Jeannie Smith, M.A.

I help mission-driven organizations uncover the fire hidden beneath borrowed language and operational noise.

Clearing the Smoke, Revealing the Fire

I'm Jeannie Smith, and The Content Jeannie is my narrative ethnography practice. The name comes from I Dream of Jeannie (the show I was named after), and reflects what I do: reveal the power that's been inside your organization all along — buried beneath generic language, borrowed frameworks, and competing narratives.

I do organizational-level narrative synthesis so your whole team can finally operate from shared clarity.

Through deep organizational immersion and stakeholder synthesis across your ecosystem, I build the narrative infrastructure your marketing, development, programs, and governance teams actually use.

The work is organizational. The ROI is all external-facing work.

Why I Do This Work

I spent 12 years as a content marketing manager for mission-driven organizations. I was hired to "create compelling content"—but before I could write anything, I had to:

  • Map competing narratives across departments

  • Reconcile what leadership said vs. what staff experienced vs. what funders heard

  • Build language infrastructure from scratch

  • Synthesize narrative chaos into something coherent

I was doing narrative ethnography. But it was bundled into "content creation" and burning me out.

I kept watching the same expensive mistake: organizations would skip this foundation work and jump straight to rebrands or marketing campaigns.

Months later, nothing stuck. Because the work was built on narrative chaos, not narrative clarity.

This synthesis work is organizational-level labor. It shouldn't be bundled invisibly into marketing roles.

The Shift

I'm trained as an anthropologist (M.A., The New School). Over 12 years in mission-driven marketing, I developed proprietary synthesis methodologies that map narrative patterns ethnographically. Now I do it explicitly:

  • Properly scoped as organizational research (not marketing execution)

  • Appropriately priced for the complexity of synthesis work

  • BEFORE branding, marketing, fundraising, or communications execution

When foundation comes first, everything else works.

*I take on 4-5 engagements per year. Deep ethnographic immersion cannot be rushed or scaled so that each organization receives my full attention. This serves everyone better.

How I'm Trained for This Work

I don't come with templates. I come with questions. I listen for what's culturally true from the inside, not what sounds impressive from the outside.

  • Master's in Anthropology (2012) from The New School

    Trained in ethnographic research, cultural analysis, and narrative synthesis

  • Embedded with grassroots organizations and artists, helping them tell their stories on their own terms. This taught me how communities understand themselves from the inside, not impose external frameworks.

  • Applied anthropology to organizational contexts, focused on:

    • How humans connect and create meaning

    • How organizational cultures shape narrative

    • Why some narratives move people while others fall flat

    • What makes authenticity resonate vs. what creates borrowed-language noise

  • Senior year of high school, my teacher assigned A Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Instead of telling the story chronologically, García Márquez revealed it layer by layer. Each chapter peeled back another perspective on the same truth — showing me that storytelling isn't linear. It's an excavation.

Why Organizations Hire Me

You hire me when your work is strong, but your story isn't landing, or when stakeholders can't articulate what makes you different, even though you know it's true.

You hire me when:

  • You're in transition (merger, growth, leadership change) and need to realign around new identity

  • Board and staff tell different stories — development team trying to reconcile competing narratives in every grant

  • Competing for funding/investment and need clear differentiation

  • Tried brand consultants or redesigns but nothing stuck — felt imposed, not authentic

  • About to invest in marketing, capital campaign, or communications and want foundation right first

  • Marketing or development team is burned out carrying invisible synthesis work

I help you:

  • Discover what makes you genuinely different (grounded in stakeholder reality, not aspiration)

  • Articulate value clearly to funders, investors, partners, beneficiaries

  • Align leadership, staff, board, and external stakeholders around shared narrative core

  • Build narrative infrastructure your whole organization uses — marketing, development, programs, governance

How We Work Together

Discovery Call (30 minutes)
Explore whether narrative synthesis is right for your organization. Discuss scope, timeline, investment.

Immersion (8-12 weeks)
Deep organizational ethnography across your stakeholder ecosystemv—vdiscovering how you're understood internally and experienced externally, then synthesizing into coherent narrative foundation.

Deliverable
The Narrative Hearth: 30-50 pages of organizational narrative infrastructure including:

  • Narrative core (who you actually are)

  • Stakeholder messaging frameworks

  • Language guide (fire vs. smoke)

  • Implementation toolkit (how to use this in grants, marketing, board decks, strategic planning)

Handoff
Present findings to your team. Training workshop (2-3 hours) to practice applying framework. Transfer complete ownership—no dependency on consultants.

You become sovereign in your story.

Ready to Build Your Narrative Foundation?

If you're ready to move from narrative chaos to organizational clarity — from borrowed language to a story that's authentically yours — let's talk.

I accept 4-5 organizations per year. Founding rates available through March 2026.

Contact