EPIC Impact Society Podcast - Paul Propster (Founder NASA/JPL StoryLab, Message-Driven Professional)

Paul Propster is a seasoned-storyteller, strategy-lover, line-blurrer, dot-connector, and message-driven professional. 

With more than 20 years in Business Development and Capture, Paul has a knack for engineering engagement that builds emotional investment in stakeholders driving impact, enrollment, and funding. Paul’s recent 10.5-year mission at NASA/JPL began with capturing nearly $200M in mission funding his first 2 years, co-leading JPL’s Proposal Shop, becoming Sr Staff to the Formulation Office and in the end, helped capture billions of dollars for NASA/JPL.

Paul's knack for “communicating complexity” and the “right kind of crazy” led to him establishing NASA’s first “story accelerator”: StoryLab. As Founder and Chief Story Architect of this strategic communications shop, StoryLab leverages the power of storytelling and narrative thinking to amplify JPL's impact on humanity.

He has successfully executed large scale ecosystem campaigns ranging from billion-dollar science missions like Mars Sample Return to unveiling the habitability of Venus to finding the biosignatures of life on other worlds. These campaigns involved creating and leading a strategic communications plan including executive, crisis, and internal communications, managing multi-stakeholder interests, and building emotional investment that drives impact, enrollment, and funding.

Paul has consulted or spoke on capture strategy and the power of a kindred quest through a shared story with NASA HQ and other NASA centers, the UNDP, Boston Consulting Group, Google X Moonshot Factory, Caltech, Pepperdine, CSUN, ASU, CalArts, Art Center, SXSW, C2 Montreal, California Science Center, Exploratorium, and several other Institutions across the globe.