About Suzanne

I was the one who figured it out. Until I couldn't.

Twenty years at PwC, almost a decade as a partner, a reputation for delivering whatever the room needed. On paper, it was working. I built this practice because I know what it costs when that stops being enough.

How this started

A Tuesday in July.

On July 14, 2020, a seemingly uneventful day in the sameness of COVID, the email came: my kids would not be going back to school in the fall. I'd been holding onto the idea that school would give them what I hadn't been able to during those first months. Time. Attention. Me.

For as long as I could remember, I was the one who had it under control. I learned the rules early. It was a donut-eating contest, and I was out to win. I won the contests, and the prize for winning was more donuts. After years of them I realized I was tired of donuts. But I had no idea what else I could eat, or what I even liked.

Is this really what I'm supposed to be doing?

That Tuesday, the small voice that had been restless for years, the one I kept squashing with "you have it all, who are you to complain," finally shouted. Two weeks later we had a plan. A year in Oaxaca, Mexico, with my family. I called it an adult gap year because I didn't have a better name for it, and because I wasn't running away from anything. I was going to find out what happens when you actually stop.

The whole story is in the book →

What a year of stopping taught me

Three things I didn't expect.

The leader I'd been performing was never the whole of me. Underneath was someone more grounded, and more capable, than the version I'd built to succeed.
Nobody needs to blow up their life. Most of us need space to hear ourselves, and the honesty to act on what we hear.
Leadership and life can't be separated. The question that shows up at work is the same one that shows up at the kitchen table.

Those three became Unmasking Leadership, the Adult Gap Year, and the Power of the Pause. Lived first, then taught.

Who I work with now

Leaders at the point where what got them here stops being enough.

Senior leaders, most of them women, in consulting, professional services, finance, and tech. Not broken, not in crisis. At an inflection point, and wanting someone who has been through one rather than read about it. I'm not here to add more to a full life. I'm here to help you hear what's been there the whole time, and lead from it.

What I bring

Two decades leading teams and advising Fortune 500 leadership at PwC
Facilitation of rooms from 10 to 500, and a client experience launched across 55,000 people
A coaching practice built on adult development, Internal Family Systems, and human-centered design
A year in Oaxaca, and a permanent inability to turn down a taco

IDEO Storytelling for Influence certificate

Hudson Institute certified coach and ICF Professional Certified Coach. Trained in Internal Family Systems and Inner Team Dialogue, certified in Human-Centered Design through Johns Hopkins and IDEO. CPA, Syracuse University, which explains the spreadsheets.

¿Qué significa vamonos?

Vamonos is Spanish for "let's go." It's a nod to Oaxaca, where this practice began, and to the thing every one of my clients eventually says out loud when the fog lifts. Not "I should." Not "someday." Let's go.

The retreats happen in Oaxaca, co-facilitated with my best friend and business partner, Kimberly Manno. Meet the Oaxaca team on the retreat page →

Off the clock

The rest of it.

Mom of three. Lives outside Washington, DC, with part of her heart on a side street in Oaxaca. Happiest with sand between her toes or the smell of desert air after rain. Mountain biker, cook, taco and mezcal enthusiast. Wanders new cities on foot and will talk to anyone.

Suzanne and Kimberly on the beach at sunset

You already know what you're capable of. This is about leading like it.

Book a free discovery call, or find your inflection point first.

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