An Unsentimental Education
 You know how some people's lives seem to follow a nice clean trajectory?
Not mine. My road kind of disappeared when I was
17 and my dad died, leaving my mom and eight children, of which
I was the eldest.
Overnight, our storybook family turned into a poster-family for dysfunction and
disaster. When my mom and the kids moved to San Francisco, I moved to Seattle.
Between the ages of 18 and 21 I learned to wait
tables, serve cocktails, and manage an office. I also learned
to party, which given my over-responsible childhood, seemed a
reasonable facsimile of play.
The Love Interest
In 1974 I met and fell in love with Miles Yanick. I became manager
of his architectural firm, and, thanks to the Boeing recession,
got a rapid and thorough education in business management.
The Plot Thickens
Life went on. I worked hard and partied harder. I went back to
college, almost completing my junior year before partying became
a full time endeavor. In 1984, I entered rehab, and began graduate
studies in life, the universe, and everything.
Grad School
I threw myself headlong into recovery, learning everything I could
about addictions. I devoured books on psychology and spirituality
and learned to see myself clearly, even when it wasn't
pretty.
Over the next five years I had a variety of jobs,
each of which added a piece to my crazy quilt resume. From word-processing
to business planning to editing and layout, I gathered the skills
that would one day make Shaboom! a reality.
When You're Skating on Thin Ice,
You Might as Well Dance
In 1987 my lifelong fascination with knitting and sewing had spawned
a part-time business creating wearable art. By 1989, we were
out of debt, though by no means on easy street, so I did the
logical thing.
I quit my job and opened Mollycoddles, a wearable art studio.
You can see some of my creations in this
personal album.
Self-employment proved to be the most challenging path I had ever
walked. I made every mistake a person could make, and then went
on to make some more.
Today, those mistakes, along with the rest of my checkered resume,
are my primary qualifications for showing accidental entrepreneurs
how to build businesses that fit just right.
Believe me, if I can do it, so can you.
From Wearable Art to Artful Living
In 1995 I closed Mollycoddles and started saying "yes" to
people who, without encouragement from me, had been asking me to
help them manage and market their small businesses.
I didn't know I was a coach until one of my first clients
sent me a Newsweek article about Thomas Leonard, a pioneer in the
field, with the note, "This is what you do."
When I found out about coaching, I could hardly believe what I
saw. It was as though someone had designed a profession for which
my "portfolio" past had been the perfect training.
Life Could Be a Dream...
Thanks to my checkered past, I'm able to draw road maps for
other accidental entrepreneurs – people who love their work
enough to risk working for themselves but who aren't particularly
business oriented and who have a deep commitment to personal growth.
I love that everything I learn (and every mistake I make) serves
this audience. From The Work of Byron Katie to Embodied Intelligence,
ontological coaching to Process Work to integral theory and methodology,
there is delicious synergy among my vocation and avocations.
These days TCP (TCP is short for The Charming
Prince, which is what Miles is to me) and I live in Suquamish,
Washington, with Bolivia the wonder cat and three hens: Viola
Swamp, Miss Nelson, and Daisy Belle. We are blessed with two
astonishing grandchildren (not to mention their parents), who
live in nearby Seattle.
Please feel free to call (360) 697-7022
or email me with
any questions. | 
