about anastacia

It seems to me that usually, this page on a site is written to impress others. It lists, in a fairly stilted fashion, and usually in third person, all the info the subject of this kind of page thinks others need to know (based on, I suppose, what traditionalists say others need to know and what sounds most accomplished). But, geezie, I couldn’t bear the thought of writing something like that. If you want to see that kind of stuff about me, please feel free to look at this, or read about my work with AssistU. If, on the other hand, you want the scoop on what makes me me, read on.

Below are the things about me that might be more interesting–or at least a bit more smile-producing.

What I’ve learned in life is that if you don’t like me, you won’t want to work with me, or interview me, or even follow me on Instagram. Conversely, if you like me, working, interviewing, and following will be a no brainer. Here’s what you might want to know to make those kinds of decisions.

The Overview

Don’t want to read everything? I get it. You’re a skimmer and you want the high-level info before you decide if you want to invest in going deeper. 👍

I think the most important thing to know is that I’m 100% guided by three things at this point in my life. They are:

  • Love, in all it’s finery and messiness
  • Integrity; being whole and right with myself
  • This quotation: ​”Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” ―Rumi

Here’s the rest, in case you want more.

Who I am

Anastacia Brice. 60 years young, married happily to D for most of my life, no kids, two cats, loving, intuitive, visionary, Guided by the Divine, and absolutely subversive in all the best ways. I live in my beloved hometown of Baltimore, MD.

Who I work with

I work with women of all races, ethnicities, sizes, sexual and gender orientations…you get the idea. I’m simply passionate about being a strong professional ally to women with regard to their lives and businesses. I adore men, but don’t enjoy coaching them. (sorry, guys!)

I’ve coached more women than I can count, in more professions and life situations than I can remember. All that to say, if you’re wondering if I have the chops to walk alongside you to support you with whatever you want from your work and life, I probably do. And, if I don’t, you can trust that I’ll say so.

What I do

For me, there’s nothing more important than love, and love of self has to come first. As a coach, I know that’s the most critical and sacred work any of us will ever do, and I’m fired up about supporting the beautiful and gently-subversive rebellion that leads a woman in that direction.

I’m also passionate about supporting women who want to have strong, profitable, “big enough” service businesses, who want their work to make a difference for the people they touch (no matter how many or few that is), and want to do it without sacrificing their health, sanity, and happiness.

Whether working with a woman on her life and/or her business, it all starts with foundation and integrity (which is the foundation under all foundations!). Those two things are at the center of my work.

Although most people want to jump off the roof and grow wings on the way down, preferring that kind of rush and risk to slowing down and building a foundation, for me it’s entirely backwards. I prefer to build the wings first, so that the rest of the adventure is supported, and you feel free to enjoy it without fear or big worry.

When I look at foundation work, I don’t see a drudge-filled bunch of activities that someone should be forced to do, but a truth-and-joy filled starting place on which and from which a woman can grow and share herself with the world.

If a woman has a shaky foundation, it’s very difficult for her to feel safe doing anything other than what she’s currently doing. And that can be horribly limiting; life is big, living is vast if you’re willing to have it be, and we’re meant to grow, change, and become more “us” all along the way. I help assure that my clients have foundations under their lives and work that allow them to do exactly that.

And all of that—the self-love and the foundation building—it’s nothing if a woman lacks integrity. If she isn’t whole and right with herself, she can’t love herself or build a solid foundation.  And so getting right is important. The great news is what that means is dependent on who you are. And getting clear on that and building from there…well, it’s all just a beautiful circular bit of work.

I provide my clients with thoughtful insights, sage advice, discerning strategies, and proactive problem solving, all of which are born of my unconventional life experience, my business acumen, and my pioneering heart as they work toward making their own conscious, unabashed and unreserved choices.

What that really means

I help my clients listen to their hearts to uncover or discover or reclaim the truths of who they are, to live the lives they want to live, and to build the businesses they want to build—and I call shotgun on the journey.

For that to happen there has to be the inkling, deep inside you, that what’s needed is a guide who understands that what’s going on for you is nothing short of a beautiful revolution…a subversiveness. Not in a stand-in-the-middle-of-the-road-fist-pumping-and-screaming-“F the man!” sort of way, but in a gentler, inner, this-is-my-life-and-I-deserve-to-live-it-the-way-that-serves-my-truth way.

I’m that guide. My approach is connected, personal, and certainly non-formulaic. You’re one in a million, the work we do together should be made for you.

Professional accomplishments

  • Multipassionate business owner since ’93.  While so many folks found one thing to focus on, my creative soul knew I would die if I couldn’t expand my professional reach and do all the things that my experience, strengths, and brilliance called me to do. Along the way, I’ve been:
    • Coaching women to have extraordinary businesses and lives since ‘96. Happy graduate of Coach U.
    • Formalizing the Virtual Assistance profession in ’97; founding AssistU at the same time, and began training VAs in ’98. In the 25 years since, we trained and supported close to 1,000 people in becoming virtual assistants in businesses they love and that allow them to have work that contributes to their having high-quality lives. We’ve also helped countless clients find and connect with our talented virtual assistants. In 2023 we decided to stop training VAs, although we continue to support clients who want to work with the VAs we’ve trained, and we support the VAs in our professional community.
    • Ardent death-positive evangelist since ’16. I’ve worked with people from mid-life and beyond in all sorts of conscious-aging through end-of-life-related areas through A Goodbye, although I am now on hiatus from this work. Certified Conscious Aging Facilitator with the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
    • Fractional COO for amazing humans whose mission I feel called to support foundationally. 

Things about me you probably don’t know

  • I was born and raised in Baltimore, and have never lived anywhere else. I absolutely love it here and know more about my city than anyone I know who isn’t a professional tour guide. If you visit, I’ll happily show you what makes Charm City so charming!
  • I’m multifarious, perspicacious, and voraciously verbal. I love words. I even like small ones now and then.
  • I love cows.
  • I am the child of two alcoholic narcissists. Because of that, they couldn’t know or love me except as they created me to be. As a result, I didn’t even start to know who I really was till I was 30. In the past 30-ish years, I’ve learned about addiction, narcissism, what love is and is not, how to find my self, how to stand in my truth, how to not be a victim or martyr (flip sides of the same coin), how to deal with bullies, and many other wondrous things that I now bring to my work. There isn’t a thing I share or teach that I haven’t lived, and I am committed to walking my talk. Does this mean I’m perfect? Not by a long-shot. But I am whole and right with myself.
  • I’m an absolute girlie-girl and confirmed voluptuary. If it’s not comfy, it’s not for me.
  • I practice maitri and tonglen.
  • I am the least goal-oriented person you’re ever likely to meet. This obviously doesn’t stop me from doing BIG things that matter to me.
  • I have an unshakable faith in the Divine (my word for that thing that’s bigger than us all and impacts everything that happens), but practice no organized religion.
  • In this crazy world of ours, I hold tight to Byron Katie’s words: “There are no terrible people. There are believers. If I believed what they believed, I would have to do that too.” It riles up a lot of folks (just try posting it on Facebook, sometime, and see what your friends have to say), but reminds me that I am just one small step away from being in another’s situation, shows me that what’s abhorrent to me may be completely love-filled to someone else, keeps me as far away as possible from judging others and allows for compassion, and helps me to make peace with things I struggle to understand.
  • I value: love—above all things. For me, it is the highest law and the ultimate religion, and shapes and colors everything I do, every word that comes out of my mouth or through my fingers, and all of my greatest aspirations for myself and the world. Beyond that (or maybe in addition to?) are justice, freedom, and fairness. Almost nothing gets me hotter faster than what’s unjust and unfair, or what takes away personal freedoms. At the same time, I’m a big fan of giving people the benefit of the doubt until doubt proves to have been earned. Then, the who of things really matters to me—who people are, and how transparent they are with others is a big deal. Then comes integrity, compassion, with graciousness and gratitude rounding out the list-not in any particular order, though, they’re all sort of glomed together in the number two slot behind love.
  • in 2009, hypertensive, diabetic, packing on weight like mad due to the endless medication loop I was in, and afraid I was going to die, I had bariatric surgery (VSG) and lost the weight of an entire human adult. I’ve maintained most of that. It was a powerful lesson about reaching out for help despite feeling ashamed and incredibly scared, as well as the miraculousness of do-overs and reinventions.
  • My greatest dream and aspiration: I envision a time when I’m part of a tribe of fabulous wise-woman elders and our primary work in life will be to teach younger women all that we know. If you share that vision, I’d love to talk with you. Soon, please. 🙂

What I believe

  • I believe we’re all courageous
  • I believe in love (bet you’re surprised, huh?).
  • I believe in doing the right thing—always.
  • I believe relationships rule the day, and good relationships rule the world.
  • I believe that we’re all connected.
  • I believe we should all do good, even as we’re trying to do well.
  • I believe there’s no such thing as coincidence.
  • I believe we are all powerful beyond measure, although most of us don’t believe it (we’re too afraid of being too big for our britches).
  • I believe that there’s something bigger than all of us out there, but I don’t care what anyone calls it.
  • I believe that if you get your foundation right (including having integrity and loving yourself), you can then riff off it in a million ways and things will most often work out well for you (and when they don’t, you won’t be shaken by it).
  • I believe the right tool for the job is much better than the “it” tool of the day.
  • I believe every one of us needs faith, and that life without it, in some form, is desolate.
  • I believe every one of us needs some sort of practice that connects us with the core of who we are.
  • I believe that each of us could have personal and professional standards that are higher than they are today, and I believe that standards are more important than boundaries.
  • I believe that if you have to “sacrifice” one thing to get another thing you want, something’s screwed up. More, I believe that self-sacrifice is self-bullshit. And I believe that the world needs fewer martyrs, and more people making conscious, unabashed and unreserved choices.
  • I believe diversity rocks, and we stand to learn a lot from one another. What we need is to be more curious and less afraid of each other. And we need to allow people who aren’t like us to ask us questions so they can better understand what makes us, well, us. I also believe that women need to lead in this, because if women learn and become unafraid, they’ll teach the babies, and the babies will grow into a new generation of adults who behave so very differently than we do, now.
  • I believe that in addition to the three Rs, kids in school should be actively taught things like relational maturity, self-love and self-care, how to be financially responsible, and how to commit to something bigger than they are. Since our children are our future, I believe we should be primarily concerned about raising them to be smart and good people. Oh, and we should teach them how to address an envelope, just in case they need to send cards to people they love (both are becoming lost to technology).
  • I believe women can do very well in business without following the traditional male model of business. Actually, it’s not just a belief. I’m living proof of it, and if I exist, many other woman do, too. I also don’t believe in grind, hustle, or running on a self-imposed gerbil wheel in order to have or do something.
  • I believe that when there seem to be two options, you should always choose the third because that’s where the magic truly is.

Why you should get to know me

Maybe we’re meant to work together. Maybe we’re meant to become fast friends. Maybe you’re meant to write a glowing piece about me and my work for the Times. It’s different for everyone. Find out… say hi!