We help people find their stories and we can find your story for you, too.
Our clients are thought leaders with the courage and foresight to take a deep look at who they are in order to create the future they want to see.
Who we have helped:
- Professionals with a drive to do more than just secure that next job.
- Communities continuing the journey. You want to get in touch with what your story is. You need to document elders’ stories — before it’s too late.
- Organizations desiring to get on the map. You are no longer content to fly below the radar.
- Accomplished individuals charting a course for the future. This may be after your career helping, serving, or leading others.
- Legacy-sharers, sense-makers, and documentarians. You need a writing partner with both empathy and project management abilities.
Is this anything like your story?
When you were born, you arrived complete with a purpose and path in this world. Just as naturally as you pushed yourself up to stand and then walk, from the start, you pursued your path. You developed a personality that would help you make the world feel more manageable.
After a while, you realized that you wanted something that you would go through anything to get. This may have required leaving home. Maybe you met a teacher or gained knowledge that would help you. Possibly you found opportunities: a job or life partner, had a child or some other experience that gave you additional motivation.
In a story, something has to happen
It’s part of life that sometimes things get in the way: new responsibilities, a setback, discrimination, job loss, acts of nature, even exciting opportunities that weren’t quite in the direction that you needed to go. It’s not always so clear cut what’s ‘good’ or not. One of our clients got to go to Europe but there ran into difficulties. Another grew up in a war zone yet fondly remembers her ancestral home. How you deal with such challenges becomes part of your path, too.
Our clients are thought leaders with the courage and foresight to take a deep look at who they are in order to create the future they want to see.
Through all this, you still deeply wanted something worth seeking, though what that is may have changed over time. Maybe you even lost touch with what it was that you were after.
Change is part of every life
On the other hand, you may have reached a milestone or fulfilled a goal. Now what? Wouldn’t it be nice to reconnect with that invigorating sense of purpose and again feel forward motion on the path of your life?
Whether you are an individual living a singular life or an organization going through life cycles that are mirrored in this story, we can help with the next step.
Find your story to move forward
The story line described here synthesizes lessons from many great sources such as Joseph Campbell, Ruth Benedict, Robert Atkinson, Dan Millman, J. California Cooper, and the Bible. Yet this story does something else, too, which those who tell of a character on a single leg of their life’s journey only imply. This story keeps going!
That’s what we’ve learned from the lived experiences of the many people who trust us to listen and to write their stories. Setting out a path for yourself and reaching a goal is only a tiny part of the big story.
Whether for personal or business purposes, and whether this is an individual or an entire organization, we help our clients gain new insight to what their path has been and could become.
Our clients are thought leaders with the courage and foresight to take a deep look at who they are in order to create the future they want to see.
To do that, they acknowledge the ups and the downs. They know they can get off course and want to be aware of when that happens. They also know that sometimes it’s difficult to find the magic in your own story.
Be the Chapterbook
We believe that if your life story were a book, it wouldn’t just be a short story — it would be a Chapterbook! Are you among the 80% of Americans who would like to become an author? Well, to start, you can become the author of your own life. That’s because, built into our version of the life story line is the complexity of real life.
We know how to find your story thread. That is our specialty.
Your story very likely has many parts and phases, sometimes entirely new settings or casts of characters. The same is true of many stories we know: Think of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Kahlil Gibran, Yaakov, Siddhārtha Gautama.
Even if you keep a journal, have a great memory and like to analyze your life, it’s still a lot. How do you get hold of all those story scraps, lessons learned, and “life’s little surprises” and start to make sense?
Our view is that life as we live it is a very big adventure. What you become is not just the outcome of one hero’s journey, but the cumulative effect of many shorter journeys — the chapters that make up the book of your life.
A lot happens in your story!
Among the more than 500 people we’ve interviewed have been a good number in their nineties or older. We’ve listened to how these elders described their lives. A lot happens! We change and grow throughout our lives. That can continue all the way up to age 100 and beyond.
It may be that when you look back from your trail’s end, you will see an overarching hero’s story like the one that the great Joseph Campbell teaches us about.
Until then, on a day to day basis, though, that just isn’t how life looks. When you are in the forest, what you see are trees. And that’s good! You need to be present for your life.
Yet you always know more change is coming, another bend in the road. There’s no pause button on life.
So you want to be ready, either by getting ahead of the curve or back on track. You want to recognize opportunities and be ready to act.
Whether you are in amongst the trees, have a bias toward action over sitting around thinking, or are just plain busy, you probably find it difficult to see the big picture all on our own. Those “trees” are obstacles to getting the most out of your story.
Now, what if you had your very own storyfinder?
Your story is uniquely yours
We can help you reclaim the meaning and purpose that naturally reside in your story. What we do best are listening and asking the questions that no one else asks, in that order.
When we do, a singular story emerges: While there may be a general story arc like the one we suggested that applies to the many, your story is uniquely yours.
Finding that story, collaboratively, and putting that story into words enables you to glimpse the forest and:
- Become able to talk about yourself in a new, more effective way;
- Let your purpose shine through to others and attract helpful people;
- See the end of that rainbow in the distance, the one that you want to reach; and
- Reclaim your story, making it possible to also discover a roadmap for the journey ahead.
Jennifer helped us look at our organization in a different way, focusing on our strengths and experience. She helped us answer the question, ‘How do we best use this?’
— Fred Bonsall, principal, Bonsall Shafferman Architects
Our Process for finding your story
We have a process and it is one that we can adapt to any situation. The least this process requires:
- A knowledgeable individual to speak with in person or by phone or videoconference;
- Time for the initial discussion and then for creating a written product; for bios this takes less than one week. For longer works, web content, or communal projects, times vary.
- Feedback and collaboration because this is an iterative process;
- Openness to what may emerge from the look-back; and
- An insatiable curiosity about what you could do next.
Feedback, review, and revision are part of our process. Satisfaction is guaranteed.
A brief up-front consultation will help us determine whether we are a good match to work together.
Our Promise when we find your story
A well-written document that sheds new light on your journey to this point and establishes a compelling platform for the future you want to create.
I could not have presented myself in the interview in the way that I did or been as clear and convincing about who I am and the value I bring, without the bio you wrote for me. Thank you!
– Resume & Bio client, Bethlehem, PA
About Us
Jennifer Lader has written hundreds of personal profiles, human interest stories, and letters or stories for her newspaper columns. She operates two businesses in which finding the stories that build connections is key. Jennifer won 1st Place for excellence in an international writing awards competition and has been interviewed on radio and television. She has led workshops and given presentations on finding and sharing your story. She co-leads workshops on “The Self & the Social Fabric: Writing Stories to Heal a Divided Age” and “Finding the Self in the Social Fabric: A Memoir Writing Workshop.” Jennifer’s undergraduate degree is in anthropology and she has a master’s in public administration, with a focus on organizational culture.
What are you hoping to do? For a free consultation, contact jennifer@jenniferlader.com.
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