It was March 2020.

I was facilitating a group pressured by unrealistic deadlines, struggling to truly hear one another. The tension in the room was palpable, familiar. I had seen this several times before. Amidst their chaos, a question floated to the surface of my awareness, as if waiting in my unconscious to emerge:

"What might be possible without all the rush?"

That question made me feel so alive.

Then the pandemic hit. After a decade on the corporate hamster wheel—where I split myself into countless “part selves” (the professional, the personal, the spiritual, the secular)—I burned out. But in that collapse, I found clarity. I realized the degree to which I could hold all these selves together was the degree to which I could truly be present—with myself, others, the work I created, nature, and the God of my understanding.

As the world sped up, I felt the need to do the opposite. To slow down. To wait longer than I want. To see what really wants to emerge.

In my patient inquiry into life and work, I began weaving the threads of my eclectic journey: storytelling and human-centered design during my time at AdventHealth Innovation Lab. Creative leadership and change management with Creativity Effect, IDEO, and the Presencing Institute. Years of study in spirituality and writing at Andrews University. Through it all, I learned slowness is not empty. It’s a regenerative, relational pace that unfolds new insights and sparks connection. I have seen this transformative power in my work with MIT xPRO, Rotman, The Common App, and coaching clients. Such learnings informed my creation of unhurried design with Johnnie Moore—an approach to design thinking that challenges the speed-obsessed, transactional, fragmented tendencies of our time.

In 2023, after a decade in big cities, I went small—living as a digital nomad for a time and eventually settling in Boulder, Colorado. My journey included training at a yoga temple and harvesting olives in Spain, exploring art museums in Amsterdam, and wild encounters with a rattlesnake in Arizona and a bear in Canada. Along the way, I’ve been writing my first book, tentatively called, The Urgency of Slowing, based on research I've compiled in partnership with Robert Poynton, Associate Fellow at Oxford Saïd. As I become more of who I really am, I observe how enriching and impactful it is to practice an integrated, life-centered approach in work and relationships.

Whether it’s unhurried design, Your Epic Ordinary Life, “I AM” Coaching, or something else, my intention is to help people reconnect—with themselves, their stories, and what they create.

As I continue this work, I hold close one of the most beautiful questions I’ve ever encountered, shared by a friend during an unhurried conversation:

"What if non-anxious presence isn’t a state we can fully arrive at, but one we can always return to?"

I’m becoming more and more okay with that.