Once upon a time, I was a little girl who loved to create characters and write plays and perform them with my then best-friend. If I'd known then that someone like me could grow up to be Catherine Tate or Tina Fey, that is what I would have wanted to grow up to be. Around my teens, I lost touch with that girl and ended up studying law and becoming a lawyer. I felt like I was the lawyer in "Beaches" when I really, really, really wanted to be the Bette Midler character.
At age 26, I moved to New York for six months. During the past 31 years, I've gone from being a lawyer to a business owner and coach with some stand up comedy and improv thrown in for good measure. I feel like I'm growing more and more into that little girl.
When I moved to New York, I was only supposed to stay for 6 months so I lived life to the full! I did things that I had always wanted to try - like Latin dance lessons and horse riding lessons. The dance lessons in 1994 ultimately led me to the man who would become my husband (and now ex-husband). We are the very proud parents of Eva (26), Francesca (23) and Leo (19) together with two one year old puppies, Bruno and Rocky.
founder of
the midlife courage lab
Meet Sal
While pregnant with my oldest daughter, my husband gave me the gift of a 10 week session of comedy writing and performing classes at Gotham Writers Workshop. With a fire and a baby in my belly, I performed stand up comedy for the first time at Stand Up, NY in 1999.
During the past two decades, I have performed stand up comedy in many New York comedy clubs including Caroline's Comedy Club.
A few years ago, I discovered improv comedy which I love and which has been a great tool to add to my coaching tools!
A passion for comedy and improv
In 2005, after being an attorney for a decade, I started a business called The Creative Groove Studio offering Latin Dance + Spanish classes for toddlers which then grew to include music, art and dance classes for toddlers and a preschool prep program for 2-3 year olds. It grew from one class a week in a church hall to a business with 100+ students each week, a staff of 10 and two locations.
I started this business while newly pregnant with my son (who is now 19). I tested the strength of lycra by teaching the Latin dance classes for toddlers until the day before he was born. Not surprisingly, he's a great dancer!
While this grew into a very successful business and I'm very proud of it and grateful for all the wonderful families who I have met during the past 20 years, this wasn't the work that I feel like I was born to do.
From lawyer to lycra-wearing latin dance teacher for toddlers!
During the first decade of building Creative Groove Studio, I pursued my interest in coaching. I became a Master Life Coach trained by Martha Beck, a branding strategist trained by Reach and a Quiet Power Strategy certified business strategist trained by Tara McMullin, author of Quiet Power Strategy and creator of the What Works Network.
When I was 48, I started Ink: The Story Studio which took everything I had learned in the previous 11 years of running Creative Groove Studio to help other creative business owners to start and grow their businesses with less unnecessary effort.
In 2018, when I was 50, I started The Midlife Courage Lab, offering coaching, courses and community to women in their 50's who wanted to make the next chapter of their life the happiest and most satisfying chapter yet.
I worked with some wonderful clients and then had to take a pause in 2019 when my Dad became very sick and then died in 2020. He died on March 7, 2020 a week before the world locked down due to COVID.
My journey as a coach
toronto, canada
- melanie
“Working with Sal has helped me to trust the value of my unique perspective on life and build a business that is both creatively fulfilling and sustainable.”
WORD ON THE STREET
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
I believe with every fiber of my being that we are all born with a set of skills, talents and beliefs that blend perfectly to allow us to do extraordinary things in the work and to create an irresistible legacy. I've seen it in the skills I have and the work I want to do in the world and I've seen it in all 3 of my children.
Too often though, we lose connection with who we are during our teenage years and the foundation for our adult lives becomes shaky. Making decisions from that shaky foundation can lead us further and further from who we were born to be. We start to live someone else's story instead of our own.
I created the Midlife Courage Lab to help women in their 50's to strengthen their existing foundation or to build an entirely new foundation. To get clear on who they really are and the story they want to live. Once they are clear on the story (or at least the first chapter of the story), we then create an action plan that will take them from where they are now to where they want to be.
It's time to "continually and stubbornly bring forth the jewels that are hidden within you." That is the Big Magic I want to pursue in my own life.
And that is the Big Magic that I want to support you to uncover in your own life.
what I believe
MY WHY
A Look Back On the Past Two Decades
Read "Finding Your Own North Star" by Martha Beck and trained as a life coach with her.
Trained as a Master Life Coach with Martha Beck and experienced Equus Coaching for the first time.
2004
2005
2016
Started a Latin Dance & Spanish class for toddlers while newly pregnant with my 3rd child.
Trained as a Quiet Power Strategy Certified Strategist with Tara McMullin and launched Ink: The Story Studio where I worked with business owners to help them to launch and grow their businesses.
2009
Keep going
Launched Midlife Courage - a coaching practice for women in their 50's who wanted to bring some bigger dreams to life.
Trained as a Self-Belief Coach with Sas Petherick and as an Equus Coach with the Center for Equus Coaching.
2018
2019/2020
2025
Relaunched my preschool prep program ... 6 months before a global pandemic.
My dearest Dad passed away on March 7, 2020 - just a week before lockdown happened. He always had great timing.
Finally re-launching The Midlife Courage Lab! I had a wonderful solo trip to Paris to do research for retreats that I plan to offer in the Fall. I had THE amazing experience of meeting Jon Batiste before his concert.
2021
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