Why Storytelling Collective is Helping 12,000 RPG-writers unlock their creative Process

Ashley Warren fell in love by stories as an young child. She would either submit her stories from her own imagination to local libraries' contest, or even writing for the school's daily newspaper. decided she would like to be an author, in some manner.

The dream she had in college, where she would study English literature. She went on in the graduate program, where she obtained a master's degree of literary study. Through her academic journey, and into her professional writing profession, Ashley discovered that she loved the connection between writing and education above all her other interests. She was the most happy and most comfortable as she was a "lifelong scholar".

"In my heart I've always known that I'd like to return to the happy middle. I am passionate about offering education possibilities that go beyond the traditional school system since, particularly for those who are adults, there's absolutely no reason to not continue to learn and grow," she says.

Ashley was the teacher of English in a nearby community college for a couple of years. She managed to help her students fall in love with writing in an environment that did not always possess a passion at first for writing. While she was unaware in the moment, this was the beginning of a path for what she would do in the future.

"I discovered how to make by using the creative process which provided me with an amazing foundation, which I was able to later translate into online learning programmes. Learning online is an amazing tool, as I have an education background, as well as an unconventional and traditional approach to writing and studying. I was able to create such chances for the world's population ."

The realization sparked the idea of Storytelling Collective, an immersive online education program specifically designed to help those with a flair for creativity. The only time Ashley began RPG (role-playing game) writing for Dungeons and Dragons that she found her niche.

Since 2018, Ashley has welcomed over 12,000 people into their Storytelling Collective community -- and the popularity of her classes is growing exponentially. What did she do to achieve this.

She embraced her new area of knowledge

In the midst of her own Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) adventure, Ashley realized that no written RPG program that was structured existed. As of this time she was already building the largest D&D crowd, however she was eager to push her game further to the next step.

Many people had emailed me seeking advice on things like "How can you get started and finish a task? How can you get your foot on the ground? What advice do you have for writers?' "I realized the need for assistance in this area," she recalls.

"So I made an email series that was small, but somewhat informal and was influenced by my personal writing style. I shared it on Twitter and said"If anybody is interested to run a summer RPG writing course, I'd like to get in touch with your."

Ashley had hoped to get at least a dozen people to sign up , if she was lucky. Within a week, she had over 500 people who wanted to join.

"That was the moment where I was like"Oh I'm so glad there's something going on here. It was an exhilarating, inspiring and motivating point. Everything started to click from that moment on," she says.

"I observed that there is a need for this, especially in the Dungeons and Dragons world, because of the abundance of knowledge about how to train players how to play and conduct the games. However, there's not a lot of information of the best way to publish and write these games."

After identifying her niche in the market, Ashley didn't waste any time and enrolled for the course she signed up in 2018 and embarked on her journey through online courses.

"My purpose when I signed in the program was to support my students as they find their own ways to express themselves in the D&D community. There are many paths you can explore -- It's not like I'm saying each is better than the other, but sometimes individuals want to know they are supported by someone else," she says.

"Right out of the gate, I was able to start putting together some structured seminars and emails series which led us to our present location. It was the final choice to make that initial decision was based on the desire to teach in my own way this is the reason why Storytelling Collective was born," she explains.

She remained an active part of the audience she was a part of.

The difficult job of creating a natural and loyal community, Ashley started in the place she felt most comfortable with the community she was a part of.

that I was active in my intended audience's network for months prior to launching educational materials.

"A portion of my initial organic growth comes from the fact that I had put in my time, energy and effort into the local community. When I was able to start my online courses there was an audience that was engaged."

And, then Ashley's deliberate approach to building audiences encourage organic growth, but it also provided her with the basis she built her Storytelling Collective on.

"I've always wanted to establish an open and friendly environment for writers. It's been my experience that writing can be a very isolating and insular even when you're doing it in collaboration with other people. It's lonely when you're writing an individual piece of work in your little silo," she explains.

"Storytelling Collective breaks down the barriers and provides writers with access to an international support system. We always tell our writers by the writers we like to be their cheerleaders . They are aware that there is everyone cheering on them to get their project finished and to release their work, and allow you to share your own story ."

She incorporated her thoughtful and community-oriented mindset into her methods of marketing

Ashley's intentional approach didn't end at the start, but was a constant element throughout her retention techniques. Early on in the life of Storytelling Collective the founder relied heavily on the power of word-of mouth advertisingand was assisted by her involvement in her community.

"For every one of my marketing strategies I think it's not enough to drop into a group, provide the resources, then give it up. It is essential to become an effective community organizer and reciprocate that assistance with the programs of others and also with products" she adds.

"During our first rollout, it was all about word of mouth. It was an amazing time to experience the success, and I'm certain that it is due with having been in that neighborhood for some time. It was not like I wasn't a part-time user. I'd popped in to share materials, collaborated with people previously, and been a part of large projects. That's what made the advertising be memorable."

After having launched several writing competitions, Ashley began to roll out her own campaigns for marketing. The list of her email subscribers has grown gradually since the beginning of Storytelling Collective, primarily because she does not overly emphasize marketing elements.

"Email marketing is something that I believe in strongly. I'm working on an additional program that's built on email. It's comprised entirely of educational resources which are available for download because I'd like to have an email list which isn't solely about marketing," the author explains.

"Even although the aim is to involve people with the Storytelling Collective's programs, I'd like to establish an educational foundation that reflects the kind of information our students should expect from us and our programs. The campaigns are free and showcase the power of creativity that will help our audience understand our approach to creative writing as well as the art of writing ."

If it's about marketing through social media sites, Ashley is wary of only relying on one strategy or the social media platform. She believes email marketing can be an effective method to create a rapport with customers and boost the likelihood of keeping customers.

"Email marketing is an effective device, particularly in light of the changes that are happening within the field of social media in the present. It's extremely volatile, and it's hard to rely on the only social media platform that you like, as you never know the moment that you'll be required to modify all of it. If you're on an email list, you're able to bring your subscribers everywhere and will get a better connection to your target audience. "

When she does employ more traditional promotional methods, Ashley reiterates the importance of testimonials. Much like word-of mouth marketing, Ashley concentrates on pupils' own experience as the primary selling point.

"When you're trying to get individuals to agree to the duration of a month in your program the most efficient way for them to be convinced is to share someone else's experience of happiness following the class. It is my goal to leverage the power of word-of-mouth through testimonials and the experiences of my students - it's something I'm able share across all platforms," she explains.

"Overall The approach is multi-factor. It's always changing to see the areas where our viewers are most engaged. I've conducted a lot of market research and figured out where educational material is lacking in some of these storytelling communities . I've also figured out the most effective way to satisfy this need. ."

She made use of her marketing-content experience to create"the "long video game" sale funnel

As well as managing Storytelling Collective, Ashley works as a full-time content strategist. Ashley has not just led to new levels of development in her followers, but it gave her instruments to be able to emphasize her values within her methods of retention.

"Everything we do comes back to a higher-level perception of learning. Based on my experiences that have been through, I've learned to become a long-term player with my audiences. When someone signs up to our email list, they might not necessarily instantly sign up to our mailing list. If I can maintain a constant interaction with the person, I'm creating rapport and establishing a perspective," she explains.

"Storytelling Collective" has a specific stance on creativity. We take the anti-hustle approach to creativity -- our belief is that the work you perform will be an integral part of your life, and should not a part of your everyday routine. We'd like to see everyone be a part of this mindset whenever they're a part of our activities as part of our community ."

Ashley declares that for some individuals, it could be a bit more time-consuming to create this method for their specific needs. Yet the consistent interactions she offers via her emails effortlessly reflect the values of Storytelling Collective as well as help to solve issues for her audience.

We always try to create a unique problem-solving strategy that's the basis on our advertising

Ashley believes that when it comes to any type of marketing that involves content, it's crucial to know that it's not composed of instant revenue, but rather an exchange of perspectives and the development of connections. According to her experiences that approach, which is long game is essential to forming an engaged, loyal audience.

"Immediate conversions through using advertising or social media can help in the marketing process, but my primary objective was always to retain. I would like to increase the size of our community and have our customers stay at least one or two programs -instead of entering our funnel and then to walk out after they've finished.

"I really try to think about 'What's my longer-term plan?' Of course, my goal is to get someone to enroll in our programs and services, but my primary goal is to help them become part of our family over the long term. Our goal is to get them started in the process of establishing their own creativity to find success while feeling at ease and motivated. The end goal is that the course we offer is only one part of the puzzle. ."

If you want to go one more step Ashley is believe that prioritizing the building of community over sales is essential during the selling funnel.

"It's vital to assist people feel like they're an essential component of the community. In addition, having the sense that they're part a real community who are on the other end of the campaigns. There's no faceless corporation behind our business at all. We're simply a tiny group of individuals who are passionate about the work we do." she adds.

"We strive to make sure that people realize that they are behind the scenes. What we really want to achieve is helping students achieve their goals. That is the crux of our mission in all our marketing and sales ."

She used an approach to learning based on projects in order to design her curriculum.

Storytelling Collective's primary product began with an email-based course Ashley developed completely on her own -and she was able design her course using her expertise of being an English instructor and an experienced author.

The author shared the process of her creation to her ever-growing audience via frequent emails over the course over the course of around one month. Ashley has since referred to this first release to be the "D&D short Story Adventure" in which she provided a method for brainstorming, detailed how she found inspiration using mood boards and music, and offered a feasible structure for completing a project in one month.

Through this successful initial launch, Ashley quickly realized that teaching through projects was vital to writing an an actionable curriculum that would keep students engaged from beginning to finish.

"All of my teaching focuses on how to keep focused on your idea and see it through.' I'm a huge believer of the concept of project-based learning, where my students create a tangible product at the end of the course. I don't believe that there's any one size-fits-all solution , but more so a sample method of creativity which provides students with a base," she explains.

To develop her main course further, Ashley recruited eight other experts she'd known through her D&D group. They wrote courses based on her fundamental structurewhich eventually became the four components of her course.

"The 4-part method of walking participants through every step of the process while providing the guidance, templates and feedback is a huge success for us. There have been thousands of participants complete their writing assignments after the program. In addition, through the implementation of this method of learning through project each of our students are able to leave at the end of the course with something they can add to their portfolios of writing" she says.

She was a strictly non-passive model of communication to increase her course rate of completion

In addition to the extremely successful learning approach, Ashley implements a very conscious model of communication to her students through the entire educational journey.

"I am a firm believer in having periodic check-ins in order to help my students remain focused and believe they are able to achieve their next milestone. The idea of checking in using the word count is extremely efficient. I give realistic targets that you can aim for as if you're capable of breaking down a massive task into manageable pieces this makes it more doable and you're still working towards your goal," she says.

"I am also establishing an accountability group for writers where we examine how well everyone's working, discuss suggestions and feedback, and inspire our fellow writers. It's incredibly motivating knowing that people are actively looking forward to the pleasure of reading your work. It's vital to aid my students focus on the prize while giving them the skills to conquer every creative obstacle they run into."

In her own experiences as a writer Ashley realizes that the roadblocks for creativity are the norm -but because of this she can channel the strategies she has developed to overcome these roadblocks into an actionable guidance for students.

"I talk a lot about having your own set of tools you can draw from in times of need. My goal is to constantly inform my students there are a variety of instruments you could include to your toolbox. There are a few that might not be helpful, but that's the reason it's an instrument kit to ensure it's possible to put from a variety of tools'" she explains.

"Above all, I would like my students to be aware that I'm there for their needs. I don't wish them to feel as if they're left to the process of their own creativity. Instead, I'm there for each step of the way."

" has brought that goal to life."

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