Pre Release Sale: Outside In Storytelling Audio Training Series

Greetings. I am doing a "soft release" of the Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp Audio Training Kit. The kit will include 4-5 CD's of audio training, most of which was recorded live at the OISB Camp. Your kit will also have the handouts and worksheets as well as a certificate good for a 1/2 hour phone coaching meeting with me. All of this will be in a three ring binder. I am releasing the kit on or about July 15, 2008. We don't have the final cost yet, but it will be no less than $295.

HOWEVER, you, beloved readers, can order the kit NOW in pre-release status for just $189 plus the $4.95 shipping.

I am only selling 10 of these at this price. First come, first serve. You'll get your kit in July when it is released. Remember, this is the kit only, not a camp registration.
Order now. My phone coaching costs more than $189 for an hour, so this WHOLE KIT for $189 is a steal. The amount of information in this kit will change your career, if you are really serious about your performing artist business.

You can order at our online store at this link here. It's minimal info right now, but the store is open.

Of course, the camp in August is STILL ON and we would love to host you in August. You get the audio files as part of the camp registration, by the way.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

More on ROI

I've been getting some interesting online and offline feedback to my post a few days ago regarding "return on investments". Thanks for the conversations, folks.

Just a quick thought 'cuz there aren't enough cliches in blogs already:

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got."

And also, here is one of the comments I posted for that other post:

You are right, folks can stay home. But...How many good stories do you know where a journey must be set out on, the growth obtained and the journey home a changed person?

That is the power of going off to a conference like ours. And like many stories, there are monsters to defeat. In the case of the OISBC, some participants found that the monster was themselves and their old belief systems.

There are few stories that say, "see how much I learned never leaving my house." There are exceptions and they are few. One of the past participants of the OISBC included in her comments about the camp that a person needs to come ready to focus ("make it a retreat") on the volume of information we deliver. The power is not just the information. The power is in the journey, the setting-aside of time, the sacrifice of one's gold, the entering into and of energized space. Journey to the conference.


The journey tho', if we believe in the truth of the stories we tell, is pretty darn important.
Journeying to the same place, over and over again, loses its ability to teach. Time for folks to set out on a new path.


Being a full-time storyteller is not for everyone. It takes a lot of sacrifice, as any small business does.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

The Return on the Investment

Hey storytellers and other working artists....So, what’s the ROI on the conferences you keep attending every year?

The email or the posting (I get many) reads something like,

“I go to so many conferences that I just can’t afford to come to your 'Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp.' You should (do something that makes it nearly painless for them) to attend.”

So, if you will, let me talk to your CEO for a moment. Yes, you have one for your small business and that small business is YOU. I know, it will be hard to quit being an Owner for a moment, but I need to talk to your CEO, the one who makes real life, bottom-line decisions.

Dear CEO- maybe you need to convince this storyteller that it’s time to ask a real question: “How much ROI (return on investment) are you getting from going to the same conference(s) every year, seeing the same people, taking yet another version of the same workshops you take each year?”

Hold up there. Your Owner side is popping up and saying, “But I like the people, the setting, the friendship, the fun” of the conferences I keep going to year after year after year.” Your Owner may be right in that those things are important for one part of your spirit, but your CEO needs to step in and focus on your bottom line. So, again, CEO, what is the ROI in these same conferences every year? Is it time to take a break this year and attend the “Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp?"

One woman left the OISBC last year and went out and made nearly $1000 with a simple change in her marketing strategy. Paid for her workshop in just one week. Others report new publicity from the tips they learned at the workshop. I can't assure you that you will do the same. You might do better.

So, what’s the ROI on the conferences you keep attending every year? You know, the real ROI, the one that pays the gasoline bill, the electric bill and puts food on your table? You know, the real ROI that knows the economy is changing?

Somebody will write me and tell me that I don’t understand how important relationships are and how they need to go to the conferences to be refreshed. Those folks probably are not ready for the life-changing, career-reorienting content of the “Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp.”

I also get told to “apply” to present the OISBC at various conferences. That would mean spending my money to fix your business. No thanks. You are welcome to make arrangements to bring the OISBC to your area for a reasonable fee. I am one of the most flexible national-level folks out there.

This isn’t arrogance. For some, it is a wake up call to understand your business and seize the freedoms of doing what you love. You can do it.

The OISBC could change your bottom line. It will change the way you think about your storytelling small business. It will affirm your vocation as well.

What if one just one technique from the OISBC brought you ten more gigs next year? That would more than pay for the costs associated in coming to the OISBC. If it wouldn’t, then you need to charge more. If you can’t charge more, then you need to go get a more traditional job or you need to move somewhere where you can charge more.

Take some time off from one of your regular conferences and come spend time at the OISBC. We’ll treat you like gold and challenge you like crazy.

So, what’s the ROI on the conferences you keep attending every year?

Click here to register for the August 2008 Boot Camp

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Roadblock #3: Echo Chambers

Let’s continue the “10 Roadblocks to Your Success as Professional Teller” series. Today I am writing about number 3: You are talking to the same people over and over again who are talking about the same subjects over and over again.

In looking through my latest copy of Storytelling Magazine (no online options as it is a printed magazine you can get only as a membership benefit or paying the $7.50 each cover price), I was scanning all the advertisements for storytelling festivals. Going from festival ad to festival ad, you’ll see mostly the same featured faces. Miss a storyteller this year at your festival? Fear not, because they’ll be back in two to three years.

Very frequently, we are hearing the same voices. Most are talented. But they are the same voices. The same sounds reverberating at our audiences. It is an echo of the echo of previous events.

Storytelling, festivals and otherwise, suffers a bit from an “echo chamber” effect. To help explain what I mean, I looked for a good definition online. I found one in Wikipedia, the best source never to be believed: Metaphorically, the term echo chamber can refer to any situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an ‘enclosed’ space.

There are a number of conversations going on about storytelling, but they are behind closed, protected doors. Tim Ereneta writes much more eloquently about these things than I do. Some of the most common of these groups are the Storytell listserv, the new professionalstoryteller.ning.com and Storytelling Magazine. There is the Festival circuit as mentioned above. On the local level, you probably have a guild you participate in. I am part of all these lists and groups.

In most of these online groups, there are few fresh new discussions. Safe topics and queries get rehashed. There is often a fine sense of community once you find your way past the virtual gate, once you learn the rules. Community is valuable, but does it spread the word and power of storytelling? Mutual admiration is good and sometimes deserved, but there is little real critique of the work of storytellers both near and far. Part of this gentleness is due to the usually generous nature of we middle-aged storytellers. However, the other part is in fear. “If I make a direct statement, someone might do the same thing about my work.”

For example, in trying to develop a recognized Storyteller.net award system for storytelling recordings, the biggest problem was trying to find a panel to judge submissions. I am unwilling to be a panel of one like other award programs use. I could not gather a panel as not one storyteller wanted to be identified as part of the group that passed opinion on another storyteller.

First: “Your CD is great!
Second: “YOUR CD is great!”
First: “Oh, thank you. Your CD is great.”
Second: “Thank you, your CD is great too.”
First: “Oh, really? Yes, your CD is really great.”
And on and on and on, echoing down the line.

As I listen to other tellers describe things to me directly, it appears to me that many storytelling guilds in the U.S. are simply social clubs. There is much patting on the back, much nurturing, much caring community. Guest speakers are always other storytellers who do little to rock the boat or bring in fresh ideas. After the meeting, it is lunch and snacks. “I will say nice things about your storytelling so you’ll say nice things about mine.”

In these enclosed spaces, in these echo chambers, storytelling withers.

Generally, I do not think any of these groups or membership in them are a problem. What is the problem is our collective lack of outreach to the world. What is the problem is our fear of critique. In testing our new “Outside In” coaching method, the biggest challenge is having the coaching group have a non-apology-wrapped opinion about the work of another teller.

I suggest that we open the doors and windows, let the echoes out and begin to hear new voices or old voices in new ways.

New Conversations In Our Guilds
Invite guest speakers from outside of your storytelling group and indeed from outside of the storytelling artform. Stop separating the “youth tellers” from the adult tellers, throw them all into the same room at the same time. Invite such people as accountants, yoga teachers, marketing consultants, musicians, theater critics, painters and others to attend. Learn from them. Maybe you will even end up teaching them.

Find new ways in your guild to coach each other, being fresh, supportive, honest and challenging. Make this article a subject of your next meeting. Hash it out, own what’s real, congratulate yourselves if these thoughts do not apply to your group. Try something new if your guild has become an echo chamber of warm-fuzzy thoughts.

New Conversations In Our Festivals
Fight to eliminate the “regional teller” or “new voices” labels. Sure, bring in one of the circuit-riding hired lips. Have fun as most are lively, talented folks. Then, fill the rest of the event with your own local talent, talent you are growing in your freshly-refocused guild meetings. Remember the theater critic from the paragraph above? Invite them to the festival and hope they write about you or talk about you in their newspapers, TV and radio programming.

By the way, the idea that “if we do not book XYZ teller, then we won’t have an audience” is letting fear dictate your festival or event roster. Remember, when you started, no one knew who XYZ was. And if XYZ teller joined a monastery tomorrow, took a vow of silence and never spoke into the echo chamber again, would you shut down your festival?

New Ways to Communicate In Our Online Presences
Keep participating in the closed groups if it helps you. And, for every few postings you have in these groups, post something on your open, public Blog that the general public can read, see, agree or disagree with and learn from. Be a visible storyteller. Develop a thick skin and put yourself, and your opinions, out there. Develop a professional “social network” right out in public, where young people and others can see we are active, real and engaged. Post your videos and stories for all to see and hear.

We have lots of “niceness” echoing in storytelling. Why not knock down some walls and let’s have some “freshness” resounding as well?

(The illustration at the top of this article was done by www.gapingvoid.com. Warning: don't go there unless you can handle adult language and directness about marketing.)
The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

More Pics from the February Marketing Camp

Register for the next camp at this link.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Participants Comments from the 2/2008 Marketing Camp

“I think my mind set has been permanently altered by this event. The breadth and depth of your knowledge and your passion to share it are simultaneously humbling and inspiring.”
-Liz, Arizona

“Whew! My head is full of all I learned at the boot camp. Great job, Sean! Do It! It is inspiring, encouraging, exhausting and well worth the time and money.”
-Priscilla, Kansas

“I learned a lot! Very realistic and practical information. This camp got everyone thinking about their niche and how to be an audience-centered storyteller. Thanks!’
-Laurina, Arizona

“Go!”
-Veronica, Texas

“If you are giving any thought to being a storyteller, do not fail to attend the OISBC. You will see that you will be joining a group of professional artists and that you must always be open to the possibility of professional growth such as can be offered by the Camp. You will more deeply respect your fellow tellers. You will realize that even if you are not interested in making a large sum of money, you must charge adequate fees for your work out of respect for yourself and other tellers as well. You will understand the many complicated, challenging (and fun) tasks that face a person who wishes to be a true storyteller, i.e. have listeners to tell to."
-Joyce, Arizona

“Lots of pertinent information presented by an experienced leadership team who understands the nuts and bolts of making the marketing portion of the artistry simple enough for anyone to understand.”
-Priscilla B., North Carolina

“Spend the night. Treat it as a retreat. Prepare to rethink of yourself as a business. Be critical and grow!”
-Carol, Arizona



“Needed information. Very informative!”
-Elizabeth, Arizona

“Practical- a road map- a clear plan for implementation makes the fuzzy part of the money clear.”
Kori, New Mexico

“Stimulating, in-depth look at all aspects of marketing, including hands-on opportunities to play. Great hints that you won’t find any place else. Value packed!”
-LynnAnn, Arizona

“A real kick in the right direction. You’d better show up to Sean’s workshop if you have any intention of doing professional work. Get started now!”
-Sandy, Arizona

“Definitely Attend.”
-Khabir, Indiana

“Absolutely worth the time and money. Easy to understand. Practical Knowledge.”
-Cyndy, California

“Yes, you should go. This is a practical, hands-on training set that deals with the nuts and bolts part of storytelling for beginner tellers. Formulas for fee settings, information from an accountant. This is key to launching from hobbyist to pro.”
-Elly, Arizona


"Your Outside-In Workshop was full of incredibly valuable information for anyone who wants to take the next step in their telling. You presented with humor and passion. The energy level of everyone was bumped up as you got us involved, physically, emotionally and mentally to pursue our careers on a full time basis. It was delightful! Thanks for your time, talents, and great stories."
-Sandy, Arizona


The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Investing in Your Artform

The question comes up about costs for Storyteller.net live training events. Right now, we are registering for the next “Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp” (OISBC) to be held in August 2008. One of the FAQ questions asks, “Isn’t this expensive?” Here are a few illustrations in answer to that question.

Here is the disclaimer: Your experiences will vary. I can’t and don’t guarantee monetary results, mostly because I can’t live your life and make your decisions. And, I can’t get into your personal self-perceptions to help you value your own time or your own worth as a person and performer.

One of our OISBC graduates wrote me this week to say that their “mind set has been permanently altered” because of the camp experience. That’s the idea. Come learn to master the business aspect of “Outside In” storytelling.

First Story:
Just tonight, one graduate of last week’s event called me on the phone. She called to say that she has two summertime clients for which she usually does free shows. She has done these shows for many years. After taking the OISBC, she is thinking differently both about her own worth and the worth of her art form and the disservice we commit against each other by not properly charging for our work as performance artists.

So, she took a deep breath and she called these two different clients. She advised them that she can no longer do free shows, but she would be willing to do a discounted fee of $400. She reminded them of the uniqueness of her presentations.

Both clients called her back.

Both clients are paying the fee.

This $800 more than covered the fee for her OISBC experience she had just completed. Not one week out from the OISBC and she has already made back her investment.

Second Story:
During the OISBC, I share a no-cost method of publicity. This very same method garnered me $6000 in bookings with a single client during this school year. After the OISBC pre-conference homework, we don’t talk theory. We talk about what works. We will teach this to you in the next OISBC.

Third Story:
There is a marketing tool that I use that costs me $60 per month. I get results from it all the time, including a single large contract of $9000 during 2007. This year, the same tool brought me a $1900 contract in January. It’s only March. We’ll teach you about this tool in the OISBC.

Fourth Story:
The accountant that appeared at the last OISBC believes that his advice alone could save the average storyteller or artist $2000 a year.

I must tell you: the OISBC can’t help you if you are not a competent artist in your art form. No one will pay money for someone who is not mastering the artistic and technical areas of a performing art.

As you can tell, our camp is not expensive at all. It’s actually priceless. Frequently, I get advertisements to comparable events that want $350 to $1200 per day for multi-day events, meals not included. Our two days costs less than that and we feed you.

Invest in your business. Come, storytellers and artists, join us in August. Yes, it will be hot in Phoenix. We have air conditioning everywhere. You’ll survive. And your business, I believe, will thrive.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

The First Marketing Boot Camp Kicks Off!

It's here, the newest Storyteller.net workshop, the ::: Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp.::: 15 participants from all over the United States will be learning about and growing their work as artists. We are happy to present this event. We’ll be posting updates as we go along, so watch this space over the next few days. And to all our guests, welcome to Arizona!

Missed this camp? The next camp is August 15-17, 2008 (Fri-Sun) right here in Avondale/Phoenix again. Registration will open soon for that event.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Roadblocks to Your Storytelling Success

In 2008, I will have been a storyteller for 22 years. I actually have press clippings back even further to 29 years ago. Storyteller.net is currently celebrating its 10th year of service. In those years, I’ve watched storytelling grow and change. There are many things to celebrate. There is also tremendous room for growth, growth that our art form desperately needs.

Many years ago, when storytelling was much younger and even more “boutique” than it is today, I wrote an article about resolutions for storytellers for our then very new, very on-the-edge Storyteller.net. You can read it at Storyteller.net.

In those years since, storytelling has changed. Or at least it should have. There are more tellers than ten years ago. There are more of these tellers calling themselves professional. There are more people who want to become professional storytellers. We’re seeing a glut of “boomers” who are leaving their previous careers and jumping into storytelling. At least weekly, someone writes me at Storyteller.net to ask, “How do I become a professional storyteller?” Some of these new folks are making a smooth transition. Most are not.

All of these Emails and coaching over the last decade have given me a unique overview of storytelling. Coupled with another decade of workaday storytelling, I see a broad picture of what storytelling is in today's world. For this article, I am speaking to those who are trying to make any portion of their income through the art of storytelling. Although some of these items I’m listing below apply for those who might be using storytelling as an adjunct to their primary career or to the hobbyist, many of these are laser-focused for the working tellers.

For this new year, here’s my updated list the blocks for professional storytellers. Take what you need from it. Leave the rest behind.

Over the next few weeks, I will be diving deeper into each of these with more content. For now, here is the list, in no special order:

1. You aren’t finding your niche. Your work does not stand out from any other teller.

2. You are not balancing the three circles of storytelling: business, artistry, technical.

3. You are talking to the same people over and over again who are talking about the same subjects over and over again.

4. You rarely seek out coaching and when you do, it’s solely the “nurturing” type.

5. You are still not using the Internet.

6. You are not investing your money into your professional development, i.e. your business.

7. You are waiting for what is a very small portion of the storytelling world to acknowledge you.

8. You have let storytelling become your spirituality.

9. You haven’t learned the difference between being an actor, a speaker and a storyteller.

10. Especially for U.S. and Canadian tellers, you are telling too many disconnected and without-context personal stories.