Create Better Connections.

I work with brands to facilitate deeper, more emotional connections with their target audiences. For more than thirty years, my work with global organizations has manifested as activations like national advertising campaigns and experiential tours for Mutual of Omaha, content marketing and brand initiatives for Airstream, narrative development for enterprises like Sovos Brands, Oracle, and adidas, as well as communications programs for brands and events like Super Bowl, World Cup, Rose Bowl, Mirage Resorts, Mazda, and others. I have helped launch start-ups like TiVo and CBS Sportsline, and have spent time with global marketing agencies, including Rogers & Cowan and Hill & Knowlton. (Read more…)

The Art of Connection. The messaging and programs we create together are built on a mix of authenticity, vulnerability, transparency, truth, and trust. This is where we discover the emotional alignment that inspires lasting connections with the audience(s).

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Leonard Markidan, Podia Chief Operating Officer
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Please join my A Day Well Lived community on Instagram.

As many spend the day today in deep thought contemplating forgiveness, I started the morning drawn deeper into a prayer of Loving Kindness. I’ve been on the receiving end of some not so awesome personal attacks filled with misinformation and innuendo. And the Loving Kindness practice of imagining someone and repeating, “I wish you well. I wish you happiness. I wish you peace. I wish you love.” creates loving energy and light that not only envelops the person to whom we make this offering, but also to ourselves. The truth is that as I consider the last year, I am proud for my growth. I don’t always see it and most of the time I think I’ve stayed in the same place. Not this year. I have forgiven myself for so many mistakes. So many failures. So many. So many. I have learned to accept and allow. I have learned to pause. I have learned to reparent the wounds. And it continues. So today, I double down on Loving Kindness and offer this to myself, to you, and to all. May you be well. May you be happy. May you find peace. May you be loved. #adaywelllived Today’s download—Declutter. Remove clutter. In all the ways. Stuff. Emotional residue. People. Reactions. Obstacles. all of it. I want to be done with fear. To let go of the past. To make peace and move on. I’m surrounded by piles and piles of things. Stacks of things. I’m filled with leftover feelings and bits and pieces. And I kinda feel like it’s time for a cleanse. A bloodletting. In all the ways. I’m tired of the clutter. Of having to weave my way through and around old stories, old programming, old everything. I may be late for a spring cleaning, but maybe it’s time for a fall rising. #adaywelllived Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On Tuesday morning, I’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign for my book DINNER AT GOD’S HOUSE. A project 25-years in the making. And I couldn’t be more Calm. I’ve been afraid of this book for more than two decades. Afraid of the conversations around it. Afraid of some of the truths in it. Afraid of the criticism I may receive from it. What if it sucks? What if *I* suck? Well, what if I do? Doesn’t matter. The act of being on the edge of releasing this book into the wild had created a remarkable sense of Calm. I walked with the Fear. And it took my hand and led me to Calm. I’ve long said that Fear is a guide (as opposed to the “liar” it’s been called by others). Fear wants to show you how to get to Courage, Calm, and other points on your map. The book will not actually come out until the spring, and I don’t know if this is true because that’s then and this is now…but this step feels more profound. This is the point when the chips are pushed to the center of the table. I’m all in. Finally. #adaywelllived Today hits different. It’s like I woke up to my waking up. I’ve been doing some work—a lot of deep work for the last few months—and it dawned on me that I was rebuilding. Brick by brick. Stone by stone. From the ground up. I didn’t see it while I was in it. While I was learning all these new things. Feeling all this new grief. Sitting with all the discomfort. I was being rebuilt. And I’m not suggesting that I’ve arrived or the project is over or any such silliness. That’s not a thing. I am however suggesting that today is very different from all other days. That alone is pretty cool. I see things I had never seen. I feel things I had never felt. I understand things that were so so foreign. I feel strong where I once felt week. Calm when I was anxious. Knowing when I was uncertain. Mostly I need not settle where I once accepted less. From others. From myself. I’ll be anxious again. Uncertain. Weak. All the things. I’m just better equipped for it. To allow it. Accept it. Hopefully without judgement. Judgement being such a big thing for me and all. Time to take this out of the garage for a spin. The specs look great on paper. Let’s see how this rebuild handles on the bumps and twisties. #adaywelllived Reflections from my mirror to yours: *You’re (Doing) Great* ☀️☀️☀️#adaywelllived From today’s morning row + meditation: Accept + Allow. It feels like it’s maybe a next level “Yes, And.” Accept the Grief and Allow yourself to feel what you need to feel. Accept your Gifts and Allow yourself to Trust its Path. Accept your Needs and Allow yourself to Express them. Accept that others have their own paths and experiences and Allow yourself to understand what that means for yours. Accept & Allow. Accept & Allow. Accept that you feel what you feel and Allow yourself to feel what you feel with explanation, excuse, and/or need for permission. Accept & Allow. Accept that something doesn’t make sense and Allow it not to make sense. Accept & Allow. I have struggled with both of this as I default to intellectualizing things away. Like feeling Grief. Like Pausing. This is every bit part of my new practice. It’s showing me bits in the deeper, darker parts. I’m Accepting how judgmental I am and have been of myself. And Allowing myself to Compassionately Forgive. To see and feel and sit and and and. Accept & Allow. Accept & Allow. Accept & Allow. #adaywelllived Yesterday was Grief. Today is still Grief, and also so much Relief. Relief that comes from allowing the feels. Relief that comes from accepting the feels. Yesterday, I wrote a list of all the things I was feeling around the Grief and I found myself discovering depths and feelings I’d never had. Like Abandonment. Rejection. Long suppressed emotions that were hiding in the cracks and crevices. But then I woke up this morning with this huge sense of Relief. I meditated on it. Listening to healing chakra tones and frequencies, I could feel the Relief. I could feel the Joy. It’s a strange dichotomy: Grief & Relief. For the moment it mixes like colors to become something new: Gratitude. I feel this Relief and I hear an echo of voices. The voices of all those feelings I felt yesterday, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for accepting us. For seeing us. For allowing us.” I do. I see you all. #adaywelllived This one is a little different, I suppose. Been spending a lot of time with Grief. Grief feels a little like Trauma in that we only consider it with a BIG T lens and don’t pay much attention to the little t. Same goes for the G. BIG G gets attention, but not the little g. In fact the little g (and maybe even the BIG G) gets confused with regret. And heaven forbid we ever feel any regret! No, no, no! We don’t regret! We learn! Oh geez. So what happens? We don’t ever allow ourselves to actually process the Grief. In fact, as a friend pointed out, it’s not even an exercise in processing. It’s a practice of allowing. We don’t allow the Grief. We beat ourselves up for feeling it over and over when it comes back. And it’ll always come back. Grief is complicated. Be gentle with it. With yourself. As I will be with myself. #adaywelllived
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