Storytelling for Small Business + Nonprofit

Your story is already there.
Let's make it work.

You've built something real. The problem isn't what you're doing. The people who need you most just can't quite hear you yet. That's a story problem. And story problems are fixable.

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Sean Buvala

Sean Buvala

40 years working with small businesses and nonprofits who are ready to stop explaining what they do and start telling the story that gets people to say yes.

40 Years in the field
1K+ Professionals coached
Two ways to work together

What do you need right now?

01

Bring me to your event

Keynotes, breakouts, and half-day workshops for chambers, associations, and professional conferences. Real tools your audience takes home and actually uses the same week.

See talking topics →

02

Work with me directly

A focused private coaching engagement to find, shape, and deliver the stories that grow your business. Five sessions. Built around what you're actually working on right now.

More Than Speaking →
A little about me

Practitioner.
Not a guru.

A classroom full of slightly hostile junior-high students in 1986 taught Sean more about communication than any book ever did. He's been working with small businesses and nonprofits ever since. Forty years of real rooms with real people.

The National Storytelling Network recognized his work with the Oracle Award. He's also a publisher and author, running Small-Tooth-Dog Publishing Group with his wife Michelle.

Full background →

"Not only knowledgeable about the art of storytelling. His vision advances the art."

Kevin Cordi, Ph.D.

"He provided detailed, actionable advice. My business has grown significantly since our sessions."

Nicole Witt, The Adoption Consultancy

Signature talks

Sessions built for people doing real work

The Elevator Speech is Dead

Your audience isn't failing because they lack confidence. They're pitching at people instead of talking with them. This session fixes that.

Nine Things Storytelling Won't Do for Your Business

Everyone else says storytelling is magic. This session tells the truth, then gives a framework that produces real results.

Seven Stories You Need to Grow

Most organizations only tell one or two stories. This identifies the seven that actually move customers and donors to act.

How to Speak to Mere Mortals

For the technical expert who knows everything and can't figure out why nobody's actually listening.

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More Than Speaking: Private Coaching

Ready to work on your own stories?

5 private sessions to find, shape, and deliver the stories your business actually needs. We'll work with what you have, not what you wish you had.

Tell me more about coaching
Books + Resources

Take the work home with you

The same frameworks Sean teaches in sessions and on stage are in print. Start with the workbook, go deeper with the others.

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Storytelling 101 Workbook

The practical starting point. Find your stories, structure them, deliver them. Built for people who have work to do and no time for theory.

Start here

Measures of Story

For the practitioner who wants to go deeper. A rigorous look at how story actually works and why it matters for organizations.

The deep read

DaddyTeller

About telling stories to the people who matter most. The skill underneath it, finding the right story for the right person, is exactly what grows a business.

The human side