Live a Slightly better Life
I became a wizard because I wanted to help other people use playful, pragmatic magic to make their lives better. In a culture of anxiety and overwhelm, even self-care practices can become a daunting task on a sprawling to-do list. Through my consulting agency, Person is Awake, I work one-on-one with clients to help them see where they’re at and take on small actions that create significant improvements. Here are some client testimonials:
“Devin presented himself as a thoughtful, focused sounding board to discuss a problem that I was having, professional dissatisfaction. He guided me past superficial things that were making me upset with my job at the time — pay, commute, lack of development potential, and helped me to land at the root of the dissatisfaction as it related to my personality type.”
“Something great that I got out of our session together was a new perspective on what some people refer to as “occult” and “New Age.” I used to think of “occult” as being in reference to angsty teenagers who wore black lipstick and pretended to worship the devil. Meeting with you really helped destigmatize these concepts for me, and let me recognize that some of these modes of thinking share a lot with other more widely accepted/popularized philosophies.”
“You’re great at thinking on your feet and meeting your clients where they already are, thought-wise. It’s like how you start training a “tone deaf” person to sing by matching the pitch they sing and then having them follow you, rather than just giving them a pitch to match out of nowhere.”
Granting Wishes on the Subway
The reason I call myself a wizard—and even wear a pointy hat on occasion—is because of the effect it has on other people. It brings a smile to their face, gives them a sense of magic in their everyday lives, and helps them open up to greater possibilities. One of the projects I’m most proud of has been “subway wizarding,” where I ride New York City’s transit lines and “grant wishes” to passengers. Although I don’t claim to have supernatural powers, the experience of meeting a wizard and telling him their hopes, dreams, and fears has a profound effect on people.
Here’s a video from the NY Post:
Mysteries of the Deep
My first major project as a wizard was successfully crowdfunding and self-publishing my book, Mysteries of the Deep. Working with an illustrator and book designer, I managed every aspect of the project, from conceiving of the campaign strategy to directing the promotional videos to running social media to writing, editing, and publishing the book.
The book uses a nautical metaphor to explain how we’re Subjective Submarines floating in an unknowable Objective Ocean. It discusses how the signals we perceive can be misleading, and how, by playfully setting goals and working to understand ourselves, we can break transformational change into small steps.