Camille Preston
CAMILLE PRESTON is a psychologist, executive coach, consultant, speaker, and internationally recognized expert on Virtual Effectiveness. She is the founder and CEO of the organizational consulting firm AIM Leadership, and the author of two books: Rewired: How to Work Smarter, Live Better, and Be Purposefully Productive in an Overwired World and Create More Flow: Igniting Peak Performance in an Overwired World.
For more than twenty years, Camille has guided leaders, executives, policy makers, professionals, and individuals alike to new heights of leadership, performance, efficiency, and greater happiness and fulfillment. Her clients span industries and fields around the globe, including executives from NBC, Zappos, MGMMirage, Citrix, the Corporate Executive Board, Mars, Verizon, GE, CapitalOne, the US Army, and many others.
Beyond work, Camille is an avid runner, yogi, and adventure traveler. She has worked on five continents, traveled to 39 countries, and currently lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband, Mark, and their son, Preston and daughter, Adeline.
3 words to describe Nature?
Life-source (vital, energizing)
Teacher
Diversity (if you connect with how amazing, vast, diverse and profound nature is - it transforms your interactions elsewhere…. if you know the dessert and the ocean and the mountains - it helps you deal with different personalities, different life experiences)
3 things Nature taught you?
Centering
Humility (so beautiful, so powerful, so ever-changing)
To recharge OFTEN (being in nature recharges…)
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Sitting in a kayak in the center of Squam Lake - especially early morning, at dusk.
Top of Powder Mountain, in Utah - vast views, diverse landscape, intersection of so many forces - wild and beautiful.
Church Island Chapel - Squam. It is a sanctuary in a pine grove, surrounded by water… where I have gone with my greatest heartaches and greatest desires
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Any type of water is profoundly powerful for me as I have a lot of fire in my personality. I need to be around water otherwise I’m off balance. I always seek out water - on my morning runs, on my ideal vacations, etc.
Something about the moisture in the waves, the space that sits above the ocean.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Reminded that I am just part of a larger system, a speck on this earth. You see the grandeur, the longevity, the strength - and it gives me focus.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
It gives me the force to change, surrender to greater things. I loved driving in Chile - so many roads are built to frame a volcano. Almost as if there is deep reverence for their force to create and destroy.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Morning - I think about where / what to create, how to leave a mark and feel a sense of deep possibility.
Evenings - I think about all that is, all that I have been blessed with. There is a sense of gratitude to be.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Humbled by the powerful force of nature - AND all that I don’t understand about it.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Grateful to snuggle deep into bed. For having safety, protection, and emotional community.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I’m a water person… I need to be.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10…. I can tell when I haven’t been “in it”. Nature drives where I live, how I engaged, the ways I create balance within myself.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Every summer I spent at Squam Lake. All this time unplugging, slowing down, learning a new rhythm, adapting to a new pace of life. We would also spend 3-4wks as a family backpacking. Now, as a mom - I’m humbled that they would leave the lake and “choose” a harder interaction with nature - to teach us life skills.
