If you’ve been to the About Renee page, you’ve read my professional bio. If you’ve landed here, you’re about to get my story and what led me here.

Blue Soul Media was born out of my work as a teacher, facilitator, and curator following three decades of consulting in business, marketing, and communications. When I didn’t align with a business or its products and services, it was because I didn’t gel with their philosophy or ethics. It may seem like an obvious thing, but it’s astonishing how often I’ve seen people jump into something, thinking it’s a healthy decision (sometimes justified by a short-term gain), only to end up messy later on.

We often have a hunch when something doesn’t sit right with us—some call it a feeling in their gut, whereas others call it intuition or innate wisdom. The truth is that everything is energy, including us. As human beings, we emanate who we are in every moment of the day—from the words we say and the clothes we wear, to the actions we take and the decisions we make.

As a communications strategist, my ultimate goal was to make people and products shine. To elevate them above the noise. Show their light. Stand in their truth. You get the idea.

There were times when I walked away from a business opportunity because it wasn’t in sync with my ethics, truth, and purpose. This is alignment, or what we can also call resonance. Put another way: Do you resonate with your work? Your relationships? Your daily schedule? The decisions your boss, client or partner makes?

Working for something or someone you don’t resonate with or feel aligned to, depletes your energy and your spark. It’s easy to lose your way when you’re not committed to balance in all areas of your life. That commitment is a great starting point, one which shifted how I run my business and who I work with (and why).

This journey led to many roads, from studying wisdom across cultures and best practices in conscious business, holistic living, psychology, cosmology and even quantum physics. New developments across these disciplines were tantalizing enough to keep me up until the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t get enough of it. It also led to a deeper understanding of the positive effects of meditation, Ayahuasca, Psychedelics, mushroom journeys, yoga, forest bathing and solitude in nature, all of which serve as ways to still the mind, bring about expanded states of consciousness, and clarity.

 “To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.” —Deepak Chopra, MD 

I explored various pathways to help others find their center. I became a certified Reiki master and sound healer, and was blown away by the impact of sound on the body and our emotional states, particularly in dealing with life transitions, obstacles, and trauma. I delved into the world of frequencies and vibrations and, of course, energy. Energy as a field. Energy as us. Energy as the universe itself. This powerful and innate realization that we are all interconnected is a far cry from the party line of Big Pharma, most governments and corporations and the fast-food industry, but seamlessly aligns with indigenous wisdom and ancient spiritual masters.

After a decade of teaching consciousness with my partner, I felt called to integrate its transformative and profound components with my background as a go-to market communications and branding strategist. Blue Soul Media was born as a result.

BUT . . . it was a journey to get here.

Resilience & Compassion Training

College and business didn’t prepare me for the inward journey I took along the way. Even before I sought out wisdom masters and teachers, attended Wayne Dyer, Ken Wilbur, Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, Joe Dispenza and Deepak Chopra workshops (notice that they’re all men, a point I’ll return to in a few minutes), I explored the world, fully absorbing the culture, customs, art, music and spirituality.

I traveled to over 90 countries and lived in ten of them. In order to do that, I needed to get creative . . . really creative. You see, I wasn’t born into a wealthy family. Far from social graces and bling clothing, I grew up in a small upstate New York town and was raised by working class grandparents who encouraged me to pursue my dreams, despite what social norms said I could or couldn’t accomplish, especially as a woman. As an anorexic teenager, I watched my grandmother (mom) die from cancer and shortly after, landed in South Africa as a foreign exchange student. I didn’t choose the country—it chose me, which in hindsight, shouldn’t be surprising given my aching desire to see a world where we all respected each other regardless of our skin color, sexual orientation, culture or religion.

When I returned, money was still a “thing”—it’s always been a thing. My time in Africa at such a young age gave me more resilience, so I managed to get a college scholarship and financial help to explore again . . . this time to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. I was blown away by the smoke and mirrors conditioning I had been dished that I suspected wasn’t an isolated case. I was on a mission to go inward and seek a different truth.

Should it be a surprise that I studied media, which at the time, had a reputation for being a manipulation machine? As a student in London, my masters paper focused on the media battle between Maxwell and Murdoch. I read every book on philosophy, political ideologies, ancient wisdom, anthropology, sociology and psychology I could get my hands on. I nearly majored in the latter until a professor talked me out of it. “With your mind, you can marry them,” he said to me, meaning the worlds of business, psychology and philosophy. It made sense at the time since I didn’t see myself becoming a professor. Quite frankly, had I met Jane Goodall back in the day, I would have happily served as her apprentice and my life path would have been very, very different than the one I am on now. Or would it?

All paths ultimately come back to you, the Soul You. The Higher Self. While I had experienced snippets of that Higher Self—especially on the road—I returned to rational thinking as I had been conditioned to do in the business world. 

Before I started my business career; however, I followed my passion to grow, expand and connect. Without money, I became a master at living on $10 a day, and even less than that when I lived in the Middle East, as I would later be reminded by re-reading my journal from that chapter of my life. It was always about survival.

I’ve rarely shared my journey before Boston and Silicon Valley, where the technology industry shaped me rather than the other way around. Perhaps snippets of it came out occasionally at some tech conference or expo where everyone had consumed so much alcohol that all our guards were down. I may have even shed a tear or two thinking about some of the tragedies I witnessed or my own personal hardships.

My compassion training came from the raw and vulnerable stories I heard around the world—from Afghanistan, Estonia, Israel, Poland, Ireland, China, Zaire, Somalia, Australia, Singapore, Palestine, Venezuela, Italy, Mexico, Iran, Qatar and beyond. Although I heard (and saw) plenty of horrific incidents that involved men, most of these stories were told by women and about women, knowledge I didn’t get from my male wisdom guides, even though their teachings were indeed profound. It was at that point I began to seek out female wisdom keepers, from Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön, Dr. Jean Houston, Mirabai Starr and Tara Brach to indigenous elders across cultures.

But my resilience and diversity training came from my inward and outward exploration with very little money in tow: Sleeping on a park bench in Paris because I ran out of money for a hostel, living on a roof for three months in old town Jerusalem for $2 a night, sneaking into Soweto in the boot of a car to interview black South Africans about their plights, living out of my car in Florida for six months while working three jobs so I could return to Europe, living above a pub in a room the size of a closet in north London followed by a flat with no running water or electricity, working on a farm in New Zealand, selling art door-to-door in Holland, dancing and crashing plates in Greece, washing dishes in Belgium while they figured out what to do with my expired visa, and sleeping on a beach near the Egyptian border . . . all so I didn’t have to return “home.” You see, home for me wasn’t a real place anymore—it felt more like a dream or someone else’s life. What was there to return to?

The States felt so monochrome after riding elephants through the tall grassy fields of India and hearing the vibrant stories of the Masai around a campfire in Africa. So monochrome after teaching English in Kenya, selling kilims in Turkey, traveling by motorbike through Europe, and working with a local teacher in rural Uganda. It was hard to fathom a white-picket fence and a 9 to 5 life after such a nomadic life. But that’s precisely what I did, at least for a while. You see, I had to. In those foundation years, I had bills to pay and when I returned to the states, I needed skills. Business skills.

From Spirit to Business and Back

Don’t misunderstand me, I have plenty of great memories from my traditional business career. I learned a ton, met incredible people with heart and soul and was guided by ethical mentors, but I often felt invisible. As a woman, I was shaped by the conditioning of my time. Be thin, look good, sound pithy but keep things light. Over deliver. Be smart, but not too smart. Show value. In other words, kill yourself for others in exchange for acknowledgement, a salary increase and the words “You matter to us.”  After all, who doesn’t want to feel like they’re making a difference?

The truth is, I loved helping people shine. I was mostly behind the scenes, there to elevate a brand, service, product OR person above the noise. It was easier to push others forward. And so I did.

Marketing, branding, content curation, communications, event management, and speaker coaching are the skills I lived and breathed for over thirty years, with Fortune 500 corporations, mid-sized companies, and start-ups. (both B2B and B2C). I also ran my own marketing and PR consultancy: Magic Sauce Media. You can visit the website to discover what we’ve done for clients, and certainly some of those best practices still apply when launching a product or service. But everything evolves, doesn’t it?

Halfway through the Internet of Things (IoT) boom, I started to see how unhappy many were with the start-up culture. Marriages were strained, family time was minimal and mental health started to take its toll. We all seemed to work countless hours in the hope of a successful launch, whether that meant an IPO or being sold to a tech giant. Long hours became so normalized that companies like Google tried to spin it into a positive. They put in sleeping pods, hair salons, restaurants and sports on-site. People spoke about their “campus” in a glorified way, and other companies tried to replicate the trend. How convenient millennials thought. We don’t even need to go home with everything here at our disposal.

This is when I did a pivot, a common term in start-up culture. Truth be told, it wasn’t meant to be a pivot when I left the technology industry to pursue spiritual wisdom . . . deep down, I knew I needed to go. That internal compass I speak of on the home page began to kick in. The void was growing, not just in me, but in the vacant faces around me, each one more buried in their phones and social media than meaningful conversation. I left a world that was becoming auto-piloted. Innovation was still happening, but money became more important than the original values Silicon Valley held so dear. So, it was less of a pivot and more of, “I’m out of here. Your values are no longer mine.” You can’t get clarity when you’re in the thick of an always on world and on the same labyrinth everyone else is walking around. Distance and silence are needed. I’ve known that since I was a teenager and it was time to return to that innate wisdom.

After a long inward journey, I knew it was time to re-emerge with a breath of fresh air. Paul Brunton, who was one of the first to bring the ancient teachings from India to the West, was known for reminding people that you can’t help humanity if you stay hidden in a cave, yoga studio or meditation center. What good are the teachings if you live in a silo?

Blue Soul Media was born when I saw a gap. I asked myself some of the same questions I now ask others on their path. What’s my superpower? What’s mine to do? What is holding me back from speaking my truth? If not now, when?

A New Approach with Consciousness as the Foundation

Today, there’s a fundamental difference in my approach to how I work with others. I start with YOU, not your business, regardless of whether you’re a solo practitioner, part of a start-up or work in a large organization. I also work with individuals on a personal development journey who want to probe deeper. Maybe you’re interested in changing industries or are a first-time author. Perhaps you’re a small business owner who needs a branding facelift—it’s either outdated or not aligned with what juices you up. Maybe you’ve been wanting to give a TED talk or speak on another stage about your passion. And what about that book you’ve been meaning to write?

The way things have always been done in business is changing. Dramatically changing. People are noticing that what once brought them joy no longer does. Relationships may start to fray. Despite the wealth of opportunities, people don’t feel stable or they’re not sure they’re on the right path anymore. Why? Sure, the explosion of AI has revolutionized everything, transforming how we interact with the outside world. However, the shift is more profound than new advancements in technology and science. The world is waking up, one soul at a time.

Our collective consciousness as a global society is changing.

More than ever before, people are seeking deeper answers, delving into research and data not typically found in mainstream media, whether it concerns how leaders respond to a threat or the information we receive about how to care for our health. Think of it as unplugging from the fear and mass consciousness grid and plugging into what we can call the grid of interconnection.

Although the media certainly doesn’t help us feel like we’re living in a peaceful world, people across the globe are challenging the status quo, which is giving others (including CEOs, leaders, and heads of countries) the courage to respond to challenging situations in deep, meaningful and profound ways.

I use soul alignment techniques to explore what makes you feel alive. Truly alive. And ignite the spirit in you. If your life isn’t full of vitality and discovery, then you’re not aligned with your life’s purpose, whether that’s how you show up in your personal life or the work that you do. Deepening your awareness is part of the work, as is expanding your levels of consciousness. Don’t be afraid of it, for it opens up healthier and rich ways of understanding your purpose, your life and the lives of others within it. This expansion invites new possibilities (and with it, opportunities) you may never have considered.

I help you tap into that noetic wisdom and expand your consciousness, which has a profound ripple effect on your relationships, health, and work. When needed, I collaborate with others to give you the breadth and depth you need for maximum and sustainable success and more importantly, inner peace.

What is yours on this planet to do? Do you really know and are you stepping into it fully? If you didn’t answer with a resounding yes, then let’s talk. I look forward to connecting when you’re ready to take the leap, even if it’s a small one.