On Sunday evening at The Crow in Santa Monica, a room known for holding intimate truths will become the starting point of something larger - not a performance in the conventional sense, but a public act of becoming and a platform for others to share their journeys of living a life of service.
Live to Serve: Building the Life You Were Meant to Lead is a three-part spoken word and musical series unfolding March 1, May 3, and June 10, designed as a living preparation for a TEDx Transformation Talk this summer at UCLA on July 26. This is not about rehearsing a speech, but rehearsing a way of being.
At its core, Live to Serve explores the power of pivots, the moments when life redirects us back to our truest alignment, often through discomfort, loss, or awakening. It asks a question many quietly carry, "Why does it so often take trauma or tragedy to return us to what we were always meant to do."
The opening evening will blend spoken word, storytelling, and a return to the piano, marking a full circle moment. Before her work in civic leadership, insurance resilience, real estate and development, and community rebuilding, Michelle Edgar’s earliest training was as a concert pianist. Music was her first discipline, her first language of devotion, long before leadership took shape in boardrooms or public service.
That return to the piano is not symbolic, but structural. The series traces how creativity resurfaces when alignment is restored, and how service becomes the throughline across different chapters of life. From global entertainment and sports, to wildfire recovery and rebuilding Los Angeles’ burn areas, to pivoting in insurance and serving homeowners across burn areas, to writing on real estate, development, and community resilience, Edgar’s work has increasingly converged around a single philosophy: Live to Serve.
The evening will open with remarks from award winning songwriter, author, philanthropist, and longtime Palisadian Jimmy Dunne, who will speak on service, community, and what it means to belong to a place through contribution.
“The Palisades is the Palisades because of the people in its family,” Dunne has said. “It’s extraordinary, caring, passionate, creative, genuine. That is also a description of Michelle. She makes a meaningful difference in everything she touches.”
The series is hosted at The Crow, whose mission centers on using storytelling as a force for good. For CEO and owner Nicole Blaine, the alignment was immediate.
“Having the opportunity to work with Michelle on her story has been a gift,” Blaine shared. “Her ability to turn tragedy into triumph is inspiring and in full alignment with The Crow’s mission, to serve others through vulnerable storytelling and bring our Santa Monica community together.”
What distinguishes Live to Serve is its transparency. The process is not hidden, but for people to learn and implement in their lives. Over the coming months, audiences are invited into the inner work behind transformation; the discipline, the rewiring, the quiet daily practices required to stand on a global stage with integrity and truth. What is being built publicly mirrors what is being built privately, alignment between who we are, what we say, and how we lead. Rather than framing transformation as something that happens after success, the series reframes it as the prerequisite.
“Michelle Edgar embodies the very essence of transformation,” said Aasia Stormm, Founder of TEDx Larchmont Village and PhD candidate. “Her work is not simply about rebuilding after disruption. It is about awakening, re aligning, and choosing purpose before life forces the lesson.”
Stormm, who curates The Transformation Talks, sees the series as part of a larger cultural moment.
“Transformation is not born from tragedy alone,” she added. “It is born from the courage to listen when life begins to redirect.”
That ethos carries into the culminating TEDx Larchmont Village event on July 26 at UCLA’s Lani Hall at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The Transformation Talks bring together visionary thinkers, creators, and changemakers exploring the turning points that redefine individuals, communities, and the collective human story. The event will be livestreamed, with accompanying social gatherings.
Edgar’s professional work mirrors the themes she explores on stage. A Los Angeles based civic leader, culture architect, and strategic operator, she works at the intersection of public service, business, and community transformation. As Strategy Lead at Venbrook Insurance Services, she focuses on wildfire recovery, resilience financing, and builder’s risk programs tied to the rebuilding of Los Angeles and upcoming global events including LA28. She is the Founder and CEO of Edgar Talent Agency and Community Collective, platforms designed to connect capital, culture, and civic action across industries.
She also serves as a Santa Monica Arts Commissioner and a California state board appointee, with ongoing work expanding workforce access, public trust, and community engagement. In parallel, she writes for two newspapers covering real estate, development, hospitality, and the burn areas reshaping Southern California, while planning the next Community Collective convening in April tied to Route 66, where she serves as Vice Chair for Santa Monica Travel and Tourism’s Route 66 initiatives.
Yet Live to Serve steps away from titles and toward essence.
The series suggests that everyone has a calling, and that alignment is less about ambition than attention. It challenges the assumption that suffering must precede purpose, while acknowledging that awakening often arrives uninvited. Above all, it offers a reminder that service is not self erasure, but self realization.
The room will not be asked to witness a finished story, but invited into the middle of one: a return, recalibration, and shared recognition that transformation is not a destination, but a daily practice.
The first installment of Live to Serve opens Sunday evening at The Crow in Santa Monica. The three part series continues May 3 and June 10, leading into TEDx Larchmont Village’s Transformation Talks on July 26 at UCLA.
FOR TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-to-serve-building-the-life-you-were-meant-to-lead-with-michelle-edgar-tickets-1982322493942
https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/65572
SUBSTACK: https://michelleedgar.substack.com/