Describe your career, your platform, or what makes you you?
I work in a rapidly changing environment looking for B2B strategic opportunities for win-win revenue growth. Outside the box, thinking to find revenue streams where there was none before.
Do you have any habits or disciplines that you’ve developed that helps keep you motivated?
I force accountability by scheduling meetings before I have the plan or content. This ensures I get to the next step without allowing myself to put it off due to a busy calendar.
I also network. I find that every business or social network opportunity I participate in opens up a new path to a previously unknown place. The more you do, the richer your life becomes.
What are you most proud of in your personal life and in your career?
I am proud of my 3 children. They recognized their role in keeping the plates spinning and staying out of trouble as I worked hard post-divorce to re-prove my value and build up my income after sidelining my career while raising them. My trust in them allowed me to do bigger and better things so I credit them for a large part of my success.
I am proud of my early career in NYC and London that gave me rapid professional growth at a young age. I think that helped bring me the confidence I needed to pick myself back up after a personal tumble.
We know from data that no one advances completely on their own. Relationships are often the difference between getting noticed and promoted and getting stuck. How do you identify key individuals with whom you need to build strategic relationships?
I think having a mentor both inside and outside of the company you work for is important. An inside mentor outside of your direct department can help you navigate challenges with a different perspective on familiar topics. An outside mentor can help you with a less biased perspective, much like a counselor who takes your own words and helps you think in new ways or suggest a different approach.
Internal partnerships within your organization should be a priority. We cannot operate in a vacuum and you will find greater success when your internal partners feel the mutual desire to help you achieve your goals as you do theirs.
What advice (2-3 things) would you share with others who have similar goals or is on a similar path as you?
Let yourself be humbled, then pick yourself up again but not without understanding what went wrong and how you’ll prevent it from happening again.
On that same note, recognize that problems are just an opportunity to get to the better version of ourselves. Seek advice from those on the ground floor, they probably know more than you about how to solve it and may just need your leadership to ask the right questions. Let them own the solution. By lifting others up, you are preventing that horrible feeling of being small. We’ve all been there at some point.
Do you have a favorite inspirational/motivational quote that you’d like to share?
“Failure is not an option”. I don’t know where this quote came from, but it is the way I was raised. My parents never entertained feeling sorry for me. They expected me to pick myself up, carry on and not entertain a pity party. As an adult, I do allow myself a pity party every now and then but it is very short-lived. If I don’t allow myself to feel the low, I can’t get to the place when I say “Enough – you are stronger than this”.
After a tumble, I pick myself up, dust myself off, re-trace my steps. I decide what to forgive myself for, what I need to adjust, and who I should or should not listen to to make myself a better version and carry upwards and on.
When you’re not in “work mode”, attending calls/meetings, what would we find you doing?
Jumping on a plane to literally anywhere. I would like to someday return to the international workplace as I have always easily combined the two finding some adventure in between work duties anywhere I go.
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