The Whos
When you tell a story, you become a character in the mind of your audience. What do your stories say about you? Discover how TDL can help you sound like the best version of yourself.
Hi.
I’m Andrew Swartz, Founder and Chief Story Coach at Ten Days Later. I started TDL after more than two decades crafting stories and creating solutions from the stage to the boardroom and having realized there’s a better way. Bombarded by information, noise and innumerable forms of “content”, what people really crave today is true, authentic connection. We are all looking for meaning amidst the increasing chaos of our global society, and those individuals and organizations that employ honesty, clarity, humanity and empathy in their communications will rise above the noise. And there’s no better way to do that than through stories.
Find out how our unique, creative and personalized approach to coaching can help you and your business achieve meaningful growth and build lasting connections to the audiences that matter through the power of storytelling.
About Andrew Swartz
Founder & Chief Story Coach
Andrew Swartz is a senior communications leader, problem solver and storyteller with more than two decades of experience crafting stories and creating solutions including for celebrated companies like Google, Royal Bank of Canada, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Steinway & Sons and Aphria Inc.
A former actor and lifelong performer, Andrew believes in the power of words to influence, inspire and engage audiences. He earned an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, an M.A. in Drama from the University of Toronto, a B.A. in Theatre Arts and English from Brandeis University and he studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Along the way, he helped one of the world’s oldest piano makers sell pianos online.
As a father to three young children, Andrew continues to keep his storytelling and performance skills razor sharp. He is married to renowned Erotic Expert and Health Coach, Kelly Swartz, to whom he proposed after only Ten Days…
The Unbelievably True Story of Ten Days Later
As told by Andrew Swartz
I often get asked, “Why did you name your company Ten Days Later? I usually begin with saying that “ten days later” on its own tells you there’s a story underway. Something has happened, and something is about to happen.
So, here’s what happened:
In the fall of 2013, six years in to a nine year stint at Google, I transferred from the Toronto office to the New York office - a prime opportunity that I initially declined before reconsidering. I had lived in New York before, and while I love the city, I had not envisioned living there again for any length of time. But I was single with little to tie me down, and it seemed like the right move for my career. Five months later, it became the second best decision I’ve ever made.
It was February, and I was waiting for the A train to take me home when a very attractive woman approached me on the platform, looked me straight in the eye and asked “Are you single?”. Thinking to myself that this was one of those “only in New York moments”, and trying not to sound too eager, I said “Yes, I am!”. She extended her hand and as I took it I realized she was handing me a business card. She worked for a matchmaking company called Train Spottings, which found matches for their clients in the NYC subway system because, at least back then, everyone took the subway.
It was only a brief encounter, but embracing a “nothing to lose” feeling and because, having been “spotted”, it was free for me to sign up, I visited the company’s website a few weeks later and registered for a video chat with the head matchmaker. At the end of the chat, having actually learned something about me other than what I look like in a parka, the matchmaker said that the person they had in mind for me wasn’t going to be a good fit. But, there’s someone else.
Ah, yes. The classic bait and switch. But since I didn’t really know what the bait was, I listened to the switch. There was this woman who wasn’t a client of theirs yet, but had been on their waitlist. They had actually sent her on a couple of dates with other clients but those didn’t lead anywhere. I absolutely had to meet her, they insisted, before taking me on as a client for whom they’d scour the bowels of the transit system.
Now here was the catch: They give you a first name and five tidbits of information about who they want you to meet. No picture, no contact information, nothing that even the most seasoned internet sleuths could use to do a little pre-date reconnaissance. But they also make it easy: they arrange the date, pick the place, set the time and all you have to do it show up holding the free newspaper available in the subway on the day of the date.
So, nothing to lose, right? I do it. I grab the paper on my way to work that morning. In the evening, I arrive at the arranged location - a popular New York lounge-y nightspot - early. And wait. It was one of those moments where you’re thinking to yourself, “What are you doing?”, while intently staring at all the attractive arriving patrons who are clearly not carrying a folded up newspaper. And then she walks in, paper in hand.
Ten days later…I proposed.
Ten Days Later is not only my company, it’s my story. It’s personal and it matters. Find out how I can help you connect with and tell your stories that matter.
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