A few years ago, I was called at the last minute to fill in for a speaker at the IBM conference. At the time IBM was my biggest client and, of course, speaking at the IBM conference is an incredible honor, so I was extremely excited. When I looked at the date, however, I realized my son had an important event at school that I could not (or would not) miss, so I had to make some adjustments. In particular, I wasn't able to fly in the night before since there were no flights available and I had to be back in Boston for a 9:30 am event at my son's school, so I decided to do what anyone would do: fly out first thing in the morning and take the red-eye home that night. Yep.

This was February, mind you, so I was at the airport at 7 am and a big snowstorm had moved in overnight. We were delayed for hours, and when we finally got on the plane we were delayed further as we waited to get our wings de-iced. I started to panic because if we didn't take off in the next 10 minutes I wouldn't make my scheduled talk. We took off five minutes later.
I spent the next six hours worried that I would not be able to get from the airport to the conference hotel in time. I went online, booked car service, and asked the flight attendant if they could make an announcement when we landed to please let me off first. They did, and everyone was very polite in letting me run to my car. I arrived at the venue with five minutes to spare and did my talk, which was well received.

My flight back was delayed as well because of the snow back east, but by a small miracle we landed with JUST enough time for me to make it to my son's event. Of course I was wearing yesterday's clothes but hey, I did brush my teeth! I felt like I was back in college. It was worth it in the end, though. I solidified my relationship with the client, went down in history at my company and, most importantly, didn't disappoint my son.

In 2007 I was working for a Wall Street firm, doing very well, and expecting my first child; such an exciting time! Then in what seemed like the blink of an eye, everything was upended. The mortgage market melted down, they shut our division, and my mother had a brain aneurysm that left her paraplegic. I had to find something else to do with my life that would allow me time to do what I needed for my family. I thought "hey, I can spell Google and this internet thing seems like it's going to be around for a while so let's see if I can do something with that!" I started by teaching myself SEO and then social media, eventually becoming an internationally-best-selling author of nine books and a speaker. I founded my first tech platform, the first-of-its-kind blog sharing network. I also started a successful consulting firm and then decided to take a detour back into corporate, going back to my first love: sales. I ran sales for a software company, where I learned a great deal more about the software development process and working with teams of developers. I was elected to the Executive Council for Advancing Women in Technology and was invited to be a faculty member for the premiere industry association. When they sold the company, I decided to start my own company again, and this time I wanted to design something that would have an impact. I have always been an advocate for women in business, as a mentor and sponsor in my corporate career, and a trainer, coach, and consultant as an entrepreneur. Women rising higher in their business lives doesn’t mean they rise instead of men, but alongside them. I started wiseHer to address the common challenges women face in growing in their corporate careers or businesses.

I also speak and train businesses in the areas of digital marketing, social media, and social selling for high-technology companies.