I spent decades doing everything right. Then I stopped.
For 30 years, I followed every rule. UCLA acceptance redirected to USC because it was my grandfather's alma mater. Technical consultant at EDS. Deloitte. McKesson. I built businesses in Arizona: Molly Maid franchise, rental properties. Gave my siblings a path to ownership. Showed my staff someone who looked like them could build something.
I also borrowed payroll from friends. Sat outside meeting rooms after running a $25 million project because no one included me in follow-ups. Got called by another Black woman's name so often I stopped correcting people.
Three surgeries taught me what the success never did.
Emergency appendectomy. I ignored the signs for days. I had deliverables.
Partial hysterectomy for fibroids. My body kept asking for attention I kept deferring.
September 2024, double mastectomy. November 2024, radiation completed.
Cancer eliminated my tolerance for waiting.
The credentials:
Master's in Sports Management. I chose sports because I understood early that the business off the court is as important as the talent on it. That degree did not teach me how to play. It taught me how the game is actually run.
Georgetown Executive Certificate in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. NASA-JPL. EDS. Deloitte. McKesson. Slalom Consulting. Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University. Mentored 100+ professionals into leadership roles they wanted, not just ones they were offered.
The work now:
I write. I speak. I teach frameworks for strategic pivots.
This isn't wellness theory. This is survival intel from someone whose climb was never a straight line, and who stopped pretending it should be.
Black. Woman. Gay. Navigating systems designed to contain me taught me how to pivot without permission.
Why I do this work:
I know what it costs to perform at that level inside rooms not designed to hold you. I know the calculation you run every morning before you walk in. I know what you leave at the door to stay in the room.
Nobody was building tools for the professional who had already made it and found it hollow. So I built them.
That is why From the Mentor Table exists. Why the Pivot Pathway exists. Why the book exists. If you have done everything right and still feel like something is wrong, this work is for you.
My work gives you three things.
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A way to name what is actually happening. Most high achievers cannot articulate why the success feels empty. The frameworks I build help you put language to it.
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A way to decide what to do about it. Leaving is not always the answer. Staying on the same terms is not either. The tools help you figure out which problem you are actually sitting with.
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A way to build what comes next without burning down what you have already built.
This is not motivation. It is a map.
The lineage:
My grandfather: Five degrees from USC (1930s-1950s). Frequently, one of the very few Black men in academic spaces. German Club president. Traveled the world. Owned property. Ran his life like a CEO.
My grandmother and aunts: Maids who became business owners and real estate investors.
My mother: Phone company employee. Widowed with four kids. A manager blocked from becoming a supervisor because she didn't have a degree. Trained every replacement anyway.
They chose survival so I could pivot with purpose.
Other things that are true about me.
Music is not background noise for me. It is how I think. My playlists are part of my creative process and I will link them here when I am ready to share them.
I read to become a better writer. Every book I recommend has earned its place. The reading list lives inside each chapter of Off Path, On Purpose and will have its own home on this site.
I love basketball. Not just to watch it. The game taught me that talent gets you in the room and strategy keeps you there. That lesson runs through everything I build.
I love animals. Dogs and elephants specifically. Both are loyal beyond reason and protective without apology. Dolomite, my dog, taught me more about unconditional presence than most humans have. He passed in September 2025. His ashes are home with me.