The internet is a noisy place. And it is tempting to draw on all the outside information available to us to help us out in life.

There is a time for relying on best practices and lessons learned from others. And there is a time to go inward.

The work I do is to help leaders draw on the inside information available to them. Yes, it is insider information. Insider to you and you alone.

If you search for “secrets to success” in your web browser, you will find countless articles sharing tips and advice from others sharing their secrets to success.

However, I help my clients identify their secrets to success.

The things that are completely unique and personal to you that you have done your entire life that cause you to be the success that you are.

Here are my secrets to success:

1. Differentiate myself

   In junior high school, I ran track. In track, there are sprinters and there are distance runners. And then there is the 400m, which is like an endurance sprint. Not quite a sprint, and not a long distance. I excelled at this event.

   In grad school, I applied for an internship at a Latin American policy institute where most applicants had a background in Latin American studies. I was the only Economics student that applied, and they had a need for part time support of their resident Economist. I got the position.

   As a coach, I bring my background in consulting and people development, and an advanced degree in economics, combined with independent study in psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, attachment theory, and an interest in undoing cultural conditioning and living an embodied spirituality. There is no other coach on the planet that brings together the experience and learning that I do. It’s my differentiator.

2. Go big or go home

   After three years of gaining some corporate experience, I quit my job to move to Washington, DC and go to graduate school. The colleagues I left behind couldn’t believe I was so gutsy as to quit my job.

   After grad school, my sister and I lived out our dream of living in Latin America together when we moved to Paraguay for a year. I showed up in Asuncion with no job, a handful of contacts, and a whole lot of gumption. I started meeting with my network, and within three weeks, landed a job as a researcher at a think tank.

3. Love the thrill of achievement

   For better or worse, I love the thrill of achievement. In my case, it drives me to perform extremely well. For years, although I never really knew what I wanted, I was committed to excellence. I always knew how to perform and achieve, and it served me well.

4. Follow my curiosity

   In college, I had an amazing professor who brought economics to life. Economics has been called the dismal science, but it was anything but dismal because of the way this professor made it real and applicable. (Who hasn’t experienced diminishing marginal returns after eating that 10th Oreo?) During college, I spent a summer in Bolivia where I saw that economics could be the key to my ability to help change people’s realities. I recently wrote an article about this.

   Since then, I have followed my curiosity through various subjects that interested me (see #1), and they all inform my work today.

5. Keep raising the bar

   As mentioned earlier, I was not a distance runner. After college, I started running 5 kilometers. I even signed up for a few races. And after a couple of years, I signed up for a 10k. And a couple of years after that, I signed up for a 1/2 marathon. If you had told me in college that I would be running a 1/2 marathon, I would have laughed in your face. But I did it. Because I kept raising the bar. This is a fun way to play in business too.

6. Follow my passion

I have had many passions. Since I was young, I loved gymnastics. I turned this into a 10 year career, teaching gymnastics.

I fell in love with Spanish, and pursued a BA degree and studied and lived abroad, and it has opened doors for me professionally and personally.

While living in Paraguay, I saw a performance of dances across Latin America, including Brazilian capoeira. I was mesmorized. It brought together gymnastics and martial arts, and I was hooked. I joined a local capoeira group and trained for 6 years.

By the time my first child turned two , I realized I was ill-equipped to parent a toddler. I was fortunate to have a couple of people in my life who nudged me toward resources, and I was off and running, or reading as the case was. I immersed myself in parent education, and became passionate about intentional/conscious parenting. I’m not even close to being perfect (it doesn’t exist), but I parent with intention now and that’s the best I can do.

Now it’s your turn. What are the secrets to success that you have been using your whole life? I’d love to know.

Love,

Audrey