tldr:

27, recovering eldest daughter, overachiever learning to slow down.

Runs on caffeine and sarcasm. Also potatoesā€¦ all the potatoes.

Hey, I'm Mikaela!

A woman with curly hair and sunglasses taking a selfie outdoors near a beach with mountains and water in the background, wearing a black shirt and a silver necklace.

a bit about me:

Person with curly hair and glasses holding a white mug filled with a dark beverage.

I've always been the "I can add one more thing to my plate" person. Currently I'm working full time, just started grad school, Iā€™m launching the blog I've been "working on" forever, and am starting a consulting business. All at once. Kind of on purpose.

(I may have done the "well I'm only going part-time so I totally have time for one more thing" thingā€¦ I did not have time for one more thing.)

I'm also on a journey to slow that down. I know. The irony is not lost on me.

Getting into my late twenties and hitting my Saturn return ā€” Aries in the 10th house, so the career stuff is very much front and center ā€” I had that moment of: is the life I'm building the one I actually want, or the one that feels safe and responsible?

I realized I hadn't asked myself that question in years.

So now I'm figuring that out. It's kind of terrifying. It's also really fun.

As you may have guessed from the Saturn return reference, I'm a bit of an astrology girlie ā€” I'm from the PNW, give me a break šŸ˜‚. Pisces Sun, Cancer Rising, Gemini Moon. All three mutable signs, which means I've spent my whole life in this tug of war between craving detailed structure and systems and also just wanting to be free and frolic in the woods.

My experience with burnout in my early twenties taught me that systems only work if they're actually built for the person using them; sustainable, not just organized. I'm trying to apply that logic to my own life too, with mixed but improving results.

A woman taking a selfie in a mirror, wearing glasses, a pink headscarf, a black sweater, and jeans, standing in front of a bookshelf filled with books.

I'm also learning to lean into the parts of my career that have brought me the most joy, and that has has consistently been around creating sustainable systems that actually work for the people who use them. That's led me to my grad school journey in Industrial-Organizational Psychology(an honestly gorgeous blend of business and psychology) and to launching FounderMap, where I help small business founders build the structure that gives them back the time to love what they've created.

When I'm not doing all of the things Iā€™ve heaped onto my plate, Iā€™m rediscovering what ā€œfunā€ looks like. I'm learning to read for fun again, taking walks by the water, drinking coffee (that my anxiety probably doesn't need), and learning to trust my gut instead of just pushing through when I'm tired.

Francis Ink is a space for figuring things out ā€” how to build a life with purpose, how to create and maintain balance, how to figure out what you actually want instead of just what you think you should be doing. I'll share the things I've already figured out and the process of figuring out all the rest in real time.

If that sounds like your thing, you are in the right place and I would love to have you along for the ride. šŸ–¤

Explore Francis Ink

FounderMap

Collaborative consulting to help you (the founder) love the business you started again by helping you build the structure to efficiently do the boring stuff.

Writing

Essays, poems, and general thoughts on professionalism and career progression, getting and staying organized, and generally whatever else Iā€™m thinking of at the time.

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