About
Beginnings……many of them early on
I grew up on the West Coast of the United States, in California and Arizona, and as the oldest child, I was always naturally curious. I cultivated a love of reading and learning early with my favorite characters inspiring me, such as; Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, and Nancy Drew. I think I was prepared for adventure early in life-ha ha!
My Dad’s career in sales meant that my family moved… a lot! Starting anew in schools and cities was a regular occurrence for me and certainly cultivated my sense of adventure and joy of exploring new opportunities. Furthermore, I love to connect with different people and to this day easily make new friends. In spite of all the moving around, I was a good student and I really enjoyed the team dynamic and competition that I found playing soccer, softball, and tennis.
I had many family role models showcasing the rewards of focus, discipline, and working hard as a strategy of “Doing” that became the standard I strove toward.
My Life as a Human-Doing
Early Adventures of “DOING”
After graduating from high school, I participated in a one-month foreign exchange program in France. I was so excited to stay with a family who had a daughter my age!
The Plan: Stay with a family that spoke Spanish, French, and English so my two years of Spanish could be a foundation for communication and deeper language learning.
The Reality: The family did indeed have a daughter my age. They did not speak Spanish. For that matter, the strongest English speaker was Florence, the daughter, who had taken one semester of English. This was before cell phones! I still remember my one and only phone call home to my parents who offered this sage advice, “Make the best of it, and have fun!” Going with the flow served me well then and is still my life’s motto. It was also a big reason that my France adventure was a blast, filled with laughter, creative communication, fantastic food, and maybe most significantly, filled with spectacular spontaneous experiences enjoyed as a result of willingly stretching outside my comfort zone. It was a preview of many experiences in my life that were forthcoming.
Never Say Never - More “DOING”
I attended Arizona State University (ASU), my home-town University, for both my degrees: BS-Business Finance & MBA-International business. As a driven student, I loved learning and became fascinated with international business. Along the way, I did a summer internship at HP in Northern California, gratefully escaping the sizzling hot AZ summer.
This HP experience shattered my perception of large global corporations as greedy, stuffy, slow, and bureaucratic entities. HP was clearly not that! It was a collection of dynamic, entrepreneurial, and largely autonomous business units filled with bright, ambitious, and even a bit wacky employees. I fit right in!
Alas, Not everything is as it appears. Yes, at HP I had a blast gaining a strong, diverse, cross-functional business leadership foundation, And yes, at HP my focus was Doing as much as I could Do, unaware of the damage I was doing.
My final MBA semester was at the Oslo Business School in Norway. I loved connecting with students from 20 different countries. After obtaining my MBA I stayed in Europe to DO more stuff! My various travels and jobs provided me with a rich multicultural education that added fuel to my desire to DO and experience as much of the world as possible.
All told, my HP career continued over a 25-year journey filled with adventure and lessons as I took on regional and global roles. I learned the foundations of leadership across finance, marketing, sales, operations, supply chain, and Mergers & Acquisitions.
This path reflected a theme in my life: “Never say Never,” as I am known to identify possibilities no matter what challenges I face. I have taken jobs I never imagined that I would/could do and thoroughly enjoyed, achieved, contributed to, and learned richly from. The “I think I can” positive growth mindset was one that I grew up seeing, believing, and adopting. It has served me well. Saying “yes” to possibilities has catalyzed a career filled with wacky & diverse job opportunities. Rallying around a new challenge, connecting, inspiring, and teaming with great people to achieve amazing outcomes was a pattern throughout my career!
During this period I DID a couple of other things: I married my 1st love, had three amazing daughters, traveled extensively, and engaged in many fun adventures! As Jeffree Star said, “When you have no fear, the possibilities are endless.” I was fearless.
Shifting from Doing to Being
As I closed the HP career chapter, I faced a defining moment in my life. I had DONE everything on my career “to DO” list. Still, something was missing As if there was a calling that I needed to heed. I had an empty canvas awaiting me to design it. I started knocking off some experiences from my “bucket list”, the 1st was traveling with my parents to England to visit my oldest daughter, McKenna, while she was attending 10th grade at St. Felix boarding school in Southwold. I felt blessed to have this family time and the space it created to start “BEing.” This space allowed for spontaneity, dreaming, and a focus on cultivating my passion and purpose for what was next. Fifteen years living in Central America has had a lasting impact. “Pura Vida” (aka, living the “Good life”), the national Costa Rican motto, has rubbed off on me as I enjoy life more, have a more fluid sense of time, build in space in my schedule along with more play! I no longer measure success by the mere accomplishments that I generate, rather my scorecard has changed, and the impact I can make with clients, friends, family, and in my communities inspiring, helping get unstuck, and generating ‘aha’ moments are my new measure of fulfillment. This new blood runs fluidly through my veins. Reflecting on my career change and the courage to follow my purpose and passion was the start of my transition from valuing only “Doing” to equally valuing “Being & Doing,” which cultivated more joy and fulfillment in my life. This profound journey, which I am still navigating, has allowed me to cultivate many gifts and talents that I am now sharing through my coaching with entrepreneurially-minded leaders across the globe.
Being
All these changes, including some unexpected endings in my life, led to inspiring new beginnings that have helped me become who I am today. I am a single mother of three amazing daughters, running my own company on my terms, as a digital nomad, based in Costa Rica, one of the most beautiful places in the world and having the flexibility to work anywhere I choose.
I coach Entrepreneurial-minded leaders to grow and develop their leadership skills to do good business and contribute positively to the world. I am blessed! My passion for creating an impact in the world through my coaching business and volunteering efforts runs deep. I am grateful to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and live the life that I love.
My business continues to evolve and grow, catalyzing a positive impact in the world while fueling my own lifelong learning & discovery journey. I’m a member of several Coach communities who continually inspire me, teach me, and catalyze opportunities to have fun together. And it is an honor to share this growth journey with my clients. Together, we all learn vigorously, discover ‘aha’s’, and capitalize upon life’s rich opportunities!
My clients are inspired to embark upon their authentic leadership journeys to be and do their best. I am excited about what the future holds! And I have learned that Scaling Joy is one of my most valued rewards of this ongoing journey. Bring on more of the inspirational BEING coupled with DOING, and toss in a dose of great adventure to lead to more Joy!
Let’s Connect
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