I'm Bob Kanegis and I've got Story Fever. The symptoms cause me to experience

and interpret much of life through the lens of narrative and story. 

Thankfully, It's a condition that is highly transmittable! That in a nutshell is the 

 foundation and purpose of my Story Strong coaching practice. 

I help my clients connect to the power of story and use it well.

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Curiosity has always been the most consistent through line in my life.

Curiosity about people, places, and those big questions about the

meaning of it all.  It's why I paid a wily first grade classmate

five hard earned dollars for the skeleton of skunk he buried 

in his yard. It's why you'll find me in the library reading the latest research

on language and culture one minute, and deep in a conversation

with a stranger in the supermarket the next.  

 

In my footloose days, I often I hitchhiked  between Alaska,

 California and New York. Bank presidents and bank robbers

opened their doors for me. The experience of those

many hundreds many rides taught me a lesson that still guides me. 

Everyone has a story, and needs to be heard!

 

Later, on a 2100 mile kayak expedition down the Yukon River, I visited almost every Native village and fish camp along the way.

Though I often felt like a stranger in a strange land I was treated to countless acts of hospitality. It was then that I began

to tune into and appreciate how different and at the same time similar people can be.   

 

I went on to study environmental education and work for a number of years in nature centers and to direct conservation corps camps.

My mentor during that period never ended a conversation without these parting words.”Remember, it’s all connected. WE'RE  all

connected!” I took the lesson to heart and began to see these connections everywhere. One person's story always seemed

to connect to another's. I started thinking about the idea that we all have two central stories....The Story of Me and a Story of We.

 

It was a revelation and a joy when I discovered that  telling stories and encouraging other people to tell theirs, engages the best of my intellect, imagination and heart. I’ve gone on to have a successful and deeply satisfying career as a performer, teacher, and coach, always with story at the center.  Along the way I’ve had the privilege of working with everyone from preschool philosophers to wise elders. I've worked and collaborated with business leaders, college students, families, pregnant teens, farm workers, writers, artists, United Nations diplomats, and  yes, 

I still know that everyone has a story and everyone needs to be heard. 

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I have found my voice; the  place at which my passion, talents and values meet your needs. At this stage in my career my most gratifying  work is to help you find and strengthen your voice. My somewhat unconventional trajectory has afforded me the opportunity to hone the art and practice of keen listening, of eliciting stories from others, of asking skillful and revealing questions, teasing out patterns and meaning, and making connections that might otherwise be overlooked. To keep my coaching fresh, I am an inveterate scout, on the lookout for anything that might provide more knowledge and insight about how story and language work both for and against our self and communal interests  These are all what I call Story Strong skills. They are  the skills that I bring to our work together in service of your priorities, and the skills that you will develop and continue to build upon long after our coaching relationship has concluded.

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