From Coma to conscious leadership
June 1, 2013.
I was 42 years old, a competitive cyclist (ranked #2 in the United States) at peak strength, three laps from the podium.
I told myself: I’m going to win.
Seconds later, I was slammed into a curb at full speed.
My skull cracked.
My brain was severely injured.
My ribs were crushed.
My lung was punctured.
“She’s not going to make it,” the doctors told my friends.
I spent a month in the hospital and seven months learning to walk, talk, and cut my own food again.
But the accident didn’t just change my body.
It changed how I saw my life.
Fighting for my life after the cycling accident.
The Coma that woke me up
I was placed into a medically induced coma because my brain needed to rest.
The doctors said the only hope for my survival was simple:
“Shut down her brain.”
No talking.
No stimulation.
Isolation.
Silence.
Stillness.
I was bleeding on the brain.
Convulsing.
Fighting for my life.
If my brain didn’t rest in those critical moments, I would not be here today.
A coma allows the body to heal without the stress of conscious activity.
My brain had to go quiet so my ribs could be plated, my lung could heal, and my body could recover.
Nothing to do… but be still.
The Question That
Changed Everything
At some point in that forced stillness, a question surfaced that changed my life.
Was that the first coma I had ever been in?
Physically - yes.
Spiritually, cognitively, and emotionally - no.
Before the accident, I was living in a different kind of coma.
Always thinking.
Always doing.
Always winning.
I was addicted to achieving because my worth was attached to winning.
That success would earn love, approval, and belonging.
So I kept running…
Next goal.
Next win.
Next recognition.
No rest.
No peace.
No listening to my soul.
The induced coma saved my life.
But it also woke me up.
The Truth I Finally Saw
Flat on my back, with nothing to achieve and nowhere to go, I finally saw what I had been running from my entire life.
I had been trying to prove I was enough by winning.
By achieving.
By being the best.
And that belief — that I wasn’t enough without the wins — was running everything.
My business.
My relationships.
My health.
My peace.
The accident didn’t teach me to slow down.
It taught me something deeper:
I am not my achievements.
And neither are you.
Why I Do This Work
I share this because I know what it’s like to be successful on paper and exhausted in your soul.
To have built something impressive and still feel like you’re never done, never enough, never able to rest.
Many CEOs and leaders live in a similar kind of invisible pressure.
They carry the weight of results.
The responsibility for teams.
The belief that they must always push harder.
But leadership doesn’t have to come from pressure and proving.
There is another way to lead.
Another way to live.
The Work Today
Today, I support CEOs and executive teams uncover the invisible leadership patterns that shape their decisions, their cultures, and their results.
These patterns influence everything:
Trust
Ownership
Innovation
Execution
Revenue velocity
Through the Invisible Wins Framework, leaders learn how to move from limiting patterns into actions that create the results they want.
it’s Not by working harder.
But by seeing clearly how you block your thriving life, work, and revenue.
Because the most powerful transformation doesn’t start with strategy.
It starts with awareness.
When leaders change the invisible patterns driving their behavior, everything shifts.
Culture changes.
Teams rise into ownership.
Innovation expands.
And organizations grow in healthier, more sustainable ways.
Ultimately, you will have the time you need to steer your ship, focus on what matters most to you, have more energy, and achieve greater revenue.
What Being Fully Alive Means to me Now
Being fully alive means:
making my decisions from trust and love versus fear and control.
Letting go of patterns that no longer serve me.
Choosing presence over pressure.
And knowing I am worthy — even when I am still.
My life was spared to wake you up to yours. and my genius is seeing yours.
my focus is impacting as many people to live the life they’re called to live and do the work they are called to do.
my practice is continually mastering living in a state of enoughness.
I get to choose how i want to show up for myself and others.
And I am passionate about inviting others to wake up out of their own invisible comas.
now i realize that the most powerful win is mastering the Invisible that leads to the visible!
Discover the leadership pattern that’s quietly holding you back.
what this looks like in Practice
THE STORY: WHEN EVERYTHING SAID “PLAY IT SAFE”… AND I DID THE OPPOSITE
In 2008, the economy collapsed.
Luxury businesses—especially jewelry—were pulling back, cutting inventory, lowering risk, and bracing for survival.
Everything in the industry said:
“Shrink.”
“Protect.”
“Play it safe.”
And for a moment… I felt it too.
Fear.
What if I lose everything?
What if this business I’ve built disappears?
What if I make the wrong move?
That’s the moment every leader faces.
Not externally—internally.
Because the real decision isn’t about strategy.
It’s about:
Who am I going to be in this moment?
THE INVISIBLE DECISION
I noticed the fear.
And instead of obeying it…
I questioned it.
I chose not to operate from fear and control.
I chose trust.
And then I made a decision that made no logical sense at the time:
I did the opposite of what everyone else was doing.
While others pulled back…
I leaned in.
WHAT THAT LOOKED LIKE (THE INVISIBLE WINS)
I trusted my instinct over the market noise
I moved forward instead of freezing
I stayed grounded instead of reactive
I made bold decisions without full certainty
I refused to let fear drive my actions
These weren’t visible to anyone else.
No one could see these choices.
But they changed everything.
THE VISIBLE RESULT
Within 1–3 months:
→ I generated nearly $1 million in revenue
And from there:
→ Grew into a multi-million dollar business
While others were contracting…
We expanded.
THE REAL LESSON
It wasn’t the strategy that created the result.
It was the identity shift.
Most people think success comes from:
Better tactics
Better timing
Better market conditions
But the truth is:
Your results change when you stop making decisions from fear.
THE PATTERN MOST LEADERS DON’T SEE
When fear drives:
You pull back too soon
You hesitate
You overanalyze
You wait for certainty
And in doing that…
You miss the very opportunities that create growth.
THE SHIFT
The moment you:
Pause
Notice the fear
And choose differently
You create an invisible win.
And that invisible win…
Changes your trajectory.
THE INVITATION