Building Story Camp: a retreat for presentation development and nostalgic camp joy

178_Story Camp Debrief with Allie and Mikey

Mikey Mioduski: [00:00:00]

Welcome back to Presentation Thinking. Here we are fresh off of our very first inaugural story camp. Park City, Utah. Molly, Allie, we're back. Uh, and we wanna talk about the event while it's fresh on our minds, because we had a blast and there's a lot to talk about, A lot to unpack if you are in the event space.

You care about presentations, you're like, what the heck is story camp? It's been a, a dream come true this conference, if you will, that we've been, you know, dreaming of for years to pull off and we just pulled it off. And, um, conference is a stretch, [00:01:00] you know, about 50 people. So it's more like a retreat, an intimate symposium of amazing people.

But, um, Allie. Co-founder of Story Camp Inc. Deeply involved in the creation, as well as Kip McCauley and Casey Lorenzen. Um, they're not on the pod today, but, uh, wanna shout them out. Uh, Molly, you're back. You're settled down in Eugene, Oregon now. Um, yeah, 

Molly Geoghegan: yeah. 

Mikey Mioduski: Let's, let's rip the lid off this. Let's talk about Story Camp.

Molly Geoghegan: I mean, Allie Mahi. I'm so excited to hear about this. Not only have the listeners heard us plug this for the last. 20 to 30 episodes, Mikey copy, like with this, with the same ad or two. We only recorded a few that we ended up being happy with, but it's a learning curve. But I wasn't able to go and so this is an extra, this is both telling the listeners what went down and how awesome and organic things came of it and what we can see for it in the future.

And I'm just, and also you're filling me in for my fomo. So yeah, thanks [00:02:00] for being here. Uh, presentation Nation, if you're just tuning in for the first time. We've got Allie Wilson, uh, creative Director, right? 

Mikey Mioduski: Executive Creative Director. 

Molly Geoghegan: Executive Creative director of Ghost Ranch Communications. We are a presentation design agency and we just threw our very first conference.

We're in the retreat game, as Mikey said. So, I mean, Mikey, take us back. Who had, and I know Ally, you were there from inception, like, oh, this is a dumb idea. Like, what if we did this? Like how did the story camp idea begin and um, and what did it end up turning into? What was the evolution of this idea? 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah, I mean, ally, we've, we run a, a remote agency as you know, Molly.

Um, you know, over the years we've grown from like, well, from one to. About 30 people, right? And so, 'cause we're all spread out, we know that, [00:03:00] uh, it's essential for us to get together in person once ideally twice a year in good times. Um, and we've done everything from, you know, a little, oh, we've gone to a bison ranch, east of Denver.

We've gone to Costa Rica, we've gone to Chicago and where else? Boulder. Boulder. Um, Palm Springs. Palm Springs, yeah. And um, and you know, at first it was just like, let's go get together and. And work for a couple days or whatever. But then as our industry, which is presentation design, um, we saw two routes.

It was going, one was um, slide production, slide factory, you know, churn and burn, offshoring. Um, and that was gonna be a hard one for us to make a living off of to compete 'cause you gotta go cheaper and cheaper. And it wasn't as fulfilling for us. And we saw another route that was like more strategic.

Upstream working with execs on really high profile [00:04:00] storytelling, and, and that's what we knew we needed to invest in. Molly was like narrative development. You know, not just making things look pretty, but making them communicate. And we, we knew that, all right, our. Competency currently is graphic design and visual storytelling.

But if we really want to be this well-rounded, consultative, um, you know, group, we need to invest in ourselves. And so we started bringing in lecturers, authors that we really look up to. Tamson Webster, who wrote, uh, the Red Thread. Um, yeah, I think in like 2022, that's when we're like, man, we should reach out to her.

And then turns out these people do workshops. And so that was kind of a breakthrough epiphany for us, right, where we're like. Damn. There's all these people out there who write these books. They're like professors and lecturers at places like Stanford and Harvard and crazy stuff. Places I could never got into, but hey, if we get a group together, we can bring them to us and, and level up big time.

And I think what stood out to us is like, not only is that cool and the interactivity [00:05:00] of like a, a workshop to me went a lot further than a, than reading a book. Um. But doing it with a group was even better because then we could talk about it. We had that like shared knowledge and we kinda like kept leveling up together.

So that was like what we did internally, right. Um, but Ali, we, we kept hearing, we would always put like a out of office. Like thing on our email, ghost Ranch, Hey, we're gonna be shut down this last week of July, uh, for story camp, that's what we called it internally. And uh, a lot of clients started knocking like, what the heck is that?

That sounds awesome. I wanna come. And so, you know, all along we were like, this thing should, could theoretically be beyond us, right? Like other, certainly every single one of our marketing clients could benefit from this, this knowledge share that we're about to. Endeavor upon. So that was the dream. And, um, I don't know, we just, we just started dreaming and, uh, putting together like, who, who should we bring in for?

Like if we had like three [00:06:00] different speakers, what would that look like? And yeah, it kind of made a, a wishlist. 

Allie Wilson: Yeah. And there's, um, there's a fun bit that, you know, we were talking about it post story camp. We were like, ha, like, you know, I know Mikey gave a, a great shout out to the founders of Story Camp, but even, you know.

Creating the thing, like the, the group that we brought together to, to make it, to bring it to life is pretty cool. Um, you know, obviously Mikey, um, Mikey and then, uh, you know, I, I got to join the party. You know, Mikey and I have, you know, been on the Ghost Ranch ride together for so long. We know we work well together.

We've been dreaming up, you know, what story camp could be over the years, but. Along with that, um, Kip, who, you know, works as our CFO at Ghost Ranch, but is also one of Mikey's childhood friends, and Casey Lorens and also one of Mikey's childhood friends. Um, and he, you know, you know, incredible photographer, uh, that, you know, we worked with [00:07:00] him at Theall Raven and now he's at Peak Performance and he came all the way over from Sweden, uh, to, to, to lead the charge on like, sort of like the.

Like how we capture and document everything that happens at Story Camp, but even just that as its own sub-story of the story camp story is really neat. It's like this, like who doesn't dream about starting a company or going on an, you know, a business adventure with some of your best friends? So, um, I think that's a really special part of it.

And I think, and I think because it was that very specific group of people, it, I think a lot of the. Genuine, you know, feelings and vibes and like the brand itself is a representation of that really awesome friendship and connection that we had together. Yeah. As we were putting it together and planning it.

Totally. 

Mikey Mioduski: And Ally like that reminds, I just heard this quote this morning, like about bears and bowls in the market and like investing and stuff. People who [00:08:00] are bears sound smart, but people who are bullish get rich. Like if you, if you're bullish about something, you're willing to put your chips on something.

And I think at this point in our career, like we've worked in all these different places and industries and stuff, and I think we're just like bullish on, on each other and on people, right? It is like, I think. AI is so freaking cool and we're all stoked about it, but the more things are going that way, the more I'm yearning for like the people connection.

And I think it's like Allie felt the same way. Kip Casey felt the same way, and we're just like, yo, it's like, this stuff's cool, but I think we all ruled out. We should make this virtual series 'cause it, well it's like, so mar like the margins could be so high and you know, it's like, it's like straight money.

Um, and that didn't sound fun to us. Like what we are yearning for is like in person learning with other cool [00:09:00] people who are bullish about, about soft skills because the harder things go toward ai. Like we just see this opportunity for others to accelerate their careers. By advancing that, those skills of, of storytelling and, and better communication.

So that's what we did. Yeah, there's 

Molly Geoghegan: like a need that's Yeah. Yeah. There's like a need that's also growing. I mean, coming from, so I've obviously been to the internal ranchero story camps, and then I. I just, for me, I see I witnessed this like as a natural evolution of like, this was such a cool moment of like, yeah, as you said, Mikey, we all work remotely, so everyone was craving that in person to be like, who am I slacking all day in the first place?

For like a company or a group that you might know just via email, anyone could relate to that. But then extending that to the. Pulling back the curtain. It's a total behind the scenes peak for clients and anyone else that is interested in this story screen and stage structure, which we'll get into in a little bit here, but, um.

You did not hold back on like, who are we gonna [00:10:00] get? Let's reach for the biggest names, make it as attractive as possible, seamless as possible, but then keep that intimacy of like, here's my childhood friend who's an incredible photographer, who's doing the, you know, the, the, um, all the photography and video work, and here's this person we've known for a long time as our financial advisor.

Being part of it as well. So it's like that kind of, um, almost like when you go to a wedding and you're like, you can tell everyone, just put so much love into this, you know, the DIY when those smaller like micro DIY weddings, it's totally like. You guys basically just hosted the wedding of PowerPoint, you know, like the ultimate, the ultimate story storytelling wedding in the B2B world.

I, seriously, I feel that way. Um, but it was just a natural evolution and it's really, it's really cool to see how it's, how it's evolved. So, um, if you're listening and you're like, this sounds interesting, like this is now a public event that. Is it, uh, gonna be annual? 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah, it is an annual, yeah. Event. We'll have, uh, we, yeah, talk about some future formats for it, but as well as [00:11:00] like what we heard from the cohort and we, we've got some cool, like survey responses, like, and I'd love to to talk you through some, some of what we learned and Yeah, definitely.

And certainly too, if, if you thought about putting on an event. We ma learned a lot, let's just put it that way. Like, 

Molly Geoghegan: yeah, I can tell you a lot of things 

Mikey Mioduski: we screwed up. Um, and, and some things we, we feel we got, right. So it's like for sure, for 

Molly Geoghegan: sure. Okay. Let's get into the structure of like the concept too with the story.

You've said it, we've said it on the podcast so many times, story, screen and stage. What did those mean and how did that like kind of ethos and like concept. Help with crafting how the event itself would look. Did that or did it help? 

Mikey Mioduski: Definitely. This has been a huge evolution of our learning, like coming of age at Ghost Ranch, especially with your help, Molly, like over the how, how many episodes of presentation thinking have we cut?

Like one seventy eight, a hundred seventy eight. So like you and I like [00:12:00] love to analyze presentations. I think we were, we've been like riffing on, you know, we're not just looking at the talk itself, the words, those are, those matter. And then we, you know, us being visual designers, we always like to see what they're presenting.

So like, we would look at the slides and, and care about that. Um. But we, we kind of realized along the way, seeing a lot of our clients who are, let's say they're a product marketer or a marketer, and they're helping the CEO, who's gonna go up on the, the keynote stage to, to present the big vision. Um. We've seen hits and misses and, and so when it, like, you could have the great script, you could have great slides, but if the delivery sucks and that person's not passionate, they didn't prepare, then it's a flop.

So it's like we started to see it as this three-legged stool. And it, if you have, if you're checking just two outta those three, it's a little bit more stable than just one. But you're still gonna fall over at some point. But the best [00:13:00] presentations. Take this cohesive approach, very intentional about all three, how, what you say, what you show, and then how you deliver it all.

Um, and that doesn't, it's not always a big stage, right? It could be a, a webinar, it could be a sales presentation, like delivery. Is, is stage. Um, but it's, it's about the passion, the, the trust building, all that stuff, the presence. Um, and so yeah, we just, we thought at first like we love certain other conferences.

We've been to Ali, we're huge fans of Rick Altman's presentation Summit. We've been to many, many, you know, um, product marketing summits. There's always like a track around or like a talk or two around storytelling. But I don't think we've, we've been to one that brought it all together in a way that we felt like, um, we wanted to, where it was like not a full day of lecture.

Um, 'cause our brains get fried and we, we, we wanted to [00:14:00] do it like, uh, something we'd actually wanted to attend, which is like, we really appreciate the way, uh, Carl Smith does it at the bureau. His events are so cool. It's like a lot of action in the morning and then like some free time to go. Mingle and, and synthesize shit.

Yeah. Shit. Without some steam. Like with Yeah. With your fellow Yeah. Attendees and just like learn from each other would be a round table. Go get outdoors, go do something cool. And so we, we didn't wanna over pack it with like 20 talks, you know, all in some ballroom. So we thought, what if we just bring in like three core.

Workshops, one around story, one around screen, one around stage, and then, and then we kind of mixed in some other cool stuff from that. But that was the building blocks, that, that was the fundamental format. But then I guess Allie, like the, the Lightning talk. Do you wanna tell us about the breakthrough there?

Because we, we tested that at a retreat in Park City internally when we were like, we didn't have the budget to bring in an outside speaker, frankly. 

Allie Wilson: Yeah. Get outta my head. That's what I was just thinking about. I was [00:15:00] like, oh, you know, it was. That was, you know, it was so great, you know, having the focus on screen story and stage.

But that was my favorite part personally of this story camp was that was like, we are bringing everything together and I'll tell you a little bit more about how it all came together and, and why it's just like this magical moment that, that, you know, our attendees got to have of seeing everything, like why they matter as a system and you know, the importance of each piece individually.

Yeah, like Mikey said, at our 2024 Internal Ghost Ranch Story camp, you know, team of designers, you know, presentation designers, uh, we are typically the folks behind the presenters, um, making them look incredible. But a really cool challenge we tossed out to the team was to give these lightning talks. Uh, you know, it's, it's a practice in empathy.

You know, we work with these people [00:16:00] all the time. We're making, you know, but getting in front of people, uh, uh, I don't know how y'all feel, but it, the, the adrenaline spike, you know, you know, it's just like, you know, public speaking's crazy, you know, speaking in front of people, especially, you know, peers that you really care about that you really wanna inspire.

Um, any sort of audience. It's just tricky. Um. People have all sorts of different feelings about it and to, but to our surprise, what was it? Did we have 10 volunteers from Ghost Ranch? I think. Yeah. Yeah. We couldn't believe, um, how many, how many people from our team. Um, and, and, and across like all sorts of different roles too.

We had people from operations at Ghost Ranch, account management and design. So all sorts of, you know, different role types that wanted to give a lightning talk. Um. Damn. It was, it was so great. Everyone worked so hard on their presentation. They, um, the team like, gave them such incredible feedback. It was just, um, it was, [00:17:00] I'm not gonna call it like a happy accident.

I think we just didn't expect it to be as great as it was. And we, I think it was the most memorable part of our, for our internal story camp. So, because it had such an impact, then we, um, we were like, damn, like we've gotta carry that over, um, into our external facing one. You know? And I think we had the same feeling, you know, as we started to get our attendee list, like, you know, who's gonna sign up for this?

Because here's the crazy bit. Um, our keynote speakers, we, uh, we went, uh, we, it was a big go, big or go home mentality with our speakers at Story camp. Harry zip plot. Amy Cuddy and Steve Frank Ander. Like, these are, these are some, some serious folks. Not serious, serious, but like very well known. I mean, um, really, really incredible people.

And, you know, I would be very intimidated to speak in front of them. So. As I was saying, how we brought everything together here, they [00:18:00] actually acted as a panel to provide feedback for Lightning Talks at Story Camp. So we put it out there, um, the same way that we did our own team to the story camp attendees like, Hey, like, do you wanna get on stage and present?

You know, whether it's something that they were working on professionally, it could, we, we really opened it up. It could be anything they wanted to present for, you know, what was it? Five to 10 minutes. 

Mikey Mioduski: Just five, five to six. Yeah. Five minutes. 

Allie Wilson: They were quick. They were quick. Yeah. I mean, that's so hard, quick.

Um, so hard, uh, to get on stage, give a presentation and get feedback from Terry, Amy, and Steve, meaning that, and they, and they really did a great job too, of like staying in their, in their bucket. There was some crossover there, but the feedback was, I mean, outrageously good. Yeah. Because damn, like. What a, what a superstar set of people to get feedback.

Mm-hmm. From like, you'll never get those three people in the same room again to give you feedback, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, but we, yeah, we, they like, I mean, I'll stop [00:19:00] monologuing. Um, I don't know Mike, if you wanna hop in and talk about it, but Yeah. The attendees who gave lightning talks all crushed it too.

They were all so good. They did, they were all incredible. And so it was just such a perk and a benefit of being part of this. This group to get to hear your peers speak and to hear like what they were going to say, get to hear the feedback that they received. So it was like everyone benefited from it.

Mikey Mioduski: And I think, I think, I mean, I didn't do the best job like marketing this event, like getting, like it was hard to talk about it because no one had seen it before other than us, right? And so I think people are like, what the hell are these lightning talks? And so I think afterward, once people saw people up on stage, it kind of clicked and they're like.

I, you could see it like some people are like, hell no, I'm not gonna do that. And then afterward they're like, I might do that next year. You know? Yeah. And so I think seeing other people be brave, vulnerable, get up there, I think it inspired others to be like. Or or [00:20:00] just say, Hey, you know what, like I have a all hands next week and like, I'm totally like gonna, I'm, I'm rewriting it as we speak, like based on all this like tangible stuff, all this stuff.

'cause we were worried, well, is it fair that, you know, only five people out of 50 get to give a lighting talk? And it was just as valuable for people in the audience. Um, hearing, you know, Terry, Amy, Steve giving feedback. Because it's, it's universal, right? Like some of the, some of the themes were, um, gosh, we want to hear more about you.

We want to hear more about your personal story. Tell us something emotional that helps build trust. And so like, yeah, for me, ally, like there was a lot of, just like a lot of themes that emerged that kind of like were similar in each of the five lightning talks. Um. Then hearing. Yeah. Like you said, we asked even though like Terry Zup, Platt, you know, Obama speech writer for eight years.

He knows a thing about stage [00:21:00] presence and delivery as well as like showing. Um, but we asked if these guests, uh, experts would kind of own a lane of Terry, you're on story. Steve, you're on screen. Amy, you're on. Um. Stage and they, they kind of honored that. And I think it, that was another thing I wasn't sure if people were gonna think was weird, but, but yeah, I think hammering those, the three S's over and over by the end, um, you could tell it was like, it was, we could see how the, the three pieces come together as that, that big, beautiful wheel of presentation thinking.

Molly Geoghegan: Yeah. I mean, to have like experts in their respective fields all come together, as you said, like these, those three people will never be in the room again. Yeah. But offering that kind of feedback to people is very attractive and a good motivator to help them overcome the like. The deep seated fear of like public speaking people have, and even though a lightning talk, uh, is only like a few, like, I actually think the length is perfect because even though we know as kind of like presentation study or the shorter, the [00:22:00] harder it is.

Yeah. It's, it's also like hearing that like it's a five minute talk versus like a 10 or 11 or even. 20 when you get, yeah. 20. You're like, I'm not gonna be able to do that. But anyone can talk about something they're excited about for five minutes. Yeah. Um, or something they're working on maybe like a section of a deck that their team has been getting through.

So I feel like that's a super valuable thing. You're like, it's gonna be painful, but it's only just like five minutes of their, of me talking and five minutes of the feedback and then I'm done. So it's a relatively short exposure. And then if oth as other people are doing it and gaining more confidence, that's like, you know, it only helps get that going.

It's true. So, 

Mikey Mioduski: and. Highly recommend that format to, to, if you're rolling your own retreat, bring it. Like do the Lightning Talks. People do, it's, it's awesome to give them a chance. 'cause I think part of the other underlying theme of Story Camp was like. It's hard to get reps, you know, these executives get chances to speak, but where do we as like early stage managers, you know, like first time directors, [00:23:00] we were on Zoom all the time, but I think post COVID, it's like we're easing back into conferences, but like when and where and how do you actually get the chance to go up and speak in a breakout room?

So I think helping your company, helping your teammates. Have a, with a forum, like a, a venue to actually try it out in a, in a safe space is, is really important. Um, so we, it's, it's easy to put on at a internal retreat or an all, or like an offsite, give people the chance to, to say something that they're passionate about.

Yeah. 

Molly Geoghegan: Give people the stage. Yeah. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah, 

Allie Wilson: yeah. I had, I, I can't tell you how many people after. Uh, told me they wished they had done one. Ah, uh, which I, I thought was great. A lot of folks that were just like, dang. I missed, I missed out on that. Like, uh, 

Molly Geoghegan: yeah, like yeah. 

Allie Wilson: Hey, next 

Molly Geoghegan: year. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah, 

Molly Geoghegan: next year. Exactly.

Create a little bit of that FOMO 

Mikey Mioduski: in Molly. So we, I was worried that people wouldn't, would be bummed if they didn't get a [00:24:00] chance to do that. We still wanted everyone to get a chance to like get a little interactive on stage time. And so after lunch that second day after the Lightning talks, um, we last minute.

Got in with, uh, this executive speaker coach Montana von Fliss. She's based outta Seattle, and she was just like, I absolutely stole the show. For those who attended her. This interactive like stage coach workshop, fully improvised Molly, you would've loved it. Yeah. But Montana was just like, our goal that she and I like aligned on was we just wanna get people up, get 'em comfortable with like.

Themselves tell their story a little bit. And then Casey meanwhile, and Asha, were there getting footage of them. So if they did leave, they didn't quite give a full talk. At least they're gonna have candid of them, like on stage looking legit that they can submit to a conference. So, but Montana was. Was just incredible.

The way she, uh, she started, she's like, okay, does anybody here have a name? And everyone raises their hands. 

Molly Geoghegan: She's like, 

Mikey Mioduski: [00:25:00] all right, does anyone wanna come up and tell me what your name is? And so, and then we just like kept building from there, there and super simple. Yeah. It was, it was really cool to see how she handled, that's all that, yeah.

On the fly. People 

Molly Geoghegan: need to like understand, like Yeah. It's just like that is such that, and we've talked about improv on the cast, Mikey. What do you do with your hands? Like what, you know, it was like, people are always like, I'm in a photo. What do I do with my hands? When you're being perceived in that way, it's like, it just helps to kind of be like, woo.

Like where, just relax, get into that stage presence. Yeah. Um, also, Montana von Fliss, what a cool name. Incredible. Uh, 

Mikey Mioduski: she's like, yes, that's my real name. 

Molly Geoghegan: Yeah. Right, right. 

Mikey Mioduski: And she, 

Allie Wilson: I matches her name too. Yeah. She's, she is just like, she is a vibrant soul. Like, she's just like, you know, she was incredible.

Mikey Mioduski: She's, she's. So cool. And her, her TED talk is blowing up, Molly, it's like, yeah, I think it came out. We'll have to get into that a couple months ago. It's at 2 million views already. Something like that. That's, 

Molly Geoghegan: wow. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah. So it's okay. 

Molly Geoghegan: I wanna hear a little bit about like this. Um, Mikey, I heard you say, you know, like maybe I didn't market this as well as I could have.

Yeah. What went into, like [00:26:00] the event planning itself, there's so many logistics attached to that. Food, accommodation, transportation. Um, like what room? In the hotel? What, like the branding, the schwag, like that's a beast. How did you guys tackle that? Yeah, 

Mikey Mioduski: huge. Shout out to Kip, our CFO like put on the hat of many of the like event coordination duties, you know, of like just a laundry list, Excel sheet.

You need someone with a masterful like. Command of, of a spreadsheet. But, um, it was, there's like the big chunks is what I was like, oh, you know, I'll get the venue and the speakers from there. Then it gets, then you're like, oh wait, how do we get people to sign up for their room? And, you know, our biggest, our, our biggest challenges were probably.

We were warned not to have an event in the summer because you're, you're not competing with other events, but you're competing with people's personal schedules and, and, um, and then we also may have priced it, um, wrong [00:27:00] and we didn't have any favorable headwind or like tailwinds with the economic environment either.

So it was like. There's a lot of like macro challenges upfront and then, and then biggest of all is like no one knows who the hell we are or what this is. Right. And so, 

Molly Geoghegan: yeah, it's not established yet. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah. So we have our little, we have our little network of the Ghost Ranch peeps, and what we ended up doing was like a lot of one-to-one outreach and almost everybody who came was like.

Hand selected. It, it, it was more or less like an invite only affair, you know, after all said and done. And that, that was okay. Like we knew this was kind of a building year and you couldn't have asked for a better group, more passionate about this topic, and they were so generous in many ways. Um, shout out to the CEO of Cotopaxi, who brought gear for everybody there.

Um, and in other ways of just like generosity with time and, and sharing and ideas and feedback to each other. So it was [00:28:00] like, I mean, there was CMOs, heads of marketing, heads of product marketing. Heads of internal corporate communications, heads of corporate events, right? And so it's like, we didn't plan for that.

We dreamed of that, but we couldn't, you couldn't get a more just potent, insanely awesome group of people in that room all aligned on, like telling better stories and, and you know, elevating the, the communication caliber back at their companies. Like it was kind of a teach the teacher kind of situation.

And I think that was probably an insight is like. It seemed, we didn't know exactly who should come. 'cause better soft skills kind of applies to everybody. But we did have one question in our feedback form was like, who do you think should come, you know, next year? And it, it did revolve a, a lot said like CMOs, um, heads of employee comms, executive comms, product marketing, basically marketing and sale.

And, but sellers too, like anyone who has to, has to interact with customers and [00:29:00] prospects. Yeah. 

Molly Geoghegan: And, um, what was it like, what was, how like doing that one-to-one outreach and pitching story camp over and over again? I like I was with you trying to record some Oh yeah, like ads for story camp. How did you go about and how did the story get like distilled as you kept and more nailed down as you were like, what am I selling to people?

You know, like, what am I pitching here? How did that like, develop? 

Mikey Mioduski: Ally, you got like one of our idols in all of like product marketing to come like I feel, but you, you, I wonder how you pitched it to, to Mary. 

Allie Wilson: Well, I, I mean, that was. I got pretty lucky to get, be able to get in front of her because I'd already, um, we had a relationship going.

I had joined, um, um, after being her, uh, greatest admirer and biggest fan for quite some time. It's, it's cool. We're tight now. So she, she's not gonna be creeped out by hearing this, but, you know, [00:30:00] I've just like loved Mary Sheen for quite some time. She's, uh, she's very inspiring and she started, um. A cohort called Propel Yourself for a ambitious mothers, um, of young children.

So I'd gotten to know her and like through that process, um, you know, was able to talk to her more about Ghost Ranch and you know, what I was doing at Ghost Ranch. And then as a result, you know. Was like, well, like, you know, we've got this other thing we started, you know, that I think you'd be really into, um, and was able to just organically talk to her about it and, you know, invite her to come.

And I think because we, I think especially in these early stages before, you know, anyone knew about Story Camp, um, having that, that relationship and that trust with a person, um, you know, as you're, as you're pitching it to them, essentially is pretty important. Um. And so, you know, because we were able to have such great conversations about it, she, [00:31:00] you know, was looking into it.

She got so stoked about it that she even wanted, you know, she wanted to come, but even was, you know, generous enough and, you know, Mikey mentioned generosity earlier. This is another great example of generosity, um, was really, you know, helpful and promoting it herself. 'cause she has such an incredible network and she has a great following.

So, um, I think, you know, I think a, a strategy for us, you know, especially with this early stage, like. Talking to people that we knew would be a really great culture fit for Story Camp, you know, vibe Check. Mm-hmm. Um, amazing, amazing, uh, you know, amazing, smart, you know, prolific in their field, you know, check, you know, kind of checking those boxes that, you know, getting their buy-in and almost, you know, having them feel like founding members and like founding people that they're part of the very beginning of this.

So that they have that sense of ownership and excitement about it to be able to, um, speak about it with other people. So that was even our hope, you know, [00:32:00] with some of the folks that were getting in, you know, early stage when we first started having conversations with people is that they would be advocates for it.

I, you know, in addition to ourselves. Yep. 

Molly Geoghegan: Yeah, you've created a little network of ambassadors now. So I mean, year two, looking ahead like that can only get easier of like having, even if they're not coming themselves, but having them be like a mega, like, what's that called? The mouthpiece for, you know, kind of promoting and just, um, speaking to its, um, authenticity and value.

So that's super valuable. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah. Already in the first couple weeks after Story Camp, we are finally getting like. Sort of like every day submissions on the website. Like, like, when's the next one? Mm-hmm. Can I come? Like, can I get on your wait list? And so it's like, ah, if, if the burden of can we sell a single ticket is now past us?

And now it's like, yeah. All right. Totally. We think that's cool. Now we gotta like optimize it a little bit. Um, but what's, what I'd love to talk [00:33:00] about are what we heard back from the, I was say post post-event survey. Um. We asked like a couple things around what mattered to you, like what stood out to you, what did we get right, what did we, what could we improve, but what, what is like uniquely story camp?

Like what is a must have? And here's the top three things that they said. Must, must have all like 93% responses for these three things. Awesome experts. So it was like Amy Cuddy, Terry Zu Platt, Steve Frank Ander, Montana Von Fliss caliber, small cohort size, so like 50 to 75 person max. Everyone unanimously wants to keep it and like even in the like the hallway conversations, they're like, please don't change the size.

You know, like that was mentioned to us several times. They loved it. Yeah, I 

Molly Geoghegan: see that. 

Mikey Mioduski: And then amazing attendees. So tho like those three things, the people, and then even in, I did, uh, our little transcript analyzer, Molly, I, I kind of looked [00:34:00] for the density of certain keywords in all, all these responses.

Yeah, there were four Incredibles, seven amazings, seven experiences, but. 18 instances of people and 18 instances of love. Uh, and you could just feel it. I mean, it was like, wow. You know, people talked about, they, they, they likened it to summer camp legit. They're like, will you write me, you, like, you could just watch people becoming like best friends and like, you know, like brand, like opening network doors.

It was awesome. The best part for me, we need like a little 

Molly Geoghegan: yearbook or something, you know, like a little notebook for people to like stamp in or something. Oh, that's, that just lends itself. It's so exciting to think about like the opportunities that you can take from that. And I'm not surprised that people is and love are the top keywords.

I'm shouting out one. Oh here I see on the feedback form. Favorite story camp memory. I don't think I've eaten that many s'mores and being able to share in childhood joy with others makes it really special. 

Allie Wilson: I know 

Molly Geoghegan: what other, what other conference or corporate retreat can, uh, can uh, create such a, [00:35:00] such a, such a response.

Mikey Mioduski: Um, how special And, but like, and you know, it wasn't about like we might've, we did learn about, we probably spent a bun, we spent mm-hmm, sure. Probably a little. A little more than we needed to on luxury accommodations. You know, only 20% of people said that's a must. Um, yeah, it's true. But what, what they also loved was epic destination and access to outdoors.

And that flex time that we baked in we're also like the next tier of must-haves, as well as programming built around the three S's. So we didn't know if that was gonna. Get lost in the sauce, but people actually really latched onto that. Uh, probably in part thanks to Ali's amazing swag too, which, yeah, like we had these awesome notebooks that had the three, the, the Venn diagram, um, all kind of baked around and Ali's design and branding all around, which is like next level.

Um, and then before I forget too, massive shout out to our, our AV team, our partners AVOD three. Um, so. [00:36:00] Zach, Mark Ryan working. It made us, made this look so cool. Um, and like, flawless, right? Like it's so nice to have a partner that you could just like blindly trust. And my favorite line from them, you know, uh, every time I'd, I'd hear back, it's like, we got your back, man.

Like, don't worry about it. And so they, they really bring that. Winston Wolf caliber, like they, if you're an event director, you have like peace of mind knowing this team from AVOD three is on it. And then the coolest thing ever, the founder and CEO of avod three. Cameron McGee. He's like, you know what, like I just wanna come.

And so he just bought a ticket like he wanted, he's like, I just wanna be a regular old attendee. Um, his team was there working. Oh my God. But he wanted to participate 'cause he also knows like how important this stuff is. And so just, um, another vote of that's so special. How excellent of partners, uh, that team is.

Molly Geoghegan: Wow, that's epic. Oh my God. We'll have to have a whole, we'll have to have the mountain talk as well. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah. Um, mean they've got stories [00:37:00] to tell. 

Molly Geoghegan: This is so special. You guys, the feedback is just really awesome and so valuable. Um, we could keep talking about this for a while, but I'd say to just open up the spice cabinet here for a second, Mikey.

Yeah. Not only will we plug all the amazing speakers and people we had join us, um, AVOD as well. Um, but. Where most importantly, where can people be following this? Oh yeah. And sign up if they are interested to, uh, hear about what's going on next year for Story Camp. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah. Um, story camp.com. There. I would, I would recommend going there and if there's a popup or there in the footage, just sign up for the news right there.

Is there, so you can, you can follow along, um, and LinkedIn. Follow it there. Uh, just sign up, sign, sign up for the email list so you can not miss a beat. Um. Because we'd love to announce our next one soon. We are, we're definitely got, we've got two dates. We're, we're working with a certain venue, um, for next year, 2026, [00:38:00] and we will be announcing that hopefully here in the next, like, you know, month or so.

Molly Geoghegan: Cool. All right. Well pay at, yeah, pay close attention people, um, other story campers. Keep spreading the word. We loved having you. That is, I'm just, I'm so proud of you guys. I'm so proud. 

Mikey Mioduski: Uh, we want you there next time, Molly. 

Molly Geoghegan: I know. Oh, I, I, yeah. I can't miss it. Van Life would've been the only thing keeping me back.

Good. To be back on the pod. 

Mikey Mioduski: It's kind of, kind of, um, spice cabby stuff. We, one of my favorite questions was like. Where do you think we should go next? You know? Mm-hmm. Which destinations? Yeah. Yeah. What 

Molly Geoghegan: kind of responses were you getting? 

Mikey Mioduski: Okay, so out of Belize, so like nobody wants to go to New York City or like no one wants, like big city.

What, what, what stood out is like people want Bend. Oregon, Boulder, Colorado, Bozeman, Montana. So all the bees, right? Right. Outdoorsy bees surrounded by conifers. 

Molly Geoghegan: Um, 

Mikey Mioduski: but yeah, like Tahoe, like, um, [00:39:00] 

Molly Geoghegan: oh yeah, 

Mikey Mioduski: Palm Springs got some, some votes. Encinitas was kind of out there, but Really, yeah. It's, it's looking to be like people really liked leaning into the campy thing in the outdoors camp.

Totally. So I think that's Camps part of who we are now, you know? 

Molly Geoghegan: Yeah, yeah. Definitely. And I like I saw people referring in the feedback as well, like other campers and just being able to call each other campers is so, is such a specific experience. Yeah. Speaks to that like inner child camp experience.

And I think, I think we gotta keep rolling with that. I think so. 

Allie Wilson: Yeah, I mean, it was like something that gave me goosebumps because it came from multiple people, again, from like totally different places. Yeah. They were like, what is this? They're like, it's not, it's not like what? Like they're like, I've never experienced anything like this.

And then like when we've just been reflecting on it afterwards, we're like. Camp Camp man. Camp. It's camp. Exactly. Yeah. 

Molly Geoghegan: It's not 

Allie Wilson: a conference, 

Molly Geoghegan: it's not an event. It is. This is camp. 

Allie Wilson: Yeah. So yeah, 

Molly Geoghegan: totally. There's activities, there's custom swag. There's crafty spots. You [00:40:00] work on your PowerPoint skills. Oh, I love it.

Yeah. Um, any partying shots? You guys? I'm so, so stoked for story Camp 2025. That's a wrap, 

Mikey Mioduski: Allie, thank you for, for everything you did. Uh, Tamara from Ghost Ranch showed up and held down. At PowerPoint help you desk. And it was so cool. We, we were, again, will people take us up on this? We don't know, but cer they really did.

And, and Tamara was a trooper. She, you know, we, we thought they might come out during lunch or like during the free time, go see her and work on their slides, any questions they had and. She, she was busy and like a lot of people took her up on it and just like RIFed and brainstormed on some slide ideas and even like, took her up for a one, one team, made an appointment at 7:00 AM to meet her for breakfast and she, she showed up like a trooper.

Um, and so she was, she was busy. I think we're gonna need a couple more ranch shows to help her next year, but that, that was pretty cool. Th huge thanks to to, to tj. Yeah. 

Molly Geoghegan: Yeah. Special [00:41:00] 

Mikey Mioduski: one-on-one help. And th just, yeah. Thanks to our speakers, Terry. Amy, Steve Montana. Um, the feedback that came back was just next level.

I mean, like, people were like changed by their talks, but also the fact that they, they hung out, like again in the feedback is like, I can't believe they were just like part of the camp. They went hiking with us. They were like at, you know, like whining and dining with us. They were, they were in it. Um, and so you, you just don't see that it wasn't a in and out kind of thing.

It was like they were truly invested and it, it really made a big difference. Can't thank them enough. Look them all up. Buy their book. Bring 'em in for a workshop. They're, they're just next level thinkers. Yeah. 

Molly Geoghegan: Shoulder to shoulder with your keynoters. That's special. 

Mikey Mioduski: Uhhuh. It was cool. But yeah. We'll, we'll make some announcements.

Um. Head of story camp.com, sign up, and of course we'll be sharing more about updates here. 

Molly Geoghegan: Allie, thanks for joining. You were such an integral part of this. I know. And, um, just, it's only gonna grow from here. You guys. This will not be [00:42:00] last to hear about story camp on the pod for 

Allie Wilson: sure. 

Mikey Mioduski: Yeah, 

Allie Wilson: that was, that was the, that was the immediate takeaway.

Wasn't really, just felt like it was just the beginning, like, um, like, okay, we were doing something special. Like this is special and, you know, yeah. You don't know. You don't know that until you do it and you feel it, you know? Yeah, 

Molly Geoghegan: totally. Yeah. Good on, good on both of you. Yeah. Such, such an epic leap and, uh, story camp 2026.

Keep a lookout. Presentation thinkers. That's right. Um, until then, Mikey, Allie, keep on, on, keep on pigeon. 

Mikey Mioduski: All right.