We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meridith Grundei a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Meridith, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

In 2017, my husband and I decided that we wanted something different. We were living in a town called Lafayette in Colorado, just outside of Boulder. Where we had lived and raised a family for the past 10 years. We adopted our baby girl in 2011 and my stepdaughter had recently graduated from high school and was going off to college. So we decided that we were going to be in search of the next place where our family would thrive. So, as you do in your early 40s, we rented out our house on Airbnb, bought a 40-foot RV with an American flag on the back of it, and set off with the dog, cat, and the 3 of us for the south of the US.

We first visited relatives, friends, and my daughter’s birth parents. Then we went from city to city. We broke down in Memphis for two weeks, went to Atlanta, Austin, and then dropped into Mexico. We found ourselves parked in central Mexico for a couple of months in a quaint town called San Miguel de Allende, which is absolutely gorgeous. We met new friends including, Fil Farmicola, a retired New York City actor. He said to us, “I have this place on 56th and Ninth. You should move in.” We got excited.

It didn’t work out moving into Fil’s place, but it did make us realize how much we wanted to move to New York City. We loved that it was diverse and culturally rich, so it felt like a great place for our family in particular to move. We put the word out to all of our friends who lived in the New York City area and our friend Stephanie said, “I will find you a place in the best neighborhood, and we love the school.”

So she did! She found us a place in Washington Heights and we signed a lease while driving back to the United States in the RV. Before we knew it, we were selling the RV, putting our place up for rent with full-time renters, and moving to New York City, all of which we did within two weeks. My husband, the dog, the cat, and I hopped into a U-Haul with just enough stuff to get by because we had no idea what the apartment looked like and what would fit into it, and we made our way to New York City, where we moved into our new place, sight unseen, and across the street from what would be my daughter’s new school.

Neither one of us had jobs to go to; we were both freelance artists at the time. We took a huge risk, a huge leap of faith that we would be able to find the life that we wanted to live in a city that we had only seen in movies for the most part. I had only visited twice before, to a neighborhood we had never been to. Flash forward five years later, and I have a thriving business as a public speaking coach. My husband is working as a freelance musician, and our daughter is now 11 years old and thriving at her school.

Meridith, 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?

I have been coaching individuals in public speaking for about 20 years, but it wasn’t something that I was doing full-time.

I was a performer for many years. I started off working in San Francisco as an actor. I really loved improv and sketch comedy, and I was in this sketch comedy group called Old Man McGinty. One of our members, Ryan, was on his way to Chicago to study improv, and I thought to myself, ‘I want to go study improv.’ So, I followed Ryan to Chicago, where I interned my way through this place called IO, which is the home of the Herald, and I was teaching in an after-school program as well. It was in the after-school program where one of the core faculty members, Lillian Francis, loved how I taught and invited me to come help develop the curriculum for the new youth program at The Second City.

When I was at The Second City, I not only helped develop the youth program, but I also taught in adult classes, and I found my voice as an improv teacher. I also got to teach improv to corporate teams, and it was from there that I started to coach individuals in public speaking.

For most of my young adult life, I was teaching improv to corporate teams, and also coaching people in public speaking as a way to supplement my freelance lifestyle as an artist. I was also directing and acting in shows, doing TV commercials, voiceover work —-anything to pay the bills.

When we moved to New York City, we moved here about a year shy of the pandemic, and like a lot of people, I decided to pivot my business away from freelance into a full-time business as a coach. And from there, I have been able to build a successful six-figure business in the last year and a half coaching high-achieving entrepreneurs and folx in technical organizations to help them take their complicated information and make it simple for audiences and customers to understand.

I still do creative projects from time to time because having that creative outlet in my life is incredibly important to me, and it also helps my clients.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

About a year and a half ago I was encouraged by my friend, Sumana Jeddy to get on TikTok. At first, I was reluctant because I had the impression it was mostly for younger people. I could not have been more wrong. I started making videos 5 days a week with simple public speaking tips and I have grown to almost 90 thousand followers. This following is what really launched my business and some of my favorite clients are from TikTok.

I, of course, diversify my reach by repurposing content to YouTube, IG and LinkedIn. I also use TikTok as a way to funnel people to my mailing list.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I really like Dorie Clark’s book, Stand Out. First and foremost, she is an incredible human being with many gorgeous nuggets of wisdom – I also follow her on LinkedIn and other social platforms. But what I appreciate about Stand Out is how she provides excellent examples of how to find new ways to differentiate yourself and your business from the masses. It’s about finding the one thing that makes you truly remarkable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.grundeicoaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meridithgrundeicoaching/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridith/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp-0GD0FWkfqQKOK3mhwUgA

Image Credits
Danny Bristoll Photo