Megan Lillick, Pantarei Approach Practitioner

Creativity and the importance of playfulness

Megan Lillick is a Pantarei practitioner and a creative entrepreneur. We met to talk about creativity and the importance of playfulness and how she integrates the principles of the Pantarei Approach in her work. She recently started supporting the Pantarei Approach’s communication team. Her focus is delving into the cultivation of strategic partnerships, as well as nurturing and leveraging those relationships for brand awareness. Her initial projects were creating a presence for the school on LinkedIn and helping organize the Support Sessions initiative where Pantarei practitioners have volunteered to give free sessions to people who’ve been directly or indirectly impacted by the current situation in Ukraine.

“I want to continue to build the community within the professional setting of LinkedIn. I’m also supporting Vered and Claudia with the strategic partnerships. I like connecting people, I see synergies between brands, companies and people and I want to put the Pantarei Approach on the map. For me the most natural way to get the word out is to stand on each other’s shoulders, creating connections and a web of somatic bodyworkers and empowerment coaches. Wouldn’t it be great if we got on Brenè Brown’s podcast one day?”

Tell us a little bit about yourself? 

“I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. I followed in my father’s footsteps, who studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and went to study journalism there, too. My parents really inspired me. My dad was a creative maker and an independent entrepreneur. As an audio producer, he would create promotional videos for Boeing. My mom was a kindergarten teacher, who utilized creative ways to incorporate play into learning. You could say that I come from a creative maker and caretaker. And it’s at this crossroads where and why I am who I am today.”

Playing sports has everything to do with who I am 

“I grew up playing every team sport in the book, and I landed on my favorite: soccer. I think having grown up playing sports has everything to do with who I am now and how I tackle life, work, and play.”

The importance of playfulness

“This past summer, when I was trying to come up with a name for a creative collective I was co-founding, I landed on a word that meant everything to me growing up playing soccer. That was “finesse”. My coach taught us that soccer wasn’t just a sport, but also a dance — it was a delicate performance. Every player had their own individual expertise and worked together. Before we ran onto the field to play a game, we would shout, “One, two, three, finesse!” So, of course, when I was reflecting on a cool name with meaning for a collective that’s all about co-creating in a team, I thought about the concept behind finesse. As a copywriter, I had to play with the words, so that’s how it became funesse, a combination of fun and finesse.” 

“I traveled to and lived in many places after college. After working a year in an ad agency in St. Louis, I needed something different. I wanted mountains and water. So I moved to Anchorage to work in marketing and outreach for the Alaska Botanical Garden. It was a lot of educational event planning, and I had so much fun.”

“I loved my work in Alaska, but I wanted more.”

“I loved my work in Alaska, but I wanted more. For a long time, I had a very specific dream. I wanted to work for Nike doing market research on their soccer cleat product line in Spain. When I asked myself how to get there, I decided to go as a student and study Spanish full time. While studying, I went door to door to ad agencies with my translated portfolio, looking for a job. I ended up getting an interview with a software startup that created soccer video games. It wasn’t Nike, but it was in Spain at a soccer company, funnily enough in this weird little town known for its shoes. They offered me the job, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out in the end. So I went back to the US.” 

With pit stops in Seattle and Santiago, Chile, Megan, and her partner decided to move to Europe and settled in Berlin.

What motivated you to study the Pantarei Approach and become a practitioner? 

“I was having these weird physical symptoms that I had never experienced before. It was probably my first-ever panic attack. I worked too hard and got burnt out. Through a friend, I was introduced to a bodywork practitioner, and after the first session, I felt so empowered and connected to my body again. Time passed and I started to feel the symptoms of burnout resurface. Then, I remembered what my practitioner had told me about the Pantarei Approach training program, as I was always keen to learn it on a deeper level. Seeing that a new class was starting in a couple month’s time, I immediately signed up. And it was the best thing I’ve ever done for my life and career. “

“My biggest motivator in signing up for the Pantarei journey was to help people. I was seeing how much it was helping me, and I wanted to share this empowerment with the world. It’s so rewarding and inspiring to witness and guide people on their individual path, managing and navigating it in their own unique ways.“

Incorporating my learnings from the Pantarei Approach training into Marketing.

“During the pandemic, I gave virtual pro bono sessions. I wanted to give back knowing a lot of people were going through some really hard times.” 

Megan did this for some time alongside her full-time job. “This gave me the opportunity to think about how I could incorporate my learnings from the Pantarei Approach training into my work as a team leader of a marketing department. I ended up integrating the simple intuitive Pantarei teachings into empowering these burgeoning creatives to do their very best work. I did this by having one-on-ones with my teammates to learn about their individual uniqueness, passions, and expertise in order to find the right role where they could thrive best. Yes, I did some major team reorg, but it was a win-win for all. For me, the core principles of the Pantarei Approach can really be applied anywhere and to anything.”

funesse is building on the importance of playfulness

Inspired by this experience and her wish to create a fulfilling and independent life for herself, she started the creative collective funesse where the importance of having fun plays a pivotal role.

How does the Pantarei Approach relate to your work with funesse and your work as a creative coach?

For Megan it has two aspects, “I want to incorporate Pantarei more into the creative business coaching service I’m offering. I’m also constantly integrating the approach in the everyday embodied empowerment of my team.” 

“When I started funesse with my co-creators, we already knew we had a strong creative synergy. We really like working with each other and complement one another in our own expertise and ways of working. We all have our own niche; one’s the writer and content strategist, one’s a designer and brand strategist, the other an audio/video producer, and so on. We are all creative makers, but we all do creativity differently. Knowing this, I empower them to thrive in their individual way, doing whatever it takes to produce their very best creative work. This is based on trust, just like in sports. You trust your teammates. They have their position on the field. You pass them the ball. They’ll do what they need and want to do with it, all with the aim to score a goal and win.” 

“We approach working with our partners similarly. We want an active and fun co-creation relationship and we want to play with them as well. The question is always how we empower our business partners to tell us precisely what it is that they need. Sometimes they don’t really know, so we must guide them by listening and asking the right questions.”

funesse is all about fun!

funesse is building its brand on and mission around the importance of having fun and incorporating play into work and life.  Megan and her team members fully believe this attitude leads to innovative and creative solutions and, most importantly, a healthy work environment. “For me the best creative ideas come out of silly brainstorming sessions. These ideas might not necessarily come to fruition, but they spark something — if even only a laugh. We’re all dispersed across the globe, so we try to make co-creating fun by using different tools to connect and engage virtually. We really try to incorporate fun wherever it is possible — it’s in our name after all. Our mission is to create a global community of creatives with different backgrounds to be able to offer our partners all around the world, holistic creative marketing solutions. Our vision is for more and more creators to join us and join forces as freelancers, building a collective that supports each other on projects all the while having fun co-creating.”

Last thoughts you’d like to share?

“I know life is short. My dad died when I was 17 years old,” Megan holds up a picture of her father that had been sitting next to her during our entire interview. She continues, “I might get emotional, but he was having fun doing what he loved. Not only did he teach me how to be a creative entrepreneur, he also taught me about empowerment. It was because of him that I learned to stand up for myself, speak my truth, and move on when I wasn’t having fun. And this is where it all intersects with funesse. I wanted to create something that values the importance of creativity and play, bringing unique people together to co-create on purpose-driven projects, ultimately empowering people to live life to the funnest!”

Megan offers creative coaching and 1:1 Pantarei sessions for people who want to get in touch with their creativity and/or simply just need support in finding their fun. You can get in touch with her through her website.

Written by Lena-Philine Zinser