WELCOME!
I'm a Coach, Best Selling Author, Storyteller ...
and I’m here to help you live your best years yet.
Empowering and bringing joy to women has been the driving force of my life… from a legislative aide in Congress as a young adult… to a marketing strategist in corporate America... to owning an internationally recognized agency… and now to leading a transformational coaching business like no other.
In my training I coach from my life experiences and with profound insight. I foster self-awareness, courage and confidence, living intentionally, and aging with power.
My journey from a small dairy farm in Minnesota to the national stage has been full of wins and losses, with lessons learned along the way. I draw on these insights to guide women to live a life they love!
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MY STORY
No gender-specific jobs in this family of 9 girls and 3 boys!
I leap from the walls of a one-room schoolhouse to the halls of the U.S. Congress at the age of 19.
I grew up on a small farm in rural Minnesota as one of 12 children – nine girls and three boys. With the girls outnumbering the boys 3:1, there weren’t boy jobs or girl jobs. My sisters and I hauled hay, milked cows, and cleaned stalls ... while the boys helped with dishes, house cleaning and laundry. Summer fieldwork on our dairy farm could be summed up by ‘a bikini and a tractor’ – that was how we rolled.
Our Century Farm was founded in 1860 by my great-great-grandfather. I went to the same one-room schoolhouse that was founded by my great-grandfather. In this setting one teacher taught 1st to 8th grade. Of the 15 students during my years there, five were my siblings and the others were first or second cousins.
Having never traveled outside the state of Minnesota and with no college education, at the age of 19, I moved to Washington DC to take a staff position on Capitol Hill for a United States Congressman.
There’s much more to the story about my perseverance to create this opportunity. Let me simply say I was following my dream at the time, “to be a secretary for someone important!” I was faced with obstacles, naysayers and limited resources, but I was determined to be unstoppable.
And yet, when this opportunity came to me I was frozen with fear! I sought advice from a mentor who asked, “What do you have to lose? Go to Washington. If you don’t like it, what’s the worst that can happen ... you come back.”
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I was frozen with fear! I overcame the overwhelm, and took that one first step.
That was exactly what I needed to hear. I overcame the overwhelm, and took that one first step ... and within two years I was a Legislative Assistant working on women’s issues and small business.
Grow Your Vision
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An unexpected disability becomes my greatest gift.
In the early 2000’s my small marketing agency was earning international accolades for our breakthrough insight work. The agency was successful beyond my hopes and dreams ... and then I got sick. I was having regular attacks of severe vertigo, and the dizziness and roar in my ears were debilitating. I was eventually diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, a degenerative condition that results in progressive hearing loss. During these acute episodes I kept asking myself, “What am I supposed to be hearing that I’m not?”
As my hearing declined, I learned to listen for women’s unspoken words and emotions.
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It was then that I realized I was supposed to be listening for unspoken needs, desires and aspirations. I knew I could use my connections to take women's voices to the corporate strategy table. I knew I had the skills to guide marketers to use their power and brand leadership to do social good. I knew I could enrich women’s lives and impact society at large.
It was My Profession. My Passion. My Cause.
Over the years as my hearing has declined, my gifts of intuition and empathy have grown. Today I have severe hearing loss in both ears, and only 25% word recognition. I read lips, study body language, and listen for the unspoken. Although my physical hearing may be impaired, for nearly 25 years I’ve had the honor to serve as an instrument for women’s voices.
A journey of death and grief leads me to discover my next-level purpose.
At the pinnacle of my agency’s success, the rug was pulled out from under me when my husband of 30 years was diagnosed with Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Within months I shut down my business and became his primary caregiver to make the most of those final years we had together. Over the next five years I watched the man I loved die, trapped inside a body whose impaired mind was no longer responding to his will.
On that long and difficult journey I saw first-hand how fragile and uncertain life can be. I realized that “tomorrow is not promised”. After my husband passed, I knew I wanted to live a more intentional life ... to have greater impact in the world and to move forward with more purpose and meaning. But what would that look like? Would I go back and re-start what I’d been doing for the last three decades? If my life were to end now, did I do enough? Was this all there is? Hell no!!
And so I went on a quest I called “Finding Dori”. My life-changing event led to a transformational journey of self-discovery and personal development. I emerged with a clear realization: instead of being a megaphone for women at the corporate strategy table, my next-level purpose was to empower women to take ownership of their own voice, and to find the courage, wisdom and skills to live a life that brings them greater meaning and joy.
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I emerged from my 'Finding Dori' quest with the realization that I could guide women to live with greater meaning and joy ... and UNLOCK YOUR PURPOSE™ was born!
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In this discovery process, I saw how I could take my two-year discovery journey and condense it into a two-month transformational experience to help women like you uncover your own unique strengths, and guide you to cultivate those gifts to take your life to the next level ... and thus my signature program “Unlock Your Purpose” was born!
FEATURED BY
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