About

I’m

Kelly Diels.

Writer. Entrepreneur.
Culture Maker

Learn With Me

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Over the last

10 years...

I’ve worked with NY Times best-selling authors, national and international organizations, and thousands of online entrepreneurs.

Founders. Coaches. Leaders. Teachers. Healers. Creatives. The culture-making leaders I work with are doing whatever it takes to cultivate the internal & external resources needed to grow culture-making bodies of work.

In other words:

we are the culture-makers.

and so are you

Bring Something New Into the World

In the last 15 years, I've built a successful education company that lifted my family out of poverty. I've ghost-written for big names, been published in magazines and journals, and my first book, Make Yourself Matter, is being shopped to publishers as you read this.

I'm a firm believer in making miracles: turning an idea into a body of work and a vision into an organization -- which is what culture makers do, day in and day out -- is nothing short of miraculous.

Speaking of Miracles:

I am the first in my family to graduate from university; I have a BA with honours in Poli Sci; I won academic prizes, scholarships and admissions to prestigious schools…yet still managed to get pregnant and drop out of grad school before finishing my thesis.

Some days I'm sensitive about this. Most days I'm grateful: it means I'm trained up with the academic rigour necessary to connect intellectual dots and build out IP frameworks AND I didn't get fully institutionalized. Being outside a thing means you can see things other people can't -- and that is always an asset & source of power.

I have seventy zillion children (ok, five, and they are MAGNIFICENT), a Rottie I'm obsessed with, and significant family ties and financial responsibilities in both Canada and Trinidad. We've lived for extended periods of time in each country (I’m currently in Canada).

Let's DO what we're dreaming of

I teach three courses (Externalize, Surface Your Methodology, and Laureate) and my approach is grounded in:

My training as a political theorist -- and the writing chops I developed along the way
My work designing corporate and non-profit marketing & communications strategies
My history as a teacher in kindergarten classrooms, writing classes, and adult education programs (in every career iteration, I've been a teacher. It's who I am)
My experience as an entrepreneur developing successful businesses, brands and platforms.

I welcome critique and feedback; I think conflict is generative and essential to the project of culture-making…and I get a lot of illegitimate and frankly predatory pushback that I do not accept (nor will I allow it to silence or stop me).

I invite you to check out my teachers + formative influences here and my culture-making business practices here.

This isn’t about optics or personality or how charming or persuasive I am; this is about cultivating the analyses, frameworks, and internal & external skills we need to grow culture-making bodies of work that bring something new into the world.

That’s why

I’m here.

I help culture-making leaders skill up, internally and externally, to build out bodies of work & organizations that truly make a difference.

Together, we're developing careers & businesses that generate money and meaning -- and co-creating a future in which we all flourish.

Because we are the culture makers

Meet the Team

Trevia Woods

Community Manager, Co-Facilitator of We Are The Culture Makers

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Trevia (TREE-va) Woods is a mixed-race woman with Indigenous ancestors who has nearly two decades of experience as a teacher, bodyworker and community-builder. She helps the people most harmed by misogyny remember their power and build powerful healing practices without culturally or spiritually appropriating. Trevia has a BA in History with an emphasis on diverse historical perspectives and an MA in Education.

Ntathu Allen

Meditation and Restoration Teacher

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Mary Diaz

Marketing & Communications Coach

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Mary is a copywriter and writing coach for leaders with complex bodies of work. She helps visionary entrepreneurs voice their vision without defaulting to the boring, exploitive mainstream marketing tactics we learn everywhere else. Mary has an MA in Poetry and Writing and lives and writes in the woods of Western Sonoma County—on the traditional lands of the Graton Rancheria and Southern Pomo people.

Rebeca Arango

Senior Copywriter

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Rebeca Arango is a copywriter and copywriting coach with 10+ years of experience writing for magazines, non-profits, artists, coaches and spiritual teachers. She’s crafted copy for seven-figure businesses and six-figure launches but that’s not her big why. Instead, she believes culture-making business leaders can create media and a marketplace where all people are seen and respected in their full humanity. And that gives her hope.