Meet Aine Carey

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aine Carey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Aine, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Answer:
For clarity, I’m going to define purpose as, the actualization of potential.

I was exceptionally lucky from the start!
When I was born, I was given a circumstance that challenged me to ask the most important question to succeed at “finding your purpose”.

“Who am I”?

I was adopted.

I know this because I was consciously informed by mindfully curated books and careful discourse that I was “different” from my siblings and other people in a positive way.
I was loved and wanted and an answer to a prayer.

I was also not so consciously informed by some people that my “difference” was not positive. I was shameful, unwanted, abandoned.

I’ve always had a very curious mind and my family was committed to doing the best they could to help me develop a strong sense of myself. Being adopted, it was obvious that I was not just a “natural” extension of them, I was an individual with my own needs and expressions that they were trying to understand and adapt to.

The next question I struggled with was “Why”?

I was often told, “you can’t do that”.
To which I naturally responded, “why can’t I”?
I received a full spectrum of often contradicting answers.

The response I didn’t like was, “Because I said so.”
I would stop dead in my tracks, body tense and hackles up, instinctually I sensed a challenge/threat.

The response that I preferred was a carefully considered explanation that engaged me and made “sense” to me. I noticed that with this response I felt open, safe, and relaxed in my body.

My favorite response was being encouraged,
“Why don’t you try it and find out”.
This response brought me to life, inspired me, and activated my imagination and creativity.

As others questioned me and I formed answers, I also learned how to listen and respond to questions that arose from within my Self. My process refined over years, as I questioned, listened, reasoned, tested and answered, as I read, learned and practiced, as I set goals and failed and succeeded. I discovered what I could do, what I wanted to do, what I loved to do and then, how to do what I love all the time.

I began to understand that every single action I took was helping me to know myself and the world around me. With this understanding came with it the realization that maybe my purpose is to know myself and then act in alignment with what I understand myself to be.

Could that really be it?

As I drilled down even deeper into that hypothesis, I affirmed that I love to explore and push into the unknown, the mystery, the impossible and the unmanifest, grasp it with all my might and pull it forward into the manifest where I can see it, experience it and live it with all my senses.

I love the process of defining a very specific question, researching and gathering information, imagining a theory, and then testing that theory to discover the best answer or course of action.

I was quite literally, born to do this, it came naturally to me, and practicing it gives me joy. Living my purpose also provides me with a valuable skill that I can apply to pretty much everything!

The by-product of living my purpose is the foundation of my successful professional career, which is to discover the vital principle of an idea, individual, group or culture and assist it, through a quantifiable process; consciously weaving the worldly and the sacred, to actualize its fullest potential to inspire and transform.

In summary, as I refine my natural gift …to know myself …and then be in alignment and act in integrity with what know I am, I actualize my “purpose”. The by-product of this process is the foundation of my personal brand which I identify as Sacred Activism. A Sacred Activist engages in valuable, creative actions that consciously weave the worldly and the sacred to inspire, transform and create.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

HOW I LIVE MY PURPOSE: SACRED ACTIVISM

My Story

My adoptive father read to me every night since I “arrived” when I was four months old. He was an Irishmen and avid reader who happily took on the chore of putting me to bed. Like many children my first stories were about fairies, but my father read to me from Malorys’ Le Morte D’Arthur and Homers Odyssey. My father was so engrossed in the story that he would forget to read aloud. Frustrated, I would take the book from him and mimic him, I would make up a story while pretending to read the book. My father and I began to share the nightly reading sessions, neither of us got much sleep and in the process, I learned to read and I developed my passion for self expression.

I loved to learn, read, dance, paint, play sports, make things and explore. By the time I was four years old, I began to write, direct and act in plays that my family and friends would perform. In grammar school and high school, I excelled in reading, art, drama, music, theology and sports and began to act professionally.

I went on to study fine art at Pratt Institute, directing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts; BA, Acting and Directing at Rutgers Mason Gross; Professional Acting and Directing Program, (MFA) USC; Professional Writing Program (MFA), Marriage and Family Therapy(MA) Spiritual Psychology (MA), Licensed Doula (DONA).
I studied many healing modalities, comparative religions, and world history.
I practiced Yoga, Siberian Shamanism, Goddess/Priestess Spirituality and Buddhism.

My quest for knowing myself and the world around me, led me to find incredible mentors that shaped my life; My mother Ruth, my god- mother Sr. Ann Edmund, Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, Dr. L.Jay Oliva, William Esper, Hal Scott, Kathy Jones, Thomas Seltz and Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche to name a few. I practiced professionally as an artist, actor, dancer, director, writer, producer, filmmaker, sacred dramatist, doula, healer, shaman, philosopher, oracle, consultant, mentor, sacred activist, dakini, creatrix and scared activist.

My work took me all over the world through the USA and South America to Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia, where I developed mastery in penetrating the unique essence of a “culture” and translating it through a “universal form” to transform and inspire.

In 1996 I was a co-founder and sacred dramatist of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference in Glastonbury England, which gave birth to the revived Goddess/Priestess/Sacred Feminine Embodiment Movement in the UK and worldwide.

In 1998 I was a co-producer the Oprah Winfrey’s first ever music video Run On; the Opening of her 13th Season Change Your Life TV, and segment How to Connect with Spirit and began my professional commercial directing career.

In 2004 I was a co-founder of the Peace Dome at the Glastonbury Music Festival, a meditation and sacred space which houses the Hiroshima Peace Flame. The Peace Flame was lit from the nuclear fire of Hiroshima and carried around the world as a symbol of Peace by Hiroki Okano. The flame has been kept burring for twenty years by members of the peace camp and lights the main fire in the Opening Ceremony of the Festival.

In 2007 I received recognition in the Shoot Magazine New (Commercial) Directors to Watch Showcase. In an interview I stated; If I can sell Pepsi I can sell Peace, advertising has such an opportunity to change our world, I want to be an element of that change.

In 2008 The Kingdom of Bhutan became the world’s newest democracy, and I began an ongoing tenure as a creative consultant. In addition to filming hundreds of archived interviews. I co-produced and directed, The Last Dragon Kingdom, a visual meditation on the nature of change and the Buddhist precept of impermanence, as Bhutan, the last ancient Buddhist Kingdom, enters the modern age. The short film had a stellar run on the international film festival circuit winning many awards, including top honors at CineGear Expo’s; A Tribute to the Art of Visual Filmmaking in Los Angeles. The film provided a branded entertainment; multi-platform channel to raise awareness by sharing the story of this tiny Buddhist Kingdom and it’s huge ideas with an avid world audience.

In addition to my work in Bhutan, I continued my international creative career, mindfully curating my projects as I developed what would become my brand signature, Sacred Activism; by consciously weaving the worldly and the sacred to inspire and transform.

2009 I directed a multi-platform branded entertainment campaign for Olympic Sponsor Johnson & Johnson which followed Sebastian Sasseville as he became the first Canadian with Type 2 diabetes, to summit Mount Everest. This inspiring story premiered at the 2010 Olympic Games in Beijing.

2010 I founded the Bhutan Culture Company to “incubate Next-Gen Bhutanese Content Creators into a vibrant industry of international repute that affirms and promotes Bhutan’s cultural and artistic expression for the overall social and economic development of the country and world happiness”.

2011 I consulted on and co-produced two inspiring, innovative, life changing, transforming, multi-platform, award -winning branded content campaigns. Once again with 180la and Sony/Intel. The Make.believe campaign; Human Empowerment is more powerful than a gigahertz, marked the first time any message has served to represent the entire range of Sony’s products. It stands for the power of our creativity, our ability to turn ideas into reality, and the belief that anything we can imagine, we can make real.

For the Sony Rocket Project we asked the question; Does the sony Vio laptop have enough computing power to launch a rocket into space?
To “find out” we partnered with eight high-school students, Tech Companies, Non-profits, government, education and media to create an authentic brand movement.

The Sony Rocket Project successfully launched a rocket built by our students, created an innovative STEM curriculum model, generated over 232 million earned media impressions, was covered by over 100 networks world -wide and culminated in a documentary for the Discovery Channel.

In 2012 I consulted on and co-produced the follow up Sony Project Shiphunt with 180la and Sony& Intel. Marking the first time a major brand partnered with a major federal government agency and a world -renowned non-profit research organization to create a multi-platform, branded content integrated brand movement.

We followed six high school students from Saginaw MI, on an inspiring journey to discover a lost shipwreck. Pioneering the new platform of social media, we documented every step of the journey and shared in online with a world audience earning over 700 million views. We created an interactive Facebook ship hunt game, sank ships in google oceans and challenged the world to find them. We created a one-hour documentary of the Project aired nationally on Current TV’s “50 Documentaries to See before you Die” to 70 million households.”

Sony Project Shiphunt generated 500 million earned media impressions and was covered by major media outlets worldwide reaching over 90 million viewers. Best of all six high school students found something greater than a ship, they discovered their potential.

In 2013 I consulted on and co-produced the ground-breaking Find Your Understanding campaign for 180la and Expedia; a company that revolutionized the travel industry and created the first-ever Online Travel Agency.

Find Your Understanding was the first advertising campaign to feature same sex marriage. Find Your Understanding was chosen by TED as one of the top 10 commercials worth sharing in 2013 and lead to policy changes in Washington D.C. and cultural changes in society.

Expedia distinguished itself on a broader stage as a modern, relevant brand with true character, brave enough to take a stand, by accelerating the momentum of this once-fringe issue and helping it attain not only legality but also social legitimacy.

In 2013 I wrote the feature film screenplay Get Karma and created the branded entertainment project, the Get Karma Project in partnership with the Kingdom of Bhutan and Thomas Seltz of FKSK law firm.

My goal was to direct a commercially successful film project, give support to the Bhutanese film industry and serve as a “brand” ambassador for the Kingdom of Bhutan. Get Karma would mark the first English language film to be shot entirely on location in Bhutan.

To achieve this objective, we designed a structure that integrated the country’s Gross National Happiness Index into an innovative business model; “Doing Good is Good Business”, which can be applied to traditional entertainment and advertising campaigns, to create “commercially successful content that has a positive social impact.”

In theory

And then.. I drilled down even deeper into that hypothesis, I pushed into the “unknown”, the “mystery”, the “impossible” the “unmanifest” and I grasped it and pulled it forward into the manifest where I could see it, experience it and live it with all my senses…

And then I got a chance to prove out my doing good is good business model to unprecedented success!

In early 2016, The Cannes Lions Festival, Advertising Agency 180LA and their client Boost Mobil/Sprint were pioneering the same spirit in the Advertising Industry. In June of 2016 180LA received the first ever Cannes Lion category; “Grand Prix For Good” award.

In July at the request of my long-time creative partner David Emery, advertising agency 180la and their client Boost Mobile/Sprint. I returned from the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United States to develop and execute a Sacred Action in the form of a paradigm shifting advertising campaign Boost Your Voice: for Voter Equality. The Great Creative Idea was to turn Boost Mobile retail stores across the nation into polling stations for the 2016 American Presidential Elections.

To achieve this Sacred Action; I applied my doing good is good business model to Boost Your Voice; for Voter Equality and created a civic action in the form of an advertising campaign movement which quantifiably achieved its intended aims.

Boost Mobile/Sprint sought to solve a huge problem facing our democracy and our customers; unequal voting access and low voter participation and identity by doing the unpresented; we offered 816 retail stores across the nation to serve as polling stations in the 2016 Presidential Election. To achieve this we partnered with government agencies, board of election directors, non for profits, fellow brands, voting rights groups, sacred activists, Chance the Rapper, Murs, and many other talented artists and change makers.

The by-product of this sacred action was an unprecedented, award winning, innovative multi-platform advertising campaign in the form of a civic action that shone a light on voter inequality, raised voter awareness and participation for the 2016 Presidential Election, provided a qualifiable solution for Democracy and proved out Doing Good is Good Business by receiving over one billion (positive) earned media impressions as an authentic force for good.

This issue has maintained single focus relevance for over eight years, cumulating in the unprecedented upcoming 2024 Presidential Elections in November.

Within the Advertising Industry; Boost Your Voice, for Voter Equality Campaign for Boost Mobile/Sprint received the highest honors in Advertising in 2017 the “Titanium Lion” at Cannes, the “Grand Clio“, the AICP Next Award “Winner”, the One Show “Gold Pencil”, Ad Age “Campaign of the Year” and the D&AD Impact “White Pencil”. These awards “celebrate game-changers; ideas that break new ground in branded communications; provocative, paradigm shifting, inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry and moves it forward.” Cannes Jury President Tham Khai Meng said he and his jury, “felt strongly that true integration is about work that cuts through, transcends media and integrates into culture and society,” and described Boost Your Voice as an “incredible piece of work” and included it as a “role model” in the ground breaking book; A Cannes Lions Jury Presents: The Art of Branded Entertainment.

During the course of constructing and executing this Sacred Action, as I pushed into the mystery, a whole new paradigm opened to me and overtook me as I encountered something so absolute, self-evident and sacred.

I observed as Boost your Voice for Voter Equality ignited a spark that joined a flame of Change that swept through our culture and transformed everything in its path. The impact was immediate and vast, and I could only witness in awe for seven years as the world, as I knew it changed – for good.

On my sacred journey, I have experienced the power and sacredness of co-operation, intention and creation of a kind that has been beyond my ability to express in any way I have learned, practiced or imagined, but it is my vocation as a storyteller to find a way.

As I write these words, I am aware that this is my first step back to the world of professional communication.
I reconise that I am tender and vunerable in my inadequacy to convey the essence of my revelation, the true and satiating answer to my incessant question.

A Sacred Activist understands that every single action is inviting her to know herself and the world she inhabits. With this understanding comes the realization that his purpose is to know himself as sacred, and all life and all creation as sacred and then to create in accordance with this Truth.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Love
2. Imagination
3. Curiosity
4. Reasoning

What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Expect to get an answer to every question you can imagine, imagine the impossible, don’t stop until you find it and can communicate it so that others can understand it!

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am looking for professional people who resonate with Sacred Activism.
Who live their purpose through making commercially successful products by engaging in valuable creative actions that consciously weave the worldly and the sacred to inspire, transform and leave a lasting positive impact on the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: ainecarey.com – Bhutanculturecompany.com
• Linkedin: aine carey
• Other: https://vimeo.com/lostcontinent?embedded=true&source=owner_name&owner=5584983