[Lovely Things] Croissants, Creativity, and Celebrations  🥐

Springtime is here in California. The perfect time for me to wake up from my long winter hibernation, which I call my Creative Cocoon. 

I looked at my Instagram page the other day and I noticed the last time I shared a post that lasted longer than 24 hours on social media was March 21, 2021. One whole year ago. 

Even if I was quiet to the outside world, I was bursting with creative expression and spending time with people I love in my daily life.

I wrote and turned in my final’ish manuscript to my editor, Harper Business. 76,783 words and 47 images of artwork.

I celebrated Jen Kem’s birthday for a sQuad trip to Montréal along with Nicole Walters and Nikki Elledge Brown. It felt so good to dust off my passport and eat croissants with my besties.

A List of Lovely Things ❤️

listen 🎧

What songs I’m listening to on repeat… “Don’t Start Now” by Penny & Sparrow (a slow

A few songs I’m listening to on repeat: “Comedown” by Joesef, “Pause” by Eddy de Pretto and Yseult, “Meet Me At Out Spot” by ANXIETY, WILLOW and Tyler Code. 

In case you missed it: season 4 of the Lead with Love podcast. I share behind the scenes of my book writing process here, here, and here. 

I teamed up with Jonathan Fields as a guest mentor on his new LinkedIn podcast called Sparked. The Sparked Podcast is all about finding, creating and doing work that makes you come alive. It's super fun too! A listener poses a question, and a team of mentors answer that question pulling from their own experiences and insights. Listen to today's episode here.

read 📖

My husband George and I kicked off the year with the book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkemen. It’s a reminder to embrace your limits, allow things to take the time they take, and sit in the discomfort of not knowing.  

As someone whose strength is Futuristic and loves to dream, plan and think about the future, this line hit home for me: “Derive satisfaction to the doing itself instead of deferring all of your fulfillment to the future.”

I also appreciated the author's commentary on our addiction to moving too fast in hopes to keep up and feel in control of our lives. When this happens we get more anxious, push ourselves harder and our work and relationships suffer.  

Here is a powerful question from the book:

How would you spend your days differently if you didn’t care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition?

watch 📺

Zoe and I started watching The Mindy Project on Hulu together. We laugh out loud on every episode. Thanks to my friend Amy Ahlers for the recommendation to watch this series with my daughter.

I finished Love is Blind, season 2 as fast as Netflix would let me watch it. How dare they try to pace my binge-watching abilities by splitting the show up over three weeks. That reunion show was bananas. 🍌

contribute 🙏🏽

There is a lot happening all around us that pulls on our heart strings in so many directions. Here are a few resources to support people impacted in Ukraine right now: 

• Nova Ukraine
• Help Save Ukraine
• Black Women for Black Lives has partnered with Airbnb to ensure the students who are still fleeing Ukraine and settling in other countries are accommodated for up to 14 days. Support their GoFundMe here
• Outright International is supporting LGBTQA people in Ukraine 

Thank you to Love Your Nature and Jocelyn K. Glei for gathering these resources and sharing publicly.  

nourish 🧘🏽‍♀️

I’ve been meditating almost every single day since the pandemic started. I follow the Atomic Habits principle to not miss more than one day. It’s been a powerful practice to not put the streak on a pedestal. So even though it would be cool to say I’ve been on a 700+ streak, I miss a day every now and then. My current streak is 68 days. 

laugh 😂

We’re annoyingly obsessed with our fur baby, Beesly. George, Zoe and I text pictures of her to each other. This was a recent one: 

travel ✈️ 

A few things I loved on my sQuad trip to Montréal:

• Sleep: We stayed in a 6-bedroom penthouse in Old Montréal. Plenty of space to spread out. Minimalist design. Walking distance to shops and restaurants. No elevator, so we celebrated with daily croissants. 
• Eat: We ordered Mae Sri Thai dinner via DoorDash delivery for arrival night. Maison Christian Faure had the BEST croissants. Delicious Brunch at Olive + Gourmando. We celebrated Jen's birthday at Le Club Chasse et Pêche (the shrimp were so buttery). Café Olimpico great spot for lattes + pastries morning ‘til midnight. Our last dinner was at Modavie for traditional French cuisine. 
• Play: We booked a day to soak in the variety of saunas + pools at Spa Finlandais. But it snowed, so we couldn’t get a ride. A great excuse to come back. Instead, we walked in the fresh snowfall and found cute + inclusive swimwear at Mimi & August boutique store. 

wins ✨

Drawing on my own experience as a founder for over a decade and mentoring start-ups to $5 million a year companies, it’s a joy to support so many inspiring women building meaningful work in the world…

• Grace K, the founder of The Hivery is bringing her book proposal to the finish line. 
• Meri Cherry sold out 90% of her summer camp at her Meri Cherry Art Studio in 3-hours and started holding monthly meetings with her leadership team. 
• Denise, creator of Sweet Peas & Saffron, took a 3-month sabbatical last year, is dedicating three days a week to writing her novel, and brought in $450,000 in revenue for 2021. 

I love my clients. And since I’m done writing my book, I’m excited to open up 2 one-on-one coaching spots. If you’re an established business owner wanting to grow your business with a strategic advisor, let’s have a conversation. Apply here now. 

If this list of “Lovely Things” brought you joy, feel free to share it with a friend. Now go unplug, dance, build something meaningful and make time for what matters most!

P.S. If you’re in a season of expansion and growth, submit an application here. If I can help you, my team will reach out to you to schedule a no strings attached call with me. 🥰