Hey there! I'm Melissa, but you can call me Mel, or MJ. That's my big face on the left and that's the way I'd probably look at you if we were having coffee at my kitchen table: with attentiveness, with interest, and with curiosity.
I've always been interested in people. That made me a writer at a very young age. I've identified with creatives for as long as I can remember: poets, musicians, artists, philosophers. My right-brain loves and lives for dreams and ideas. My left-brain likes to build things — whether that's meals or tables or knitted scarves and hats. I sew and garden because my hands need to stay active if they aren't clicking out on a keyboard.
Maybe you're like me. Maybe you dreamt of having a life built around creativity and the doing of things — I did.
But then the real world happened. I had kids. I had to work. My life became less and less about beautiful ideas and artfully creating, and more and more about keeping up with everything else on a glowing screen I only wanted to look at less and less.
I'm not going to bullshit you. I haven't figured it all out yet. But what I have figured out, I offer up to you.
I'm here to learn. To grow. To be open. And to live and work mindfully. Just like you.
And I believe that we can be creative and be successful.
By holding fast to the practice of our art and by sifting through the tools and information we have to market it—using those tools with intention and compassion.
I'm a firm believer: that practice is key, in humans not hashtags, in sharing story (not noise), and in creating legacy with a body of work.