About Me

Hey there! Let me introduce myself. I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and am deeply proud of my Midwestern roots and values. Like many growing up on the south side of Chicago, I had a life long dream to attend the University of Notre Dame for college. My Dad and older brother went to ND and our pride for the school ran deep. Getting into Notre Dame drove me to study harder and put in the extra effort all through high school. When I opened my acceptance letter, it was one of the happiest days of my life.

Given how excited I was to embark on my college journey, it was shocking that I experienced crippling homesickness almost from Day 1. It didn’t help that I have had anxiety since birth. I begged my parents to let me transfer to a local Chicago college but my Mom told me I had to give it until the semester break. Christmas rolled around and I was still super homesick. My Mom moved the target and said I needed to stick it out until the end of the year. Right around spring break time, everything clicked. I found my group of friends, and was finally able to enjoy college life.

I will forever be grateful to my Mom for not letting me give up on my dream even though it must have been incredibly hard to see her daughter struggle.

Ok, so now I am stable at school but in addition to having anxiety, I am also a perfectionist (now recovering) and my drive to get perfect grades picked up right where it left off in high school. I particularly despised anything that had to do with presenting in front of an audience and would spend so much time making sure I didn’t “mess up.” Don’t get me wrong….I still had plenty of fun and a highlight of my college career was studying abroad at University College Dublin. Looking back, I wish I could tell my sweet college self to chill out a bit and go have a beer.

I graduated and moved to an apartment in downtown Chicago with three dear friends from high school. We had a blast every day. I had majored in Marketing and immensely enjoyed working in the corporate world. My best friend likes to joke that I am always dressed in business casual and I will say, she is not wrong. I eventually settled into a 10-year stint at a national construction company in Business Development. My job was to help win projects in market sectors such as healthcare and higher education. Much of my role involved prepping the team (Project Executive, Project Manager, Superintendent etc.) for project interviews. Typically, we had to give a 45-60 minute structured presentation to a panel of 5-10 people. The selection committee wanted to hear from the men and women who would be building their project, not the Business Development person.

I can’t emphasize enough the technical talents that the individual team members possessed. Experts in their craft who were accustomed to confidently running large jobs sites and managing teams of people. But…ask them to present to a room full of “suits” and many would get extremely stressed out or completely shut down. I get it – I could never do what they do in the field but unfortunately, they HAD to be able to do what I do well which is: succinct communication of ideas and thoughts, in front of a panel of professionals. It was my job to coach them to success and I did a dang good job at it.

So, how did I get good at public speaking? A big old failure on a public stage. Early in my career, I had an opportunity to speak in front of a room of professionals and it was a disaster (at least in my then perfectionist little mind). You can read all about it here. I vowed to never be in that position again and it drove me to do everything I could to improve my public speaking skills. Remember that drive that helped me get into Notre Dame? The flame still burns strong. Now, public speaking is something that I genuinely enjoy and helping build confidence in others brings me immense joy. Not just helping with structured public speaking but in giving individuals tactical skills to navigate everyday communications whether it be a networking event, job interview, family reunion, birthday party, you name it.

When I would start coaching a group or individual on how to confidently communicate, I would often share my story because I know how hard this can be. And depending on the situation, improvement takes time and effort. The purpose of this blog is to share tactical advice on how to navigate professional and social situations – whether you are a Vice President or a PTA member or a teenager looking to get their first job.

So, what am I doing now? Believe it or not, I moved to Colorado 8 years ago and you would be hard pressed to get me outta here. 300 days of sunshine a year, my friends. This girlfriend loves her seasons but oh my the January – April stretch in Chicago is not for the faint of heart. I met my husband, Eric at an industry wide sales conference and we were married 18 months later. We have two daughters who are the light of my life.