VISION NOTES STORYTELLING
with DR. DAVID WILLIAMS
WRITING, VISUAL, & AUDIO SERVICES
Let us help you tell your story
Tell Your Story
With feeling.
I help real people and brands get clear about who they are, what they stand for, and how to say it—on the page and on the screen. Whether you're building a business, introducing yourself online, or explaining an idea, I bring in my experience as a professional storyteller and visual communicator to make your message resonate.
VISON NOTES STORYTELLING, FREELANCE WRITING AND GRAPHICS
✍️ WRITING SERVICES
🔸 Dating & Personal Bios
Be yourself—but sharper, warmer, and more memorable.
$185 – Includes one revision.
🔸 Short Bio (150–250 words)
Perfect for About pages, speaker intros, or creative profiles.
$185
🔸 Founder / Artist Bio
Your journey, values, and creative spark—woven into a story.
$375
🔸 Taglines & Brand Pitches
The one sentence you wish you’d thought of.
$75
🔸 Brand Story (1 page)
Clarify your voice, message, and mission.
$300
🔸 Landing Page Copy
Words that invite, connect, and convert.
$325
🔸 Substack or Newsletter Bio
Start your platform with copy that sounds like you.
$200
✍️ ART AND DRAWING SERVICES
🔸 Graphic Recording, Whiteboarding, Visual Storytelling, live or over Zoom
$1500 day
🔸 GIFs animated art/cartooning
$300 each, but depends on how complicated
About David Williams
Writer · Songwriter · Visual Storyteller
David Williams is an Emmy-winning writer, musician, and visual artist with decades of experience helping individuals and organizations bring their stories to life. Whether you're looking for powerful website copy, compelling articles, polished resumes, or persuasive grant narratives, David brings a rare mix of precision, empathy, and creativity to every project.
A published author with Random House and an award-winning children's songwriter, David has also worked as a university professor, writing coach, and contributor to national publications. His deep background in neuroscience, storytelling, and education makes him uniquely skilled at crafting writing that moves both minds and hearts.
But words aren't his only tools. As a longtime cartoonist and live graphic recorder, David transforms complex ideas into engaging, visual narratives for businesses, conferences, and non-profits. His music, spanning Americana, blues, and gypsy jazz, has reached audiences worldwide—most notably through a children’s song that became a viral hit in South Africa’s anti-poaching movement.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, student, nonprofit, or creative professional, David can help you express your message clearly and memorably—on the page, in sound, or through image.
Experiences
🧠 Education
🏆 Awards
📚 Books
✏️ Cartooning & Visual Storytelling
🎵 Music
PhD in Writing and Literature
Former Head of Fiction Writing, Metropolitan State University
University teaching positions at University of Colorado, University of Illinois, Knox College (Writer-in-Residence), and others
Certifications in AI, UX Writing, and Neuroscience (Google, Vanderbilt, Duke, LinkedIn
Emmy Award–Winning Songwriter for PBS
American Library Association Award for Excellence in Children’s Music
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Illinois Arts Council Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Featured Artist in Smithsonian-curated gallery exhibitions
For Adults
The Trickster Brain: Neuroscience, Evolution, and Narrative (Lexington Press)
The Trickster Inside (ZenTrickster Press)
For Children
Walking to the Creek (Alfred A. Knopf)
Grandma Essie’s Covered Wagon (Alfred A. Knopf)
Professional cartoonist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Carlton Cards, SoulTrader London, The Denver Rocky Mountain News, and other publications
Live Graphic Recorder for conferences, nonprofits, and corporations—translating complex ideas into real-time visual stories
Founder of Vision-Note Graphic Recording
Longtime visual arts educator for Illinois Arts Council's Artist-in-the-Schools program
Emmy-winning children's songwriter featured on PBS, with over 100 million YouTube views
Writer of The Rhino Song, a viral anthem used by South Africa’s Anti-Poaching Movement
Composer of environmental education songs for WildBear Nature Center and other nature-focused organizations
“Route 66” selected as the official song for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of Route 66 by the State of Illinois (2025)
Multi-instrumentalist in Americana, blues, gypsy jazz, and more
Creator of numerous solo albums and adult songs — explore the catalog here: https://danjo53.wixsite.com/realdavidwilliams
Stories
David Williams
Hey there—David Williams here.
I’ve been in the storytelling business all my life. But stories aren’t just fun little fables. They’re ancient survival tools. Our brains evolved as a kind of navigation system—go here, avoid that trail, don’t drink from that stream. Why? Because that path leads to a lion’s den, and that water hides a snake.
Language and story grew out of the hoots, calls, and whistles our animal cousins still use—many of which are surprisingly sophisticated and specific. Over time, those sounds of mating, and. calls of danger, evolved into something more: spoken language, and with it, the oral stories that carried our history, our wisdom, and our sense of place.
Some stories became myths, telling us who we are in the universe, why we’re here, and what matters. Suddenly, life wasn’t just about surviving—for now we were part of a bigger cosmos, and everything in it had some symbolic meaning as well as the literal.
Stories also shape our identities. They tell us who we are—or at least, who we believe we are. They carry the fiction of the self: a character on a journey toward something that matters. And even when things get hard, stories give us strength to go on. They bring the gods closer. Through story, we can speak our needs, tell the truth of our lives, and ask for stories in return—stories of redemption, meaning, and hope.
And then there’s song. Song is likely even older than story. But when words and music came together, a massive new power was born—the power to move people, to bring them together, to inspire action. Sometimes that led to war. Sometimes to healing. Sometimes to art and wonder and the exploration of entirely new worlds.
New stories are always being born—but they rise from the roots of the old. I’ve spent my life walking between these worlds: writing, singing, drawing, and listening.
Every story needs to be heard. And my job is to help you do that—to assist you in casting your feelings and ideas, your wants and desires, out into the world, so your voice can tell the stories that make up you.
Some books by David Williams
Reviews
