Photo taken exactly 10 years ago with Michael’s wife Sara at my Hotel Vitale

Singer-songwriter and activist Michael Franti has been in my life for more than thirty years since the time he started putting his band up at my first hotel. A quarter century later, he had his wedding in our hotel poolside courtyard. A decade ago, I went to Bali to help him with his retreat center and hotel, Soulshine. It was on that trip, just as my book Emotional Equations was launching and Michael was going through his own hurricane of emotions, that we learned we had a deep soul connection.

This past week, Michael was scheduled to lead a Mastery Week at MEA called "Finding Your Rhythm in Midlife & Beyond" to explore how one’s career path can get better with time which disrupts the "over the hill," ageist thinking we see in many industries. Due to Omicron, our amazing compadres in this workshop have adapted to accept that we had Michael call in for daily sessions on Zoom. Not the same as being in person, but it worked remarkably well. We even wrote a song together that might be capable of breaking into the Top 40.

I’m proud to announce that tomorrow (Saturday at 4 pm PT so some of our excited, engaged Aussies can join us on Sunday morning) Michael and I will be doing a free one-hour conversation on Transitions and Purpose with live Q&A from you. You can register here. Join us to learn about the twists and turns in Michael’s career and how they might have relevance to you. He didn’t have his first top 10 single until he was in his mid-40s (clearly an elder in the music world) and he’s now had 4 Billboard #1 singles in the past decade as he approaches his 56th birthday. And, yes, he will serenade with some live music to our MEA community!