Living a Dream

When people learn I’ve completed board certification in health and wellness coaching after two decades leading global communications and marketing, the question I hear most is: “Why the career change?”

It’s a fair question, and it carries an assumption I held for a while too—that stepping into something new means leaving what came before.

Direction

Some career transitions happen for a change of scenery, a new challenge, or better compensation. Others are more abstract, beginning as a feeling rather than a decision. A feeling of satisfaction yet a curiosity to explore more. I’ve made moves for all of these reasons, and my most recent transition was the latter.

I had a colleague who would ask me if I was “living the dream.” Sometimes it was a question, sometimes a statement, probably a little rhetorical but always in good spirit. I always took it to heart and answered honestly: “Yes!” Gradually, I noticed the yeses weren’t coming naturally; something was out of alignment.

What I was seeking was a way forward where I wouldn’t have to choose—between what I’d spent so many years building and what I was growing into, between strategy and well-being, between my professional self and the rest of me.

Perspective

For a while, I wondered how to frame this evolution without feeling like I was running two separate practices in parallel. In my mind, they were perfectly complementary, but as I worked with more clients, I noticed it wasn’t as obvious to others. I began to think about why the integration of strategy and well-being felt second nature to me.

My path has always been more intuitive than intellectual. I was on an advanced academic track in school, but my gut kept pointing me in a different direction.

I also remember that as a kid, I spent endless hours playing with dolls, constantly changing their outfits rather than playing out scenes. Growing up in Edmonton (Canada), Fashion File, Fashion Television, and Style with Elsa Klensch were must-see TV for me, a world away from my own. Collages of iconic late-’90s fashion spreads covered my bedroom walls and shelves. Years later, I found myself having a hand in organizing the kinds of fashion shows I used to watch—a takeover of NYC’s Guggenheim Museum early in my career was a surreal moment I can still vividly recall. Over time, what made it all feel like a dream was that collaborating with people I respected, and some who inspired me growing up, became my job.

Well-being was always there too. I was raised with Traditional Chinese Medicine principles and practices, and I discovered meditation as a teenager—when a difficult period of illness in my family led me to look for deeper meaning. Around the same time, one of my closest friends was moving to Montreal to study fashion, and on a whim, I went too—deciding within a couple of months and without ever having visited the city. What I thought would be two years away turned into my second home.

When I needed an internship to complete my program in Montreal, I happened to walk by a boutique with a copy of Visionaire in the window, a prestigious art and fashion publication I’d only read about but could never get my hands on in Edmonton. I went in, met the owner, and asked if he needed an intern. He didn’t, but he introduced me to his brother who led Sales & Marketing for a popular fashion brand at the time. He hired me as an intern, and my first project was the opening party for the brand’s inaugural Canadian flagship store, happening just a few days later. What started as a two-week internship turned into eight years with the brand, and it’s how I discovered the communications side of marketing.

My mom once observed that she thought I worked in fashion because it helped people feel good. Like a lot of things, she was right. It was never only about the clothes. As my career evolved, the work that I enjoyed the most was helping teams, founders, and executives navigate uncertainty, articulate their story, and lead with intention when the stakes were high—and I had the privilege to do it in an industry I grew up dreaming about. Certification in well-being and behaviour change was a way to go deeper into that same work.

Practice

I share this because I was practising this integration long before I had words for it. When I prepared executives for high-profile interviews and pressure-filled situations, meditation became part of our preparation to help ground them for their moment. Strategy and well-being were already working side by side.

Now I’m building my business to hold both. Instead of leaving everything behind, I brought it with me—the discernment that shapes a brand, the care that supports a person, and the imagination that started with a pile of dolls and their tiny outfits.

When I work with people navigating their own transitions, whether it’s their career or another aspect of life, we often start the same way—noticing the thread that runs through every role or circumstance (regardless of labels), and what brings them joy. It’s almost always there. Sometimes it just needs someone to help name it.

My favourite reminder of this came recently from a young family member, who has been my biggest supporter since I started my own thing. She’s always asking how business is going, sharing ideas for how I can help more people (she’s the one who sparked the idea for these notes), and giving me tips on how to make my guided meditations less “boring.” A friend helped me make a DCxo hat for myself, and one day she asked if she could have an “xo hat” too. I beamed, told her I’d be honoured, and we had one made at the mall right away.

While we waited for the hat to be embroidered, she, along with her younger brother and sister, asked what I actually do as a coach. I explained that I help people who are going through change, or want to try something new—by supporting their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. She changed the subject, so I thought my pitch had flopped.

A few days later we were at an event with friends and she was wearing her hat. Someone asked her what DCxo stood for. She explained it was my business. “What does she do?” they asked. “She makes people happy.”

When I heard about it later, I was thrilled, in awe. In one simple observation, as only kids can, she crystallized the thread that has run through my life, from dolls to dream jobs to this: helping people feel good—to feel whole—and finding their own way there.

Thought starter

What’s a skill or interest you’ve been treating as outdated, and how might it actually be your greatest asset?

DM me on Instagram or send me an email, I’m curious to know.

DCxo