I loved Cheaper by the Dozen — not because I wanted more siblings, but because the parents optimized everything. While the book described children mortified by their father's efficiency methods, I was in my bedroom trying to replicate them.

I've always been that person: the one who sees the system underneath the chaos and knows how to fix it.

That instinct made me excellent at my job. I spent 20 years in VP-level operations roles, scaling customer success teams to 70+ people, managing hundreds of millions in ARR, and leading teams through mergers while retaining 100% of my people when everyone else fled. I was the person to whom companies handed something nebulous and asked to deliver. I redesigned workflows, implemented change management strategies, and built the infrastructure that made chaos manageable for both customers and teams.

It also made me the default fixer everywhere else. At home, I'm a stepmother navigating blended family dynamics and extended family politics. I'm the holiday organizer, the unaccredited therapist, the project manager of situations that were never mine to begin with. The person everyone turns to when they don’t know where to go or what to do.

Here's what I learned: Smart, capable people don't fail because they lack discipline. They fail because they're under-infrastructured (not a word, but it should be). They're managing complexity across multiple domains — work, family, health, relationships — with systems designed for people who only have one job.

After two decades of fixing other people's organizational chaos, I realized I didn't want another VP role where I'd build systems that broke after I left. I wanted to help people build their own.

So I became a writer and advisor.

As a writer, I publish Stepping In It — it’s all about managing chaos you didn't create: blended families, workplace dysfunction, family logistics, adult children, etc. Often wry, often right. Essays every Tuesday. I'm also launching Stepwise: Life Architecture for People Managing Everything, a podcast about managing complexity and staying sane when you're everyone's default problem-solver (Coming March 2026).

As an advisor, I help executives design Life Architecture for their actual lives. Not generic productivity frameworks. Not another app. Custom infrastructure that accounts for your reality: managing inputs, developing rhythms, and adjusting for the season of life you're in.

My approach is the Life Architecture Framework:

• Get Clear → Direction + Inputs (What are you trying to do, and what's coming at you?)

• Get Sorted → Filters + Containers (What stays, what goes, and where does it live?)

• Get Going → Rhythms + Seasons (How do you move forward sustainably?)

I don't do motivation or mindset work. I don't believe in hustling harder or "finding balance." I believe in engineering better systems — the kind that work when you're exhausted, overwhelmed, and dealing with fires on three fronts.

I bring 20 years of executive operations expertise, ICF coaching certification, radical candor, and humor. Because if you can't find some humor in being everyone’s problem-solver, you'll drown.

What I believe:

The people who "step in" aren't martyrs; we're pragmatists who see what needs to happen and know no one else will do it. But we still deserve systems that make our lives manageable. We deserve clarity when we're stuck. And we deserve to stop carrying everyone else's chaos without any infrastructure of our own.

That's what I build. For myself. For my clients. And through my writing, for anyone who's ever been told "you've got this" when you've got it, but you don't necessarily want it.

If you're managing everything and infrastructured for nothing, let's talk.

Also, if you haven’t read “Cheaper by the Dozen,” and are not familiar with Lillian Moller Gilbreth, at least read her wikipedia page. Not enough people are talking about this absolutely legendary scientist who was breaking gender barriers early and often.