Turn a life into a lasting story

A private memoir experience led by a Ph.D., PCC coach and an MIT xPRO educator

A colorful, gradient background with the motivational phrase "Your Epic Ordinary Life" in bold, white letters.

Your life holds an epic tale.
Or several.
Most are never told.

This guided memoir journey is not about polishing your résumé or listing your best moments. It is an honest account that honors your reality.

We help you gather, shape, and share your story. We treat your memories with care and craft an authentic narrative you can share with loved ones or colleagues.

Get the Family Guide: 5 Principles of Telling Your Life Story

Give it as a gift

For loved ones who want to honor a parent, grandparent, or significant other.

Honor your loved one with an extraordinary experience.

Honor someone you love with an experience, not just an object.

We sit with them in real conversations—on Zoom or in person—to draw out their memories, turning points, and life lessons. In consultation with you, we handle the structure, writing, and design. They simply get to show up, tell their stories, and be deeply listened to.

What they receive is a priceless gift that is a bridge between generations—a story their children, grandchildren, and community can return to for the rest of their lives.

  • We do the heavy lifting: interviewing, writing, editing, and design

  • Timeline: 3–6 weeks to manuscript

Bringing our experience to tell your life story

Jordan and Samir co-founded Epic Ordinary with an unwavering belief that every person has a powerful story—if only they take time to uncover it. We are patient guides who help people claim their epic and pass it on.

Jordan Soliday
Co-founder & story guide

MIT xPRO instructor, writing coach, and author of the forthcoming The Urgency of Slowing. Jordan lives in Boulder and helps people cultivate a non-anxious presence.

“Jordan thrives in coaching people from diverse global cultures and industries.” – Ed Crawley, Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT

Samir Selmanović, Ph.D PCC
Co-founder & story guide

Executive coach, transition guide for experienced and new leaders, author, and ordained minister. Samir lives in NYC and sees himself and those he works with as ordinary mystics.

“Selmanović is a storyteller and he does have stories to tell.” – The New York Times

Have a story to tell?

Your Epic Ordinary Life is often given as a gift for:

  • A parent, grandparent, mentor, or elder you want to honor in a personal, meaningful way

  • A spouse or partner you want to celebrate while they are still here to receive it

  • A retiring loved one whose decades of stories can transform a party into a living tribute

  • A couple wanting to capture a love story that blesses guests long after the wedding day ends

  • A person moving through illness, burnout, divorce, or loss who needs help making sense of what happened and naming what’s next

  • Someone choosing to tell their own story as a gift to their children or future generations

This is especially fitting when a family is already setting aside money for a meaningful milestone: a 50th or 60th birthday, a retirement, a wedding, an anniversary, a celebration of life, a healing season, or a major transition. Some gifts are opened once. This one keeps opening.

Our clients
work for

  • “My husband turned 60 and we had no idea what to get the man who wants nothing. Now our children have his whole story in his own words.”

    Catherine Langford, wife of client

  • “I felt safe sharing my story. A lot of respect and patience was shown in the process. It turned out exquisitely.”

    Erica Björkebäck, recipient of gift

  • “This moved me deeply and helped me see my history in a totally fresh light.”

    Sam Smith, founder coach

  • “It turned 40 years of work into something his whole family could finally see. His retirement toast moved the entire room.”

    Daniel Mathers, best friend of client

  • “I wasn’t seen as a project. I was treated as a unique person.”

    Jacqueline Brito, new business owner

  • “We thought we knew our own love story. But hearing it told back to us—that became the real gift we gave each other and our loved ones.”

    Robert Caldwell, groom

The process

We are curators in service of you as the teller of your story. You speak; we listen, write, and edit. Together we finalize your manuscript and prepare and support you as you share your story in your world.

  • An individual is taking notes in a small notebook while interviewing a woman sitting on a chair, in a setting that appears to be an office or a waiting area.

    We listen to your life

    Four to six guided sessions with generative questions. Optional family or colleague interviews.

  • A person's hand holding a black pen over a piece of paper on a desk, with a blurred background.

    We craft your story

    An honest and honoring look at your life. Editing with you, not to you.

  • A man giving a presentation to a seated audience in a conference room with a large blank screen behind him.

    You embody your story

    A professionally designed memoir. Coaching to help you share your story in your way.

What you receive

Story sessions

Unhurried, guided conversations—online or in person—designed to draw out the chapters, turning points, and quiet moments that matter. We can also host optional family or colleague interviews.

A narrative in your voice

A potent, carefully crafted story that sounds like you: your language, your rhythm, your honesty. This becomes your core artifact—a manuscript you can read, share, or draw from in many ways.

Designed editions

We can create: a professionally formatted digital manuscript, beautifully designed printed editions, and leather-bound or other bespoke physical formats (by request).

Optional additions

For those who want to go further, we can include: poetry woven into the narrative, audio recording of your story read aloud, bespoke elements tailored to your context, and facilitated family or team ritual, reading, or event to “launch” your story.

Privacy and care

We treat your life with discretion and respect. Nothing is shared without your written permission. Audio and drafts are stored securely and handed off to you at completion. You remain in control of what is told, how it’s told, and who receives it.

Intentional cadence

3 to 6 weeks from the first interview to the finished manuscript. Printing/shipping adds 7-14 days. Expedited delivery on request.

Get the Family Guide: 5 Principles of Telling Your Life Story

“Your story is your most powerful tool to effect change.”

Samir Selmanovic
Co-Founder & Story Guide, Epic Ordinary

Unfold change in the world

Your investment writes more than your own story. It funds the time, travel, and craft this work deserves. When you choose Your Epic Ordinary Life, you also seed our scholarship fund to bring others’ untold, world-shaping stories to light.

Investment

Full story packages start at USD 4000 and range depending on scope, length, and format.

  • Experiential sessions

  • Writing + editing (with you)

  • Professional design

  • Privacy-first (written permission for sharing)

Full story packages: 50% of the client fee or the full amount is due before onboarding. The remaining 50% is due upon final story approval. Payment plans available upon request.

Start gently:
Book a Discovery Session (180 USD)

Change Makers Fund

5% of every project goes to Change Makers Fund scholarships, allowing donors and past clients to sponsor leaders, elders, and change-makers who couldn’t otherwise invest.

“This is not just storytelling. It is a sacred act of witnessing your life.”

Jordan Soliday
Co-Founder & Story Guide, Epic Ordinary

Your story matters

The Empire State Building at sunset in New York City with the Manhattan skyline in the background.
A bride and groom hugging against a textured stone wall, with the bride wearing a white wedding gown and veil, and the groom in a black suit, on a wooden outdoor setting.
A pregnant woman with dark skin and curly hair, wearing a white dress, standing outdoors near rocks with a blue sky background.
A newborn baby being delivered by medical professionals in an operating room, with the baby crying and surrounded by medical staff wearing gloves and gowns.
A woman in a checkered dress cooking on a vintage stove in a kitchen.
A person gently petting a gray tabby cat on the head while the cat rests in their lap, sitting on a red and black plaid blanket.
An elderly couple smiling at each other outdoors with a green hill in the background.
Close-up of an elderly man wearing a black hat and a brown corduroy jacket, outdoors with trees and a wooden structure in the background.
An elderly woman wearing a traditional sari sits on an orange plastic chair with her arm resting on the back, appearing to be deep in thought or slightly concerned, inside a simple room with an open window and some blurred background figures.
Colorful intricately decorated Hindu temple tower with multiple tiers and a blue sky background, partially obscured by green foliage.
Three professionally dressed adults, two men and one woman, are outside having a discussion. The woman is holding a black folder or case, and they are talking seriously.
People walking on a herringbone-pattern wooden floor, seen from above, some holding shopping bags.
Two men in suits walking away on a city street in black and white.
A man in a military uniform receiving a medal while another person pins it on his chest.
Male chef seasoning a stir-fry in a commercial kitchen, surrounded by various bowls of ingredients.
A female doctor wearing a white lab coat reviews brain MRI scans on a lightbox in a medical office.
A man with a prosthetic leg is crossing the street at a crosswalk, holding a laptop in his left hand, wearing a navy blazer, a white shirt, tan shorts, gray socks, and black loafers, with trees and pedestrians in the background.
A smiling young girl with glasses sitting in a wheelchair outdoors on a sunny day, surrounded by green trees.
A person with rainbow-colored hair and makeup, wearing a rainbow flag and surrounded by a crowd of people.
Silhouette of a person wearing a cap, holding a microphone, performing on stage with red lighting and smoke in the background.
An elderly man with glasses holds a vintage portable radio to his ear.
Two people riding a horse through a grassy plain with a large mountain in the background under a clear sky.
Close-up of a person wearing ski goggles that reflect a snowy mountain landscape with a few people, snow-covered peaks, and a bright sunset.
A white chapel with a tiled roof and a bell, perched on a rocky cliff surrounded by green trees, with mountains in the background and a dramatic sky at sunset.

Ready to tell it?

A colorful gradient logo with the text 'Your Epic Ordinary Life' in bold white letters.
Yes, give me the Family Guide