“i believe that taking your business or career beyond any limits, and building it into what you only dare to dream about, means you must:
understand the unwritten rules of the game,
abandon the coziness of your comfort zone,
and
genuinely believe in yourself and your ability to succeed.”

 

 

I did some interesting things early in my career.  I held key positions at a global advertising agency, McCann-Erickson, and top ten public relations firm, Porter Novelli.  I founded and grew a thriving market research firm.  In all of these posts, my clients were corporate giants with names like McDonald’s, Hilton, MCI and Nissan. 

There is no question that I learned an enormous amount from those experiences.  But it wasn’t until I took a break from the workforce--to become a stay-at-home-mom--that I witnessed something that began to put everything that had come before, into perspective. 

One afternoon, my nine-month-old daughter, Isabel, and her friend, George, were playing with a little plastic telephone.  Isabel carefully pressed the buttons and smiled when the toy spoke to her and made music. Then it was George’s turn.  He picked up the phone and, mustering all his nine-month-old might, smashed it against the floor. That made him grin from ear to ear. Suddenly, everything I knew about the business world and the way men and women approached it, started to make more sense.

When I re-entered the workforce, my focus had shifted, and I was more interested in finding solutions for individuals than organizations. Starting a consulting and training company with a partner, I worked largely with men and women who wanted to start or grow their own businesses, corporate ladder-climbers and career changers. It was then that I began what has become many years of working closely with entrepreneurs in business incubators, teaching in the Department of Business and Management at UCLA Extension and coaching students in the UCLA Anderson Executive Program.  It was during this time that I began to uncover and distill the unwritten rules that govern the business world and the impact that they have upon women and their ambitions.  Having found my true passion, I began to create and hone the methods, tools and curricula that would give women the skills, confidence and movement to action that would allow them to successfully pursue their professional dreams.

 

In launching thinkBIG, it is my hope to make what I and others have learned accessible to a wide audience--to equip, inspire and empower as many women as possible to pursue their professional destiny fearlessly (or, at least, come pretty darn close.)