Meet Michele

Hello! Thank you for stopping by to check out my world and getting to know me a little.

My journey has probably started like a million others. My parents divorced when I was young, I was bullied in school and a wild child at heart as I grew older. I grew up in NJ, lived on Long Island for a short stint, and then moved down to Florida when I was 13. A lot happened in those 13 years but again, I’m like a million other people and I want to share with you how mindset is everything to me and what makes me different. 

I was encouraged to go to college and always fought back I wasn’t ready. I tried my hand at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale when I graduated high school only to find it wasn’t my calling. So, I moved back to Long Island, lived with my grandparents and surfed for a year trying to find myself and what I wanted to be when I grew up. I went back to school and had a few uninteresting jobs. My mindset found the waves - but not my way. 

The joke in my family was “what is Michele going to school for now” because I loved to learn so I always tried something to interest me and my open mindset. Nothing stuck.

When I was 20, I moved with my grandmother and my disabled father to Tampa when my grandfather died and hated it. My best year was at 22 when I spent most of my time creating more uninteresting jobs around enjoying my very interesting life and surfing as usual. And then it happened…I somehow landed a real job at a law office. My mindset must have changed gears...was I ready to settle down?

I worked in Downtown Tampa until my boss merged with a large firm and I decided to come back to West Palm Beach where I landed another job at a very well-known law firm. I thought this was it! My career without college. I was trained by the best and quickly moved up the ranks and through the best firms. I eventually only worked directly with managing partners. It was a dream come true. I loved what I did, but when I got to the top of the field and edged my way into corporate and securities law and a national firm, the tide changed. Mandatory overtime, no sick time and special privileges for special people. I wasn’t one of them. My spirits dropped and I knew my mindset had to change once again.

I decided to go back to college to obtain an interior design degree while at this prestigious law firm. This is a picture of my day: Go to the firm at 7 AM - work until 5 PM – go to class from 6-10 PM two to three nights a week. If at school I would pick up everyone dinner after class and go back to the firm to work until 2-3 AM. If no class I just stayed and worked. This went on for a very long time. In fact, I finished my college degree under these circumstances and graduated with honors. Time for studying, well I just figured it out. I was so proud of myself.   

Unfortunately the economy crashed and my dream of designing luxury yachts crashed with it and I was stuck in the world of corporate and securities law.
 

I eventually took up this ridiculous life style with my therapist. I was seeing her for a "boat load" of personal issues I had been working on and she decided it was time for me to learn how to set boundaries and use the word “NO”. I did learn and I wound up on probation at the firm and "had" to quit my job - REALLY??  Best lesson I ever learned!

From there I went to massage school while moonlighting at other law firms for friends I thankfully knew and were easy to work for. I learned a lot from that experience about business, accounting and juggling schedules. I opened my own practice, then a boutique day spa, won the Small Business of the Year Award with the local Chamber of Commerce and my life was great! I did that for 10 years and guess what…I burned out and went right back into the world of corporate containment. I was done working for myself I needed a break.

Well the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the hill. I was bored to tears in my corporate job for years but I stuck with it. I missed working with my clients and helping them. I missed my networking and meeting new people and serving them business to business. I missed learning and growing. I missed everything outside of the world of 9-5! 

Then it happened. I began TO FALL APART. I started getting sick with these mysterious attacks causing me to go to the ER for hours. Then the lightning strike (yes it happened but I’m still here!!). And it kept coming. In 2014 I had heart surgery at 48, then gall bladder removal which was incorrect because I kept getting sick. My last straw was landing in Montana to hike Glacier National Park and poof, I’m sick. 6 hours in a clinic and told no hiking. Well, as I said I am a wild child, so I of course hiked a 19 mile stretch the next day with my awesome husband, Gatorade, crackers and a banana. After all I’ve never been air transported so why not try it if anything were to happen? Thankfully nothing did and we made it to the end of the trail! Another couple of rounds at the ER when we were back home and I demanded an answer. It wasn't my fibromyalgia, that was almost gone after my heart surgery. Could it be adhesions from endometriosis I had suffered from and had previous surgeries for?? Back into surgery and YES, finally an answer. Endometriosis was found and extracted!

And I need to mention my awesome husband. He has stuck with me through thick and thin. I believe that marriage is not an equality in life, it is not owed to you, and it is not a universal law. It is something he and I both work at and it for us is usually seamless. We are very fortunate and blessed that we have been together now 19 years. While we share a lot of common mindsets, we also have completely different mindsets that we respect and learn from in each other. He is my best friend, soulmate and love of my life!

Now here’s where life coaching comes in. In 2017 after a very stressful year at my corporate job, I got diagnosed with rare and aggressive anal cancer. I am not going to elaborate here about this. Some things I just cannot write about, but I hope you will hear me talk about them (hint, hint) or read about in a quick blog. It’s not that I don’t want to write about them, it’s just too much to include here because it’s so juicy to tell. In short, I went through 6 weeks of radiation and 2 rounds of chemo given to me in the hospital 24/7 over the course of 5 days. It was incredible, and I mean that in a good way. I learned so much from this experience.  I was finally able to reset my MINDSET, create what I wanted and move forward. I was truly blessed – I finally found my way!

I created an ultra positive mindset and set a 3 year goal from July 21, 2017 - my last day of treatment. I’m almost there. After all, goals aren’t accomplished overnight. They are slowly imagined, created, decided, shared, explored, tried, accomplished or reset. I even have a goal that I worked on for 21 years accomplished this year (2020). Never give up, never given in.

Somewhere along the way above, I also went through some pretty crappy relationships, alcoholism in my family and countless other journeys in my life.  I have seen a therapist since 1992 for these wonderful things and still do for my own sake and sanity. I even have a small group of coaches I use on a consistant basis to keep my life in check. I do so much research and work on myself, as my mother always said I should have been a doctor. NO WAY!!! No doctor here, just a girl who loves to learn and help others under the rules of the universe she serves. I did however listen to my mom when she always instilled in me that I could do whatever I wanted to in life. And I am!! Thanks Mom! ox

Nothing in life is perfect. Nothing in life can be what you want unless you make it happen. You get to pick the paths you want to walk down towards your destiny. There are many and they change all the time. It's a beautiful journey in life, if you decide to take it.

So my words to you are, as on my Welcome page: “Why would you settle for what you have when you can CREATE WHAT YOU WANT?” 

Much love, sparkles and light 

oxox Michele