5 years ago, my company, Ditched the Drink, was brand new. As a new business owner, I took a gamble on myself and nominated myself for an award that my previous corporate job sponsored. I thought it would be a great way to bridge the gap between what I had done in my past career and what I was just starting. From selling HR solutions to becoming the founder of a company, I was really proud of my new endeavor, not to mention what I had overcome. I wanted everyone to know. 

The application process felt to me like a big dance audition in front of a group of intimating judges. I knew some of the  judges from having worked for a top sponsor of the awards. I was never really in with the who’s who, but as a salesperson, I was always there, working the room and doing my best. There was one board member that I got to know, love, and respect. I believe she was the only woman on the leadership team, so naturally I gravitated toward her.

Our relationship gave me...

This might surprise you, but the reason you can’t quit drinking might have little to do with alcohol. Yes, it’s a highly addictive substance that is hard to move away from, but if you are like me, you have seen some success by gritting it out for 30 days, alcohol-free. After that, you may no longer have a physical dependence on alcohol that is keeping you stuck. Maybe you never did. If you are a middle-of-the-lane drinker who secretly fears you’re imbibing a little too much, I invite you to consider some powerful questions. This is a little preview of what it is like to work with me as a coach.  

Many of my clients have been stuck in a purgatory of drinking/not drinking for years, and so have I. Women come to me and finally make the worthy investment of my one-on-one coaching because they’ve already done other programs They’ve tried the other things, and although they were good stepping stones in making progress towards change, they...

I’ve been a coach for five years. I partner with a top rated credentialing authority to recruit, train, and mentor other coaches. With a degree in social work, I started as a skeptic when it came to the world of coaching. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t think I needed a measly coaching certificate when I already had a four year degree in helping people. 

I started with a Udemy certificate in Law of Attraction Coaching. This is regularly criticized for not being ‘real training,” but it’s how I got my start. It was a ten-ish hour online training. At the time, I understood the coaching industry was unregulated, and yet, I wanted some certifying agency to give me a quick stamp of approval to call myself a coach. I wasn’t ready to invest more, and I didn’t know where to start. I think it cost me $30. It did not teach me the necessary protocols and high standards of coaching, but it did get me started in learning about...

I am sharing a few examples of how to honor Black History Month.

I try to do many of these things year-round. Black History Month serves as a nice reminder to evaluate my efforts and add to them as well. I hope you can implement and add to these ideas. 

Consider the source here. I am a white woman who grew up in a small white town in Wisconsin. I went to a mostly white college in Wisconsin, too. Growing up, I could count the number of black friends I had on three fingers. My black friends were all adopted by white families. I can't change this fact, and I am not an expert on this matter. I do care to broaden my world, so I try to mostly listen when it comes to this topic.

After college, I moved to Chicago. I currently live on a street that you could compare to Sesame Street. No family is the same when it comes to race, religion, ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation, age, and more. My children are growing up with much more diversity, and we are all benefiting from it. As a...

For a long while, I've struggled with drinking to have fun and drinking to relieve and escape some of the monotony and fatigue of the day-in, day-out routine of working full time as a database developer while also trying to be "everything" for my three young children.

Sometimes a glass of wine seems like the only way to get through a dinner with a screaming toddler who doesn't want to eat, homework with older kids, dinner, bathtime, storytime, etc. It exhausts me even thinking about it, but I knew the wine was also increasing my exhaustion, my anxiety, my daily internal struggle that I wasn't doing my best either at work or at home because of what I was holding onto: wine.

With my older kids now 9 and 7, they were beginning to see things in me that they hated when I was drinking, and my entire goal of being an amazing mother was falling away from me. I was putting so much pressure on myself to be perfect, using wine as an escape from that pressure, and then failing at the very...