Speaking tour 'Together Live' is uniting women through storytelling

Stories of influential people, like Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, and Arianna Huffington, have had the power to change the lives of others — but who says the stories of everyday people can’t do the same?

Jennifer Rudolph Walsh believes they can, and has created a speaking tour to highlight the ways in which we can foster community and learn from one another through sharing stories. As a literary agent who grew up believing in the power of storytelling, Walsh has based her career on the business of listening to, developing, and distributing powerful stories that can transform people’s lives. She’s had access to the rooms where conversations and think tanks with trailblazers have taken place, and although she’s reaped the benefits of these exclusive spaces, she has always felt the need to make them more accessible.

“Even before ‘intersectionality’ became a word, I had this force inside of me that just always felt like I can’t be well unless everybody is well, and I don’t want to be wise unless everybody can be wise,” Walsh tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “So I think that the more I had the opportunity to just be in these unbelievable rooms and hear such strength and courage and wisdom, the more I wanted to be a part of bringing that wisdom to the largest, widest community possible.”

“Together Live,” a speaking tour started by Walsh and co-founder Glennon Doyle that will continue traversing the country until the end of the month, does just that by erasing the barriers of these exclusive spaces to enable more inclusive and influential interactions among real women. Although some initially perceive it as a sort of women’s conference, it’s much more than that.

“It’s very nonscripted, it’s spontaneous, it’s overlapping, and it’s very much like real life,” says Walsh. “As opposed to someone just standing up there with a keynote, telling you what to do and how to live your life.”

Instead, the authors and activists who are invited to participate in the event are prepared to be just as vulnerable and open to the purposeful exercises of Together as those who pay the $25 entrance fee. Lifestyle and wellness expert Latham Thomas — also known as Glow Maven — is just one of the impressive names from the list of speakers. She explains her role in the ongoing tour as being a sort of “spirit balance.”

“I am leading a unifying movement mediation experience that helps bring everyone together, in connection as a group, but also brings them profoundly back to themselves,” Thomas explains to Yahoo Lifestyle. “It is my wish and intention that the audience is able to expand their hearts to love more, expand their minds to learn more, and awaken their bodies to the magnificence that lies within each of them.”

The storytelling and wellness practices that take place at Together all lend themselves to the collective goal of allowing each individual to find her purpose, in addition to understanding how that fits into the idea of community. What neither Walsh nor Doyle realized, however, was how vital this lesson would be in today’s political climate.

During the first tour just last year, the duo saw a total of 15,000 people throughout their venues, with an additional 5,000 people using the Together app daily. But at the time it seemed that the community was solely focused on positive growth rather than recognizing the potential for larger setbacks.

“We kind of danced off thinking we’re gonna grow together and stay together. And what we didn’t realize was that we were also gonna have to protect together,” Walsh says. “People would need a deep yearning for meaning and impact more than ever, and a nonpolitical place for their most heartfelt truths to connect to a community that supports that and helps them over the bridge of bravery into action.”

With 10,000 of the tour’s tickets sold in the first 48 hours, Walsh admits to realizing that “people are hungrier than ever for this kind of connection — this honest, heartfelt, purpose-driven connection,” which is something Together is willing to provide.

“If you have a breath, you were born with a purpose. And to help people see that and to find their own purpose and then connect to a community that supports it and get into action, I feel like that could literally save the world,” Walsh says. “And I know that sounds grandiose, but I believe it to my core.”

To join the incredible women of Together, including Abby Wambach, Luvvie Ajayi, Sophia Bush and Connie Britton, check for tickets at the upcoming locations and follow the journey on social media.

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