Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Earls.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My path to owning my own business and becoming a private Career & Life Coach, Meditation Teacher and Dancer has been anything but linear! I was always ambitious and driven to succeed in school and loved studying Psychology at Tufts University where I went to undergrad but when it came time for graduation, I actually had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. This made me really anxious, as I’d always had a plan.
Because I felt I needed to hurry up and “figure things out,” I jumped into a more traditional path at first, working in marketing at a software company. I knew pretty much right away that it wasn’t the right fit for me because I wasn’t getting to use the skills that I’m most good at and enjoy using, like connecting with people to help them realize their special talents and encouraging them along their unique paths in life. So, I left that job a little before a full year and began teaching Salsa dancing full-time for a year; Salsa is a huge passion of mine, and was bringing me so much joy outside of work at the time that I figured, I might as well follow my bliss!
During that time, I got my first taste of other creative and entrepreneurial career possibilities and I also worked with a private Career Coach, who owns her own practice, to help me figure out more about what I was meant to do. Surprisingly, I realized, “Hey! I really love what she does – helping other people to discover their unique gifts and figure out how they want to apply them with clarity and purpose in their life and work.” And so, I went back to grad school to become trained to be a Career Coach in higher education and worked at MIT for 5 years afterwards providing career counseling to students and alumni there.
All the while, I was still dancing and was led to the practices of yoga, mindfulness and meditation. It was on my yoga mat, when my teacher read a life-changing passage by Pema Chodron about the impermanence of life and the importance of having compassion for oneself and others that I realized, I’d found another critical key to my journey to help me lessen stress and anxiety and find more peace and loving-kindness within an uncertain world. So, I dove into spiritual practices like meditation, Authentic Movement and Contact Improvisation to find even greater healing and access to my creative spirit and now I’ve combined all of who I am into a career and life path that I really love.
I’m deeply passionate about helping people who are feeling stuck find their unique peace and purpose in life and work. And, I love integrating contemplative and creative practices that have helped me find so much inner freedom, like mindfulness meditation, movement/dance and so much more into my 1-1 coaching sessions and groups to help others flourish – to move forward in a direction they desire with aligned intention and from a deeply inspired place!
Has it been a smooth road?
I would imagine most people say that it hasn’t always been a smooth road. My biggest challenge was at the age of 14 when I had cancer. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Fortunately, I have been in remission since then. I’m deeply grateful for my life but I’ve struggled on and off with anxiety that feels linked to a deeper fear of survival – always feeling like I need to be more or do more to be enough or to have enough in life.
Being an entrepreneur now, I’m faced with a lot of uncertainty on a daily basis which sometimes triggers those fears and anxieties of not knowing and feeling like I need to have more control to be okay. Overall, I try to look at each challenge (inner and outer) now as a really opportunity for personal liberation. There is a saying in meditation circles that “whatever you resist, persists” so instead, you should aim to “attend, and befriend”. So, I’m always trying my best each day to face and embrace whatever comes my way with a sense of knowing that whatever is arising is coming up for me to experience really powerful growth and breakthroughs in my learning and development.
I’ve also often felt in the past that I needed to do everything on my own, I think almost as a way for me to prove I was worthy of this life and survival. I’m really working on opening up to receive more types of support and community from fellow entrepreneurs, colleagues, friends, family, counselors, mentors, coaches, etc. who can hold loving space for me so I can show up more authentically. Overall, I continue to seek new ways and spaces in which I can practice what brings me joy and healing (dance, meditation, etc.) and to do so in the company of other conscious, open-hearted people. I am a seeker and visionary at heart and am deeply committed to the process of experimenting and playing with what’s coming up for me in my inner and outer environment to find new insights on how I can evolve, show up in the highest version of myself, serve others and truly dance with life!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dance With Life Consulting is the name of my business because I literally believe, I was put here on this Earth to help people discover their unique essence – gifts and purpose – and to be able to go out there on the dance floor of life and create the kinds of “dances” or experiences they desire in life and work.
As a Career/Life Coach, I’m all about helping people connect to whatever their passions are; mine are dancing, meditation and life purpose work but theirs may be art, science, the environment, music, etc. I love helping people discover and tune into what makes them feel most alive and find ways to take real steps forward in a career and life direction that both aligns with who they are and cultivates the lifestyle they desire to live. I help people uncover where they’re stuck and face their fears and anxieties to move forward inspired and with intention around who they are and want to become, what they deeply desire to do and create in this world. I love to help people connect with their vision and bring it to life in a way that is deeply meaningful to them!
I think what truly sets me apart is my professional background as a dancer (mainly partner-dancing like Salsa) and as a Meditation Teacher. I literally see each 1-1 and group session with others as a dance. I show up with my training, tools, style and perspective, while also tuning deeply into where the person or people are in their own journeys. I believe I’m able to both skillfully lead and follow so that we are co-creating a new path and solution together by getting to the core of what they most want and how they want to go about manifesting it in their lives. I know that I can’t do it alone, as my clients are truly critical “dance” partners in the process. I am proud of the fact that, I’ve been able to combine both a creative, intuitive approach with a practical, supportive structure that helps people feel truly seen and respected in their process, as well as encouraged forward as they work towards shifting into greater peace and purpose in the next chapter of their lives and work and into becoming an even more inspired, powerful version of themselves.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, our city is a great city to start a business. I love that we have co-working spaces and hubs to connect with other socially-minded, entrepreneurial and creative people. There are a lot of resources, communities and tools to tap into in our city that can support a budding entrepreneur!
One challenge is looking for different types of spaces to run programs. Boston is a very dense and tightly-packed city, so it can sometimes be challenging to find just the right space for the right price like an alternative office space that provides room for more meditative and movement practices. Coordinating more affordable, creative spaces and collectives and finding ways to better use existing spaces and get the word out about them to those in need is one way in which I think our city could provide more opportunities for entrepreneurs working in these areas and seeking these types of unique working environments.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dancewithlifeconsulting.com
- Phone: 617-600-8378
- Email: dancewithlifeconsulting@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jennifer.earls
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dancewithlifecommunity/
- Other: www.linkedin.com/in/jearls/
Image Credit:
Enrique Yaptenco Photography, Samantha Murray Photography
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