A Listener Filmmaker Philosopher Storyteller Writer Speaker
10,000 interviews. 6 continents. 25 years. One of the most ambitious attempts to figure out what it means to be human.
“Rick's powerful and emotional message was one of our highest rated keynotes ever.”
-Charles Meyers, President & CEO
Rick Stevenson has conducted nearly 10,000 filmed, one-on-one life interviews across six continents — a body of work that may represent one of the largest private archives of personal storytelling ever created.
An award-winning filmmaker and founder of the StoryQ Method, Stevenson uses the language of cinema to help others understand and shape their own narratives in real time. His life’s work informs his keynote talks, including Finding the Joy and Meaning Locked Inside You and Using the Movies to Discover Your Own Leading Role, where he translates decades of lived insight into practical frameworks for identity and meaning.
He has directed, produced, or written twelve feature films and more than 100 hours of television, collaborating with artists including Robert Redford, Hugh Grant, Christopher Plummer, Kiefer Sutherland, Meg Ryan, and Patrick Dempsey. A Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University, Stevenson is an author and public speaker focused on storytelling and the narratives that shape human lives.
SPEAKING
It is impossible to conduct so many interviews without a lot of listening and learning. Rick now feels privileged to share the knowledge he has learned in order to help audiences better understand themselves and the world around them.
His central discovery? You own nothing more valuable than your own story. By learning to fully understand and apply it, we can put our most valuable asset to work, improving our own lives and the lives of others.
PROJECTS
Contrary to popular belief, stories are not about nursery rhymes and airy-fairy ideas. They are about hard currency and human connection. Rick believes we can learn no more important skill than storytelling because it is the foundation of all human communication.
All of Rick’s projects (The 5000 Days Project, StoryQ, Prodigy Camp) are dedicated to developing the healing and transformative properties of stories in our lives— especially our own stories.
ABOUT
Rick is on a mission to help individuals unlock the power of their own personal story and discover that they can in fact be the authors of their own lives.
Learn more about Rick, his mission, and the journey from Harold and the Purple Crayon to Hollywood and on to start a guided video journaling movement working with personal stories around the world.
21 Things You Forgot About Being a Kid
a partial guide to better understanding our children and ourselves
NOW AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER, AUDIOBOOK & E-BOOK!
“Know Thyself”
Beyond love, shelter, food and security, perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give a child is a sense of emotional awareness. Even as adults we recognize and yet can still struggle with the puzzling psychological, familial and instinctive forces that influence our choices and ultimately the course of our lives.
We are all acutely aware of the increasing rates of mental health problems in our younger generation and the fact that a half of all adult mental health problems begin before the age of 14. We are also aware that for schools to provide an opportunity for every child to verbalize, explore, and process their values, feelings, fears, and dreams is not possible due to limited time and support resources.
Yet individual focus is more important than ever before. Personal reflection being at an all-time low + the addictive draw of social media = vanishing solitary moments to process. The positive impact for children if they could respond to self-analytical questions at the least self-analytical time of their lives… They could process all that was happening to them in a much healthier way.
After years of interviewing kids K-12 growing up through my 5000 Days Project, we have developed verbal journaling and a personal story mentoring program to encourage kids to explore their feelings, values, fears, and dreams using the power of personal, authentic storytelling. As participants explore who they are and what they are experiencing in a safe, no-judgment space, the transformative wisdom of Socrates' "Know Thyself" is realized in real time.
I believe that kids have within themselves the keys to unlocking their own future in the face of myriad external pressures and expectations. I believe that kids are their own best authors of their lives, and that learning to tell their own stories as they run the gauntlet of adolescence is a vital means of helping kids find themselves before they lose themselves.
