Charles McNair
Communication Consultant
Author | Speaker | Storyteller
Who is Charles McNair?
Charles McNair is a widely known communication consultant to Fortune 100 and other companies and a critically acclaimed novelist and writer. He is a highly sought communication strategist and wordsmith, known for his ability to communicate in the voice of the C-suite or the person on the street. His writing career includes editor roles at national and regional magazines, with his byline appearing in numerous influential publications.
The Books
The Epicureans
This thriller is a meditation on evil, innocence, twisted appetites, and the bonds of family. It features a villain to rival Hannibal Lecter, a heroic father who would feel comfortable on a porch with Atticus Finch, and a mother whose love conquers … almost … all.
Content warning: This sample reading from The Epicureans contains disturbing subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
Land O' Goshen
Part romance, part adventure yarn, part horror story, this dystopian novel portrays a strange boy and his female friend coming of age in a Deep South shattered by religious civil war. Land O’ Goshen draws on the most fantastic elements in Southern storytelling. Charles’s first novel, Land O' Goshen was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1994.
Pickett's Charge
In 1964, Threadgill Pickett, physically and psychologically scarred by the Civil War as a youth, breaks out from an Alabama old folks home and starts a quest northward to hunt down the last living Union soldier. The centenarian’s journey through the collective American nervous breakdown called the ‘60s brings him into contact with the counterculture, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the space race, and much more … including a spider monkey smuggler, two brothers building a time machine, a rabble of Ku Kluxers, and a Utopian society of blacks and whites who share family, food, love, and grief.
Play It Again, Sam: The Notable Life of Sam Massell, Atlanta’s First Minority Mayor
In 1969, Sam Massell was elected the first Jewish mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Politically, Massell changed Atlanta's city elections to nonpartisan, created Atlanta's Urban Design Commission, allowed Muhammad Ali to fight when fifty other cities would not, established Metro Atlanta's mass transit system (MARTA), appointed the first woman to the City Council, named the first Blacks to city department head status, and developed the Omni, Atlanta's first enclosed arena. Most importantly, his legacy will be his peaceful guidance of Atlanta (then population 500,000) through its transformation from an all-White power structure to a Black city government.
Speaking & Workshops
Charles McNair combines decades of corporate communications work with a novelist's storytelling sensibility. His workshop will inspire and direct your team while delivering actionable direction you can immediately apply to your company's communications strategy.
Charles McNair combines decades of Fortune 500 corporate communications work with an award-winning novelist's storytelling sensibility. His workshop will inspire, bond, and motivate your team while delivering actionable ideas that leaders can immediately apply to strategic communication, internal or external.How does it work?A primary challenge faced by most every leader and every communication team in the world can be summed up in a single word:Clutter.How do leaders and teams today create communication that engages and compels audiences – communication that is heard – when so many other competing organizations are simultaneously clamoring to sell their messages to the same audiences?There’s a simple answer.Creativity of messaging – storytelling – becomes a competitive advantage.Good storytelling engages stakeholders in ways that make an emotional connection. Data and facts – information – can support decision-making, but truly influencing behavior depends on touching emotions. Stories that touch the emotions have a unique ability to dispel skepticism and disbelief. Stories stand apart as our very best tool, tried and true, for motivating, persuading, convincing, and leading those we serve.The proof is all around us. In a sales meeting, if you tell your story better, you win the client. In a courtroom, if you tell your story better, you win the case. In an election, if you tell your story better, you win the office.The Power of Story workshop shows leaders and teams ways to differentiate their communication from other products that clutter desks, airways, and minds. Leaders learn practical ways to develop creativity in thinking, messaging, and writing. Storytelling is the backbone element you can use to cut through the clutter and catalyze new ways of winning business … and growing.
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