I’ve been consuming stories since I was 3. My parents ran out of “age appropriate books” to give me in 3rd grade. So, Mom handed me Watership Down and then The Chronicles of Narnia. A story junkie was born. So much for lights out at bedtime. I was published for the first time at age 14. I insisted on going to a university with a good English program so I could be a WRITER. (My dad cried.) I graduated from Vanderbilt at 21 ready to take on the world of story telling. Hollywood and the tech industry had a different idea.
I did my time in the trenches by getting experience producing every story-telling modality that existed over three different industries. I’ve been a journalist. I taught public speaking skills to Ted Turner while running a teleprompter and editing his speech while we were going live for his 1996 TBS state of the union. I’ve been a commercial director, video producer, and even an actress when talent fell short. I’ve written scripts, pitched script ideas, red-lined scripts, and found TV writers jobs.
I wrote web copy for the first “converged” Cable/web media outlet. I’ve been a web producer, written marketing content, served as an Editor in Chief, interviewed celebrities, and stayed up late at night hand coding my columns before nifty online publishing tools like WordPress were even an inkling in Matt Mullenweg’s eye.
I curated content, developed content strategy, and managed teams of 2-20+ content contributors for verticals ranging from technology to travel and everything in-between. I took courses on business, marketing, human psychology and design. I’ve crafted brand stories that got people excited about things like… data storage, personal finance, machine learning, get health, and team building.
I even took improv classes to learn more about impromptu story-craft.
In short, I’m good at spotting good story.
It all brought me to this amazing crux in marketing and media history. Experiential marketing is taking the stage as brands get back to the basics in a wholly new technology-enabled way. And good content enables audiences to smell the virtual campfire around which we share our stories.
Storytellers own the spotlight. And brands who tell an audience centered narrative own the stage.
We’re walking through a new wardrobe and this one is likely to be as fantastical as the one that transported me to Narnia when I was just 8 years old. I can’t wait to see where the story goes…
Lawless Content 