Why I became a storyteller before I knew I was one

In high school I used to envy my friends who could hold a room just by talking. I was the one in the corner listening, convinced I had nothing worth saying.

For years I told myself that story. That storytelling was something other people did. People with natural charisma, quick wit, an easy way with words. And that, that’s not me.

I was what I now call a “recovering awkward joke teller.” I would start a joke nervously, and then rush straight to the punchline, and pray someone laughed. Very few people did.

The voice in my head had a simple explanation for that, “you are just not built for this.”

Then I read Mindset by Carol Dweck.

Was it a dramatic change and impact in my life? No. But something in that book made me stop treating my awkwardness like that’s who I am and start treating it like a habit. And habits can change.

So I went on a hunt. I got books on storytelling. Courses. Communities. I found Sun Yi’s Domestika course first, then followed him on Instagram, then joined his community Night Owl Nation when he launched it at five dollars a month. I signed up so fast I did not even finish reading the landing page.

That was a few years ago. Today I am one of his small group leaders. I help other people practice the exact thing I was convinced I could never do.

I also picked up How To Tell a Story by The Moth, which I read and listened to at the same time because a friend told me the audiobook has the actual recordings from the live sessions featured in the book. That detail alone is worth the download.

None of this was the plan, I just wanted to be better at talking to my friends. I wanted to hold their attention instead of losing it. What I did not expect was that learning to tell stories would rewire how I do everything. How I write. How I shoot. How I think.

That is what Grain&Ink Co is. Not a content page. Not a portfolio. A place where I share what I keep finding on the page.