From Burned-Out New Mom to Confident Product Leader & Blogger | Lynne Levy Coaching Review

All right.

Good morning, Danielle. How are you?

Hi, Lynne Levy. Good.

How are you? Good. So what I'd love to do today is just kind of a quick story of how we work together and what results you've seen. So why don't you start with just a quick overview of who you are and what you do?

Sure. So I'm Danielle. I'm a senior product manager. I work in the clinical trials space. And I focus on trials that have a medical imaging component. And in particular, I'm really interested in the patient experience and improving that experience.

Fabulous. So before you started to work, before we started to work together, tell me about what things were like for you at work as a product leader, as a product manager.

I was really struggling before we started to work together. I had just come back from maternity leave after having my, my son, my first child, and I was mentally just struggling a lot with every single day. Was the work that I was doing more important than being with my son? And that to me was a key driver for finding a coach and working with you. To figure out how do I get myself out of this kind of slump that I'm in and how do I feel more engaged and inspired at work every day?

Absolutely.

Not just occasionally.

So what was the process like for you as we worked together?

I think I decided pretty quickly after one 30-minute call that yes, I'm doing this. So there are kind of two components. So there's the one-on-one chats that we have, which are great, and we kind of catch up on things that I'm going through personally and my status and what's happening. But then, um, the other really valuable part has been the group sessions, and I find those super encouraging and inspiring too, because when I share my experiences there, almost every single time there's someone else saying, oh yeah, that's happened to me, or I'm going through that too, or someone else shares something that I'm also going through. So that's been really, really helpful to hear, like, I'm not alone and there's other people out there. And it's helpful to have other product contacts that are removed from my situation and kind of, kind of look at it and see it more objectively.

Awesome. So tell me, so now that you're almost through the program, how, how have things changed for you? And what are you doing now that you weren't doing before?

I'd say I'm more focused on doing things that I am engaged in. I understand more of my strengths and my values, and so I focus a lot more on doing things that are tied to that. I mean, there's still the typical things I need to do that you can't get away from, but I feel like I don't let that stress me as much because I know I'm going to be working on X thing today that I'm super excited about doing. Um, and I've just been exploring and having constant conversations with other people, both in inside my company that I'm at and externally about other opportunities. And even just, I started a blog. I was diagnosed throughout this process as a diabetic. And so as part of figuring that out, you encouraged me to start my blog. And so I've been blogging about my experience as a patient with diabetes and figuring all of that out. And just through that process, I shared that on LinkedIn and I've been having so many unbelievable conversations about that, how many people have found that blog and read that blog and are inspired by that experience. And other people in the clinical trial space who want to talk to me about my patient experience and using that to make things better, which is helpful.

Have any recruiters seen a change? I mean, have you had recruiters contact you or companies contact you because of this? With this new blog and branding that you're putting yourself out there?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've had probably a handful of recruiters and hiring managers contact me directly and mention that they were reaching out specifically because of my blog. So they would say, you know, we were impressed by your profile, but really the thing that was like, we have to talk to this person, is her blog and how authentic she's being and how open she's being in her experience.

Amazing. Yeah, you're a rock star, no question. If you had to give a recommendation to somebody who was— or things to think about for somebody who's considering joining the program, what would you tell them?

I would tell them to think about where you want to be in a month. I think this program changed me very, very quickly, but you have to be willing to put in the time and the effort. To do the things that you're telling us to do and making time for it. And just think about how much things can change. I think I've only been in this program for 3 or 4 months, and I feel like my day-to-day life has completely changed. I'm much more motivated. And it's, it's worth it just for the confidence boost alone, to feel like I'm not stuck and I can do something better and I can focus on the things that make me feel like a happier person overall and don't stress me out.

Danielle, awesome. Thank you so much.

Good. No problem.

Have a wonderful week.

You too.

Thank you.