In 2019, I did what many corporate types would call "the unthinkable."

I walked away from opportunities at a Fortune 10 after being "surplussed" without a job lined up. Sure, I had opportunities externally. Yes, I had a seedling of a business that I had started, but I wanted to take the time to think through my next step methodically.

I had a mission that only a few were aware of, and that drove me to seek out the one thing that I needed to activate it.

Could I do it and remain in corporate?

I had interested organizations telling me that I could do both-pursue my calling to author books and speak across the country and internationally and work for them.

But I knew that would eventually cause friction. I'd lived it already.

That one piece was missing that would activate my mission, and a scroll through Instagram and an ad from a longtime sisterfriend and former client would ultimately become the the gateway to my destiny.

I let that sisterfriend turn the tables on me this week, and I thought it would be great to finally share my story: how I went from there...to here, five years later with a thriving, global executive and personal coaching and consulting practice, a publishing journey that has been extraordinary and the speaker tour that began in 2015 and has yet to end.

What took me from a 25+ year-long career in strategic communication, agency side, agency owner, and client side to here?

I pass Valorie Burton, MAPP, MCC the mic on my show, The Culture Soup Podcast ® as she featured me in her global preview call for The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute. That is where I earned my certification that would tee me up for credentialing at the world's most respected coaching organizations, International Coaching Federation. I began with her Coach Training Intensive (CTI).

So it's befitting that I allowed Valorie to throw back the covers on my purpose-driven story.

My pen as my sword, my speaking as my munitions, evidence-based coaching, I discovered, would ultimately become my armor.

Join me and Val for this inspiring and powerful conversation about what it actually takes to take on coaching as a profession in this special, extended video edition of The Culture Soup Podcast ® brought to you in part by The CaPP Institute. We're continuing to celebrate the five years anniversary of NSC Coaching, and six years for the podcast with this exclusive rebroadcast of "Conversation with a Coach", and it streams everywhere Thursday afternoon.