Chasity Wilde Marcus shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning Chasity, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
To share a game I’ve been playing.
It combines Color + Energy + Intention + Mindfulness + Gratitude in a fun way that makes me laugh every day!
It’s no longer fair to keep this game to myself. Why would I continue depriving people of these easy jolts of joy they can experience in their own daily lives?
So yes, it is time to share my game I call Color Me Curious. I’ve been playing it for three years with no feelings of ugh or I’m over it. Rather, it’s re-energizing!
A mindfulness game with a twist. Like playing “I SPY” with the Universe.
The reward: Surprise & Delight moments abound, possibly accompanied by an LOL and I mean can be multiple times a day, all depends how often you want to play!
The game is silly, but after playing it a few years I’ve realized, that’s exactly the point. It offers light-heartedness.
That’s the external effect, meanwhile internally you’re opening to a connection with something greater than yourself you didn’t know you could feel existed within the same realm of consciousness as you occur and yet you do, and you can say hi all day long, intentionally or just by being open to possibility.
Ya just gotta get CURIOUS is all.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I adopted the personae Dakota Soulshine over a decade ago as my alter ego. Not out of any business building brainstorming session, but because she came to me in my dreams and journal pages and stories breathing in my body.
She needed a place to go. So I had a website made. Profile pics, check. Logo, sure. But for what again?
It’s taken me a long time to answer that as I accept the challenge every single day — what’s next for me to know?
And this is what I know so far: Dakota Soulshine is about spreading love and light. She’s about seeking out possibilities. She’s about being kind to others and also to herself. She’s about cheering you on as you build a relationship with your intuition. She’s about giving you space and prompting to explore more parts of YOU, and to appreciate them too.
How does she do this?
So far, through social media posting while getting closer to publishing a “journaling activity storybook” because it contains all three, still playing with the description.
Fall 2025 on Amazon. Awake at the Wheel: Exploring Your Inner World – A Guided Journal to Navigate Your Life Story.
I believe we become human with a fully-powered soul-infused light, but it can fade due to external circumstances. Why is that? And how has your soulshine dimmed?
This is a guided journal to help answer your own questions about your own life. And maybe help unravel those dang thoughts that sure like to persist.
Amongst prompts and stories and alter egos, you’ll also find a Color tracker riffing off the game I previously mentioned, “Color Me Curious,” and to come is a “7-day 7-dollar Chakra Challenge” accompanying the journal book.
Why do I think these are important offerings to bring into the world?
Because we could use more brave souls re/discovering their unique light and shining it so bright for the next generation to see and feel supported.
But even the bravest need encouragement and that’s where Dakota Soulshine comes in — to honor YOU supporting YOU because only YOU know what will help YOU shine in only the way that YOU can. The rest will follow.
It’s time we all take ownership of our own lives and just see where that journey might take us . . . I know I’m curious, are YOU?!
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
That night in my favorite college bar when I said YES to a cross-country trip to work a summer on the Jersey shore.
“Hey Chas, I hear you’re thinking of going to New Jersey this summer to nanny, is that true?”
“Well, I was thinking about it . . .”
“If you drive my car, I’ll pay for gas and I have places for us to stay along the way. Whaddya think?”
“Hmmmm, okay, why not?!”
Less than 48 hours later, I had packed up my studio apartment and set to embark on my first adult move away from the familiar prairies and people in my land-locked home state of South Dakota to a summer of complete uncertainty with the Atlantic ocean as my backdrop, and Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen as my soundtrack.
I had no car, no phone, no job, but for some reason I had trust.
The people I ended up nannying for that summer, and the summer after, changed the trajectory of my life!
Saying YES to unknown possibilities opened a doorway I didn’t even know existed, but I was ready for it. Although my small town rural upbringing was both pleasant and crazy, it didn’t satiate me. I needed more.
I hadn’t thought about how to get more experiences beyond going to college at least, so thankfully my naive mind forgot about guilt when I said YES to myself which in turn sounded like NO to my family and friends and boyfriend back home.
That momentous decision 26 years ago presented a new world for me to shape and mold as my own. It remains one of the most pivotal moments in my life.
Be open to the unknown, it’s perfectly beautiful for that reason.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes, and my emotional body can go straight to the moment when I realized, “to make this happen is totally up to me.”
I had been spending extra time with my grandma, catching up after me moving 1500 miles away for a decade.
She shared stories I knew and new ones I didn’t. Some were simple and sweet, others were dark and real.
I was also reminded how much she loved receiving and reading her local publication each month, so I thought hey, maybe I should write a story about her and submit it so she can open her beloved magazine one day and find an article about herself?!
This all made perfect sense in my head. When I set about writing my submission, I had no doubts it would be accepted. After all, my grandma was the queen of her small town, population hovering around a hundred. She was born across the gravel road from where she lived and eventually took her last breath.
But my vision was denied. Story didn’t have enough grit. Needed more drama.
Sure, I could have added the part where she said, “I never really told anyone that before…” but I respected my grandma’s privacy, so I chose to focus more on family memories and small town nuances and life in those days.
When I read the email denying my story, I cried. I got mad at myself. “You suck” stuck in my head. Felt like I had received a blow to the gut.
Later that day I was visiting the small town where my grandma lived and joined my mom and uncle and aunt at the local watering hole. They knew I had been writing their mother’s story and asked how things were going so I told them with shrugged shoulders, “Denied.”
I was ready to let it go despite all the work and anticipation when my uncle blurted out, “Well, why don’t you just print it yourself?”
Hmmm.
And so I did! Which allowed me to use all the photos and text I wanted and to design it the way I wanted, and to print it as its own booklet with the queen on the cover!
Copies of my grandma’s story set on the countertop at my cousin’s gas and service station you can’t miss as you enter the small town and where locals like to hang.
Almost a decade later, I STILL get comments how someone loves reading my grandma’s story and how it reminds them of their own grandma and helps them feel connected to their own family history.
And to think I almost gave up . . .
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
Over a decade ago, I was a stay-at-home mom with a strong case of insomnia. It sucked, but those sleepless nights introduced me to characters.
Dakota was the first one. She was seemingly all the things I desired to be, hmm interesting.
Then there was Sabina, Dakota’s sister. She was more raw and beaten, but alluring, and almost familiar, hmm.
To follow included a whole cast of characters I got to know as they played out scenes in my head night after sleepless night – Delilah, Ophelia, Daniel, Stefan, Abe, Wilder, Levi, Kaye and more.
Over time, I realized Dakota and Sabina were me, but not me, but kinda me, but not really me, but maybe me…
They offered different lenses to look at myself more honestly.
Dakota evolved into Dakota Soulshine which evolved to Soulshine Productions LLC.
What’s to come from there?
I can’t help but see these future projects vividly in my head, so I’m trusting they’ll emerge as they’re supposed to.
There’s journals and activity books and children’s books and fun characters, all ready to come alive!
As for the cast who first said hi, I”m still figuring out where they want to go.
Impatience can tease me, but I’m fully committed to seeing where Dakota takes me next. Every day I wake up with the intention of just listening and receiving and being the vessel she needs me to be.
I couldn’t imagine my life any other way.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
The same thing I’ve been doing the last 7-10 years that got me here, ha!! But really, about a decade ago a dream inside me started breathing again, and I realized that dream is to publish something.
I respect the industry so the plan was never to self-publish immediately for the checkmark, but rather to take my time getting to know the characters visiting me night after sleepless night and their stories that my imagination can’t help but build.
Plus, getting to know myself amidst motherhood for the past 18 years was part of the process I now see, and so the next 7-10 years will no doubt celebrate all that my Mind+Body+Soul have created into tangible and shareable products for others.
What I’ve been working on and can envision for down the road:
+ self-help, memoir-esque trilogy of journal/activity books
+ children’s books (minimum 3 stories with sets of characters/settings/plots)
+ writing classes that incorporate mindset and embodiment
+ a mindfulness game I created going viral
So as for what am I doing today? Well, every day I just take one more step forward . . . learning, growing, writing.
And trusting. SO MUCH TRUST. I have to trust because as much as I think I see the big picture, I’m also learning to remain open to possibilities that I haven’t been ready for, yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dakotasoulshine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dakotasoulshine/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasmarcus/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dakotasoulshine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dakotasoulshine
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtSUDnIs1bZt-YIulckccyg
Image Credits
Alexandra Rae Photography
