RAISE

STRONG KIDS

Equipping parents to build strong families

through powerful storytelling.

Create mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health together.

Join the revolution

RAISE

STRONG KIDS

Equipping parents to build strong

families through powerful storytelling.

Create mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health together.

Learn more

RAISE

STRONG KIDS

Equipping parents to build strong families through powerful storytelling.

Create mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health together.

Learn more

Our children's generation is facing a mental health crisis.

Parents are the answer. It's time to reclaim authority from the so-called "experts".


By honing your skills through practical, actionable steps, you'll find that you are fully qualified & able to raise your children with the love, guidance, and support they need.


This isn't a personal theory. It's scientifically and historically backed.


Our kids deserve a better story.


Parents + powerful narratives = strong, resilient kids who become fulfilled, contributing adults.  

  • 1. Parental

    Reclaim the authority that is rightfully yours. Parent with the courage and audacity to believe in yourself. 

  • 2. Family

    Give your kids a family story worth living up to. The legacy of the past. The values of the present. The hope of the future. 

  • 3. Individual

    Cast a vision that will show kids how their unique gifts, talents, and personality traits pave the way for their purpose. Share how the world needs them to act to take responsibility and fulfill their duties.

  • 4. Community

    Connect your kids with the struggles and achievements that built your country and culture. Watch them gain mental toughness, inspiration to do hard things and quality relationships with others.

  • 5. Spiritual

    Explore narratives that call you to aim for the highest ideals, search for deep meaning and ask big questions. 

  • 6. Financial

    Equip your kids to participate in life without being tethered to poor financial decisions. Allow them to experience freedom that comes from a healthy money story.

  • 1. Family Values

    Weave your family’s core values into your child’s story. This will help them understand and embrace the principles that will guide their choices and actions for the rest of their life. 

  • 2. Family History

    Remind them of your roots and the resilience of your family. Share a history that fosters belonging and pride, empowering kids to face life’s difficulties with confidence.

  • 3. Patriotic

    Connect your kids with the struggles and achievements that built your country and culture and watch them gain mental toughness and inspiration to do hard things. 

  • 4. Individual

    Cast a vision that will show kids how their unique gifts, talents, and personality traits pave the way for their purpose. Share how the world needs them to act to take responsibility and fulfill their duties.

  • 5. Spiritual

    Whether or not you believe in God, your family must explore narratives that call you to aim for the highest ideals, search for deep meaning and ask big questions. 

  • 6. Expressions

    Allow your narrative building skills to permeate your life. Find artistic and physical expressions that reinforce your stories in the everyday and in the extraordinary. 

Ready to tell a better story?

Get access to our toolkits, guides, members-only content, support and community!

narrative membership coming soon!

Join the waiting list

Psychologists have discovered that the more children know about their family’s story, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self esteem, the more successfully they believe their family functions.


Knowing their larger family story helps them understand that they are part of something bigger.



Every family has a unifying narrative.

Bruce Feiler

The Secrets of Happy Families

we see the world in stories

Little one, I know you'll fight dragons. And I'll have to let you. My job is to help you see that you have the strength to overcome.

So for now, I'm going to tell you stories. Stories of virtue. Of kindness. Of play. Of doing your best, even when no one is looking.

I'll tell you that we...our family...we are ones who fight and win.


I'm going to fill our home with examples of our family being strong. 

It'll be on our walls. Our bookshelves. Our screens.


I'll intentionally build the story we tell ourselves.

Because strong families, they tell stories.


________


This is the vision behind narrative. Harnessing the power of story to equip families to be strong.


Niki Bartelt | Founder

No sound on this video. Check out the session to see the full video with audio.

This is what a strong home looks like,
what it feels like.

THIS IS WHO WE ARE

Ready to tell a better story?

Get access to all our toolkits, guides, members-only content, support and community!

narrative membership coming soon!

Join the waiting list

Psychologists have discovered that the more children know about their family’s story, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self esteem, the more successfully they believe their family functions.


Knowing their larger family story helps them understand that they are part of something bigger.



Every family has a unifying narrative.

Bruce Feiler

The Secrets of Happy Families

we see the world in stories

Little one, I know you'll fight dragons. And I'll have to let you. My job is to help you see that you have the strength to overcome.

So for now, I'm going to tell you stories. Stories of virtue. Of kindness. Of play. Of doing your best, even when no one is looking.

I'll tell you that we...our family...we are ones who fight and win.

I'm going to fill our home with examples of our family being strong. 


It'll be on our walls. Our bookshelves. Our screens.


I'll intentionally build the story we tell ourselves.

Because strong families, they tell stories.


________




This is the vision behind narrative. Harnessing the power of story to equip families to be strong.


Niki Bartelt | Founder

No sound on this video.

This is what a strong home looks like, what it feels like.

THIS IS WHO WE ARE.

family photography Appleton wi
I want to live in a world with more strong families! Don't you?

A storyteller by my nature, I spent a decade running a photo/video studio before becoming an entrepreneur. My desire to research storytelling collided with motherhood and my gut instinct to keep my kids wild, free, unlabeled and unmedicated.

As I dug in, I realized parenting with story was a way out of the mental health crisis our culture is facing. And I set out to share what I've learned with other parents.

Narrative was born from that vision.

#gettoknow

Who I am

Hi friend! I'm Niki Bartelt. But these days I mostly answer to Mom...Mom... Moooommmm. It comes with the territory. I've got three little boys, a beautiful step-daughter and a new baby girl.


My hubby is my best friend, the most incredible person I've ever met. My children are my proudest achievements and my tiny mirrors (the good & bad...yikes).


I'm love listening to podcasts and audiobooks. Road trips are an absolute requirement for life. Laundry is my nemesis. Jesus, my strength. Coffee, my ally. I'm deeply independent but love people. Things done right make my heart sing.  Type A...guilty. Conversations about ideas give me energy.


• • • 


It still surprises me how often my kids ask to watch our family videos, talk about the pictures on our walls, flip through family photo albums, research our family tree, examine our family crest. It always ends with us discussing the best parts of who we are. Together and individually. Those are some of my happiest moments as a mom.


Storytelling has been such a force for connection and strength in our family. Making that a reality for other families brings me such joy, I really don't have words for it.


So let's talk about the people you love, who you are and how you do life.
That's the start of building a strong family identity, rooted in shared narrative. <3


Let's Chat

"Family-based interventions can help prevent the onset of mental health conditions and mitigate its consequences."

Family factors contribute to mental health conditions – a systematic review in Oxford Journals, The European Journal of Public Health

S Marth, N Cook, P Bain and J Lindert

"Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

CS Lewis 


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helping families

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Giving you the tools to be the visionary your family needs.

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narrative membership coming soon!

Get on the list!

join the waiting list

narrative membership coming soon!

Get on the list!

STRONG FAMILIES

TELL STORIES

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