What do you do and why do you do it?
I am a coach for smart, driven women who want to make an impact on the world and have their evenings free. After a decade of grinding it out in high-profile, high-stress jobs, with two small kids at home, I know what it is like to juggle all the things and feel like you are failing at each one. My background in psychology and science-backed coaching methods make creating meaningful work without sacrificing your personal life and health simple and doable for even the busiest of us. I want a world where the contributions of women are everywhere and that isn't possible if we are all burning out and thinking it’s us that's broken.
Tell us about a time that life handed you lemons. Did you make lemonade?
When I was a teenager, my dad had a brain aneurysm. He survived but was left permanently disabled and I was left permanently fascinated with brains. I turned this lemon into my passion in life and went to school for psychology, eventually landing in coaching. There are many more lemons that were handed to me in the details of that story, but I love how much lemonade I have been able to make out of this one major life change. You never know when your worst day will send you off on your life's work.
What's the best piece of business advice you were given?
Brene Brown talks about keeping a list of the people who's opinions truly matter to you. That list should be VERY short. Referring to it often will remind you that entrepreneurship means going against the grain in many ways and it will bring out the opinions of others and you don't have to listen to the vast majority of them.
What does success look like, feel like, taste like, and mean to you? How do YOU measure success?
Success is getting back up and not staying on the path. It's easy to stay on the path if you aren't even moving. It's also easy to quit the path after a fall and tell yourself that it's not for you. But dusting yourself off, time after time, and believing whole-heartedly that you are the kind of person who can keep getting up and finding their way... that is success. And my favourite thing about this way of looking at success is that it allows you to feel success every step of the way, especially right after you have fallen - you know the sweet sweet taste of loving yourself more deeply is right on the other side of that tumble.
Do you have a quote or saying that inspires you? What is it?
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt. It always reminds me of why I chose to step into the arena, why I keep choosing to be here, and that falling down is a part of the process.
Do you ever have moments of self-doubt? What do you do to overcome it?
OF COURSE! I see it as a totally normal, natural function of the brain. Like feeling scared on a rollercoaster- you know you are strapped in safely, but of course your brain is going to tell you to grab on tight and scream. Seeing it this way helps to not take what the self-doubt says so seriously because the content of what it offers isn't true to begin with. It's just a response my brain serves up when I am doing something big, new, or exciting. I remind myself of what I know to be true about myself and bring my brain back to all the things I know I can control: like giving my best and loving myself regardless of the outcome.
What do you love most about yourself?
How my brain works. It has a knack for cutting right to the heart of a matter and explaining it really clearly and simply.
