All those orange and yellow-suited construction workers who spend so much time telling people where to go on Seattle’s streets will now start telling them where to go in their lives.
“Navigating Seattle these days can be frustrating, confusing, and overwhelming at times — just like life,” said Jose Vasquez, one of the many thousands of flaggers whose sole job, until now, was to help people maneuver the city’s ever-expanding maze of excavators and orange cones.
“We see a lot of the same drivers and cyclists on their commute, and we stand there, we greet them, and we show them where to go, you know?” he said. “So a few of us started responding to some of their other questions, and it just grew from there.”
Lots of commuters began to wonder aloud if they were headed in the right direction both literally and figuratively, Vasquez said.
Should they avoid Lenora Street as much as possible, then do the same with their wife once they got home? Were they setting realistic goals? Additional queries ranged from “What is the best way to reach my destination when the bumps along the road keep changing?” to “Are my expectations in line with the actual length of my journey?”
Vasquez and his colleagues decided to turn their informal advice into a small business, The Right Way For You, LLC, designed to help people manage all of these quandaries in a strategic yet mindful way–all while on their commute to and from work.
“Seattleites want their life journeys to be fulfilling and inspiring, not just functional — it’s not just about getting from point A to point B, right?” said Lisa Jones, another construction-worker-turned-life-coach. “People want to feel in control of their path while cutting corners to efficiently break through both literal and mental gridlock.”
The Right Way For You LLC is planning on launching some group coaching sessions as well as free workshops to be held along high-traffic strategic corridors in the city, such as Mercer Street and Alaskan Way.
“We only expect this business to grow,” Vasquez said. “As long as people continue letting go of familiar routes and commit to creating new traffic and neural pathways, I really think we’ve got something here.”
