“If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.” This saying is so true. Everything I’ve achieved has come as a result of stretching beyond my comfort zone. Today, I provide a transformative platform for women at all career stages within the consumer finance community (lenders, creditors, servicers, collections, and related tech companies) to enhance their network, their leadership skills, and their personal and professional lives. But here’s how I got to this point… After college, I moved across the country to Los Angeles to work in entertainment. I knew nobody and built a life from scratch. It took courage -- and it led to the job of my dreams, working as a stage manager for The Walt Disney Company. Several years later, I went to business school to earn an MBA. Talk about facing imposter syndrome. It took courage -- and it led to opportunities in industries I hadn’t imagined as an undergraduate theater major. Business school convinced me not to pursue a career in theater. Instead, I took a job in operations at an aerospace manufacturing plant. I was young, female, and had a graduate degree. This did not make me one of the crowd. It took courage and resilience -- and it led to one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences in my career. A few years later, I found myself at the epicenter of the Internet start-up world, taking a job that required living in a new city every few months to open a new office. For this introvert who loves to be home, constant travel and meeting new people were way out of my comfort zone. It took courage -- and it led to a career in media and entrepreneurship that I had not even known was a thing. Eventually, I became a business owner. This had not been on my radar. I was an operations person, largely behind the scenes. Owning a business meant putting myself out there, doing marketing …and sales, and strategy, and everything else. This took courage on so many levels -- and it pushed me to grow as a professional, a leader, and a human being. Finally, selling the business (another comfort zone departure) in 2023 gave me the opportunity to focus on Women in Consumer Finance and my passion for helping women build what I never had – a genuine network of professional champions, mentors, and sponsors. In my spare time, I love organizing, creating with digital tools, walking, hiking, and reading (well, listening to) while I walk 6+ miles a day. Also, I'm an active board member of LIFT, an amazing organization on a mission to break the cycle of poverty by investing in parents.