Soon after becoming a Spellbinder storytelling volunteer in September of 2016, Laura Deal became a regular attendee at the Boulder Story Circle, an informal gathering of storytellers who came together for the love of stories. From there, she ventured into the professional storytelling festival and conference circuit, following the white pebbles that Rachel Ann Harding and Cooper Braun left in her path. Then 2020 wrenched her into a new and astonishing online storytelling world, where she found a community in Artists Standing Strong Together, which led to friendships with and encouragement by nationally known storytellers. In  2024 Laura won the J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award (https://lauradeal.com/j-j-reneaux-emerging-artist-award-for-2024/) which “is presented to a storyteller of major and unique performing talent who has not yet received wide public recognition.” In this keynote for the 2024 Spellbinders Annual Meeting, Laura shares some highlights from her storytelling journey and reasons why storytelling is essential, and tells some of her favorite stories from her Spellbinders repertoire, which listeners might want to pass along to their audiences.