You’re curious, creative, and determined, with multiple ideas, projects, and passions on the go. You know that managing your time, focus, and space will accelerate your progress, BUT you feel spread too thin.

Competing demands, frequent distractions, cluttered spaces, and wavering energy affect your ability to stay focused, motivated, and productive.

You want to show up as the best version of yourself, but you’re falling short of your expectations, and not achieving the results you want. 

It’s time to make a change, but knowing how and what to shift feels overwhelming.

My Upside-Down Journey

Sharing one’s life’s journey is vulnerable and empowering, and I’m happy to include it here. However, a short and sweet bio works too!

As a neuro-spicy experiential edupreneur, author, motivational speaker, and Olympian who’s had 65+ jobs in 40+ countries as a multi-passionate and multifaceted Portfolioist, Jessica empowers learners of all ages to thrive by staying curious, creative, and connected. Based in Toronto, Jessica loves all things upside-down, organized, and orange.

My parents will tell you that when I was a baby, I spent hours upside-down in my playpen. Was it the freedom, physicality, or unusual choice that drew me in? Not sure, but for a high-energy baby-turned kid, I loved exploring the world in my own unique way. I continued my upside-down adventures in several sports before landing (!) on gymnastics at the age of 8. The freedom to fly, flip, and soar was completely intoxicating, and I was hooked. As in 30 hours a week training hooked.

Ambition, determination, and a ton of hard work (more than 10,000 hours for sure) took me all the way to the Olympics, representing Team Canada in gymnastics at 15 years old. It was an amazing experience that shaped me in so many ways.

I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to excel in a sport I loved doing…95% of the time. The other 5% was hard, as failures, injuries, and the pursuit of perfectionism were all part of my elite athlete experience. I often longed to be “normal”.

Feeling upside-down in a predominantly right-side-up world was, and often still is, something I have to manage. To feel grounded, I realized at a young age that managing my time, mindset, and surroundings played a huge role in my ability to reach my goals – in and out of sport. Little did I know then that it would become the core of how I help others now.

Learning to master a growth mindset set me up for success in sport and in life. 

Once I retired from gymnastics, I realized that leading a multi-passionate, portfolioist life led by curiosity, creativity, and adventure was my destiny. I also knew that creating structure was necessary if I was going to have freedom as well. A-ha!

Lifelong Experiential Learning

I vividly remember day 1 of summer camp staff training where everyone had to introduce themselves. After several experiential educators” introduced themselves by sharing how they created innovative learning opportunities that changed lives, I was hooked.

As a curious lifelong learner, I found experiential education (learning by doing and reflecting) to be an excellent fit and began creating, teaching, facilitating, and marketing experiential education programs worldwide. For the next 15 years, blending passion and purpose into an exciting, purposeful, and unconventional globally-inspired life was where I felt most alive.

Being an experiential educator enabled me to feel seen, understood, and inspired to act.

At this time, I also started my edupreneurial business Kika Creative, which has inspired individuals and organizations to “make things happen” for over 20 years. Through a variety of educational, creative, and organizational projects, Kika Creative has activated innovative learning around the world, allowing me to hone my edupreneurial, speaking, and writing skills.

Always aware of the need to balance my professional and personal life, I made sure to continue creating, travelling, and learning. Mine was a portfolio life full of interesting and aligned projects, opportunities, and adventures.

Until it wasn’t. 

The Big Decision 

The turning point came as my career in education began to build. I felt pressured to apply for full-time teaching positions, obtain my Ph.D., and settle down in one place. All of these options felt very limiting and I felt pressured to give in.

Deciding not to pursue the well-worn track to professional and financial security was a monumental decision. 

As they say, follow your bliss, right? What they don’t say is that when you do make that decision, you can lose your way very quickly, filling up your life with unchecked busyness, meaningless commitments, and unfocused action-taking.

I ended up flitting about from one job, lifestyle, and country to the next, telling myself that my life choices were a badge of honour and a sign of personal freedom.  

However, by not staying in one place for long, I couldn’t make an impact, find meaning in my work, or feel secure in my decisions. Although I was, and still am, able to adapt well to new environments, I felt out of sync and misaligned with me.

By choosing to scatter my choices and my energy, I struggled with what to do next.

I desperately wanted to protect my autonomy, unconventionality, and creative freedom, while also bringing in more structure and focus in order to feel more grounded and secure. 

There’s no easy-to-find life plan when you choose a portfolio life. I had to create one.

The lesson I had to learn is that you can have freedom within structure, as long as you build in systems and support to keep your ideas, energy, and confidence flowing. 

The Multi-passionate Portfolio Life 

When I realized that I didn’t have to “give up” any part of myself or fit into a specific “box” to be successful, I began to seek advice from other portfolioists – the experiential educators, designers, creatives, thought leaders, coaches, and entrepreneurs who embodied multi-passionate portfolio living. What a relief it was to find “my people” and feel that I belonged.

My mission became clear: bring more creative ideas, projects and passions to life, no matter what.

My confidence grew and over the next ten years, I completed two Masters’ degrees, one year of OCAD Art School, and Life Coaching Training. I also became a Marketing, Communications, and Study Skills professor at Seneca College in Toronto.

With a firm grasp on my multi-passionate lifestyle and portfolio career, I integrated teaching, coaching, project managing, and writing into a cohesive package of services to help fellow go-getters and portfolioists realize their ambitious goals.

I learned to vet ideas quickly, prioritize my next steps, and manage “shiny object syndrome” (the constant influx of new ideas), to make things happen and meet the goals I had set for myself. The very skills I needed to manage my life were now skills I was teaching others.