53: Terence Mickey
About Terence
Terence Mickey’s incredibly diverse life pursuits have one thing in common: storytelling. But, let’s just call a spade a spade - the word “storytelling” has gotten so cliche as to be more satire than flattery. Everyone calls themselves a storyteller these days. We can’t just frivolously bestow the title, can we?
Well, let’s see.
Education. Terence graduated from Saint Michael’s College with a bachelor’s degree in English, declaring war on the oxford comma and forever purging dangling modifiers and double negatives from his lexicon, while casually establishing a campus literary journal.
Higher education. With a solid foundation in place, Terence went on to get his MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine before heading to storytelling behemoth The Moth, where he spent six years as a lead presenter, trainer and developer of corporate programs – aka, a professor of storytelling.
Garbage. Let’s not fool ourselves: Terence has more than once been willing to get his hands dirty. The summer after graduating college, his uncle invited him into the family business, which happened to be sanitation – yes, he joined the garbage dynasty…. as the head of PR. So, still storytelling.
Terence has written, directed, and executive produced content for Starz, Blinkist, The Weather Channel, Discovery, and other household names. Among his many notable creations is the critically acclaimed podcast Memory Motel, which focuses on the stories we choose to remember or forget. And he also found the time to direct the award-winning documentary One Billion Orgasms.
Again, like the flags held high by the leaders of elderly tour groups on tourist excursions, the storytelling theme is front and center, clear as day.
These days, from a home base in Berlin, Terence finds himself traveling the globe teaching storytelling at seminars and writing retreats for his company Wayfinder Sessions, which has the kind of tagline that elicits the closing of the eyes and a deep breath: We meet you where you are and guide you to where you belong.