I love my job, but I’m pretty busy outside of my massage practice.
Community-Event Organizing & Promotion
I love to bring people together and to hear what they’ve got to share with each other. So I am always involved as an organizer or promoter of local community events.
Being a juggler, I always seem to have three things in the air. Right now I’m:
- publishing a weekly Seattle community events listing,
- helping to organize the Ignite Seattle quick-talk speaking series – three or four times a year we put 16 of your neighbors on stage to share their stories, insights, lifehacks, and nerdy obsessions, and
- co-organizing WordCamp Seattle 2017 – the WordPress community has given me a lot over the years, and I’m enjoying the opportunity to give back.
Over the years, I’ve also helped produce TEDxRainier, Seeds of Compassion, Seattle Empty Bowls, and many other community events.
Since 1993, I have volunteered for Seattle arts events like Fremont’s Moisture Festival, Honk Fest West, the Fremont Solstice Parade, Bumbershoot, and the World Rhythm Festival (I also served for two years as a board member for the Seattle World Percussion Society, the organization that stages the festival, which used to draw as many as 10,000 rhythm enthusiasts to the Seattle Center every spring).
Teaching & Public Speaking
Since 2003, I have taught a very popular introductory massage class, and I have taught at both the Brian Utting School of Massage and served as a teaching assistant for James Waslaski’s Orthopedic Massage & Pain Management classes.
I have spoken professionally for more than 20 years, currently focusing on Office Fitness Talks. I am an active Toastmaster and continue to study public speaking. You will often find me at one of Seattle’s many speaking events.
World Music and Dance
I love world music and dance, and I study and play West African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and other percussion-heavy music.
Internet Marketing and Online Publishing
I used to do a bunch of internet stuff: developing online publications, building content management systems, and helping entrepreneurs and independent professionals promote themselves online. I now focus on online publishing ventures related to my bodywork and office fitness interests.
Entrepreneurship
I have owned and operated my own massage business since 1999. Part of what gave me the courage to strike out on my own was my experience working as a senior manager in three internet start-ups during the original dot-com boom (one of which, workz.com, provided information to entrepreneurs about how to do business online). I maintain my interest in and connections with the entrepreneurial world, regularly participating in events like Startup Weekend and Hacker News meetups. I’m also a member of Seattle’s social entrepreneurship co-working space, Impact HUB Seattle.
Fremont Noodle House Group
From 1998 through 2013, I convened an informal monthly gathering of independent business and creative professionals.
Book Publishing
My first career was in college textbook publishing. I miss hanging out with academics and regularly visiting college campuses, but life outside the Ivory Tower is good, too.
Seattle
Other Interests
I am proud to be affiliated with the Johnny Jeptack Propulsion Laboratory. I love living in Seattle, but I also love New York and made a trip there to see Christo’s The Gates Feb. 12 & 13, 2005. I am also a reformed juggler. Until most of my favorite players retired, I was a roller derby fan (and even went on the road with the RCRG to Tucson and the DLF to Austin).
I also occasionally blog on this site about my personal interests.