I’m Sean Murphy — founder of Lore Works Creative Studio. I spent 25 years in film and television, working on everything from American Idol to Glee and a whole lot in between. Story was always the throughline. What changed was where I pointed it.
A Portland nonprofit helped me find my footing again after a major life reset. What began as recovery became a calling. That experience taught me something I hadn’t learned in Hollywood: the most important stories aren’t manufactured — they’re remembered, recovered, and shared. And the people best positioned to tell them are already doing the work.
Lore Works exists to help nonprofits and community organizations surface the deeper story they already carry — and to give that story structure, clarity, and momentum.
At Lore Works, we practice Storyleading — a collaborative approach to narrative that starts with listening. It centers lived experience, surfaces internal tensions, and aligns mission with message. It’s more than a communication strategy. It’s cultural infrastructure.
Storyleading isn’t about producing deliverables. It’s about creating direction — clarity, alignment, and stories that continue to grow beyond the moment of production.
The Lore Cycle is our in-house framework for systemic storytelling. It guides our process from deep listening to active co-creation:
We love Joseph Campbell, but we’ve moved beyond the Hero’s Journey. Nonprofits don’t operate as lone protagonists. They’re networks of care. The challenges they face are systemic — so their stories must be, too.
The Collective Journey is the narrative modality we work within. It’s built for interdependence, not individualism. Shared transformation. Systemic repair. It’s not a metaphor — it’s a methodology. One that turns story into an operational blueprint.
Institutional trust is collapsing. The cultural center is fraying. But nonprofits — and the communities they serve — are stepping in as epistemic infrastructure: story keepers, first responders, and engines of care.
Lore Works is here to support that role with strategy, story, and systems. Because when stories circulate, people self-organize. And when that happens, culture shifts from the inside.
This is story as infrastructure. This is how we repair the world.