Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsay Hotmire. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lindsay , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Why Storyhouse Fifteen?

It’s a name that comes from the 15th chapter of an ancient story about a wise and selfless shepherd.

Like that shepherd who leaves his field of 99 in order to find the one lost sheep, the work I’m doing at Storyhouse Fifteen isn’t really about accolades or profits or fame. And no matter how many people find their way to me, I’ll never ever forsake the one just to keep the many.

I’m not here to scale my way to multi-millions. I’m not even setting out to become the next big name. The name Storyhouse Fifteen just denotes that I’m here to show up with every bit of my talents so that I can help incredible business owners and mission-driven leaders keep changing the world – one relationship and one story at a time.

Lindsay , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Over the last decade, I’ve worked with more than 500 business owners and organizations throughout the country, helping them find and tell bigger stories.

Growing up in a small, Northwest Ohio town, I graduated from college with an English education degree in 1999, thinking I’d spend my life in a high school classroom. When I realized that wasn’t my calling (and after I became an accidental community activist), I realized that if I was going to make a dent in this world, then the biggest tool I had was story. I went back to school and earned my master’s degree in professional writing (when I was still a young mom with four kids under the age of 12). With 25 years of experience in the worlds of education, non-profits, and marketing, I focus on delivering results that align with both the head and the heart.

Clients find their way to me when they’re in a growth or pivot stage of their business. They’re often burned out from trying all the formulas and frameworks that the marketing world touts as “the way,” and they’re in search of someone who can help them share their story and show up authentically. They want to connect to more right-fit clients and grow their business – but they don’t want to lose themselves or sacrifice their values in the process. My work honors the human who is at the core of the business, and this is the part of my work that I’m most proud of.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I didn’t expect to become a business owner, but after my last child was born in 2006, my entire world shifted.

My husband and I had just bought what we believed to be our forever home. It was the home we had spent the last 7 years dreaming about, but as soon as we moved in, a large, industrial hog farm made plans to move in with us — 15,000 hogs within a 3 square mile radius of our home.

This launched me into full-on activist mode. I learned the farm laws. I learned the dangerous loopholes in my state Constitution. I lobbied my statehouse, made friends with local leaders, became involved in grassroots organizations, and even began an initiative with the Humane Society of the United States. Eventually, I went back and earned my master’s degree, and for my master’s thesis, I traveled my entire state to capture the stories of those who lived next to farms like these. Their stories were devastating, but they were also empowering. These neighbors had suffered great loss — to their health, their properties, and their community relationships. They had lost faith in the democratic process and in their belief that their voices mattered, but they refused to disappear. They were so very resilient, and as time passed, they were also so very forgiving. As I listened to them recount their experiences, I knew I was going to spend my life immersed in telling other people’s stories.

It took me 4 more years to fully discover HOW I was going to do that, but in 2016, I faced a pivot that would reveal my what’s next moment.

After leaving a job as a marketing director at a small university, I wanted a job that allowed me to balance my family and my career. For me, that wasn’t ever going to be work inside an agency, and I wanted the freedom to partner with clients in one-on-one, intentional ways. I wasn’t interested in pumping out fast, formulaic story. I wanted to help clients find and share transformative stories — the type that allowed them to better understand themselves and their audience so they could grow and pivot their own businesses authentically and strategically, and the only way for me to make any of that happen was through establishing my own business. So, I pivoted — both professionally and personally — taking on all the risks that show up when you go out on your own and doing the hard work that it takes to build a business into a brand. I’ve never ever regretted this decision.

Looking back, I’m confident in saying that my life has been a constant series of pivots, and I think that when you can embrace the idea that this is how life is, you’re able to weather the ups, downs, twists, and turns just a little bit easier.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A few years back, I listened to a TED speech by Emilie Wapnick titled, “Why some of us don’t have one true calling.” It was the first time I heard the word “multipotentialite,” and I genuinely felt like someone was seeing me clearly for the very first time. As a Gen X’er, I had struggled with the idea of not doing the same thing for my entire life. I had watched the generation of Baby Boomers before me chart out their lives at 18 and stick to the path, come hell or high water. But a single path wasn’t in my cards, and Emilie’s speech gave me that permission to follow my heart and chase my interests — without guilt.

Since then, I’ve worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who have faced this same struggle. They discount their past life experience because they feel like it diminishes what they’re trying to build in the present. But the truth is, our experiences compound, so it doesn’t speak poorly of you if you started out as a teacher and then became an activist and then became a storyteller. Instead, it brings depth and wisdom to what you do. Helping my clients understand and embrace this is one of my most favorite parts of the work I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: storyhousefifteen.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayhotmire/

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