About Tell Me A Story
Let’s start with what Tell Me A Story is NOT about:
We are not about the Joseph Campbell hero's journey.
Instead, we challenge the status quo way of telling stories.
We know that the words storytelling and authenticity are buzzy, overused, and often said without much meaning underneath. We’re here to help you take those words back, tell incredible, powerful stories, and own your voice with authentic authenticity.
We believe public relations stand to be a bit more personal (with your boundaries and values intact, of course.)
It’s not media training, it’s narrative reframing.
Storytelling is confidence.
It’s empathy, authenticity; it’s human nature. It’s learning how to communicate in a way that isn’t contrived, isn’t full of jargon or professional clichés.
It makes us ask better questions, listen more closely. It’s not based on rules or formulas.
Tell Me A Story’s Guiding Principles
Less prep, more presence
Low ego, high impact
Building alignment, not selling ideas
Relationship is the measure of our strength
This will be as amazing as you are
Trust your own work and each other
Tell Me A Story’s values are TMAS Founder Hillary Rea’s values. They are also a guide for how our clients approach their communication and storytelling.
These guiding principles are pulled directly from adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy.
In addition to staying in alignment with these guiding principles, Tell Me A Story has made the ongoing, long-term commitment to being an anti-racist small business.
Though Tell Me A Story works with clients all over the world, it is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, and recognizes the original custodians of the land and their elders past and present, the Lenni-Lenape people.
Learn more about the history of Tell Me A Story
Some of Tell Me Story’s favorite quotes:
“When we tell stories, we remind each other that in our own lives — if we’re doing it right — we aren’t just going through the motions, passively listening or watching. We participate. We feel. We grow. Every day for each one of us, there are plot twists we can either observe or embrace. A missed bus. A new puppy! A tax refund. Jury duty. The unspoken moral shared by nearly every good story is: don’t watch life, be part of it. Engage, risk, hope, do.”
“The storyteller gets to choose the beginning and the end, often despite what happens in life. And you have to tell your listener what you, the protagonist, want. This connects directly to the “why” of it all. The impetus for raising your voice to speak. There’s a power and a clarity in saying, ‘This is where it begins for me, and this is where it ends,’ and knowing why.
The why is the most crucial. It’s what elevates an anecdote to a story; it’s the thing that makes people lean forward with anticipation, their pulses quickening, accepting the invitation of empathy.”
“Although you will never fully know or successfully manipulate the characters who surface or disrupt your plot, you can respect the ones who do by paying them close attention and doing them justice. The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who you are and what you mean.
But then, I am a teller of stories and therefore an optimist, a believer in the ethical bend of the human heart, a believer in the mind’s disgust with fraud and its appetite for truth, a believer in the ferocity of beauty. So, from my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.”