This is my story. As an accomplished woman in midlife, you might hear its echo in yours…

I was a champion people-pleaser. I learned to be a chameleon from an early age, to be what others needed me to be to make them happy. This served me well. I became a wife, a mother, and a terrific success in my career as a business woman.

But as I got older, a voice started pushing back when I would do things that were incongruent with my own wants and needs. It got louder till it became difficult to ignore. When I finally began to get quiet and ask myself what *I* want, I realized, “I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that question.”

My life began to shift in the inquiry. I began to trust myself and built an inner strength I hadn’t had. I began to interview women, in search of answers, and discovered two things: the older I got the more powerful I felt, and I wasn’t alone.

We come into the world as sacred beings. As we go through life, we let upbringing, cultural values, family, responsibility, career…divide us from it until we hit a point when we remember that sacredness is our birthright. It’s time to come back around, to remember our innate creativity, our purpose, and the desires we left behind.

My work is to help you to see that you can come back around. You don’t have to feel like you are trapped by the desperate grip with which you hold everything together –career, relationship, spirituality, family, community. The alternative is gradual. It’s whole. It’s inner health. I call its accumulation the “Wealth of the Self.” It is your sacred capital, and it is always there for you.

Mentor

After 20 successful years in the corporate and non-profit world, I experienced my own turning point. Today I mentor women through their unique turning points and help them cultivate extraordinary lives of passion and purpose in midlife and beyond.

Leader

I spent those 20 years working as a leader in fundraising, sales, marketing, management, and operations. Over time I came to realize that I was naturally coaching the people around me, and achieved coaching certifications in order to do the work I feel most called to do.

Coach

I’m an independent Certified Coach, Trainer & Speaker with the John Maxwell Team; a Certified Retirement Coach through Retirement Options, Inc., the leader in retirement coach training, and a Certified ReCareer Coach, an assessment driven coaching system that is the first of its kind to address the new population of career changers and career extenders created by the new economy.

Authority

Author of more than two dozen books and audio programs including the book From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Seven Women Executives Share Their Turning Points, I am currently writing a book on career women navigating through midlife.

I’ve provided expert commentary to ForbesWoman, 85 Broads, WE Magazine for Women, Expert Insights, and publications that focus on business women. I have been named “1 of 101 Women Bloggers to Watch in 2011” by WE Magazine for Women, a “Fabulous 50 Top Blogger” by Boomer Diva Nation, and winner of “Best Coaching Blogs 2011” by School of Coaching Mastery.

Outdoorswoman + Grandmother

And just in case you might be wondering who I am when I take off my business “hat”: I’ve had a life-long love affair with the great outdoors. I hike, mountain bike, and at one time dabbled in mountain climbing (meaning that I climbed Africa’s 19,341 foot-high Mt. Kilimanjaro when I turned 41). Traveling is my greatest passion next to spending time with my three grandchildren, and I enjoy reading, gardening, online Solitaire, Chai Tea Lattes, and anything with Chris Noth in it (aka “Mr. Big” on Sex and the City).

A reminder for late bloomers…

Grandma Moses began painting in her late 70s.

Laura Ingalls Wilder published the first of eight volumes of the Little House series at 65. Marjory Stoneman Douglas began her environmental crusade for the protection of the Everglades at the age of 79.

At 39 I received my B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State University, where I graduated in the top 1% of my class (something I’m especially proud of because I did this while working full time and raising my two children).

As George Eliot said: “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

If you’re a high-achieving, creative career woman intent on making this next stage of your life uniquely your own, Click HERE and let’s explore the possibilities together! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Named 1 of 101 Women Bloggers to Watch in 2011 by WE Magazine for Women:

Credentials and Affiliations:

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