LIVE A GREAT STORY, Inspiring A Generation Community, This Month's Issue, Trending Live a Great Story – Above Image By: Doug Peterson While in New York City, grinding away to make someone else rich(er) I was, like many, professionally unfulfilled and lacking that sweet-sweet creative stimulation. Chatting at a dive in Alphabet City, a friend mentioned these stickers they saw around Texas during SXSW that read “LIVE A GREAT STORY.” Of all the things we chatted about that night, it was the idea of those little stickers with a big message that stuck. The next day I wrote those words down in my calendar as a weekly reminder to put into practice. Fast-forward a year and I’m professionally challenged, creatively stimulated, and ironically enough I’m in Texas… After seeing the LIVE A GREAT STORY sticker all around Austin, I had to reach out to get the creator’s story… The Founder, Z – Photo BY: Live a Great Story So how did LIVE A GREAT STORY come about? What was the motivation to launch? LIVE A GREAT STORY was inspired by two things: 1) Donald Miller’s A Million Miles and a Thousand Years 2) Travel I read the book around 2010 and was really inspired by thinking of our life as a story. The choices we make, the characters we meet, the option to always choose what we want, it was inspiring. A few years later I took off for an open-ended trip to Europe with no plan, no return ticket and no expectations. The trip turned into a 7 month adventure filled with so many amazing interactions with people from around the world. Through this experience I realized we are all humans : though we come from different places, different cultures, different languages, we’re all humans, just people trying to figure out our time on this planet and do the best we can while we’re here. Photo By: Jaclyn Rae Shepard This theme is the base line for what LIVE is all about : we just want to inspire people to be the best themselves. No one else can tell us what that means, we have to figure it out for ourselves. The more we figure it out the more that inspires the people around us to do the same. How long has LIVE been around and how many cities do you have a presence in? LIVE just celebrated our 2 year anniversary! Though we’re still super young, the LIVE inspiration has traveled around the world. People have taken our Reminders to all corners of the globe, from Machu Picchu to Australia, Thailand, China and so many more. Last year we shipped Reminders to around 35 states! A big focus now is expanding our community events in the states. We’ve held meet ups in Miami, Austin, San Diego, Portland and Memphis and we want to keep expanding these Amazing! Any idea how many people have been inspired by your Reminders? Photo By: Bead Venture Co. Hundreds of thousands, easily. Our Street Reminders are strategically placed so that tens of thousands of people see them, daily. They aren’t branded with a .com or a # so many people don’t know LIVE is actually “a thing”. Which is cool with us, we just want to inspire as many people as possible. Aside from your own, “live a great story,” are there any quotes or words of wisdom you live by? 1) Do thangs 2) Buy a plane ticket 3) Get uncomfortable Photo By: Z, Live a Great Story Any challenges with trying to spread inspiration? We’re still super young and are learning lots of lessons on the fly. From production to distribution to marketing and so many more areas, we’re constantly facing growth challenges…. and that will never stop. It’s part of the adventure, both in real life and business. We never arrive, we never make it… there’s always more to experience, always further to travel, always more lessons to learn. Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated, but I think an important part is embracing these moments : lean into the fear, trust yourself, put one foot in front of the other. What’s been a shining moment thus far? 3 people have gotten LIVE tattoos so far which is pretty amazing! Wow! Most certainly! If you could have coffee with any 5 people – who would it be? 1) My Grandfather 2) The Life is Good brothers 3) Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard 4) An assortment of random people from around the world sitting at a hostel table somewhere in a third world country 5) Donald Miller (let’s make it happen, Donald! I’m coming to Nashville soon) Photo By: Lowell Nester Donald! Ya gotta grab coffee! What’s the dream for Live a Great Story? What’s next? More inspiration. That’s really the biggest goal. Getting there means telling more stories, collaborating with larger companies to create better productions, increasing our Reminder sales and hosting more events around the world. We’re in the process of revamping our website, upgrading our production and distribution and building partnerships so we can tell more stories. You think at the end of our days – we’ll be able to look back and see our life like a movie and connect the dots of goodwill and how our efforts resonated beyond initial interactions? Absolutely! I think one of the coolest parts of life is looking back to connect the dots. It’s impossible to look forward, we can only make the best choices in the moment. But then looking back on those choices and to see how they evolved is always so cool, especially when it involves relationships, business, personal growth and just real life intertwined in all of it. Check out @LiveAGreatStory on Instagram for more locations around the world… Makes ya wonder how far inspiration can reach if a tiny sticker in big ol’ Texas made its way to Manhattan. It certainly worked for me. Needless to say, we love the work Z is doing with LIVE A GREAT STORY. We’re excited to keep in touch and see how far the LIVE A GREAT STORY inspiration can reach. Interested in learning more and spreading inspiration yourself? Check out their website for more information and keep up with their Instagram account!
