As a mother of four children under the age of 16, there was a turning point in my life where I realized I was fighting between the choice of being a mother or living my life. I ran all of the time before I had children. It is a fabulous way to clear one's mind. I stopped after I had children because I insisted it should be only my time. The thing about having kids is that now you're a role model; there is no such thing as me time. Once I accepted this and started running with the children, it became our weekend pastime. We even started an annual holiday tradition of running a 5K together as a family. Leaning in on my children and bringing them along propelled my passion for running, modeled healthy behavior and introduced me to the Healthy Kids Run Series. A group of other parents who also wanted to get their children into running.

It was during a trip to Sicily that I realized I wanted to be in the Hospitality and Wine industry, but it was only until Covid happened that I realized I could do even more, and needed to create a path to develop myself and grow my passion and expertise into a career. In that moment I let go of my "Mom's guilt" and started pursuing real objectives and setting goals for myself. In within 5 years I went from Wine Tasting room attendant to General Manager of the number 1 steakhouse in Maryland.

I felt passionate about coaching and wanted to help others in a formal way, since I had been coaching and mentoring individuals both at my church and workplace for several years. I spoke with a woman who has her own coaching/consulting business over a year ago, in late 2024. When I spoke to her about my hesitation to start my own practice, she told me, "You just gotta do it. Just jump in." At the time, hearing those words was very scary. I didn't know much of the technical or logistical aspects, and I worried that no one would want to be coached by me. Fast forward to August 2025 - I realized that I had valuable perspective to offer, being further along in my career. I decided then to launch my coaching business, From Seed to Bloom. The business is in the early stages, but I already have coached 8 clients in the time since starting, and have been getting feedback I am proud of from those clients. I am excited to see what lies ahead for From Seed to Bloom!

For a long time, I thought my life felt stuck because of circumstances. Work. Responsibilities. Other people's needs. Timing. It was easy to point to all the external reasons things couldn't change yet. And to be fair, those reasons were real. But at some point, I had to admit something uncomfortable I was also using them as protection. The moment of self-honesty didn't come from a crisis. It came from noticing a pattern. Every time I felt pulled toward something different, I talked myself out of it. I'd say I needed to be more realistic. More patient. More grateful. Eventually, I realized that what I was calling "being responsible" was actually fear of making the wrong move. The belief I had to confront was this: If I moved too far outside the life I had already built, I might lose stability, approval, or a sense of control. I had tied safety to staying put. And I had learned, especially as a woman, that wanting more could easily be labeled as dissatisfaction or selfishness. Freeing myself didn't happen all at once. It started with being honest about what no longer fit. I stopped pretending I was fine just because things looked fine on the outside. I gave myself permission to question my next steps without needing immediate answers or anyone else's approval. Stepping out of my own way didn't mean making drastic decisions overnight. It meant trusting myself enough to listen. To take smaller, aligned steps instead of waiting for certainty. To stop shrinking my desires so they'd feel less risky. Once I did that, my path shifted not because everything changed immediately, but because I changed how I showed up. I became less afraid of my own wants. Less focused on holding everything together. More open to what felt true instead of what felt safe. And that's when things began to move.

A big moment of self awareness for me was acknowledging the benefits in areas I considered failures. Careful not to make excuses, it became essential to identify the source of why the mistakes were made. Sometimes when you spend decades in the same profession, the mind sort of locks in repetitive behavior as the best approach, probably because its worked for so long. However, similar to how we tax professionals for example strategizes compliant ways to lower tax liabilities, those analytical open mindsets should also be applied to personal goals. With the advantages we have today such as AI, utilizing such tools can significantly decrease time, and increase quality, huge double benefits. So yes, just simply opening up the idea of something new being better, can indeed be intimidating, yet taking a moment to research, test and implementing new resources can serve highly beneficial, for me, the time allocated to discovering better methods are worth it.

So happy to share that I have been recognized as one of today’s most inspiring and accomplished professional women by Influential I owe a great thank you to my training in the Military and Association for Surgical Technologists/NBSTSA for inspiring me to continue my education. So I can teach the new generation of Certified Surgical Technologist.

I did not come to this realization during a breakthrough moment. I came to it because I broke my ankle. I was forced to slow down. Not because I wanted to, but because my body gave me no other option. Before that, I was moving fast. Constantly. From the outside, it looked like momentum. From the inside, it was motion. When I could no longer move the way I was used to, I noticed something uncomfortable. I had been using busyness and even the label of "burnout" to avoid making decisions. I told myself I was being productive, responsible, and efficient. In reality, I was avoiding choices that would have significant consequences for my future. Having been raised in a culture that rewards busyness and long hours, slowing down felt like failing. So I stayed busy. I delayed decisions by telling myself I needed more information, another report, more data, more certainty, more time. Without realizing it, I became the barrier between myself and what needed to happen next. Breaking my ankle forced me to stop hiding behind busyness and overthinking critical decisions. I stopped carrying decisions longer than necessary and stopped negotiating with myself at every crossroads. My work did not become easier, but once I stopped using busyness as an excuse to avoid decisions, the path forward no longer felt elusive.

Just Do It!

I don't recall a time when I thought I was the barrier preventing me from what I wanted, but I do remember during my early teen years feeling frightened and insecure, and someone telling me that I was the only person who could solve my problems. I thought about it and realized she was right. Eventually, I forced myself to do things I was scared to do, and each time I did that I got stronger and I gained confidence. In addition to that, in college I read Atlas Shrugged and my confidence soared. I realized that I was always right to navigate my life with reality and reason. From studying the philosophy of Ayn Rand and the pedagogy of Maria Montessori, I built a strong inner self.

In the most brutally honest way, my story began in uncertainty. For many years, I allowed uncertainty to rule my world. And when you're standing on unstable ground, growth becomes impossible. Any opportunity that tries to take root will eventually expose the cracks beneath you. That's exactly what happened to me. When growth finally came knocking, my foundation couldn't hold it. I reached a breaking point—and that was the moment I understood something clearly for the first time: if I wanted to move forward, uncertainty could no longer come with me. I had to transform it into confidence and certainty. What I also recognize now is that this transformation could only have happened when it did. Mastery requires time. You must spend years doing the work before you can truly stand in it. I had to move through the phase of apprentice before I could become a master. My confidence didn't appear overnight—it was built through years of hands-on experience, trial, failure, and repetition in my field. As I stepped into certainty and released doubt, my mindset became just as important as my skillset. I found myself drawn to the book Don't Believe Everything You Think, which reshaped how I understand thoughts and thinking. One of the most meaningful lessons I carry with me now is this: when you are present, you are at peace. In peace, you gain thoughtfulness. From thoughtfulness comes intention—and from intention comes impact. That shift changed everything. If there's one thing I hope others take from my story, it's this: the moments, the memories, and the methods you accumulate along the way are what truly shape you. Stay true to yourself. Stay grounded. And stay at peace. I've always admired Gary Vaynerchuk for saying that even as a child, he wanted to pair success with kindness. As a woman in a highly competitive industry, that belief resonates deeply. I don't measure success by how far I can go alone—I measure it by how many people I can bring with me. I believe continuity of purpose within a shared mindset creates more momentum than any single person ever could. Community multiplies growth. Shared goals create resilience. When people rise together, the impact lasts longer and reaches further. When we work together we foster not only successful ecosystems in local communities; we build relationships that will be hand down to generation that will follow. We grow stronger when we grow together. And we grow best when we grow through grace.

The moment I realized I was standing in my own way was when I noticed that I was allowing others to occupy my mind for free. I allowed past labels like "lazy," "manipulative," and "never amount to anything" to take over my identity by assuming the identities that others placed on me. Unfortunately, they weren't qualified to assign such labels to me.