Hey there!
I'm Melissa.
I’m so happy you found your way here.
Grab a lovely drink (may I suggest coffee?) and get comfy.
All settled? Okay, I’ll go first:
I am a writer, transformational coach, mom of three and wife of one. When we are home in LA, I spend a lot of time driving. Full stop. Our youngest is in high school and is a working actor and so….driving. Sometimes we live places other than Los Angeles. See next paragraph.
I have been married to my college sweetheart, Casey, for 28 years. He is a software engineer who gets to work for Disney as an Imagineer–I know, pretty awesome, right? He works on Mouse-related parks around the world, and it has been very cool to get to live as an expat in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
Our three daughters (24, 21 and 16) are multi-hyphenate creatives in LA (as one is): actors, writers, musicians, artists, directors and producers.
Growing up, they had interests that seemed to need a lot of lessons and an increasing amount of equipment. Our house is full of various daughters at any one time, ideas and chatter and the comings and goings of busy, creative people.
A little history...
I was pre-med in college and got a degree in Biology and a Masters in Public Health (wash yer hands!). But I didn’t go to medical school and I turned to writing when I found myself as an at-home mom with little ones. I started blogging because I had a lot of things to say as I processed the huge transition from what I *thought* my life would be like and what it was *actually* like. (Anyone else? HAHAHAHA!) I started to write for parenting magazines and I appreciate that I still get to think out loud with writing and connect with people as I process our shared experiences.
Training as an executive coach has given me a unique set of skills to come alongside people as we travel this world together. I specialize in tranformational coaching-focused on how our way of BEING impacts what we DO and, thus, what we HAVE in our lives. The core of what we believe about ourselves, the world and our relationship to it impacts how we operate as a human. Most of us are operating under beliefs that keep us from exploring what we are actually capable of.
My goal is to normalize things about living as a person in this day and age. Life feels hard and isolating and sometimes we forget that EVERYONE ELSE is struggling, too. You and I are not alone. I am so glad you are here.
fun facts
(The Idealist Teacher—my top career recommendation is a fitness instructor. Hang out with me for about 3 minutes to know why this is HILARIOUS.)
Enneagram: 1w2 (The Reformer. Likened to the cultural aura of the Amish. Also, Switzerland.)
Connectedness, Input, Belief, Intellection, Achiever.
Sacrifice yourself for someone you love AND get to read books? Sign me up!
Here, you can expect to find stuff about:
- Humaning: You know that phrase, ‘Life is a journey, not a destination.”? I have a love/hate relationship with that phrase. I hate it because it means there is no end to the troubles and growth and you don’t know when you’ve ‘arrived’ in any part of your life because nothing really wraps up perfectly. It can feel exhausting and dispiriting. (<-When I am indulging my inner perfectionist tendencies.)
But when I am able to tap into more wisdom and make peace with this, I am able to be more patient with and kinder to myself (and, let’s be honest, the people around me). Because if there is no PERFECT way to do things and NO perfect end, welp, we just get to keep doing our best. Learning and growing and struggling through the adventure quest together. That’s what I write about here, in an attempt to normalize and encourage us all. - Creative professionals: In addition to being a writer and author, I find myself in the unusual position of having been a mom to child actors in Hollywood for the past 20ish years. It’s been a weird and wacky ride and I have learned so much about trying to raise decent humans under the lens of the entertainment industry. And, because I have spent so many years around professionals in Los Angeles, I’ve gained an awful lot of practical knowledge and insight about this town. The creative life has some unique challenges and I write (and coach) around how to be a successful creative and how to live a life of creativity and joy.
- Parenting: Mothering is hard and, well…..kinda mostly hard. At least for me. But, you know, amazing. (In a hard way, to be clear.) The enormity of the task of influencing humans is pretty staggering. My girls and I are working (and have worked!) through a lot of life stages together and it seems a shame to let all that pain and suffering go to waste. When I say ‘worked through’, I mean we are all still alive.
- Faith: I find that I am not the only one with hard questions about God.. Because, jeepers, I am just struggling with my journey. (When I say ‘journey’ I mean the ugly ultramarathon kind. In the dark. Uphill. Both ways.) As a long-time person of faith (I consider myself a recovering Evangelical), I have a lot of questions and sometimes I’m really mad at God. I don’t understand a lot of things and it helps me to write things down to process them. Humaning is hard. Doing it with hope and wisdom outside myself makes it better. (p.s. I love Jesus and I swear a little. Sometimes a lot. Depends on if I’m driving. You’ve been warned.)
We’re all part of each other’s stories (which can be annoying, I get it). I think we’re all doing our best, though some days our best may not be very good. But, I know (and hope!) we can learn and get a little bit better. As Chidi Anagonye asks, ‘What do we owe each other?’ 🙂 (<–The Good Place reference.)
