Get to Know Marsha

I grew up in the 1960’s, when families gathered around the television to watch Ozzie & Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, and Walt Disney. The “American Dream” was a two-parent household with 2.5 children, a father who worked, and a mother who stayed home and raised the children. There was a silver lining to each of life’s challenges.

I thought I would grow up, go to college, get a job, find my Prince Charming, and live happily ever after, too. But real life doesn’t promise fairy-tale endings instead, we deal with jobs lost, loves lost, lives lost. The question is not if these life challenges will happen but when. And when they do, the question for each of us is, how will we face them?

• Will we survive or thrive?
• Will we live under a storm cloud?
• Will we work our way back to our own version of a fairy-tale life?

When I went to college, I was planning to become an optometrist. But, I hated the science courses so, after my freshman year, I switched my major to accounting because I was good with numbers.

After graduating with a BS in Accounting, I couldn’t see myself sitting behind a desk with green eyeshades looking at numbers all day, so I pursued a career in internal audit. My first job was with a large bank holding company and after 5 years, which included a transfer from Columbus to Akron, I was ready for a new challenge.

I found an internal audit position in a large financial equipment manufacturer, Diebold. After 3 years, I took a role as a financial analyst and then over the next 30 years, I worked across the organization moving from Finance to Customer Service, Operations, National Account Management, and, finally, Organizational Development & Training.

While my professional life was stable with one employer, my personal life was anything but. I married at 25; divorced 11 years later gaining sole custody of my 2 young children. I remarried at 45 and was widowed at 58. Along the way, bankruptcy, illness and death all paid a visit or two or three and you have the picture. Not the perfect dream life I planned for myself.

With a Masters Liberal Studies in Organizational Leadership and certifications as a Registered Corporate Coach™, Master Trainer, Myers Briggs, and DiSC facilitator, and Distinguished Toastmaster. I started my coaching and consulting practice focused on emerging leaders. While this area was rewarding, my heart kept pushing me towards a more personal mission supporting those who are struggling with career/life dead ends, setbacks, and losses. I want to give back to those who are:

• single parents, divorced or widowed, or empty nesters
• the sandwich generation caring for both parents and children
• outwardly successful but inwardly miserable in soul sucking jobs or relationships exhausted, overwhelmed, and scared