My Journey to Coaching

I'm Lynne.

My mission is to help hidden, undervalued high achievers level up, reduce burnout, & love their jobs again! You want to have an impact. You want to be valued and respected.

This is personal. I almost lost my life from the stress of moving into leadership.

Why do I coach?

I am the coach I wish I had 15 years ago. Being a stressed-out, burned-out high achiever almost cost me my life, the relationships with my children, over 15,000 hours of family time lost, 60+ vacations spent working, and hundreds of holidays stressed about work.

Let me introduce you to the Lynne of 15 years ago!

I was a badass. 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.

But I was miserable.

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 it 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.

When the kids were talking about their amazing days at school at dinner, I would sit there almost frozen, unresponsive, thinking about work.

It impacted every single one of the most important people in my life.

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.

My blood pressure was so high I was put on medication.

I was eating terrible food and feeding my family just awful food. I didn't have the energy to cook something healthy.

I outsourced what I could. But I could not outsource the stress, overwhelm, and anxiety that I was feeling every single day.

In my heart, I knew something had to change

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. The first thing I did was to understand why the heck work was causing so much stress. My journey took me back to graduate school to understand how to navigate these toxic environments. I became passionate about the intersection of tech and organizational culture.

But that was just half of the solution. I had to heal my inner self and the struggles of perfectionism, being a workaholic, and self-criticism.

I gradually started to reclaim both my career and my job.

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.

I was thriving inside and outside of work...

There is more to my story.

But this is not the end of my story...

I was diagnosed with cancer

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. You have stage 3 colon cancer."

I had the trifecta of treatment. Eight rounds of awful chemo, 29 rounds of very painful radiation, and life-impacting surgery.

I am now five years out from surgery and wake up every morning grateful to be alive.

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...

Life doesn't happen to you.

It happens for you.

What could I do with my life experiences to make the most of the rest of my life?

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.

Some fun facts about me...

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 in Tech

2nd Generation Product Manager and Leader
15 Years as a Product Leader in B2B, bringing billion dollar products to market
Product Management, Product Marketing, QA, Program Management
Start-ups, mid-sized, and large organizations
Blogger and thought leader
Coached over 650 product ROCKSTARS to leadership positions.

Check Out My LinkedIn Profile

THOUSANDS OF PRODUCT MANAGERS AND TECH LEADERS TRUST LYNNE

Watch Success Stories

I do not coach people who will settle for any ‘ol job. I do not coach people who want to become a leader and executive because they 'deserve it.'

I coach high achievers who are hidden and feel undervalued...

I coach introverts.....

who want to step into leadership and strategy without burning out, stressing out, and missing out on life.

Many get new jobs. But landing an amazing job is just a piece of my client's journey.

My clients get massive results.

They become Directors, VPs, CPOs, and even CEOs. They lead with humanity. They live and work on their terms. Their families get their Mom / Dad / Wife / Husband back. They come home at night and relax. They can think about their future with clarity and excitement. They reclaim their JOY.

My clients are world-changers who have extraordinary lives outside of work.

I coach with heart. The stakes are too high. As we all know, the work environment can be chaotic and sometimes toxic. my clients thrive in spite of the chaos, love their jobs, and have a fantastic life outside of work.

My name is Lynne. I am a former product leader, wife, mother, daughter, sister, cancer survivor, former perfectionist, toxic-leader survivor, and coach.

I am on a mission to help hidden, quiet, undervalued high achievers.... Lead and THRIVE inside and outside work.

Let's stay connected, shall we?

I promise you, this is worth it! Join my mailing list to receive updates and of course, learn more from me!

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