Rachel has been telling stories since she could walk and talk. As a little girl, she would draw for hours and make up stories to go along with her artwork. She won her first award for a poem she wrote about her grandpa in the fourth grade. Through high school, she was an active journal writer and loved the feeling she got after writing a good story.
Gears shifted when Rachel decided to major in communications at Weber State University. After settling on her major, she almost changed it for the sixth time when she found out she would have to write for the university newspaper to earn her degree. Reporting was not something she was interested in – creative writing was her outlet. That all changed after her first story was published and she discovered that she loved telling people’s stories in a succinct and thorough way that truly mattered to others.
Reporting and Stories
Rachel worked as a features editor her senior year of college and after graduation worked in advertising for a couple of years, still writing in her spare time. After the birth of her third child, she decided she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. In order to help pay the bills and also satisfy her creative side, she knew she needed a little something more. She began working as a correspondent for the local newspaper, the Standard-Examiner. She has written a wide variety of stories about politics, sports, education, entertainment, and features for nearly two decades, all while balancing life as a wife and mother of six children. As the newspaper industry has continued to decline, she decided to focus on her first love – telling stories that enrich people’s lives. That’s what brought her to Evalogue.Life.
A life change to family stories
When longtime friend and colleague Rhonda Lauritzen reached out to Rachel over four years ago, she was ready for a change. Many people had told her she should focus on writing stories about people and their lives and when Rhonda asked her to help write a life story of a dear friend she jumped at the chance. As they talked further, the two felt there was something to telling people’s life stories all the time. They took off running with the idea and they haven’t stopped!
Since coming to Evalogue.Life, many doors have opened with opportunities to speak at global family history conferences, interview and write the life stories of many fascinating people and teach classes on the art of interviewing, writing and telling stories. She also works as a freelance public relations strategist for local non-profits, which is also gratifying for her.
Rachel lives on Ogden’s east bench, where she has lived most of her life, with her husband Mat and their children, who are now growing up and leaving the nest. Her heart resides in the lives of her family – those living and those who have gone before her. She loves to travel or read a good book and is a self-proclaimed soccer mom, theater mom, cross-country mom, or whatever-interest-her-children-have-at the-moment mom. She also loves to work on her own family story with her husband, who is an avid family historian. He finds the facts and she tells the stories.
Life grew even more rich in the fall of 2020 when she became a grandma!
Rachel Trotter Summary Bio
Rachel J. Trotter is a senior writer/editor at Evalogue.Life – Tell Your Story. She tells people’s stories and shares hers to encourage others. She loves family storytelling. A graduate of Weber State University, she has had articles featured on LDSLiving.com, lds.org, FamilySearch.org and Meridian Magazine. She has been a speaker at RootsTech, Weber State University Family History Conference, Conference on Family History at BYU and the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. She helps people tell and write their life stories and has written six life stories with several more in production. She has also helped several others write their own stories. She and her husband Mat have six children and she recently became a grandma! She and her family live on the East Bench in Ogden, Utah.
Publications with Rachel’s Articles
Teaching and Presenting Experience
Check out resources and favorite articles by Rachel here:
- Enroll in her “Write Your Story Group Coaching” class.
- My life story, thoughtful questions to tell your own story or interview someone you love
- Getting it Right: Five Things Bruce Feiler Taught Me About Happy Parenting
- Oral History: The Easiest Way to Capture a Life Story
- The Power in Youth and Storytelling
- Writing a Personal History, journaling and why it’s important
- Sharing Stories About Hard Things Can Change Lives
- Bible Rescue Saves the Family Bible and Genealogy Inside
- History of the Ogden Stockyards
- Discovering Your Family History with Interviews and Sources (RootsTech 2020)
About Evalogue.Life:
At Evalogue.Life we are a professional network of life story interviewers, writers, and coaches that help people tell their story. Our professionals offer oral history interviews; life story writing services including biographies, family histories, and memoirs; and one-on-one coaching. We also offer online classes to teach individuals how to preserve personal stories, and we mentor the professionals in our network to run successful independent businesses. If you are interested in joining a group or growing a life story business, please reach out because we are enrolling new cohorts.