So delighted to introduce the latest creative superhero to this series- Rachel Cole.

Every once in a while, you meet someone and you immediately think, “I want them to be my friend…” This is precisely what happened when Rachel and I met for the first time a couple years ago. A mutual friend hooked us up to talk about life coaching training, which I had completed some years back. Before long though we were talking about everything— our favorite books + websites, our dreams, who inspired us… it was an instant connection.

As we got up from the table I think I flat-out asked her if we could be friends? I’m assuming she said yes, because here we are! Rachel is wise and fun, whip-smart and full of passion. She tells it like it is, always offers a keen perspective and loves in a beautiful, fierce way. I highly recommend her as a coach and if you are lucky enough to be in the Bay Area on September 23rd, she is currently registering for an in-person workshop at Teahouse called Hunger Stories. It is a collaboration with my writing teacher Laurie Wagner and is sure to be a rich and soul-shifting kind of day.

Happy to introduce, Rachel Cole!

What is your superpower?

Phoenix Rising.

I have a remarkable ability to go into the darkness and depths of life, be turned and taught, and arise having really embodied and gained clarity around whatever core spiritual lesson was wanting to work me. One of my superpowers lies at the crossroads of resilience and transformation, like a phoenix rising.

Helping women name and come into a trusting relationship with their truest hungers. Which of course, leads to a more well-fed life.

What are your obsessions? and how do they make their way into your creative work?

1. Gathering women together. I live for the magic that happens when I can lead a circle of women into deeper connection with themselves and a fresh look at their lives. In the coming year, you’ll see me hosting retreatshops, retreats, workshops, and more because it’s where I shine and what I love.
2. Being a lady of leisure. I live for long afternoon naps, lots of daily servings of pleasure, sunshine, unhurried living, and sensuality. I often work out of my bed and in relaxed clothing. Rarely schedule myself to the point of stress. And try to take time in the midst of running my business to tend to my hungers.
3. Style & Design. Since I can remember I have been “aesthetically sensitive.” Frustrating my ever-practical mother’s declarations regarding my fashion choices and bedroom decor. Today, though, it comes in handy. Beauty matters greatly to me and I am skilled at quickly seeing how to present something in way that evokes a desired feeling. Or rather, the way I like to present things (my apartment, myself, my products, my website) naturally gives rise to feeling at ease, safe, inspired, spacious, and connected.

What are the top 5 things you’ve learned so far as a creative entrepreneur?

1. Do it your way. There is no mold or ‘right path’ other than to follow your intuition, stay true to yourself, and feed yourself before you feed others.
2. Know what your work is in service of, beyond your bottom line. What is your medicine for the world?
3. Radiate you. This is the best marketing advice I can give. Just be as much yourself and as rooted in your own genius as possible. Then shine.
4. Never take off your student cap just because you put on our teacher cap.
5. Authentic, effortless design that is inviting makes a difference. There’s a lot of creative entrepreneurs that lack design period, but worse are those who’s work is overdesigned, gimmicky, unoriginal, and aggressive. Knowing and using your personal style is everything.

Tell us about a time when you had to practice courage.

I think it takes courage to take people’s time and money. As women we’re told that we’re too greedy/needy/hungry from a young age. We’re told to put everyone else first.

As a business owner, when I was first starting out, it took a deep breath of courage to take valuable and precious time and money from my clients in exchange for my services.

Now, I see it as a service. I know that an hour (or more) with me is life-changing and I know that when I take money (which I need to sustain my work and life) I am ultimately giving back…the money enables me to give my medicine to the world.

I believe that vulnerability is a superpower. Tell us a story about embracing your vulnerability. What were the gifts on the other side?

Being yourself and sharing yourself with the public is inherently vulnerable. Sharing this post on the importance of crying in public, or rather, on not suffering alone, was a very vulnerable act. The gifts? Well, just read the comments. I was left with beautiful connection and the knowing that I’d given other’s important invitation to share and feel what’s true for them.

What are a few things people wouldn’t know by looking at you?

1. I own my own business and I’m wise way beyond my years.
2. I drive really fast and have a hard time coming to a full stop at stop signs.
3. I have never smoked anything. ever. nor have I had the desire to.
4. I sometimes fantasize about being reincarnated as a makeup artist.

What did you believe as a kid that you no longer believe?

1. That I’m unlovable and not enough. (Turns out, most people think this and isn’t true for me or them…life is pretty nice free of this belief!)
2. That you can change other people. (Talk about wasting precious life energy. Giving up changing other people transformed my relationships)
3. That life got less fun and harder as you got older. (Kids! Listen Up! It only gets better and being an adult is such a good time!)

What is your current mantra? Tell us about the last time you used it.

This changes somewhat frequently, right now it’s “You have the opportunity to try something different.” To me, this is about getting out of habitual patterns and the boxes that fear and our stories trap us in. We think just because we had one result before that we’ll always have that result. Or just because we have been doing (or not doing) something that we can’t change course. I love challenging myself to try something different…we are all so much freer than we think.

Rachel Cole is a certified life coach, celebrated retreat host, instigator of ease, and hunger-satisfier. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent years steeped in the vibrant Bay Area food community while earning her MA in Holistic Health Education. Rachel is on a mission to guide women towards knowing and feeding their truest hungers. Through all her varied endeavors, Rachel continues to be an inimitable inspiration for each of us to feast on our lives.