About Me
Hey everybody, my name is Murdock and I love stories! Stories have played a big part in my personal growth and development. From music and movies to books and autobiographies, the stories of the world’s most interesting people, places and things have helped me understand my own life. I started this blog to talk more about the things that impact how I tell my own story and the stories of other people. If there’s one thing I learned from y’all in 2022, it was that I talk a lot about storytelling without ever really talking about my own. This blog is a space for me to share my story and prayerfully it encourages you to tell your story, too.
I was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1996. I spent the first five years of my life crossing the Indiana/Illinois border before finding my true home in Indianapolis, Indiana. I graduated from Butler University a semester early, in December 2017, and started law school the following fall, in August 2018. Law school was a dream I had since watching President Barack Obama get elected in 2008. This decade-long dream panned out to be a series of dreams turned nightmares turned learning experiences that ultimately introduced me to a life of entrepreneurship. I’m currently the founder of one for-profit consulting firm, Murdock LLC, and three not-for-profit organizations: The Side Hustle Economy Company, Circle City Storytellers and Power Moves Only; I graduated from law school in May 2022.
This blog is titled “Random But Relevant” because my thoughts might seem sporadic at the micro-level, but when you read these posts in hindsight, you’ll see the bigger picture. I’ll be covering three topics: Powerpreneurship, Social Emotional Learning and LEID (Liberation, equity, inclusion & diversity). Powerpreneurship is a term I coined in 2019 and it’s the art of strategically leveraging the power in stories. Powerpreneurship has become core to my brand and understanding of life; a story is a person’s most unique (and valuable) asset, and Black stories break generational curses + build generational wealth + bridge the racial wealth gap.
According to the Committee for Children, Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success. I spend a lot of my time and energy consulting secondary institutions (high schools) in this area. I want to share my knowledge and perspective on this topic with you all, my community, because SEL isn’t just good for schoolchildren. The five principles of SEL are all applicable in the “real world” and can have a profoundly positive impact on your life; they’ve definitely positively impacted my life and the lives of the students I serve.
The third and final topic I’ll cover on this blog is LEID or Liberation, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity. After the murder of George Floyd, Corporate America became deeply interested in the “DE&I” conversation; there were new statements and taskforces being created everyday! My intentions are not to critique those efforts; that does nothing for the people who those efforts were created to uplift. Instead, I’ll use this blog as a space to introduce a new way to think about that topic. I think we should lead with Liberation, and allow a more liberative framework to impact how we think about equity, inclusion and diversity. When communities or companies place too much emphasis on the wrong topics, workplaces become toxic and fail to meet the expectations set by the same statements that started the work.
I love words because they have power; they are what make our stories powerful! This being said, I know I have a tendency to be long-winded. I promise to keep my posts between 250-500 words (this will be my longest post). Posts will sustain your interest and provide valuable perspective. Thanks for joining me on this journey!
