My name is Jordan Soliday, creator of Your Epic Ordinary Life.

The year was 2008, and I was a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. A depressed kid, I was lost in the shuffle of 40,000 students, unsure of what kind of life I wanted to create. I took an obligatory English Composition class. From the back of that musty classroom, I gradually came more alive, listening to the words of a lanky graduate instructor. Halfway through the semester, he invited me to coffee over a tiny table on Forbes Avenue, where he told me, "You can write." He saw something in me I did not yet see myself.

Fast forward a few years. I’d transferred to Andrews University and was studying English and Religion. I attended a poetry seminar featuring Carolyn Forché. During Q&A, I stood among the congregants and asked her why she writes. She chuckled momentarily, as did the crowd. Then her face became as stone. She tilted her head back, then forward, as if she had harnessed a line from down deep. It shot out like a beam, lit up her very bones, and all of us:

"Writing retrieves from the consciousness what is irretrievable by other means."

And so writing became my chosen art form. It accesses something in me that other mediums cannot. Through it, I've learned a great deal about myself, and sometimes brought a kindling flame to those who've read what I've written.

Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: English teacher, editor, storyteller, innovation consultant, pastor, life coach. And while the roles have shifted, the thread remains the same: helping others unfold into more aliveness. That is what Your Epic Ordinary Life is all about. Revisiting where you’ve been, reinterpreting events through a different lens, becoming more of who you really are. I love crafting people’s life stories. I have seen the reward that waits for those willing to unearth how the seemingly ordinary moments that make up their lives are, in truth, extraordinary.

I believe in the power of language—not just to describe the world, but to create it. The Hebrew root of abracadabra translates to “as I speak, I create.” Words shape reality. They form our marriages and divorces, our democracies and dictatorships, our self-love and self-loathing. They are the stimuli by which we design our lives.

It would be my great honor and privilege to coach you in processing your unique life story, to write it for you, speak it over you, and witness whatever beautiful chapter you might like to design next.

Credentials and training

Coaching

• Participant in Foundations of Coaching Course, Thirdspace

• Participant in The Narrative Coach Program, The Moment Institute

Storytelling

• Creator of Your Epic Ordinary Life narrative coaching service

• Certificate in Storytelling for Social Change, University of Michigan

Design

• Co-creator of the unhurried design approach to design thinking with Johnnie Moore

• Certificate in Leading from the Emerging Future, u.lab (MITx)

• Theory U change management method, 100 hours of training from AdventHealth Innovation Lab

• Participant in Yellow learning design online groups and 3D unconference

• Certificate in Creative Leadership: Design Thinking Methodology, Lifeguard Facilitation of Innovation, and Pillars of Creative Thinking, Creativity Effect

• Certificate in Foundations in Creative Leadership, IDEO U

• Certificate in Advanced Design Thinking, IDEO U

• Certificate in Foundations in Design Thinking, IDEO U

• Certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace, University of South Florida

Mysticism

• Hatha, Tantra, and Kundalini Yoga, 50 hours of training from Nayana Yoga

• Self-study in perennial, process, and Jungian philosophy

• Former creative director and pastor of Patmos Chapel Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Education

• Self-study research with Robert Poynton, Associate Fellow of Oxford Saïd Business School. Research question: What if hurry—in pace, thinking, and behavior—is the root of the crises we face in our world today?

• Bachelor’s Degree, English and Religion: Writing Emphasis, Andrews University