debate, and Mock Trial competitions, he quickly realized that every system and solution needs to be unique because every person's vision, mission, and path is different. As a Project/Administrative Manager and Tech Strategist, Aaron helps entrepreneurs discover and unleash potential in themselves and their businesses using intuitive systems and soulful technology. Seeing how crucial Community and Communication are, Aaron integrated everything he had learned about connection and leadership from mentors, personal adventures, and stories into his approach to systems, teams, and building businesses. That's when he founded his Consulting and Management company, Caterbuilder Solutions. Today, he's helping build an intergenerational network of change-makers that help individuals clarify their gifts/talents and unfold their unique potential so they can be and create the change they want to see in the world. He's also collaborating with paradigm-changers to build Saved By Story Publishing - a publishing house that highlights the healing process of book writing and pushes messengers' messages further into the world. It's always more than just a book, which is why this is more than just a publishing house.When he's not masterminding or managing, Aaron spends his time meditating on and writing about big ideas, important lessons, and the power of Story. In 2022, his healing-through-writing experience was published in You Can't Make This St*ry Up, a collaboration with twenty other messengers about the transformation and divine synchronicities experienced in the creative process. Aaron's passion lies with creating educational opportunities like he had while he was in school that value and cultivate the innate superpowers of the individual and put youth in charge of their learning journey. Participating in meaningful conversation and sparking solutions to complex problems are what keep him up at night and his flame of motivation burning.