One more picture from the top of the water tower - Bow Pose (Danurasana) - Photo by Sean Ogle

There’s an important announcement that I left out of my last post. Beyond being unplugged, one of the biggest highlights of my recent Mexico trip was finishing my yoga certification!!!

I taught my 25th class in a Mayan cave for a group of 10 incredible entrepreneurs . . . Geek Yoga at it’s absolute finest. After 75-minutes of sweating while staring at stalactites, we closed our practice with three rounds of Ohm, resonating beautifully from our seated position literally within the walls of the earth.

As I bowed forward to express my gratitude, I saw a flash of all my previous teachers and felt, in seconds, that they were passing a baton to me. I felt deeply supported, as though they were all welcoming me in to their community, giving me their blessing to step into my new shoes as a teacher so I could serve and help students transform just as they had done for me.

I haven’t always felt this way. I completed my yoga teacher training at White Lotus in October 2010. It wasn’t until January 2012 that I finally believed I was worthy and capable of teaching yoga.

Big goals are like that sometimes — they are so big that even if we are outwardly taking steps, our inner belief system hasn’t quite caught up. And yet, I find the longest goals to be most rewarding, particularly because they require such an internal transformation.

Everybody Starts Somewhere: Video + Article

The video below is from a recent speaking workshop called Platinum Presence (led by Cheryl Dolan) which I was fortunate to attend with highly inspiring friends like Pam Slim, Jonathan Fields, Willie Jackson, Nick Reese, Lewis Howes, Mike “Ambassador” Bruny, Charlie Gilkey, Derek Halpern and other incredible creatives. We were asked to speak extemporaneously for seven minutes about a topic we are passionate about.

The funny thing about this speech is that I delivered it the day before leaving for Mexico; all those fears were completely washed away by the time I returned home.

This speech is ruff and not rehearsed — but I’m sharing with you anyway, because the emotion behind it is real — and very relevant to any of you attempting something new. There’s also a mini two-minute seated yoga sequence at the beginning — I encourage you to follow along! 

Yoga Journal Article Submission

Bow Pose #2 (Dhanurasana): Acro Yoga with Mike Hrostoski

Below are my same thoughts in written form — this is from an article I recently pitched to Yoga Journal. 

Within the first ten minutes of teaching my own yoga class I became overwhelmed with a visceral appreciation for just how much skill all of my past and present teachers possessed. The dance of verbalizing every movement, breath and body position while delicately balancing demonstrating, adjusting, assisting, and holding the space. For the first time in six years of practicing yoga, I finally understood that teaching was much more than a hobby; it was a doorway to a lifetime of learning.

Much like children only start truly appreciating their parents after they’ve flown the nest, I gained an entirely new appreciation for my teachers once I found myself at the front of the room. For so long I had been a student, lost in my own world, hearing the teacher just enough to follow the class — certainly not “hearing” the multitude of considerations they were seamlessly weaving together.

It is from that place of deep admiration and gratitude that I make a humble request to all of the veteran teachers out there: let us newbies in. Even if you’re a little nervous about our lack of experience, give us a chance to find our way.

With articles like the recent (and controversial) New York Times piece by William Broad on how yoga can “wreck the body, ” it’s easy for new teachers to feel like they shouldn’t bother, lest they ruin their students for life.

Broad says, “Many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury.” While this may true, consider also that newer teachers are just as equipped at asking their students to listen to their bodies and to stop if something is causing pain or bodily harm.

Teaching yoga is a tradition that dates back thousands of years. Without new teachers to carry on the practice, we would have far fewer yogis benefiting from the wonderful marriage of mind, body and spirit. And yet, it can be incredibly intimidating to emerge as a new teacher among tens of thousands of gifted veterans worldwide.

But every one of those teachers started somewhere. Every teacher taught their first class, even if they are now teaching their five-hundredth. While not every teacher may have had nervous butterflies, sweaty palms and a fumbled-flow during their first few attempts, many did experience those growing pains.

In my past life on the Training & Development team at Google, I discovered a very handy learning model that I frequently refer back to when attempting a big goal or learning a new skill:

• Unconscious incompetence – You don’t know what you don’t know (ignorance is bliss)
• Conscious incompetence – The dip! You suddenly become aware of how much you have to learn. You might feel dumb, incompetent, frustrated or discouraged as you realize you need more skills, time or practice in order to move forward.
• Conscious competence – You’ve started to master the new skill, but you still have to actively think about whether you are doing it right.
• Unconscious competence – You don’t even have to think about it any more – the new skill comes naturally and/or finishing the goal becomes completely do-able. This is really the fun part, where you are flowing and “in the zone.”

Whenever one is learning something new, they will almost certainly hit a “dip” — the phase of conscious incompetence where they are fully aware of how much they don’t know, fumbling awkwardly through the task at hand, feeling like all they want to do is quit and give-up. The key is to keep going — to remember that, as cliche as it sounds, the only way out is through.

I completed my teacher training at White Lotus in Santa Barbara in 2010, under the tutelage of Ganga White and Tracey Rich. It wasn’t until January 2012 that I finally mustered up the courage to start teaching my own classes in New York City.

For months prior I would psych myself out of it, particularly after taking classes from the many brilliant teachers in New York. Why would anyone ever take class from me, when there is an abundance of more experienced teachers right outside their doorstep? And why should these more experienced teachers let me in to their community when they have so much more insight and experience?

But eventually, class by class, Sun A by Sun B, I started developing my “teacher legs,” feeling increasingly more confident in my ability to facilitate a great experience for my students, even if I was still new. And the teachers I encountered were gracious and helpful.

To the new teachers out there: give yourself a chance to succeed. Remember that everybody starts somewhere.

To the experienced teachers: know how much we admire and respect your knowledge and experience. If you cross paths with a newbie, let them in. Ask them how teaching is going, and maybe even if we have any questions. You have no idea how much we’ll appreciate it.

I am finally emerging from The Dip and finding a new home in the “conscious competence” phase. I have a feeling I’m going to be here for a while…if not a lifetime. That’s the beauty of life and big goals — we get to practice “beginner’s mind” every day, as a teacher and as a student, on and off the mat.

***

I’d love to hear in the comments:
In what area/s do you want to give yourself permission to be a beginner?

P.S. I’ll be doing a live video Q&A call hosted by The Young Entrepreneur Council at 8:30pm ET on February 22 — would love for you to join us!

I’m writing today from a place of deep gratitude. I was one of two keynote speakers at the first annual 20 Something Blogger Summit this past weekend in Chicago — three incredible days of ideas, connections and reunions with friends new and old. Despite my nerves about living up to keynote status (this was my first), the speech went off without a hitch.

I have the audience to thank; it was without question the best group I’ve ever spoken to; their energy, compassion, attention, humor, and presence lifted me up and made my job easy. By the time I sat down, I had 200+ @replies on Twitter, and though I didn’t get a chance to respond to each one, I’d like the attendees to know how deeply moved *I* was. Thank you so much. Big thanks are also in order to Derek and A Squared Group for putting on a killer event, and for believing in me.

Below is a two-minute video snippet from my speech (thank you Stephanie Florence for capturing this!), in which I talk about the importance of community and the impact Michael Ellsberg had on my decision to leave Google after only knowing him for one week. I’ll be sure to post the full keynote video as soon as it’s available!

Welcome Escape from Cubicle Nation Readers!

I’m excited to be featured today in the Side Hustle & Flow series on Pamela Slim’s – my friend, mentor and Internet Auntie’s — blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation.

For several years now, Pam (and her work) has been a guiding light for me. I showed up at her first Escape workshop in 2009 after devouring her book, debating whether to stay or leave Google. I sat in the back and didn’t say much. I was beyond scared and confused.

I kept reading her blog and the side hustle series, watching her in admiration as a model for how I’d like to run my business, wondering when I’d have the guts to go out on my own and tell my story like her other courageous readers had.

Two years later, I’m proud to report that it’s my turn to hopefully show others that one day they too can make the leap if that’s what their heart is telling them to do. If you’re new here, get caught up with I’m a Free Agent: From Six Figures to Suitcase and Free Agent Part Two: Big Decisions + Very Real Fears. 

20 Lessons Learned in 2 Months of Solopreneurship (Part One)

The last two months of solopreneurship have been some of the happiest of my life. I’m in love with my newfound freedom! But they haven’t been easy, and I’ve had to make adjustments every single day as I learn what works and what doesn’t for my life and business.

I may share more detailed numbers later, but for now: I broke even on income to expenses in July, then in August the lion’s share of my projected income (mostly coaching and speaking) got cancelled or postponed. It’s been tough, but I’m okay with that; I consider this a building month as I get ready to launch Make Sh*t Happen, my new course, in a few short weeks.

I feel a little silly writing this post because more seasoned entrepreneurs may be reading it thinking, “Oh just you wait!” or “What does she know?” but nevertheless, this is a snapshot of where I am in my learning two months in.

1. Fears are so much smaller on the other side. Prior to my decision to leave, my fears rang in my ears so loud I could barely hear myself think. It was as if my inner critic stood on a soapboax shouting through a megaphone, commanding me not to shake up the status quo. Now that I’m on the other side, my mind is quiet again. Despite losing almost all of my projected income for the month of August, I am not afraid. I am motivated to act. As Joan Baez said, “Action is the antidote to despair.”
2. Readjustment takes time and energy. Going from the structured, fast pace of a 9-to-5 job to total wild-wild-west freedom is an adjustment. I grossly underestimated how much mental and physical energy making such a MASSIVE transition would take. I felt very tired for the first few weeks as my body finally got a chance to rest after working so hard on my day job and side hustles for so many years.
3. The old adages ring true: get comfortable being uncomfortable, and the only certainty is uncertainty. This has been my biggest mental shift since striking out on my own. Going from a steady (very healthy) paycheck to….total uncertainty…has been a major adjustment. As a solopreneur, especially in the beginning, you’ve got to get comfortable not knowing exactly where every dollar will come from. Work comes in, work gets canceled. You sell things and it works; you sell things and they flop. Developing semi-passive income streams takes time, and there’s nothing passive about the process. One night I went to bed with a knot in my stomach about how I’d pay my credit card bills. The next day, in one hour, I had sold $5K of business. The next week, it was gone. You’ve got to get comfortable (or as close to comfortable as you can) riding that wave without freaking out.
4. On that note, NEVER count (or spend!) your chickens before they’ve hatched. It’s ridiculously easy to do, and it is definitely not fun to dig out of. Desperation isn’t attractive when dating or selling.
5. Routine is king. For the first month my productivity on any given day was a total crapshoot. On some days I would wake up rearing to go, and on others you couldn’t pay me to pry myself off the couch. Because I was lacking routine, I was at the whims of what side of bed I’d wake up on. As Jonathan Fields shared at WDS, some of the most successful creatives have very structured lives, even if their actual creative time is very free-flowing. This predictability allows them to manage the rest of their lives with greater ease, thereby focusing their best energy on their creative work.
6. Health and fitness is queen. I just finished a 21-day cleanse with no caffeine, alcohol, dairy, wheat, refined sugar, or red meat. I knew I’d physically feel better by the end of it (light years!!!) but I had NO idea how significantly it would impact my business. I am infinitely more creative, happy, and productive every day. I’ve gotten more done in the last three weeks than in the last two months! I’ve finally re-prioritized exercise too — I run every morning for 20 minutes before doing anything else, and I try to go to yoga 4 times per week. Centering my day around exercise — putting it at the very top of my priority list — is THE BEST thing I have done for my business since leaving Google.
7. Your community are your new co-workers. Just because you leave your job doesn’t mean you have to work isolated on an island. As I talked about in my speech and the video above, you have so much more support than you realize. LEAN IN to your community, let them lean into you; you have so many people rooting for you, especially those of you who have built thriving communities on Twitter, Facebook and your blog.
8. Run your business otherwise it will run you. Tackle 1-2 big frogs each day before you do anything else (h/t Brian Tracy). You’ll feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, and you won’t resent reactive things that come up later in the day because you’ve already made major progress. After my mandatory morning frog (the 20-minute run), I try to accomplish 1-2 things that will significantly move things forward, whether it’s a blog post, drafting a sales page, creating a newsletter auto-responder, or building the MSH course. Only later do I start responding to emails or taking calls. I also only take meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which allows me to eat many frogs on every other day of the week.
9. However, sometimes you need to start with quick wins. When I’m tired or particularly behind, opening my my inbox to answer email can feel like going in for a root canal. During moments like that, if I try to go after a big frog, I’ll get overwhelmed and not do anything at all. So I start with quick wins — emails I can answer in two minutes or less; tasks I can complete in 30 seconds. That gets me moving, and there’s a good chance I’ll dive back into the bigger stuff once I get going.
10. Building “entrepreneurial resilience” is like building a muscle; it takes practice. This is something my good friend (and high school & college classmate!) Alex Budak and I have discussed at length. Alex is an awesome guy who recently left his corporate gig to launch Start Some Good, which facilitates kickstarter-style funding for social entrepreneurs.
    In Alex’swords:

    “Especially as a first-time entrepreneur, the roller coaster that is starting one’s own business is intense.  The highs feel incredibly high, and the lows feel incredibly low. Simply recognizing that this is normal and to be expected was a huge step for me as I sought to strengthen my own entrepreneurial resilience.

    The second, and equally crucial step for me was surrounding myself with fellow entrepreneurs.  It’s amazing how easy it is, when isolated, to think that you’re the only person going through these ups and downs, but as soon as you share your struggles with others, you realize just how similar many of the issues are.  Just like you’d prefer to sit next to someone on a real roller-coaster, having friends alongside you to ride the entrepreneurial roller coaster makes a huge difference.  Oh, and as my friend Jenny told me, ‘It helps to just breathe, sometimes’ too.”

Stay tuned for the next 10 lessons later this week! In the meantime, what did I miss?

Have you experienced any of the lessons above,
either on your side hustle or full-time work?

Before I jump in, a heartfelt thanks to all of you for the incredible response to the new website design – you’ve blown me and Nina away! It feels great knowing that all of our hard work paid off, and I look forward to continuing to pimp things out around here with your guidance and feedback!

I’m writing from Chicago today, getting ready to meet up with 200 bloggers for the first annual 20SB Summit this weekend.

I’m excited to share the stage with dozens of other kick-ass bloggers and friends, and I’m even more humbled to be one of this year’s keynote speakers — I feel like any one of the attendees could be up there! It’s my very first keynote, which gives me all kinds of butterflies…mostly in a good way. That’s how I know it’s a great challenge!

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t go through my fair share of, “Who, me? Am I worthy of being a keynote? What if one of the other speakers would have done a better job? Can I really impact the audience in a keynote-y kind of way?”

Those fears are only natural for something like this — it’s an interesting lesson in silencing my inner critic and busting through my upper limits of what I think I’m capable of. This is actually a huge dream come true, and I feel reassured knowing that I’ll be talking to a room full of friends and people who care and want to see me succeed. I’ve also written a speech that I feel proud to deliver; I’ve been practicing while on my morning runs…looking like a crazy person talking to myself!

In this video I share a sneak peek at what I’m going to be talking about during my speech — change, fear, and the courage to take great leaps in life (which I are all qualities of what it takes to be a 20 Something Blogger). Check-in on the 20SB Summit website on Sunday — my talk will be streamed live, so you can watch from home!

Here are links to things I mention during the video: 

• Danaan Perry’s Parable of the Trapeze
• My book website (LACBook.com)
• My upcoming course, Make Sh*t Happen, which is all about pushing through fear to make big dreams a reality

Can’t wait to see many of you in Chicago very soon. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you in the comments:

How do you navigate major changes and leaps of faith in your life?

Today is a VERY exciting day. If you’re reading in a feed reader, pop on over to the blog to check out the fancy new digs!

I’ve had the same logo and tagline since 2005 when I first set-up this website — that’s SIX years! To say that I’ve outgrown it is an understatement (“No one said it was easy” — c’mon, I can do better than that). I feel like my blog and I (yes, we’re basically imaginary friends now) just moved into a mansion after living in a nice comfortable house that we had outgrown.

Thanks to the incredible Nina Cross (@crossnina), I’m thrilled to reveal a major site overhaul today, including:

• Completely new design that matches my book’s branding. The tagline actually means something to me — it’s the impact I want to have on other people through my writing: to help people of all ages “Wake up. Live big! And love the journey.”
• A landing page with four clear options so that people can “choose their own adventure” (I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that my current blog landing page can be overwhelming for newcomers)
• Category landing pages that lay out a clear roadmap for each section so that people know where to start with my 4 years of archives
• Simplified sidebar — one column instead of two, far fewer options to get distracted by. I also added in some “As seen in…” social proof icons
• A Store + Freebies page to hawk some new wares — I’m trying to get creative about packaging my existing content and ideas to be helpful to you AND to pay the bills in post-Google life
• I moved to the Thesis theme to help with SEO, customizability, and to clean up some of the clutter from my existing (free) theme. At first I resisted because I didn’t want my site to look like every other Thesis blog, but Nina did a great job personalizing it, and the benefits of using Thesis were too great to ignore.

Curious about what the site used to look like? Life After College through the years…

It started with the HTML version I built in 2005 (notice the “we’ve” in the second paragraph? I didn’t want anyone to know it was just a 22-year-old behind the curtain…too funny!):

Then I gave it a face-lift in 2008/2009 by upgrading to a free WordPress theme that I customized (here’s the very first blog post I wrote, when I had zero subscribers. Note to future bloggers: best to create an archive of posts FIRST, then announce to friends and family):

Drumroll please….the new site!!

The brand new “choose your own adventure” landing page — (people clicking over from email/rss/social media will still go directly to the blog page):

I’m beyond excited to keep building out this site as I continue to grow into my business, and as always, I welcome your feedback at any time!

For any of you looking to upgrade your own sites, Nina Cross is an absolute pleasure to work with. She was able to read my mind and translate my vague descriptions into something beautiful; she was responsive, took feedback incredibly well, and handled every step of the process professionally. Big huge thanks to Andrew Norcross for his WordPress ninjary too — to call him the hero of the blog community would be a massive understatement — he has come through for me countless times, and this launch was no exception. There aren’t enough words to thank him properly…

So wherever you are, let’s lift a virtual cupcake and toast Nina for doing such a fantastic job!

Huge thanks to the 230 of you who took the Life After College reader survey that I posted a few weeks ago – your kind words, encouragement and suggestions are helpful and motivating beyond words!

Before I share the results, here’s a short 2-minute thank you video, in which I also share a quote that recently rocked my world (at the 0:55 mark):

Survey Results

Overall, you are here for a mix of inspiration, relatedness, community, and practical tips. The areas that people are most focused on are motivation, career growth, taking risks, personal finance, personal development, time management and overall life happiness and fulfillment, which makes sense since that’s what I write about!

The biggest takeaways for me are: 

1. I actually have a TON of content already created (a webinar on How to Rock Your Personal Finances, for example) — now I need to figure out how to package it so it’s easy for all of you to find. Nina Cross and I will be unveiling the new website in a few short weeks, and I’m going to use that as motivation to better organize everything! Each category will eventually have a “start here” map that walks people through getting that area of their life organized.
2. My big, hairy scary project of the moment is my 8-week Make Sh*t Happen course, which is still in development. Your survey results helped me understand what kinds of ambitions you have, and how important it can be to have accountability, community and support when going after what you want in life. I originally planned on launching the course in July, but the perfectionist in my wants to make it as outstanding as possible, so it’s still a work in progress. Click here to sign-up for updates in the meantime, and to be on the early notification list for when the course launches (the pilot class will be limited to 30 people).

Because I enjoy reading survey recaps on other people’s blogs (I find the insight into other people’s wants and needs fascinating), I’ve included more detailed results below. Feel free to skip the rest of this post if this doesn’t interest you!

DEMOGRAPHICS

Gender:

Take these with a grain of salt, since the respondents are not necessarily a representative sample. For example, my blog readers could be 68% female OR it could indicate that women are more likely to respond to a survey than men.

Age distribution:

Again, not necessarily representative, but interesting nonetheless! I often hypothesized that I had a good number of non-recent grads, given that my content is not skewed toward the nuts and bolts stuff people are often looking for at 21-22.

CONTENT THEMES:

Why do you read life after college?

***

Thank you AGAIN for the incredibly helpful guidance — I feel like I’ve just won the blogger lottery!

Want to chime in? I’m going to leave the survey open so people can continue to share their thoughts.

Now I’m off to work — gotta start delivering on as much as I can above!

I’m typing this post with a heart full to the brim of gratitude. The sun is rising, and I’m reflecting on my last official book tour stop in Los Angeles on Tuesday night — a room full of bright, warm people and blog friends (new and old) that my Dad and grandma described as “smart as a whip.”

YES. That’s what every stop has been like.

In Los Angeles at Urth Cafe -- planning my final book tour speech

I remarked the other day that I feel rich with friends. Above all else, that’s what this book tour has taught me. I am rich with brilliant friends, readers and community — in every city, including the ones I haven’t had a chance to visit (yet!).

People often ask Chris Guillebeau if his self-funded 50-city book tour was worth it and he always says yes. Mine — albeit a little smaller scale (coming in at 10 cities) — was absolutely worth it too.

I’ve never felt more inspired or more ALIVE. I sometimes resist doing recap posts because I hate the thought of leaving someone important out of a link round-up and I don’t want anyone to feel left out. So this post may not contain a lot of names….but you know exactly who you are.

You know if you purchased a book, came out to my book launch party, a bookstore event, an after party, a conference; sent a tweet, a text, an email, a Facebook note, a picture, or commented on a blog post these last three months. If you did any one of those things — or even just quietly followed along through this blog — I am grateful. You have given me wings.

Below are some book tour highlights from every city. If I left your name out, just know that it isn’t because I don’t love you!

1. Austin Texas — SXSW: a giant dinner hosted by Nick Reese with 20+ awesome people, the first official book launch party, hosted by Betty Jean Bell with my first ever cupcake sponsor. Late night Philly Cheesesteaks with Andy Drish talking about business and big plans.

2. Las Vegas, Round 1: Cancelling my flight home (despite a mile-high to-do list just two weeks before my book launch) to hop into a car for a spontaneous 19-hour drive to Vegas with Sean Ogle, Ryan Martin and Jenna Forstrom — all friends I had met just days prior.

3. Bay Area, CA: Doing my first two book store readings; looking out to an audience of friends and family, feeling like a REAL author while signing books, realizing that the whole writing journey was absolutely worth it. Receiving quite possibly the nerdiest-but-most-awesome gift ever from my high school friends — a framed picture of my book’s ISBN number.

Spotted! LAC with my college roommate's brother, Patrick Connor.

4. The Internet at Large: Having you all tweet, email, comment and share your love as you helped me launch the book (check out the post-game analysis of how it all went). Getting tweets with picture of the book on bookshelves across America at Barnes & Noble (and on the beach in Hawaii!).

5. TEDxCMU: delivering the opening speech to a live audience of 500 people; almost panicking when my slides went out, then feeling proud of the recovery while watching the video back; hanging out with Charlie and Amber and supporting each other as we helped show the audience what is possible for their lives and careers; having giant margaritas with the whole TEDx student organizer-crew after the event.

6. Making an appearance on my first Morning Show (Video ~2 Minutes)

Heading over to the BetterTV studios in NYC on the morning of my book launch party to film a two-minute video segment. Being swept into the green room where every other guest waited with their personal assistant and/or handler; watching the girls from Jerseyliscious do their thing. Feeling as nervous about those two minutes as any major speech (with only one take to get it right), but being really happy with how it all turned out and keeping fingers and toes crossed that it helps The Today Show find my phone number!

7. An Epic NYC Book Launch Party (with 2-minute Video)

Having over 200 people attend the book launch party in New York City. Receiving a larger-than-life cake from my NYC Angel Ann Turi; dancing and connecting with friends throughout the night; signing 200 books for the gift bags with Allie Mahler’s help; doing my version of a Sex and the City Photo Shoot with photographer Galo Delgado. {Full Flickr set here} Click on photos below to enlarge.

Here’s an awesome two-minute video-recap from videographer Bryan Ridgell (big thanks to NY Creative Interns, Victoria Monsul at Wix Lounge, and Ruth Ann Harnisch!!):

8. Converging on Las Vegas for a second time to attend Bloggers in Sin City (hosted by the amazing Nicole Antoinette): Meeting Grace Boyle in person for the first time (after knowing her for almost three years online), catching up with old friends, making new ones, having “business breakfasts” with Molly and the brilliant Bob Calise, and Jenn and I dancing our hearts out at Pure on the last night with a new friend that we picked up on the walk there (who clearly made the best decision EVER to ditch his friends hang out with 60 crazy bloggers instead). 

9. My last bookstore event in Seattle, WA: Being greeted at the airport by the fabulous Molly Hoyne, having Derek Shanahan come down from Vancouver to hang out and shoot-the-shit before my book talk, meeting an awesome crew of readers and friends (including Seattle host Mike Krass), giving a talk at the bookstore where my dad grew up (check out this great recap from Devon), heading around the corner for drinks with the awesome people who showed up and sharing our scariest can-barely-say-them-out-loud “secret” dreams and big goals with each other.

10. An amazing weekend in Portland for the World Domination Summit: with far too many great memories and new friends to count. Exploding with inspiration and possibility as I thought about all the ways I can grow Life After College. Morning techno dance sessions in the hotel room with my roommate Andy, catching up over a glass of wine with Doniree, meeting Dave for the first time in person by running into him in the elevator (telling him “my heart’s going to explode!” in the coffee shop the day after the conference ended), meeting the bow-tie master himself Mike Ambassador Bruny, Sunday night shenanigans at Dante’s Sinferno (h/t Sean Ogle!), countless strategy and tip-sharing talks over lunch, learning from people I’ve long-admired like Jonathan Mead, Charlie Gilkey and Corbett Barr, making many new friends (major girl crush alert!) and deeply feeling what it’s like to be surrounded by 500 people who would call you crazy for NOT following your biggest dreams.

The coolest latte design I've ever seen - at Urth Cafe in LA. Tweet tweet!

11. Los Angeles, CA: The final stop with the most energetic group of book tour attendees yet! Organized by Scott Asai and generously hosted by his friend Melissa in the “Hall of Fame” room at the New York Life offices. Writing a new speech an hour beforehand on fear, change, and big leaps; having my grandma attend one of my speeches for the first time (since high school graduation); meeting two incredible women (and several others) who traveled two hours to be there; and seeing what an inspiring group of people make up the LAC community; going out to dinner with my family afterward to celebrate and trying not to look ridiculous staring as we spotted the judges from American Idol at a table nearby (Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest and Steven Tyler).

12. Plane ride to NYC: Jumping back on a plane for a whirlwind trip to NYC to present at a conference; reflecting on the last 3 months of memories, blissful moments, worn out nights, living out of my suitcase, and knowing that every single minute and every dollar spent was absolutely, unquestionably WORTH IT.

As I was writing this post, the Black Eyed Peas’ The Time (of my life) song came on. This book tour has absolutely been the time of my life, and I have every one of you to thank for it. I am rich with friends, I am rich with community, and I bow to you in gratitude.

Thank you for giving me wings. There are some big updates ahead — inspired by you — and I can’t wait until it’s time to share. In the meantime, Namaste (I bow to the divine in you) – and cupcake CHEERS! To great things ahead for all of us