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The Story Code: A new guide to thriving in the age of disruption and polycrisis

Mark Jones

Key Facts:

Research shows an incredible 6 in 10 Australians workers have faced burnout and disengagement with work in 2025 - among the highest in the OECD.

Australian employees experience among the highest daily stress rates globally.

 Gallup found that 49 percent experience stress a lot of the day… job demands, leadership and psychological safety are the top three stressors.

Burnout, staff turnover and disengagement are at record highs in Australian workplace, and no industry is safe: from technology and education to health, finance and media. Productivity is slipping, leaders are leaving roles at alarming rates, and many are feeling the burden of rising costs and unrealistic expectations.

Against this backdrop, a new book offers an urgent and practical solution. 

The Story Code: Unlock resilience and influence by rewriting the stories you tell yourself, by award-winning storyteller, executive coach and keynote speaker Mark Jones, provides a breakthrough method to help leaders rewrite the inner stories that drive stress, burnout and self-doubt.

Asking: What if the biggest obstacle to thriving at work and in life isn’t the economy, technology, or politics, but the stories you tell yourself?

Taking an approach unlike anything else in the crowded leadership and self-help space, Mark has taken the principles of corporate storytelling - honed over 20 years as a journalist with The Australian Financial Review and later as CEO of a global brand storytelling agency - and applied them to individuals. 

Mark’s own breakdown in 2019 was his wake-up call: “I realised the same storytelling techniques I’d taught leaders and brands could be used to rewrite my own story, and it changed everything.”

The result is a four-part process designed to help professionals silence the inner critic, flip limiting beliefs and embed new daily habits that rewire resilience and restore confidence by Challenging, Overwriting, Deciding and Encoding their new story. 

“The stories we tell ourselves shape our reality,” Jones says. “When we change the narrative from self-doubt to self-belief, we don’t just improve our careers, we transform our lives.”

Blending neuroscience, psychology, narrative therapy and decades of storytelling practice, The Story Code offers a practical and deeply personal guide for leaders, professionals, educators, parents and anyone stuck in cycles of stress, impostor syndrome or uncertainty.

Praise for The Story Code: 

“Mark Jones has cracked the code on something every executive faces but few address: the internal narratives that sabotage our success.” - Deeps Ramanathan, Global Technology Executive, ex-Google and Twitter marketing leader

“This book puts the pen back in our hands. It reminds us that when life speeds up, the foundations of mental fitness and wellbeing can help us change the story we tell ourselves and each other. The Story Code is compassionate, evidence-aware and immediately useful.” - Belinda Elworthy, CEO Gotcha4Life Foundation

 

“Sharing his experience and guidance in dealing with lack of self-belief and intense stress will help many people.” - Steve Vamos, author, speaker, advisor. Former CEO Xero (and ninemsn) and executive with IBM, Apple and Microsoft

 

MARK JONES IS AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS AND WRITTEN CONTRIBUTIONS. 

 

EXTRACTS AND MEDIA COPIES OF THE BOOK ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. 

 

The Story Code by Mark Jones
Publish date: 28 October 2025

More information at: https://connect.markjones.au/thestorycode 

 

About us:

Mark Jones is an author, executive coach and keynote speaker with nearly three decades of experience helping leaders and organisations harness the power of storytelling. A Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), he has worked with some of the world’s most recognised brands and interviewed global leaders as a journalist. 

His first book, Beliefonomics (2020), explored the value of brand storytelling, while his latest, The Story Code: Unlock resilience and influence by rewriting the stories you tell yourself (out 28 October 2025), turns that lens inward, revealing how reframing our internal narratives can unlock resilience, influence and impact. Through his speaking, coaching and consulting, Mark helps business leaders and teams move from self-doubt to sustainable success. www.markjones.au

Contact details:

Erin Huckle, [email protected] 

0432 213 506