The Story

About Laurie

I started in oncology. Fifteen years. Leader and clinical educator. A world where what you needed to do the job was built into the process. When there was an emergency, everyone rallied. Did their part. The structure held it. The culture held it. Nobody had to fight for the basics.

Then I moved to corporate.
And everything changed.

I showed up the same way. Whenever a challenge arrived, I stepped in. Not for visibility. Not for personal agenda. Because that is how I had always worked. But instead of being recognised for it, I was managed around it. Then labelled for it. Not because I failed. Because I did not.

Here is what I could not see at the time.

In oncology, I never had to define what I needed in return to deliver. It was just there. So when I moved to corporate, I did not even know it was something I needed to define. I walked in ready to contribute. Defined everything I could bring. And never once defined what I needed in return to deliver on it.

There was no second sentence.

I gave everything. The role gave nothing back. And it broke me. I stopped being able to see my own value clearly. Once that gap opened, everything else fell apart with it.

The recognition I needed was not going to come from them. It had to come from me first.

Why That Matters for You

I have lived both ends. Oncology showed me what is possible when what you need is built into the process. Corporate showed me what happens when it is not.

Most leaders do not have that reference point. They keep thinking it is them. I knew it was not. But knowing it was not enough. I had to build something that would have changed everything if I had had it myself.

That is what Defined is. The thing I needed and did not have. Built so that you do.

The Work

What I actually do

I listen to you talk about your career. Then I extract what is actually there, beneath the language you have been using to describe it, beneath the beliefs you have carried about what you are and are not capable of. I map the pattern. I build the evidence. I write the position you find hardest to say about yourself, grounded in proof so overwhelming that you believe it.

This is not coaching. I do not ask you to explore your values or set goals. I ask hard questions, and then I build five documents from your own record that show you what is true.

Every claim is grounded in your evidence. Every reframe is forensic. Nothing is inflated. Nothing is modest. Just accurate.

From a real engagement

Belief:

"I'm good at the work but not good at being seen doing the work."

What's actually true:

"You have never been invisible. You have been promoted early, recruited into bigger roles, trusted with failing strategies, asked to present externally. What you have not done is insist that the connection between your work and the outcomes is made explicit when it matters most."

That is the level of depth. That is what you get.

Results

Five client results since January 2026

New role. €70K increase. On her terms.

Promotion, €30K increase, new reporting line. Right recognition for the role she was already in.

New sector, senior title, €45K increase.

A year of nothing landing. Now in final rounds for 2 opportunities.

Too exhausted to act. Now choosing between roles on his own terms.

What you have built already has weight. It just needs someone who can see it clearly.

At home, I'm a wife to a CTO and mum to a bright, neurodiverse boy who reminds me every day about resilience and the importance of belonging. Life isn't perfect. But it's real. And that's exactly what I bring to my work. Honesty, hope, and the promise that you never have to do it alone.

Have you ever mapped what you bring, with evidence, the same way you'd build a business case for anything else?

Book a call with me. 30 minutes. No obligation. We will talk about where you are, what is not working, and whether Defined is the right fit.

Book a Discovery Call

30 minutes · No obligation