Presence over perfection
Meet your coach:
How the heck does someone who started out in management information systems end up teaching leadership with watercolors?
I started college majoring in management information systems, a practical choice that looked good on paper. Quickly realizing that working in the IT field wasn't for me, I moved into nonprofit work, where I did career development for the first time, and went on to earn my MBA, which was another purely practical choice.
Around then I found the Co-Active Training Institute and decided to get my coaching certification. From there I moved into organizational development and leadership development work. I was good at those roles and kept getting promoted, but none of it ever fulfilled me or felt like a viable long-term path. The pandemic finally gave me room to admit the obvious, and I left my W-2 role to go out on my own. I've been coaching leaders since 2011, and running my own full-time practice since 2021.
My dad was a career artist, and at one point an art teacher. He worked in welded stainless steel, ceramics, painting, and more, so I grew up with access to paints. Painting was fun as a kid, but I let it go once adulting took over.
About two years ago I picked watercolor back up as a hobby. I expected a way to unwind. What I got was a mirror. Not every session went the same way, but many sessions went like this... I'd make a plan, the water would ignore it, and I'd watch myself react. Grip tighter. Rush. Start over. The same moves I'd spent years helping leaders notice in themselves, showing up in my own hands.
Around the same time, a leadership development pilot program I'd spent a year building with a colleague didn't pan out. It never launched. I tell you that on purpose: recovering from a plan that broke is the exact thing I now teach. Lead Anyway came out of reflecting on that "failure."
I started college majoring in management information systems, a practical choice that looked good on paper. Quickly realizing that working in the IT field wasn't for me, I moved into nonprofit work, where I did career development for the first time, and went on to earn my MBA, which was another purely practical choice.
Around then I found the Co-Active Training Institute and decided to get my coaching certification. From there I moved into organizational development and leadership development work. I was good at those roles and kept getting promoted, but none of it ever fulfilled me or felt like a viable long-term path. The pandemic finally gave me room to admit the obvious, and I left my W-2 role to go out on my own. I've been coaching leaders since 2011, and running my own full-time practice since 2021.
My dad was a career artist, and at one point an art teacher. He worked in welded stainless steel, ceramics, painting, and more, so I grew up with access to paints. Painting was fun as a kid, but I let it go once adulting took over.
About two years ago I picked watercolor back up as a hobby. I expected a way to unwind. What I got was a mirror. Not every session went the same way, but many sessions went like this... I'd make a plan, the water would ignore it, and I'd watch myself react. Grip tighter. Rush. Start over. The same moves I'd spent years helping leaders notice in themselves, showing up in my own hands.
Around the same time, a leadership development pilot program I'd spent a year building with a colleague didn't pan out. It never launched. I tell you that on purpose: recovering from a plan that broke is the exact thing I now teach. Lead Anyway came out of reflecting on that "failure."
Here's what I believe: presence isn't a state you achieve.
It's already operating. You're influencing the room, and yourself, whether you know it or not. My work, in coaching and in the workshop, is helping you make it conscious, because what you can see, you can choose.
How I work:
Clients tell me I make it easy to say the true thing.
I ask questions more than I give answers, I'll challenge you warmly and directly, and I won't pretend certainty exists where it doesn't. You can expect honesty, care, and zero jargon.
Outside of work, I'm road cycling somewhere around the DC area, hiking trails, going for a run, painting, or exploring my local library.
The short story:
- MBA, University of Nebraska Omaha
- ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC)
- Certified Leadership Circle Profile practitioner
- Coaching leaders since 2011, across industries including higher ed, nonprofit, financial services, and tech, from individual contributor to the C-suite
- Facilitator for CHIEF, guiding peer cohorts of SVP-level women leaders
- Associate Faculty at Fielding Graduate University, teaching coaching theory in the Evidence Based Coaching program
- Creator of Lead Anyway: A Watercolor Workshop and the Watermark Leadership™ framework
- Based in the DC area, working with clients globally
Want a bit more? Download my resume.
If any of this sounds like the conversation you've been meaning to have, let's have it.
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Notes from the studio
A newsletter about leading when you can't control the outcome. No chatter, just real connection.
