I am the youngest of seven in a blended family. From early on, I learned that to be seen, to matter, you had to outperform, outshine, and be perfect. I carried that belief into my career, into my leadership, into every room I walked into.
 

In my early twenties, a 360º workplace survey cracked something open in me. Two male peers described me as ambitious and willing to step on others to get ahead. It was not true. Yet it was confronting enough to force a deep and honest reckoning with the persona I had been presenting to the world and who I had been unconsciously emulating in order to belong.
 

That moment became the beginning of everything.
 

In 2014, my mentor suggested I pursue my MBA. I never believed I would be accepted. I was. For three years, I sat in those classes and never said a word. I was convinced I had nothing of value to add, that I did not belong there, that at any point someone would realize I had no business being in that room. I kept waiting for the feeling to pass once I graduated.

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It did not.

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The same pattern followed me into my coaching studies. These were virtual classes, and on the days I was called upon, I was so triggered, so overwhelmed, that I would genuinely sign off entirely. I would remove myself from the room rather than be seen. It was expensive. I was wasting it. Worse, I genuinely expected myself to already know the things I was there to learn.
 

Then one day, sitting with my own coach, she asked me a single question: how would your mother react in the same situation?

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It hit me like a freight train.
 

I had been carrying my mother's patterns as though they were written into my own DNA. The moment I saw them clearly, something extraordinary happened. I did not need months of processing. I did not need to work through it slowly. The instant I recognized that those patterns were never mine to begin with, I could put them down. That same evening, I raised my hand in class. I never suffered from that pattern again. 
 

That instantaneous shift was a gift, and I hold it with humility because this work is not always like that. Depth work asks something courageous of you. It asks you to turn towards the parts of yourself you have spent years avoiding, to question beliefs you never even knew you had inherited, to sit with the shadow and see yourself fully, all of yourself, without flinching. It is brave, tender, and at times uncomfortable work. Yet it is the only work I have ever found that creates change that is truly lasting.
 

For so long, I measured my worth through external validation. Imposter syndrome was not just an occasional visitor, it was a quiet constant, whispering that I did not quite belong no matter how much I achieved. When I fell short of the impossible standards I had set for myself, I held myself in deep self judgement, at times bordering on loathing, and punished myself through patterns that were anything but kind and definitely not rooted in any self love. The most profound shift in my own journey has not been the credentials or the accolades. It has been learning to insource my validation rather than endlessly outsource it.

After twenty years of growth work, of showing up for this journey with everything I have, I can see my own beauty now. I have found peace with who I am.
 

That matters more than I can express. Not out of vanity, but because you can only see the beauty in others to the degree to which you can see your own. To truly see someone, beyond their performance, beyond their title, beyond every expectation society has layered onto them, you first have to have done that work within yourself.
 

In a leadership space, that capacity is everything. It is the difference between a leader who manages people and a leader who truly sees them, who can recognise their capabilities beyond the surface, challenge them to grow into what they have always been capable of, and hold the kind of space that makes real connection possible.

For me, that starts with showing up authentically, which sometimes means letting my vulnerability be visible and holding myself accountable when I get it wrong. When you show up as yourself, you give your team permission to do the same. The less we are in misalignment with who we truly are, the more consistently and fully we are able to show up. Your team can feel that. They relate to it. They rise because of it. Authenticity in leadership does not just change you. It changes everything around you.
 

For over twenty years I have led and operated in the automotive industry, one of the most male dominated spaces there is. Today I lead a business of my own within it. I understand the challenges of being a female leader in a world that was not built for her, because I am one. Through all of it, I have learned to lead strongly and unapologetically from my feminine and own what that means I bring. I would love to help more women feel the same way.
 

My journey is not over. That is part of the work.
 

Freedom, authenticity, growth, love, and service are not just values I coach from. They are the values I have lived my way into.
 

Today, as a Certified Master Jungian Depth Coach and ICM Trauma Informed Coaching student, I am honoured to help and walk alongside female executives and leaders because leaders carry extraordinary influence. When a woman heals and steps into her wholeness, the ripple extends far beyond her. It touches her team, her industry, and society at large. This work is not just personal. It is profoundly collective.
 

This is why I do this work. Not from a place of having arrived, but from a genuine desire to be of service and the deep knowing of what becomes possible when a woman finally stops fighting herself and comes home to who she is.