Fierce Heart™ Mindset Strategist. Consultant. Speaker.
Lover of Beauty & All Things Creative
I arrived on earth with a sixth sense and desire for connection. Sensitive, observant, curious, full of questions & wonder with the world. Intensely present, artistic, and smart. A tiny mystic who internalized everything. Including messages of my difference & ‘too muchness.’
Until I saw my too muchness is my Superpower.
~ Why Fierce Heart™
We’re the sum of our stories.
My earliest memory is in the stairwell of my Grandma’s home. It’s dark. I can see the kitchen across the dark hallway below me thru the railings. The window at the foot of the stairs a blurred blaze of light. I’m alone. Sent by my mother who I haven’t seen in weeks. I didn’t understand it was my first ‘too much” message. That I would be called too much is so many ways.
And I heard them all. I shut down my light, played small nearly my entire life. Changing myself to what others wanted.
At 17, I left home. At 19, I grabbed the dream of marriage to the man I loved. The story of that marriage included a dark secret I hid for decades. Because once I got away, I was done with labels & judgement from others.
The secret is the 8 years I accepted the rejection my then husband beat into me with his fists.
The thing is, I also hid how I changed myself to leave that marriage. And how I took the steps to change my circumstances. All without guidance, support, or help. How I called on my courage & too muchness to save my own life.
I’m sharing it now because today I help entrepreneurs and creatives be leaders in their lives. To take their passion & Vision to the real world for positive contribution & impact.
Because I finally saw how that experience I hid, felt so much shame around, was at the heart of me creating a legacy that’s helped hundreds of thousands of people:
I’m sitting in a classroom, in University for the fifth time to get my bachelor’s degree. Two young women are talking about their recent dates, and date rape. “It’s just a chance you take on campus,” one of them says. Blood rushes my head. My ears buzz. I can’t see. I knew violence to the body. Knew how they’d flinch when blindsided. Knew how they’d breathe free when it didn’t happen. Perhaps even hide it inside themselves, too.
A passion ignited in me. I swore there’d be a Women’s Center on that huge university campus by the time I graduated 18 mos. later. A place women could gather, tell their stories, find allies & support, and be safe. I would make it happen.
I used my Voice as a fierce advocate to connect with students, faculty, administration. I discovered that what I’d done my entire life in every job – listen so people felt heard, & speak to where we connect – could serve a greater good. I researched, and wrote the proposal for The Women’s Center. I knew it would happen, even as I heard “Impossible” again & again.
The Women’s Center opened on the eve of my graduation. Since then, it’s served hundreds of thousands of people. In 2018 alone, not counting all who stepped in or called, 57,ooo people engaged with The Women’s Center.
Why I do what I do:
Years after my days at North Carolina State University, I’m walking the hilly streets of Asheville, NC. The Applachian mountains circling the city are gorgeous. It’s fall, my favorite time of year.
The air feels perfect on my skin, not hot or chill. The 1920s historic buildings I love glow magically in the sunlight. My life is good, even one of ease compared to so many other folks’ lives. And yet, something’s terribly wrong. Because I feel empty inside. With little spark for life. The thought startles me. Even more startling is the thought, “I’ve lost my Voice, again.”
Rattled, I turned to what engaged me in the past. I took a graduate documentary class at the University. Went to galleries and places I once found exciting & stimulating. Had lunch with friends.
The dullness persisted. By angels or luck, I did something I’d never considered. . .I joined a prompted writing circle.
Writing was my journey back to my Voice and myself. I wrote, took courses, read books, worked with other writers, attended conferences, workshops, and retreats, studied the industry, and became an expert.
I fell in love with stories, and the stories beneath the obvious stories. My interest in culture & psychology was rejuvenated. I wrote a novel, got a lit agent in 3 weeks. Later I saw how I’d rewritten my own story in that novel, taking me deeper in understanding that I’d transformed my life in the process.
I know about Fierce Heart. I know about resilience and presence. I’m committed to inspiring and working with people who have a vision and dream. To unlock & amplify their genius so they make that positive impact in the world they want to.
I believe a rising tide lifts all ships.
Read more here.
Where We Connect
I’m a multi-passionate Vision keeper, shift agent, consultant, author & artist who sees in patterns & webs of connections. I say the word Love a lot. Highly intuitive, I confess awe, wonder, and curiosity are in my DNA.
I love reading and writing, because they’re like living a good life for me. We settle into the world, get to know folks, ride through their ups and downs, share their angst and triumphs… and feel touched in ways so something shifts inside us.
It’s how I travel the world as a lifelong learner, too. Immersed in the culture & rhythm of place.
It’s how I approach my work, whether as corporate advertising account manager, micro-brewery owner building a business, activist establishing the ‘impossible’, or helping folks become the heroes of their dreams as they take their Vision to the real world. Creating and connection always at the core.
I’m also a mother, wife, good friend, grandmother, educator, advocate, and mystic who claims recovering perfectionist, optimistic realist, and deep connections with the heart, nature, and the Universe. Perfect days and beauty in any form make me happy.
Ask me about myself I’ll tell you I prefer tea to coffee, walking to running, sunrises to sunsets, quiet to lively, exploring to shopping, light filled rooms to cozy caves. A huge dose of solitude sustains me, as does driving through uninhabited landscapes,. You’ll think me extrovert when we meet, tho.
My love for the Appalachians lives in my novel Flight. My soul-connection with the high desert of Northern NM lives in my second novel, in progress.
Read what matters to me most here.
And my many lifetimes here: LinkedIn.
Morning Glory © Heloise Jones
Read My Works
The Writer’s Block Myth – A Guide to Get Past Stuck & Experience Lasting Creative Freedom‘
#1 Bestselling Book described as the best book about what being a writer is.
“Kenya 2018 – The Mara” The Wayfarer, Vol.8 Issue.1 – Homebound Publications
A poem inspired by my stay of several days in the middle of a Maasai Nature Preserve.
“The Altar of Birds” The Wayfarer, Vol.3 Issue.2 – Homebound Publications
2014 Pushcart Prize nominee poem
“Know Yourself Better than You Know Anyone Else” a contributing essay in Patti Digh’s What I Wish for You: Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life
“A Writer’s Life” guest blog on Marginalia with Nancy Peacock
“The Honey Hour,” short story, The Ekphrastic Review, May 1, 2018
If you like to listen, you’ll enjoy my FUN & informative audio guide, taken from the #1 bestselling book The Writer’s Block Myth: The Creative Life for People Living in the Real World
Awards & Recognitions
- Summer Literary Seminars Prose & Poetry Contest 2018 – Finalist
- Pushcart Prize nomination 2014: The Wayfarer, Vol.3, Issue 2 – Homebound Publications
- Ruminate Magazine Poetry Contest 2014 – Semi-Finalist
- Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize 2012 – finalist
- Panhellenic Outstanding Women’s Award (NC State University)
