The First Part
I grew up in New Jersey near Philadelphia. I studied drama at Emerson College in Boston, history at Rutgers Camden then took 4 years off and worked for Hilton Hotels, eventually becoming front office manager.
I moved to Oregon and got my degree in Journalism at the U of O. I worked as a copywriter/producer at the biggest ad agency in Eugene. Decided to move to Seattle, and ended up working for a natural foods distributor.
Met my future husband, moved to Bellingham to be near him. Got my Master’s degree in Organization Development. Moved to New Hampshire in 1994.
Got certified as a coach. Did a number of interesting and not so interesting jobs. Because of my facility with computers and tech I became a Virtual Assistant, helping solopreneurs– mostly coaches– run their businesses online.
In 2012 we bought an apartment in a medieval village in Le Marche, Italy. Originally we intended only to vacation here but it was so beautiful and special and friendly that we didn’t want to leave. In late 2015 we managed to get a visa that allows us to live here full time.
As I assisted other coaches with their businesses I decided to return to coaching with an emphasis on productivity and finding your own way to be effective.
The Interim
One of the projects I did as a VA was to set up a client with her own podcast. It was 2018. I was living a dream life in Italy, working when I wanted to, making music, having fun with friends.
I realized I had something of my own to say and decided to create my own podcast called I Always Wanted To. I interviewed people who were doing things that others longed to do. I’m very proud of it. It ran for 50 episodes and got over 20,000 downloads, but that’s not really that many in podcast terms.
In 2020, while the pandemic was raging, I spent some time hanging out in virtual space in an app called Clubhouse. There I met a handful of really knowledgeable and generous podcasters. I upped my game, improved my audio, and realized that my concept with I Always Wanted To was never really going to find it’s niche because every episode was a different topic. I also longed to be part of a team.
Meanwhile, my husband, Michael, had been asked to be part of a project with his friends Jimmy Gownley and Harold Buchholz. They had a great concept but weren’t really interested in the tech side of things. They recorded a couple of conversations but it never went anywhere. Years passed. The episodes were never released.
The idea was too good to let die. They were three comic artists who all loved Charles Schulz. The plan was to read all 17,897 strips that Schulz produced and discuss them in detail from a cartoonists perspective. It was called Unpacking Peanuts.
I decided to volunteer.