In our overwhelmed, fragmented and distrustful world, it’s harder than ever for brands and leaders to ignite engagement. Yet we are yearning for connection more than ever. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Cheryl Miller Houser offers a powerful storytelling framework that organizations and leaders can use to create deep emotional engagement and build connection, community and positive change.

Based on learnings from her decades of filmmaking and neuroscience, Cheryl shows how to open people’s hearts and get their oxytocin, the “love hormone,” flowing by telling stories that convey universally relatable human experiences and feelings. She also provides actionable tactics on how to structure a narrative arc to earn and sustain people’s attention, and how to mobilize them to convert their feelings into positive action. Brands and leaders can use Cheryl’s transformative storytelling approach in their marketing, sales, leadership, fundraising, social impact and beyond.

You’ll learn how to: 

• Show up as “human,” authentic and relatable, as a brand or leader

• Foster and tap into universally shared emotions to elicit oxytocin, “the love hormone” to build emotional connection and trust

• Structure stories so they engage & sustain people’s attention

• Move people deeply, then mobilize them to convert their emotions into action

• Understand and apply the craft and science of storytelling

• Uncover powerful stories within yourself and your organization

Workshop:

In this workshop participants apply Cheryl’s tactics to their most urgent storytelling challenges. Since Cheryl takes people on a deeply emotional journey in her keynote, they are especially inspired to engage openly and collaboratively.  

In our fragmented, rapidly shifting world, it’s hard for companies and leaders to stay relevant. Yet brands with high cultural relevance grow nearly six times more than brands with low levels. Cheryl Miller Houser provides a framework that brands and leaders can use to lead and shape culture, not just seize a moment. Sharing insights about how culture spreads, the craft of storytelling and lessons from brands shaping culture, Cheryl shows how to create a strong emotional connection and community among people with shared beliefs, values and identity. Participants leave with tactics they can apply to all forms of storytelling to create passionate advocates, ignite the contagious, community-building power of culture, build a positive internal company culture and wider cultural impact. 

You’ll Learn How to: 

• Drive growth and long-term cultural relevance instead of seizing momentary trends 

• Foster belonging and community around shared beliefs within and outside of your organization

• Shape culture in a way that’s organic to your brand

• Ignite the emotions of employees, customers, partners and funders to shift their attitudes and mobilize action

• Create a company culture of belonging and collaboration

• Define and convey your brand’s beliefs and values

• Avoid cultural mis-steps 

• Create large scale movements that change culture in positive ways

Workshop:

In the workshop participants apply Cheryl’s cultural storytelling framework to their brand or organization through guided hands-on exercises. Cheryl interweaves small group challenges with full group discussions to provide a mix of personal ah-ha’s, group learnings and collaboration.

In the face of uncertainty, fragmentation and overwhelm, almost two thirds of employees in the U.S. feel disengaged at work, and many also feel lonely there. They are stagnating personally and an economic and morale drain on their companies. Leaders now more than ever need to create a workplace culture of belonging, connection and trust so their teams and companies can thrive. 

Cheryl Miller Houser offers a transformational framework for leaders seen through her lens as a storyteller and award winning documentary filmmaker. Using illustrative clips and inspiring stories, she offers a roadmap and actionable tactics leaders can use to form genuine and long-lasting connection with their teams, customers and partners, galvanize people around their vision and drive success for employees, themselves and their organizations. Cheryl’s leadership framework echoes her proven storytelling framework, which makes sense since great leadership and great storytelling go hand-in-hand. Both are grounded in unlocking the best and most profound characteristics that make us human and connecting, inspiring and mobilizing people through our shared humanity. 

You’ll Learn How to: 

• Tell engaging, inspiring stories that mobilize people around your vision and goals

• Unlock the inherent potential of your employees to build high performing teams 

• Create a culture of belonging where employees collaborate, innovate and do their best work

• Increase employee engagement and retention 

• Drive innovation, growth and success

Almost eighty percent of us are significantly held back  in our careers, relationships and overall happiness due to self-doubt, fear and disconnection from our true selves. And yet the courage to reach for what we want, and show up as our most authentic selves, is propelled by the opposite: an inner dialogue cheering us on and reinforcing that we are worthy and capable. In this moving keynote, Cheryl Miller Houser brings participants on a transformative journey of self-awareness and empowerment. Using engaging short clips, relatable stories, neuroscience and provocative prompts, she helps participants identify the harmful stories running on repeat in their heads –- those of an inner critic or other people’s expectations -- and where those beliefs come from. She also provides a framework to help them expand what they believe is possible and claim their true heart’s desires. Doing so doesn’t just unlock success. It brings participants joy, freedom and a more authentic relationship with themselves and others.

You’ll Learn How to: 

• Identify the stories you tell yourself and others tell you that harm your sense of self and belief in what’s possible

• Change unhealthy thinking patterns and learn new & positive ones

• Take control of self-defeating thoughts to shift your behavior and outcomes

• Live more authentically and truthfully to who you are at your core

• Find acceptance, compassion and love for yourself

• Tune into your inner wisdom, authority and strengths you never realized you had

• Imagine the life you want to live, the first step in making what we want a reality

Workshop:

The workshop builds on the powerful awakenings participants experience during Cheryl’s moving keynote, so they move into the participatory phase ready to engage openly and collaboratively.  

Applying insights and inspiration from the first part of the workshop, participants break into pairs or small groups and share stories in response to prompts from Cheryl. People who feel comfortable (most are keen to!) share their moving stories with the full group, which drives trust, belonging and collaboration. In sharing stories, people realize they are not alone in their struggles. Participants often have similar emotions and experiences to others in the room and are keen to show up with compassion, support and wisdom from their own life lessons.