I’m Iona. I’m the CEO of Brave Thing, keynote speaker, best-selling author, and co-founder of the breathwork app, Soul. I help women do Brave Things and live Brave Lives. Before I tell you my story, or why you should do the ✸ Brave Thing ✸, I need you to know something. I don’t teach anything I don’t practice, or live out, in my own life.

That would not be cool. I created ✸ Brave Thing ✸ with all the heart and guts I’ve got because, trust me, life wasn’t feeling good around here for a long time. I struggled with an eating disorder, perfectionism, depression, and crushing self-criticism for 20 years.

The cruel joke? My struggle was invisible. I was so strong and competent (High Functioning As Fuck Women, you know the deal!) everyone thought I was fine. Not just fine, perfect. I mean, come on! Why would an All-American athlete with a 3.93 GPA who got recruited by Google fresh out of college, could squat nearly 300#, had abs that popped, was in a long-term relationship with a great guy, and got offered partnership at a design agency at 31 have anything to cry about? Well, I didn’t cry. I swallowed that pressure. All of it. I was so good at hiding in plain sight, I fooled myself sometimes. But like all muscles, even the strongest wills break.

At 29, I mailed in my sicks days, took a week off work, and binged 10,000 calories a day. I was breaking into a million pieces. That’s the thing about the invisible pressure to be perfect that builds, and builds, and builds: you become emotionally and physically symptomatic. And damn, was I in pain. That same summer my brother called me up. “Iona, you’re going to be an aunt to a little girl.” I hung up the phone knowing one thing: there was no way I was going to let this little girl know this version of me. I had no choice. I had to do the ✸ Brave Thing ✸

When I was was scrambling around in the dark looking for help I was met by a wall of labels, diagnoses, -isms, “just do it” culture, and pastel pink wellness. Whatever kind of woman I was, I didn’t seem to fit anywhere. But I was determined to sew my wretched soul back together. And I stayed long enough to get what I came for. I emerged from the pits of hell understanding that your body is a scrapbook and holds the memories of your life in its pages. That breathwork and visualization can help you rewrite the stories of your life and turn that muck into gold! That meeting your inner child work will melt even an ice queen’s heart into a puddle of love (Not bad for a former nihilist!) And that you’ll never, ever out-perform your self-image. So if you want to live a Brave Life, you better work on expanding yours! I also learned this -

I like to melt ice queens, feed lone wolves, plug the holes in emotional sponges, help ghosts feel seen, and teach robots how to feel. Because I care about women.

I double care about women who are shrinking: lost, scared, and pinned under fear.

And I triple care about the women who have books to write, ideas to share, businesses to build, and art to create, who don’t kno where, or how, to start doing the Brave Thing.

It’s never too late to remember who the fuck you are. It’s never too late to begin again. It’s never too late to have the childhood, the parent, the best friend, and the life you’ve always wanted, and needed.

There is treasure hiding in your blindspots. All muck turns to gold. You’ve got no idea just how beautiful life can get on the other side of brave.

I’m cheering us all on. Iona xo 🦄