We’ve gathered some of the most note-worthy personal development experts, authors, and blogs you should be on the lookout for!
Let’s have a look at 29 of these experts, in no particular order, and see what they have to offer:
Judith Belmont, MS, LPC
Licensed Psychotherapist | Mental Health Author | Wellness Speaker, Belmont Wellness
Belmont Wellness is the site of licensed psychotherapist, wellness speaker, and mental health author Judith Belmont, MS, LPC, offering free self-help handouts, worksheets, and exercises for emotional wellness.
Her psychoeducational resources include tips for improving communication and assertiveness, defeating negative thought habits, identifying and eliminating cognitive distortions, improving self-esteem, decreasing anxiety and tips for managing stress.
She offers quick quizzes to assess your skills such as your “Forgiveness IQ” as well as your overall emotional wellness. Her handouts are taken mostly from her four books “Tips and Tools for the Therapeutic Toolbox” series which offers therapists and their clients “hands-on” resources for overcoming common issues such as anxiety, depression, and stress.
Her newest book to be released 1/2/19 by New Harbinger, “Embrace Your Greatness: 50 Ways to Build Unshakeable Self Esteem” offers practical tips you can practice daily to help readers overcome self-doubt, silence their inner critic, be assertive, boost self-esteem, and embrace their greatness.
Also to be released that same day is a self-help card deck called “The Stress and Anxiety Solution Deck: 55 CBT and Mindfulness Tips and Tools” offering quick tips and activities you can do daily to boost your emotional wellness.
Her website also includes inspirational posts, called Daily Positive Inspirations, which are also published on her popular Facebook page and her Pinterest boards.
As it pertains to developing a stable relationship, many people often diminish the importance of having a healthy relationship with yourself.
Through my private practice, First Love Yourself Counseling, I help you understand the importance of cultivating a meaningful relationship with yourself so that you can have successful relationships in other areas of your life.
I specialize in trauma processing with an emphasis on boundary setting so that you can ultimately avoid repeating behaviors that leave can leave you susceptible to being taken advantage of which will help to increase your level of confidence in various areas of your life.
As a means of processing trauma with my clients, I use an empirically researched therapeutic technique called, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which allows clients to identify memories that are inadequately processed and maladaptively stored causing unresolved symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
It is an eight-phase proven process that allows clients to heal from trauma and experience the emotional and psychological freedom to be whole enough individually so that I can then assist them in establishing (or re-establishing), developing, and maintaining healthy relationships across all life domains.
I also provide non-traditional forms of therapy, Telemental health (virtual therapy) and walk and talk therapy in order to “move beyond the couch” to begin to move therapy into the modern world and meet the needs of those who otherwise are uncomfortable, intimidated, or just plain old bored of the traditional office setting.
I also host The F.L.Y. Podcast, have written a book, “A Lesson on How To FLY…” and created merch as an interactive way to engage in the therapeutic process.
As too often clients will be very productive and engaged while in session but will regress in progress in between sessions. Thus, I have created products that compliment the counseling experience to serve as a reminder of the work clients are doing and to help encourage therapeutic progress.
Recommended by: Ruth A. Wilson, MA, BCET, Board-Certified Educational Therapist
Having been an entrepreneur in such a wide range of settings and supervising teams in multiple geographic locations, Ruth says, “I need resources for all kinds of leadership issues.
The one that consistently makes me think, saves me time and provides all kinds of insights and inspiration is Helena Escala’s blog, EntreGurus.
As the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the New York Public Library, Helena has read lots and lots of books and consumes the written word at a rate few of us can parallel.
She summarizes key points daily in EntreGurus, and tags each blog with an estimated time for reading (generally between 2-4 minutes) and key points, to help you prioritize your time on the topics most relevant to you.
So many times, I find myself tagging her articles to come back and read later, or to share with one of my students or clients.
Since Helena cites her sources for every piece of advice, her blog also functions as a constant source of recommended reading or listening if you tend to download audible books to make the most of travel time.
I strongly encourage anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, or even just improving your own productivity and communication skills to subscribe to EntreGurus.
Whether you’re just starting a business, managing a multi-million dollar corporation, or aspiring to embark on a different professional pathway, you will find this blog helpful.”
We support others in learning effective communication skills, those skills that are needed every day, those skills most of us have never been taught.
Did you know that 90% of conversations miss the mark? This leads to so much misunderstanding and conflict. Instead, it is possible to have conversations that land so we feel seen, heard and understood. This is what everyone wants.
To do this we need to:
- be present in the conversation, not thinking about what we need to get done, what went wrong earlier – focused on what is happening now and nothing else.
- be open and non-judging which sounds easy and is super challenging. To do this we need to focus on the other person and seek to understand them instead of speaking over them to hear ourselves talk and drown them out so they know we are ‘right’. When we are open and non-judging, we see possibility and become curious to understand what is being said. When we judge, we are closed to possibility and narrow the conversation down to the least number of options which typically does not serve us.
- ask open questions for which we don’t know the answer. This helps to further open the conversation and seek deeper understanding for all concerned.
That is the fundamental framework one needs to practice. In addition, we need to test assumptions because we have learned assumptions ‘make an ass of u and me’ and are usually incorrect.
How can we truly understand the perspectives of others if we are assuming based on what they say? We are not really hearing what they have to say and this leads to misunderstanding and conflict.
Speaking of perspectives – did you know each one of us has our own unique perspective on everything. We cannot assume that another person (even our spouse, family member, close friend) has the same perspective.
Once we assume that, we stop really listening and start judging others – yes this leads to misunderstanding and conflict. Recognize that everyone has their very own unique perspective on everything and seek to understand – there is gold waiting to be mined.
I would add self-awareness to this mix.
We need to understand our values and then get clear on our wants so we can create clear boundaries. These will help us communicate more clearly.
As we nurture our self-awareness, we will begin to understand our triggers, the emotions we feel when someone says something that rubs us the wrong way.
Once we understand why this happens, it is easier to stay calm, to approach conversations so we can understand others and navigate conflict in a way that seeks common ground upon which to move forward.
Laura Gassner Otting
Founder, Limitless Possibility
Confidence catalyst Laura Gassner Otting helps people get “unstuck” and achieve extraordinary results.
She is the go-to guide for helping people discover their consonance—how they align what they do with who they are—to achieve their limitless potential.
As founder of Limitless Possibility, Laura collaborates with entrepreneurs and investors to push past the doubt and indecision that consign great ideas to limbo.
She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes.
Laura’s 25-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com; and founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission-driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists.
Through speaking engagements, blogs and her upcoming book, Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life, Gassner Otting helps people discover their greatness and encourages them to forge ahead and become the best versions of themselves.
She debunks the traditional and externally defined versions of success, helping people understand why we’ve gotten it wrong for so long.
Gassner Otting also gives a framework for everyone, at every age and life stage—from high school seniors and entrepreneurs to new mothers going back to work and retirees—to understand what success means for them and what to change to have it the way that works for themselves.
Followers will learn to ignore the rules that create limits, align their energies and actions, and do work that really matters so that they can live their best life.
Gassner Otting brings both tough love and wisdom and offers a no-holds-barred look at what it really takes to get out of your own way and earn success today.
Consider her a motivator, instigator, troublemaker, a bit of a kick in the butt wrapped in a warm hug. People say that an hour with Gassner Otting makes them feel like they can walk through walls.
She believes that anything is possible, that there is an adventure around every corner, and that goodness always wins.
I’m an eating psychology expert. That would be someone who treats the why and how not the what of eating.
I’m a psychotherapist in practice for over 30 years, a popular blogger (1000+ archived), and an award-winning, international author of seven books on eating, weight and body image.
As such, I’m part of the worldwide movement that promotes the non-diet, no shame, no blame approach to health and wellness.
While most blogs and books these days focus on weight-loss, mine help clients learn (or relearn) the skill of eating according to appetite to establish a comfortable body weight for life.
I liken my approach to how a locomotive travels: just as the engine leads and the caboose follows, health and weight are the results of eating.
My writings are about food plus everything that has a bearing on it—life skills, body acceptance, emotions, stress, trauma, beliefs, personality traits, self-talk, and mixed feelings people have about self-care.
I’m a graduate of Simmons College School of Social Worker, half-a-lifetime recovered from chronic dieting and binge eating, and meld my personal experience with decades of clinical training and expertise.
Best known for teaching people about the four rules of “normal” eating—hunger, food cravings, eating with awareness, and stopping eating when full or satisfied—I’ve done scores of interviews, taught lay workshops and CEU courses, done podcasts and have an active social media following.
Bedros Keuilian is the founder and CEO of one of the 500 fastest growing franchises in the world, Fit Body Boot Camp.
Bedros is also a best-selling author, speaker, business consultant, host of the highly successful podcast (Empire Podcast Show), and an investor in over a dozen companies ranging from subscription software platforms, digital ad agencies as well as mastermind and coaching services.
He is known as the hidden genius that entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, and thought leaders turn to when they want to create highly profitable and industry dominating brands and businesses.
His new book, Man Up!: How to CUT THE BULLSH*T and KICK ASS in Business (and in Life), came out in September and has been a huge success.
In the book, Bedros helps you kick-start the life that you were meant to live so that you can reach your fullest potential as an entrepreneur and in every other area of your life by addressing everything from self-discipline, communication, emotional resilience and clarity of vision and path.
BIGG Success is inner peace which flows from three sources:
- finding and fulfilling your calling,
- striving daily to reach your full potential, and
- staying true to your vision and values.
We believe you are the owner of a very special enterprise – your life. You and only you are in charge. It’s up to you to take control, to make your mark, and to turn your dreams into reality.
Through our popular podcast, blog, and newsletter, we talk about the five elements of BIGG success: money, time, growth, work and play.
Money and time are your two resources. Work and play are your two opportunities. Growth bridges the gap. It starts as an opportunity, which you can turn into a resource.
Gingerhill Farm Retreat’s weekly blog is your go-to resource for living sustainably.
Inspired by eco-friendly agricultural practices and the village model of living, Gingerhill hosts a community of like-minded individuals who strive to live as holistically as possible.
The Gingerhill community boasts the merits of meditation, yoga, martial arts, farming, farm-to-table cooking, and communal bonding in healing the soul and supporting a vibrant, healthy planet.
Gingerhill’s blog is comprehensive, touching on any and every aspect of organic, sustainable, community living.
Frequent topics include agricultural practices, such as syntropic farming and agroforestry; holistic health, the merits of different diets, and the nutritional profile of local plants; what it is like to live in a community; and larger sociopolitical concerns involving the environment, native Hawaiian culture, and human health.
Gingerhill’s blog is a must-read for those who eat and live holistically, are looking to grow their own gardens, or want to learn more about health, agriculture, and the environment.
Caution: you might find yourself inspired to do something drastic, like join a farm community in the lush jungles of Hawaii to work the land, practice yoga, and lead the life you never knew you were craving!
Brooke’s first book, Why You SHOULD Date Emotionally Unavailable Men: Use Your Unhealthy Relationships to Transform Yourself and Your Love Life will be published in early 2019.
In this book, she helps women deprogram the damaging ideas that sabotage their relationships and teaches them skills to develop Elevated Connections with their partners.
Taking a countercultural approach to the damaging, conventional wisdom regarding relationships, this book will challenge everything you think you know about what it means to be a strong woman.
Brooke’s new live video broadcast called Mini Sesh will offer listeners the opportunity to ask for insight and advice from a trained therapist live on various social media platforms such as Facebook Live, Twitter Live, Vimeo, and Periscope.
You’ll have the opportunity to have a miniature therapy session at the tip of your fingers and hear her offer insight to others.
Brooke’s next venture is to create an interactive video coaching program called the Reflection Principle, which helps people bring their lives into alignment by looking at how their problems in all aspects of their lives reveal how they can transform.
It will tackle all areas of life from health and nutrition, to career, finance, and time management, to relationships and mental health. This will be based on the content from her second book The Reflection Principle: Use Your Problems to Optimize Your Life.
Faith and love in action: this is one way I describe how I work with people in the area of Personal Development.
This time of year is often difficult for many: a time of remembering those we’ve loved and who have passed away, the ending of year that “wasn’t” what someone may have hoped it would be and holding so much hope for the year to come.
As people start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, I ask: why wait? I wonder, what would it be like to have someone to stand with you as you take action toward your future?
I choose to champion the champions out there and invite those with curiosity and doubt to come and unleash their inner champion with me. Faith and love in action to close out 2018 and launch 2019 with commitment and passion.
Beauty has nothing to do with the pursuit of “perfection.”
Beauty is found in authenticity, empathy, play, and passion. It is found in our humanity—bodies at work, limber and awake, free and unbowed.
There is precisely zero chance we will be able to achieve equal stature while chronically apologizing for our own perfectly healthy, unconventionally beautiful bodies.
Each step and every healthy bite takes us closer to well-being, closer to raw, unrepentant liberty at home, at work, in our neighborhoods, and within the confines of our own minds.
There is a place for shock. There is a place for grief. And there is always and forever a place for heartache, but when we turn all of that in on ourselves, we inflict more damage than the outside world ever could. We set ourselves back, and there is no place for that.
Our bodies are everything. They are the tools that our mothers and their mothers used to end wars.
Women have used their bodies to demand the right to vote, the right to work, the right to birth control, the right to safe working conditions, the right to choose, the right to equal funding for sports and education, the right to say “no,” and the right to serve in any position in the armed services for which they are qualified. Our bodies are agents of change.
The ways we view our bodies; the ways we move and feed them; the ways we dress and care for them are entirely up to us.
Our thoughts and personal behavioral choices belong to us. This is one domain where we have all the power—should we choose to exercise it.
Wellness allows us to live our lives fully, in bodies that feel accessible, balanced, and free of self-consciousness. It lets us get the job done without having to think twice about whether we’re physically up to the challenge.
Nicki Hall Wellness
Nicki Hall, Qualified Transformation Coach | Self Sabotage Expert
Nicki Hall Wellness is an online platform dedicated to supporting and empowering women to love themselves and lose weight.
Over the last 2 years, we’ve seen a huge soar in the amount of women embracing the self-love lifestyle and turning their backs on diets.
However, there is a large percentage of women within this who still feel like they want to lose weight in order to have their healthiest and most vibrant body and now find themselves stuck between the power of self-love and the need to find another diet to help shift the last few pounds.
This is where Nicki steps in with her powerful and transformational blogs, free challenges and programmes. Nicki shares with you her proven formula for losing weight whilst embracing a self-love mindset in order to shift the weight that is holding you back and propel you into a life of true happiness.
The strategies and action steps shared in Nicki’s blog posts will transform your mindset from stuck, unfocused and lost to aligned, determined and action-packed.
If you feel ready to take your learning, lifestyle, and mindset to the next level then you need to head over Nicki’s blog and get reading, it is really going to blow your mind.
That Anita Live provides emotional healing to help you create a healthy and happy life.
In each post, Anita highlights experts in the mental and emotional health industry to increase your knowledge and bridge the gap between people seeking help and those available to serve.
Finding a therapist can be a very intimidating task. So having the opportunity to see a therapist and learn about their personality and style of relating to clients is a huge step to lowering the barrier of reaching out to one when in need.
She also spotlights real women with extraordinary and resourceful stories that have overcome the odds to rise and reclaim relentless and thriving lives.
Women are so resilient, but we’re also modest. When we share our stories along with the techniques and activities we’ve used to overcome adversities, we’re stronger.
Taking responsibility to reveal our mended scars so that our fellow sisters can heal, matters. Being together and giving from a place of vulnerable honesty, matters. It’s the basic principle of why That Anita Live exists, because you and your emotional health, matter.
Healing happens authentically in a meaningful and fulfilling community.
It’s why Anita and her guests have transparently shared experiences in everything from abuse and domestic violence to wigs and yoga. All of it affects our emotions. The weekly blog is published in video and audio formats for your enjoyment and convenience.
If you’re a parent, chances are that you’re busy, tired, and often wondering if you’re doing things right. This is why you need Parenting Pod – a personal development site created especially for you.
Parenting Pod was founded by Rachel Fink, a parent of 7 lively children. Together with a group of psychologists and pediatricians dedicated to the cause, they tackle issues such as anger, body image, and sleep problems.
The goal is to help parents become better equipped to improve both their own and their family’s mental health.
The content is all evidence-based and written by experts, yet very easy to read and accessible.
Robin Marvel
Author | Speaker
Authentic, Motivating and Unique, Robin Marvel is “that” girl who has rose from struggle to success.
Overcoming addiction, a childhood riddled with mental, domestic and drug abuse, several bouts of homelessness and countless parental kidnappings, sexual assault at age 15 and becoming a teen mother at 17 to become a multi-published author and speaker that is one of a kind.
Robin Marvel’s books and presentations amplify strengths and transform weaknesses, professionally and personally.
Working hands-on with her you will be given life-changing actions paired with effective, easy to use daily tools, building a foundation of strength, to achieve results.
Sharing with you how she did not allow her past to define her present. How she has focused on post-traumatic growth that will get you feeling empowered, encouraged to take a hands-on approach to your life and your success!
Whether you are reading one of Robin’s books, working one on one or she is speaking to your organization she provides a beacon of light to those who feel they have arrived at the darkest corner of their lives.
Living proof that you can single-handedly turn your own life around, Robin took every negative situation she was dealt in life and turned each of them into motivation and purpose, breaking the cycle of dysfunction and taking responsibility for all aspects of who you choose to be now!
Are you ready to step up, keep the ball in your court and be willing to take action? Robin Marvel will show you how today by sharing proven tools, tips and methods that will produce extraordinary results, enhancing your professional and personal life tenfold! Let’s do this!
Real parents making a real difference.
When it comes to a child being defiant for no apparent reason, they get it. When it comes to communicating with a nonverbal child on the Autism spectrum, they know what that’s like.
When it comes to having children with serious food intolerances they’ve felt the struggle. When it comes to taking a child to the hospital on a weekly basis for months, they’ve been there. Parenting a child with Special needs is hard and often lonely.
Holly and Adam Anderson have spent close to $100,000 on their parenting journey in studies, research, classes, and therapy, learning how to build strong relationships with their unique children.
That’s why they’ve created online coaching programs to help parents build strong relationships with their children and find joy in the journey.
Holly and Adam have created entertaining and inspiring videos, online classes, and 1-on-1 coaching programs to help parents invest themselves in their children.
What kind of videos and you ask? Not long videos that are hard to sit through, or intimidating videos that require a degree to understand.
Holly and Adam provide videos that are to the point with real parents, real kids- YES they include their own children’s perspectives- and real tips and direction on a variety of parenting subjects, such as how to conquer your child’s tantrums, fighting, and whining.
The time has come, in the evolution of humankind, where we will transcend the illusions we have believed in for so long.
We are growing as a species, at accelerated rates. More and more people, many of them young, are open and attuned to Spiritual truths, such as taught in the movie The Secret.
There are more and more teachers of Spiritual practices today than ever before. The idea of manifesting the things you desire, and manifesting a perfect life, are accepted as realities by many today.
Of course, Spiritualism and Metaphysics support Spiritual awakening. But today, for the first time in history, Science and the new discoveries in Quantum Physics, are supporting these truths as well.
At its core, lies the truth that everything in the universe is energy, and you have the ability to control and alter the flow of that energy. Hence you have the ability to control and alter the flow of events in your life, leading to the experiencing of a perfect life.
In 2015, Nicole started the national conversation about women taking control of their money with the launch of instant New York Times bestseller Rich Bitch, A Simple 12-Step Plan to Getting Your Financial Life Together.
Finally, two years later she followed with Boss Bitch, A Simple 12-Step Plan to Take Charge of Your Career, an actionable guide that encouraged those same women to find their most confident, savvy and ambitious self and be the boss of their lives and careers.
For 2019, Nicole will launch her 3rd book, Becoming Super Woman in September 2019. This book aims to help women find a realistic balance in their work and personal lives to avoid burnout, and achieve optimal productivity.
While promoting her first 2 books, Nicole was getting questions from women that budgets and business plans could not answer: Why is working like crazy driving me crazy? How do I balance my life? How can I be more productive? I’m successful, so why am I not happy?
In a world that tells young women to “lean in” and be accessible 24/7, it’s no wonder so many are feeling unhappy or on the verge of a breakdown.
Having had her own experience with one, Nicole sought out answers and in proprietary research found that 70% of women have thoughts of burnout and breakdown.
Nicole went on a mission to find answers and hacks for women who are feeling crushed by the pressure to try and be Superwoman, to do it all and be it all. Becoming Super Woman makes the case that a real superwoman takes care herself before she takes on the world.
Nicole used to think that she would be happy when she got a certain job or a specific salary. But has realized she had the equation backwards like so many ambitious women.
Being happy and feeling mentally healthy first is what made her feel more successful than she ever imagined. Nicole now argues that mental wellness is the biggest asset or liability in a woman’s career. It can drive you to greatness or cause you to crash and burn.
It’s time to kill the idea that we all have to be Superwoman. It’s time to be a superwoman.
Through working with me, my formerly stressed out, anxious clients discover a solid base of healthy self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-love, that helps them find real joy and happiness in their daily lives.
We shift them into a permanent, positive frame of mind that allows them to live in the now, instead of being hurt by their pasts and worried about their futures.
I’m always looking to help women who are ready to make those positive shifts in their lives, and release that stress and anxiety – so who do you know that needs to shift?
Dr. Jill E. Stocker, D.O
Specializes in Age Management Medicine and Hormonal Optimization at The Body Well
I help men and women reclaim their JUICINESS, sense of self, edge, and vitality, through not only my medical practice, but workshops, blog articles, self-optimization books, and public speaking events.
I’ve made it my life’s work to help women and men regain and truly take charge of their lives, sense of vitality and sexuality, moving from just surviving, to thriving!
By sharing my own vulnerability, experience, and EXPERTISE, I help my followers achieve their fully realized selves, not only physically but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and sexually. Everyone should live a truly “Juicy” life at any age.
I invite everyone to embark on this journey with me. Knowing that life is full of sometimes dark, painful, crazy, messy feelings and times, you are not alone.
Amslee Institute publishes a weekly childcare article authored by college faculty or professional nannies, providing insights from brain development to parenting tips.
The articles are quick reads and for those interested in video or live webinars, Amslee Institute also hosts and recorded Facebook live discussions.
Learn ways to keep food from getting contaminated, parenting philosophies such as RIE, how to teach citizenship to children, and how to help with homework.
Elizabeth Malson, President of Amslee Institute, established the technical school in 2017 with the support of over 30 college faculty members dedicated to elevating childcare providers including Nannies, Au Pairs and Sitters.
Amslee Institute earned its license from the Department of Education, Florida Commission for Independent Education, 5951 with a mission to support the childcare community with shareable resources and practical tips to better care for kids.
His work as a counselor and life coach has been verified by psychology today, and marriage.com verifies David’s work as one of the top relationship counselors and experts in the world.
Recently, David’s new book “FOCUS!” made it on the list of “The Top 25 Books That Will Make You a Better Person”. Essel’s book joins the ranks of other influential self-help books like “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
For the past 28 years, number one best-selling author, counselor and life Coach David Essel has been helping to educate the world regarding the negative power of self-sabotage, and how to get out of our own way in life in order to achieve greatness.
David’s goal is to positively affect 2 million people on a daily basis regardless of their current circumstances, their current challenges, and even their current financial situation.
Eli Howayeck
Blogger, Crafted Career Concepts
Recommended by: Katie Higgins, Co-founder, Emboss Communications
Eli Howayeck got his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management with an emphasis in marketing, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
He’s experienced success in industries from financial services to healthcare to insurance. At Crafted Career Concepts, he works with dozens of clients from high-power executives to new-to-the-workforce millennials, navigating them through workplace conflict, career changes and improving productivity.
Howayeck is down to earth. His tips and tricks about career development are easy to implement and results driven.
I was 19, a freshman in college when I was raped by a sheriff’s deputy I had just started dating. In 1980 there was no word for date rape, so I blamed myself for “tempting him” by entering his apartment.
Then, four months later, I was sexually assaulted by my Marine Corps recruiter, who took advantage of his position of power and authority over me.
For a decade I grappled with the trauma of these events. I came to accept that I must have a big “V” tattooed on my forehead that announced to every predator within a mile that I was an ideal victim.
Eventually, I found healing through therapy, self-help books, and long talks into the night with supportive friends, and somewhere along the way, I came to love and forgive myself and even my assailants. But the real turning point for me came when I grew tired of the trauma owning my life.
I took my power back and became an advocate for others who had been victimized. I served on the board of the local rape crisis center and took the helm as Executive Director of a child advocacy center, both while working to complete my master’s degree in human violence.
I then served for three years as Director of Victims Issues for the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, where I implemented the first statewide automated victim notification system that notifies survivors before their perpetrators are released from custody (still operational 20 years later).
Yet, after nearly three decades as a victim advocate, I grew tired of dealing with crime and violence after they occurred. I knew that if things continued as they were, the work would never end. I realized that to create genuine change, I needed to address the source of the problem.
So, I chose to focus my efforts on thwarting predators and keeping people from being victimized at all. My book, The Badass Girl’s Guide: Uncommon Strategies to Outwit Predators, is just one way I am working to accomplish this goal.
Caitlin Fisher
Writer | Artist
Caitlin Fisher is an author whose debut book The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation is due to publish in the spring of 2019.
Her work focuses on supporting those who have experienced abuse through storytelling and amplifying the voices of survivors, from intimate partnerships to parents to systemic abuses within society.
If millennials aren’t a bunch of spoiled brats with an entitlement mentality who need a trophy just for putting on pants in the morning, what are they?
I’ve seen millennials come together in ways older generations wouldn’t even consider. I see us arranging charity auctions on social media sites, sending a few dollars to friends in need, donating and sharing fundraising accounts for funeral expenses, medical bills, emergency surgeries for beloved pets, and more.
I see us trading services and goods to help each other out. I see us buying things from work-at-home-moms and small businesses rather than supporting large corporate stores.
Millennials are driven by a need to empower each other and become independent from the status quo. And it’s pissing off the establishment something fierce.
Millennials have begun waking up to the fact that the ways we were treated as children and as young adults in the workforce are not normal.
We’re understanding that our generation is bigger than the last. We’re coming to terms with the fact that we will inherit the Earth and want to make it very, very clear that while we absolutely intend to clean up this mess, we are not the ones that made it.
Scot Chrisman
Speaker | Author, #YOLO: If You Do It Right, Once is Enough
Scot is an author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, and professional skier on a mission to change the world by teaching others about the importance of a positive mindset, continual personal development, and greater social impact for success in life and business.
His new book, #YOLO: If You Do It Right, Once is Enough, a 12 Step Guide to Living Your Hero’s Journey, encourages readers to master themselves and the current moment, and to become the best one can be while also impacting the world for generations to come.
The book takes readers through Scot’s personal journey of success to failure to success. (At age 14 he was a sponsored skier who won a silver medal in the Junior Olympics. He then lost it all after going through some unfortunate life happenings. After lots of mindset shifts and hard work he re-gained his success through his entrepreneurial efforts).
It also shares the information and tools needed to evolve through one’s own hero’s journey in life.
Scot covers the importance of a healthy mind, body, and spirit for success; the power of choice, now, and self-discipline for accomplishing great things; how to increase happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction through self-love and community bonds; how to turn hardship into something positive; and how to find one’s life purpose and re-write the past for a shining future.
Sumayya Essack, MSW, MBA
Mindset Coach, Curate The Future
Sumayya’s background in mental health, startups, global human resources, and business ownership gives her a broad and unique perspective on personal development, behavior change, mindset, goal achievement, and carving our unique professional paths in the new economy.
In particular, her areas of expertise are gaining clarity on what we want in our professional lives, overcoming the fear that keeps people stuck, developing the confidence to pursue big goals like small business ownership, and the grit to stay the course.
As a coach, she draws on the leading research and thought leadership in psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and behavioral science. She applies this in a down to earth way to help individuals grow on the inside and take action on the outside, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and real-world results.
Her approach and content are all about actionable, research-based guidance to help you pursue your passion and create a unique career or business that reflects who you are.
In short, she’s about helping you be who you need to be so you can do what you want to do (without losing your sanity or sense of humor). Sumayya has an MBA and MSW from Boston College.
Zakiyya Rosebelle
Author | Founder, Happy Rosy Day
Happy Rosy Day is a designer stationery and lifestyle brand that is on a mission to brighten your day with delightful products designed to bring beauty, inspiration, gratitude, and joy to everyday moments.
Zakiyya Rosebelle is an author and designer inspiring women to embrace gratitude and enjoy the good things in life. Zakiyya is the author and creator of The Great Collection of keepsake gratitude journals known as The Happy Rosy Day Book and The Happy Birthday Book.
Her products have changed the lives of countless fans the world over. Zakiyya also wrote the book Laugh, Love, Lick Chocolate Frosting!
Zakiyya inspires her audience to embrace gratitude, learn to love who they are and practice self-care, and enjoy the good things in life.
Zakiyya loves to give back. A portion of profits is donated to charities that feed and empower women and children.