People ask me all the time, how did you come up with this idea? Why did you build this? Where did this all come from? The truth is, there are so many good answers to these questions, all of which are true, but to answer fully, it would take much longer than is socially acceptable in a normal conversation. So I’ve decided to break it down into 11 main reasons why I built Presence&Co here, where you can get a better understanding of my motivations and goals without having to listen to me ramble for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Reason #1 – Making friends as an adult is unnecessarily hard, and I was tired of struggling with it alone. I wanted to build the space I needed.
The truth is, once we leave the halls of our educational systems to enter adulthood, we lose the guaranteed social structures that we have had for the first several decades of our lives. We go from being in rooms with people our age all the time to being a workforce with coworkers at all different ages and stages of life.
Scrolling through Facebook, I can’t tell you the number of posts I see regularly for people who are looking for new friends for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they just moved, maybe they don’t feel like they fit with their old friend group anymore, maybe they lost all their friends in a recent breakup. There are so many reasons people may be looking for more friends, but no matter why, the truth is, it’s a vulnerable process. It’s embarrassing to admit we don’t have any friends, it’s hard to make new ones, and it takes time to build trust and connection with new people.
I know this struggle well; I’ve faced it several times in adulthood. Right after college, I moved to NYC, a city where I knew 2 people: my partner at the time and one other girl from college. I built my entire friend group around my partner’s friends, and as you may imagine, I lost them all when we broke up years later. Then I moved to Boston in 2021, and I again needed to make more local friends, and found it even harder in a post-COVID world.
I built Presence&Co because I know how hard it is to make friends, and I know how hard it is to even think of places where people are open to meeting people. No one in a New England grocery store wants to be stopped to make a new friend. The truth is, when we are going about our busy lives, most of us are in a rush and trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.
That’s what’s different about Presence&Co. When you walk in the door, you know everyone there is open and ready to meet new people. It drops the barrier of wondering if you would be bothering someone by saying “Hi”, because they came here looking for a genuine human connection, just like you.
Reason #2 – To create more community awareness of burnout and to help people learn how to heal and live more balanced lives.
In 2025, 66% of American employees experienced some form of burnout, with younger generations reporting rates up to 83%. (Research from Moodle (conducted by the research consultants at Censuswide). This is an all-time high, and a massive problem that we need to address as a society.
The amount of stress, overwhelm, and anxiety adults are under is unsustainable. People need to understand that burnout is not just normal stress from adulthood. It comes from sustained periods of overworking, neglecting yourself, and trying to push through. So many people feel that admitting they are burnt out is a sign that they are a bad employee, but honestly, often the opposite is true; you care so much about the work that you end up exhausted and neglecting your own needs. The truth is that burnout says more about poor corporate culture than it does about the individual employees experiencing it.
It’s important to understand that one of the main feelings underlying burnout is loneliness, the feeling that no one understands what you’re going through, what is on your plate, and what you are going through. Healing in community is a much better way to heal from burnout than going it alone. Being with others who get what you’re going through and also don’t need anything from you, but presence is powerful. It helps us relearn that just being together is enough. It reminds us that “we are human beings, not human doings.” (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer)
We need time away from our burnout, away from our desks, away from devices pinging with notifications about work, and even away from our families, who we love dearly but who ask a lot of us. We need space to reset, calm our nervous systems, and give our brains a place to recharge. We need a place with classes to learn how to better balance our lives, manage our stress, and avoid burnout entirely. We need to heal together. We need to heal in community.
Reason #3 – To create more social spaces for people who don’t drink to gather and connect in ways that are not centered around alcohol.
I stopped drinking in 2021, and once you step back from centering alcohol, you realize one thing very quickly. Alcohol is the center of our adult social lives in almost every way. From 10 am boozy brunches to grabbing drinks to catch up, to going out for birthdays, from bridal showers to baby showers, weddings to funerals, alcohol is the focus.
And when you de-center alcohol, you stand on the outside. You no longer feel like you belong. Even if you don’t care if others are drinking, by deciding against it, you are inadvertently holding up a mirror to others who are still drinking. Your doubt about the benefits of alcohol causes them to question their belief in it. This is really uncomfortable for people who have built their entire life around it.
I’m not saying that everyone needs to stop drinking, but about 46% of Americans don’t drink alcohol. So why is it the center of our social structures when nearly half of us don’t partake? For those of us who don’t drink, we deserve to have spaces that aren’t limited by the shields and barriers of beer goggles.
This is why I built Presence&Co, to drop the shield of “liquid courage” and focus on genuine courage.
Reason #4 – To help people stop the scroll and have a space for digital detox.
I grew up on the cusp of cellphones and the internet really taking off. I got my first cellphone in 8th grade, and it was a flip phone without internet access. I remember life before technology was so pervasive, and I have watched it change both myself and society over the years. You know the old parable, if you throw a frog in boiling water, it jumps out; but if you put it in cool water and slowly heat it, it stays until it boils to death. That’s how humans are currently “adapting” to ever-present technology.
After attending a silent digital detox retreat and not seeing a single screen for a week, you can only imagine what it was like to come back to real life. Even just to get home, cabs, train stations, and airports are all filled with screens, not to mention the ones in your pocket and backpack. By the time I got home, I had a massive headache. It became clearer than ever that our devices provide so much noise that distracts us from our true selves.
A few days later, when I put my Apple Watch back on, I realized the endless notifications, buzzing, and beeping were frying my nervous system. I had to take it off, permanently.
Now I could talk about the negative impact of devices all day, but what I really want to focus on is the impact on our social lives. While our phones sell us on the only way to remain connected – call, text, or video call at the touch of a button – how many of us use these devices to genuinely connect less and less? How many people hate talking on the phone and instead hide behind the overly edited nature of a text response? How many of us are addicted to social media to stay connected with “our friends,” but the people we interact with the most are people we have never met and don’t actually know? How many of us use the anonymity of our screens to hide behind, we say things under screen names we would never be brave enough to say in real life, for better and for worse.
How often, when we finally get together with our friends after weeks or months of not seeing each other, do we end up silently scrolling on our phones, endlessly distracted by more and more exciting things? How much better do we feel when we get together with family and friends, and our phones stay out of sight and out of mind?
People are finally starting to question their use of technology. They are starting to realize that these devices are negatively affecting our social lives and skills. I want to gather people in community, I don’t want to have the shield of cell phones between us. I want to hang out with you, the beautiful human that you are, not the distracted human you are as you scroll through endless photos to find something you absolutely have to show me.
Reason #5 – To create space for more creativity practices to grow.
Creativity is treated as a luxury in our increasingly “practical and logical” world. But the truth is, being cut off from your creativity limits your opportunities, joy, and possibilities. Regular creative practice helps you see things from a different perspective, expand your horizons, and learn new things. When I started my healing journey, one of the first things that I found was ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. This creative journey really opened my eyes to all the ways I had shut myself down creatively.
Creating things, working with your hands, and finding joy in making are amazing ways to connect with your inner self. And the truth is, we are all here to create things in our own unique ways. Maybe we are creating art, furniture, writing, businesses, or healing others, but we are creating cool, unique things, experiences, and outcomes for others.
I longed to hold space for more creativity, more opportunity, more possibility, more joy. When we are in burnout, creativity can feel like a waste of time and effort, but the truth is, often making space to create will help you with all your other practical and logical tasks.
Reason #6 – To build a hyper-local community and make an impact where I live.
If I’m being totally honest, I love attending retreats all around the world. A retreat to England is really what kicked this whole business off, but the truth is that when I come home from those kinds of retreats, I feel sad. I feel sad that I have to leave my community to feel fully seen. I have to go out of town to meet people who think like me. I have all kinds of friends all over the world whom I cannot see regularly. I have to leave my home to have access to the kind of healing and community that I want to be a part of.
Furthermore, in our increasingly globalized world, it often feels like there is so much negative and very little we can do about it. It’s true, there is a lot going on in the world, and at the individual level, there is often not a lot we can do alone on a grander scale, but if we think smaller, closer to home, there is so much we can do to improve our communities and make an impact where we live.
I truly applaud those who are focused on making change at the national and global levels. We need people like that. But I personally want to make my corner of the world just a little bit better. I want to make my community a nicer place to live. I want to gather a community that I can regularly interact with, one that I can build businesses with, and one that I can help and serve. I want to feel seen, heard, and valued by my neighbors, and I want to give them that blessing, too.
Reason #7 – To address the negative consequences of social isolation.
Social isolation is bad for us. Like, really bad for us. Lacking social connection can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to the US Surgeon General. Further, approximately half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with some of the highest rates among young adults. (US. Surgeon General)
Social fitness is a huge part of health, and is too often overlooked. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running study of happiness, has tracked hundreds of men and their families for over 85 years, revealing that strong, positive social relationships are the most crucial factor for long-term health and happiness. Human beings are made to be in community; we are made to be together. However, as we become increasingly hyper-individualistic, we are isolating ourselves. We are not building villages; we are focused on ourselves and our immediate families. We are losing the social structures and community ties that have been integral to our survival for centuries. This is massively problematic for both the physical and mental health of our society.
In a world that is more “connected” than ever, more of us are spending time at home alone than ever before. This is killing us slowly. This is one of the main reasons I built Presence&Co. While some of us know how to combat this, others don’t know where to start or how to meet new people. We need to find 3rd places, not work, not home, to be in community. To hang out and build relationships. To make new friends. That is what we are building here, a solution to a problem that is having massive adverse effects on our society. You don’t have to be alone; you are welcome here.
Reason #8 – To rekindle curiosity.
“What are you curious about?” This question stopped me in my tracks, 1 week into being laid off, a friend asked me this question, and I had no answer. I felt I didn’t have time or energy to be curious. I had spent all my time and effort surviving burnout.
How many of us feel this way, that we are just surviving, not thriving? Are we just doing the minimum necessary to get through the day? I did, and I think there is a better way. I think that we need to remember that curiosity is an expansion tool. It opens us up to more possibilities, opportunities, and destinies than we could ever have imagined for ourselves.
This is one of the reasons why I built Presence&Co: to create a place where people could learn new, cool, fun things. To be a place where curiosity was both celebrated and encouraged. To remind both myself and others that our curiosities are unique to us and oftentimes there is a thread that we weave without even realizing it, one that is only clear to us after the fact. Where all of our unique curiosities and talents build together the unique ways in which we can serve our communities, our loved ones, and ourselves.
Reason #9 – To help people be more courageous, to tell the story of who they are with their whole heart, to live lives driven by their values.
Brené Brown defines the original meaning of courage as “to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart,” stemming from the Latin word cor (heart). I love this definition. If we lived in a world where people were unafraid to tell each other who they really are with their whole heart, the world would be a better place. Instead, we live in a world where vulnerability is seen as weakness, and most people do their best to hide behind masks of perfectionism.
But how exhausting and unfulfilling is that? How much is that mask costing us as individuals? How much better could our relationships be if we were willing to be vulnerable and honest with each other about how we felt, what was going on in our lives, and how we would like to be supported?
I think if people took the time to define their values for themselves and used those values to make decisions in their lives, their lives would become more meaningful and purpose-driven. I know it did for me. My primary values are courage and connection. I make sure those are the top priorities when I make decisions that will impact my life. Does this decision align with my values? Does this decision take me closer to or further away from the person I am when I’m not worried about who everyone else expects me to be?
I wanted to surround myself with people who are living their best lives, who know their values and are using them to build their dreams. I want people who are struggling to feel purpose to realize that by adding more intention, they will also add more meaning. If you sit and decide what truly matters to you, what your values are, and who you want to be, and then you actually live in alignment with that, it makes even the small daily things feel more meaningful. That meaning is even further compounded when you spend time with others who are also living purpose-driven lives. That is the magic I’m trying to build here. Genuine humans in genuine connection.
Reason #10 – To help people better understand well-being and health literacy.
Unfortunately, health literacy is very poor in this country. According to the Center for Healthcare Strategies, nearly 9 out of 10 adults in the United States struggle with health literacy. Limited health literacy can worsen health outcomes, strain the health care system, and increase costs. Our schools do a poor job of educating us on these issues. So it’s up to us to educate ourselves. Knowledge is power. The more we understand and inform ourselves, the better we can take care of ourselves and live the happiest, healthiest lives.
Most people do not fully understand the eight dimensions of well-being, that’s if they even know what the dimensions are. There is a lot to juggle between physical, emotional, social, financial, intellectual, occupational, environmental, and spiritual well-being. But learning to balance each of these areas of well-being will help you live a healthier, happier life.
There is so much we can learn about our own health that would improve the quality of our lives and our overall well-being. Many of us get more health-conscious as we get older, and I want Presence&Co to serve as a resource to those seeking more information. I want to gather experts who have so much they can share with us and learn from them. I want to create space for intellectual discussions and passionate professionals. If you want to learn more about your own well-being, please join us for one of our many health-focused presentations or events. We would love to welcome you.
Reason #11 – To have more fun.
I think this one should be obvious. I don’t think most of us are having enough fun. I think we think adulthood is supposed to be serious, even stoic. In taking ourselves so very seriously, we forget to have fun. We forget the magic of laughing in a group of friends, or letting loose on the dance floor, or making something crafty. We stop letting loose and enjoying the moment. I want a life full of laughter and a face full of laugh lines to prove it. I want to dance my emotions out when I need to. I want to be playful and wildly alive.. If you want that too, I would love to have you join us!
Conclusion
If you have gotten this far, I applaud your attention span; you have resisted the urge to fall into the 15-second scroll trap that most of us are experiencing. I hope this helps clarify why I am doing this work, and I hope you feel more called than ever to join us in person in Reading, MA. Check out our calendar for tickets to an event that sounds up your alley. I can’t wait to meet you! See you soon!