Embark

So, what does a creative do when a pandemic cancels their gigs? If you’re Lyralen Kaye, you stay home, devise a web series, then collect accolades, including an award from the the Los Angeles Internation Film Festival’s Indie Short Fest. Kaye brought 23 actors from around the world together through Zoom to create Assigned Female at Birth: A Web Series about Some Bodies.

A hybrid narrative/documentary series Assigned Female at Birth (AFAB) is the story of 23 AFAB people fighting everything they've been taught about their bodies never being good enough.

Season One of the docu-dramedy is on YouTube. Season Two drops later this month.

Creative director, executive producer and founder of Another Country Productions , Lyralen talks with me about body image, gender identity, connection and creativity.

Lyralen Kaye, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, is an actor, screenwriter, playwright, and director.  Their acting film/web credits include Assigned Female at Birth, The Last Poker Game, 27 Dresses, The Naturals, The Man at the Door and Mama’s Boy.  In Theatre they have played such classic roles as Emma in Betrayal, Lulu in The Dutchman and Polina in The Seagull.  Assigned Female at Birth has five times won Best Web and New Media in film festivals world wide. Lyralen's first screenplay for Saint John the Divine in Iowa won them a place in the 2015 Writers Lab supported by Meryl Streep, was a finalist for the 2018 Blacklist Women in Film Lab and 2011 Roy W. Dean Award and was a semi-finalist for the 2011 Pride Plays and Films Award.  In 2018 Lyralen won the San Francisco Best in Fringe and Techie Best in Fringe for their solo show, My Preferred Pronoun Is We. Lyralen has also been nominated for the 1997 Pushcart Prize in fiction and won the 1998 Boston Amazon Slam Poetry Finals. They are a radical queer activist and social justice artist.

Let's give some credit to the boomers. And GenXer's. They do things on their own terms. Rather than embrace their parents’ model of seniority  which was defined by retirement and a move to Florida, If you're 50-plus, you may go back to school, start a new relationship, explore your creativity, 'embark' on a new career -- or spiritual path -- or take up a cause.  You might see it as a way to enjoy a third act, which may include many more scenes, subplots and twists. 

Each third Thursday of the month, we welcome you to Embark on Your Third Act.

Rebecca Moore of InANutshell Productions, and Diana Place of Third Act Quest, join me for far-reaching conversations about what's next for our life's third act. We'll invite a wide range of guests to address subjects from financial literary to sexual health to career advice. 

Today we talk about regrets, the plasticity of our brains and our potential to change and achieve great things.

Join the conversation, and bring your questions: liz@embark the podcast.com. And please subscribe.

Change is not easy, nor does it happen quickly.  One  need only look at our continuing conversations and conflict over race to understand that truth.
Embark revisits a conversation with E. Dolores Johnson, who explores her own racial identity in her debut memoir.

In 1946, E. Dolores Johnson's black father and white mother fled  Indiana's harsh laws against interracial marriage. The subject of an FBI search, which concluded  she was dead and a victim of  foul play, Dolores' mother was raising a family in Buffalo, New York.

As a young woman, Dolores decided to find her white family, and hoped to reunite her mother with loved ones.   She writes about her experience in her book, 'Say I'm Dead: A Memoir of Race, Secrets and Love.'  Published last June by Chicago Review Press, it is now an audiobook on Dreamscape Media.

Johnson's work has appeared in Narratively, Buffalo News, Writers of Color Anthology, Hippocampus and others.  She spent her career as an international business executive in tech. She also consulted corporations, as well as Berklee College of Music,  on diversity. Dolores directed the digitization of john F. Kennedy's papers at his presidential library in Boston, which launched at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. She has a BA from Howard University and MBA from Harvard Business School and completed an MFA equivalent Creative Writing Program. Through Delta Sigma Theta, she chairs human trafficking conferences for black girls and serves on the Boston University International Review Board and the Board of the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts

We collectively send and receive over 300 million emails a day. How many of those do you automatically delete? How can you make sure people are opening and responding to yours?

Email strategist Susan Finn believes marketing is an act of service to those who are currently looking for what you have to offer. That's where thoughtful, effective email practices come in.

She created the Rise Above Noise five-pillar process, which offers heart-centered entrepreneurs  a step-by-step guide to create a digital marketing strategy that saves time, attracts clients and allows them to show up in their own integrity.

Susan discusses how to tame the pesky organizational aspect of marketing to present our message consistently and generously share it at scale.

Find her Facebook group and discover her work here.

Social Geek Radio's Jack Monson and his guests discuss social media and digital marketing trends for brands, small businesses, and franchises. 

Social Geek Radio was listed as one of 20 Best Business Podcasts according to Emerge and was named to the Best Small Business Podcasts by FitSmallBusiness.com. Recently we finally made the Top 25 podcasts in the Marketing category of Apple Podcasts / iTunes.

Jack is seasoned in social media marketing, franchise marketing, brand journalism, and public relations. He is the Chief Revenue Officer at Social Joey, and works with franchise systems, national brands, and their locations to get their local marketing hopping!

In 2010 Jack and his partners started  The Franchise Marketing Innovation and Tech Conference and presented by The International Franchise Association promoting digital marketing and innovation for the Franchise industry.

More at  socialgeekradio

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

This verse from Mary Oliver's poem The Summer Day  inspired Diana Dunbar Place to explore  what she wanted for her own life. She founded Third Act Quest to inspire others to embrace life's possibilities and transitions,  and re-envision and rewrite their life stories.

After a 35-year professional career that includes a decade  with a leading international marketing & ad agency; ten years with America Online (AOL-Time Warner),  Diana  started three entirely different entrepreneurial ventures.  She has mentored and advised several organizations to serve and connect women. 

In her fifties,  the coinciding emotional challenges surrounding a cancer diagnosis, closing  my latest entrepreneurial venture, and becoming an empty nester as my daughter headed to college  was not filled with anger or regret, but deep gratitude, joy and reignited passion for this next phase of my life. 

Through retreats, courses, group and private coaching, and a special event series, she helps reframe the experience and perceptions of aging among people of all ages.   Third Act Quest  is working to shift the experience and perception of aging for individuals, in the workplace and in our culture in general; inspiring people to reimagine what it means to grow older.  Importantly as well, she  want to help bridge understanding, connection, and mutual support between generations.

Visit her website: [email protected]  to connect and learn more.

What do you do when you work with women founders who are reluctant to call themselves 'founders'? You help them walk into their title, and power with integrity, support and some fun. At least that's what you do if you're Rebecca Moore, Founder of In a Nutshell Consulting.

Moore empowers mission-based women entrepreneurs to harness their brilliance, crush doubt, and clarify their message so they can make a social impact AND earn a meaningful income. 

An entrepreneur and creative at heart, she leverages her experience founding a venture-backed dot.com and two consultancies (while juggling parenting, caregiving, and health crises) to provide perspective, strategies, and encouragement to first-time and unconventional business owners (many of whom. like her, are starting YOLO businesses in their '50s). She speaks on "Creating your new identity...as an unconventional founder", "The Founder Myth" ,"Telling Your Story in a Nutshell",  "Monetizing Your Brilliance, and "Turning Your Setbacks to Success."    Moore believes it is never too late to fulfill your purpose, to serve others, and to prosper.

We all know the signs of adolescence: Identity crises, running with the wrong crowd, rebelliousness, oversleeping.  Sound like what's happening with your brand? Your business?
Well,  your brand may be stuck in adolescence, and Evelyn Starr explains how your brand can find itself, grow up and thrive.

Evelyn Starr is a brand expert and marketing consultant with over 25 years of marketing strategy and research experience. Evelyn uses her keen powers of observation and insight to help her clients wow their customers and grow their businesses.  She specializes in working with Brands in Adolescence, brands that have stalled after their initial success. 

Her clients have ranged from small businesses like Laird Superfood and Harbor Sweets to global brands like Hasbro and Gillette. 

Before founding E. Starr Associates in 1999, Evelyn worked for some of New England’s most recognized brands including Dunkin’, Veryfine Products and The First Years.  As leader of the Care & Safety category at The First Years, she launched one of the company’s most successful products, the Hands-Free Gate, which won The National Parenting Seal of Approval in 2002.  

 Evelyn earned an MBA in Marketing from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and graduated with honors from Vassar College with a BA in Economics and French.  Living in the Greater Boston area, her passions include travel, reading, writing, yoga, tea, dark chocolate and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in both her husband and her two children.

What makes an advertising message successful? What do the best commercials have in common? What exactly is Audio Optometry. We discuss all with Creative Director and Broadcast Producer, Michael Coleman.

Recognized among media and entertainment industry leaders for innovative ideas that sell, ColeCuts Creative rose to prominence through their innovative work for major market radio and TV stations across the US and Canada. With over three decades of memorable commercials and promotional messages ColeCuts Creative is known for developing intelligent, humorous, and cutting-edge material. Their cerebral and irreverent wit earned them numerous awards, including the Edward R. Murrow, Marconi, Radio Mercury, RTNDA, Associated Press, and Silver Microphone. As a twenty-seven-year stand-up comedian, their two CDs Do Not Read This and Laughing to Beat the Band have received critical acclaim on radio stations throughout the US. They have also taught creative writing and sound production at Northeastern University and Boston College. More at colecutsound.com. 

Think poetry is relegated to dusty old library book shelves?  Well, poetry is alive and thriving, thanks to emerging poets like Amanda Gorman. Today, another young poet shares her passion for verse, and why it's not only relevant,  but essential. 

Sara Letourneau is a poet as well as the managing editor and writing coach at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. In her editing work, she specializes in speculative fiction, literary fiction, YA fiction, memoir, and prescriptive nonfiction. Her poetry has been featured in or will soon appear in Aromatica Poetica, Constellations, Mass Poetry's Poem of the Moment, Soul-Lit, Amethyst Review, Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene, Golden Walkman Magazine, and The Aurorean, among others. She is also a former music journalist and tea reviewer, and her articles about writing have appeared in blogs such as DIY MFA, Writers Helping Writers, and Grub Street. She lives in Massachusetts and is known for always having a book, a journal, a pen, and a cup of tea handy.

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