Hi. I’m Scooter. It’s nice to meet you

I grew up in movie theaters and concert halls. Anywhere I could find a good story, that’s where you could find me.

I love stories. They live and breathe all around us – in books, in movies, in the guy next to you in line at the coffee shop. My mission is to uncover as many of those stories as I can and then retell them with the dignity and grace they deserve.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, really. I grew up in a family of great storytellers, and I have been telling stories myself since I was able to talk. As a kid, I would run into my aunt’s house proclaiming that I had “some good news and some bad news.” It really didn’t matter if any of it was good or bad, or even news at all. It was just my way of commanding the stage for as long as I could.

My family bounced around the country like a five-pack of pinballs when I was growing up. From the Northeast to the Midwest to Deep South, I learned a lot from listening to people’s stories. I learned about different dialects. I learned that pace and tempo play a key role in how a story is told and received. Most of all, I learned that we are more alike than we are different.

I enrolled at The University of Kansas eager to pursue a degree in journalism and a life of adventure as a writer/photographer for National Geographic. But somewhere along the way I became enamored with the power of a local newspaper to reflect its community. I proudly served as a community journalist for more than 18 years. I wrote stories, took photographs and even shot and produced video vignettes of the people and places in my community.

I left daily journalism to try my hand at marketing. I found I enjoyed helping businesses tell their stories as much as I enjoyed helping people. The key, I learned, was finding the right voice and delivering a consistent message. From there I returned to my first vocational love of community journalism. But as journalism changed I realized I had changed, too.

Along the way I fell in love, married my beautiful wife, Melissa Anne, moved again and had a son. Together, we are pursuing our own version of the American Dream.