Imagine Tree Consulting

Early in my senior year of high school I told a friend that I wanted to imagine a tree, and imagine it so well that the tree would seem to be right in front of me.  It wouldn’t be a delusion; I would know for certain that the tree was in mind only. But it would seem real. Totally real.

I wanted to be able to reach out with my hand and touch the imagine tree’s bark, feel its waxy leaves.  I wanted to smell the tree, and to make it smell like cinnamon or vanilla, or moldy leaves, or whatever.  I wanted to take control of what I perceived, since I was fascinated with the fact that mental representations are created in our mind, what we know could be based on nothing because all we know is mental illusion.

Years later I would conjure up a different tree on countless weekends as a professional storytelling birthday party host.  For each party I would tell “The Firebird”, a fairy tale about a prince, a forest, a bird, a tree with golden fruit, some princesses in despair and a villain.  The tree is what motivates the prince and others to go into the forest, and what draws in the Firebird.  The tree, like my imagine tree, was an anchor for creating reality – but not through dreams alone, but mediated in story, word, voice, and movement.

These two trees – the imagine tree and the Firebird tree (with its magic golden fruit and rainbow coloured leaves) – are the reasons why I call my consulting business “Imagine Tree Consulting”. I didn’t put a lot of thought into the name, since I knew the brand would be me, not the company name.  This is why I choose a name that meant something to me.

“Imagine Tree” is about the power to create, and is a reminder to me about both the power and responsibility that comes with cultural creation. The name is also a reminder that storytelling, as a party host, is what taught me almost everything I know about communications – especially the foundations. From storytelling I learned how to use story and imagination to get heard, be understood, and make a difference.