Meet Renée.

Meet Renée

My Story

My name is Renée and I’m an addict. An action junky. A woman who regularly sacrifices her “way of being” for the reliable high of “doing”. Being willing to name my addiction was my first real step towards recovery. A recovery I am still on but a recovery deeply worth pursuing.

Up until a few years ago, I convinced myself I had it pretty well together. I had a strong marriage, two great kids, enriching and fun friendships, and a fulfilling career.

Yet, many days I still felt empty. Feeling that who I was, what I had and what I had done, was not yet enough. So, I chased more. I did more. But more did not settle my soul, fill my heart or strengthen my relationships.

For the most part, ’more’ resulted in unhealthy stress, greater responsibility, and physical exhaustion. More meant less time with the people in my life that mattered most. ’More’ ultimately meant losing connection with my true sense of self and selfworth.

I remember the first time I saw myself in my addiction. It was 2014 and one morning while eating breakfast my spoon started clattering against my cereal bowl. I had developed a tremor in my hand. A few days later, I noticed myself speaking with a stutter.

I called my doctor who scheduled an MRI. She was worried about Multiple Sclerosis. She shared that my gender and age bracket put me in the “high risk patient profile”. Not a recognition any of us want, but there it was.

I had been working crazy hours which included traveling and getting way too little sleep. On most days, I found it difficult to breathe—to take that full deep breath that resets your nervous system when you need it most. I also felt trapped. Trapped by my drive to keep ‘doing’ and yet at that time, helpless to change it.

Thankfully, my diagnosis was not Multiple Sclerosis...it was stress. I had basically done this to myself.. The possibility of having a life-changing disease was a huge wake-up call. While it was not MS, I knew I had been gifted a clear warning sign. It was time for me to face my addiction and acknowledge the negative impact all my years of ‘doing’ was having on my health and my relationships.

Acknowledging my addiction was necessary but not enough. I needed to rethink and reframe my concept of ‘doing’. I needed to shift my belief structure about what it looked like to contribute—to be seen and acknowledged not just for what I did but for who I was. This may sound easy for some. For me it was anything but easy.

Not long after my health-scare I made one huge change. In 2015 I left my senior leadership role in biotech to give myself a shot at doing work in the world that would fill my soul and sustain me, without needing to chase that next ‘doing’ fix. My progress was slow. On most days, I was still chasing that reliable high I got from my “doing life”.

Flash forward to January 2017. I was attending a women’s retreat with my daughter on the coast of California. It was the closing session and women were being invited into the circle to share the impact the weekend could have on their lives. Most of the women were speaking-up...and I was not. My daughter was prodding me with her eyes from the other side of the room to share. She wanted me to be the mom she knows. The one who does without exception. But in this moment, maybe for the first time so clearly, I heard a wiser and more authentic voice inside of me who said “stay put, sit, observe, receive.”

A few seconds later, a more familiar voice came onto the scene. She said, “Why are you here if you don’t step into the circle? Who are you if you’re not contributing?” There they were, these two competing voices battling it out within me. In the end I actually had to physically leave the room. It may not seem like a very significant moment but somehow I knew it was.

As I looked out at the ocean I reflected on just how many times this battle had ensued in my life. How many times this drive in me to do, to contribute, to effort— how much it had ruled me in so many ways. And, how few times I had given myself permission to honor that small but important moment we are almost always given before taking an action, to pause and decide. To do or not to do?

I started to think, wow, imagine all the effort I have put into the world, imagine all the things I have done that weren't authentic because they did not come from a place of deeper knowing that this is what was needed or what I even wanted to do. And as a leader for the last 25 years, and a parent for the last 15 years, how much had my ‘doing life’ influenced ‘a doing life’ in others, and what had they sacrificed as a result?

My decision to not step into the circle that morning honored that quieter voice in me, a voice I had ignored for so much of my life. A voice that said—you don’t ‘have’ to do this. And that one small win gave me hope. Hope that I could actually practice this in my life more regularly. And what if one of the choices I could make for myself going forward was to do nothing—to take Authentic Inaction™, two words that came into my consciousness that morning as I looked out at the ocean.

A little bit more about me professionally…

I am a best-selling author, TEDx & motivational speaker, and founder of the Deep Tissue Living Institute, a coaching and consulting platform dedicated to doing the deepest work with those who never thought they could. Prior to launching my own practice, I spent 20 years in executive level HR roles in the high tech and biotech industries, including five years working and living oversees in Switzerland.

As an international thought leader playing at the intersection of business, leadership, psychology and well-being, I travel around the world coaching and advising leaders and teams how to navigate risk, change and growth while fueling the soul of the organizations and cultures they shape. I also coach students and executives seeking deeper work and life meaning at at two prestigious universities--Stanford University and IMD (International Management Development) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

I have presented on dozens of global stages, been the guest on numerous podcasts and have been featured in high profile media publications such as Fortune, Financial Times Elephant Journal and Ladders. Most recently I coauthored “The Art & Truth of Transformation for Women” that quickly became an Amazon International Best Seller.

In February 2020, I took my own story to the TedX stage. My talk titled ‘Authentic Inaction™: Undoing the Doing in a Do Crazy World’ is an account of my own trials and tribulations as a “doing addict” and workaholic. My talk has already reached 600K views and supports my mission to revolutionize the way we work, play & relate to one another and our purpose.

I hold a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology. My coaching approach borrows from numerous coaching accreditations, including the gold-standard International Coaching Federation accreditation.

Today, I live in Sacramento, California with my husband, Sean, and two teenagers and our beloved dog Atlas. As a family, we are fueled by our passion for travel, which includes 50+ countries and counting. Inspired by these experiences, I host a blog that can be found at www.travelmomentswithkids.com.

Speaking & Guest Podcast Profiles

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