How Your Truth Can Set Us Free ALTERNATE TITLES How Your Story Can Change The World How Your Story Can Set Us Free How Your Story Can Change You And The World “The Million Person Project helped me be brave enough to touch the exposed nerve of the truths that drive me - and to translate them into public story. Their questions led me to a level of self honesty that I didn't know was waiting there under the surface. Being empowered to speak that honestly meant that I stepped closer to understanding my own version of the meaning of life, and once there, it became that much easier to act from that place. Through the process of our work, I better understood why I'm here and how my work, my actions, and my own personal meaning of life can become one unified force in the world.” – Caledonia Curry, the artist known as Swoon. Book Proposal by Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen [email protected] [email protected] www.millionpersonproject.org 415-971-3523 TABLE OF CONTENTS Book Overview – Page 3 Chapter Summaries – Page 4 The Authors – Page 5 Author’s Platform - Page 6-9 2 BOOK OVERVIEW Stories define how we understand our reality. If you aren’t sharing your story, you are passing up a vital opportunity to shape your own life and to inspire and transform the world around you. This book offers you the tools and inspiration you need to uncover your most powerful stories and share them with the world. If you are like most people, you are probably thinking one of two things right now. Perhaps you are thinking “I’m not really sure I have a story at all” or “my story doesn’t matter.” Or maybe you are thinking, “My story feels too personal or too hard to share.” Sound familiar? Well, we are here to tell you that no matter where you fall on the spectrum, your story has power. It has the power to liberate you and to have a huge impact on people who hear it. This guide will help you explore your story and own it. It will help you understand and articulate the values that inspire everything you do. It will help you craft a unique narrative to share with the world, whether that’s on the TED stage, through writing or with family and friends. Sharing your story will bring you a huge sense of gratification and it will help you live a more authentic and connected life. The truth is, only you can share your story, and the world is waiting to hear from you! It’s time. Dive in and let us help you understand just how much power your truth has. Power to transform you, deepen relationships and change the world! Follow the simple steps in this book and find out for yourself how “Your truth will set us free.” 3 CHAPTER SUMMARIES Introduction: This section will explore the role of stories in the world: why they matter in the big picture, as well as how they can transform your relationships, work and world. What makes a good story: This section will provide an overview of story and structure. We emphasize the importance of vulnerability, honesty and using stories as a vehicle to communicate your values. Why your story matters: This section will look at how your story has the opportunity to impact the people around you in really positive and transformative ways. How sharing your story can lift burdens large and small. And how the act of sharing is intimate and will deepen your relationships with the people you are sharing with. Who is your audience: This section will answer the questions: if you are sharing your story, why? Who are you speaking to, and why them? What impact do you want to have on your audience? How can you craft your story to reach the people you want to reach? Finding your story: This section will help you do deep story excavation work and start to uncover the most impactful stories you carry. It includes exercises like life mapping, values assessment and message identification. Crafting your narrative: This section will give you the framework to take the stories you have uncovered, the values and messages you have identified and craft a cohesive narrative that you can share with your audience. This is a big step! Finding your voice: This section includes tips on how to develop your confidence by sharing your story. Start small. Write and share to inspire further breakthroughs on your narrative and to get comfortable sharing with vulnerability and authenticity. Make your path: This section provides tips on how to identify and secure venues to share your story. How you can utilize your network, and create your own opportunities to take the stage. You’re up!: This section will prepare you to share your story publicly, including tips and tricks for natural and compelling public speaking. 4 THE AUTHORS Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen help people find their voices and tell their stories in ways that are changing the world. They founded Million Person Project with a whirlwind global tour, where they taught everyone from actors and environmentalists in Vietnam to climate warriors in South Africa to rural farmers in Uganda. Their clients tell their deepest, most honest stories to encourage young women in tech, help depressed pregnant women, raise money for black farmers in Alabama, advocate for equal access to high-quality medicine for people of color, fight to defend against rising sea levels in the Pacific, to name just a handful. They’ve trained 2,200 people from 69 countries to bring stories to light that are opening minds to new ideas and breaking open new ways of doing business and making public policy. The core of their work is helping people identify their deepest, driving values and tell their personal stories to underline the importance of that value in our world. An example? Reshma Saujani knew it was critical to encourage young women to pursue technology jobs. That effort exploded in reach when she told her personal story on the TED stage and got 3.5 million views. In many cases, telling their most personal stories has led these truth-tellers on surprising and incredible journeys. Caledonia Curry, the street artist known as Swoon, worked with Heather to tell her achingly personal story of growing up with drug-addicted parents. That story launched an intense period of world-changing creative work focused on social justice – with prisoners through the Philly Mural Project and with refugees at the Skissernas Museum in Sweden. Their storytelling work creates a powerful bond between the storyteller and the audience, lighting up the places in the brain that create connection. They teach storytellers to open up in a way that enables them to reach out into the audience and grab the listeners and shake them up, so they are ready to stand up and take action. Heather and Julian live in San Francisco. Heather worked in political and environmental organizing before starting the Million Person Project. She like to do insane endurance challenges and is known for holding a “Stranger Party” each year. Julian worked for Green for All, bringing environmental justice to underserved communities and taking the message on the road, touring as an activist with artists like Drake. Julian moonlights as a DJ in clubs in San Francisco and Oakland and is madly in love with his one-year-old nephew. They are part of a big, warm community of friends and family that love and support them. 5 AUTHOR’S PLATFORM As entrepreneurs, we have built a multiple six-figure storytelling consulting business from the ground up. We have learned how to successfully launch, get visibility, build a global platform and garner notoriety. We’ve not only established strong relationships with some of the world’s most cutting-edge thought leaders, we have also had the privilege of coaching them. Some of the work we have done includes: - Working with Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code on her TED talk that went viral overnight, reaching 3.5 million viewers as of March 2018. - Working with world-renowned street artist, Caledonia Curry, on her marquee talk that landed her a CNN op-ed - getting her message out to millions. We have worked together multiple times to help underrepresented voices tell their stories, including a prison project in Philadelphia with men serving life sentences and a project with refugees in Sweden who made the harrowing journey from Syria and Afghanistan to Sweden. - Working with five-time Grammy Award-nominated singer, songwriter, and musician Sara Bareilles, to tell her depression story publicly and create a video that went viral with her message. ENDORSEMENTS "I am a big fan of the Million Person Project. They helped me dig deep into my own background in advance of my TED talk and identify the stories that made my speech a viral success." - Reshma Saujani "The Million Person Project represents the type of innovative approach we need to address the needs of the world community. The project is strengthening and expanding the global network of change makers who are super-charging the movement for environmental sanity. – Van Jones “What's so surprising about working with The Million Person Project is that they push past the primary and secondary layers of story, past the stories that we're familiar with telling each other, and into those tertiary layers of truth, where your story becomes an act of discovery for yourself and the listener.