Before I helped thousands of women
realize their dreams
I had to help myself
We find our purpose through our life stories and no lesson is ever wasted.
One of the first lessons I learned as a kid was that girls sit on the sidelines while the boys play sports. Yikes!
As a little girl, I was always watching my brother play one sport or another. It never occurred to me that I could be out there playing until one day a teacher asked me if I played basketball.
Basketball? Isn't that for boys?
It turns out it isn't! Girls CAN play basketball and some girls – like me – are very good at it! Within a short span of time. I went from sitting on the sidelines to anchoring the All-Stars.
DOING TIME AT THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there though.
While I excelled at sports, I still thought small when it came to my career. Having watched my Dad enjoy a lucrative career in sales, I was drawn to the field. But when I mentioned my interest in sales to him, he told me that sales was not for women. So I ignored my passion and became a schoolteacher, a career others deemed more 'appropriate' for a girl.
And…I was miserable!
I was Rookie Teacher of the Year and earned a Master’s degree – but I felt trapped by the lack of opportunities to advance my career (and income) in meaningful ways. The hours were long, and I was so burned out that I started to doubt I wanted to have children of my own which was a non-negotiable. I had to get out, and get out fast. I gave myself a single summer to break into sales.
CLIMBING THE WRONG LADDER
I’ve always believed that you can make a significant transformation in a 90-day period if you focus on a single goal. During the summer, I gave myself 90 days to find a job in sales.
Within 30 days, I had 12 interviews, and by August 1, I had three offers to become a recruiter.
Teaching and recruiting might seem unrelated, but at the heart, they are both about helping people grow. From the get-go, I loved that about recruiting and jumped into the business with both feet. As a new recruiter, I was also encouraged to spend an hour a day working on sales. Within three months, I signed my first account – the CDC (a girl never forgets her first). Within one year, I was outselling people who had been in the business for 30 years.
It seemed sales really did suit me! But…a little voice inside my head started to tell me I wasn’t climbing the right ladder.
Through a number of mergers and acquisitions, I went from working for a $10M business to a $1B organization. While my responsibilities and my compensation increased dramatically, I realized as the size of the company I worked for grew, I felt less and less connected and fulfilled and my values were no longer a fit for the culture.
So, I decided to create my own company with its own culture. With a few partners, we started our own recruiting firm that achieved almost $3M in sales its first two years.
BALD, BUT NOT BEATEN
Sounds amazing and too easy, right? Well, it was. Little did I know the hard times were ahead.
9-11 hit.
The economy tanked.
And, I got cancer.
Talk about a triple whammy!
I worked hard to keep the business afloat, but was the only partner contributing 97% of our revenue. The pressure was intense, and didn’t feel distributed, so I decided to walk away and start over – this time all on my own.
My husband (and everyone else) thought I was crazy. “You’re bald! You have no business starting a business right now!” they all said. But I trusted my gut, moved forward with fear as my fuel, and managed to generate $1M in business within my first year. All while undergoing eight surgeries, including a double mastectomy.
I wish I could say it was all good news from there, but there were still many lessons to be learned. I was great at sales, but not so great at leading and managing my own business. I was hyper-focused on growing the business and selling it, and I made A LOT of bad hiring decisions.
I went from making A LOT of money, to paying myself just $1k/month to get my business back on track as all my mistakes finally caught up with me. It was a scary time.
I DISCOVERED A PROVEN, ACTION-ORIENTED APPROACH WAS KEY TO OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
In the end, I spent five years struggling to figure it out, then three years killing it once I did. We won multiple awards including 3x Inc. 5000 and Best Places to Work. This success got us on the radar of a publicly traded company, and I successfully sold and exited my business.
Looking back, I discovered the secrets of my success.
And, here’s what I learned…
Every time I stumbled or felt self-doubt, the key to moving ahead relied upon these steps:
- Dive in and learn all the content I can
- Hire a coach to help me get their faster
- Surround myself with a community of like-minded people
Over the years, I’ve helped thousands of women in career transitions realize their big dreams by following this same approach. And now, I’ve built ThriveHer to help women turn their professional experience into a thriving consulting business - all with the content, coaching and community they need to thrive!
IT’S YOUR TURN! IT’S YOUR TIME!
ThriveHer isn’t just a coaching company – it’s a movement.
Right now is the greatest time in our country’s history for women to own their power and design lives that our mothers only dreamed about. But too many of us are still playing SMALL.
We’re waiting for something to happen…
- For our kids to grow up.
- For our bosses to notice us.
- For the exact right time to launch our business.
Or we’re…
- Letting other’s needs supersede our own.
- Allowing our partner’s careers to take the top priority.
- Afraid of letting our teams down.
I’m here to tell you…
It’s your turn!
It’s your time!
ThriveHer is here to help.
ARE YOU READY TO QUICKLY REPLACE YOUR INCOME WITH YOUR PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ONE CONSULTING OFFER?
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