Meet Kyson

For years, I told stories that moved millions. But I couldn't tell the one that mattered most: my own.

KYSON DANA

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

WWW.KYSONDANA.COM

KYSONDANA@GMAIL.COM

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CHIEF EXISTENTIAL OFFICER



For 15 years I worked with brands as a Creative Director and Designer. I created for brands like Rivian, Ford, Boosted Boards, Tesla, and Adobe to tell their stories. I've used brand storytelling to launch exciting new products and branding to raise millions of dollars for startups and non-profits. I know how to create narratives that move people, build meaning, and drive change.


But my own story nearly broke me.


For the past decade I've lived in California, but I was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. My family of origin was incredibly religious but after a lifetime of devotion, I quit being Mormon in my late 20s.


Up until then, I had dedicated my whole life to this religion. I had served a two-year volunteer mission in Russia, married in the Salt Lake City LDS temple, and brought two children into the world—fully planning to raise them as devout Mormons too.


However, the emotional pain I learned to suppress began leaking out of me. I started questioning my life choices. My questions quickly snowballed into deep doubts and soon my whole life was falling apart.





This theology was my whole worldview, and when it cracked, the sky and the ground disappeared at the same time.


I went into freefall. It's hard to describe just how all-ecompassing this cosmological view of reality was for me. I felt like Truman waking up to realize his whole world was set on a stage. It was a story. It wasn't true.


I plunged into philosophy and psychology. I needed to understand reality and what was happening to me. I read everything from Descartes to Whitehead and Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell. I looked for patterns. I was lost on a map and couldn't find orientation.


I deconstructed every story I thought I knew to be true. As I did, the narratives that once anchored my life collapsed one by one. I fell into a terrible void of meaningless darkness. I stayed there too long. I didn't have a way out on my own.


…when it cracked, the sky and the ground disappeared at the same time.

I fell into a terrible void of meaningless darkness.

…when it cracked, the sky and the ground disappeared at the same time.



This theology was my whole worldview, and when it cracked, the sky and the ground disappeared at the same time.


I went into freefall. It's hard to describe just how all-ecompassing this cosmological view of reality was for me. I felt like Truman waking up to realize his whole world was set on a stage. It was a story. It wasn't true.


I plunged into philosophy and psychology. I needed to understand reality and what was happening to me. I read everything from Descartes to Whitehead and Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell. I looked for patterns. I was lost on a map and couldn't find orientation.


I deconstructed every story I thought I knew to be true. As I did, the narratives that once anchored my life collapsed one by one. I fell into a terrible void of meaningless darkness. I stayed there too long. I didn't have a way out on my own.



Slowly, through therapy, plant medicine, meditation, and spending time in nature, I learned to feel again. I began processing trauma. I let go of the inner critic.


Then I did something that changed everything: I turned my storytelling skills inward. I stopped searching out there and began exploring inside myself. I found my own arc. I turned my pain into art.


I made a film and told my story publicly. It connected ways I never imagined possible. In a short few weeks it was viewed by 300k+ people. I was flooded with messages from others sharing their own stories.


I quickly discovered my story wasn't just mine—it was shared by thousands. My suffering wasn't unique to Mormonism or my culture. It was universal. And so was my story of redemption.


It is sacred to tell your personal story of your pain and loss — to recognize how it belongs to an ancient pattern of death, rebirth, and becoming.