About Aubrie, Life & Career Coach
“If you spend too much time fearing change, you will forget to celebrate it. Everything you love and cherish in life exists because of change. The continuous back and forth between endings and beginnings makes all things possible.”
– Yung Pueblo
What I’m Here To Do
I’m here to help people connect to themselves and make decisions from their center.
When I graduated from my coaching program in 2009, I was filling out a reflection sheet – the sentence above was my response to the question “What difference do you hope to make as a coach?” It’s been an anchor and a compass since in supporting people in transition and change.
When my business coach asked me in 2024 who I am here to serve, I immediately answered “the mystery.” That is not what she meant! 🙂 But really, I know I’m on track if I focus on what makes me feel alive and hopeful – knowing that there is much more possibility than I can see in this moment. Amidst the joy and struggle is a way of living that feels freer and even more comfortable than existing in certainty.
So absolutely I’m here to serve you – guiding you to connect to yourself, your path, your mystery.
What I Bring
- 17+ years of coaching expertise, including a specialty in career transition (checkout my LinkedIn profile and my career story below for more details including a decade of global corporate work experience at Nike and navigating work transitions to non-profit work and entrepreneurship)
- Extended training in transition, grief and group coaching
- 10 year Zen meditation practice
- First hand experience caregiving and losing a parent
- Collaborative Divorce training (and living through the joy of partnership and unique pain of divorce)
- Years of impact and transformation from a brain injury
- Moving to a new state, building a new life and community
- Age milestones up to 52! 🙂
- 15 years of professional astrology practice- teaching and giving readings
My Threads
- Bridging the practical and inspirational
- Communicating in a straightforward, direct manner
- Getting to the core of the matter
- Supporting people’s uniqueness
- Trusting we have the answers inside of us
- Educating others and providing tools they can use the rest of their lives
The Red Glasses
When I was a young girl, I wore a pair of red plastic glasses wherever I went. Those glasses have been with me at each desk, at each workplace to remind me of my threads – who I am and who I’ll always be. When a colleague started to design the Coaching for Clarity logo, he decided on the red glasses as the basis for the image because of how they inspire me and how I hope to inspire others. The heart shape conveys my style – clarity with deep caring.
I want to share a couple of times that felt like this for me. The first one was in 2008.
I had been working at a non-profit for students with disabilities for 3 years. I felt like I had found my ideal job, having made a very conscious career change from Nike. Unexpectedly, I was laid off.
In a moment, my life was shaken up. I lost a job I loved. I lost connection with my co-workers and the students. Just three months before the layoff, I had purchased a home – how was I going to pay a mortgage? 2008 was a pretty rough time to be looking for a job. Was I supposed to go back to corporate?
Within a week, I was at a neighbor’s house for a crafting party. I was lost, sad and in shock. I had no idea what was next. When someone asked what my craft was, I said lying on the floor. That night, I met my future husband.
Within a couple of weeks of that craft party, I made a decision to start my coaching practice. Scary and exciting.
It was a pivotal moment in my life – lost a job and career, bought a new house, started a new relationship, started a new business. None of this was smooth and easy. Beginnings and endings are both stressful. But it was a new chapter, and there was plenty of joy and growth.
The second big life change moment actually spanned 8 years, starting in 2016. It included my mom dying, my sister and her family leaving the state, getting divorced, getting a concussion and moving. You can read more about those events here.
None of us have all the answers and there is no right way to do life change. What I can do is use my empathy, my coaching expertise and my passion for the mystery of our lives to help guide you through this transition, this transformation.
My Career Story
Clients often ask me, “Have you ever had career confusion or dissatisfaction?” Of course! Most often the things we are most gifted at doing for others are things that have been a source of pain or unshakeable focus in our own lives. I have always been intrigued by career and its place in life, and have striven to find purpose in it. This curiosity and drive has led me through corporate and non-profit work, as well as entrepreneurship.
I spent 9 years at Nike, mostly in IT. While IT was intellectually challenging and paid well, I was missing the kind social contribution I craved. To help get that need met, I was actively involved in Diversity Leadership within the company, which led me to pursue a full time stretch assignment in the Office of Global Diversity. I was responsible for project managing the first ever assessment of how global employees felt company culture affected their career. It was sent to 16,000 employees in 7 languages, with a 58% return rate. There was a gold mine of information and I was hooked on understanding what contributed to (or got in the way of) peoples’ satisfaction at work.
Not long after that project concluded, I realized I wanted to be in service to individuals for more of my day – to have my time and energy support a non-profit organization. I cut my hours to 32 per week at Nike and spent my Fridays exploring – my gifts, my budget, my career aspirations and of course the Portland non-profit sector. I had a list of things I wanted very specifically in my next job (including walking to work, using existing skills, growing new ones, a certain salary), things I didn’t want (having to update my resume – funny now, since I love doing resumes!) and things I didn’t need (employer provided health insurance). People I shared my list with told me I would never get all of it.
A year after my exploration began, I left Nike for Incight , with all of my needs and wants in place! My role was to help college students with disabilities around the nation transition from education to career. I created innovative mentoring and internship programs, training students and employers alike. I guided a caseload of 80 students varying from certificate holders to PhDs, helping them identify their innate talents, define the work they wanted and create the concrete plans to start their careers. It was a joy and a stretch. I fully enjoyed my 3 years there, but with the economic downturn I was laid off in 2008 – and heartbroken.
I took the layoff as a sign to take the jump and pursue my desire to start my own practice. I knew for quite a while that I wanted to help people from all walks of life find joy in their work, so in the summer of 2008 I started Coaching for Clarity. It has been one of the biggest challenges and adventures of my life. As part of my practice from 2009 – 2013, I was honored to do contract work part-time for the global career development firm Lee Hecht Harrison, providing coaching and workshop facilitation for countless organizations, including going back to Nike and supporting their employees in advancing their careers at the company. Since November of 2013, I have been focused on my own practice 100%. This work asks for the best of me every day and I love the challenge, the work, my clients.
The difference between coaching and therapy
There’s overlap between coaching and therapy. When done well, both are about focused listening, asking good questions, changing perspectives, providing resources, being a sounding board. Emotions are welcome in both kinds of sessions. Coaching and therapy cover the past, present, and future.
One big difference is that coaching doesn’t go into what I call the yarn ball underneath of where you are – your childhood, for example. There is no analysis or diagnosis in coaching. You don’t need to worry about what you are sharing in coaching – I’m confident in the line between coaching and therapy and will let you know if we get in that territory. I welcome you to be as open as feels comfortable to you.
The importance of mystery
Have you ever had an unexpected event change the course of your life? Thought a situation was going to turn out a certain way, only to find that it turned out different (and better) than you thought?
I have. I was in love with my work at Incight, helping students with disabilities on their transitions from college to career. In 2008, after working with students for three years, I was laid off – just before the start of many of the students’ final year of school. I was going to miss their graduations and transitions. I was heartbroken. After some grieving, I started Coaching for Clarity and while it was sad, scary, exciting and unknown, it was just the right thing for me.
Our lives thrive on this mystery – how a loss can turn into a win, how what we have planned can pale in comparison to what the universe has planned for us. Yes, it is vitally important to take practical steps in our lives. It is equally important, however, to leave room in the process for things that we cannot predict. Staying as free as possible of assumptions and expectations is crucial. So many people shut down their possibilities by telling stories of how it just won’t work. In my experience with clients I’ve noticed that not only do those assumptions rob energy they need to keep going, they also keep people on the edge of missing out on exciting opportunities and connections.
The unknown is inevitable and unavoidable, so we might as well welcome it in and open ourselves to the mystery. It is my job to guide you through the unknown – providing just the right amount of structure to help you feel the forward movement, while leaving plenty of space for inspiration and excitement.
Getting started
Schedule a free 30-minute intro consultation – we’ll get to know each other, you’ll get some insight into your situation and you can get a feel for me and my work.