In 2011, four Centre County women agreed we love to tell and listen to stories. True stories from lived experiences. We believed lots of other locals would also enjoy gathering to share stories and delight in hearing those of friends and neighbors. So we founded State of the Story (SOTS).

Our instincts were right on. In the years since, more than 600 stories, honed in our estimated 250 workshops have been told live by almost 300 story tellers to over 3,000 audience members attending some 90 shows – all here in Centre County.

Driven by requests, we now also offer workshops to local entities like churches, OLLI, children's and arts groups. Now we have the happy problem of how to accommodate Centre County’s growing appetite for stories as well as training requests from local organizations and from people in other communities seeking our help in launching their own SOTS-like enterprises. There are thousands more stories and tellers waiting here in our community.

While we’ve taught for the Girl Scouts, St. Andrews Church, the Central PA Theatre and Dance Festival and Penn State’s OLLI, we’ve had to turn down other opportunities due to the capacity of the four member leadership team and our informal network of SOTS alums who can also teach our methods.

Until now, no business model was necessary. Modest expenses were shouldered by the four member leadership team.

That’s changing. In terms of revenue from ticket sales, 100% of proceeds are returned to the venue (currently 3Dots, formerly Webster’s and The State Theatre). As for expenses, we now have more significant expenses around publicity, upskilling, workshop and training materials and a self-published manual. With growth, we will need further support for operations.