IAM2251 – Founder Develops Reading Materials for Older Students

Louise Baigelman, founder and CEO of Storyshares, a literacy organization aimed at improving adolescent literacy.

Louise discusses her background as a teacher in underserved communities, where she encountered significant challenges with students reading well below grade level.

This inspired her to create Storyshares, focusing on developing engaging, culturally relevant reading materials for older students at lower reading levels.

Louise explains the organization’s innovative approach, which includes running writing contests to gather stories that meet the needs of struggling readers.

She emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships throughout her journey.

The conversation highlights the importance of balance, prioritization, and focus.

Website: Stroyshares

LinkedIn: Louise (Kraft) Baigelman

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Transcription:

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Louise Baigelman Teaser 00:00 

Especially in the secondary school level are we hear all the time I came to teach literature, but so many of my students, more than 50% of students beyond third grade lack key literacy skills.

And so I have to figure out how do I teach literacy first, and that's not what I was trained in. And so we provide some of that training for educators as well.

Intro 00:23
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:50

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Louise Baigelman. Louise, excited to have you on the show.

Louise Baigelman 00:59

Thank you so much for having me excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:01

Yes, I'm super excited about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we jump in and have a phenomenal conversation, I want to read a little bit more about Louise so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

And Louise is the founder and CEO of Storyshares, a literacy organization dedicated to transforming adolescent literacy.

Louise began her career as a member of Teach for America where she taught middle school English at KIPP Academy in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was there that she developed a passion for solving the problems she faced with her students on a larger scale.

Louise has been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 in education list, the International Literacy Association's 30 under 30 in literacy list.

Louise has been recognized by the Library of Congress Teach for America's Social Innovation Prize, the Milken-Penn Business Plan Competition in Reimagined Education.

Louise earned her bachelor's degree in English and psychology from Cornell University and her master's in Education from Boston University.

And as a fellow English major and also AmeriCorps member as well too, I love everything that Louise is doing. And I've always loved reading and I love this hageline.

I heard when I was researching this, fall in love with reading, which is something that I did as a kid and I that alive and so many of the stark statistics

I when I was preparing for million teens and adults skills, which is crazy to I love everything you're excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Louise Baigelman 02:31

I am. Yeah. Thank you so much.

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Gresham Harkless 02:33

Absolutely. Well, let's get it started then by rewind and the clock. Here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Louise Baigelman 02:41

Yeah, so I started as a teacher. I worked in a community with underserved students and my students were middle schoolers, but they were reading really far below grade level.

They were newcomers and multilingual learners. And so they were in fifth and sixth grade, but they were reading anywhere from a first to a third grade reading level.

And as a teacher, I just found this to be a huge challenge, to be able to improve their literacy skills and enable them to succeed in all of their classes if there was this fundamental mismatch between their skills and their interests.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to offer baby books to middle schoolers and have them want to read them, not feel embarrassed or stigmatized about reading them, let alone develop to your point a love of reading and fall in love with reading that no middle schooler wants to read a story like Hop on Pop or the very Fluffy Bunny.

But I could not find any books anywhere I looked that were written for older students and readable at those lower levels.

And so I often joke that I am an accidental entrepreneur because I went into education and then I just became obsessed with this problem as such a barrier on a larger scale.

And it was because of that that Storyshare ended up coming to be, we wanted to find a solution to how do we develop more books that are representative and culturally relevant and engaging for older students but readable at lower levels?

Gresham Harkless 04:22 

Yeah, that makes so much sense and that's why I love everything you're doing. And so what I want to do is drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more on how the organization is making that impact and helping to serve the community that you all are working with?

Louise Baigelman 04:33

Yeah, so we started thinking about how do we develop new books, a new collection of choices that meet students wherever they are.

So at any intersection of age and interest, and then also their reading skill and reading level.

And so we actually started initially with an experiment where we did a writing contest to see if we could provide some guidance and tools and incentives.

And just awareness to authors and in many cases teachers around the world to write new stories that really meet this large and unmet need. And that first contest was so inspiring.

We got hundreds of amazing stories in a really short period of time. And so it became this proof point and it evolved into, we got all these stories.

And we realized not only could we then find the best ones and refine them and publish them as new books, but also it became a model that we could use to bring together a community and provide a pathway for them to become published.

Because writers are always looking to become published, while also making sure that the content that they're creating is serving this, you know, unmet market of readers.

And so we've, since that first contest, we've run many more. We're about to launch our seventh contest actually.

And we've developed a collection of over 500 titles that are all written for students in third grade.

And above through adult readers at a range of lower reading levels everything from decodable chapter books, which are for students who are still learning their most foundational literacy skills through to, high-low books, which are short chapter books that are just use more accessible vocabulary and shorter sentences.

But really feature engaging and treating topics. And so we deliver those books in digital and paperback format to students and schools.

And then we also do professional learning and resources for teachers, educators who, especially in the secondary school level, are we hear all the time I came to teach literature.

But so many of my students, more than 50% of students beyond third grade lack key literacy skills, and so I have to figure out how do I teach literacy first?

And that's not what I was trained in. And so we provide some of that training for educators as well.

Gresham Harkless 07:12

Nice, well, I appreciate you again so much into everything that you're doing. So would you consider that to be a little bit more of what I like to call your secret sauce?

It could be for yourself, the organization or combination of both, but is it your ability to kind of see that there is a problem and to not say that, there's not a way.

But to really look at it from an entrepreneurial standpoint and say that I had to get more creative to create a unique and better way. Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Louise Baigelman 07:36 

Yeah, I think that is a key piece. I like the word re-imagining. And so often we're used to the way things have been done.

We typically teach reading in first grade and we typically think about getting published through a kind of standard model and and we're re-imagining both sides of that equation.

How do you know how do you think about teaching reading in the older grades? You can re-imagine a lot of pieces and realize that it's not that we have to teach it during those grades, it's just that that's how it's traditionally happened and create all sorts of transformations beyond that age.

And then similarly, re-imagining the access we give to authors and teachers to create new stories, to get published and have all readers and make an impact and changing that whole narrative and mechanism there as well.

Gresham Harkless 08:28

Yeah, that's so powerful. I love that word re-imagining. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Louise Baigelman 08:42

For me, going through this journey, that It's fascinating how fundamental relationships are to every single stage of it.

So I think just fostering strong relationships at every point of your life. And then it's amazing how that alone leads to so much when it comes to running a business, the people that you've connected with along the way.

And even when it comes to running a team, just building, we're all people building relationships with people on your team and the amount of work and productivity you can inspire through that alone, I find to be especially powerful.

Gresham Harkless 09:27 

Yeah, I absolutely love that hack. And I say so often we forget about the human part of business.

And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget?

So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice, but I like to say it might be something you would tell yourself if you were to hop into a time machine.

Louise Baigelman 09:44

Yeah, so I think that one of the hardest pieces about being a CEO for me personally has to do with balance and prioritization and focus, which are all interrelated, those 3 concepts.

And knowing, I think now, and I still have a lot to learn, but relative to where I was, let's say, 10 years ago, I think I'm able more to identify which things I have to prioritize.

And where I need to focus such that I have some balance in being able to get things done, but also just sanity, frankly.

So I think whereas at the beginning, you can be totally overwhelmed because there's such a huge number of things to do at every single juncture and every day.

And having the discipline to take a little bit more time upfront to think about what I absolutely need to do now, what I absolutely need to do, but don't need to do yet.

And what I actually can just cross off my list because I don't have to do that. I think that is a key learning I've had along the way that makes a difference.

Gresham Harkless 11:05 

Yeah, I love that you said that, especially that sanity piece as well. That gets to the human part too, because I always say like every founder, CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, whatever title we might give is like a part-time firefighter, because you're literally putting out all the different fires.

There's always things on your to-do list. There's always things that you can do. Well, I wanted to ask you now one of my absolute favorite questions, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO.

And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Louise, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Louise Baigelman 11:31

A balance between having really strong conviction and leading people to want to execute on that.

And to come together to make it happen with also being able to be a listener and to be able to hear other lenses and perspectives and make your team feel seen and heard in pursuit of what you're collectively trying to do.

Gresham Harkless 11:57

I love that. And do you feel like, especially having, you know, being the founder of an organization that has a strong mission.

Do you feel like that ends up, I guess, filling up the tank even more to that mission and to being able to listen and to meld those things together into everything that you've been able to do?

Louise Baigelman 12:16 

Yeah, I think that when you, because being a CEO and founder, I'm sure you've heard this as you talk to all sorts of CEOs, it can be lonely in some ways.

Because you have a lot of weight on your shoulders and you are sort of driving towards something that's pretty specific.

And on the other hand, so if you can kind of take a generative approach and an engaged one and bring people onto your team that share that passion.

And that are equally inspired to work towards those results that it becomes much less isolating and more, to your point, it fills your tank.

Everyone, it's motivating across the board and you realize that you're not the only one going for this thing. You have this whole community of people who are working towards it as well.

Gresham Harkless 13:12

Yeah, I absolutely love that, especially because it aligns with everything you've been able to do.

Because I think so many times you can say that, oh, that's not a problem that we're dealing with, or that's not something we do.

And almost we feel like it's upon the person that has the problem to be able to solve it.

But I think the CEO, the person that really sees and has that vision is able to meet people where they are, is really to understand exactly how we can create that engagement, that opportunity for people to collaborate to see the world in a different place.

And I really love that because I think so many times we think that we're standing here and we're trying to solve the problem, you need to understand the problem.

But really we need to go to the problem, the people, to make sure that we have the buy-in for whatever we're trying to do.

Louise Baigelman 13:56

Yeah, exactly. Get so much more out of people that way. Yeah, when you start where they are.

Gresham Harkless 14:02

I love that. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Absolutely. Well, Louise, truly appreciate that. Of course, I appreciate your time even more.

So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know.

And of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find out about you, the organization, all the awesome things that you all are working on.

Louise Baigelman 14:22

Yeah, well thank you again so much for having me. So Storyshares is our website is storyshares.org and we are small but growing so we are always eager if you are interested to check out our website.

My email is louise@storyshares.org. I try to be pretty responsive across the board and you know We're connecting with schools that are looking for literacy resources for students in grades 3 through 12.

And also other organizations and companies that are working to solve similar or related problems. So definitely reach out if you're interested.

Gresham Harkless 15:01 

Yeah, absolutely. Does it matter anywhere where a person, school or organization is even located to be able to help support or find out about your organization?

Louise Baigelman 15:12