Are you feeling the weight of this moment in our nation? Do you sense that something essential is being called forward, but aren’t sure what role you play in it?

Join us for a powerful and interactive gathering with Brandon Peele as we explore the ember at the heart of our democracy, the quiet but enduring spark that still lives within each of us and within our collective story.

This experience will be more than a talk. Together, we will reflect, connect, and engage in a shared inquiry around purpose, belonging, and the deeper meaning of this country at a time when it is being tested.

This event will also serve as the public unveiling of the National Pilgrimage Indiegogo campaign, marking the beginning of a larger journey to renew our national covenant through story, ceremony, and community. The project is being documented by CreativeMornings Monterey Peninsula host Mike Buffo, with core collaborator Maija West, who helped shape the foundation of this work and will introduce Brandon Peele following the campaign film premiere. Brandon will then lead an interactive experience focused on how each of us can step in, get involved, and take meaningful action in this moment.

Come prepared to reflect on your own connection to this country: What does it mean to you? What moment or place most anchors that meaning?

Be part of the beginning of something meaningful.

How long did you live on the Monterey Peninsula before you considered yourself a local?

You know you’re a local when you stop checking Yelp and just know which places to go depending on the day of the week. When you can give someone directions using landmarks only locals recognize. When half the places you love aren’t on a tourist map.

Being local isn’t just about where you live. It’s when your life starts to run on the same rhythms as the town.

But that sense of belonging depends on the people who make a community function. The teachers in our schools. The nurses in our clinics. The people who keep our local businesses running.

And increasingly, those people are leaving Monterey. Not because they want to, but because the cost of living here is pushing them out. The single largest driver of that cost? Housing.

Gabriel Sanders, founder of the Monterey Opportunity Housing Trust, believes that being a local depends on community stability and on critical workers having the ability to remain here and build their lives. MOHT is a community land trust gathering impact investment for workforce housing and converting commercial properties into affordable homes while making the owners more money. Using a model grounded in California tax law and community finance, MOHT creates housing that stays affordable in effective perpetuity.

In this talk, you will learn:

Learn about the true effect of housing costs on our community, how a community land trust removes land from the speculative real estate market and keeps it under local governance, and why local commercial property owners can often earn more by partnering with MOHT than by renting at market rate. It also explores what the cost of capital really means for local workforce housing and how you, as a local investor, business owner, or neighbor, can help build the community you want to live in.

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“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are” – Joseph Campbell

Who are you underneath the hurts, patterns, and roles of life?

And how do you blossom into your truest self?

Retired military officer Benjamin Forest is the author of Trip of a Lifetime – The Psychedelic Guide to Healing, Loving, and Living. In this raw, witty, and practical self-help book, he shares the 10 psychedelic principles that have been
instrumental to his healing and those of his clients. While inspired by his own psychedelic journeys and those of his coaching clients, the principles can be applied by anyone – Set Your Intention, Enter the Cave, Love Yourself Shamelessly, and so on.

In this talk, you will learn:

• Ten universal spiritual lessons psychedelics teach us
• Gain insights into the creative process
• Receive an invitation to bloom into your fullest self

In this talk, Bernadette explores what it means to be a creative nomad, not just on the road, but in identity, community, and belonging. Through personal stories of cross-country moves, unfinished journeys, and building a values-driven business, she invites us to redefine home on our own terms and ask the question: What if being a nomad wasn’t just about movement, but about the search for a place to truly feel rooted?

“The word ‘Nomad’ doesn’t just refer to someone who travels from place to place. I believe that the nomadic mindset lives in all of us. It’s about being in constant alignment with yourself, your intuition, and letting that inner compass guide you. As we all know, the world is full of distractions, but when we listen deeply to our intuition, we can tap into a whole new sense of adventure.“ -Jamie HolmBernadette Marciniak is an award-winning photojournalist turned brand storyteller and the founder of Solhaus Media, a creative studio dedicated to helping purpose-driven brands transform their mission into a movement. With 15+ years of experience in visual storytelling and journalism, Bernadette brings a rare mix of artistry, strategy, and insight to every project, capturing content that doesn’t just look stunning but builds connection, credibility, and influence. Today, Bernadette uses that same skill set to help nonprofits, social impact organizations, and visionary leaders rise above the noise with visuals that humanize their work, spark emotion, and drive meaningful action. www.solhausmedia.com

Find a Mentor, Free Yourself

Mentorship is powerful—but its magic begins long before you meet the right guide. In this experiential session, Katie Bruzzone invites participants to turn inward and explore the edges of their own growth. Through creative reflection, somatic awareness, and guided discovery, you’ll uncover the values, opportunities, and questions that shape your current season of transformation.

Expect to get out of your head and into your body’s creative intelligence. By the end of the session, you’ll leave with your own discovery map—a personalized page of self-discovery that helps you more deeply understand yourself and your next steps.

This session isn’t about seeking the perfect mentor—it’s about becoming a better student of your own life so that when mentorship does arrive, you’re ready to receive and reciprocate with clarity, courage and intention.

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Katie Bruzzone is a leadership coach, creative strategist, speaker, and artist who helps people and organizations transform pain into creative power. A master of soul mapping and inner child healing, she trains the Jung “Young” at heart and unlocks infinite potential. With a background in business, shadow integration and human-centered design, Katie blends spiritual insight with practical tools to guide growth and authentic expression. She is known for creating experiential spaces that catalyze breakthroughs and inspire bold, holistic growth. Whether leading workshops or coaching 1:1, Katie’s work empowers people to create the life of their dreams with passion and purpose. She loves animals, nature, dancing, sports, Winnie the Pooh (and her dog Winnie), building stick forts, and collecting LEGO minifigures.

When I was young, I thought being punk meant fighting the world. Now I know the real rebellion is internal, unlearning the stories I didn’t choose and reclaiming the self I buried to survive.

In this interactive session, we’ll explore what it means to rebel not just against systems, but against the outdated programming inside us. Through reflection, partner work, and a few creative sparks, we’ll wake up the part of us that’s not here to perform, but to be free.

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Jeremy Miller is a mental health advocate, creative strategist, and the mind behind Three Blocks—a framework for self-reflection, intentional growth, and inner rebellion. With 16+ years in addiction treatment and a deep focus on addiction & mental health recovery, Jeremy helps bridge the gap between underserved communities and life-changing care. His upcoming book, Adopted, weaves personal narrative with psychological insight to guide others toward reclaiming their true selves. Offstage, you’ll find him living it up in Monterey Bay, raising his kids, loving his wife, writing stories, and chasing meaning.

How much of your potential is sitting just below the surface—waiting to be activated?

In this eye-opening session, Danielle Galvan shares how uploading her raw DNA data into ChatGPT led to a surprising and empowering deep dive into her own health, habits, and decision-making patterns. Drawing on insights from both human biology and AI, Danielle will walk us through how this fusion of data and reflection can help us live with more clarity, energy, and intention.

With years of experience in operations, coaching, and systems thinking, Danielle brings a grounded approach to using technology as a tool for personal alignment. This isn’t about abstract ideas—it’s about practical frameworks and real-time insight that help you make decisions based on how you’re truly built to operate.

In this talk, you’ll:

Learn how AI can be used to better understand your genetic makeup and lifestyle needs

Explore how data can guide your focus, reduce decision fatigue, and help you feel more in sync

Walk away with actionable strategies to align your habits with your biology and values

Whether you’re feeling burnt out, misaligned, or just curious about what tech can teach you about yourself, this session offers a grounded path back to clarity, energy, and real personal insight.

#creativemorningsmry #cmmry #daniellegalvan

CROSSROADS: Identity-Driven Decisions for Transformation

Join bestselling author and habits expert Alessia Citro as she explores how our daily decisions shape not just our circumstances, but who we become.

Drawing from her journey—from tech sales at Google and Salesforce to building a 7-figure wine business to embracing sobriety—Alessia will share how aligning our choices with our desired identity creates lasting transformation. Through her Higher Self Habits Method™, she’ll demonstrate how small, intentional habits can lead to extraordinary change.

In this talk, you’ll discover:

• How to access your “Higher Self” perspective at critical junctures
• The role of daily habits in shaping your identity
• Practical techniques to make identity-based choices

Whether you’re facing a career pivot, relationship shift, or simply seeking more intentional habits, this session will provide a framework for navigating life’s crossroads with clarity and purpose.

If you’ve ever struggled with how to walk side by side in a relationship—staying parallel without losing yourself—you’re not alone. Do you ever say yes when you mean no, then feel resentful? Or say no, only to be consumed by guilt, wondering if you should have been more giving? Have you made decisions out of shame or anger toward someone you love, only to regret them later?

Melanie Yates, a certified neuro coach, number one best-selling Amazon author, and expert in relationships, addiction, PTSD, and divorce, brings 21 years of patient care experience at the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula to this interactive session. With over 10,000 hours of EFT tapping experience, she helps people rewire stress responses, release emotional pain, and build strong, parallel relationships that honor both closeness and individuality.

The healthiest relationships stay parallel—moving in the same direction, connected, yet allowing space for each person’s growth and individuality. But how do we maintain that balance? In this hands-on session, Melanie will guide participants through an EFT experience to manage emotions, calm the central nervous system and increase oxytocin—the love hormone that fuels connection, empathy, and trust. Imagine what could happen when you’re free from stress and tension. What problems could you solve? What clarity might you receive?

The truth is, to be whole right now, the most important relationship you have is with yourself. We are here to love and be loved—but how do we balance “me” and “we” without losing ourselves? Whether you’re married, divorced, parenting, single, or in a relationship that challenges you, this session will help you release stress, create stronger connections, and find the parallel path of love and individuality.

Don’t miss this chance to experience the power of “Parallels” in marriage, relationships, and within yourself!

#creativemorningsmry #houseof8media #wavestreetstudios #communityspotlight #relationshipcoach #parallelrelationships #efttapping #selfgrowth #emotionalwellbeing #montereyevents #selflove #mindbodyhealing

From childhood experiences to societal expectations, we all build layers—of identity, protection, and belief systems that shape how we move through the world. Some layers serve us, offering wisdom and resilience, while others hold us back, keeping us stuck in old narratives. But what happens when we begin peeling them back? What do we find beneath the versions of ourselves we’ve carefully constructed?

At this month’s CreativeMornings Monterey Peninsula, Nick Villareal, will guide us through an exploration of the layers that define us—mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational. With raw storytelling and thought-provoking insights, he’ll challenge us to question the roles we play, the identities we cling to, and the deeper truths waiting beneath the surface. Through movement, conversation, and self-reflection, we’ll explore what it means to strip away the unnecessary and step into a more honest, aligned version of ourselves.

This isn’t just a talk—it’s an invitation to examine the layers you wear, release the ones that no longer serve you, and embrace the ones that make you whole.