I’ve always been a bit of an odd duck.
You know the type; the kind of person who is comfortable being well, uncomfortable, and who never quite seemed to fit in with the crowd.
At times I’ve been a loner or a drifter. Other times the life of the party. Mostly, I’m curious and full of passion which means I can change directions with barely a moments notice. And, I love the thrill of a challenge.
As a kid, my uniqueness caused me great struggle. As an adolescent, I wanted nothing more than to feel special and that meant I needed a place to belong.
This led me to a seemingly endless quest built around the most fundamental questions:
– Who am I?
– What do I want?
– How can I be the most successful?
Through all of this searching, I’ve taken a wild ride through life.
In no particular order, I’ve been a bartender, a beer tub girl, a VIP casino host, a financial analyst, a marketing director, and an enterprise-level sales executive. Most recently, I was a Deal Maker, for one of the largest IT Services companies in the world.
I’ve sold and managed $100 Million+ deals at companies like – Nike, MGM Resorts, Scotts Miracle-Gro and many more.
Long before I found enterprise-level sales, I got exposure to a more scandalous realm of customer relationships.
What IF I TOLD YOU THAT EVERYTHING I’VE LEARNED ABOUT BUSINESS STARTED OVER A LAP DANCE?
It was my junior year at NC State University. I was a zoology major on a fast track to veterinary school.
My parents were living on long island, NY when they decided to retire to follow their dream – traveling the country in an RV. And then, my worst nightmare came true. I lost my academic scholarship. I had never been so ashamed. I was on the brink of being kicked out of college and my apartment the night my zoology professor took me to amateur night at the local topless bar.
In a smoke-filled club with music blaring through speakers buzzing from overuse, it felt like another world – a party with access to more cash than I had ever imagined. Pretty soon I wanted to be a star.
I hit the road to travel the circuit and grew a fan club through radio interviews. I leveraged promotional items as a revenue stream and built a quarter-a-million-dollar-a-year business as an Adult Feature Entertainer. I was barely nineteen.
My journey from Adult Entertainer to Corporate Deal Maker didn’t happen overnight.
That career progression happened over the course of a twenty-year time span that included many industries and a series of lay-offs. By the time I returned to college and graduated, the recession had hit. Hard.
Between 2008 and 2011, I was laid off not once, or twice, but four times.
At the core of every job I have ever had my success (or failure) and ultimately my income has inextricably been linked to my ability to attract, cultivate, and grow client relationships. Equally, I credit my success in navigating each and every job loss with the very same relationship building skills.
While the corporate world was very good to me, after 20+ years in suits, I found myself outgrowing big business bureaucracy. I became more drawn to the fulfillment of working with individual people in my community.
It started small. Entrepreneurs would ask me for help making more money, or executive friends would ask me to speak to their team about leadership, or sales, or creating success your own terms.
Today, I’m a Certified Professional Coach & Harvard trained Leadership Facilitator
I work with burnt-out executives and entrepreneurs to find their fire, so that they can have it all. I also work with organizations who want to light up their leaders.
When not speaking and coaching, you can find me training for a triathlon, engaged in a DIY home project, or spending time in my backyard with her wife and three Labradors – Kona, Kaimana, and Sir Winston.
