Hey it’s me staci b!
I once remember a life coach I'd hired to help me figure out my career saying to me, "Your problem, Staci, is that you go shallow and wide. Narrow and deep is the only way you'll ever make any money."
After she left my house, I felt seriously disappointed. I'm not a narrow and deep kinda gal - I want to be ALL the things. Just like the platypus.
The truth is, I've always been intrigued by the multi-faceted mammals and even had a stuffed platypus as a little girl. In the 60s. Before eBay and massive imports from China.
2022 offered me the opportunity to try lots of new things and staying on brand, I tried all the ones that interested me. Shallow and wide, my friends. Shallow and wide.
To start, I'm probably one of the most trauma-informed humans who is not some kind of mental health professional or coach. Part of this is because I wanted to learn for my own healing, but the behavioral connections and somatic nature of the ripples from these types of experiences fascinates me and I kept studying because I wanted to know more.
I developed and facilitated workshops on self-care for those with developmental trauma, wrote several free e-books filled with resources on that subject and seriously considered whether I wanted to narrow my focus to this topic.
The podcast class I took (and a conversation with a good friend) helped me realize I'd rather be a guest than a host. I began pitching in February and was interviewed about 20 twenty times on topics from self-care and to how to leave your corporate job to recognizing developmental trauma in your career and how to keep your ego in check. Some were more fun than others, but each taught me how to do a better interview.
I continued practicing my love of Haiku, writing them for social media posts, creating workshops that included the practice and constructing them for friends' birthdays and holidays.
And I kept having deep, insightful conversations with the people I trust the most. These discussions kept coming back to two or three things that I've been passionate about for a while, including how learning to sit in dissonance without judging or taking action is a skill that can be taught.
As I move into 2023, my next step is to distill all I did in 2022 and extrapolate what matters most to me to reactivate my work as a speaker. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, kick off this year in whatever way feels good to you! Til next time…