How to Steal Like a Storyteller: Finding Your Voice Through Inspiration

You’ve probably done it without even noticing:

Saved a post.

Highlighted a sentence in a book.

Copied a caption into your Notes app because “ugh, this feels like me.”

That instinct—the pull toward something that sounds like truth—isn’t laziness. It’s the start of something.

Not a shortcut. Not a cheat. But the early rhythm of voice taking shape.

Lately, I’ve been reading Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, and it reminded me of something I think we all need to hear (especially if you create online): you don’t need to be original to be impactful. You just need to be honest.

Because if we’re being real—every post, every caption, every idea lives in conversation with something that came before it.

And the best storytellers? They know how to listen. To collect. To remix.

They don’t sit around waiting for genius to strike. They build it, brick by brick, from everything that’s ever moved them. The book gives some iconic examples—The Beatles started as a cover band. Kobe Bryant modeled his moves directly after MJ. And not just vaguely… frame by frame. Step by step. Because understanding our heroes isn’t imitation. It’s rehearsal. It’s a way of learning the choreography of greatness before we dance in our own direction.

That’s not “stealing.” That’s storybuilding.

The mistake we make is thinking copying equals losing ourselves. But when done with intention, copying actually brings us closer to ourselves. It shows us what we admire. What we gravitate toward. What sticks.

There’s something sacred in that. In saving what stirs you. In analyzing why that creator’s words hit, why that image haunts you, why that reel gave you chills.What you copy reveals what you care about.And if you copy with care, you begin to understand your own creative DNA.

Lately, I’ve been allowing myself to do something I used to resist:

Go back to my references.

Not to copy, but to understand what shaped me—and what still speaks to me now.

I’m learning to pause before I try to reinvent the wheel.

To open my saved posts. Revisit the moodboards. Look at the screenshots that once made me stop scrolling.

I used to think I had to start fresh every time. Now, I’m beginning to see that what’s already moved me holds more creative truth than a blank page ever could.

It’s a shift I’m still practicing—choosing to build from inspiration rather than pressure.And what I’ve noticed is this: the deeper I go into my own influences, the more layered, honest, and human my content feels.

So if you’ve ever stared at a blank content calendar, trying to sound new or original or “different enough”… I get it.

But maybe the answer isn’t outside you. Maybe it’s in the things you’ve already loved.Maybe your voice isn’t missing—it’s just waiting for you to listen back.

Gather. Save. Copy. Remix.

Steal like a storyteller—with reverence, curiosity, and courage.Not to become someone else.

But to become more of yourself.

Your voice is already there—woven into every book you underlined, every reel you rewatched, every line that made you whisper “yes.”The job isn’t to create from scratch.It’s to create from what’s already true for you.

And when you do that?

You stop performing—and start connecting.

That’s the kind of content we all want more of.

That’s the real art.

And I’m learning to make it, too.

xoxo

Ingrid from The Lab