Some people find their calling in a single moment. Mine unfolded over thirty years — across boardrooms, borders, and industries — until I understood that negotiation and personal transformation are not two different things. They are the same discipline applied to different arenas.
My career began in Pricing and Contracts, working programs for the US Government and Space industry. It was precise, demanding work — and it lit something in me. When I was assigned to international contracts and negotiations in the aerospace industry, I found what I had been looking for without knowing I was looking for it. Every engagement required me to think beyond the familiar, to embrace cultures different from my own, to protect the interests of the organization I represented while genuinely understanding the people across the table.
I took a chapter away from aerospace to serve as Director of Sales in the hospitality industry, where I deepened my understanding of people, collaboration, and what it truly means to build something together. Then the pull of international work brought me back. For thirty years total, I worked as an international negotiator and US Defense contracts professional — navigating complexity, building agreements across cultural and organizational boundaries.
Somewhere in those thirty years, I noticed something. The professionals who struggled most — in negotiations, in their careers, in their lives — were not struggling because they lacked skill. They were struggling because they had underestimated themselves. I began mentoring colleagues who wanted to grow, and I discovered that helping someone change how they see their own worth was among the most meaningful work I had ever done.
That discovery led me to the Brave Thinking Institute, where I became a Certified Life Mastery Consultant. It confirmed what my career had already taught me: that we are each capable of far more than we allow ourselves to believe. That our purpose is not something we stumble into — it is something we build, decision by decision, negotiation by negotiation, day by day.