About Us
The beginning.
One day in 2023, we woke up. We woke up and realized how lucky we were to have each other. Best friends since 4th grade, Tracey and Colleen, didn't realize until mid-life how rare, special, and important their friendship was. Through all of life's ups and downs, we had each other. Sure, sometimes life got in the way and we grew apart, but the roots of a friendship that began at age 9 don't wither easily. As we navigated the new stage of life that included aging parents, struggling marriages, and raising children, we realized that having people who can remind you who you are at your core is the greatest gift. And once we did, we understood the value of standing in that space for other women. Everyone doesn't have a Tracey or a Colleen, but every woman deserves people in her life that can help her untangle the expectations life places on her, untwist the knots of mid-life, and help her reclaim - or embrace for the first time - the incredible woman she is.
And Untangling Me was born.
Our Story
Founders Tracey Portillo and Colleen Carpinelli are lifelong friends who turned their own professional experiences, 40+ year friendship, and passion for empowering women, into a mechanism to help women untangle their life and embrace their best selves.
Both women were raised in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia. Tracey earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond with a major in Women’s Studies. Colleen is a “Double Duke” having received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in counseling, education, and training from JMU.
Over the last 25 years, Tracey and Colleen have worked separately and together in everything from freelance sales to marketing, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership. These professional experiences as well as LIFE, oh so much LIFE…. created the foundation for Untangling Me. From freelance sales, they learned the power of community because when you are a business of one, it can get pretty lonely. Roles in marketing taught them how authentic communication attracts the right people into your life. After owning multiple businesses, they have both learned the hard way that no one wins when you burn the candle at both ends.
Each of them has been married for over 25 years and learned that there is no such thing as perfection, but instead, it’s commitment, forgiveness, and vulnerability that create strength for the ups and downs of relationships. And through the years of parenting - between their collective 7 kids ages 16-35, they both learned that it's VERY easy to make your whole world about the people you love and somehow lose touch with yourself along the way.
As they walked this path and began a new journey of self-discovery, the realization that none of us are alone was pivotal. A lifetime of lessons about the value of community, authentic relationships, self-care, vulnerability, and emotional wellness led to deep conversations with each other and many other incredible women in their lives! Musings between these friends turned into serious conversations about helping other women, and Untangling Me was born!
Get to Know Us
Colleen Magin Carpinelli
Tracey Flynn Portillo
At her core Colleen’s greatest passion is her desire to connect people and for them to feel a part of something. Growing up in an Irish/Italian family of seven, Colleen is the ultimate middle child with multiple siblings on each end. She considers herself adept at being a bridge, a listener, and a big enough mouth to hold her own! Now with her own four girls, she sees the challenges of female friendships and a woman’s place in the world in a whole new way. Untangling Me was born of that little nugget of desire to show other women how special deep connection and friendship can be and to welcome others into a community that can give it to them.
Colleen holds a Bachelor of Art from James Madison University and a Masters (also from JMU - Go Dukes!) in College Student Personnel Administration. With a counseling base, her graduate degree led her to careers in student life, administration, ministry, and organizational team building in college, high school, nonprofit, and professional settings. The thread through all of that was a commitment to help people not just be constantly striving to become their best selves, but step into and fully own the incredible human they already are.
Combined with her own love of retreats as a teen and a post-college job creating and facilitating experiences and training teams, Colleen has a myriad of experiences and education that led her to this place. But if it was just classwork and job titles that birthed Untangling Me, it would never touch people the way it has.
During a difficult season of life which included a three-year marital separation, a lot of counseling, time as a ‘single mom,’ uprooting her kids, recovery work, tons of prayer, testing of relationships, unemployment, entrepreneurship, job changes, and moving back into her parents’ home, Colleen dug deep and began a journey of growth, grace, and self-acceptance that continues to today. Combining her life experience with her work and educational experience to co-create Untangling Me feels like the soul work she’s been looking for her whole life. And having Tracey by her side - as she has through more than 40 years of life - is the best part of all of it.
Tracey has always been fascinated by the question, "Why do we do what we do?" Growing up as the middle of three children, she spent much of her life trying to understand people, relationships, and what it means to discover your own voice. From loving family members through addiction to studying Women's Studies at the University of Richmond, her path has always been shaped by a deep curiosity about people and a desire to help women recognize their own strength and purpose.
Professionally, Tracey's career has taken many unexpected turns. She has coached job candidates through career decisions as a technical recruiter, navigated entrepreneurship as a small business owner, built a successful insurance agency, and later became a health coach after transforming her own health. While the job titles changed, the mission never did. Whether helping someone choose a career, protect their family, improve their health, or navigate a major life transition, she found herself doing the same work over and over again: asking good questions, listening deeply, and helping people discover the answers already within themselves.
Life also brought seasons that stretched her in ways no career ever could. Experiencing the events of September 11th from just outside the Pentagon, losing her mother, navigating grief, and rebuilding her health after years of coping through food taught Tracey that real transformation isn't about having all the answers. It's about developing the courage to become deeply self-aware, own your story, and take the next right step..
Through more than forty years of friendship, Tracey and Colleen have watched each other grow through marriage, motherhood, entrepreneurship, loss, and personal reinvention. Their countless conversations became a place where they challenged, encouraged, and untangled life together. Creating Untangling Me was simply the natural next step—a community where women can reconnect with themselves, discover their purpose, and realize they don't have to figure it all out alone.