- I think it's only fair to start, though,
by telling you that, as Rob said,
as a storytelling consultant, where this all began.
And, the truth is, I told my very first story
when I was 11 years old in fifth grade.
Now, I have to admit, fifth grade
was not a great year for me for several different reasons.
The first of which is I was recovering
from this really bad haircut from fourth grade.
Do any of you remember the movie "Hook,"
you know, with Robin Williams and Julia Roberts.
So, Julia Roberts played the pixie in the movie,
and she had this really short haircut.
That was a wig because Julia Roberts
would never cut her hair like that,
but my mom thought that cut
would look great on my bone structure.
Now, when you're an 11-year-old girl,
the only way anyone knows you're a girl
is by your long hair so I spent the entire summer
explaining to people that I was indeed a female.
It was terribly embarrassing.
A horrible way to start the year.
Now, the second reason fifth grade
wasn't so great for me was because
I had Mrs. Sprain
for a fifth grade teacher,
and she was known as the meanest teacher
at all of Lakeside Elementary School.
How many of you had one of those?
Yes.
It really just meant that she was the oldest one.
(laughs)
Old people get a bad rap.
It's really unfortunate.
But, I had Mrs. Sprain for a fifth grade teacher,
and I knew it was going to be a miserable year.
But really the worst thing about fifth grade
was that I kind of hated my very best friend.
Have any of you been there before?
I, mean, I loved her because she was magnificent,
but I hated her because she was so magnificent.
It seemed no matter what I did,
I could not get out from behind her shadow.
Now, first of all, she was absolutely gorgeous.
She had this long blond hair.
Something I did not have.
Mine was short thanks to my mother.
And she had these big brown eyes
that could turn green when she needed them to.
It was really annoying.
And all the girls loved her
because she was smart, and she was funny.
And the teachers loved her
because she was engaged, and she was creative.
And, I swear, if the fifth grade boys
could have gone to a tattoo shop
and had her name tattooed across their arm
they all would have because even her name was perfect.
Molly.
Molly, and my name was Kindra.
(audience laughs)
I remember... I remember walking down those
wide elementary school hallways
side by side with my best friend
when the principal came walking towards us.
The most powerful man in the school.
And, as he approached, he did the same thing
every single time, and now that I think about it,
was probably against the Code of Conduct,
but at the time I didn't notice it.
He would go like this.
He would go, "Hey, Molly, Molly,"
and do this little hip-finger-wiggle-point thing.
(audience laughs)
And, then he would just keep walking
like I wasn't even there.
Now, I don't know if any of you
have ever felt that way.
Maybe not about your best friend
but about brands,
or content,
or others who, just for whatever reason, stand out.
And, you are stuck somewhere lurking in the shadows.
Now, let's make it clear.
I knew I had cool things to offer.
I just didn't know how to make that known.
Now, the truth is I never really did figure out
what it was about Molly that made her so awesome.
And, in case you're wondering, she is still awesome.
But, I did find a work-around.
You see, that very same year, my fifth grade year,
I grew up in Minnesota.
Any of you from Minnesota?
No? Okay, it was a good place.
One - yes, chilly.
It's a chilly place.
And, so, in the springtime
it was really difficult to keep our attention
because we're seeing the sun
for the first time in, like, eight months, right?
But Mrs. Sprain had been doing this for, like,
100 years, and she had this great strategy.
We were all to learn storytelling.