Amanda Hirsch

Amanda Hirsch is on a mission to fill the world with women's stories. She does this as both a writer and as a story coach and consultant. Hirsch has been a featured expert on the subject of telling your story online at venues ranging from Harvard’s Kennedy School to the National Press Club and the National Film Board of Canada. Her company, Mighty Forces, helps women leaders in media, tech, nonprofits, the arts, and other industries experience the practical and psychological benefits of having a clear career story and sharing it online. Clients come to her hating self-promotion and dreading the work of updating their LinkedIn profiles; they emerge with confidence, clarity, a strong online platform, and a clear plan for sharing thought leadership content. Hirsch deliberately avoids referring to her work as “personal branding.” She’s adamant that brands are for companies and products — people are defined not by brands, but by stories, and when they tell those stories in powerful ways, there is nothing more magnetic. Her clients have experienced benefits ranging from keynoting conferences to the mental uplift that comes from feeling clear about who you are professionally and the focus this brings to your life and leadership.

Mighty Forces also offers brand, content, and editorial strategy consulting to companies committed to lifting up women and girls, such as Melinda Gates’ company, Pivotal Ventures. Previously Hirsch was a content advisor to nonprofits and independent media companies. Before that, she was the editorial director of PBS.org. She was also a producer for washingtonpost.com.

Hirsch is also a writer whose portfolio includes a self-published book, Feeling My Way: Finding Motherhood Without Losing Myself, as well as personal essays, articles about storytelling, and several television comedies about women leaders. She’s been published in Catapult and McSweeney’s, among other outlets. Hirsch graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and dog.