So you wanna know more about me, huh? Read on, Friend. Read On.
Pronouns: She/her
The What’s:
Certified Life Coach, professional actor, creative leader, registered Yoga Teacher, Leadership workshop facilitator, Creativity workshop facilitator, creative living enthusiast, professional experimenter, queer, Gemini (watch out!), badass curiosity champion.
A few strengths:
Cross-pollinating creativity with what I study about optimizing brain potential, in order to problem solve in an inspiring, yet effective way. Doing bold things. Being impulsive. Having an idea and sprinting with it until it is executed and complete. Creating art. Hearing, speaking, experimenting, shipping, communicating.
Fun Facts:
I value creativity, growth, and freedom, and prioritize my life so it aligns with those values.
I am queer and non-monogamous.
I went solo-backpacking for five months through Southeast Asia a few years back.
I was the only one who got a perfect score on my Motorcycle license test in my class of only men--heyyyoooo!
My blonde streak started five years ago when my roommate at the time, Deanne Stewart, was bleaching her own hair and I asked if she could bleach a piece of mine. I’ve been dyeing it ever since. (Yes…it looks very scary during this pandemic, thank you for asking.)
I am on a dedicated path to learn as much as possible about myself, and the world around me, while I’m here on earth.
<—My face, my blonde, and the jacket I wore during my motorcycle road test.
The leadership story:
For the past few years I’ve been in New York City, living that artist life. But I’ve had an inkling that there was something more. Much like the cheetah in Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, I felt like, “…everything was supposed to be more beautiful than this.”
Call it what you want, your intuition, your Genuine (hey Liz Kimball!), Source…I call it Desire, and it is my favorite place to begin.
I believe listening to, honoring, and experimenting with Desire is the key to inventing our most inspiring, interesting lives.
Two years ago, I learned that I was an Obliger (based on Gretchen Rubin’s framework, The Four Tendencies) which means, I need accountability to get things done. Once I learned this about myself, my world opened up. I leaned way in, and looked at the areas of my life in which I wanted to improve, and set up systems, and an accountability partnership (hey--Lizzie Markson), to do so.
I want to know more about business, so I join a personal-development book club. I’m curious about leadership, so I meet with leaders twice per week to go through leadership modules. I want to work on an element of my relationship with my partner, so we read two chapters of a book, and set a date in the calendar to discuss. I want to finish that screenplay, so I sign up for writing mentorship. Lizzie and I desire an artistic home to share in-process art we are making, so we create “Create & Incubate”. The list goes on and on…
I became skilled at recognizing Desire, and creating systems for it to thrive in.
HINT: I can help you do that too.
Once Create & Incubate was in full swing, and I was in the midst of getting my Life Coaching Certification (another Desire), it felt like something in me woke up. It felt like, all of a sudden, I was using more of my brain than I had in the years when I had exclusively identified as an actor. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks: “Oh my god. I am--and always have been--a leader, and a complete and total nerd.”
Memories came flooding back about asking my teachers for more homework in preschool, ASKING FOR LOGIC PUZZLES TO TAKE HOME WITH ME ON VACATION, (SERIOUSLY! WHO DOES THAT!! MY TEACHER GAVE ME A WHOLE BOOK AND I WAS THRILLED!!), writing a very frank letter to a college professor who I felt was wasting my tuition (yes, I shared it with him), successfully changing my college’s showcase for the foreseeable future, and so on and so on.
Following the breadcrumbs of desire shines a spotlight on the next thing that we are supposed to learn or become.
This waking up reminded me of who I aways was, and who I am meant to be:
Someone who studies leadership for fun. Someone who both makes things, and makes things happen. Someone dedicated to a rich life of wild experimentation, who prioritizes total transparency about how the experiment went. Someone dedicated to nurturing Desire, so D speaks up as long as I live. Someone who questions things. Who is constantly curious about the world. (And about you--dear Reader. Really…I’m insatiable…) Someone who wants everyone to wake up to their own potential and possibilities, because if we can fully invest in and love ourselves, we can do the same for others.
A few sources I can consciously point to as life-changing: