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.