Helping people define what success, happiness, and fulfillment means to them
ABOUT KATIE
I’ve always known that at some level that I’m great, but at times, I’ve found it difficult to fully live out my potential and truly direct my life the way I want. I didn’t always fully feel like I could just be me. A sense of deep happiness and purpose eluded me.
When I worked in the business world, I was told to hide my emotions. There seemed to be negative consequences related to expressing my emotions that could affect my employment, earning a promotion, or potentially damaging a relationship. Being vulnerable felt too risky for my career. I spent a lot of energy tolerating people and situations and consequently my performances sometimes lacked its full potential.
Emotions are part of our human experience though. As I gained self-awareness, I learned that it’s much healthier to go through the emotion and then to the solution, instead of moving around the feelings. Otherwise, the root thoughts and feelings remain and grow.
Now that I know better who I am, what I want, and what’s important to me, I’m better able to choose how I think and feel about a situation or a person. My mindset has shifted to one that is more motivating and energizing. The result is that I live out my greatness more fully and I feel more at peace. I feel a lot more successful, happy, and fulfilled getting to be fully me.
MY BACKGROUND
Studying Spanish and Business at the University of Notre Dame led me to work in international sales at Masco Corporation and then Ace Hardware International. From there I moved into marketing at Andersen and then PricewaterhouseCoopers. While staying home with our two now teenage sons, I taught Spanish to elementary and high school students as a classroom teacher and private tutor.
My last teaching role led me to coaching. I took an opportunity to teach Spanish in an all-girls’ Catholic high school. Upon reflection on whether to continue a teaching career path, I found that what I loved most about that experience was coaching my students to become even better versions of themselves. As a coach, I love connecting other people to how great I already know they are.
To me, everyone’s greatness is a light within them. My strength is turning on that light so each person can live their life more fully and share that energy with the people around them.