Archive

a Future Soundbyte

posted 24th November 2010    Written by: Nikki    CATEGORY: All Posts, Inspiration, Job/Career/Work, Nikki, Season 3

The date:  November 24, 2015

The Scene: In studio for KCRW (CA local NPR station)’s live radio show “The Treatment” – interviews in Arts and Entertainment.

Welcome to The Treatment; I’m Elvis Mitchell.  Since her debut in the cult classic trilogy “Atlas Shrugged,” based on the controversial Ayn Rand book, my guest Nikki Klecha has caught the attention of audiences with memorable supporting roles in some of the last five years most notable indie films.  She’s here with us today to discuss her most recent project, the award-winning film “The Hum,” her inspirational website, and her first novel, due out early next year.  Welcome, Nikki; we’re glad to have you here.

I’m so incredibly happy to be here; thanks for having me.

Now, Nikki, your LA story is an interesting one; tell us a little bit about your journey.

Well, about six years ago, I was done with Los Angeles.  I was a burned out actor; I’d been working hard & feeling like I was getting nowhere.  I took some time out, traveled for a while –

Australia, right?

Yes, four months in Australia, which changed my perspective.  I realized, I don’t have to be miserable (laughing) I don’t need this career that frustrates me and I’m not tied to LA, there are many other things I can do to be happy; it was a revelation.  So I planned to move, sold all my furniture, and the day I sold my bed was the day I got the call that I was cast in “Atlas.”

If you love something let it go and if it comes back to you… right?

I guess so!

So, you stayed  in LA, obviously, and “Atlas Shrugged Part I” was the first time we, the movie going masses, heard of you.

Right.  The film came out in 2011 to great reviews, and the next thing I knew, doors were opening!  Things still moved relatively slowly, of course, I’m not a household name, by any means, but I just managed to ride the wave of that movie.  I was in the right place at the right time.  And with the subsequent success of Parts 2 and 3, I was able to pay off my credit cards (something every LA-actor dreams of!) and really focus on my writing, acting and building my website.

After the Atlas trilogy, you filmed “The Writers,” which gained a strong underground horror-fan following.

Yes.  That and my most recent film, “The Hum” were labors of love; all the cast and crew were friends, and I’ve known most of them since college.  They were so much fun to make.  And I must be the easiest actress to work for in the horror genre; I was honestly terrified half the time!  (laughing)

Tell us a little about the film you just mentioned, “The Hum;” it just premiered at Sundance and took home some awards, correct?

It did, yes!  That was a dream come true, going to Sundance with a film, especially one that was such a collaborative effort between friends.  I think we all feel like, finally, finally we’re hitting our stride and doing what we came here to do, after 10 years of struggle.

You also run a successful blog called The Grateful Sparrow, which I must admit, I’m a little addicted to.

Are you?  Thanks!  Yes, it’s my baby; I think of it as a daily jolt of inspiration.  I believe that we each have the power to change our lives for the better, whether it be through a large change, like quitting a job or moving, or a small change in mindset.  I hope the site helps people see that and gives them the courage and inspiration to take their next step toward a happier life.

And you’ve written a novel; have you always wanted to write, or is this a new endeavor?

Oh no, I’ve always loved writing; ever since I could read, I’ve been writing.  I just love stories.  For years now, I’ve been freelance writing – in fact, 2011 was the landmark year where I was able to not have a “day job” for the first time ever! – for various online & print publications.  I’ve always had “write a novel” on my bucket list, and now, thanks in part, I’m sure, to the attention I’ve received from the films and the blog, I have a publisher lined up and I’m finally doing it!  It will be available early next year.

And I understand we can look forward to seeing you in the next Michel Gondry film?  Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yes!  And I am kid-on-Christmas-Eve excited!  He’s my favorite director; I love the imagination that goes into his work.  We had our first table read the other day and the storyboards are just incredible.  I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s going to be a dreamy, lovely story of friendship and the absurdities of love.  I can’t wait to start shooting.

And, as if all that isn’t enough, what’s on the horizon for you personally?

Well, I just got married and got back from a two month honeymoon; we bought around the world tickets and continent-hopped.  It was amazing.  We just bought our first house, and I’m ready to settle in, be in one place for a while, and nest.  I think I’ve earned a little down time.

Well, don’t take too long off, we’ll miss you.

(laughing) Ok I won’t.

You can catch Nikki Klecha in the award-winning film, “The Hum” in limited release nationwide, on her blog TheGratefulSparrow.com, and keep an eye out for her book next year.  Thank you so much for coming in, Nikki.

It’s been my pleasure.

[Photo: me doing a Sirius radio interview for a film I was in, "Family"]

divider

Season 3 Bloggers + Nikki’s 21st Birthday Craze

posted 9th July 2010    Written by: Molly Mahar    CATEGORY: Inspiration, Stratejoy the Biz

I am absolutely thrilled to introduce our upcoming Season 3 SixPack!  These 6 rockstars are going through all different sorts of the Quarterlife Crisis + they are all incredibly talented writers.

Score for us!  And score for you!

We’re going live with Season 3 in August, so this intro is just a quick sneak peak of our newest contributors…  Follow them on Twitter and make sure you give them a warm Stratejoy welcome!

Drum Roll Please…

SEASON THREE

Nikki  @gratefulsparrow
Alisha  @storiesofsommer
Doniree  @doniree
Lindsey @lknee
Marian  @marianschembari
Renee @bellerenee

Seems rather mysterious, doesn’t it?!  Bios, stories, and pictures soon.  I promise!

In other news, one of the perks of being the head honcho over is the opportunity to connect with cool chicks all over the world.  Nikki Yeager is one such woman.  She’s been keeping tabs on what’s going on over here and always reaches out to share what she’s doing…  I love it.  And right now- she’s got an inspiring personal challenge going on.  Thought you might dig, so we whipped up a quick interview!

Molly:  What 5 words describe the authentic YOU?

Nikki:  Quirky, adventurous, happy-go-lucky, nerdy and empathetic (to a fault at times).

M: What’s the big excitement going on in your world?

N:21 Days of my 21st Birthday! Before my 21st birthday I’m setting out to do 21 things I’ve never done before but have always wanted to try (skydiving, learning to skateboard, skinny dipping, etc). I’m a big believer in the saying ‘there’s no time like the present’ so this is my chance to take on some of the major items from my bucket list, while I still have the 20-year-old energy to do it and can enjoy every second of it.

M:  Life lessons. What’s been the biggest one you’ve learned so far?

N:  Knowing yourself trumps all. There have been times in my life where I had to go against the advice of everyone in my life – parents, friends, grandparents, whoever – in order to do something I knew would make me happy. And those are the decisions are the ones I could never regret. The decisions I made because I knew myself inside out and backwards. No one else can ever know you that way.

M: What can’t you live without? What do you wish there was less of in the world?

N: What I can’t live without- My computer. I do everything on it! Blogging, posting videos, Social Media Marketing for my job, Tweeting, writing a book… there’s no end to it all!

What do I wish there was less of in the world? Straight faces. I love laughter no matter what the occasion. So when I see people keep their ‘serious face’ on for too long it makes me a little sad and a little uncomfortable. I think everyone should take a moment out of their day and giggle like a little girl! Often!

M:  Your Story in 150 words or less. Go!

N: When I was 18 years old I signed my first lease on a NYC apartment and took off with nothing but a screwdriver and some disassembled furniture. I spent the entire year working grueling hours for City Year New York and learning more about myself than I ever could have imagined. From there it’s been all craziness and little monotony. I shortly went to Syracuse University and learned right away that school wasn’t the best route for me, took off to Cambodia where I worked in P.R. for an education focused NGO, headed down to the Bahamas to manage another organization and then flew back to NYC. Now I’m following my love (writing) and happily spending my days doing the marketing for a jeans company.

M: Inspiration List. Person? Song? Book? Website? Place?

N: Person- My grandpa is top on my inspiration list. He’s a quirky guy who has a thousand traits that could be deemed ‘undesirable’. However, the man is incapable of giving up on life. He keeps going no matter.I’ll never forget calling him just a few weeks after a quadruple bypass surgery and my grandma answered the phone. Turns out he was already out mowing his 10 acres of land. He’s a seventy-something little energizer bunny.

Place- NYC. The first time I stepped foot in NYC I knew I was home. For the first time in my life I’d found a city that could keep up with me, and even outlast me and my crazy ambition. I love that about Manhattan: there are a thousand activities to do at any given moment and another hundred opportunities to be had on any given day.

If you could share one message with the Stratejoy Tribe, what would it be?

Find your happiness and never let it go. Ever.

Thanks Nikki for sharing.  I wish you nothing but the best with all your adventures ahead! (And that artwork illustration?  The very talented Miss Nikki Yeager!)

divider

Are You There Bigger Picture? It’s Me, Nicole

posted 9th March 2010    Written by: Nicole Antoinette    CATEGORY: All Posts, Inspiration, Nicole Antoinette, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 2

I’ve been living in San Francisco and managing business operations for Shatterboxx Media for a little over two months now, and do you know what I’ve learned from our clients? That while it’s overwhelmingly hard to describe what you’re looking for, you sure as hell know it when you see it.

Jamie and I work through this process over and over, taking the verbal and turning it into the graphic, and it’s been fascinating for me to watch her transform a bullet pointed Word document into something vibrantly alive, because my mind just doesn’t work that way.

My mind likes two things, details and fantasies, and I have a hard time seeing through the fog that clouds my bigger picture. I’m confident in the small parts of my day, the minute-to-minute wants that are easily defined, the sentences that are short and declarative like “I’m craving French onion soup,” “I want sex,” or “I need 30 minutes to read and take a bath.”

But on any given day, it’s almost impossible for me to articulate my long-term goals.

I’m aware that my overarching dream is most frequently described by saying that “I want to, well, you know, live a sweet life and write and travel and stuff,” but I hit a wall when I push myself to get more specific than that. I loosely understand (and am passionately excited about) the things I want to achieve, like checking every item off my Life List, but the biggest challenge I’m facing right now is how to build a solid foundation that supports my wild and crazy dreams, a foundation that starts with flushing out exactly what those dreams really are in the first place.

Like a graphic design client who is all, “I have no idea, but I like purple! And bold typography! And kittens!” I’m vaguely familiar with what I want, but I feel like I’m running in frenzied circles trying to clarify everything enough to cattle-prod The Universe into making it happen, which leaves me feeling that in regard to my goals, I want everything and know nothing all at once.

Is there an easy button here? Can I buy a dream mapping vowel?

I don’t know, maybe I spend too much time focusing on what I don’t know when I should be focusing on what I do know, and for now, here’s what that is:

I know I want to be a writer with a big giant capital W, thoughtfully telling my stories and living my life out loud. I know I want to be a citizen of the world, traveling wherever I can, saying yes to newness while learning how to let it in without blurring my boundaries and losing myself.

I know I want to be a perpetual student, an open listener, and an unconditional support system for everyone who has gently reached down and pulled me out when I’ve gone tumbling down the rabbit hole. I know I want laughter and hilarity in unlimited quantities, because I know that’s the best way for me to leave each day better than I found it.

I know I want to inspire people to live up to the best possible version of themselves by being spontaneous and creative, honest and positive, confident and kind, hardworking and spiritually alive.

I know I want to learn to spend time in the silence more often, to listen without judgment, love as hard as I can, and then a little harder still, and I know that I want to shape my days around the overwhelming truth that what I put out there is what I’ll get back.

And maybe knowing all of that is enough for now.

photo credit: lululemon athletica

divider

Giveaway Winners

posted 22nd August 2009    Written by: Molly Mahar    CATEGORY: All Posts, Molly, Stratejoy the Biz

Did you win?  I don’t want to ruin the suspense by listing the winners here, so watch the video!

divider

Boys to Men

posted 29th July 2009    Written by: Andrea    CATEGORY: All Posts, Andrea, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 1

Boys to Men. No, I’m not referring to the 90’s R&B group. I’m talking about the evolution of the twenty-something boy to the twenty-something man.

Recently, I have encountered both and it really made me stop and think about the difference between the two. I questioned the “boys” to “men” transition. Over the past month my roommate Lizzy and I have had some amazing adventures, two of which were road trips. One weekend was a trip to see Kenny Chesney in concert in Pittsburgh PA, the other a four-day music festival in Tennessee called Bonnaroo.

During those two weekends my male travel companions could not have been more different. One was a pair of boys and the other, two young men. All four of them were in their mid twenties.

It made me wonder “What makes one set boys and the other men?” From countless hours crammed inside of a car with the opposite sex I have learned:

Boys

· Drink until they can’t walk

· Degrade females using terms like “broad”

· Have mothers who still buy their pants

· Do not know how to say “I’m sorry”

· Can not think beyond today

Men

· Drink until they fall asleep

· Compliment females

· Are self sufficient enough to make their own meals

· Admit when they make a mistake (even if it is a rare occasion)

· Think about purpose and life

For example, during the first road trip to Kenny Chesney, we decided to ease some tension in the car and played a version of 20 Questions. (My roommate and I were running late, as usual, and the boys were not happy. The fact that I was driving only fueled the fire. Males always get funny when they are in the backseat, its like they get an inferiority complex when they aren’t in control.) We modified the game a bit and decided that since there were 4 of us, we would each think of 5 questions to ask the other passengers, giving us a total of twenty. The catch, you had the choice of whether or not you wanted to answer your own question. So it made for some interesting material to say the least.

When it was my turn I asked, “What is your proudest moment?” and the boys were absolutely dumbfounded. That really bothered me. After a while, one of the boys said his proudest moment was sports related and the other couldn’t say anything. He said he was proud of his family. Which is totally fine and there is nothing wrong with that. But, don’t you think people should be proud of something for themselves too? I mean, if someone were to write a book about your life up until right now what would your proudest moment be?

For me, I don’t think that is a really deep and intricate question, but apparently, to these boys it was. It makes me sad that they have lived on this earth twenty-some-odd years and can’t say they are proud of something they have done in that time. The weekend only got worse when me and Lizzy had to take care of the drunken idiots. It was not the weekend I had signed up for. It was a weekend for boys.

The following weekend Lizzy and I spent 12 hours driving to Tennessee with two men, not boys. The four of us learned so much about each other; it was one of the best road trips of my life!! It could not have been more opposite than the previous weekend road trip from hell. A few hours into the drive, the Englishman (our new friend Leigh) told us he was working on a list of 30 Before 30. (Although, because he is 28 he later changed his to 30 Before 40. Same idea though, you get the picture) I am obsessed with lists (when I say obsessed I mean I write lists on post-its, envelopes, napkins, my hand, receipts, wrappers etc.)

I could not wait to make my own list of 30 Before 30! I thought it was such a cool idea and so appropriate, considering my 25th birthday is coming up really soon. On the drive to Bonnaroo we took turns thinking of ideas and sharing what we would put on our lists. On the ride back to DC, we took out a notebook and each started our lists. It gave me a good feeling about the new friends I made. These are the types of people I thrive off.

We gave each other a week deadline to finish and made a pact to share them via email. Take a look at my 30 Before 30 list and let me know what else I could add!

Both weekends I had a moment where I literally had to stop what I was doing and ask, “Is this my life?” Both situations taught me something about boys vs. men. I learned the types of males that should be in my life right now. I see now which are healthy for me, which will continue with me throughout this chapter and which ones I should cleanse. I guess you could say for me its not longer about boys, its time to phase them out and start new relationships and friendships with men. What about you?

Andrea (new) bio.

divider

« Previous Page