I don’t have it figured out, but I keep getting closer

This is the Mad Men glass from Crate and Barrel. It’s the most recent pic of me.

About a year ago, I had to figure out what I wanted to do for a living. It was time for my experience as a nonprofit CEO to end, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. My problem solving style is to find an expert who’s done this before, so I took the advice of two Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans in the book Designing Your Life.

The Cliffs Notes version is: try different things, or in design terms, make many prototypes, to determine which life designs work. The authors stress there’s not one answer, or one design, and the fun is figuring out which ones you want.

When I started, the idea of fun vs fear was weighing heavily, but I knew this was the time to stop searching for a salary goal and realize my life goals.

Morning of election day 2017, at the polls volunteering with Carey Hamilton

For the past year, I’ve tried different prototypes of my life design. I volunteered for political campaigns and felt the highs and lows of election day. I created marketing campaigns and websites and fell in love with communications for nonprofit and local organizations.

I got certified to teach dance aerobics, and flew to Portland, Oregon to meet the creator of the 21 Day Fix. I traveled from Florida to California and realized living and working out of a suitcase isn’t for me. I bought a house and discovered how handy and resourceful I can be (with the help of others, big thanks mom.)

I’m going into my crawlspace!

I don’t like commuting, and spending hours on the interstate isn’t my idea of how to start and end a day. I believe in creating a safe place for people at work, and if you don’t believe like I believe, I can’t work with you.

I discovered I’m willing to wake up at 5 am to work on client projects I care about, and stay up until 1 am to get the work done. I realized it was worth the money to pay a driver to take me to and from my job downtown, so I could use those 10 hours of car time per week to build my own business while working full time.

Freije Brands, my communications business, is a reality thanks to the clients who were willing to take calls at 7 am or 6 pm so I could work before and after my former full-time job. I left that job in June, and I’m full time self-employed helping clients with their websites, fundraising communications and media campaigns.

In addition to my communications work, I’m on a mission to help others live healthier lives. After two years as an accountability coach with Beachbody, I lost 75 pounds, 75 inches and kept it off. I taught myself (with the help of my brother chef Nick), how to cook healthier meals and how to meal plan and prep.

I really like Tupperware. And Butler University.

So many people ask me to come over and make meals for them, and I finally decided to do it. As a Wildtree rep, I have the products and meal plans to help people simplify dinner time, and make healthy, great tasting meals. Look for more cooking demos, recipes and meal prep events from me online and in person.

I can’t thank you enough for taking an interest in me, both personally and professionally. It’s really hard to figure out what to do with your life, and the best way I’ve found is to keeping trying new things.

Many things won’t work — aerobics instructor, commuting, traveling. Some things will work for a season — nonprofit CEO, accountability health coach. Even more things will work in the future — Freije Brands self-employment, Wildtree meal prep rep, advocate for women. Regardless of whether one specific thing is what I do for the rest of my life, I’m confident I’ll keep trying new things.

Thank you for caring enough to follow my story. I couldn’t do it without you.