About Us
THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE podcast + experience is a gathering of un-sugar-coated conversations on authenticity, celebrating everyday humxns fearlessly finding + living their TRUE NORTH.
This space is an organic, evolving, co-creation among all who choose to show up, explore, unpack, get curious, + open up about what it means to be true to yourself. All are welcome. Your story matters. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being uniquely YOU.
OUR INSPIRATION
- For those who truly want to show up and get real with the grappling, wrestling, exploration, unpacking, messiness of what it means to be true to yourself, to be authentic, to be YOU.
- To elevate a question, a concept, an idea, a topic. It’s not about elevating one specific voice as THE voice, or one way as THE way, or one answer as THE answer, but instead we allow all the perspectives to coexist as we elevate the “thing” we are getting curious about.
- To encourage courageous self-inquiry. This is an invitation, an opening, a permission to NOT have to have the answer. It’s a place for raw, unfiltered, self-expression as we are each figuring out what it means to be ourselves. It is not a destination, but a celebration of the unfinished process, the real-time capturing of the journey towards oneself - whatever that means for you.
- To listen - like really deeply listen. First, to the whispers of your own soul + inner wisdom so that you can hear your own discernment from the noise of the world around you. THEN, from this place of inner listening, we expand our capacity to be deeply curious about other perspectives + voices to allow other ideas to live alongside our own, considering other ways of looking at something, while also honoring our own experiences + truths.
- To celebrate the everyday voices of our world. To break the assumption that only those with followers have something worth hearing. We ALL have wisdom worth sharing. ALL of our voices + stories have something worth hearing + seeing. We are all magick exactly as we are.
- To talk about the stuff we usually only talk about behind closed doors. To shine light on topics + normalize them. To embrace, not avoid. To allow something uncomfortable to exist out in the open + have space to breath + be seen. Nothing is off limits. If you are swirling about something, it is almost certain that at least one other person is too. So, lets go there!
- To fuck it up, make mistakes, learn, evolve, grow + keeping showing up no matter what. We learn from ourselves and others to challenge the norm of what we believe life can and “should” be.
OUR STORY
hello, nice to meet YOU! We are, Jenell Riesner (she/her) and Rachel Bellotti (she/her), the co-creators of THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE. We are two insatiably curious humxns who love connecting with other humxns, digging deep while also not taking life too seriously, trying almost anything once, + nerding out on authenticity + what it means to boldly live life on YOUR terms, in YOUR way. We live for celebrating all people who are uniquely carving out their own little slices of reality in this world.
In 2016, we were both working at a cycle + rowing studio in Milwaukee, WI, called SPIRE Fitness. While spending full days at the studio cleaning and fixing equipment, we started talking super openly about life. The ups, the downs, the chaos, the confusion, the good, the ugly, the inspiring, and ultimately how to be true to ourselves and what that even means. In our own obsessive search for authenticity, we started to connect with other people from all walks of life, doing all sorts of amazing things to live life in their own unique ways. As we spoke with these incredible humxns to understand their “secrets”, we were shocked to realize that in all their glory, they too were also still trying to figure out what it meant to be true to themselves.
And that’s how THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE podcast came to be. Our purpose has become to record these real-time, raw, vulnerable, honest dialogues that share the untold stories of the realities of truly being your most authentic self. Our intention has always been to create content that feels like you are here in the room with us - dog barks, mistakes, burps, snorts, and all. There is little to no editing as we have found that the real, messy stuff is usually the most magical and impactful. This is not a space for advice, how-to’s, guidelines, or answers but a place to crack open a door, shine a light on the things we keep hidden, normalize and breath life into the parts of life we are told we aren’t supposed to talk about and to know we aren’t alone in this quest of being our true selves.
Our approach to building THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE has been to keep showing up again and again even when we aren’t sure we’re ready. To create content that we enjoy making and makes us feel alive. Saying yes and being willing to adapt quickly and walk away from what isn’t working to adjust to what’s needed. We never get too attached to any one way so that we can create content that meets us and our audience where we are at, now. We’ve learned how to be ok in screwing it up and then getting back on the saddle with the same passion we had the first go-round. And finally, as big fans of GaryVee, we would rather have one super engaged and dedicated follower whose life is changed by our work, then a million who just happen to know of us.
THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE podcast is currently in Season 3 + per the request of our collective, we have started to expand our reach to bring these conversations beyond the podcast through workshops, virtual community chats, and experiential content. With this expansion, THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE experience is an invitation to open up to who you truly are. To explore the untapped parts of ourselves that have been kept quiet and are ready to be explored. To be exactly where you are on your journey alongside others doing the same and knowing that there is no one way or right way to do this thing called life.
THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE podcast can be heard on all channels where podcasts are found. New episodes go live every week + are about 75-90 minutes long, unpacking and wrestling with different aspects of authenticity and living your true north. THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE experience is ever evolving + growing. Sign-up for our email or follow us on IG to hear about upcoming ways to connect + play with us!
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