Some Background

About Me: Living the Questions

When I was eight, the first book I read after Charlotte’s Web was Tell Me Why:Answers to Hundreds of Questions Children Ask by Arkady Leokum. Titillating questions like, “Can grasshoppers hear? How much blood is in our body? What is the speed of thought?” fascinated me, more so than did the answers.

Still, I loved knowing the answers. (Understanding things – yes. But also being right!) In fact, having THE answer became a survival mechanism in childhood. And like most survival mechanisms, devolved beyond its usefulness well into my adulthood.

Suffice it to say that I’ve come to realize that the magic IS the question. There is a bit of hope that lives inside a real question. It is said that the most powerful questions are those that can’t be answered. The poet and writer, Rainer Maria Rilke, captures this point well when he writes,

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

These are the most intriquing but also the most challenging types of questions to stay with. One such question that I've had for decades (or rather, it's had me!) is how to be a complete human being? That is, what does it mean to think and act humanely, when it’s easy but also, when it’s most difficult. This question has given me much in terms of insight, patience, and courage, in exchange for resisting the urge to settle on a definite answer. You know the type, the kind you can put in a box with a bow on it. But have you, like me, discovered that some questions are more valuable, unanswered and lived instead?

Mission

I help reluctant heroes achieve their goals and aspirations more easily by showing them how to turn their weaknesses into strengths and their strengths into unshakable self-trust. I've spent decades studying, failing, succeeding and most importantly, learning what it takes to stay human in the face of adversity. I've come to realize that doing so benefits oneself, the people in your life and the world. But this means different things depending on the situation and the person. Often, we know what we want but we're less clear on the when, why and how. That's where I come in, by helping you:

* Determine if now is the right time to start

* Create a plan that's concrete, viable and adaptable to change

* Conduct high stakes conversations in a way that results in a win-win outcome

* Cultivate resilience and creative problem solving when adversity hits (it always does)

* Know when to quit, when to stay and how to finish in the best possible way

Each of us can achieve more than we believe possible when passion, purpose, perseverance and support are aligned. I'm deeply committed to helping you achieve your goals where and when it matters most, which is often when it seems impossible to do.

Manifesto

Here's a list of some ideas that I've found helpful in life. They're both constant and ever-changing, like me, like you and like all of us.

  1. Between impulse and action is a universe
  2. No act of kindness is too late or too small
  3. Strive to desire inner silence and stillness more and more
  4. You can't see your own eyes, nor can anyone else see theirs. We need one another
  5. Do good without letting others know
  6. Expect miracles but do the work
  7. Grow wise but not old
  8. Surround yourself with people who know secret things
  9. Listen from your entirety
  10. Value questions more than answers
  11. Fight fair whether or not your opponant does and you'll gain something better than winning
  12. Being inappropriate has its place
  13. Remove the words "I'm too busy" from your reasoning
  14. Say what you mean and mean what you say
  15. Not knowing is harder than it sounds
  16. Create more than you consume
  17. Embrace inconvenience, it's much more interesting than convenience
  18. We each struggle with a wolf and lamb inside, it's how we struggle, that's unique
  19. Entitlement numbs the soul, gratitude lifts it
  20. Know when to laugh at yourself and when to take yourself seriously
  21. Care more about others and less about what others think
  22. Dance your funky chicken

Credentials

Education:

  • M.S. in Dance/Movement Therapy from California State University East Bay
  • B.S. in Human Movement Studies from San Francisco State University
  • Additional coursework in rational behavior therapy, conflict resolution, psycho-drama for therapists, somatics, Method acting, and 25 years of a range of dance forms (Guinean, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban Folklore and Modern, Middle Eastern, Modern and Ballet)

Career/Professional:

Founded RdF Consulting, a high-impact coaching and training firm specializing in resilience and communication

Founded Sell with Soul, a coaching and training firm specializing in integrity-based sales practices for sales and non-sales professionals

Senior Sales Account Representative at two technology start-ups, Voxify and Transware

  • Made over 30,000 cold calls without becoming a robot
  • Generated sales leading to combined total contract values over 20M
  • Created sales approach emphasizing core values, personal mission and empathy to more effectively sell complex technology solutions during a fickle market

Coach, Trainer and Program Coordinator at the Daly City Youth Health Center’s Youth Mentor Program

  • Coached youth-at-risk on how to work with their adult mentors to support academic and personal goals while developing their leadership and communication skills
  • Trained and coached adult mentor volunteers in a record 6-weeks, compared to the average 14-weeks to make up for delays in the hiring process

Coach and Program Coordinator at Learning as Leadership, a leadership development and training firm

  • Coached professionals from corporate and non-profit organizations as well as entrepreneurs and community leaders during and after leadership trainings
  • Oversaw operational details of leadership training intensives held throughout the year including the supervision and sourcing of vendors and training of volunteers and interns

Projects and Related Life Experience:

Co-founded Peace Puppets, a grass-roots initiative to distribute hand puppets to children in war-torn regions

  • 1000 puppets transported and distributed to children in 3 regions suffering post war trauma
  • 100% volunteer driven effort over 2 years starting with nothing more than an idea and despite obstacles related to geo-political tensions

Produced “El Mio Es La Rumba” (For Me It’s Rumba), a dance documentary created in Havana, Cuba

  • Conceived and produced a dance documentary style video with minimal resources and no formal training
  • Created and collaborated with a team in Cuba and the US to create content for the video despite challenges related to intercontinental communication during the embargo

Creator of large public events to benefit children in the US and abroad

  • Conceived, directed and produced a dance concert to bring public awareness to the impact of the AIDS crisis on Ugandan orphans
  • Conceived and produced a multi-media performance art show to benefit the San Francisco Chapter of the Special Olympics

Crisis Manager, professional and civilian

  • Initiated, recruited and supervised emergency food distribution system to provide meals to hundreds of earthquake victims immediately following San Francisco’s Loma Prieta earthquake
  • International flight attendant for TWA (Trans World Airlines) responsible for maintaining calm throughout the cabin during numerous in-flight emergencies