ABOUT

Cyrano. Helping You Tell Your Story.

If you are an expert in your area, have accomplished something amazing, or have lived a life so unusual no one would believe it (maybe all three), then you know something important, something most others do not know, but need to know. You are a kind of Prometheus. You have stolen fire from the gods. It’s time to share that fire with others. That fire is your “big idea.”

You want to take people from “what is” to “what can be.”

But, like many, you may not be a master storyteller. If so, others are missing out on learning about the fire you have to offer. You need to know how to tell your story to deliver your big idea. Cyrano is here to show you how.

The Goal:

We work together to refine your big idea and then tell your story in two forms: memoir or personal essay/statement and a twenty-minute Ted-Talk-style story. We can also do a business book. Our goal is develop a finished, publishable manuscript and a twenty-minute live presentation. You then pair both so you can add your story to the public narrative, influence the conversation, and become a thought leader. Change the world.

The Approach:

We work together to find the story to deliver your big idea. We find your narrative by exploring your journey, visiting your successes and failures, your crises, and your denouements to build a story that holds meaning for you and resonates with others.

We begin with a meeting (in-person or virtual) to break the ice, followed by a series of deep dive exercises to explore your life. You will journal; you will talk to your mentors, allies, opponents; you will write unsent letters describing milestone events. We will have recorded conversations. We work together to find your distinctive voice. I show you what to share, how to be vulnerable, when to be humble. We build an outline, write scenes and sequences, and finally the manuscript. We inform the process with reference to Jungian archetypes, the monomyth, tropes, and the thirty-six dramatic situations.

We then build a twenty-minute presentation, working on stage presence, structure, connection, and spontaneity. We will reference iconic presentations and use recordings of yourself for feedback.

You tell your story. Not me.

Think of yourself as a kind of shaman. You’ve been to places most people have never been, you’ve discovered something, and you have returned to tell us what you’ve seen to make our lives better. You need to become a master storyteller.

About Christopher P. Kriesen