It’s a great treat to feature someone in this Q&A series who is just starting out in the story field. Doug Rice launched his blog and business, Small Business Storyteller, just a few months ago. This Q&A will run over the next five days.

Bio: Doug Rice is the founder of Small Business Storyteller, an Internet marketing company dedicated to helping independent professionals develop their personal and professional brands via the Web. Currently, he offers a variety of free content for the general public, including a blog, a monthly newsletter (free eBook for signing up), and a small-business article reading schedule. All of this information is available on his Small Business Storyteller website.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 1:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/ narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I wrote poetry, short stories, and eventually a novel (unpublished). Narrative has simply always been the most poignant metaphor for describing life. Sure, life is like a river. Life is like a song. Life is like a box of chocolates. But life is a story. It has a beginning, has an end, and is filled with characters in between.

Professionally, I kind of fell into storytelling. I would love to create an intricately compelling narrative about how I came to use this concept but, truth be told, I just picked it. I had been doing Internet marketing for a couple of years and decided I wanted to go out on my own. I started to think about what exactly I was trying to accomplish and who I was trying to do it for, and I named my business after the conclusion to my question. I was trying to help small businesses. I would help them by assisting them in telling their stories. Thus, I created Small Business Storyteller.