I haven’t had a linear career path, but it has always had one through line.
I wanted the freedom to work for myself and build things.

I’ve spent 20+ years in operations, working directly for and with founders of small and medium-sized businesses and managing over 500 people. I have an engineering degree from Duke, an MBA from Kellogg, and have been coaching full-time since 2017.

I was the in-house coach at Studs from Seed Stage to Series B, co-founded Crabwalk to teach the core soft skills needed to navigate any work transition, and helped launch Parentaly to support expecting working parents through parental leave.

My clients are experienced entrepreneurs leading SMBs, venture-backed start-ups, and business units within large companies like Google, Uber and JLL. They’re across multiple industries including retail, law, healthcare, tech, finance, and real estate.

They care about their family, health, teams and building sound businesses, but can feel bogged down. They value a trusted thought partner to get unstuck and moving faster.

My approach combines deep empathy, an action-oriented mindset, tactical support, and a 360 view of your business, personal and family goals. I work alongside clients to help build the work and life they want faster and with more fun and peace of mind.

She’s helped me become a more effective leader, a more confident decision maker, a stronger collaborator and happier and more fulfilled person in and outside of work.

Emery
VP at First Round Capital, New York, NY

my story

It was December 2016, and I was the NYC General Manager at Managed by Q, a well-respected venture-backed startup. With a new round of funding, we were about to grow even faster and go through another re-org. I was facing an opportunity to create a totally new role that excited me. Instead, I left.

I loved my team and parts of my job, but I had felt off for months, if not years. I had spent so many years working long hours, regularly responding to calls, emails and Slacks at 11pm, living an unhealthy lifestyle, not spending enough time with family and friends, and feeling lost. I succeeded at parts of my job and failed at others. I felt depleted and now, untethered.

All I knew at the time was that I wanted something different than what I had. The idea of working for another startup had become scarier than not having a path at all.

So I left my job and spent the next 6 months soul searching. Thinking through things like: Looking back on my life at 80, what would I want to say? How did work play into that? What kind of work could give me the day-to-day life I wanted now and down the road?

Over the next year, I found my way there and am a much happier, more grounded human as a full-time coach. I have peace of mind in my career. I work for myself and can spend weeks at a time traveling or visiting family and friends when needed. Most weeks, I’m playing some form of volleyball, planning an adventure in New York or elsewhere, or learning a new skill. More importantly, my work brings me joy and lets me live the life I want everyday.

In the process, I also learned from my mistakes. I learned foundational skills in management and leadership that so many of my leaders, including myself, lacked. I helped build and facilitate a company-wide management training program on this topic at Studs. And I learned how to lead while factoring in both business objectives and individual goals and values.

And, with my background in engineering, I break things down into an easier process and help others get through the same challenges much faster.

Now, I partner with entrepreneurs when there’s a lot of complexity in work and life. I partner with them as they make decisions and run their business in a way that feels natural and grounded in them. I do this mostly through 1:1 coaching and occasionally through workshops and team facilitation.

You can learn more about me from my testimonials and LinkedIn.