The Journey of Embodying My Power

This has been a long and winding road for some time now. I find myself on this path again of deciding how to move forward. The intention of this blog is to speak from my purpose, my heart and allow you to join me with your thoughts and comments in real time. I am open to all.

I am a personal and professional coach. And there are so many other coaches out in the world today that it is difficult to differentiate myself from others. So I am communicating this way. I am inviting you to get to know me and know that the heart of my life work is to serve others.

I have been doing human development work for the last 14 years. I began when I was 17 years old. I had a difficult time in school because I had test anxiety so badly that I couldn't pass a test to save my life. When the teacher gave me something written I would fail because even though I had studied like crazy, I forgot everything out of nervousness. When the test was given to me orally I would pass with flying colors. Anyway, as a last resort to raise my grades before I went to college, my parents sent me to a camp that helped students master all sorts of academic skills. Needless to say it rocked my world. The camp is called SuperCamp, it’s international and it is the beginning of my life adventure.

At Supercamp I found myself standing on top of a pole that extended 30 feet in the air. It was a challenge event – called a “Ropes Course”. I had ropes tied to me and harnesses and for the most part it felt safe. There were about 15 other students down on the ground holding the ropes and supporting me verbally. It was really powerful. To hear everyone shouting my name and saying "you can do it," it was magical. At that moment is was almost like the clouds parted in the sky and the sun came out. I had an inner experience that I was being given a gift.

Something inside of me became really aware of my surroundings and I noticed the students on the ground in a different way. Looking down at them I saw young people who were doing their best to live life and somehow had a belief they just weren't good enough. Someone somewhere as they were growing up said they weren’t good enough in some way and they believed them. I was the same way, I will never forget Mrs. Clark in 4th grade telling me that I would never be good at math and I should stop trying. It happened to be in front of all the other kids.

And from where I stood on this pole, gazing into the other students smiles and eyes, I could see how magnificent each one of them were. I was touched deeply. Tears came to my eyes. At that moment I knew that this was my work in the world. That I was going to affect as many people as possible to help others see how beautiful each one of us really is and how important it is that we are here doing what we are meant to do.

From that day forward, I committed to learning and serving others in ways that supports people to grow and become magnificant.

I ended up working for SuperCamp for the next five years. I recruited kids to go while I attended college, and then was a camp counselor during the summers affecting as many students as possible. I worked at Stanford, Amherst, Eckerd College, and then went to Hong Kong and Thailand. It was amazing.

Then I wanted to use the same concepts that this camp was teaching to the students called "Accelerative Learning" and was curious how it worked for adults since are just big kids with a lot of onion layers.

I ended up working for and eventually purchasing the Boulder Center of Accelerative Learning at the young age of 22. It was a professional education company that used the methodology of Accelerative Learning (like SuperCamp) to teach adults content very quickly and easily. The basis of Accelerative Learning is a perspective that we have unlimited potential and we can create, do, be anything we set our minds to - it's human potential work. It's an amazing way of learning new information really.

Suddenly I had a fully running company with contract trainers available, money in the bank and a list of clients that included Nebraska Public Power, AT&T, Xcel Energy, MD Anderson, John Deere, Sundyne Corp, Remarketing Services of America...and the list goes on. I ran this company, created new curriculum, trained trainers, and gained new clients and continued to grow the work and business.

In 2005 I was asked by the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland to come on board as a trainer using this methodology to teach content on cleaning up landmines as a humanitarian effort globally. I lived and worked in Geneva, learned French, and taught people from 41 different countries how to keep track of landmines in their countries using the Accelerative Learning methodology. In fact that's why they hired me, because Accelerative Learning spans across languages, cultures, and diversity to connect people as people so they can learn.

As this project grew and my skills of living in a foreign country became a little more familiar (it can be very challenging living in a foreign country), I began to reach out and take on other consulting tasks with other organizations. I worked with the International Labor Organization, the World Health Center, and the Red Cross Red Crescent (International Red Cross) developing programs that helped executives, directors, and staff develop personally and professionally. I loved the work. I got to see and work with so many amazing individuals and hear their most confidential stories. I ate dinner in elegant places with high ranking military officials, and other big titled people as well as support and coach the most powerful leaders who affect the decisions in our world. It was an experience I cannot repeat, explain or do-over and it was life changing for me.

What I found was my heart growing. My heart and mind making connections about the way people are that I was seeing over and over again from people spreading countries. I feel I got a strong sense of what makes us all tick. I feel in love with humans, with our struggle, with our human beingness, as well as our magnificent beauty. And that was the gift of the experience.

I came home to continue my journey at the end of 2007.