Through her speaking engagements and writing of various styles and genres, bonniejean alford guides others to understand identity – their own and society’s. Trademarked as the Identity Guru™ she believes people should know who they are, own it, and then share it boldly and beautifully with the world. This stems from her constant feeling that she didn’t belong, a common trait of members of the Xennial microgeneration. The solution for bonniejean: the comfortable escape of beautiful music and a lovely bowl of buttered popcorn.
bonniejean founded Alford Enterprises, a specialty communication firm, where she serves as creativity coach to clients on their own journey to successfully create novels and other artistic or business endeavors. She employs her training and experience to assist clients as they make their BOLD and BEAUTIFUL statements. Recently she launched a publishing company, Parking Lot Press, which will focus on identity, both of new authors and an eclectic catalog of varied genres.
A graduate of Northern Illinois University, bonniejean pens articles and e-books, maintains an Academic Blog devoted to Social Justice, hosts a podcast radio show about identity, and teaches college students how to write about Sociology. She enjoys taking artistic photographs, dancing to amazing music, and meeting people. She holds two Master of Art degrees, one in Sociology and one in Communication. As an active member of Toastmasters, she competes (and wins) speaking competitions in multiple varieties. Born in Illinois, raised predominately in California, bonniejean currently resides in Wheaton, Illinois.
bonniejean has completed the first book in her life-journey memoir series, Life’s a Concert: how I found me, danced through personal armageddons, and enjoyed buttered popcorn along the way. Using a rip-off-the-band-aid, raw truth, nonlinear approach, the work inspires readers through song-driven personal essays, as music remains a central aspect of bonniejean’s existence. Near complete, her first novel, The Edge of Time, explores the story of a woman who learns the truth about her lineage all while protecting the world from an alteration in the timeline (a coming of age story with a science fiction backdrop).
Additionally, bonniejean hosts a podcast and speaks to audiences on a vast array of topics, each connected back to identity in some meaningful way.