fwm Expert Contributor Michelle Nichols is an inspiration. Her career as Business Week’s Savvy Selling columnist and her accomplishments as a speaker and an entrepreneur are only part of what shaped her into the remarkable woman she is today. Her turning point was a situation that life handed her, and one that no one would ever, ever choose as a catalyst for change in their life. But of course, we don’t always get to choose every path our lives take, do we?

Michelle’s son, Mark Nichols, died suddenly of a brain tumor in 1998 at the age of 8 1/2 years. In working through her grief, Michelle was spurred to begin a new work in honor of her son. She now devotes her full time efforts to encourage working parents to hug their kids. In 2008, she started the Hug Your Kids Today project, wrote the handbook - Hug Your Kids Today! 5 Key Lessons for Every Working Parent - and created a national holiday - National Hug Your Kids Day - July 21, 2008. The holiday will be the third Monday of July in future years. In six months time, Michelle has grown her vision to include not just the book and the website, but also events taking place in 17 states on Monday. She has also garnered a wonderful wave of media attention for Hug Your Kids Today. All of the talents and skills that Michelle has gained through her years of business experience are put to use here, in her new life's direction.

During her years as a sales columnist with BusinessWeek, once a year she wrote a column about the struggle to juggle the heavy demands of work and family. As she studied and thought about the emerging idea of "work-life balance," she realized that for her, it was the wrong conversation. Instead of balancing livelihoods and lives, she came to see that it was wiser - and saner - to prioritize "family first and work a close second."

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Finding What Matters is about discovering what works for you and living that out in your own life. Michelle, we’re with you.

If you have children, be thinking of Michelle and her wonderful crusade when you hug them on Monday.