Work that doesn’t (always) feel like work:

I graduated in 2009 from Sweet Briar College with a degree in Economics. I thought I was “supposed” to become an analyst and so I spent the first part of my career doing just that. I hated it. Not like “Oh, boo I have the sunday scaries”, more like panic attacks, migraines, weight gain that shocked even my physician, and serious mental health challenges. I desperately jumped from analyst position to analyst position for almost a decade, hoping this time would be different. Shock of all shocks, it never was.

I ended up taking a role at MetLife in Strategy & Planning, and that’s when things started to turn around. I still managed data, but I learned how to do strategy, planning, and program management. In my first 12 months in that role, I single-handedly saved the company over $750,000 by doing little “improvement” tasks that no one asked for.

I’d hit the proverbial jackpot professionally - I was doing work that I liked, was good at, and that people would pay me for.

It’s now 2024 and here’s what’s happened since then:

• Executive MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (2019)

• Got a double promotion (2020)

• Wrote and published my first book (2020)

• Got another promotion (2021)

• Started working with Dale Carnegie (2022)

• Got another promotion (2022)

• Gave a TEDx Talk (2023)

• Became a certified Dale Carnegie Instructor (2023)