Why Your Story Matters More Than You Think: Lessons from the Hard Days

Welcome to Rooted & Real, a space where communication meets heart. Here, we share lessons learned from real-world experiences, stories that have shaped our work, and practical tips to help non-profit leaders amplify their impact. This isn’t a place for press releases or perfect endings. Instead, I wanted to create a space where we can be human, the part where you’re pushed to dig deep, find your people, and keep going while doing this work.

Communications isn’t a magic trick, but people want new hashtags, viral moments, branding “solutions” but most of what actually works is a mix of honest reflection and practical action. The work I do, the work we do together, can feel invisible until a story breaks through and moves people to action.

I didn’t go to school for communications. I studied Biology, obsessed with the idea of becoming a forensic pathologist. I was drawn to solving mysteries, putting pieces together, making sense out of chaos. But life, as it likes to do, had other plans for me.

Somewhere along the way, I found myself in community and campus organizing. Back in 2016, I watched the stories of sexual violence at Morehouse and Spelman break the interent. It was one of those moments when reality and social media collided, people who’d never met suddenly carrying each other’s pain, amplifying it, refusing to let the story quietly disappear. I realized then: if we didn’t shape the narrative, someone else would do it for us. And when Representative Earl Ehrhart sponsored Georgia House Bill 51, trying to silence survivors on college campuses, I saw even more clearly how much was at stake. Lawmakers and lobbyists had their megaphones. But the students, the ones most affected, were often left voiceless

I will never forget the resistance I faced for standing up for survivors of sexual violence in the AUC, from both students and college administrators. "A Choice to Change the World" but only so long as that change stayed outside the gates of Spelman College. And I will never forget being confronted by elected officials, all white men, at the Georgia Capitol after naming a hard truth: the justice system was never designed to protect people like me until another elected official, a Black man, stood up for me.

What carried us through those struggles as student organizers was a fierce commitment to honesty. We used every tool available (social media, protests, late-night strategy sessions) to make ourselves heard. We organized, we spoke the truth, and we witnessed stories grow into movements.

That’s the core of why storytelling matters for non-profits. Your work is urgent and necessary, but it’s your story told by the people most impacted that makes others care.

Here are three things those hard days taught me:

1. Your story is enough, even if it isn’t perfect. Honest stories, especially the messy, imperfect ones are the ones people remember.

2. You don’t need to be a “professional” communicator. I learned by showing up, by listening, by failing, by trying again and you can too.

3. Digital is powerful, but heart is everything. Hashtags alone won’t change the world, but real voices amplified (strategically and thoughtfully) can start something that no one can ignore.

If you’re reading this from a non-profit or organizing role and you feel small, or like you’re making it up as you go, welcome because that’s all of us. My hope for Rooted & Real is that it’ll be a space where you see yourself, and where you walk away with maybe one new idea to try in your next campaign or initiative.

Storytelling is how we let the world know we were here, and that what happened to us and through us, matters.

I’m grateful you’re here. Let’s keep it rooted. Let’s keep it real.