In November of 2019 . . .

I was living in a tiny apartment in Yokohama, Japan teaching English in the evenings and building what I thought was going to be a freelance writing business during the day.

One day, I listened to an episode of Jonathan Van Ness' podcast Getting Curious with JVN entitled “Is Our Reliance On Technology Turning Our Brains Into Mush?”

The guest was Dr. Doreen Dodgen-Magee and I was particularly struck by something she said in the episode:  

“When we are projecting out into the world a curated sense of ourselves, whether that be in social media or even in gaming … we know that then when we encounter the world in our embodied spaces that we won't match up to what we have been able to curate. And I think that creates a lot of, then, insecurity ... And when you really get down in the weeds in the research and in then in talking with young adults, you'll hear that sense of … ‘I can't look as great as I do when I've taken 50 photos with a filter and then chosen the one that looks perfect in Instagram and that creates this kind of anxiety about how people will receive me in the world.’”

Hearing these words set off a spark of inspiration in me to do a social experiment on Instagram I would call First Take Gallery.

The idea was to create a space where people could post unfiltered, unedited first-take photos of themselves as opposed to the usual thousandth shot, obsessively fine-tuned for public approval.

I asked friends and strangers to send me their selfies and to answer a thought-provoking question prompt to use as a caption.

Photos and captions started trickling in and before I knew it, the “gallery” of non-curated faces I had in my mind had manifested onto my feed.

Then something crazy happened. 

I follow the hashtag #stickandpoke on Instagram because I love that style of tattoo and I'm always collecting ideas should I one day I have the courage to go through with it. 

One day, an adorable photo of a young woman giving who seemed to be a paternal figure a homemade tattoo.

I clicked over to his feed to get the full scoop of what was going on in the photo and I noticed that his name was Thomas Magee and he an image in his feed of Dr. Doreen Dodgen-Magee, JVN’s podcast guest who had inspired First Take Gallery.

I couldn’t believe it!

I mean, maybe there was some algorithm magic happening, but honestly I wouldn’t have paused to click on his photo in the first place had I not found it as compelling as I did.

So, I sent him a message to ask him if he was related to her (of course he was) and to tell him about the project I had launched because of her podcast episode.

He responded to tell me that they had been married for 30 years and that he would pass my message along.

A few weeks later Doreen messaged me and graciously contributed a photo and a caption to the gallery. (You can see her above in the red glasses.)

Then, I got a message from Christina.

Christina Malecka is a brilliant, gifted, inspiring, social justice oriented mental health therapist based in Seattle with a passion for helping people right-size their relationship with technology. She founded what was then called Digital Mindfulness Retreats (now Screen Time Lifeline), a project dedicated to helping people break the cycle of screen addiction through tech-free retreats and events.

She happened upon First Take Gallery through one of the various hashtags I used and reached out. We scheduled a time to chat with no purpose in mind except to connect. (She also sent me a pic, which you can see above.)

Upon talking we learned that we had both been former grassroots organizers and had worked for Greenpeace years previously.

Coincidentally, Christina and Doreen were friends / colleagues in the world of therapy and digital wellbeing.

It just felt like divine guidance.

Christina and I had an immediate connection.

It came up in conversation that her social media manager was heading off to grad school.

Without a second thought I blurted, “I’ll manage your social media!”

And so our working relationship began.

Social media management became content development and copywriting and then eventually complete digital marketing strategy.

News of covid had just started to hit.

At the beginning of March, the school where I was teaching started cancelling classes due to the pandemic. So, I decided to quit my job and return to the States for fear I would be subject to the travel ban.

When I returned home, Christina and I got on the phone. She said something to the effect of — “If this what you really want to do, I believe wholeheartedly that you will have a very successful career.”

She then asked me when I was ready to blow up with clients.

Once I recovered from jet lag and reacclimated to life in the States, Christina started referring her friends and colleagues to me. Then they referred their friends and colleagues. Before I knew it, my schedule was booked and I hadn't even done any marketing for myself! 

With years of experience trying and failing to get various entrepreneurial pursuits and artistic projects off the ground, I knew I had finally hit a home run.

I had found this perfect combination of my skills, love of communication, movement building and creative expression through the work I was doing.

Now that I wasn't teaching in the evenings, didn’t have to pay rent, make meals, do laundry, or even leave the house (I was living with my parents when I came back to the States…thanks, Mom & Dad for your hospitality!) I could dedicate all of my time for 3 straight months to getting this thing off the ground.

So, that’s what I did. (I did go on to move out of my parents’ house, in case you were wondering.)

The rest is history.

Shout out to the amazing Yvonne “Evi” Druyeh Dodd who helped me get the actual nuts and bolts of this business fleshed out, fine-tuned and flowing. Her guidance has been invaluable.