About me, Fiona

My life is driven by a tenacious bond between fierce anxiety and a high tolerance for risk. I am curious and I'm passionate about getting to know others at an intimate level. I love learning and I'm smart, which means I get into conversations quickly and people who are doing interesting things have my attention. I especially love artists, creatives and entrepreneurs - the visionaries who make stuff up and often make a living doing so.

I am entrepreneurial myself. I formed my first company in 2004, a communications and marketing company, Glue, that served over 200 clients ranging between startup non-profits to nationwide corporations. On my own journey I have been the designer, marketer, coach, mentor and teacher, nurturing entrepreneurial spirit at every level. I also run a side-hustle called Modo Make where I create with leather and industrial textiles.

A few years ago, I initiated a doctorate to research how creative entrepreneurs become self-sufficient. Since you can't learn this in a book, I moved from Nanaimo, BC, to rural Manitoba to experience rural entrepreneurship firsthand. I became the executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce and wrote stories about small businesses in the regional paper. In the meantime, I also taught entrepreneurship courses to BComm students at Royal Roads University.

From rural Manitoba, I took a leap of faith to teach Social Entrepreneurship at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. From minus forty winters to plus forty summers, I witnessed the stark contrast between roughed up rural entrepreneurs and twenty-something liberal arts students at the onset of their entrepreneurial journeys. I would have stayed another year, but Covid-19 resulted in the termination of that position. I drove 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles) home in a U-Haul with two cats to hunker down in Winnipeg and finish up my dissertation, which I completed in August of 2021. In tandem, I packed up the house to drive south again, this time to San Luis Obispo, California, to join the Entrepreneurship Department at Cal Poly.

Lioness supports the creative journey of entrepreneurial life. It's the best of what I have to offer after 20 years of self-employment, doctoral research, life experience and teaching in the space of entrepreneurial learning. Of all the things that could have happened after 2020, I’m happy to have landed in coastal California with the doctorate behind me and an amazing teaching experience that is unfolding on the horizon. This site serves as a holding tank for ideas and a place to process the adventures I’ve been on.

Yes, there is a cat theme with Lioness. I have always had an affinity to cats, their confident, indulgent, lavish ways of living a novel life that commands the respect of others. I am also a Leo, the zodiac manifestation of the feline enterprise.

And, like a cat, I always land on my feet.