The Information Age is over. The Imagination Age is here.

Start With Wow

The leadership book for a moment that just changed everything | By Harris III.

Releasing on September 22, 2026. Artificial intelligence just made knowledge cheap. Wonder is what's scarce now. The leaders who thrive won't be the most informed — they'll be the ones who can still see what doesn't exist yet, and get a room full of people to build it.

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Something changed.

And most leaders haven't caught up yet.

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For 30 years, the best leaders were the best informed. If you knew more than the room, you led the room.

Then AI took that job.

The problem isn't that leaders are being replaced. It's that the thing that used to make them valuable — knowledge, expertise, having the answer — just got commoditized overnight. And most of them are still leading like it's 2019.

They're getting better at how.

Faster workflows. Sharper prompts. Cleaner ops.

But the leaders who will actually shape the next decade aren't the ones getting better at how.

They're the ones who remembered how to wow.

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This book is the shift.

Start with Wow is a new operating system for leaders who refuse to be replaced by the very tools they're rushing to adopt.

It's built on a simple idea Harris has spent 25 years proving on stages in front of Fortune 100 companies, sold-out theaters, and rooms of the world's best storytellers:

Wonder isn't the opposite of getting things done. It's the part we keep skipping — and it's the reason so much good work never happens.

Inside, you'll learn how to:

  • Start with wow — protect wonder long enough to see what's actually possible, before pressure narrows the vision.
  • Move into a healthy how — turn possibility into execution without killing the magic that sparked it.
  • Narrate the impossible — articulate a vision clearly enough that others can see it before the evidence exists.

This isn't a book about slowing down. It's about leading from the one place AI can't reach.

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About the Author

Why Harris.

Harris III isn't a professor of wonder. He's a professional magician who spent his life engineering it.

For over two decades, he has performed for more than five million people across six continents — from stadiums to Fortune 100 boardrooms — and studied what actually happens in a room when human beings encounter something they can't explain.

He founded Istoria Collective around a single conviction: as AI dominates knowledge, story and wonder become the scarce human currencies. And the people who can wield them will lead everything else.

Start with Wow is the distilled playbook.

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Here's what you'll walk away with.

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The frameworks Harris has been paid seven figures to install inside companies you've heard of — written for the leader who has to walk into Monday and actually use them.

You'll learn how to reopen imagination in a team that's been trained to execute. How to protect wonder without losing rigor. How to build a culture where curiosity isn't a poster on the wall but a competitive advantage.

You'll learn how to lead people who are quietly wondering if they're about to be replaced — and give them a reason to lean in instead of lock down.

You'll learn how to make a case for something that doesn't exist yet, and make it stick.

And you'll walk away with the language, the framework, and — this is the part that surprises people — the permission to lead like you actually want to lead.

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Here's what early readers are saying.

"Start with Wow is one of the most important leadership books I've read in the last twenty years — and one I'll be recommending for the next twenty."

Mark Miller
Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of Culture Rules; Former V.P. of High Performance Leadership, Chick-fil-A, Inc.

"Harris III offers a refreshing and timely message for leaders navigating an increasingly complex world. Start with Wow reminds us that innovation, purpose, and meaningful leadership begin with wonder. This book challenges conventional thinking while providing a powerful framework for cultivating imagination, inspiring teams, and creating a future others can believe in."

Michael Hyatt
New York Times Bestselling Author and Business Coach

"Most leadership books tell you how to execute. Very few ask what has to come first. Harris does. After years of building teams at scale, I've learned that the organizations that outperform are the ones that protect wonder before they optimize for output. Start with Wow gives leaders the language, the framework, and the confidence to build cultures where curiosity fuels results."

Jacqui Marker
Global HR Executive, Fortune 100 Company

"I've spent years telling clients they're allowed to take up more space and dream bigger than they've been led to believe. Harris hands them a permission slip and the playbook. This book makes a case that wonder comes first — before the strategy or the grind. Every founder I know who's weary from figuring out their next 'how' needs to read this and emotionally start over."

Carrie Wilkerson
Bestselling Author and Business Coach

"Wow is a choice, a powerful opportunity to create the magic we crave. This is an inspiring, actionable and generous book."

Seth Godin
Author of This Is Marketing and The Practice

"I think we forget we were each made to be amazed. Harris remembers for us. I read this book and immediately wanted to go do something brave. That's how you know it worked."

Bob Goff
New York Times Bestselling Author of Love Does and Everybody, Always

"We all have a broken soundtrack that says the responsible thing to do with a new idea is to immediately figure out why it won't work. Harris found the off switch. Start with Wow makes a genuinely convincing case that wonder isn't the opposite of getting things done. It's the part we keep skipping, and the reason so much good work never happens."

Jon Acuff
New York Times Bestselling Author of 11 Books

"For decades, I've studied the stories that have guided humanity through periods of profound change. Harris III understands that before every innovation, every movement, and every shift comes an act of imagination. In Start with Wow, we are reminded that imagination is not a luxury but a skeleton key that unlocks what seemed impossible. This book is a compelling invitation to reclaim curiosity and become the kinds of leaders our rapidly changing world now desperately needs."

John Bucher, PhD
Executive Director, Joseph Campbell Foundation

"Harris breaks the magician's code by revealing the secret to real Wow know-how. His book Start with Wow unlocks a portal and swings the door wide open for leaders to thrive in a glorious new Imagine Nation."

Pat Hazell
Emmy-nominated Seinfeld writer; Chief Creative Officer, Sweetwood Creative

Get the complete leadership operating system.

Start With Wow gives you the vision. Healthy How gives you the way to execute it. Together they're the leadership playbook for the Imagination Age, delivered in a custom collector's box.

Get the Collector's Box Set

Pre-order the book. Get the whole Wow Experience the moment you do.

Purchase from any retailer before September 22, 2026 — Amazon, Barnes & Noble, an indie you love, or direct. Then come back, drop your order number, and everything below hits your inbox before the book hits your shelf.

Pre-orders decide whether a book gets a shot at being a movement or a footnote. Publishers watch them. Bookstores watch them. Algorithms watch them.

If you were planning to grab a copy anyway — pre-order it. You'll get the book plus everything below, and you'll put this message in front of the leaders who need it most.

Claim My Bonuses

Tier 1

The Wow Experience
for Individuals

1–2 copies · Total value: $350+

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Bonus 1 — The Full Audiobook (digital)

Read by Harris. Delivered before the book releases, so you can start the moment your order confirms — on a walk, in the car, on a plane. Value: ~$25.

Bonus 2 — The Wow Life Level System (digital course)

Harris's flagship digital course — the self-guided system he built to help people identify where wonder has flatlined in their life and rebuild it on purpose. Yours free with pre-order. Value: $297.

Bonus 3 — The Wow Workbook (PDF companion)

A beautifully designed field guide to the book. Includes the Wonder Audit, chapter-by-chapter reflection prompts (works solo or in a book club), a Deception Economy diagnostic, and a 30-day Start with Wow commitment page. Value: $29.

Bonus 4 — Wonder Reset (audio)

An 8-minute audio meditation, recorded by Harris. A tool to reopen wonder on demand — before a hard meeting, a big decision, a creative session, or the next morning that already feels behind. Exclusive to pre-order.

Bonus 5 — 10% off STORY 2026 tickets

A discount code for STORY 2026 — the flagship gathering for storytellers, leaders, and cultural architects. Bring the book to life in the room.

Total value: $350+
Yours free with pre-order of 1–2 copies.

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Tier 2

The Wow Experience
for Teams

3+ copies · Total value: $1,200+

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If you're reading this with a team, a church, or a company — Tier 2 was built for you.

Three copies is the moment this book stops being personal and starts being cultural. You're not just buying it for yourself. You're putting it in the hands of the people you're building with. Tier 2 upgrades what you receive to match.

Includes everything in Tier 1, plus:

Bonus 6 — Harris's Signature Keynote (video, unlisted)

A full-length recording of Harris's signature keynote on the Imagination Age. Screen it with your team, your leadership circle, or your board. Value: ~$197.

Bonus 7 — Live Group Zoom AMA with Harris (60 minutes, live + replay)

A private, launch-week Zoom session with Harris. Come with your team, your questions, your hardest leadership problem. Replay included if you can't make it live. Value: ~$297.

Bonus 8 — Book Club Discussion Guide + Team Meeting Kit (digital)

Everything you need to run Start with Wow as a team read — discussion prompts, meeting agendas, exercises. Drop it on the calendar and go. Value: $49.

Bonus 9 — SWW for Teams: 4-Part Video Series (digital)

A guided four-week team experience led by Harris. Short video per week — What Is Wow, Where Did Your Wow Go, Designing for Wow, Leading a Wow Culture — paired with the discussion guide above. Value: ~$197.

Bonus 10 — 20% off STORY 2026 tickets (upgraded)

Bring your team to STORY 2026 at the upgraded team rate.

Total value: $1,200+
Yours free when you pre-order 3 or more.

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One more thing before you decide.

Here's the honest version.

You already know the moment we're in. You've felt it in the last 18 months of your work. The rules changed. The tools changed. The people changed. And some part of you keeps waiting for a book, a framework, a leader — something — that names what's actually happening and tells you how to lead through it.

This is that book.

It's not a manifesto. It's not a hot take. It's 25 years of stagecraft, coaching, and hard-won leadership work distilled into a playbook you can start using the week it lands on your desk.

Pre-order it. Get the bonuses. Put it in front of your team. And let's find out what leaders can do when they stop skipping the part that actually matters.

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Bonuses delivered instantly. Book ships September 22, 2026.

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