Coaching & Growth

Cannes Lions is where you're either fully present or you drown. Last month, I learned exactly what that meant: speaking on a panel about marketing while my dad was in the hospital and Venezuela was hit by back-to-back earthquakes. This isn't a travel guide. It's what happens when the work you do on yourself shows up exactly when you need it.

I had New York as my baseline. That's what high-achieving felt like: energy, stimulation, competing for attention in a space that never stops competing for it. Paris broke that almost immediately. The city is quieter than I expected. People are taking their time eating at cafés, going about their days in a way that doesn't feel performative or lazy—but rather like a city that has found its rhythm.

This spring, I ran for President of my grad school's marketing association. I submitted three days before the deadline, almost campaigned in silence, and lost to the incumbent. Here's what the ripple brought me instead.

Here's what I discovered when I Sat With the loss: what went wrong, what we got right, and three lessons I'm taking into every pitch from here. This past spring, I was part of a team of NYU SPS Integrated Marketing students who competed in the "Marketing in Motion" challenge—a multi-round competition hosted by OUTFRONT Media in partnership with NYU SPS's marketing program, where teams developed a real, transit-first campaign for a brand and pitched it to a panel of senior ind

there's a specific kind of exhaustion that hits in your mid-thirties that doesn't trace back to one obvious cause. It's not the food. It's not the lack of exercise. It's not even the workload—at least not entirely.

Not every message deserves your energy. Four ads taught me that — and a lot more about burnout, boundaries, and building an aligned life. 🎧 Prefer to listen? This blog post is available in audio format below. Note: This audio was created using AI voice technology (ElevenLabs) as part of my commitment to accessible content. I wrote every word, but used AI to narrate it so I could offer this format without burning out. Good work—whether it's a campaign or a life you're buildin

Trying to build a personal development business right now—while ICE terrorizes my community, while Venezuela burns, while I'm supposed to post 15-second reels about living an aligned life—feels like that scene in an action movie where the main character falls into a trash chute, and the walls start closing in.

Every January, we do the goal setting thing: We set goals with so much intention. We buy the planner. We feel that spark. We're going to meal prep and go to the gym and finally start that side project and then it's February, and none of it stuck.

After 5 years of checking all the boxes, I still felt lost. Here's what the spiral taught me about returning to yourself—again and again.

If I asked you what your top five core values are, could you answer in less than a minute? A few months ago, I couldn't. When I thought about core values, I thought about integrity, hard work, honesty, and solidarity. Sure, those are important values, but I had never truly taken the time to dig deep and see which values made me, well...me.