Your Life: The Sequel Rick Rochon and Melissa Carlson

I consider Susie Avon to be one of the most influential people I have had the opportunity to work with early on in my professional career.  Susie is vivacious, opinionated and has a finely tuned gut and relies on it to make decisions quickly. She gets people and their motivations better than anyone I have met. That being said, I had never actually seen her eat anything but chips or sit at a desk. Turns out, she had a bit of renaissance in her late 50's and to the surprise of us all, is a well-regarded fitness instructor. Is she perfect? Definitely not. Did she make a tremendous change in her life? You bet she did! Here is her story.

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Susie Avon is a rock star in her own mind.  By day she helps manufacturers & industrial companies grow their business by taking advantage of online & digital marketing.  Early mornings and early evening are devoted to help people grow through fitness classes focused on strength and conditioning.  As a trainer her focus in fitness is believing that if you are having fun and getting stronger – however you might measure that - then you’ll keep going.  Life is too short to eat kale.  She started her fitness career at the ripe age of 56 and when she is bragging, she tells people that she can lift more than your boyfriend.  Now at 68 she isn’t afraid to show-off and take the consequences (i.e., embarrassment).  However, her greatest joy is in trying to make a difference in whatever she does and helping others be strong in heart, mind and body.    
You can reach out to Susie at susieavon@gmail.com.  She will gladly give you her opinion on almost anything.  

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In this episode we chat with Helen Smolinski and learn about how she began her journey into comedy following a successful law career and life as a busy Mother of two.

-Show note: Melissa was not abducted by aliens, but she did disappear midway due to technical issues.

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Helen Smolinski was appointed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed to the Mayor’s Disability Council. Currently in her fifth year as a council member, she advocates at the city and state level on behalf of disabled children and their families.

Helen is a lawyer, and prior to having her children, she was the Managing Director of a national non-profit, civil rights organization that focused on issues of race, immigration, and poverty.  
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In this episode of the podcast we chat with Kevin Hoover, a longtime real estate agent in Seattle. Kevin had long since put down his paints and brushes following getting  a degree in Art and enjoying his passion for many years. But, as happens for many of us, we get caught up in other things and leave our passions behind. Kevin tells us how the pandemic brought him back to his passions and what he loves. His work is amazing and his story is just as vibrant and exciting. Take a listen and head over to look at his work.

Check out his work on Instagram and give him a follow and watch as he continues to grow and develop his work. I love his work and he is getting quite prolific, so maybe grab yourself a piece. You can find him here on Instagram.
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We love chatting with Christina McFadden and could literally do it all day given the opportunity. Our listeners wanted more Christina and we aim to please, so we brought her back for more. In typical form she got us all to overshare and get to the heart of our issues so we can learn more and pivot. Have a listen and enjoy.

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About Christina McFadden:
Christina specializes in executive presence, group dynamics, and identifying verbal and nonverbal communication patterns while helping leaders become aware of their impact. Through her 15+ years of experience in leadership and as a facilitator, she has helped multiple leaders and teams develop skills that support rapid growth.
Learn more about Christina and her work at Blue Door Partners.

In this episode of Your Life: The Sequel Podcast, Rick Rochon and Melissa Carlson are with Christina McFadden and will talk about growing the “germ” of change. Christina is an executive coach and facilitator. She works with folks all over the world or companies all over the world who want to make a change. 
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Have you always wondered how a performer thinks? Or perhaps you have secretly considered yourself a performer looking for a place to happen! This episode we have the pleasure of chatting with Monique Jenkinson, aka the multifaceted, always complicated and definitely delightful Fauxnique, the first cisgender woman to win a drag queen pageant. She has toured the world with her many amazing shows including "The F Word." She chats with us about artistic expression, her process and how her winding path led her from ballet, to international recognition to her forthcoming memoir. 

You can learn more about Fauxnique at www.Fauxnique.net

View some of her performances here  or on Vimeo

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I am an artist, performer, choreographer and writer. I made herstory as the first cis-woman to win a major drag queen pageant and subsequently my solo performance works have toured nationally and internationally in wide-ranging contexts from nightclubs to theaters to museums — from Joe’s Pub, New Museum and the historic Stonewall in New York City, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Theater, The Stud, CounterPulse and de Young Museum in San Francisco, and in Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Provincetown, London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Zürich, Paris, Reykjavik, Rome, Catania and Cork.
I have created space for kids to dress drag queens at a major museum and created college curricula. I played the DIRT (originated by Justin Vivian Bond) in Taylor Mac’s Lily’s Revenge and Eurydike in Anne Carson’s ANTIGONICK. I engaged in public conversation with Gender Studies luminary Judith Butler and RuPaul bestie Michelle Visage within days of each other. I am currently writing a memoir.
Honors include residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, Tanzhaus Zürich and Atlantic Center for the Arts, an Irvine Fellowship and residency at the de Young Museum, GOLDIE and BESTIE awards and 7X7 Magazine’s Hot 20. I have been nominated for the Theater Bay Area, Isadora Duncan Dance (IZZIE) and Herb Alpert Foundation awards and have received support from San Francisco Arts Commission, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, CHIME, Center for Cultural Innovation and the Kenneth Rainin and Zellerbach Family foundations.
Artist Statement


My work exists at the crossroads of Cabaret and Contemporary Dance and considers the performance of femininity as a powerful, vulnerable and subversive act. I emerged out of a feminist, postmodern, improvisational dance and choreographic lineage, and grew toward a tradition of radical queer performance that uses decadence and drag both to entertain and transcend. My practice of feminism celebrates glamour as masterful artifice, and my intimacy with both the oppressive and empowering effects of feminine tropes allows me to create a zone of play from which I make my particular critique.
Since 2003 I have been deeply engaged in an ongoing performance project, my drag queen persona Fauxnique. As a lens through which I magnify my artistic concerns, Fauxnique typifies and expands the evolution of drag-based performance and furthers the feminist line of inquiry in my work. As Fauxnique, I approach the established tradition of the drag lip-sync as a dance in its own right, and bring to it the rigor of my dance training. I am on the vanguard of what is now a common practice: museums and larger institutions embracing nightclub culture as queer history and contemporary art practice.

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In this episode of Your Life: The Sequel we chat with real estate agent and real estate investor Shayne Turgeon as she explains how in her early 40's with 3 young children she faces a divorce, financial uncertainty and turns that into motivation to start her real estate business. A stay-at-home mom and fitness instructor that wasn't prepared to be alone, learns exactly what she is made of and creates a thriving business for herself and her family.
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