My story isn’t complicated. I’m Dave Langley, and for many years I’ve helped people find the right words for their stories. Working as an ad copywriter, graphic designer, and running a small print shop, I saw firsthand how tough it can be to express your story. For small businesses, telling a good story can make all the difference. I focused on helping clients look their best in print and often gave advice on how they could better connect with their customers.

Years ago, I realized that the stories we tell ourselves and others can hold us back from the lives we want. After twenty years of helping people look good in print, I sold my shop and started working at a public school print shop. For the next seven and a half years, I saw how much the young people who came through my print shop/classroom needed to change the way they talked about themselves. Too often, the stories they told led them to places they didn’t really want to go. This hit home for me because these students were the same age as my own sons, Joshua (1983-2016 covered by my book Outlive Every Prognosis) and Jacob (1986-), who both graduated from the high school where I worked.

My wife, Marla, who is also Joshua and Jacob’s mother, has been by my side for over 42 years. She encouraged me to give back for all the help I received as a young man. I knew I had a lot for which to be grateful. My life could have turned out so much differently. So I applied and was hired as a counselor at a boot camp for juvenile offenders, drawing on my military academy diploma and college psychology coursework. For the next three and a half years, I counseled and taught life skills to these young men, while learning how important it was to help them change their inner stories. Then, Marla and I served as houseparents for two years to 12 high school boys at the Milton Hershey School, where I offered anger management workshops to high school-age males.

After more than 10 years of giving back—working in the high school print shop, counseling, and serving as a houseparent at Milton Hershey School—I returned to the business world. I returned to printing, graphic design, and storytelling, which led me to help a family-owned landscaping and concrete company. By rewriting their company story and ramping up their sales power, we doubled their business volume over the eight years I worked with them.