Launched Hidden Voices

Third year’s the charm…

They say good things come in threes.

There’s this pattern, a certain rhythm, in folklore, even in good jokes, where the story builds over three moments in time, three visitors, three challenges. Goldilocks had to try everything three times before it was just right.

Each of the first three years of StoryMuse has built upon the last, expanding capacity and possibility.

Still, as I entered into the final quarter of this first three years, I found myself in a “moment of discernment.” The reasons were many and varied, but I suppose, ultimately I just wanted some reassurance, some clarity that this was the path down which I should continue.

The answer, in the end, was a clear and resounding yes.

And now, as I look back on all that was accomplished in Year 3, I’m so glad I’m going to keep going. Because I’m proud.

One of the most exciting outcomes of the moment of discernment is the new website on which you’re reading this report, as well as the new logo and branding that accompany it. It’s the result of hours of work and consideration.

I’m excited to be launching forward with a renewed spirit, and a renewed commitment to the work of transformational storytelling in personal, professional, organizational, and community development.

And, so, just like they used to say on “Schoolhouse Rock,” …three is a magic number!

“The past and the present and the future/
Faith and hope and charity/
The heart and the brain and the body/
Give you three as a magic number’“

New Partnerships

Coaching

One thing I want to really highlight is how much my coaching practice took off this year. It expanded and deepened my work. I’m especially intrigued by how my work with individuals resonates with organizational clients and vice versa.

I worked with some amazing individuals, all of whom had such different goals in their storytelling, from developing stories for written publication to honing their presentation skills to gathering momentum to leave a job and start something new!

Individual coaching is a pure delight for me. I hope to continue to bring new experience, research, and insight to my practice in 2020!

Society for Neuroscience

In an interesting crossover between my coaching practice and nonprofit clients, I won a national contract in 2019 to provide coaching for presenters involved in a storytelling session at SfN’s Annual Meeting. The goal of the storytelling session was to convey information in a different and more engaging manner than the traditional scientific presentations that take place at the meeting. The Storytelling Symposium brought together neuroscientific discovery, science reporting, and personal storytelling in a synergetic and memorable way. Lectures interwove with personal stories to showcase the effective ways in which neuroscience researchers and journalists can collaborate, how storytelling provides a common ground between science and art, and the power of narrative to hold captive our storytelling brains.

The GCDD Storytelling Project

The ride that expanded my vision and brought hundreds of new voices to the table…

As I compiled the first StoryMuse annual report, closing out that first year, I had just landed StoryMuse’s first major sustaining contract. That was was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities.

Throughout 2018, I traveled the state of Georgia with photographers, collecting stories of people with developmental disabilities for advocacy purposes. By the end of that year, there were nearly 75 stories on file from across the state’s 56 legislative districts.

At the end of that first year, the GCDD came back to me with a proposal to continue working together in 2019. This time, they wanted to do a deeper dive, creating 25 all-new stories out of multiple interviews where we would meet people in their homes, as well as in their workplaces, at therapies, in their places of worship, and in the places where they liked to have fun and gather with their community.

I gave the GCDD my enthusiastic yes!, but I also let them know I felt there was a podcast in the stories we were cultivating.

Fortunately, they agreed.

Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency

In 2019, StoryMuse began a cycle of work with the Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency, which will continue through the first quarter of 2020. In May, we began with a storytelling and food event which featured formerly homeless program participants, as well as staff and board as they told stories of struggle and triumph.

Kate’s Club

My ongoing work around stories & grief led me to a brief residency this fall at Kate’s Club, including life maps/intro story workshops with youth in various age groups, as well as a storytelling night with parents and kids together.

This workshop at the Wilmington Public Library on the Transformative Power of Storytelling was a follow-up to my keynote the night before on the UNCW Campus. 

“The Transformative Power of Storytelling”
UNC Wilmington School of Public Health,
Center for Healthy Communities
April 2019
An all-new keynote about the stories we tell ourselves, on a personal, organizational, community, and national level. I encouraged the audience to examine how our stories not only reflect and communicate our spoken and unspoken values but have the transformative power to shape our choices and the future.

Press & Publications

Along with lots of new blog posts that helped me (and my audiences) understand my work better, including…

• Life Maps

• Bounce

• A Good Cry

I also appeared in some other people’s publications this year, which made me very proud…

• “Still Life with Mason Jars” ->

• this interview on giggs

• and Closer Look with Rose Scott (see below).

Walks with Grief

At the end of last year, I announced and launched my journey to write my first book.

To date, 75 pages are drafted, and I’ve had substantive conversations with agents, coaches, and publishers

Though I may not be nearly as far on the publication journey as I thought I would be a year since I embarked, it’s been amazing year in all its twists, turns, and travel delays.

One of my favorite parts was November, when I set out to take a walk every single day.

If you’re on social media, I recommend following the hashtags, #walkswithgrief and #30walkshasnovember, as there you will find some of the sweetest stories (and some of the best photography) I’ve ever done.

I look forward to continuing the Walks with Grief project in 2020. There’s so much rich material there to be mined.