Story Threads - The History

I’ve always had a heart for nonprofits and individuals who are victims of circumstance often silenced, tucked away, and hidden from the world. I learned early in my career that the best route to philanthropy for me was going to be through entrepreneurship. I had recently obtained a business degree, was beginning to rack up several years of managerial, marketing, and sales experience, and most importantly I had decided to stop worrying about success or failure.

I decided to launch a coffee company named Mountain Home Coffee. This gave me my first hands-on experience in creating and selling a brand. I sourced high-quality specialty coffee beans and sold them by the 1lb bag online and locally.

Around this time I began reaching out to different nonprofits and educating myself about what it means to be sustainable in a nonprofit business model. I started a podcast I ran for a year where I interviewed different nonprofit and NGO leaders, former child soldiers, and authors. I learned so much in this time about the atrocities suffered by humans the world over with no mention of it in our usual methods of obtaining news. Media in all its forms has a huge ability to influence, and I wanted to use my ability to create media to be a source of truth and a platform for growth.

After I had sold enough coffee and gained enough information, I partnered with a non-governmental organization named Forgottensong out of Fayetteville, Arkansas. This NGO had tested different models of sustainable farming and investment along with the reporting necessary to determine success rates. When I came to know them they were working on the beginnings of a sustainable goat farming initiative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This initiative would mean the investment of donations into goats which would be distributed to former child soldiers undergoing rehabilitation programs so that they can return to their homes with an opportunity for growth and advocacy. I used the coffee to help fund the initiative, traveled along to provide media services, and learned how to shoot video on the flight from the US to Ethiopia. In fact, the Democratic Republic of the Congo video was the first video I ever did for a client.

(An article I wrote about this experience along with some of my photos were published here: https://www.freeweekly.com/2016/06/22/arkansas-nonprofit-empowers-child-soldiers-in-the-congo//)

The project was, and continues to be a success. You can learn more about Forgottensong and their work on the website www.Forgottensong.org. After this, I even created a coalition of musicians and created a music-themed events company. We created one show we titled “Night of Jackassery” and donated all proceeds to help spread the distribution of the goat farming project I’d previously helped fund with the coffee company. You can learn more about that at www.AmericanaTradition.com.

Americana Tradition continues to be a passion project of mine, and now of Huber Media Co. It’s an opportunity to use our marketing platform to create and coordinate original events either on behalf of ourselves or our clients.

After the Americana Tradition show, I turned my attention back towards my long term goals of becoming self-employed. I continued learning marketing and content production, sold the coffee company and focused all my efforts on creating what would become Huber Meda Co. With the branding of Huber Media Co finished, it’s time to get back to the goal of getting involved in the global community.

Following the same model I used with the coffee company, it’s simple. Every penny of Story Threads revenue will go to fund media for nonprofits that don’t have the resources to get their message heard. It’s local, it’s global, it’s wherever the story leads. By using apparel sales to fund this initiative we are able to employ local screen printers, designers, and provide a tangible good instead of just telling our nonprofit partners to ask for more cash donations. This allows us to do the fundraising for our partners and be able to provide professional media services at a fraction of the cost. Your purchase of Story Threads is your investment into documenting stories that deserve to be told.

Be a part of the story, grab your threads below.
-Derek Huber