I am not a documenter. I am an experiencer. You can tell this by the lack of photographs of my family. I was too busy doing to capture the moment. Which I don’t regret, but now that telling our own story is so much more accessible I want to do that for myself and for you. I believe that I have a little secret sauce that other people might really want.
My Secret Sauce
- I’m 46 and when I was in my 30’s I moved my family, sight unseen, to the Ozark Mountains to live a life of simplicity and joy. We did it. We left corporate life to go live life on our terms. Is it perfect, no, but it is awesome.
- I am the part time director of a Main Street program dedicated to protecting place – a special place. I love that my passion for small business, marketing and preserving a sense of place has been rolled into one lovely direction. I love the work I do and the people I get to play/work with.
- I’m a speaker who has been fortunate to speak to groups nationwide on leadership, marketing, customer service, brand development, and goals. How lucky am I to craft messages that, hopefully, resonate with audiences.
- I’m a brand and marketing consultant that has worked on some amazing projects over the year. I work with driven people and businesses who are ready to go get what they have been working on and dreaming about. I never really talk about that work and I want to share it with you because it is so fun and, hopefully, will get your creative juices flowing.
- My days are my own. I am able to live exactly how I want to and expend energy when I need to. That is a luxury in this age and I know it.
- I write for HuffingtonPost.com, have been featured in Real Simple, and am writing a book on Relentless Authenticity – living your personal brand (scary to admit that I’m writing a book.)
- I’ve been meditating for 20+ years and received Dharma transmission this year (fancy talk for being more committed to the practice), I write poetry and love every minute of that even though I’m not published (yet), I cook all or our meals at home (from scratch), I keep a gratitude journal that has rocked my socks off to elevate my mood, and I have journaled for over 30 years. These practices sustain me.
- We live a life that is simple and authentic and that is magical to me.
- We are empty nesters, with one daughter who lives a hipsterly life an hour a way from us and that we are still extremely attached. We adopted a crazy Walker Coon Hound this year and he has kept us in the moment – in laughter and tears. My husband and I have been together for 27 years and aren’t married, but we call each other husband and wife because it just makes it easier for everyone to understand.
- I experiment with things, projects, planning, ideas and passions at whim and will.
It isn’t perfect. We are slowly getting our financial house in order (I inherited my parents debts), our relationship is perfect but after 27 years we are still working at it, and I’m learning about leadership and responsibility in the public eye – an interesting experiment that I hope I can grow into.
Do I work the fabled 4-Hour Work Week? No. That is crazy talk. Do I have millions? No, but we get by with a bit of careful planning and frugality. Are we living the dream? Let’s just say that when we lived in San Francisco I knew that I wanted to escape the corporate climb and live in the country and we do that – so, yes, we live the dream even though it isn’t perfect.
My goal here is to start documenting the real and the work. I want you to see behind the curtain and explore my world a little more. I want to inspire you to live your dream, whatever that is. Cheers to trying new things and capturing the magic of our lives!
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