I was a rockstar. I was the go-to person for senior leadership, innovation, and creating new ideas. I built multi-billion dollar products and worked on the 'top' organizational products.
I woke up at 3 am, terrified of not finishing an important project and losing my job. I was being spoken over at meetings and had a toxic boss. Every day, I felt smaller and smaller.
I was raised with the belief, "You never quit a job." I suffered for over ten years in this toxic organization that had layoffs every six months, where yelling was common, and I operated in a state of fear.
I had to sneak out of the office when I had to take the kids to a doctor's appointment or even attend a soccer game. I was working Saturday, Sunday, and evenings.
I was grumpy. I was exhausted. I was walking around in a state of being numb.
My relationship with my husband became one of logistics. My relationship with my children was one of controlling things so I could get my work done.
I was never present for anyone. When I was at work, I was feeling guilty about not being a good parent. When I was with my family, I felt guilty about not being at work.
My health declined.
I outsourced what I could. But I could not outsource the stress, overwhelm, and anxiety that I was feeling every single day.
I kept getting signals that I had to stop. I could feel my body collapsing. I was exhausted. It became painful to walk and move.
So after many, many years and a difficult discussion with my mother. I started my journey of transformation. I hired a coach and went back to graduate school.
I changed jobs. I moved into leadership and rebuilt my relationships with my husband and children. I would stop working at a reasonable hour and was able to be present for my family. Phew! I had figured it out.
The years of stress, overwhelm, and nonstop work caught up with me. My body started to break down during a business trip in Dublin. I won't bore you with the details but needless to say, I knew I was very, very sick.
I ended up in a small room at Mass General Hospital with 6 - YES, 6 oncologists. The primary doctor sat beside me, held my hand, and said,
"Lynne, you are very sick.
I had the trifecta of treatment. Eight rounds of awful chemo, 29 rounds of very painful radiation, and life-impacting surgery.
I am now seven years out from surgery and wake up every morning grateful to be alive.
Life doesn't happen to you.
It happens for you.
Once I was done with treatment, I had to choose. How do I want to live? How do I want to work? What do I want my life to look like for however many years I have left? There is a saying...
What could I do with my life experiences to make the most of the rest of my life? I decided to Coach and Consult.
I choose to serve. To be the person I wish I had had 15 years ago when I was a stressed out, overwhelmed high achiever in tech, missing out on life.
I went back to school again to understand how to coach. I decided to get educated with the best of the best so I returned to one of the top universities in the country to understand the science of coaching. This was just too important, I was on a mission to save the lives of the hidden high achievers who want to lead and play big.
Now, I teach high achievers to do exactly what I did: step out of corporate, become a consultant and coach and live life on their terms. I built a multi-million dollar coaching and consulting business, and now I teach rockstars from tech to do the same.
Education
My entire advanced education has been focused on the science of work and people!
Masters of Science Degree (Northwestern University): Learning and Organizational Change
MBA (University of Maryland): Organizational Behavior
Certified Leadership Coach (Northwestern University)
Certification in Positive Psychology (University of Pennsylvania)
Experience
2nd Generation Tech Manager and Leader
15 Years as a leader bringing billion dollar products to market
Product Management, Marketing, QA, Program Management
Start-ups, mid-sized, and large organizations
Blogger and thought leader
Coached over 800 product ROCKSTARS .
A free guide to help seasoned tech leaders who are ready to drive their legacy, do their own thing leveraging all of their brilliance from their career to drive their next chapter.