Leadership Programs
A story that doesn't activate is just content.
The best leaders know the difference.
StoryFest Louisville offers a range of experiences for leaders who communicate for a living. Whether you are looking for a monthly practice space, a focused session, a team workshop, or a full immersive cohort, every offering is built around one belief: story is your most strategic asset.
Upcoming Experiences
Storytelling for Impact:
A One-Day Workshop
Thursday, May 28, 2026
from 9:00 am - 4:00 PM
A high engagement, facilitated workshop for leaders using story as strategy.
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This workshop is for mission-driven leaders who communicate regularly in high-stakes settings: presentations, pitches, fundraising conversations, and public-facing messaging. If you have a message that matters and want it to land, this is for you.
No prior StoryFest experience required.
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You will leave with a framework for moving an audience from emotion to action, a clear and compelling structure built around your actual work, and the confidence to deliver it. This is not theory. You will build in real time alongside a room of peers.
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This workshop is facilitated by Kristina Goetz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and storytelling coach with over twenty years of experience, including her work as producer of the Louisville Storytellers Project at The Courier-Journal.
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$500 per participant.
Space is limited.
StoryFest Leadership Lab
Monthly Practice for Leaders
First Wednesday of the month
from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Monthly working sessions alongside a peer network of story-driven leaders.
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The Lab is for leaders at any stage who want to do story-driven work in community. Whether you are a StoryFest alumnus or coming to this work for the first time, you belong here. Bring a colleague, someone on your team, or a peer from another organization.
No prior StoryFest experience required.
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You will bring whatever you are in the middle of: a funding pitch, a board presentation, a message that isn't landing, a program you are trying to communicate more clearly. You will leave with it stronger, shaped in a working session with peers who get it.
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The Lab is facilitated by Mera Kathryn Corlett, StoryFest Louisville's Program Director and a civic leader with more than a decade of experience developing leaders through story.
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$99 nonprofit | $150 business, per session.
StoryFest Leadership
YOUR STORY DISCOVERY
2 hours | Cap: 4 participants
$600 nonprofit | $1,300 business
Additional participants: +$100 nonprofit | +$200 business (up to 4 total)
Most leaders already have the stories they need. This session helps you find them, understand why they matter, and know which one to use when.
Through partner work and hands-on activities, you will explore the difference between organizational story and personal story, why personal story is where strategic communication begins, and a framework for selecting and shaping the right story for the right audience at the right moment. You will leave with two or more story options ready to develop — and a clear sense of how to move forward with them.
Works well as a standalone session or as a first step in a 1:1 coaching relationship. Ideal for small leadership teams ready to do focused work together.
REENGAGE YOUR RESONANCE
2 hours | Cap: 4 participants
$600 nonprofit | $1,300 business
Additional participants: +$100 nonprofit | +$200 business (up to 4 total)
You already know how to communicate. This session helps you remember how to do it with your whole self.
Leaders spend years learning what to say. This session focuses on how the body says it — the signals sent before a word is spoken, the rhythm and breath that build trust, the physical presence that makes a room lean in. Using unexpected entry points, you will reconnect with instincts that get buried under the noise of professional communication.
Come prepared with 20 seconds of a memorized speech, story, or pitch. You will use it.
Works well as a standalone session or paired with Your Story Discovery. Ideal for leaders preparing for high-stakes moments or anyone who wants to communicate with more intention and impact.
1:1 COACHING
3-session package
$875 nonprofit | $1,500 business
Additional sessions available
Story is your most strategic asset. This coaching package is built entirely around you — your goals, your audience, and your opportunity.
Three sessions minimum, designed to help you find the story that moves people, build a structure that holds, and deliver it with clarity and confidence. Additional sessions can be added as your work develops.
Works as a standalone engagement or as a natural next step after Your Story Discovery.
HALF-DAY STRATEGIC WORKSHOP
3 hours | Cap: 15 participants
$2,500 nonprofit | $4,500 business
When an organization tells the wrong story, momentum stalls and the people you need to reach never fully arrive. This workshop closes that gap.
Your team will learn a framework for using story as strategy, then apply it directly to a real business challenge. You leave with more than a new skill — you leave with the kind of alignment that changes what is possible.
Designed for leadership teams, communications staff, development teams, and anyone whose work depends on getting people to understand, believe, and act.
FULL-DAY STRATEGIC WORKSHOP
6 to 7 hours | Cap: 12 participants
$4,000 nonprofit | $7,000 business
Everything in the Half-Day Strategic Workshop, plus the time and guided process for every person in the room to identify a personal story that connects their lived experience to your organization's goals.
Participants leave with that story and the tools to shape it. The result is a team that not only understands the framework — they each have a story ready to use.
Designed for organizations ready to make a deeper investment in how their people communicate.
THE COHORT EXPERIENCE
12 weeks minimum | Cap: 8 participants
$14,000 nonprofit | $25,000 business
For organizations ready to make story a permanent part of how they lead.
The Cohort Experience is the most immersive offering in the StoryFest Leadership portfolio. Built entirely around your mission, your people, and your goals, it develops a cohort of story-ready leaders from within your ranks over a minimum of twelve weeks. Four sessions and twelve hours of 1:1 coaching give each participant the depth and individual attention the work requires.
Who belongs in the room is up to you. Board members, staff, development leads, people whose lives the work touches. The process culminates in a moment of your choosing: a public showcase, an internal presentation, a fundraising event, or something else entirely.
This is the offering for organizations ready to stop talking about communication and start building it into how they lead.
Ready to turn your story into strategy?
Let’s design the right experience for you.