So what led me here?

Well, I started out as a Mining Engineer.

That's right, a mining engineer. No, not like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Like with the big yellow trucks full of rocks. In fact, here's a picture of me with one. For ten years, mining was my awesome day job.

I worked every day in the proverbial trenches of a male-dominated workplace. I've been where you are, and I know that some days it ain't pretty. I've been labelled bossy, and pushy, and too soft, and too confident, and not confident enough, sometimes all in the same day. I get asked why I'm all dressed up every time I do something different with my hair or gasp! wear mascara. I get mansplained to. I have terrible ideas until they're repeated by a male colleague. I'm assumed to be the default note taker at meetings. I get told my standards are too high and that I'm a perfectionist. What. A. Party.

Here's the thing, though: Even though it sucks sometimes, I love to work. I want to get up every morning and go kill it at my job. kicking ass and taking names is just in my DNA. Either that or I was grossly mislead by that 23andMe test. Working is an amazing part of my life. I mean, when your job is to literally move mountains for a living, it's hard not to be excited about it.

But that doesn't mean I want it to be harder than it should be.

I want it to be as easy as pie! Easier than pie, even! Have you made pie lately? It's no cakewalk. Mixed dessert metaphors aside, I want to be able to focus on the actual challenges at my work, rather than the challenges other people have with me as a working professional. And that's what I want for you too.

So I decided to become part of the solution.

(The way I see it, I actually couldn't not become part of the solution.)

 
I'm so grateful to all of the women who came before me and made it possible for me to have an amazing career in an industry I loved. I know that even two generations ago, a woman working in a mine would have been nearly unthinkable. So many feminists worked hard for years changing legislation, doing the work they loved when they were the only woman in the room (or heck, in the profession) and blazing a trail for you and me to work in some really cool jobs. And I also know that I left that career that I loved so much, which was truly heartbreaking at times.

As much as I loved the work, I didn't love always being the square peg in the round hole and having to fight in small and large ways for respect and credibility at work. I didn't love trying every single door labeled "Success" and finding them locked with a mystery passcode I never got the memo about. I didn't love being told that I had a bright future because my industry had a shortage of leaders and people who love the people side of the business....and then getting held to higher standards and passed over for promotions. And then being called a bitch (to my face) literally every time I did get leadership roles. I'm pretty tough, but damn, all of it hurt.

I don't want this to keep happening to bright, ambitious, driven women.

I don't want my future daughter to feel that same unrequited love that I felt in my career. I owe it to myself, to the women who came before me, and the women who come after to fight to change the fact that 60% of women in STEM eventually leave the careers they worked so hard for.

I work to make that change happen through coaching, consulting, speaking, and my meetup group, Women in Male-Dominated Industries (WIMDI). My diversity consulting and speaking works to change all the external stuff that gets in the way of women having fantastic careers -- the workplace practices, policies, and biases. My coaching is for all the internal stuff -- the places where you get in your own way.

My goal as a leadership coach is to help you figure out what's standing in your way at work, and help you discover the best way to get around it. Sometimes that'll mean doing some tough work on how you're showing up in the world. Sometimes it'll be a huge weight lifted as you learn that the other side of the choice to work on ourselves is the side that says, hey, this actually isn't something I can or even want to change. It's just about them. So I'm not working on it.

What I want for my clients is a working world that's a lot easier and full of success.

I want work that doesn't feel like getting your heart broken. I want less time spent at midnight googling how to know when to quit my job, negotiation tips for women, and how to stop the referendum on my personality at work. I especially want less time reading what Google's algorithm sends you and realizing it doesn't even scratch the surface of what you're looking for. I want more time spent working on things that will get you where you want to go at work.

If you want all that for yourself, connect with me and let's get to work on it. Write me an email about what's going on with you, or go ahead and book a free call with me. I'd love to hear from you!