Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Gilday.
Hi Derrick, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My career began when I switched degrees in college from environmental politics to dance and photography. I had recently taken a semester away from college to backpack through Europe for 6-months and find my true north. While abroad, I realized that creative pursuits ignited my heart and soul much more than environmental politics. I knew that if I was to dedicate my life to something, it needed to captivate me, and art and performance had grabbed hold of my heart with a loving embrace, saying, “Come with me; we have much to discover together.” I came home, changed my major, and the rest is history, well, almost. Shortly after changing my major, I found the circus and fell in love with the diversity of performance opportunities that contemporary circus offered. Contemporary circus is a medium for dancers, acrobats, singers, costume designers, actors, set builders, engineers, storytellers, and dreamers. Beyond these diverse creative opportunities within the circus, there was also a deep undercurrent of international culture, art, and community. The people who chose this career were world travelers, art historians, anarchists, spiritual advisors, and innovators. I had finally found a community that matched my soul’s calling, and I have not looked back.
Through this artist journey, I found my spiritual path, and in addition to learning circus skills, costume design, show directing, set design, dance, and event production, I also began practicing yoga, qi gong, meditation, breathwork and reading personal development books by Carlos Castaneda, don Miguel Ruiz, Tom Robbins, Eckhart Tolle, Tara Brach, Bell Hooks, to name a few.
In 2019, I felt a calling to transform my career but didn’t know why or how. I loved what I was doing, but I was feeling bored and underwhelmed. I decided to stop drinking alcohol for a year and start waking up at 5 a.m. to drink tea, write, meditate, and ask the universe what my next step was. After six months, I found my next calling. I began developing a company that focused on integrating creativity, wellness, and team building as an offering for corporate clients. Our ethos is to create a new paradigm of corporate culture that makes wellness exciting, inspires empowerment through creativity, and builds happy hives of connected teams. Umbrella Ship (Entertainment, Wellness, and Team Building) launched in June 2021, and I am wildly excited about where I am, what we have created, and the clients and community we serve.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road is rarely smooth. The smooth segments are simply there to give some loving respite from the rough ride that a life full of adventure entails. Life is a wild journey, and forging your own way in business and art is even wilder. If I titled my journey, it would be called, “The Struggle, is it real?” Yes, it’s real, but it’s also an amorphous construct of our personal history, childhood development, social circle, spiritual beliefs, and habits. Working on these aspects of your life is the real struggle: distancing yourself from friends and partners that aren’t healthy for you, forgiving your family, your ancestors, and yourself for mistakes and traumas that had been inflicted, addressing coping mechanisms and habits you have in your life that don’t uphold your ecosystem of wellness you envision for yourself, believing in yourself and stepping into areas of your life that you are feeling ineptitude and committing to transforming yourself and your environment for good. This is the most epic struggle; once you address these areas of your life, the rest becomes a series of empowering obstacles that you enjoy addressing. You see the work as a choose-your-own-adventure novel and an opportunity to learn something new. I’d say the biggest struggle in the business at this moment is knowing when to step away and rest and how to avoid getting trapped in the false narrative that business and financial success are the keys to happiness. Friends, family, and community are the true jewels of a well-lived life and key indicators of happiness.
We’ve been impressed with Umbrella Ship, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Umbrella Ship is a special event production company integrating creativity, wellness, and team building into holistic, immersive event experiences. We create corporate culture events and programs that inspire employees to deeply connect with one another, inspire creativity, provide personal development activities that guests can add to their daily routine, and make the whole experience playful and imaginative! Personal development can feel like serious business, but it doesn’t have to be. It is also playful and curious, adventurous and inspiring. I have learned a lot on my personal development journey over the past 20 years and have studied many forms of personal development practices. But one of the most impactful personal development journeys I have taken is the creative journey and, more importantly, theatrical clown studies. The clown’s ethos is to explore the world with curiosity, remain buoyant, see the world with the eyes of a child, forgive, play, search for truth, and find beauty in the world. This clown ethos has been a mainstay of my life’s work and is deeply ingrained in the Umbrella Ship business model.
You can take life and yourself seriously without being so damn serious about it. Relax, enjoy the ride, look for beauty, and enjoy the discomfort of growing pains.
Our company is unique in its approach to special events and corporate culture as it is the only company that has created a fully immersive corporate culture program that integrates wellness, entertainment, and team building. Our events are empowering, inspiring, and life-changing. They address human development by understanding that play and creativity are integral to personal joy and success.
What do you think about happiness?
Happiness comes in many forms: happiness A, B, C. Happiness A is giddiness, Happiness B is comfort, and happiness C is generosity. My happiness A comes from feeling like an excited child when I play in the ocean or dance to a banging electronic music song at a festival at 2 a.m. Happiness B is when I complete a task I’ve been working on and get to sit down and rest or take a vacation I planned for myself after reaching a goal. Happiness C is when I see the comfort/joy of a child or adult I have helped with my actions.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.umbrellaship.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umbrellaship/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/umbrella-ship/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@umbrellashipentertainmenta2128
