
Hi there! I’m Chanel and I founded Get Your Shit Together in 2013 after pretty much the worst thing possible happened in 2009, my husband was killed in an accident. After a week in a coma and his injuries so devastating and unrecoverable, I removed medical support and became a very overwhelmed, under-prepared and massively-grieving widow and single parent to my five year old son and middle-school aged step-daughter.
Since then I co-founded GYST.com to provide a bigger, better resource online for people to get the important shit done and am I’m thrilled to announce my first book, What Matters Most. In the book I can finally tell the whole story of what happened, what I wish I’d done and what you can do to be less screwed when life goes sideways and what can help before and after the shit hits the fan. It’s all in there.
I’ve been telling stories, making things, and showing them to people for decades, in fact, I’ve helped clients like Nike, Samsung, Microsoft, Starbucks, Tom’s of Maine and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and was the founding Managing Director of WorldChanging. I live in Seattle with my family, love coffee and yoga (in that order), am a terrible runner and hosts and love to travel and speak regularly at events and conferences nationwide.
A Little from the Press
New York Times: A Shocking Death, a Financial Lesson and Help for Others.
NPR Morning Edition: From Grief Comes A Mission To Make Estate Planning Less Daunting.
Redbook Magazine: The Conversation Every Couple Needs to Have.
BoingBoing: Get Your Shit Together: improve your life by planning for your death.
ABC News: Tragic Death Prompts Unique Financial Planning Website.
LifeHacker: Top 10 Hacks for Automating Your Life.
Daily Mail: Straight-talking young widow tells women ‘get your s**t together’ before it’s too late.
KUOW Public Radio: Interview about the Website. (to listen go to 27:30 interview)