Want to Connect?
Tell a Story.
Want to Motivate Your Team?
Tell a Story.
Want to Make Them Laugh,
Cry or Care?
You Know What I'm Going to Say...
Janece Shaffer,
Story Ready Founder &
Award-Winning Playwright

At StoryReady our goal is simple: to get you story ready.

We do this in two ways.

We offer an array of highly interactive workshops that present easy to apply storytelling strategies in a setting that is amped up by music, writing prompts, memory work and improvisation exercises.

We also provide one-on-one story coaching that is epic for growing self-awareness, clarity and confidence. No more panic or stalling “uhms” when it’s time to speak about yourself or your work.

Clients

"What a great time investment it was to have StoryReady come to meet with our MBAs! One stopped me and thanked me on behalf of Delta for investing in them as a whole person.

Knowing how to use story is one more 'tool' in the tool box that we want to give our people to make them great leaders and Janece created a training that did this and was fun and innovative. Will have her back again and again!!!"

Cindi Filer Photo

 

– Cindi Filer,
Senior HR Strategy Consultant,
Delta Air Lines

“Janece Shaffer has such a wonderful way of encouraging even the most apprehensive communicators to open up and share their stories. We are currently leveraging StoryReady as an extension of our internal talent development programs to improve communication and public speaking skills of current, new and emerging leaders.

Janece has made such an impact on the employees she’s worked with - I am still getting positive feedback from a workshop she facilitated over a year ago. I can’t wait until our next engagement.”

Sloane Evans Photo

 

– Sloane Drake
SVP of Human Resources,
Georgia Power, & Southern Company

“We enlisted Janece to create a signature storytelling curriculum because we recognize that being a powerful storyteller is essential for success. Within three years, every Biomedical Engineering student will be required to take the course that Janece has designed, piloted and refined in our classrooms in Atlanta as well as Galway, Ireland. The success of the course speaks to Janece’s easy-to- apply storytelling strategies, inclusive approach and joy for the material. It’s been inspiring to watch our students become capable and self-aware storytellers.”


Joseph LeDouz Photo

– Joseph LeDoux
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Learning & Experiences,
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering,
Georgia Tech Institute of Technology

Other clients include:


Emory University
Women's Presidents Org
Anisa International
Georgia Pacific
Contender Brands
Home Depot
Cool Girls

Workshops

Our workshops are infused with music, movement, memory, collaboration, and coaching – to help get participants “story-ready” because your story is your differentiator! Current offerings include:

Story DNA

Learn strategies to craft dynamic narratives along with the must-haves of great storytelling like compelling specificity and inspiring transformation. You’ll learn why details make our stories “sticky” and how a “see it, see it, feel it” strategy builds emotion and connection. Within 30 minutes, you will put these strategies into action by creating your own stories, sharing them in small groups and then raising your storytelling game through aha-filled, group coaching.

Get on Your Feet

Ideal for team building! A variety of spirited improvisational exercises and games will encourage you to say “Yes, and…” as you risk, listen, stay present, react in the moment and trust yourselves – skills that are critical to business success. You will grow self-awareness as well as learn to focus energy, calm nerves and ease up on the need for perfection. This is a powerful escape that offers laughter, learning and new discoveries that start in your head and live in your body.

You Do You

Too often clients say, “I don’t have a story” or “My story isn’t very interesting.”  But often we are too close to our own experiences to recognize what is inherently interesting in our journeys.  Through music, writing prompts, career mapping and interviews, you will be inspired to reflect, connect the dots and see your “big picture.” You will come away with a greater self-awareness as well as outlines for stories you can develop and have ready to share.

Scripting Possibilities

This series of four highly interactive workshops allows you to recognize your power to intentionally create your future, one story at a time.  You will do a deep dive into your current level of happiness and engagement, and then together we will imagine new options.  You will create a game plan which will take you out into the field so that you can gather the real world information you need to make your next move.  If you can imagine it, write about it, explore it... you can have it! 

One-on-One Coaching

“We are all so close to our own experiences that we don’t recognize what is inherently interesting in our journeys.  Another way of saying it: When you are inside the bottle, it’s hard to read the label.” – Janece Shaffer

When is the last time you reflected on the big picture of your professional journey?  This is your chance! The StoryReady discovery process is a deep dive into how your childhood connects to who you are today along.  We will explore the twists and turns of your career, trace the evolution of values, identify defining moments and create a powerful narrative that is authentically yours.  

Not only will you will have a series of memorable stories ready to share, but you will have the clarity and confidence that comes with being self-aware.

Coaching is also available for TED Talks, presentations or book development.

To get started on your story, e-mail Info@StoryReady.com.

Janece & Kristian
My parents, Max and Freida, on their wedding day in 1950.

Our Founder's Story

Everyone has a story, and here is our founder’s story. 

“In my family, we’ve always relished our stories – dramatic tales of secret elopements, one-eyed chauffeurs and big-eared men in borrowed suits who came to woo my mother.  I was the youngest by a good decade and also a girl when being a girl meant ‘being seen and not heard.’  So when dinner would drag on, I would quietly slide down the back of my chair and stretch out on Aunt Elnora’s dreamy, white, bear skin rug under the table… and I’d listen.  The first play I ever wrote begins with the main character, Rachel Solomon, standing center stage and addressing the audience, ‘In my family, our stories are like fine china – passed down from one generation to the next.’” – Janece Shaffer 

Since writing that first play, Janece Shaffer has had seven world premiere productions at the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre including a recent hit musical (“Troubadour”) she created with Grammy Award-winning Sugarland star Kristian Bush.

Janece & Kristian
My co-collaborator on the musical TROUBADOUR,
the Grammy Award-winning Kristian Bush of Sugarland fame.

Other recent credits include debuting a film at the 2018 Sundance Festival, presenting a reading of her adaptation of “Our Town” with Scarlett Johansen and Robert Downey Junior and collaborating with Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon on a new play based on personal narratives.

In addition to her artistry as a playwright, Janece leverages her more than two decades of business experience as a content developer and marketer. Her successes include serving as a communication strategist for an international nonprofit and the director of content for a global for-profit company that prepared businesswomen for leadership. She has developed workshops and trainings, scripted global events and interviewed top corporate leaders.

To hear more about StoryReady from Founder Janece Shaffer check out this interview on the ContenderCast with Justin Honaman.

 

Plays

Troubadour
Musical — Story by Janece Shaffer, Music/Lyrics by Kristian Bush
Alliance Theatre – 2017*
Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
Cinderella & Fella
Musical — Book by Janece Shaffer, Music by S. Renee Clark
Alliance Theatre – 2017*
The Gellar Girls
Alliance Theatre – January/February 2015*
Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
Broke
Alliance Theatre – 2011*
Gene Gabriel Moore Best New Play Award
Brownie Points
Theatrical Outfit – 2010*
Taproot Theatre, Seattle

Lamb’s Players Theatre, San Diego

Regent University, Virginia Beach
Gene Gabriel Moore Best New Play Award
The Short Story of Michael the Fish
Alliance Theatre – 2009*
Managing Maxine
Alliance Theatre – 2008*
Asolo Theatre, Sarasota

Human Race Theatre, Dayton
DayTony Award – Best Professional Production of a Play
Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award
Bluish
Alliance Theatre – 2006*
Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, Phoenix
Toronto Jewish Theatre
New Jewish Theatre, St. Louis
He Looks Great in a Hat
Alliance Theatre – 1999*

*World Premiere Production