Storied’s Year in Review: How Disruption Got Democratized

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared a Storied update…

Truth be told, 2020 was one of the most challenging, demanding, and rewarding years of my life. A time of chrysalis, adaptation, and re-imagination.

While it’s been a tender and humbling time for so many, Storied was blessed and privileged to experience significant growth (despite our share of curveballs, setbacks, and transitions). Almost 20 years in, we saw another inflection point in our work.

Here's what we believe:

• With disruption, everybody needs a new story. 
• With disruption, the story is up for grabs. 
• With disruption, you have to narrative the future.

It’s no surprise our work at Storied has found increased demand and relevance in this new landscape. We’ve used this inward moment of COVID as a springboard for renewing our faith in our vision and the requirements for fulfilling on its promise (more below).

Highlights: Our Evolving Work and Growing Team

Storied is a strategic messaging and leadership development firm. We build narratives for disruptive innovation. And we believe that every leader is a storyteller. We split our time between (a) helping teams deliver on transformation, and (b) building storytelling as a capability across influential orgs in the world.

Like most, we were forced to adapt in 2020 in the face of uncertainty and unknowns. We had to close the doors on our passion project Choco Libre. And we navigated some personnel transitions as part of the inevitable cycles of change. Yet through it all, we kept a clear north-star, and maintained forward progress. I am proud that Storied exceeded every goal and then some – while adjusting to multiple shocks, disruptions, and societal upheaval. Not to mention adding 15 pounds to my waistline (...don't worry I'm getting back into shape). 

Unlocking the Power of Narrative Intelligence

Part of our growth last year was due to the momentum of our book Story 10x. Described as a definitive guide to storytelling for disruption, Story 10x has been read and embraced by Fortune 500 CEOs, top Silicon Valley execs, and visionary change-makers.

You can explore Story 10x through these links:

• Download the first 2 chapters for free
• Get the audio book version on Audible (narrated by yours truly)
• Read this executive summary from Soundview
• Check out a structural breakdown of the book 
• Listen to this podcast interview with Gotham Culture

Expanding on the Range of our Work in 2020

Storied remains a small yet mighty team working on big challenges for some of the largest companies and institutions in the world. We are now 7 FTEs, hiring for 4 more roles in Q1.

While much of our work is client confidential, here’s a glimpse at the growth of our work and portfolio in the last 12 months alone. Our domain expertise runs deep across the categories of enterprise, fintech, social, and bio.

Infrastructure for Growth

Much of our focus in the past year has been towards up-leveling our structures for growth and scale. We’ve expanded the scope of our capabilities to include research, design, learning solutions, virtual culture forums, and large scale transformation.

Part of our big 10-year vision? What IDEO did for design thinking, STORIED is doing for narrative. That means continuing to establish narrative as a management discipline, and catalyzing the ecosystem and market-making that supports this promise taking hold. We’re building a playbook of storytelling principles and practices that can unlock narrative and leadership communications at scale.

What have been the biggest difference-makers? 

Introducing new team members who joined Storied

Danna Kress (Principal of Insights and Strategy) offers 15 years of agency experience as a researcher doing insights work for Google, Disney, Netflix, and the like. Stephanie Teng (Design Lead) is building design as a function, previously having worked at Activision and Kantar on presentation design and integrated comms solutions. Angela Ekstowicz continues to grow her role across client solutions, business ops, and sales ops. Eunji Han (Director of Business Operations) joins us with an MBA from NYU Stern, and previous management roles at T-Mobile, and two venture-backed startups.

Expanded our network of expert contributors

Meet a few of our collaborators. Robbe Richman (culture expert and former head of Zappos Insights) worked with us on a culture forum that provided for "conversations at scale" for a 600pp re-org. Corey Rosenberg (copywriter and formerly at LinkedIn, Google, Yelp) worked with us on several high-stakes narrative projects. Andrew Cardenas (presentation designer, formerly at WPP, Publicis, Razorfish) partnered with us on a key executive presentation. Lastly, Kevin Raich (executive creative director, formerly at Apple/Google/Facebook) adds world-class film and video for bringing your story to life.

Up-leveled myself as an operator CEO

Joined EO: Entrepreneurs Organization (LA Chapter) - total game-changer. Working with CRI and Greg Crabtree's Simple Numbers financial ratios/reporting. Installed EOS an entrepreneurial operating system for high growth companies. Studied positioning with Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching. Unlocked growth capital with Ami Kassar, Multifunding. Gained invaluable executive coaching from executive coaching from Brian Greene. Created a new Unlimited PTO policy for all our employees. Implemented Gusto and BambeeHR for HR systems. Deployed Notion as an Employee Wiki. Strengthened employee onboarding.

Stay tuned: Will be sharing lots more with you in the coming weeks as we roll out a new website, training programs, and a learning community for those who want to master leadership communications. This includes a deeper focus on the discourse of disruption, narrative strategies, and the inner-game for leading change. 

Favorite Writings & Resources You Might Have Missed

Here’s a few of our most popular articles and messaging guides from 2020. They’re specifically written for how to lead amidst unprecedented change and disruption.

Communicating Amid Disruption: 7 Storytelling Guidelines The good news is that you have the power to influence dozens, hundreds-- thousands of lives. And the power to change the arc of this unfolding COVID-19 story. You have the ability to deepen trust, morale, and connection. You can also empower others to find their voice and confidence to lead, and get through this together.

Product Managers Need to Be Better Storytellers—Here’s 12 Reasons Why As a product manager (PM), you have the responsibility of translating the product roadmap, the data, the metrics, the functional, and the technical into a big picture story that can influence change. As a head of product, you lead the conversation with executive leadership.

Morals vs Ethics: The Narrative of Moral Leadership COVID-19, #BlackLivesMatter, and so much more has upended the world as we know it. Over the past year, we’ve been advising leaders on how to navigate systemic-level disruption. With a focus on how to communicate meaningfully, strategically, and authentically around complex issues full of moral and ethical dimensions. 

Us vs. Them: The Surprising Link Between Immunity, Boundaries, Crafting a New Story Classical storytelling is all about us vs them. Friend or foe. Threat identification assessment. There is a new kind of storytelling that goes beyond hero, victim, villain. Especially during this time of disruption, we need a new type of story--and the immune system is our teacher.. 

Story vs Narrative? And Why It Matters to Product Managers and Designers Everybody has a story. From the boardroom to social media. Infinite stories. Billions and trillions of stories. Where every story matters. In such an environment how can you make sense and meaning of things, much less get everyone aligned around a shared common story? That’s the role and power of narrative. Defining the frame.

Want to join us at Storied? We’re hiring for 5 new roles: including a Head of Client Operations, Engagement Lead, Marketing Lead, Narrative Strategist, and an Assistant to the CEO. Add your name to our jobs list for priority updates.

Where Does the Story Go Next?

We remain optimistic about the future. The year ahead invites us all to look towards renewal and re-imagination. Even in the face of great challenges and the remaining unknowns. We can either resign ourselves to the big giant pile of suck, or realize that if we're not telling the story, someone else is going to tell it for us. That's the power of owning your narrative. And I hope that you continue to lean into telling your bigger story.

Ok, that’s a wrap on this big long update. Hope you found it a useful glimpse into our work, growth, and journey forward at Storied. Please let me know how we can be of service and support to you. If you are looking to inspire your people in 2021, reach out.

Again a few last reminders:

• Career reinvention? Access our free course on personal brand story
• Story 10x: download the first 2 chapters of our book Story 10x for free
• Working on something big? Schedule a quick narrative consult

P.S. At the risk of burying the lede...in 2020, I fell in love, got engaged, and became the parent of two little kittens. The best stories are always a love story.