This is My Story
I have to be honest, I wish I was more mature and was in a place in my life where I didn’t feel the need to build an entire website to tell my story. Truth is that I know I will get there but I am just not there yet and I am okay with that.
I have spent the last 15 years clawing and screaming for a seat at the table. In those 15 years, somehow I have managed to transition out of the U.S. Navy, be the 1st person to graduate college in my family, go back to college to earn my Master’s, have 3 kids, get married, and build a career in higher education. Most recently, over the last 3 years, I have fallen in love with the process of innovation and entrepreneurship and plan to never look back.
I absolutely love blank pages. Nothing excites me more than starting from scratch and building something that can change someone’s life or perspective from a crazy idea to a company, a community, a book, a product, or even a service. I am on a mission to redefine the word innovation. I don’t think it belongs to just Silicon Valley and millionaire tech startup founders.
I believe that we all have the power to create something that wasn’t there before, and that, in my opinion, is the real definition of innovation.
The military spouse lifestyle is filled with “blank page” opportunities. Every 2–3 years, I pack up my entire life and move to a new location. I lose my local network, local friendships, and more importantly my local professional reputation. Many military spouses become defeated by this demoralizing cycle, but I have made it my mission to master it and use it to my advantage. Thanks to technology and our ever-changing world, the universe is constantly aligning in my favor.
Over the last 15 years, every time we moved to a new location I had to do the exact same thing over and over again. Move into my new home, scope out the local networking opportunities, go to countless events, shake hands, tell my story, hand out business cards, and start my local professional network & reputation over again. As I progressed into senior-level positions I found this to be harder. I constantly felt like I had to start all over again because people in that local community didn’t know me or even trust me…
I mean why would they?
I am the “new kid on the block.”
Year after year, I would push through and stay positive but I have to be honest, it is exhausting. I felt like I was constantly chasing the validation of others and always looking for a way to be the center of attention. I felt like I was on the clock. From my perspective, I had 3 years to get done what most people would do in 5–7 years.
I had no time to waste.
Or at least I thought I didn’t.
Over time as I began to uncover some really terrible personal and professional habits and recover the true Justine I found that my creativity and ability to build things that didn’t exist before was one of my most misunderstood gifts. When you combine that gift with my passion for being vulnerable and 100% my most authentic self, I am almost positive most people thought I was crazy when I started sharing so many personal things online for the world to see.
You see, when you get to a point in your life when you are in full alignment with your soul and life purpose there is an intersection with a massive u-turn of what you think you are, who people want you to be and what you truly are.
I no longer fear my path because I have faith in my purpose. I want to control my narrative. I am a woman who has a lot of creativity and prefers to be working on multiple projects at the same time. The gift of being visionary allows me to see how the dots connect in areas where most people can not.
I have chosen 6 areas of expertise because this is where I have the most experience and believe I can provide the most value to those whom I work with. I want to build innovative solutions that give the power back to the people. I want to create a movement of Courageous Creators who are defying the odds in their own unique way.
That is exactly why I built the Courage to Create and will be launching my first product in the Winter of 2020. I want to co-create and guide Founders, Creators, Artists, Entrepreneurs, and Business Leaders towards the courage to create the change they wish to see in the world. I believe that we all already have the power to create change but our limiting beliefs, social conditioning, and past experiences hold us back. It’s difficult to tap into your creativity AND build a sustainable plan at the same time. I want you to focus on your creativity and innovate things that didn’t exist before and leave the process of how you will actually pull it off to me.
More information on how we can work together when you are ready can be found here. If you are looking for inspiration and interested in how tiny acts of courage can lead to change in the world, I suggest subscribing to The Protecting Courage Podcast, one of my newest creations.
Still, looking for more ideas on how you can get started today?
Download my free innovation workbook here and start taking yourself seriously.
