Telling Your Story
Telling Your Story
A companion and guide for story excavation. A bold introduction to the art and craft of storytelling.
Who are you? Where have you come from and where are you going? The story you are writing with your life is the most important thing about you, but most of us go along in life without bringing our awareness to the narratives that formed us, that influence our present and shape our futures.
Until your stories are told, they have a way of owning you, whether you realize it or not. When you tell a story, you own it.
Discover your formative stories and bring them into the spotlight. Rock them. Bring the house down.
It's your story. Tell it.
- 3-CD set in an 8-panel digipak: Telling Your Story Sound Studio featuring Jen Lee's full audio workshop, along with in-depth interviews with story pioneers and mentors Peter Aguero and Ophira Eisenberg
- 125-page interactive, 3-ring bound home study curriculum
- 8 entryways into discovering your own formative or forgotten stories
- 60 pages of exercises to walk you step-by-step through the journey
- 24 composition pages
Jen onstage at The Music Hall of Williamsburg
Whether we are entrepreneurs, activists or artists, we are learning more and more the importance of employing a story-based approach when communicating about our work to the world.
“The story you are writing with your life is the most important thing about you.”
About the Instructors
Jen Lee is a publisher, producer and a performer in New York City's storytelling scene. She has been featured on the Peabody Award-winning Moth Radio Hour, and in The Best of The Moth: Volume 15. She is a sought-after mentor and guide for workshops and retreats unleashing creative expression, and her private Story Mentoring clients range from authors to executives.
Jen's soulful-meets-artful resources for off-map thinkers and makers include apparel, books, course curricula and audio learning programs. She is currently producing and directing her first short documentary: Indie Kindred.
Peter Aguero is a New York City-based storyteller and performer. Peter is a Moth GrandSLAM Champion, a popular Moth StorySLAM host, and an instructor for the MothSHOP community outreach program. He is also the lead singer of The BTK Band, New York’s only improvised storytelling rock band.
Photo by Anya Garrett/Courtesy of Ophira Eisenberg
Opira Eisenberg is a stand-up comedian and the host of the new NPR show Ask Me Another, an hour of puzzles, word games and trivia. Ophira was named a “Top Ten Comic” by New York Magazine, has appeared on Comedy Central and is a long-time host at The Moth.
And yet, most of us don't know where to begin, how to select the stories that really matter and pull it all together into powerful presentations. Telling Your Story guides participants from all walks of life step-by-step through this essential process.
Inside the Sound Studio
Disc One: Become a story excavator as Jen Lee guides you in the hunt for your own story treasures, and learn the secret ingredients that will transform even a quiet story into an epic tale.
Disc Two: Join the bold and audacious Peter Aguero for a heart-to-heart conversation about truth, courage, and the stories that change us forever.
Disc Three: Ophira Eisenberg will make you laugh and move you deeply as she takes on essential topics like vulnerability, self discovery and the connection that makes sharing our stories worth everything it costs, and more.
What People are Saying about "Telling Your Story":
"I feel you pulling for us, supporting and nudging in all the right ways, and also providing the room to anchor our investigation. It feels very much like you're sitting at this table with me, in the next chair over, witnessing as I sift through and explore the material of my life. I feel your enthusiasm, your engagement, and your glee as I make my little discoveries, see you clasping your hands in delight, hear you whisper - as I move through the work and land on the heart of my own narrative - 'Yes, yes, yes.' The generosity of the material here is profound."
--Maya Stein, Type Rider, Feral Writing, Tour de Word, Enough Water
"Jen Lee's Telling Your Story is a poignant, powerful, and honest guide to excavating, forming, and polishing your stories. Jen offers her own stories to illustrate her points and in doing so walks the talk while taking us on a journey deep into our own souls. Simply reading the chapters and corresponding prompts inspires. Imagine the impact from doing all her brilliant exercises? She has mined from the greatest jewels in the storytelling scene in New York City for this guide and is herself a gem - an expert in this genre whose work has impressed and changed individuals across the world. Take this course - you are worth it!"
--Allison Downey, Storyteller, Singer-songwriter, Associate Professor of Creative Arts Education
"For me, as a peace and conflict researcher specializing in the transformational power of language, narratives and discourse for conflicts, Telling Your Story is one piece in the bigger picture. In every conflict, regardless whether it is personal, social or international, narratives and stories become more and more exclusive, to the point of deliberately ignoring the "other's" narrative altogether. I am convinced that learning about our stories, learning that all of us actually have stories worth telling, and learning how to listen to and sit with our's and other's stories, however uncomfortable, is one key to peace.
"The stories in Telling Your Story are heart-warming, soulful, and hilarious. They illustrate that we all, regardless what we are or do, are utterly human. Realizing our humanity and the vulnerability connected to it is one step in the direction of forgiveness, and without forgiveness, there is no peace."
--Dr. Christiane J. Fröhlich, Peace and Conflict researcher, Hamburg, Germany
"The Telling Your Story curriculum is an amazing resource for storytellers and writers alike. Filled with Jen's soulful wisdom, this interactive workbook guides you through the storytelling process from beginning to end. Inside its pages you will find exercises to help you uncover your best story ideas and the encouragement and inspiration necessary to craft your story into a finished piece. As a writer, I feel lucky to have Jen as my guide as I seek to uncover my own stories. Telling Your Story is not to be missed!"
--Shari Altman, this joy+ride
"I've always told stories. But it wasn't until I spent the day with Jen Lee that I became a storyteller. Sitting in front of a roaring fire, she shared hard-won insights, helpful hints, and many stories of her own. She answered questions I didn't even know I had, from the general (how to choose a theme) to the specific (how to know which detail would make my story come to life). Hundreds of miles and several weeks later, I turn again to my copy of Telling Your Story, and it all comes back: Jen's quiet encouragement, her sincere attention, and the feeling that she's right here, cheering me on, as I put pen to paper."
--Austen Gilliland, Canadian Living
Want to know more? Watch this short film.