Harvesting the Seeds of Change: Embracing Reinvention

Cecily Mak is co-founder of Wisdom Ventures and the visionary behind ClearLife. She is a former lawyer and Silicon Valley executive turned writer and podcast host who helps people create undimmed lives full of intention and presence for themselves, free from the stigmas of addiction.

ClearLife was borne from Cecily’s own experience of choosing to stop using alcohol and other escapist substances as a dimmer in her life. Although she started her alcohol- and substance-free journey as a 30-day experiment, she quickly realized that her life felt so much clearer, richer, and more intentional without them.

As she continued her journey, Cecily discovered that many other people are also ready to change their relationship with substances, unhealthy eating habits, workaholism, obsessive people-pleasing, and other unhelpful habits – and don’t identify as addicts or resonate with the “12 steps” approach to reframing their relationship with unhealthy forms of escapism.

The ClearLife community she has helped create through her podcast, newsletter, and social media channels includes 130,000+ people who are interested in creating clearer and more intentional and presence-filled lives for themselves.

Cecily’s upcoming book, UNDIMMED: Awareness Practices to Reclaim Power, Agency, and Freedom from Unwanted Habits, will be published by Flatiron Press (Macmillan) in early 2026.

Soren is co-founder of Wisdom Ventures, which explores the application of ancient wisdom in modern life. He is the founder and host of the Wisdom 2.0 and Wisdom & AI, which brings together technology leaders along with teachers from wisdom traditions to explore how we can live mindfully and wisely in modern life, and engage the great technologies of our age in ways that benefit us, our society, and our world.

Soren has been engaged in the exploration and teaching of wisdom, compassion, and mindfulness for over 30 years. Through Wisdom 2.0, he has created a global movement on conscious living in modern times, and along the way engaged and interviewed everyone from spiritual teachers such as Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle, to tech leaders including the founders of OpenAI, Twitter, Facebook, eBay and others.

He has taught mindfulness in a wide range of settings, from Google’s corporate headquarters, to youth in New York City prisons, to genocide survivors in Rwanda.

Robin Fisher Roffer is one of the world’s top brand strategists. She has provided the rocket fuel that has launched and evolved dozens of media brands all over the world such as A&E, Animal Planet, CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery, FX, Hallmark Channel, History, Lifetime, MTV, and TNT.

As Founder and CEO of Big Fish Marketing, Inc., she leads an award-winning creative team adept at unearthing a brand’s essence and filter, its look, feel and tagline, market positioning, value proposition and key messaging to both consumers and the trade.

Sought after for leading edge ad sales strategy, Robin is the go-to person for television networks, technology companies and content creators ready to bring audiences to brands across multiple platforms. She uses her rare combination of talents to craft persuasive sales narratives and has produced Upfront presentations for AMC, BET, Bloomberg, Food Network, Fox Networks Group, HGTV, Scripps Networks and Univision. She inspires sales leaders to give press-worthy keynotes, and trains their teams to take the story on the road.

Robin has authored four books on storytelling and personal brand cultivation, including Make A Name For Yourself, The Fearless Fish Out of Water, and Your No-Fear Career. She is also a sought-after screenwriter and scriptwriter of executive keynotes at companies such as AIG, BET, Comcast, FOX Sports, Mattel, Microsoft, Warner Bros. Discovery, Weather Channel, and Walmart. She recently wrote the first-ever keynote given at Sphere in Las Vegas by Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s CEO Antonio Neri and guest speaker, NVIDIA’s Founder & CEO Jensen Huang. When she writes a keynote speech or campaign for one of her executive clients, their company sees a jump in their stock price.

Now Robin wants to help you make sure your stock goes up by transforming your life into your greatest story yet. She has taught her proven storytelling methodology to clients including CEOs for over three decades and knows that anyone can use it to make their stories compelling and unforgettable. Most importantly, your stock will go up within yourself because you’re going to know what your true calling is and feel excited and confident in going after it.

Jill Nykoliation is an award-winning business leader with 30 years of experience shaping global brands, from Fortune 100 to entrepreneurial companies.

Jill is a master of human insight. As founder and former CEO of Juniper Park\TBWA, Jill guided the brand strategy for some of the world’s most powerful brands.

For over three decades, Jill has dedicated herself to understanding why we do what we do. Her fascination with human insight was the driving force behind her co-founding a creative agency eighteen years ago – and now drives her work as a Personal Coach.

Jill now applies her deep expertise as a Personal Coach, helping people unlock their true potential and navigate pivotal moments in their lives and careers.

Through her own executive experience and study, Jill understands the beauty, complexity and wonder involved in our life journeys.

Jill coaches executives one-on-one across the globe, and facilitates workshops for corporations, YPO and MEA Wisdom school, guiding leaders toward greater clarity, confidence, and impact.