The Backstory

Back in 2016, Deb Walsh saw a void.

People everywhere are plugged in 24/7, but desperately alone.
Looking for conversations that go deeper, but speed-scrolling over the surface of what mattered. Everybody’s talking but no one feels heard.  Digital life has given us a knowledge culture but created a wisdom gap.


 X Factory was created with one simple mission: invite people to pause - together - in real life. 
To stop, ask, and listen. 

Since our first circle of 50 women met in the Fall of 2016 (our first conversation theme was "Chance"), hundreds of women from all walks of life have connected at X Factory, emerging more hopeful, engaged, encouraged, and supported. 

PLEASE NOTE: All live events are on permanent hold during COVID-19. We’ll see you in other spaces and places. xxx

We hope you'll join us, and help inspire growth, action, change, and positivity in yourself, one another, and the world. 

How We Build Meaning At X Factory

 Each X Factory explores a new theme.

The X Factory opening circle features 3 women telling their true stories and life experience with our theme. They talk about their mystery - their “X”: What have you experienced? How did you change? What do you now know?
As we listen and share our own stories, we become co-creators of a new and larger story of understanding and meaning.

At the end of each X Factory, we write and share what wisdom we’ll take away from this new gathering of women. Read some of these remarkable wisdom takeaways here.

We’re a small team, but our mission is fueled with huge love for the incredible power of personal story telling and the transformative power of communities based on listening, understanding, and dialogue.

We’d love to meet you and hear your story, or talk with you about hosting an X Factory with your fellow humans.

UPCOMING THEMES and LOCATIONS

"Thank you for giving us a safe place to be curious and expressive and open."

"I saw how stepping through fear always leads to amazing new beginnings. Be brave. Be fierce."

I recently had the pleasure of being in conversation with Linda Pritcher, host of "Wise Women Speak", a podcast where women share how they used wisdom and inner guidance to recognize and navigate a life of meaning, and to discover and speak with their own authentic voice. Our conversation dove into the whys of X Factory:

• how digital life has given us a knowledge culture but created a “wisdom gap”

• why women of all ages are more empowered than ever, and seeking out spaces of real understanding and agency;

• the why of X Factory, and how receiving a story about real life in real time changes your relationship to your own story

• how questions - not answers - are your best wingwomen, x factor and leadership value

Take a listen, and use the time codes below to skip ahead to highlights.

6:00 My journey back to a creative identity

8:35 How we close off parts of our identity when the world says it's not safe

9:05 It's harder to be who you're not

11:40 The "wisdom gap" and how knowledge culture isn't the same as discovering your wisdom

12:30 Our hunger for spaces to discover wisdom - on belonging and acceptance

15:10 How our globally interconnected world still leaves us craving spaces for conversations that go deeper

16:00 Creating X Factory's structure

19:00 Why receiving a story changes your relationship to your own story. 

20:00 Bringing back the sacred practice of women's circles and intergenerational wisdom-sharing 

22:00 Everyone has a story to tell when they feel permission to explore every aspect of their knowing

24:44 How questions are story curators

25:20 What are the magical effects of having a great Q as your wingman? 

30:30 When I didn't take my own advice and get help 

30:50 The title of my future memoir

Deb Walsh
Founder & Creative Director, X Factory