Early Morning Passage

Even as I pass through quickly
In the dark and misty dawn
The hills call to me, sing to me
The engine races in my old truck
My heart races in my chest
Glimpses of hollers, left and right
Catch the corners of my still sleepy eyes
Old dogs rise from the yards
Of a dozen sturdy houses
They look at me as if to say,
"Where y'all been so long?
Why run off so fast?
Can't ye come on up
And sit a spell?"









 Stephen Hollen is an award winning storyteller, humorist and Mark Twain Impersonator living in Beavercreek, Ohio.  He performs and tells stories in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Michigan and throughout the USA. 

Hard Times Marketing Workshop

Yep, times are tough for storytellers, musicians, magicians, impersonators and the occasional flea circus! HOWEVER, there are still gigs out there!  

This is an invitation for you to attend an all day Hard Times Marketing Workshop on August 4th in Beavercreek, Ohio 

(see more information and the schedule below) 

This intensive all day workshop will assist you to make a paradigm shift in the way you plan and market yourself as a storyteller OR other type of performer!  

This Retreat will be a day filled with good, time tested planning, marketing and sales techniques taken from experience in other vocations that continue to prove effective for storytellers.  


Each participant will receive a Planning Workbook that includes a 2013 calendar.  By the end of the day (and with a little "out of the box" thinking) you will: 1) Identify alternative venues within your marketing area, 2) Develop programs designed to be attractive to those specific venues, 3) Create programming based on seasonal and calendar specific opportunities 4) Build a Business/ Marketing Plan with specific income goals as well as a marketing budget. 5) Establish monthly objectives that allow you to market seasonal or calendar specific programs in a timely manner.


This is an intensive workshop that will help you plan for 2013 and beyond!  The Cost is $90 per participant (reservations are limited!) and will include: 

• A Planning Workbook
• A light breakfast
• A fun lunch complete with storytelling by participants
• 8 hours of learning, brainstorming and planning specific to your goals and needs.  
• The day ends with an optional cookout and more storytelling and fellowship throughout the evening.  
• Before you leave you will schedule an individual follow up conference by phone with Stephen to discuss and fine tune your 2013 Plan!

Schedule:
8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Arrive for registration, breakfast/refreshments (donuts & pastries, fresh fruit, coffee, juice) and hobnobbing with other participants

9:00 - 11:15  Laying the Foundations for 2013
Topics will include:

• knowing your 90 minute market
   
• identifying potential venues - "The Spiral Search" 
• planning programs that "sell"
   
• The FIVE marketing tools you MUST use 
• The Internet and social networking as marketing tools

11:15-12:00 Blocking Your 2013 Calendar
During this session participants will begin to block out existing dates, potential periods for specific programming, holidays and personal time not open for scheduling.

12:00 - 1:30  Lunch and Storytelling


1:30 - 3:00 Growing your Opportunities

• Using "mini-tours" as marketing opportunities
• "Selling" What The Customer Wants!
• Small group brainstorming sessions

3:00 - 5:00  90 Days of Marketing Madness
This session will build a 90 day plan to begin filling your 2013 calendar.  It will be specific, intensive and based on time sensitive goals and objectives.  At the end of this session you will have YOUR 90 day plan to get more gigs!

5:00 - ???  Cookout/Fellowship AND Storytelling around the fire pit.  (This is optional if you cannot stay)

 Spaces will be limited in order to allow 

each participant time to develop their own 

business/marketing plan for 2013!

 For more information and to reserve your place, 

Call Stephen at 937-371-4071 or e-mail him at: stephen@stephenhollen.com

Why Choose this Workshop by Stephen Hollen?

While a number of storytellers talk about marketing and selling skills, Stephen is an experienced business professional with proven skills, years of teaching experience in the marketing/selling arena with a proven AND award winning track record.

Before Stephen dedicated his career to full time storytelling, he was an award winning marketer, sales representative and sales manager for a number of years.  Over the past 18 years he has trained hundreds of volunteers in the non-profit arena, as well as career sales representatives in effective fund-raising, selling skills, consultative selling and marketing  techniques.  

As a Sales Representative he was recognized as the Best in the Nation TWO years in a row.  His performance was recognized and Stephen was promoted to Sales Manager and a National Trainer.  After he was promoted, Stephen lead his team of pharmaceutical reps to become the best team in the nation 3 years in a row.  His team included 6 of the top 10 sales leaders in the nation during that period.  He and his team received national honors each quarter and a new award  was created just to recognize their performance.  Stephen was chosen as a top national trainer and awarded the "Star Shaper Award" for his outstanding career as a sales trainer.  He was elected to "Whos' Who in 2000, 2001 and 2005.  He was chosen as "Man of the Year" in 2006. 

Narcotic Naptime.

It is a lazy dog, hang dog, sleepy rooster afternoon
Though it is not yet summer there is a haze
Thick, damp and sticky hangin' over the house
Weighin' down my eyelids an' smotherin' my thoughts.

Sleep sings a lullaby and hints at such lovely dreams
Junebugs fall into the grass just too tired to dance
To weary to spread chitinous wings in the hazy day
Faceted eyes seekin' a welcomin' twig or leaf.

A wind pushes through once, twice but fails
Not enough bluster or strength to sweep through
Cobwebs seem to hang over my gumption
Nap time whispers like a wicked woman.












Stephen Hollen is an award winning storyteller, humorist and Mark Twain Impersonator living in Beavercreek, Ohio.  He performs and tells stories in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus and all through Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Michigan and throughout the USA. 

Morning Beacon

In the early morning light
Dawn still blue gray, hazy
In the dusky distance
A lighthouse sits on the shore
Blinking "Caution", "Danger"
"Steer clear" it cries
Flash on... off
Flash on... off
Welcome warning
Stalwart beacon.

Ammonia Lynn Collins

Ammonia Collins wasn't much fond of her name.  It weren't spelled exactly right, in her opinion.  Her Mama had named her "Aah-moan-Nye-uh" because she had heard the name somewhere in the mountains and thought it was pretty.  Mama claimed it was either Cherokee or Choctaw and meant something right lovely, but she never remembered exactly what.

The problem happened after she was born in 1951, when her mama tried to spell it out and write the name down in the family Bible and register here home birth at the courthouse over to Manchester, Kentucky.  She dutifully rode from Beloved to Manchester with her husband Chester in their 1950 International Harvester truck, visited the County Clerk's office and with some difficulty and not just a little pride completed the short form announcing the birth and naming of Chester Woodrow Collins and Amy Rose (Sizemore) Collins first baby girl. 

Amy Rose had learned to read and write way back when some city women came down the river and set up some sort of trainin' and schoolin' camp in tents on a hillside under a grove of sycamore trees.  The city women had taught cookin', first aid, readin' and writin', sewin' and other lady like pastimes. Amy Rose had learned all the writin' she could stand that summer way back when.

When she went to the clerk and handed him the form she had her shoulders back, a smile on her face and pride in her heart.  The clerk, Homer James Goins, looked the form over and looked hard at Amy Rose.

"Ammonia?  You are namin' your little gal baby Ammonia?" he asked carefully?  One had to be careful in the clerks office.  No sense startin' a feud over a misspelling.

"No, Homer James.  It is 'Aah-moan-Nye-uh', an Indian name.  I forgot what it means, but it means something awful good in Indian.  We are part Indian, you know.  My Grandma was named Cherokee Bowling, after all."

"Yes, mam, I do remember that.  You sure that is how it is spelled?  We could spell it a little different if you want." Homer James said hopefully.

"Nossir,  that is the way it is supposed to be spelled."

That is how Ammonia, actually Ammonia Lynn Collins was named.