11.16.2008 Sunday: Miss Ellainious, Storyteller

Picture of: price per gallon for gasoline paid this morning at 4:58AM.

Today I: took daughter #1 to work at 445am; went back to bed; worked on storytelling website update; picked up daughter after her 8 hours; finished update for and registration form for the corporate storytelling workshop at www.executivespeakertraining.com; did research project for this week's teleseminars at www.prostoryteller.com; posted new audio files at www.storyteller.net/stories ; cleaned my kitchen for my ADD therapy- heh; twittered a lot at www.twitter.com/storyteller ; welcomed home wife #1 and daughter #4 from their camping trip held at http://www.forttuthill.com/ ; laughed a bunch with daughter #3 about her guinea pig at www.guineapighutch.com ;

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

11.14.2008 Friday: Grumpy Burgers: Working Artists Economy Survival Guide

Picture of: pages of notes for new telecourse.

Today I: made an early morning errands run and sat in a fast-food joint working on notes; I have released our latest Storyteller.net TeleCourse "Grumpy Burgers, Wood Fires and Cheap Whines: The Economy is Not Your Business for Working Artists" come register; built the websites for those workshops over the last few days; twittered; ran daughter #1 back and forth to work; bought Friday-night snacks with daughters #2 and #3; wife #1 and daughter #4 are away on camping trip; I have more storytelling ideas, projects, writings and seminars that I can get out of my head.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

09.20.2008 Saturday: Work. Shopping.

Picture of: the trolley stop right outside my hotel in Gatlinburg, TN.

Today I: ate the hotel breakfast and headed down to Touristburg Gatlinburg downtown for the workshop I am taking/presenting at; talked with booking agents here at the conference- good folks; good lunch provided as part of the conference; more workshops and networking; stopped by Walmart for few things I need; went back to hotel and worked on a storytelling coaching phone call with one of my clients- I love it when folks are open to learning; talked to my family on the phone; worked on a new mailing; settled in for the night. By the way, how can you tell a resident of this area from the tourists? All the residents were watching football tonight. You have to be a Tennessee fan here or they beat you with orange sticks. LOL.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

09.19.2008 Friday: Workshop and Networking

Picture of: the view from the hotel lobby in Gatlinburg, river running below, Smoky Mountains in the background.

Today I: packed up and had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel; drove off to the downtown Gatlinburg conference location; fought with the automatic parking gate; checked in for the conference; networked with some new friends and associates; presented my intro version of the "Ancient Secret" corporate storytelling workshop to this group- was shot in a three-camera video shot; attended the rest of the conference; returned to hotel; drove out for dinner; came back to hotel; calling it a night

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

08.26.2008 Tuesday: The Man Needs Storytelling Coaching

Picture of: fortune-cookie fortune that reads, "Things are turning for the bright side."

Today I: odd day; went to quick and cheap Chinese-food lunch with a few family members; worked on new flyer and postcard for "Ancient Secret of Public Speaking" workshop; attended a telecourse presented by another; answered some mastermind-group emails; updated some URL renewals and cancellations; researched Google search word ratings; watched "The Daily Show" tackle the Democratic Convention; sent a Twitter to John McCain's PR people advising them that they need to hire a storyteller coach (who is in the Senator's state) to help said Senator compete with the storytelling going at the DNC. Call me, McCain PR people, your man needs me.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

05.10.2008 Saturday: "Storyteller.net Live! In Austin

Picture of: fast-moving hands in a small group activity during the "Storyteller.net Live!" workshop in Austin, Texas.

Today I: prepped and set up the workshop; presented the "Storyteller.net Live!" event for a small but a enthusiastic and tuned-in group of folks- thank you for coming today; one review read "(a) frank and enthusiastic presentation and discussion" and another wrote "(you must) find a way to attend"; ran out found some dinner; heading off to bed
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

05.09.2008 Friday: Putting Out the Mat in Texas

Picture of: the welcome mat the airport where I am staying tonight and we're having the workshop on Saturday.

Today I: took a plane from Arizona to Austin, Texas; was bumped up to first-class again- loyalty pays off; got into the hotel and it's crowded here; drove down I35 to find a Best Buy; found it; made the trek back; grabbed some Subway dinner; finished last minute portions of the workshop; going to bed

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

05.07.2008 Wednesday: Letting Someone Else Talk

Picture of: the sign in table, after lunch.

Today I: pushed past my FMS to get myself to a marketing seminar sponsored by one of my clients who really wants me in his mastermind group; participated in this day long conference and met some nice people; learned a new trick that we will add to the Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp; thought differently about my markets; fought my way back home through rush hour traffic; talked at length, while in said traffic, with the hotel meeting room planner for our Austin hotel event this weekend; worked through a registration or two for the "Storyteller.net Live!" event; we have room in this Saturday's (May 10th) Austin event if you want to come but this late in the game I can't assure you that there will be a lunch for you; worked on a couple of handouts for this weekend; went out to Target and dinner with my wife

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.23.2008 Wednesday: School Show Guantlet.

Picture of: little kids and their snacks shuffle into one of my school shows yesterday.

Today I: drove through this strange thing where the hours are rushing to get to the school; set up very quickly for the shows; performed five shows back-to-back for elementary school children in the large, atrium-sans-trees lobby of the school. Despite my last blog whine about ADD and schools, this school was very good, the teachers and students attentive- no buzzers, bells, whistles; if you know my storyteller presentation style- you know that I had big morning of huge energy draining- so my fibro was in high flare-up mode; took a long afternoon nap; worked on a few teller pages at storyteller.net; answered a bunch of email; sent out some updates for the Microphone Workshop (space available still); read a very nice blog post by Priscilla Howe regarding last night's conference call and the "Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp"; dinner with family; falling asleep after the gauntlet of this day
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

03.27.2008 Thursday: Festival. L&F.

Picture of: g-rated version what I said today when I realized I lost my new cell phone, the one that I take pictures with.

Today I: told stories in two sessions at the Spring Festival at South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute. Rotated opening and closing of sessions with Ireland's Liz Weir; realized my cell phone was lost when I went to make calls before lunch; had a great lunch with staff of SMCC and Liz Weir; drove home thinking that this missing phone was going to be a huge problem; got home to wife telling me that the security office at SMCC had found my phone- it was turned in by a student who found it- WOW! And it is not a cheap phone. Holy Cow!; worked on writings for my degree project; Emailed back and forth between a possible new corporate storytelling client in Chicago

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

03.22.2008 Saturday: It's Times Like These

Picture of: Steve Ferreira's work on the drum today during the workshop I attended.

Today I: worked on flyers for copies; went to breakfast with the whole family to celebrate my daughter #1's 18th birthday; made copies at Kinko's- found typo as I was printing. That is pretty darn rare; made a run to the post office- found check in the mail- yay; went to a great workshop on spoken word and storytelling with Steve and Resa who spoke at SMCC's Storytelling Institute today; prepped envelopes for mailing; sent orders to storytellers who sold CD's today from storytellingproducts.com; continued to watch the interactions of enabling behaviors in the storytelling world. Sigh.

Today's Bonus Picture of: the end of the breakfast meal where many hands were moving so fast over the plates.

"It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

I, am a new day risin'

I'm the brand new sky

To hang stars upon tonight."
-Foo Fighters

Happy Birthday, Katie.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

03.20.2008: Thursday

Picture of: the local "durable goods" store where I found some really really good containers for storing PR materials.

Today I: sent a whole bunch of purge notices to Storyteller.net members; watched yet another person take a storytelling hit; gave away too much free coaching; dumped a lot of old stuff into archive storage finally; secured some travel plans for Gatlinburg in September, now I have to decide on August; started a new one-sheet for educators; caught up with yet another friend who I haven't spoken with in a while- lunch in April, yay; went shopping for organizer containers, per the picture.
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

03.03.2008 Monday: Blogging and Websiteing

Picture of: two Arizona automobile license plates. One reads STORY and one reads TELLER. Aww, how precious. We finally got them (I'm Teller) lined up at the OISBC camp last week.

Today I: reworked the schedule for the Outside In Camp and found a way to add even more content; got some great books from Margaret Read MacDonald today- I love it when when she autographs the books she sends me; did a lot of work on the website for the marketing camp- most of it is done with the new information and we are ready for booking the August event; wrote a blog post about the cost of our Storyteller.net Live events; posted the comments from the camp; negotiated with an Arizona hotel for the Recording Workshop and the OISBC this summer; had lunch with my kids; made a commitment to tell at the South Mountain Spring Festival; tried to fend off my FMS exhaustion; talked with another podcaster about his work; discovered another podcaster doesn't understand about the real nature of Storyteller.net and what I do; posted the Storyteller.net mission statement on the Storyteller.net website.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

03.01.2008 Saturday: Mind Altering Event

Picture of: my kids eating dinner out with my wife and I tonight.

Today I: was in a fog and trying to recover from one great storytelling Marketing camp event. Organizing and presenting a first-time, multi-day event is so much work. Someone wrote me and said, "This was a mind altering event for me." Wow. It was worth it. Goodnight.


::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

02.29.2008 Friday: Leap Into Marketing

Picture(s) of: table conversations at the just finished Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp; participants talk with a real-live accountant and I am happy to report that none of them died during the discussion; table full of paperwork, forms and handouts. Busy place we were.

Today I: led and learned at the Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp; learned a lot from our guest accountant at the conference. CLEARLY this conference was worth much more than people paid for it. The accountant advice alone was worth about $5,000 in savings to me this year if I implement it.; did some private storytelling coaching sessions after the camp; cleaned up the camp hotel meeting room; ate pizza with my kids; going to bed

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

02.28.2008 Thursday: Marketing Camp Day 2

Pictures of: moments from the Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp. Going across the top: two folks work on the CD evaluation lab; cheesecake- my goodness we are having a lot of food; small group session on mission statements; a participant doing a five-minute surprise performance- one of four different folks today; wide view of the camp participants and me teaching at the front of the room.

Today I: taught at and learned at and participated in the camp; ate dinner with some of the participants on our "free evening" night; came home and wrote you this blog; did a few more handouts for the last day tomorrow; Happy Birthday, Michelle.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My other blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

02.22.2008 Friday: Cut to Bleed.

Picture of: the pre "cut to bleed" printout of a new storyteller poster I had done for my storytelling work.

Today I: spent almost every moment working on some type of paperwork, PowerPoint, order form or other information piece for the Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp. Launching a new multi-day event is an enormous undertaking. I do know (from experience) that it gets easier the second and third time you present the same event; I also spent too long trying to track down contacts for hotel space. What a crazy industry that hotel-space industry is. At one hotel, when I finally got a working relationship going with one salesperson, they tell me that he's gone on to other things now. Nuts.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

02.12.2008 Tuesday: Preparing for the Audience on Which I will Be Centered

Picture of: the sign in the fast-food place that demonstrates the value of knowing your customers and being focused on their needs.

Today I: spent most of my day starting to have all the parts of the "Outside In Storytelling Marketing Boot Camp" form into a single narrative manual. Much work; worked on the new "Storyteller.net Live!" event we are releasing around the country very soon; spent way too much time at Verizon trying to resolve a phone issue; picked up my kid from work and found this sign which will prompt my next blog on "Will and Tacos" regarding the power in knowing your audience. By the way, if you still want to come to the Camp in a few weeks but are staying away because of finances, then contact me. See, this is the blog with the secret surprise inside.
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

02.09.2008: Leading Seminars

Picture of: two discussion groups talking about the stories during the adult retreat I led yesterday at a church in Arizona. Last week, I led teenage guys. This week, I got to lead adult singles. I love the variety that I get to work with as a storyteller. The building we were in has so much well-planned ambient lighting that we don't even need to turn on the electric lights during the day. Great building. I get to use it every few years or so.

Today I: took my eldest to work early in the morning; made my way across the city to the retreat location; led a day-long retreat with stories, discussions and activities for a Methodist singles groups; picked up previously mentioned kid from work; came home and crashed--tonight the FMS wins.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

01.26.2008: The Emergent Storytelling Series

Picture of: participants in Tim Ereneta's "Improv Skills" workshop at the ESS today.

Today I: oversaw the Emergent Storytelling Series #1 presented in Surprise (Phoenix Area) Arizona by the Arizona Storytelling Guild. Tim was our invited guest teller from the Berkley, California. The event featured both Tim and several members of the guild. The afternoon workshop was great as well. Good time. Good times. I am very happy with the ESS and the whole overall concept of "Come Listen to the Best Voices in Storytelling that You Haven't Yet Heard." This is a keeper.
::C2008. This is the picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::