Years ago, before I started this business, I was standing at a significant crossroads in my own work journey. I had been operating another business, which by external measures was deemed “successful”, however, it had come to the point where the work I was doing had lost all meaning to me and was devoid of any satisfaction or fulfillment. I knew I could no longer tolerate staying on...

In Canada, where I live, this past Monday was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is marked as a day to acknowledge the harm perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of our nation and to honour the survivors. The intent is to begin the healing process from our painful history.

I don’t pretend to know the extent of suffering of those who endured the oppression at the hands...

I get bored easily. The thought of reading a book I’ve already read or watching a movie I’ve already seen is off-putting to me. It means I’ve missed out on the opportunity to have a new experience. I don’t even like cooking the same meal twice.

This is because one of my core values is adventure. I am internally driven to have new experiences. It doesn’t even matter...

Back in the days when I was still seeking clarity about the direction of my own work, I remember that frustrating feeling of fog in the brain. No matter which direction I looked, the path ahead seemed obscured. I couldn’t tell which path was the right path. I couldn’t tell if any path was the right path. I felt lost. So, I just stayed where I was. But that only resulted in me...

“I miss that part of myself,” I said to my then business client. My words hung awkwardly in the air, as if I had spoken a truth I wasn’t supposed to say. I’m sure my client wasn’t interested in hearing what I didn’t like about my work, but to me, my admission was like a siren piercing the silence of my own apathy. I couldn’t unhear my own words. It left...

Decades after his burial, I stood at my dad’s grave reading the words etched into the simple gravestone: Service to others before self. I thought, “Yeah, and we buried him in the ground way before what should have been his time.”

My dad died from a brain tumour at the untimely age of 46. Although it was complications from cancer that ended his life, I contend he had lost his...

Two decades ago, I would have been hard-pressed to define inspiration, let alone have the embodied experience of it in my work. It is a concept that is difficult to express fully using words as it is more so a felt experience than an intellectual one. Through teaching the subject of inspired work, I have continued to study inspiration to further integrate it into my own being and to better...

Not everyone is intentional about where they choose to work. Sometimes we get complacent with where we “grow up” and we forget to venture beyond our own boundaries. Other times, we hop from “town” to “town”, never truly satisfied, hoping the next town will be different, yet somehow end up in the same situation surrounded by the same people as before.

In work,...

I tend to be attracted to adventurous spirits and creative souls who are deep thinkers, paradigm shifters, and wholehearted lovers of life. However, in my work, they often gravitate toward me because somewhere along their journey, their true nature became suppressed, stifled, or silenced.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a common thread that weaves throughout their stories and mine. At a time...

Some people never think of themselves as creators because when they were young they were taught that being “creative” meant being “artistic”. If they did not feel called to express themselves using an artistic medium such as writing, painting, or dance, for example, then they might have mistakenly labelled themselves as “not creative”. It was never made clear...

When I was in my 20s, I was in a relationship with a singer-songwriter musician. He wrote a few songs for me, some to me, but there was one song he wrote about me. He called it “Fearless”. When he told me, I thought, “Wow, he really doesn’t know me at all. I live in a constant state of anxiety and fear.” But he saw me differently than I saw myself at the time.

I...

As a teenager, my friends nicknamed me “Dr. Kiley”. Whenever they were confused or depressed, or struggling with relationships, I was the one they sought out for advice. I think it was because I was willing to listen with curiosity and without judgement. Also, I didn’t say much back then, which was helpful because mostly they just wanted to feel seen and heard.

Nowadays,...