For those creating something that shapes a kinder world – not because you have to, because you are called to do so – you don’t have to travel alone.
BUILDING A LIFE THAT FITSLauren’s Story
Lauren Reilly combines art, science, and storytelling to help people connect with the natural world. Through Sustainable Spin, she creates interactive StoryMaps that bring environmental issues to life. Yet people who knew her generosity and community presence didn’t always understand how to engage her professionally.
Ikigai began by understanding Lauren’s strengths, motivations, and the work she wanted to do. Together, we clarified the distinct roles of her business, her nonprofit, The Living Studio, and her personal art practice.
Lauren’s weekly Brainshares give us a window into her progress, challenges, and energy. Quarterly reviews connect those reflections over time, helping us recognize achievements, identify recurring obstacles, and agree on practical priorities.
That understanding shapes our hands-on support: refining proposals and pricing, making introductions, and helping opportunities become paid projects, including StoryMap work with Frost Science and GEN2050. Together, we created the Soulful Dinner Series, allowing people to experience Lauren’s talents through the community connection that comes naturally to her.
The partnership also draws on different parts of Ikigai: strategic advisory and engagement support. Soon, Ikigai Insights will produce StoryMaps powered by Sustainable Spin.
As Lauren’s confidence and opportunities have grown, our focus has evolved toward choosing commitments carefully and protecting time for creative work. Being her custodian of momentum means helping her move forward in a direction she consciously chooses, with support that grows alongside her.
“Andy has taken the time to understand what I care about, what I’m good at, and the work I want to do. He helps me see the value in what I offer and find clearer ways to bring it to others, while reminding me to leave room for my own creativity. As our advisory relationship rolls into year 2 and we’re building Ikigai StoryMaps powered by Sustainable Spin together, it means a lot to have someone who believes in my work and is willing to build alongside me.”
Lauren Reilly
Founder
Sustainable Spin
Curious to learn more about Lauren’s organization?
Visit Sustainable-Spin.com.
Experienced advisors with backgrounds in business and community leadership, united by a commitment to positive impact.
We’re here to paddle by your side, help you build momentum, and turn purpose into lasting change.
ELEVATING THE VOICES OF LOCAL CHANGEMAKERSYulia’s Story
Yulia Strokova was The Ikigai Partnership's first Yaya (client). Yulia helps people see the changemakers shaping their communities and find their own way to participate. Through Impact.Edition, she combines solutions journalism with storytelling and community connection. Yet behind the publication, she was carrying editorial production, fundraising, partnerships, and operations, while working to build the capacity and resources for long-term growth.
Ikigai began by helping Yulia explore a central question: how could the organization become financially sustainable while protecting the editorial independence that earns its readers’ trust? Our conversations examine funding models, values-aligned sponsorships, board contributions, and the priorities most deserving of her time.
Yulia’s weekly brainshares give The Ikigai Partnership a window into that work as it unfolds. Quarterly reviews connect the pieces over time, recognizing achievements, identifying recurring pressures, and shaping practical next steps. They also reveal something important: her stories create gatherings, gatherings deepen relationships, and those relationships create new possibilities.
During the partnership, we have helped Impact.Edition get on more solid footing. We helped launch its Impact Circle donor community, and proudly watched as she received a $20,000 Press Forward Newsroom Strength Grant, and earned national recognition as a LION Publishers Sustainability Awards finalist. These milestones reflect Yulia’s leadership and the work of her team and community.
As that momentum grows, our support continues to evolve: exploring how gatherings can generate sustainable funding, deepening Board engagement, and helping new roles become meaningful shared ownership.
Being Yulia’s custodian of momentum means helping her build an organization that can sustain the stories she feels called to tell and protect the energy of the person behind them.
Curious to learn more about Yulia's organization?
Visit: impactedition.org“As an advisor and board member, Andy helps us strengthen our operational processes and think more clearly about how we measure our impact. He brings thoughtful questions, honest perspective, and practical guidance. I feel supported in building an organization that can thrive while staying true to the solutions journalism and community we’re here to serve.”
Yulia Strokova
Founder
Impact.Edition
You build your vision, we’ll protect your momentum, and together we’ll make ripple effects that go further.
THE RIGHT SUPPORT AT THE RIGHT TIMETodd’s Story
Sometimes, a leader needs a trusted partner for a particular chapter. For Todd Bishop and Dormie Workshop, that chapter included six months of focused work with Ikigai. Todd and his brother Jeff had built a distinctive golf brand rooted in craftsmanship, creativity, and deep customer loyalty.
As opportunities expanded, the business needed more structure to support growth while preserving the culture that made it special. The Ikigai Partnership served as Todd’s trusted thinking ally, helping him work through competing priorities, challenge assumptions, and translate ideas into practical next steps. Our weekly brainshare and synthesis process brought perspective to the moving pieces.
Client artifacts captured conversations and commitments, while quarterly reviews highlighted progress, recurring challenges, and decisions needing attention. Together, these practices created continuity between conversations. We explored how the team was structured to support growth, developed contracts, and agreed on actions.
Trust made room for candid conversations and accountability. Todd followed through on the commitments we made together, turning reflection into steady progress. Todd was already an accomplished leader. Ikigai gave him a consistent place to think, perspective he trusted, and support to keep moving.
Small changes, made consistently, can compound into meaningful results over time. The Ikigai Partnership can serve a defined season in a leader’s journey, bringing perspective, structure, and practical support when they are needed, with a relationship that continues beyond the engagement.
Curious to learn more about Todd's organization?
Visit: dormieworkshop.org
“Todd puts a lot of himself into Dormie. Having someone he trusted to talk things through, challenge his thinking, and help him sort out what needed attention was valuable. Andy cares about Todd as a person and understood what we were trying to build together.”
Jeff Bishop
CEO
Dormie Workshop
We help you shift from paddling upstream, to feeling the wind in your sails as you continue on your journey.
STRENGTHENING FOUNDATIONS TO EMPOWER GROWTHKat’s Story
Kat Bwye has built Deus Marca around a belief that brand is a force multiplier and strategic infrastructure: a way to connect what an organization believes with how it operates, grows, and shows up in the world. Her challenge has been to translate that philosophy into clear offerings and a sustainable practice without losing the depth that makes her work distinctive.
Introduced through local biologist and wildlife advocate Janelle Kaz, Kat and Andy connected through extended conversations about values and what it means to build something meaningful. That shared understanding became the foundation for a partnership that continues to shape both organizations.
The Ikigai Partnership’s role has been to listen, synthesize, and help bring structure to Kat’s thinking. Together, we have worked to organize Deus Marca’s philosophy, framework, client pathways, and methodology, making it easier for prospective clients to understand how to engage her and where the work can lead.
Those conversations also address the foundations needed to support growth: operations, systems, bookkeeping, capacity, recurring revenue and time management. The aim is to help Kat build a more repeatable way of delivering work that already has real depth and value without sacrificing her role as a dedicated mother and succeeding matriarch of her family.
The partnership flows in both directions. Kat has become the beating heart of The Ikigai Partnership brand, helping shape its visual identity and website while serving as a trusted sounding board for how the organization looks, feels, and expresses its values. Her insight and creative philosophy are influencing the very organization supporting her.
Being Kat’s custodian of momentum means helping her turn a deeply held philosophy into a practice that can sustain it. It also means recognizing that mutual trust and practical support allow each partner to help the other become more capable and more fully itself
“There are few extraordinary people in the world who can hold a big vision, have the capacity to build towards it, and help so many others along the way to be a part of it. Andy is one of those rare souls I feel honored to work with. He has not only been listening deeply to my ideas, challenges, and aspirations, but has also been a patient and engaged learner of my industry and Deus Marca’s differentiators. With empathy towards my equal desire to be a present mother to my son, he has also been thoughtful of how my time and attention are used so that we can co-create in a sustainable manner. Our time together has been transformative and it’s just the beginning. My wish is we take this partnership and multiply it in the world for other purpose-driven leaders to do their best work too.”
Katheryn Bwye
Founder | CEO
Deus Marca
Curious to learn more about Kat's organization?
Visit: deusmarca.com
Different Journeys. A Shared Community.
Being a Yaya doesn’t require a formal engagement with The Ikigai Partnership. When a Yaya signs the Yaya Engagement Letter, there is nothing contractually binding within it, there is "intent".
Everyone’s season of life matters. Their priorities, capacity, and readiness shape what support feels right. Some people we’ve helped have needed only a conversation, an introduction, or a little perspective.
In our early days, Andy was still learning how to explain what was in his head, what The Ikigai Partnership could offer, how we helped, what he was building everyday. Without a website or a clear structure, many people were skeptical , other times, a structured partnership simply wasn’t the right fit and that’s okay.
Here is a sample list of 10 people whose work we value and whose journeys we’re glad to support. Some of the Yayas below are active, supported by a dedicated Principal of The Ikigai Partnership as part of Ikigai Advisory, some are not.
All of them at some point in the last year trusted The Ikigai Partnership enough to do a Brain Share. We encourage you to learn more about them and what they’re bringing into the world.
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