Hone your voice while exploring how stories shape our understanding of ourselves and our work. I’m Lisa Weiss, a 3x Emmy®-winning storyteller with an MFA in prose and poetry from Northwestern University. I send out expressive writing prompts and top-notch book recommendations for writers, subject matter experts, and others looking to explore new ideas and expand their impact.
Lisa Weiss, founder of Storybeat Studio
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Lisa Weiss
May 30, 2026
The beach will guide you
Inside: Your message in a bottle, the best magazine writing, and why we need to listen to the beach.
Hello!
This month I've been thinking about an article I read on messages in bottles. You know, that old-school, romantic gesture of placing your secret thoughts on a scroll and sending them out to sea inside a glass bottle?
I'll share a story about messages in bottles and a related writing prompt. Good news: You don't need to live near the water or be an expert in Beach to write your own meaningful missive. More inside!
Enjoy,
In this issue:
Reading
The beach will guide you
Practice
Message in a bottle
Plus
Ideas I love right now
Reading
The beach will guide you
Image Credit: Daniel Farò
This month I was so moved by a story I read about Clint Buffington, one of the world's most prolific hunters of messages in bottles. Clint's mantra when combing the sand for bottles: The beach will guide you. Clint has recovered nearly 150 of these rare specimens, and he works to track down the original senders, some of whom put their messages to sea decades ago. His Instagram is fun; you can watch him open up old bottles and read the messages. I read about Clint in a New Yorker story by Lauren Collins. Since the magazine doesn't provide gift links (boo!), here's a short video about Clint. He makes me want to go to the beach and listen.
Practice
Message in a bottle
A message in a bottle is a secret note you're sending to someone across the sea. Some imagine the person on the other end as a fated recipient (You were meant to receive my message! Let's get married!). Some messages never get found.
What would you write and toss into the water, knowing it may be absorbed by the ocean, or discovered by a complete stranger?
Even if you choose not to put your message out to sea, perhaps you'll pour out a thought you might have kept bottled inside.
Alternatively, you might think about a message you would like to receive. If you went to the beach and discovered a message in a bottle waiting just for you, what message would you hope to find?
Recommendations
Ideas I love right now
This month I'm obsessed with this piece by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic: "The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet." 🎁 Gift link here. What I love about this piece is how journalist Helen Lewis gets in-person interviews with the very people who say they abhor working women. Her signature wit and style show how a writer's voice can leap off the page.
My new friend on LinkedIn, Kate Sargent, came up with the idea to replace the "someone joined" sound on Zoom with the trolley bell from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Wouldn't that be great? Well, I plan to make believe I'm hearing the trolley ding every time I hop onto a Zoom this week.
After five seasons, Hacks is coming to an end on HBO. If you haven't watched the show, now is the perfect time to start, as you can stream all the episodes uninterrupted. I appreciate how this show validates my constant desire to break the rules in systems that don't work for everyone. Thanks to my friend Michelle Massman for recommending the show to me. Great piece here 🎁 by Sophie Gilbert, also in The Atlantic, where you'll find some of the best magazine writing right now.
Client Spotlight
Dr. Helen Krug von Nidda & Nicholas Epley
nicholas epley
Nicholas Epley's new book A Little More Social came out on 5/19. He published this opinion piece: "The Science of Talking to Strangers: People are too pessimistic about how others will respond when they reach out to connect with them." Today in the Wall Street Journal 🎁 gift link.
If you're feeling stuck in your career, Closing the Fulfillment Gap is a new book coming out in September by Dr. Helen Krug von Nidda. The book draws upon Helen's 20+ years of global HR experience with organizations including Morgan Stanley, Sony Music, L’Oréal, Dell, and the United Nations.
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The Beat
Hone your voice while exploring how stories shape our understanding of ourselves and our work. I’m Lisa Weiss, a 3x Emmy®-winning storyteller with an MFA in prose and poetry from Northwestern University. I send out expressive writing prompts and top-notch book recommendations for writers, subject matter experts, and others looking to explore new ideas and expand their impact.
