And why the words we choose reveal more than we think.

Welcome to edition three of our weekly newsletter. Every Wednesday, one storytelling insight you can use straight away.

This week: metaphors. One of the most powerful tools in the storyteller’s toolkit. And one we use every single day without noticing.

We named our company after a metaphor

Light in the Dark.

Three words. No explanation needed. You feel it immediately.

That is what a good metaphor does. It bypasses the logical part of the brain and speaks directly to something older, deeper and more instinctive. It does not describe. It evokes.

When we chose the name, we were not thinking about branding. We were thinking about survival.

It was 2020. The pandemic had taken everything. Our tours stopped overnight. Our income collapsed. A team of people with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

We could have stopped. Many did.

Instead, we asked ourselves one question. How do we bring light to those sitting in the dark?

People were isolated. They could not travel. They could not explore. So we brought Prague to them. We invented an online plague doctor tour — not for business, not for revenue, but because we needed to keep caring. Caring for others is one of our core values. In the darkest moment of our company’s life, it turned out to be the thing that saved us.

The New York Times wrote about us. Then the Wall Street Journal. Then Forbes US.

We were not trying to be famous. We were trying to be useful. And somehow, being useful in the dark turned on a very bright light.

Light has more than one meaning

In English, light carries two meanings at once. And we chose both deliberately.

There is light as in illumination. Knowledge. Clarity. The kind of light that helps you see what was hidden. We want to enlighten. To educate. To bring insight into places where there was only confusion.

And there is light as in lightness. Warmth. A smile. The feeling of a story well told that makes something heavy feel a little easier to carry.

We believe you do not have to choose between the two. The best communication does both at once.

A personal note

I run a company built on storytelling. I teach others to find and tell their stories. And I have my own moments of darkness too.

For me, the light comes from my wife and my children. Simple as that.

And it comes from the work itself. When I help someone structure a story they have been carrying for years but never quite managed to tell, something shifts in the room. It is quietly therapeutic. For them and, honestly, for me.

When I entertain a group of tourists on the streets of Prague and I see someone laugh out loud at a story they did not expect, that is light.

When I coach someone and I help them not just think differently but feel differently — feel what others feel — that is light too.

I believe empathy is a skill we can all practice. And storytelling is one of the most direct paths to it. When you learn to tell your story well, you also learn to hear other people’s stories better. You become, without necessarily planning to, a light in the dark for someone else.

Why metaphors work on the brain

When you hear the words “light in the dark,” your brain does not just process the meaning. It simulates the experience. Neurons fire in the visual cortex. You almost see it.

That is the power of a good metaphor. It makes the abstract concrete. It makes the invisible visible. It creates a shared image in the minds of speaker and listener at the same moment.

Here are a few metaphors you use every single day without thinking about them:

“Let’s unpack that idea.” — As if thoughts were suitcases.

“She has a sharp mind.” — Intelligence as a blade.

“We need to plant the seed of change.” — Transformation as gardening.

“I see what you mean.” — Understanding as vision.

“He is drowning in work.” — Overwhelm as water.

Each one creates an instant image. Each one communicates more in four words than a paragraph of explanation could.

That is why the best leaders, the most compelling speakers and the most memorable communicators all use metaphors instinctively. They are not being poetic. They are being precise.

Where to find metaphors

Metaphors are everywhere once you start looking. Here are three places to look right now.

Listen to the people around you. Your colleagues, your clients, your team. Pay attention to the images they reach for when they describe a problem or a goal. Someone who says the project is a runaway train sees the situation very differently from someone who says they are sailing into uncharted waters. The metaphor reveals the mindset.

Watch politicians. Love them or not, the best political communicators are masterful metaphor users. They speak of building bridges, fighting battles, planting seeds, steering ships. They rarely describe policy in abstract terms. They wrap it in an image because they know that images move people and abstractions do not. Next time you watch a speech, listen for the metaphors. You will hear them everywhere.

Go back to the music of the 1980s and 1990s. This one is my favorite. Song titles from that era were often pure metaphor — and some of the most effective marketing ever made. A great song title is a short story that everyone connects to instantly. It creates curiosity, emotion and a sense of recognition before you have heard a single note.

Think about it. Eye of the Tiger. Bridge Over Troubled Water. Like a Rolling Stone. Each title is an image. A feeling. A world compressed into a few words.

That is exactly what a good metaphor does in communication. It opens a door and invites the listener to walk through it.

The metaphors people bring to coaching

As an ICF certified coach, I have a favorite technique when working with clients:

I listen for their metaphors.

Not the content of what they say. The images they reach for without thinking.

Someone describes their career as a ladder they are struggling to climb. Another talks about feeling like they are pushing a boulder uphill. A third says their team is a ship without a compass.

Each metaphor tells me more about how that person sees their situation than ten minutes of explanation would.

My favorite thing to do is to mirror those metaphors back. Amplify the positive ones. Gently question the limiting ones. If someone says they are finally finding their footing, I stay in that image with them. What does the ground feel like now? What would it mean to stand fully upright?

A metaphor is not just a figure of speech. It is a window into how someone understands their world. And once you can see through that window, you can help them change what they see.

So here is my question for you this week. What is the most commonly used metaphor in your profession? The one your colleagues reach for without thinking. The one that shapes how your whole industry sees itself.

Before you go

Think of one person in your life right now who might be sitting in a moment of darkness. A colleague under pressure. A friend going through something difficult. A team member who has gone quiet.

What would it take to be a small light for them this week? A message. A call. Five minutes of genuine attention.

You do not need to fix anything. Sometimes just showing up is the light.