Hey, I’m
VANESSA
An energetic spark plug, author, keynote speaker, YPO facilitator, and lifelong seeker who believes extraordinary success should feel as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.
I help ambitious leaders reconnect with themselves, each other, and what matters most—so they can create meaningful success without sacrificing joy, purpose, presence, or the people they love.
My work bridges worlds that aren’t often brought together: ambition and inner wisdom, strategy and intuition, science and spirituality, achievement and fulfillment.
FROM BANKER TO
Breakthrough
For nearly ten years, I followed the traditional path of what I thought I should do.
I worked on Wall Street, earned my MBA from Stanford, built a career in private equity and was on track to become a partner. I was ambitious, driven, and really good at checking boxes.
From the outside, my life looked successful.
Inside, something felt off.
I felt like I had climbed to the top of the ladder only to realize…crap! Wrong ladder.
I’d achieved the success I’d worked so hard for, but it hadn’t delivered the fulfillment I thought would come with it.
So my overachiever did what overachievers do:
I went looking for answers.
I immersed myself in conscious leadership, neuroscience, behavior change, mindfulness and meditation. And then I kept going—into intuition, breathwork, hypnosis, past-life healing and some seriously woo-woo sh*t.
To my surprise, a lot of it really worked!
But the biggest shift wasn’t learning one more technique. It was learning to stop looking outside myself for all the answers—and to trust the wisdom within.
I stopped living other people’s dreams and started pursuing my own.
I quit my job in finance and began sharing what I was learning with other ambitious people who, like me, had achieved so much on the outside yet still sensed there was something more.
Over time, that exploration became my life’s work: helping leaders reconnect with themselves, each other, and what matters most.
MY JOURNEY
My path wasn’t a straight line. It was a journey of discovery, integration, and coming home to what truly matters.
ACHIEVEMENT
I spent years pursuing achievement, growth, and the traditional markers of success—believing that if I accomplished enough, fulfillment would follow.
AWAKENING
My search led me into meditation, neuroscience, conscious leadership, spiritual practice, and a deeper exploration of what makes us truly thrive.
INTEGRATION
Eventually, I realized I didn’t need to abandon ambition—I needed to transform my relationship with it, integrating outer achievement with inner wisdom.
THE SOUL SOLUTION
Oh, and I wrote a book about it.
After years of exploring what happens when achievement comes at the expense of our inner lives, I wrote The Soul Solution—a guide for burned-out, overwhelmed women who are ready to stop doing more and start reconnecting with themselves.
It’s part science, part spirituality, part practical toolkit—and an invitation to quiet all those outside voices and start listening to the one that matters most: your own.
From hosting workshops for YPO and Google, to giving a Tedx talk…
… to being trained in meditation and hypnosis, I’m a believer and an example of how mindful living and creating a conscious business go hand in hand. Here’s a snapshot of my life and values:
[FOR MY THIRD PERSON, ALL DOLLED-UP BIO]
TRUST IN
Intuition
For most of my life, I was really good at listening to the voices outside of me—teachers, bosses, experts, society’s definition of success. I learned how to work hard, set goals, analyze problems, and achieve.
What I hadn’t learned was how to listen to myself.
We spend so much of our lives learning how to think, analyze, and make smart decisions, while often ignoring another powerful source of wisdom: our intuition.
That quiet inner knowing that tells us when something is right, when it’s not, and what we most deeply want—even when it doesn’t make logical sense.
Learning to trust that voice changed my life.
And it’s become a cornerstone of my work with leaders today. I’m not interested in asking ambitious people to become less ambitious or walk away from everything they’ve built.
I believe the most powerful path integrates both: strategy and intuition, achievement and fulfillment, outer success and inner knowing.
Because sometimes you don’t need a different life.
You need a deeper connection to yourself within the life you’ve already created.
TRUST YOURSELF
The answers you’re seeking
may already be within you.
Come back to center in five minutes.
My free 5-Minute Centering Practice is a simple way to quiet the noise, reconnect with yourself, and access the clarity that’s already within you.
Years ago, I was meditating at Spirit Rock when a realization landed with startling clarity:
I’ve been chasing the wrong kind of power my whole life.
I had spent years pursuing the kind of power our culture teaches us to value—achievement, credentials, recognition, money, status. The kind that comes from proving yourself and being seen as successful.
But sitting there, I glimpsed another kind of power.
A quieter, deeper power that comes from knowing who you are. From trusting yourself. From being fully present and connected to something larger than your own ambition.
That moment changed the way I understood success.
I still believe in ambition. I love big goals, meaningful work, and creating an impact in the world. But I no longer believe our outer achievements are where our deepest power comes from.
Real power comes from within.
And when we lead from that place, we don’t have to choose between success and fulfillment. We can create lives that are extraordinary on the outside—and deeply meaningful on the inside.
WHAT I BELIEVE
Success and fulfillment
are not mutually exclusive.
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VULNERABILITY CREATES TRUST.
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CONNECTION MATTERS MORE THAN PERFECTION.
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INNER WORK CREATES OUTER RESULTS.
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INTUITION IS A FORM OF INTELLIGENCE.
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HOW WE ACHIEVE MATTERS AS MUCH AS WHAT WE ACHIEVE.
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EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS SHOULDN’T REQUIRE SACRIFICING WHAT MATTERS MOST.
TODAY, THIS IS MY WORK
KEYNOTE SPEAKING
Helping audiences rethink what’s possible when achievement and fulfillment no longer have to compete.
EXECUTIVE + YPO FACILITATION
Creating transformative experiences that deepen trust, connection, vulnerability, and growth.
RETREATS + BREATHWORK
Helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and access deeper clarity, insight, and inner wisdom.
Vanessa is the best facilitator I’ve ever worked with.
Russ Rosenzweig
CEO, RoundTable Group
YPO Global One
Watching Vanessa facilitate is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball.
Travis Moore
Chapter Forum Officer
YPO Pacific Star
I have never gotten such positive feedback from Googlers before.
Katie Rottier
Former Head of Industry/Retail
When I’m not facilitating retreats, speaking on stage, or leading breathwork experiences, you’ll usually find me with my family, hiking in the redwoods, stubbornly squinting at a great fiction book (before eventually giving in and grabbing my new reading glasses), baking gluten-free banana bread my kids sort of like, or asking big questions about what creates a meaningful life.
I’m endlessly curious about human potential, connection, leadership, consciousness, and what it means to truly thrive.
Because at the end of the day, I don’t believe success is measured only by what we accomplish.
I believe it’s measured by how much glee we experience along the way.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT MY BACKGROUND
Vanessa is a Stanford MBA, author, keynote speaker and YPO Certified Forum Facilitator whose work has reached leaders at organizations including Google, Airbnb, LinkedIn and more.
WHO I’VE
WORKED WITH
Over the last 10 years at Google, myself and my team have attended hundreds of hours of corporate trainings. When I saw what Vanessa did differently, and heard about her other Fortune 500 clients that have had tremendous success, I knew I had to hire her to bring something unique… I have never gotten such positive feedback from Googlers before. I will hire Vanessa again hands down.
Extraordinary Success. Deeper Fulfillment.
Whether you're looking to create a transformational experience for your leadership team, YPO forum, organization—or simply reconnect more deeply with yourself—I'd love to support you. BRING VANESSA TO YOUR EVENT →
May you live with joy, presence, and purpose—and generously share your gifts with the world.
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I can’t wait to meet you!
Much love
