Are you ready to dive into a world where courage meets magic and every princess defies the ordinary? We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of “The Adventures of Isabelle Book II: Journey to Orphalese” on Amazon! This latest installment in the spellbinding series invites readers of all ages to join Princess Isabelle, a fearless demi-goddess, on her most daring mission yet across the high seas.
In a realm filled with diverse characters and empowering tales, Isabelle’s journey is more than an adventure—it’s a call to explore the uncharted territories of our own potential. This book is a celebration of diversity, showcasing a princess who is as multifaceted and powerful as the women and girls in our lives. It’s a story that resonates with the strength, resilience, and beauty in all of us.
Whether you’re buying for yourself, a daughter, a mother, or a grandmother, “Journey to Orphalese” is more than a gift—it’s an inspiration. It’s a reminder that we all have the power to overcome obstacles and pursue our dreams, no matter how insurmountable they may seem. Let Princess Isabelle’s story ignite a spark of adventure in your heart and inspire you and your loved ones to embrace your own journeys with courage and confidence.
Don’t miss the chance to be part of this captivating adventure. Order your copy today and let the journey begin!
Do you need help breaking through blocks such as fear? Do you need help creating and sticking to a success plan? Have you started and stalled several times? Maybe you need a success coach to help you break through these blocks, create a viable plan and to help hold you accountable to this plan so you can achieve ultimate success and joy in your life.
Contact me TODAY to get started! dr.cutts@cuttsconsulting.com or (202) 568-8546
A word on overcoming societal challenges…
Contact me TODAY to schedule a FREE 30 min consultation. dr.cutts@cuttsconsulting.com or (202) 568-8546
What if the challenges, transitions, and uncertainties in your life are not random setbacks — but part of a deeper journey of transformation?
Dr. Nicole Cutts and author Shawn Pearson-Dingle explore the concept of seeing your life as a Heroine’s Quest — a powerful framework for understanding growth, resilience, purpose, and personal transformation.
Series Introduction
Rather than viewing adversity as meaningless suffering, the Heroine’s Quest invites us to see life’s challenges as part of a larger journey toward insight, courage, and becoming.
This is a multi-part video series exploring the stages of the Heroine’s Quest and their connection to emotional well-being, meaning-making, and personal growth.
Follow along for new videos each week as Dr. Nicole Cutts and Shawn Pearson-Dingle discuss stages of the journey including: • The Ordinary World • The Call to Adventure • Refusal of the Call • Crossing the Threshold • The Road of Trials • The Ordeal • The Ultimate Boon • Return with the Elixir
Through personal stories, reflection, and discussion, this series explores how the Heroine’s Quest can help us better understand the challenges, transitions, and possibilities within our own lives.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and this year’s theme is More Good Days Together. I appreciate this theme because it reminds us that mental health is not just individual. It is deeply relational. The quality of our relationships with family, friends, partners, coworkers, and community members profoundly impacts our emotional well-being.
One of the most common themes I see with both my psychology and success coaching clients is difficulty setting and maintaining healthy boundaries. Many people fear that setting boundaries means they are being selfish, difficult, disloyal, or uncaring. They worry that prioritizing their own needs will somehow make them a bad partner, family member, friend, leader, or community member.
But in reality, healthy boundaries are often one of the foundations of healthy relationships.
Without boundaries, many people eventually experience resentment, emotional exhaustion, burnout, chronic overcommitment, loss of self, or the feeling that they are constantly pouring into others while neglecting themselves. Ironically, when we consistently abandon our own needs, we often become less emotionally available, less grounded, and less able to show up well for others over time.
Healthy boundaries are not walls. They are not punishments. They are not about controlling other people. In many cases, boundaries are simply the ability to remain connected to yourself while also being in relationship with others.
Recently, I revisited a thought-provoking boundaries exercise adapted from the work of David Richo in The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the happiness we find by embracing them. As you review the examples below, notice where you tend to fall most often in your relationships with others. You may identify strongly with some examples and less with others. The goal is not perfection or self-judgment, but greater awareness. Often, the first step toward healthier boundaries is simply recognizing the patterns that may be contributing to emotional exhaustion, resentment, imbalance, or loss of self.
When you give up your boundaries in a relationship, you…
When your boundaries are healthier and more intact in a relationship, you…
Feel as though no matter how much you give, it is never enough.
Give generously, but also recognize your own limits and needs.
Fear rejection, abandonment, or punishment if you disappoint someone.
Trust your ability to tolerate disappointment, conflict, or even loss without abandoning yourself.
Hide your real feelings in order to protect others from discomfort.
Communicate your feelings, needs, and truth honestly and respectfully.
Suppress anger, hurt, or resentment in order to keep the peace.
Allow yourself to acknowledge hurt, express concerns directly, and address what needs to change.
Say yes to things you inwardly resent because you feel guilty, obligated, or unable to say no.
Help and give from genuine choice rather than fear, guilt, or pressure.
Rearrange your life and commitments whenever someone important to you suddenly becomes available.
Make space for others while still respecting your own plans, priorities, and commitments.
Become so focused on enduring or surviving that you lose touch with whether you are actually happy.
Regularly check in with yourself and recognize when something is emotionally unsustainable.
Continue overfunctioning while receiving less and less in return.
Invest your time and energy where there is reciprocity, growth, and meaningful movement.
Base your self-worth heavily on approval, validation, or acceptance from others.
Receive feedback or criticism without losing your sense of self-worth.
Tolerate behavior from certain people that you would never accept from anyone else.
Maintain standards and accountability consistently, even in close relationships.
As you read through these examples, you may notice that boundaries are not simply about saying “no.” Often they are about self-awareness. They are about recognizing where fear, guilt, obligation, avoidance, or the desire for approval may be quietly shaping our choices and relationships.
For many people, weak or inconsistent boundaries are rooted in very understandable experiences: fear of abandonment, cultural expectations around caretaking, family dynamics, conflict avoidance, trauma, perfectionism, or a deeply ingrained belief that love must be earned through self-sacrifice.
At the same time, healthier boundaries can create more honest relationships, more emotional clarity, greater peace, and ultimately more sustainable connection with others.
Importantly, when we model healthy boundaries, we also give the people around us permission to develop healthier boundaries themselves.
If this topic resonates with you, I highly recommend exploring David Richo’s work further. His The Five Things We Cannot Change examines several difficult realities of life that human beings often struggle to accept or control, and how acceptance, self-awareness, and healthier relational patterns can contribute to greater emotional freedom and well-being.
And if you are currently struggling with burnout, overcommitment, people pleasing, emotional exhaustion, codependent relationship patterns, or difficulty setting healthy boundaries, I offer a complimentary 20 minute phone consultation to explore whether coaching or therapy support may be helpful. Contact me
Here’s to creating more good days together — including with ourselves.
In honor of Women’s History Month and Women-Owned Business Wednesday, I’ve been reflecting on the women who helped shape the technological world we live in today.
While researching my recent article on artificial intelligence and leadership: AI, Identity Threat, and the Future of Professional Work, I found myself thinking about the broader history of technology—and the women whose vision and innovation helped build the foundations of modern computing, communication, and digital entrepreneurship.
Their stories are reminders that women have always been part of technological progress, even if their contributions are not always widely recognized.
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)
Ada Lovelace is widely regarded as the first computer programmer. Working with Charles Babbage’s proposed Analytical Engine in the 1800s, she wrote what is considered the first algorithm designed for a machine.
Even more striking, Lovelace predicted that computers might one day create music, process symbols, and perform tasks far beyond calculation—an insight that anticipated modern computing by more than a century.
Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000)
Known to many as a Hollywood actress, Hedy Lamarr was also an inventor. During World War II she co-developed frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology designed to prevent signal interference in torpedo guidance systems.
The principles behind that invention later became foundational to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS technologies.
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson (1946– )
Physicist Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT.
Her research in telecommunications helped advance technologies behind caller ID, call waiting, and fiber-optic communications, tools that are now embedded in modern telecommunications systems.
Radia Perlman (1951– )
Computer scientist Radia Perlman is often called the “Mother of the Internet.” She invented the Spanning Tree Protocol, a technology that allows computer networks to function reliably without collapsing from data loops.
Much of today’s internet infrastructure still depends on the concepts she developed.
Beatriz Acevedo (1971– )
Technology entrepreneur Beatriz Acevedo co-founded Mitú, one of the largest digital media platforms for Latino audiences, and later founded SUMA Wealth, a fintech company focused on financial empowerment in Latino communities.
Her work highlights how technology can expand access and representation in business and finance.
Whitney Wolfe Herd (1989– )
Entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe Herd founded Bumble, the dating platform where women make the first move. The company quickly grew into a global technology business.
When Bumble went public in 2021, Wolfe Herd became the youngest self-made female billionaire at the time.
Looking Forward
As artificial intelligence and new technologies reshape industries, the question of who participates in building those systems becomes increasingly important.
The women above helped shape computing, communications, digital platforms, and entrepreneurship. Their stories remind us that innovation has always depended on people willing to challenge assumptions and imagine new possibilities.
If the next generation of technological breakthroughs is to serve everyone, more women will need to be part of designing, building, and leading them.
Long before access was expanded or equity was legislated, Black women were building businesses, acquiring property, structuring distribution networks, and creating financial institutions in the United States. In the face of legal exclusion and systemic barriers, they developed enterprises that did more than generate income — they built infrastructure. From banking and manufacturing to real estate, hospitality, and investment, these women created economic pathways that sustained families and strengthened entire communities. In addition to Maggie Lena Walker, Annie Turnbo Malone, Clara Brown, and Mary Ellen Pleasant, figures such as Sarah Breedlove (Madam C.J. Walker), Sara Spencer Washington, and later pioneers like Alonzo Herndon’s daughter Adrienne Herndon in the insurance sector contributed to this tradition of ownership and institution-building. Black women business owners have consistently leveraged entrepreneurship not merely for personal advancement, but to construct systems of collective economic resilience.
Below is a small sampling of four women who exemplify that legacy of ownership, strategy, and structural impact.
Maggie Lena Walker
Banking | 1903
Chartered and led the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, becoming the first woman in the United States to found and serve as president of a bank.
She built financial infrastructure for Black communities during segregation, creating systems of economic stability and collective advancement.
Annie Turnbo Malone
Beauty Manufacturing | 1902
Founded the Poro Company in 1902 and built a multimillion-dollar haircare enterprise serving Black women nationwide.
She trained tens of thousands of women as sales agents and entrepreneurs, developing one of the earliest large-scale distribution networks in the country.
Clara Brown
Real Estate & Investment | 1860
After gaining her freedom, she moved to Colorado around 1860 during the Gold Rush and began investing in land, laundry businesses, and mining claims.
She became one of the first Black female property investors in the American West, building wealth through ownership and reinvesting in community
Mary Ellen Pleasant
Hospitality & Finance | 1852
Arrived in San Francisco in 1852 and built wealth through boarding houses, catering, and strategic investments during the Gold Rush era.
She used her capital to fund abolitionist causes and civil rights litigation, quietly financing structural change while operating as a sophisticated investor.
These women did not wait for permission to participate in the economy; they shaped it. Their enterprises remind us that access often follows infrastructure — and that ownership remains one of the most powerful tools for building lasting change.
Success without contribution is incomplete. At Vision Quest Retreats I work with women who are ready to define their life’s work in a way that builds impact — not just achievement.
This year, I marked my birthday with a journey of remembrance and reconnection—a pilgrimage to Ghana to walk in the footsteps of my ancestors and honor the strength they carried across oceans and generations. From the haunting stillness of the slave dungeons at Cape Coast and Elmina to the sacred waters of Assin Manso where the “Last Bath” was taken, this was a soul-stirring return to the source. But it was also a celebration of freedom and resilience—standing in Accra’s Black Star Square, visiting the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial, and bearing witness to Ghana’s bold emergence as the first independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa. This blog reflects on that sacred and layered journey—part history, part healing, all a big beautiful adventure!
My visit to the Assin Manso River (pt 1)
My visit to the Assin Manso River (pt 2/4)
Part 3/4
Part 4/4
Cape Coast Dungeons Part 1/6
Cape Coast Dungeons Part 2/6
Cape Coast Dungeons Part 3/6
Cape Coast Dungeons Part 4/6
Cape Coast Dungeons pt 5/6
My Visit to the Cape Coast “Slave Dungeons”: The Final Episode (pt 6/6)
In art such as literature and film, the Threshold Guardian is a common archetype or trope in a classic and prevalent narrative: the hero’s journey. This can be found anywhere from Homer’s Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz to Black Panther.
In real life we can embark on our own heroine’s quest to obtain what I call your Vision of Success.
Next time you are feeling afraid to continue or even embark on your heroine’s quest consider this! The heroine encounters a “threshold guardian” at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. This guardian stands in the way of the heroine moving on to the next level!
In literature, the Threshold Guardian’s job is to ensure the protagonist is worthy of passing the threshold, and thus they act as part of the tests the protagonist must face in the journey. A heroine who depends on her strength might attempt to overcome Threshold Guardians, while a heroine who depends on her wits might evade, bribe, learn from and even convert the Guardians to her cause. Needless to say, running away from a Threshold Guardian is not a successful way of dealing with one.
Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work. And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil. And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.” But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass; And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
Gibran, K. (1923). On work. In The Prophet (pp. 25-27). Alfred A. Knopf.
This mini-mini series is based on an exerpt from The Adventures of Isabelle Book II: Journey to Orphalese now on Amazon.
Crossing the Equator: On the day the fleet crossed the Equator the sky was clear and bright, but the wind, which had been growing steadily weaker over the last week, died from any direction of the compass. The crew had gone as far as they could without the aid of the wind and were now exhausted. In anticipation of this eventuality, Commodore Déjois ordered the fleet off their course to Orphalese and vectored toward the Bay of Kali, where they anchored in a lush palm tree-protected cove.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
https://youtu.be/kuXK7ThaKnU?si=O2hTdIfQqJ6Cvb_s
Part VI
Thanks for joining Princess Isabelle on this phase of her journey! To read The Adventure of Isabelle Book II: Journey to Orphalese visit Amazon.
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