Hi! I’m Shannon! A business strategist, life coach, and activist.

What that means: I help you create a life that provides you with the freedom to live a life you love all while make this world a better place. I started The Life Adventurista for women who are ready to fully step into their power and create a business that allows them to live a life on their own terms.  I love being able to work with so many incredible women to break through the glass ceilings that are preventing them gaining financial freedom, finding their work/life balance, and experiencing life to the fullest. You can read more about why I do this work and how you can work with me here.

I’ve helped hundreds of women develop successful small businesses and design grassroots initiatives with minimal resources + a ton of heart. Trust me when I say, you don’t need substantial funding, fancy credentials, or perfect timing to get started. You only need to take the right steps with what you have –– right now.

I’ve spent the last six years teaching women how to start things – grassroots campaigns, nonprofits, and businesses.  I have worked and lived in DC, where I co-founded Collective Action for Safe Spaces to address public sexual harassment and assault, worked as the Program Manager at Empowered Women International, and led grassroots initiatives at the Younger Women’s Task Force. I’m currently living in Crete with my fiancé who is a photographer/videographer, but we’ll be traveling around the world and back over the next few years.

So if you ready to say goodbye to your conventional life and embrace freedom and adventure to make this world a better place,  I’m your gal, your co-collaborator, strategist, and cheerleader. Together we can and will figure out how to turn those dreams into plans, identify your personal meaning of adventure, and design a packable business that provides you with the freedom you crave.

Want to know more? You can read my whole story below. Or if pictures are more your thing, I created this timeline.

My Story

One decision changed everything.

A decision to move to Washington DC –– with no money, no job and no idea as to how my future would unfold. My  boyfriend and I had just ended our  relationship. I knew he wasn’t “the one,” but I was heartbroken.

My friend called saying she needed a roommate, was I interested? To my surprise, a courageous voice answered YES! You see, growing up, I was afraid of everything (the product of an overactive imagination + a mother who worked for the Centers for Disease Control). Soon after moving,

I hit the jackpot.

I landed a job with the Younger Women’s Task Force. My role? Teaching 20-something women how to become changemakers + build movements within their communities. They hired me based on my volunteer work and my experience at a PR firm.  But truth be told, I was I felt WAY over my head  because a big part of my job involved public speaking!

I’ve never been one to embrace the spotlight so I would practice my talks over the phone with my mom until I was blue in the face! But I grew to love it, and the job paved the way for opportunities I’d never dreamed possible: Speaking beside congresswomen at press conferences, meeting Madeleine Albright at the White House and being featured as one of “Tomorrow’s Leaders” in O Magazine. My life was close to perfect, that is until…

I went to Guatemala.

An unexpected opportunity to research violence against women lead me to spontaneously decide to travel to Guatemala. As I worked alongside an organization called MIA, I realized something –– Life is meant to be LIVED. For me, that means challenging myself to experience new ways of thinking, doing and being.

I returned to DC on a mission:

Quit the job + travel. But, as life would have it, something happened. On of my friends and I  decided to started a blog to raise awareness about street harassment in DC. Within a few months, our tiny movement morphed into a non-profit called Collective Action for Safe Spaces! We conducted 50+ workshops across the U.S. that year alone –– all the while holding down full-time jobs.

This led to a job with Empowered Women International, where…

I got to help struggling, immigrant, and refugee women channel their passions + strengths into socially conscious businesses that made the world a better place.

All the women I worked with at Empowered Women International came from different backgrounds. But all had one thing in common: A fierce determination to shape their destinies. Together we developed businesses based on strategy AND passion. We fixed businesses that weren’t working. And we shifted unsustainable nonprofits ideas into for-profits with philanthropic arms. It was my dream job!

But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that my life was passing me by. My boyfriend (a travel photographer) couldn’t either. So, we packed-up our laptops, and we left!

Now… I’m The Life Adventurista!

I help women discover what truly makes them happy by helping them to immediately start living the life they want to live and turn vague ideas into profitable business that give them freedom, adventure, and the confidence to a make a big differences.

Everything in my life has led me to this point, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel more rested than ever before. I get more done in less time. I’m living where I want, experiencing the world, giving back to the causes I care about,  using my voice to create change, and meeting amazing people at every turn. This is what I want for YOU.