Welcome! I’m happy you’re here and excited about what we can create together.
I’m an award-winning documentary filmmaker and global keynote speaker on storytelling that forges deep connection.
Since childhood I’ve had a crazy over the top ability to listen with my whole being. I applied those skills at home, with friends, with my cat. With everyone.
This is still how I make sense of the world and our place in it. And how I connect deeply, with a full and open heart.
I first applied my supersonic listening skills professionally when I was 18, part of a small team making a documentary about children with mental illness. “Children of Darkness” was nominated for an Academy Award, opened people’s eyes to the need for better mental health care, and is still moving viewers decades later. I experienced first-hand how powerful storytelling can shift people’s attitudes and behavior, and the key elements every story must have to harness that power.
Since then I’ve been writing, directing and producing award-winning feature films, documentaries, TV series and brand spots that have reached and moved millions globally. Through keynotes and workshops I share the insights and lessons I’ve learned.
It’s through listening that I also help brands, leaders and individuals discover their most compelling and relatable human stories. I’m merely a conduit to capture and radiate their heart and humanity to connect with others.
I’ve come to realize that the process and impact of giving a keynote, making a documentary or working with leaders and teams are surprisingly similar. They all require listening with my supersonic powers and open heart. I then turn what I hear into transformational journeys that inspire people to take positive action. Whole-hearted, empathetic listening and mobilizing people through storytelling are central to who I am and everything I do.
Clients
Human connection is the antidote to our fractured, AI world.
FAQs
ABOUT CHERYL
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Cheryl is a keynote speaker with almost a decade of experience engaging diverse audiences across 10+ countries and many different industries. Audience sizes range from intimate team gatherings to thousands at major events. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, universities and government agencies, sharing an actionable storytelling framework participants can apply to their marketing, sales, fundraising, leadership, social impact and personal growth. Cheryl’s keynotes combine insights, moving stories, real-world business examples and her own experiences as a documentary filmmaker who tells stories that drive results.
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Cheryl feels most alive when she is connecting deeply with others, in her personal life and work. She believes that telling honest, vulnerable stories, and listening to other people’s stories with an open heart, is the most powerful way to foster connection and ignite what makes us most human. Cheryl’s greatest joy is telling stories that reach and move a wide audience through her filmmaking and keynotes to drive positive change and nourish our humanity. She also loves the challenge of crafting stories in a way that will engage others, a puzzle that requires craft, soul and vision.
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Cheryl has been telling emotionally engaging, high impact stories for almost four decades as an award-winning documentary director, writer and producer. As a producer on a documentary about children with mental illness when she was 18 nominated for an Academy Award, Cheryl received her first major storytelling lesson: the importance of being comfortable in discomfort, and featuring people who openly express universally relatable human emotions. Audiences go on an emotional journey through them. Creating feature films and hundreds of hours of TV, Cheryl developed her expertise of crafting a narrative story structure that grabs and holds people’s attention. Working with brands and nonprofits, she honed her expertise in how to mobilize people to action through storytelling.
