Early in our careers, we’re rewarded for delivering results, solving problems, and having answers. Those skills matter. They helped me build a career that took me from consumer brands to global leadership roles, including managing a $3.5 billion business as VP at DuPont and serving as President of Solae. Reporting to a board of directors, managing 2000+ people across the globe, overseeing 14 manufacturing facilities, and teams in 16 countries.

Those skills helped me leap into startups. Building businesses from ground zero, creating value for breakthrough technology, constantly pivoting to optimize financial investment, learning the game to secure an IPO. Succeeding where there were no rules.

But at every major transition, I discovered something surprising. The skills that got me there weren’t enough to take me where I wanted to go next. The rules changed. The expectations changed. The questions became harder. The answers became less obvious. And the path forward became less defined.

I experienced that professionally, but I experienced it personally too.

For many years I was a single mother raising two children while building an executive career. Like many women, I spent a long time chasing the idea of balance. I thought if I worked harder, planned better, and became more efficient, I could somehow make everything equally important at the same time.

Eventually I realized that wasn’t true. Life isn’t about balance. It’s about seasons.
There are seasons for building. Seasons for leading. Seasons for family. Seasons for reinvention. Seasons for giving back. What matters is having the clarity to understand what season you’re in and the courage to make choices that align with it. That lesson changed how I led businesses. And it changed how I led my life.

Over time, I began to notice the same pattern everywhere. I saw founders struggling to separate great technology from great businesses. I saw executive teams trying to solve new challenges with old assumptions. I saw talented women reach the edge of executive leadership only to discover that the rules had changed and nobody had told them. Not because they lacked capability. Because they were trying to succeed using a playbook written for a different stage.

That’s where the idea for #YouWriteTheRules was born. Not as a slogan. As an observation. At some point, every company and every leader reaches a moment where experience alone is no longer enough. The market changes. The business changes. The role changes. The expectations change. The old rules stop working.

And the leaders who thrive aren’t necessarily the smartest people in the room. They’re the ones willing to challenge assumptions, navigate uncertainty, and create a path forward when one doesn’t already exist.

Today, that’s the work I do. I help founders, CEOs, boards, and executive teams navigate critical business inflection points. I help women leaders prepare for the transition to executive leadership through The Executive Leap.

Different situations. The same leadership challenge. Creating clarity when there is no clear playbook. Because eventually success requires more than following someone else’s rules.