Share Your Story: Gillian, Sales Manager for Weddings

Have you ever wondered what makes someone tick? Why do they do what they do?

Everyone has a story. Our experiences make us who we are. In this podcast series, Grief Coach Jenny Dilts invites people to share their stories as we discover the extraordinary in ordinary people and explore humanity one heart at a time. Time will be given for a special Q&A after the interview.

Gillian

Gillian is the Sales Manager for a country club in Pleasanton, California. She has been in the wedding industry for about 10 years, and can say, she genuinely loves her job. She is from the San Francisco Bay Area, and grew up in a wonderful family with her mother, Robin, father, Hector, and Sister, Lexi. They are a very close family, although her parents divorced when she was 3, they remained best friends and were the best co-parents you could ever imagine.

When she is not busy in the office, Gillian spends her free time hiking, dining (big foodie!), traveling, and spending time with her family. She now has a niece and nephew, who are her world, and have truly just made this world a brighter place. She is the proud mother of 2 rescue cats (Mali & Ro), and happily with her boyfriend, Cristian.

Gillian’s father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his early 40's, and this took an incredible toll on him, as he was a very active and the "always on the go" type. He would hike Half Dome in Yosemite on the regular, go on extreme bike rides, or any other activity you could imagine, he was fearless. His death, his suicide, was the biggest shock she could have ever experienced, and completely crumbled their world. They had no idea that he was as depressed as he was, and truly always thought they would continue to work through his disease. Unfortunately, within less than 10 years, Parkinson's had taken too large a toll on her father, and they lost him in May 2022. Since then, they have been picking up the pieces of their life and trying to navigate this "new normal."

Jenny Dilts

Jenny Dilts is a Certified Grief Coach who specializes in transforming adversity into advantage. She helps people feeling unmotivated and without purpose to deal with their grief in healthy ways and move towards creating a life of joy and passion. Jenny's professional journey as a Grief Coach began when she sat with a friend days after her husband's sudden death. Holding that space for her unlocked and ignited a passion for supporting others in their grief.

Another pivotal experience for Jenny was guiding a friend through the grief following her sister's death by suicide. Jenny's ability to appreciate both the darkness and the light guides others to move forward with their grief, create a new normal for themselves, and build a relationship with grief and gratitude.

Jenny is the founder of Grieving Coach and host of the podcast Share Your Story: Exploring humanity one heart at a time. Through her journey as a Grief Coach she has completely transformed her own life from not knowing who she was and living in the shadows, to shining as an expert not only in the field of grief, but also in her own life as a wife and mom of 5. She can be found on Facebook and LinkedIn.

For more episodes of the Share Your Story series, visit https://anchor.fm/jenny-dilts-grievingcoach.