And So, We Enter the Threshold
Words: Megan Natasha Ross
In September I had some intense — and fascinating — conversations: chats with filmmakers and producers, artists and writers, agents and designers. A recent one, with an old friend and artist I truly love, the Zambian painter, Mika Márffy (more on Mika toward the end of this email), got me thinking about thresholds, about the in-between, and why this liminal space was so integral to creating Stoep Collective in the first place.
The best conversations make you do something, even if the ‘something’ in question is just daydream a little or get lost in thought. So, in addition to doing both after all this dialogue, I also carved out a new slice of the internet — that ever-strange, seemingly-dying space — on Mother of Pearl (my Substack). It’s a space to do what I call “meditating-in-action”; a digital place to deepen the relationship between method and madness, art and content, writing and copy.
A means of bridging these worlds, if you like.
It’s called The Threshold, gleaned from the world-building methodology at the heart of every Stoep Collective project or partnership.
It’s also where I hope to show you how engaging a Collective member — a Stoep thinker, writer or researcher — is a smart business move. In fact, according to the 2025 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 79% of US “hidden” decision-makers say they’re more likely to champion a supplier’s proposal if that company consistently publishes high-quality thought leadership.
Investing in your business may look like working with a writer to build a narrative, to construct a world that attracts a new audience, that taps every button in the omni-channel universe to engage in what you do, and be far more convinced to buy-in when they’re ready.
Using an analysis of 15,000 advertisements, Ipsos’s Misfits Stories, published in February of this year, found that ads featuring stories were twice as effective at changing behaviour as those focused solely on product features.
As I write, our Collective is helping founders, artists and start-ups define narratives for their businesses and tap into the magic that sets them apart from their competitors. They’re helping these brands identify existing assets of value, leverage historic brand stories, and turn their own people into publishers, a powerful behavioural shift that demonstrates their own thinking, philosophy and values to an ever-discerning audience.
And in tandem with this, we’ve kept in conversation with the people who inspire us everyday: chatting with and debating community members, activists, writers and publishers and artists. Like Mika Márffy, for instance, whose upcoming December show — “a love-letter to all the women in my line” — has us salivating.
Mika in her home studio in Zambia’s Mkushi.
Make sure you read our interview with her here.
And just like these conversations I have been having, with visual artists and thinkers and creatives, and the urgency with which they prompted me to act, your buyers, whether they’re reading your thought leadership in passing, or hooked on your Instagram content, are compelled — will convert — thanks to high-quality writing.
Stoep Collective works with directors, curators, founders, publishers and artists to identify existing assets they could leverage a whole lot more in their business practice, as well as organisations who have a vision but aren’t yet sure how to articulate it with atmosphere and authority.
“Megan and her studio have a way of finding the connective tissue, of joining the dots, without letting any idea stray too far from the lived, felt realities of the world.”
SVEN CHRISTIAN
Senior Curator, NIROX Foundation
From backgrounds spanning Unilever and Condé Nast, steel manufacturing and retail, advertising and journalism, we have built narrative worlds for high-end luxury brands in London, Scottish publishers in Edinburgh, documentary filmmakers, and artists whose multimodal practices intersect both mythology and material culture. With projects spanning Amsterdam and Zanzibar, London and Dublin, Cape Town and Toronto, our clients come to us because they need more than copy.
They need a universe.
If that sounds like what you or your business needs, or if you know someone who would be interested in learning more, step onto our Stoep, and welcome to our Collective.
The threshold is open.
Why not work with us?
