Written by: Margot Thomson - Associate Creative Director

My creative hero didn’t paint, direct or revolutionise design grids. He just asked the world to tell its story in six words. And I did - my ‘six’ got published in a New York Times bestseller.

Larry Smith, the founder of Six-Word Memoirs, built a storytelling empire out of brevity. Inspired by Hemingway’s famous six - “For sale: baby shoes, never worn” - he invited the world to do the same. And people did. Millions of them. Me included. Because everyone has a story, even if it’s only six words long.

I still remember the email all those years ago. It landed in my inbox after I’d casually submitted my six-word memoir on their website. Excitedly, I opened it - would I give permission for him to feature my memoir in his next book?

YES. Yes, I will Larry.

Not just anywhere in the book, though. Mine would be the last line. The full stop. The ending that asked for more: “Am hoping there is an epilogue.”

Those six words still make me smile.

Over the years, the Six-Word Memoirs website has become a sort of diary for me - a place to record the highs, lows, and lessons with a few words of backstory to keep it honest.

That’s part of the magic of Six-Word Memoirs: you don’t have to be famous; you just have to be human. Everyone’s story counts.

How it started

I found Larry Smith’s work long before I found my way into healthcare. It was one of those internet rabbit holes that quietly rewires how you think. The idea was so clean and so deceptively simple, it lodged itself in my creative toolkit and never left.

Years later, in rooms filled with strategists, medical writers and creatives trying to turn clinical data into something a human might actually feel, I always come back to Larry and his six-word principle. It’s ruthless in the best way. If you can’t say the heart of it in six words, you probably don’t know what the heart of it is yet.

How it lives on

Recently, I ran the Six-Word exercise with my creative team, people swearing under their breath, frantically scribbling and crossing out, trying to wrestle their spider web of thoughts down to six words. It was brilliant.

Then I took it one step further. I presented it to our executive team and set it as homework:

“So, what’s your story in six?”

Six words. Still waiting. Good ideas take time. Great ones, apparently, take even longer.

I remain optimistic.

Why Larry Smith is my hero

In healthcare, we often overexplain. Big data. Big decks. Big words. But the stuff that actually lands - the work people remember - usually starts small. Larry Smith built an entire storytelling movement on six words. It’s clean, it’s sharp and impossible to hide behind.

I want that kind of clarity to shape what I am building at Orchard. We’ve done great work making powerful moments, now we’re setting our sights on something bigger. A creative philosophy that builds brand ecosystems.

And that shift starts with clarity. If the idea doesn’t make sense in one line, it’s not ready. If it can’t survive without the shiny bits, it’s not strong enough. Larry’s work is a constant reminder: when the idea is clear, it lasts. A sharp thought can hold everything together.

My favourite piece of his work

Technically, I’m in his book 'It all changed in an instant'.

But really, what makes Larry’s work one of my favourites is the community he has created.

Thousands of people stripping everything back and still making you feel something. Just ordinary people, saying what they mean.

Larry Smith is my creative hero. He proved six words can carry more weight than a hundred slides. That’s the kind of clarity I want to build into everything we make at Orchard. Work that holds the room long after the deck is done.

My new six?

Creative hero’s clarity shaped my path.