My path to this work was not linear. It was guided by intuition and rooted in trust. Each chapter built on the last in ways I could not have planned. 

For almost a decade, I built and ran a successful financial planning practice in Denver, managing over 500 client portfolios and working closely with small business owners on everything from investments to retirement planning to business development. I was good at it. It was successful. But I always had a sense that something was missing. I had checked off all the boxes — buying a house in my early twenties, driving a luxury car, lots of travel — and I could sense there was something more. One summer I took a trip to a Zen Buddhist monastery for a retreat. While meditating and being in this context, I felt alive and present in my body in a way that felt both unfamiliar and near. Over time, it became clear that I wanted to dedicate my life to exploring zen practice. 

So I changed my life dramatically. I sold my business, my house, my car, and moved.

I spent the next five years in residential training at Crestone Mountain Zen Center, studying Zen with my teachers and a small community of dedicated practitioners. The schedule was rigorous, beginning at 4:30am (3:30am in winter) and ending at 9pm. Our days filled with meditation, meetings with our teachers, caring for the grounds, study, community meals, walking, gardening, cooking, and running the large retreat business that sustained the monastery. Because of my business background, I was asked to help run the retreat business and nonprofit. This was deeply nourishing because I felt like I was using my skills to support and build something I cared deeply about. This then became the foundational criteria for who I choose to work with in my consulting business — those that are doing beneficial work in the world. I was ordained and eventually decided to leave our mountain monastery to help others. This experience transformed my life and now guides everything I do. 

When I emerged from that period I knew I wanted to use my business background again. But differently. I wanted to use it to support people doing work that benefits others — naturopathic doctors, therapists, holistic practitioners, healers, apothecaries, and nonprofit leaders who are gifted at what they offer but were never taught how to run the business side of it. I wanted to be the person who could both think strategically and actually help implement. Not hand someone a plan and disappear, but stay alongside them until the work was actualized.

That is what Gentle Leaps Consulting & Design became.

I hold a degree in Business Administration and Finance and have been an entrepreneur for most of my adult life. I live in the Pacific Northwest, where I enjoy exploring the mountains and rivers with my family, and continuing to deepen my zen practice. My work is informed by all of it.

If you are building something you care deeply about and you need a steady, experienced partner to think alongside you, I would love to hear from you.