Hello and welcome to Elastic Life.

I'm Karin McGrath Dunn, and this is my personal writing and art project where I explore the intersection of work, leadership, parenting, wellness, and living with ADHD in words and images.

Elastic Life is a free monthly newsletter that arrives periodically in your inbox, offering candid insights and practical wisdom for navigating the beautiful complexity of modern life. Whether you're juggling boardroom decisions or bedtime stories, managing executive function challenges, or seeking balance in an unbalanced world, you'll find honest perspectives and actionable ideas here.

My Philosophy: Flexibility isn't just a survival strategy, it's a super strength.

How to Read Elastic Life:

• Subscribe for free to get posts delivered directly to your email inbox

• Read all posts on this webpage like a blog (Bookmark it!)

• Follow on the Substack app (warning: this can be VERY noisy!)

About Me

I'm a family business leader, ICF-certified leadership coach, visual thinker, and ADHD mom navigating it all. My insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, SHRM Magazine, and other publications.

My family values and career experiences—from fine arts to pharmaceuticals to affordable housing to school boards—have shaped my core belief: everyone deserves dignified, supportive communities, whether that's where they live, learn, or work.

Most recently, I ran a property management company that won local, state, and national awards by putting people first—offering excellent facilities, family-friendly work policies, educational support, and living wages. Some of my proudest moments were hearing team members say "I just bought a house" or "I paid off my student loans," and tenants say "I feel like I won the Golden Ticket since I moved in here."

Now, as an executive coach, I bring that same people and community approach to guiding business executives, professionals, creatives, and successors through chaos, change, and transition. I use an evidence-based, neurodiverse-friendly, shame-free, visual approach to help people structure their thinking and take meaningful action on their goals. I also strive to help them find peer support to keep going - without me.

But I'm not here to sell coaching — I'm here to genuinely be myself and share ideas about what it means to be human.

If you do want to learn more about the work I do, you can visit karindunn.com or My LinkedIn or, visit my coaching practice page to book a coaching interest call.

Why I Create Here

This is a space for exploring ideas, building creative muscles, and reflecting on what it means to stretch through work, life, and everything in between. I'm learning to surf the big waves of each season of life—even the hurricanes—and I'm bringing you along for the ride.

I mostly write about leadership, work-life, ADHD, tech, and modern family life, and I commit to one post a month. And — I always overthink that one post but I do my best to deliver something meaningful.

I also occasionally share drawings, video, photos, podcasts, poems, links, and other expressions of my brain—and not everything will be perfectly curated or properly formatted, so thank you for bearing with me.

What's most important to me in this space is being real about the power of flexible thinking and living in the many shades of grey between black and white—because I believe that's what life requires.

Substack is just a delivery truck for my thoughts—these posts and other musings will also be available on my website at karindunn.com.

Thanks for being here.

If you find Elastic Life helpful or worth sharing, go for it — and know that I appreciate your shares, subscriptions and support. Truly.

❤️ Karin