How I became a story doctor
One day, as I was out walking, struggling to figure out what to do about a website that was about to launch to an audience of several hundred thousand people around the world, I stopped and stared out across the ocean. I felt a deep sense of dread and anxiety about what to do next.
The pressure was intense. This had to be a win—for the team, for my new role as a digital storyteller, and for the organization. I wished I could turn to someone who would not only advise me but also would be impartial and impervious to the complex politics of the situation. I needed a combination of a doctor, coach and story expert to help me figure out if my idea was going in the right direction and if my story strategy even remotely made sense.
It was at this moment that I thought to myself: I wish I could call a story doctor.
I eventually sorted out my story challenge and the website went on to be nominated for a Webby award. I was lucky to have had such an amazing team with whom to work but the idea of a story doctor, and that moment, stuck with me. As I continued my career as a writer, story designer and content strategist, I started to hear the need for a story doctor more urgently from clients and colleagues.
I’ve spent decades writing, directing, filming, strategizing and teaching but kept feeling like I could serve stories—and storytellers—better if I could treat the root causes of the story problems I saw people struggling with and help them make their stories sing.
Because of that, I developed Story Doctor to help people tell stories and experience a more rewarding process marked by deeply fulfilling work, conversations, and collaborations in order to create real change.
My goal is that you will feel more supported and equipped to tell the right story, at the right time, on the right channel, for the right audience.
I’ve come a long way since that uncertain, fraught day worrying about my story problem, but I still believe, as firmly as I did then, that even small stories can communicate big ideas that can change things for the better. For businesses, communities, organizations and maybe, even the world.
Together, let’s tell stories that matter.
