I’m an intimacy junkie. I’ve been known to spend an entire Saturday video chatting with friends across the globe. I’m trained as a therapist, and I can never overdo it on heart-to-heart talks. “How are you doing?” inevitably leads to a two-hour conversation, punctuated by deep sighs and vigorous nodding.
So why would a touchy-feely type like me seek out Tribe 12’s social entrepreneurship fellowship? I haven’t updated my LinkedIn profile since 2013. (Seriously.)
I recently moved back to the East Coast from the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the seven years that I was out west after college – doing ancestral healing workshops and going to all-night dance parties – my friends back east managed to reach some of the normative markers of adulthood: launching their careers, settling in one place, getting engaged, having babies.
Now that I’m here, I miss the community-oriented culture of the Bay Area, but I don’t think about moving back. I’m excited by the chance to focus energy toward my professional life. And I’m hoping to share some of the unconventional wisdom I picked up on my California adventures with the buttoned-up East Coast.
I applied to the Tribe 12 Fellowship for the same reason that people finally start therapy: because I was ready to get help. I’ve always been terrified by the prospect of branding myself. Recently, a friend pointed out that I was the only person in a room without my own website (ok, I don’t know whether that says more about me or him for noticing – but either way, point taken, dude).
What makes it so scary to publicly claim what it is I’m passionate about? Well, it’s kind of countercultural: I’m an intimacy junkie.
I didn’t realize it, but I had been waiting for an invitation to get more ambitious about my professional life. Tribe 12 is giving me that chance: to name my vision for social change, to discern the values that guide my decision-making, and to dream of a career that is centered around what I love.
So, this spring, I’m launching a podcast called Taryn Up My Heart. (Catchy name, right?) But my aim is serious: to move intimate conversations about sex and spirituality from the margins to the mainstream. In the wake of #metoo, we need deeper public dialogues to build a healthy culture around gender and power.
I don’t have all the answers about the mysteries of sex and love, but I know that intimacy is the key. I’m getting started by recording those Saturday chats. Next, I’ll shape them into a first season’s worth of episodes. The way I see it, true learning happens through relationships.
Which is to say — here goes:
I’m harvesting the heart-wisdom of the swaggiest babes I know, and creating a platform to broadcast their brilliance to the world.
Will it work? Only time will tell. My podcast could flourish, or flop. But even if (when) the project changes form, it will be an evolution more than a failure.
The Tribe 12 Fellowship is offering me something bigger than a curriculum. It is a community of peers and mentors who want to see me succeed, a forum within which to keep honing my vision, the chance to be honest with myself about what I really want to do with my professional life.
So, to my own surprise, I’ve caved – I’m an aspiring entrepreneur. I bought the domain and everything: www.tarynupmyheart.com. And I’ve never had an Insta, but I guess it’s time to get ‘gramming. I’m taking a deep breath, and jumping in with both feet. My LinkedIn profile, though? I think that one may have to wait until after Launch Night.
Join me on the journey @upmyheart for up close and personal takes of my adventures in podcasting. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
<3
Taryn
Taryn Wyron is a 2018 Tribe 12 Fellow who loves poetry, people, and building community to transform power. She is new to Philadelphia, where she facilitates Tikkun Olam initiatives at Reconstructing Judaism. Read Taryn’s full bio and learn more about Taryn and the rest of the 2018 Tribe 12 Fellows.
