My Story | Short Version
I’m a survivor, speaker, resilience and change coach, writer, auntie, runner, certified resilience practitioner and master certified professional life coach. I have almost 30 years in the corporate world where I helped Fortune 500 companies grow and expand their brands. I felt there was something more I could be doing with my life and decided to leave the corporate world and a secure job to start my own business.
I’m a storyteller and have been speaking professionally since I was a teenager. I’ve planned large-scale events and know how critical finding the right speaker (or talent) can make or break an event. I coach individuals and teams to push through discomfort and turn struggles into triumphs. I help people and teams see their full potential. I’m passionate about helping women live authentic and unapologetic lives.
Want to know the full story…
At the tender age of 27, I had a life-changing experience. I was in a horrific car accident that by all rights I should not have survived but I did. At that moment I learned how to start all over. Learning to breathe on my own was the first big hurdle I’d have to face. From this experience, I learned the basic principles that I’ve used throughout my life to survive failure, to face obstacles and struggles, turn negatives into positives, set goals, build strong productive teams and thrive with change. This experience is one of many in my life that has made me a survivor.
After my accident, I dived into my corporate career consistently moving up in a variety of roles at Harley-Davidson, helping to create iconic experiences and processes that helped grow the brand. It was hard work and let me tell you I’ve had my share of setbacks and screw-ups where the skills I learned from my accident helped me push through. Here are a few that come to mind and maybe you’ve experienced some of these as well:
- Having a meeting go sideways and no decisions made
- Receiving 5 figure penalties when a contract wasn’t fulfilled
- Relationships ending after years together
- Not learning to say no and overcommitting to the point that I tip over and then repeat that cycle again even after I’ve learned it (more than once)
- Taking a yoga class for the first time and not being able to do basic poses and feeling like I shouldn’t try new things because I can’t do them perfectly
- Training hard for a marathon only to have things go drastically wrong on race day
- Having my role at Harley-Davidson eliminated after 22 years with the company and losing my job
While I anticipated the lay-off as at the time I was working on several special projects and when going through yet another reorganization special projects are cut, what happened after was a surprise to me.
As I began to do my job search, I found myself feeling drained and defeated. One day, as I was out on a run, I asked a simple yet difficult question – the roles you are applying for is this what you want to do or are you doing what you should do?
As I began to search my soul, I realized the reason I was feeling drained, was because I was chasing the same thing, I had been doing prior to my job lay off. While the corporate job paid the bills, it didn’t fulfill me. I was a “survivor” but this time in a negative sense. Meaning, I had just been going through life surviving rather than living.
It was then that I realized I wanted to do something completely different. I wanted to share the story of my dying and what it taught me by creating a speaking business. I wanted to help women who, like me, spent much of their lives doing what they “should do” rather than what their heart called them to do.
That’s what I set out to do. But it took a bit longer than I thought. First, I wanted to find a full-time job to keep paying the bills because I wasn’t ready to drain my savings and needed the security of a full-time job. I found a role at BRP working in their Marine division at a lower level role than I had worked previously, purposely done, as I thought then I could work on my business on the side to get it up and running.
Well, it didn’t work out that way. I had one big setback – myself. I took on more and more responsibility (it’s something I do often as responsibility is a value, strength and obstacle for me). I couldn’t manage a team, a full workload and try to make my side hustle into a full-blown gig – it was exhausting and draining. Something had to give if I wanted to really make this dream business a reality. After 5 years at BRP, I finally decided I couldn’t do both and if I wanted to be true to me then I had to quit my job. In Feb 2022 I left the corporate world to focus 100% on my new business.
I practice what I teach. I won’t lie. This is a big change. It’s scary. I struggle. But simply put it’s worth it. I know things will work out because I’ve been through many struggles in my life and each one has left me transformed and in a better place than I was before. Already, I see and feel the difference. I believe this journey is going to be more than I could ever imagine. For the first time, I feel I am living a fully unapologetic and authentic life.
Values
These are the values that drive my business. It’s what we use to
make decisions, run the business and the culture we create.
Resilient
Flexible. Accountable. Courageous. Trying & failing. Survivor.
Transparent
Direct. Fair. Open & honest communication.
Inclusive
Welcome. You matter. Your story matters & we want to hear it.
Authentic
Unapologetic. Genuine. True even if it disappoints others.
Curiosity
Ask questions. Listen. Learn & Unlearn.
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