I was a teenager in the back of my dad’s Chevy Caprice when I realized I wanted to be a storyteller.

We were driving through the western United States and my mom gave me a copy of The Life of Reilly, an anthology of the best columns by Rick Reilly. I read the book cover to cover, devouring one story after another. Most were funny, some were sad, but each and every one of them was engaging.

“That’s what I want to do when I grow up,” I said to myself.

I thought what I wanted was to be a sports writer, and that’s how I started my career. I spent a season covering the Chicago Cubs and went on to cover thousands of high school, college, and professional athletes. But it wasn’t the stories inside the lines that mattered to me — it was the people stories that went beyond the field that truly resonated, not just with me, but with readers as well.

I moved away from sports and into higher education marketing and communications, where I learned about branding, KPIs, and audience understanding — but my passion for telling stories remained.

I launched my own business in 2016, and since then I’ve helped my clients harness the power of storytelling to create engaging content that inspires action.

I believe stories have the power to uplift others and transform lives. Rick Reilly taught me that lesson years ago — that’s why a copy of his book sits in my office today.

“We’ve heard from multiple students that the reason they applied to our program was that they had read one of Marc’s stories.”

TODD MURPHEY

Director, Master of Science in Robotics
(McCormick School of Engineering)