We recently connected with Jamey Flaccavento and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jamey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My name is Jamey Flaccavento and I am the sole operator of sncrly,me. LLC. I am a school teacher and yoga teacher who is passionate about positive social emotional learning and growth for everyone. The mission of sncrly,me. Is to provide guidance on the path to knowing, loving, and expressing your authentic self through positive affirmation cards, guided journals, workshops, and social media content. The story behind this mission is a personal one. For most of my life, I had spent many moments absorbing the emotions and opinions of others and molding my actions, words, and personality to make sure everyone around me was comfortable. However, I was unaware that I was living like this until and unhealthy relationship ended. During this relationship, the behavior of conformity had become so extreme that when it ended, I truly was unsure of who I was and what I was supposed to be doing both on a small and large scale. For the years after I rebuilt and rediscovered the self that I had lost touch with so long ago. With acupuncture, therapy, and yoga, I began to see the woman I had been missing. In yoga teacher training, I began to see that all the little things I had been doing are really what made the change, and how these little things could help others do the same. The biggest change I made was how I spoke to myself which began to change how I saw myself. I had so many little ideas of how I could spread my knowledge of these little life changing changes and realized they all fit under the umbrella of sncrly,me. In the last year I have self published a set of 80 positive affirmation cards and have run workshops for individuals and businesses that guide others to see themselves with love while avoiding toxic positivity and black and white thinking. I have also brought the concept into my teaching at the school level and have run professional developments for other teachers on the small changes they can make in their classrooms to encourage their students to love and appreciate their true selves. Sncrly,me. Hopes to help as many people as possible make their lives just a little bit brighter.

Jamey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jamey Flaccavento and I am the sole owner and operator of sncrly,me. A company dedicated to guiding others on their journey to find, love and express their authentic selves. I grew up in northern New Jersey where I found myself teaching at a young age (although I swore I would never become a teacher). Whether it was swim lessons, dance lessons, tutoring, or just advising friends, I was always teaching. After denying that this was what I was meant to do (all through and after my undergrad at Monmouth University) I finally realized I needed to be teaching in one way or another after seeing the tragedies of Sandy Hook. I remember crying in my living room and just thinking if the children or adults who committed these horrific crimes had just one extra person in their lives that they knew supported them and loved them, maybe they would not end up in this place. That day, I applied for the Graduate program at Monmouth University for Special Education. After completing my masters, I began teaching special education, got trained as a dyslexia specialist, and eventually became a certified yoga teacher. I recently took a course on Diversity and Inclusion from eCornell. I use the knowledge from my career, the certifications that got me there, and yoga training to help mold everything I do for sncrly,me. However, I find my strongest qualification to do this work is that I truly struggled to do it myself. The act of knowing, loving, and expressing my authentic self has come from many little changes and a lot of work and self reflection that will always continue. Through sncrly,me I hope to continue to do this for myself while helping others to do the same.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

“I am resilient. I know that know matter how many times I fall down, I can get back up.” This is written on one of my positive affirmation cards and I truly believe that we all, are all of these things at varying degrees, at all times. For anyone else in the first few years of a small business, you know that that act alone, is an act of resilience. When you are starting out, not just falling down, but simply standing still, can feel like failure. However, we continue to keep moving, keep going, and keep growing. Upon starting this business, I purchased 1000 decks of positive affirmation cards, 700 of which still live under my bed and in the trunk of my car. Yet, on the days I feel like I made a mistake, or question why I did this, without fail, someone reaches out, or someone makes a purchase. I remain resilient by holding onto those moments. Watching my students relate to the affirmations, watching people in yoga read a card and smile, hearing that people pick a card every morning or that they have brought them joy, is why I did this. I have faith in my mission and in my resilience that these cards will be in the hands of a publisher (and out of my trunk) one day, my journals will help others feel empowered, and my workshops will reach big companies and individuals who need them all over the country. Resilience, for a small business owner, is in the act of continuing the business.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I learned so well as a child that I am unsure how it was even taught to me is that the worst thing you can do is make others uncomfortable. I lived my life making sure those around me were comfortable often at the cost of my own comfort. This is a lesson that I continue to unlearn daily, because when you believe this lesson to your core, the discomfort of others also makes you uncomfortable. To unlearn this I have had to truly discover who I am. Before I truly knew who I was, there was no way I could stand up for myself. By learning to express my authentic self, I learned that doing so, might make others uncomfortable. Sometimes it is because they disagree, other times it is because they are struggling to do this themselves. I used to see taking time for myself, speaking my mind, or simply doing what I need to do for me as selfish. I have found, however, that self care and being authentic is actually the opposite of selfish, for it models for and encourages others to do the same for themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/sncrly.me
• Instagram: @sncrly.me

Image Credits
Jon Bagnato (personal photo only)