One year ago the word Soul Excellence floated into my conscious. It awakened a dream that I had inside to launch my own business to inspire other conscious leaders to transform themselves and their worlds.
Looking back, my journey of self-exploration and leadership began long ago, and I’m grateful for the highs and lows that kept drawing me closer and closer to my purpose.
Here are the highlights – and lowlights – including the accelerated pace of 2020!
P.S. – If you’re ready to accelerate your growth in 2021, join me in my 2021 Soul Excellence Leadership Mastermind.
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~ The Journey ~
Pre-2012
- Graduate from Duke and move to Washington, DC – a city I had set my sights on ever since attending a ModelUN tournament at Georgetown back in high school!
- Hone skills to challenge conventional wisdom as an analyst at CEB, now Gartner; I’d spend 8 years at the company
- Write a blog – Digressions from DC – sharing my experiences exploring the city on my 10+ mile walks on the weekends
- Attend therapy every week to address a trauma in college, but get nowhere – repeating the story and making it stronger
- Attend every DC United home game at RFK stadium
Celebration and New Beginnings 2012
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.8″ text_font_size=”16px” custom_padding=”0px|||||”]- Celebrate my 1st year of sobriety (still have the chip!) by walking almost 200 miles on the Camino de Santiago in Spain
- Receive a promotion and move to San Francisco, CA from Washington, DC
- Apply, get into, and receive full scholarship to attend the University of San Francisco Executive MBA program the following summer
- Love exploring my new city – and wearing all of the cozy sweatshirts
The Black Hole Years of Non-Stop Work and B-School
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- Earn platinum status traveling non-stop for my consulting job – with a 48 hour jaunt to Hong Kong to seal the status (pictured: my friend’s grandma’s birthday in Hong Kong!)
- Study in my free time and comfort myself with food since alcohol wasn’t an option
- Do EMDR therapy to continue to address the trauma; slight improvement
2014
- Sponsor a catechumen into the Catholic Church
- Have a breakdown in the summer – find myself isolating, eating Trader Joe’s cookie butter, and trying antidepressants, which made things a lot worse
- Feel like this is a lost year – confused, working, doing school, and isolating
Space to Explore New Possibilities
2015
- Graduate from B school and deliver our commencement address in the beautiful St. Ignatius Church
- Get inspired by attending the Women’s World Cup final in Vancouver and start goalkeeper training with my high school coach and joining a competitive women’s league – Go Hibs!
- Decide to date a women – something that I had desired, but hadn’t allowed for myself
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From Non-Profit to Tech-Startup
2016
- Earn first commission checks from enterprise sales – so fun!
- Live and work in Bolivia and Argentina for 3 months with the Foundation for Sustainable Development to explore the nonprofit world
- Join Snapdocs, a 20-person pre-series A real estate tech company at the time
2017
- Build a new product and make my first company hires
- Go all-in on Snapdocs’ success – 24/7 think and breathe
- Receive incredible mentorship from Snapdocs’ CEO
- Snapdocs closes a $15M Series A round with Sequoia Capital 🎉
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2018
- Welcome the most beautiful niece ever to the world – love her!
- Close a $4MM ARR contract – and feel depleted
- Experience what it means to be embodied for the first time at a women’s retreat in Maui – $5 investment
- Learn how to surf in Costa Rica
- Idea hits me for the first time that I could be an entrepreneur – doing what, I didn’t know!
Aligning with the Dream Inside
2019
- Plateau as I explore a new career path focused on organizational excellence instead of customer growth
- Work with a personal and professional mentor to craft bigger vision for life – $10K investment
- Propose to my girlfriend with a rainbow behind us at Crissy Field 🌈
- Soul Excellence comes through on a meditation with my mentor – I’m intrigued and it forms the name of my company
2020
- Leave high-paying tech job
- Move out of San Francisco and to Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- Start The Kayleigh O’Keefe Show podcast
- Use The Artist’s Way to tap into my connection to the Creator and creativity
- Get scared because of COVID and take another tech job “for stability”
- Leave said tech job after 2 months – time to stop ignoring my calling!
- Become a #1 international best-selling author
- Invest over $25K in coaches, masterminds, and mentors to help me grow into the leader I am to support the business I am building
- Do 2 week-long detoxes that provide so much clarity
- Launch a publishing business and recruit 25 corporate leaders and entrepreneurs to share their wisdom in Leading Through the Pandemic
- Lose 10 pounds thanks to biking, yoga, and running – hello fastest mile time in my life at 34!
- Launch my second book Significant Women: Leaders Reveal What Matters Most
- Launch my first Mastermind to facilitate the growth of 10 conscious female leaders
On this path to becoming the CEO of my life and career, I’ve realized that the pillars of Soul Excellence – Integration, Innovation, Inspiration, and Initiation – are my guiding light. It’s my framework for how I show up and how I spend my time and energy.
Growth requires a vision.
It requires getting uncomfortable.
It requires surrounding yourself with people who inspire you – and believe in you – and challenge you.
To expand your sense of what is possible.
To leap into the unknown.
To have faith through the darkness.
To become who you are destined to be.
And to have the impact that only you can have.
If you’re a high-performing female leader ready to step into your next soul-aligned highest achievement, it’s time to invest in yourself.
To express your version of Soul Excellence Leadership.
To break through to the next level of your success.
Join me – and 9 other women – in the 2021 Soul Excellence Leadership Mastermind. Details here.
Submit your application and schedule a call with me today.
Doors are closing on December 22nd.
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