Corey Blake is the founder of RTC, which he has been leading for 16 years. Prior to starting the company, Corey was an actor in Los Angeles. He starred in one of the 50 greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time and an infamous spot for Yard Fitness in addition to guest-starring on prime-time television shows and making appearances in films. He received his BFA in theatre from Millikin University, studied for 18 months at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, and is currently in his fourth year of the Advanced Leadership Program (ALP) at the Stagen Leadership Academy in Dallas. His work in storytelling has earned a Belding, a Bronze Lion, a London International Advertising Award, numerous Addy Awards, and 17 Independent Publishing Awards. Corey has been quoted and/or featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Wired, and Barron’s.

Corey is a class facilitator for Unearth for businesses and for individuals, Uncover, and My Journey to Conscious Capitalism, and is the instructor for the Academy’s MY Powerful Purpose workshop, and the minicourses Vulnerability and Psychological Safety, Beyond Active Listening, and Asking Powerful Questions.

Original content for Academy courses was cocreated and led by Kelsey Schurer, who also leads our story coaching services for Academy participants and book writing clients (including a client with a forthcoming title from Chronicle Books). Kelsey received her master of fine arts in fiction from Virginia Tech, her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Florida State, and she is a Douglas Anderson School of the Arts alum. Previously nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her honors include Winner of the Virginia Tech Poetry Prize presented by the Academy of American Poets, second-place recipient of the Emily Morrison Fiction Prize, winner of the Louis and Mart P. Hill Outstanding Thesis Award, and winner of the regional Scholastic Writing Award presented by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Her work has most recently appeared on poets.org and in Apalachee Review and her article “The Best Job Candidates are the Best Storytellers,” published by Harvard Business Review, has been shared more than 7,000 times on Facebook alone.

Sunny has been growing personally and professionally with RTC since 2009, packaging books and designing interior layouts, covers, and/or digital versions for 150+ books across all genres (business, memoirs, fiction, illustrated books, workbooks, and test prep books with complex math typesetting). With an eye for detail, she oversees the Academy’s visual design and the protection of our intellectual property, while ensuring the alignment of our core values throughout our operations. She has over 15 years of experience with Adobe InDesign and helped to pioneer RTC’s live art installations, providing structural design, creative direction, management, and onsite artistry.