A Coaching Program for Women Who Are Ready to Lead

Let's be honest

You're the one they call
when things fall apart.
So why aren't you the one
they promote?

You've been delivering. For years. The results are there. The receipts are there. The late nights, the saved projects, the ideas that quietly became company strategy with someone else's name on them — all there.

And still, you sit in rooms where your voice is the last one heard. You watch colleagues with less experience and fewer results get tapped for the opportunities you've been quietly preparing for. You've been told you're "ready soon." You've been called "brilliant" in private and overlooked in public.

This isn't an ability problem. This isn't a confidence problem. This is a visibility problem. And it's costing you.

If any of this sounds familiar,
you're exactly who we built this for.

You're the best-kept secret in the building

The people who work closely with you think you're exceptional. But the decision-makers — the ones who control your next opportunity — barely know your name. You haven't figured out how to be visible without feeling like you're performing.

You're exhausted from shrinking yourself

You've learned to soften your ideas so they land better. You wait to be called on. You preface your opinions with "I might be wrong, but..." You're tired of it. And you're tired of the fact that it still doesn't seem to work.

The feedback you get is frustratingly vague

"Work on your executive presence." Okay. What does that actually mean? Nobody tells you how. Nobody explains what they're really seeing — or not seeing — when you walk into a room. You're supposed to figure out the unwritten rules on your own.

You don't have a sponsor, and your mentor can only do so much

Having someone in your corner who believes in you is beautiful. But belief doesn't open doors. You need someone who is actively putting your name in rooms you're not in yet — and a strategy to make that happen.

Imposter syndrome shows up right when it matters most

In the meetings where you should shine brightest, you freeze. You second-guess your instincts. You wonder if you belong. And then you go home and know — you knew the answer. You were just too afraid to say it loud.

You've been passed over and you're not sure why

You asked. The answer was diplomatic and unhelpful. So you keep doing what you've been doing, hoping something will shift. But nothing shifts unless something changes — and nobody is handing you a roadmap.

The hard truth

"Working harder isn't the answer. The women who rise aren't always the most talented ones in the room. They're the ones who've mastered the room."

Executive presence isn't about being loud or aggressive. It's not about changing who you are. It's about learning how to translate your brilliance in a language power understands.

It's knowing how to walk into a room and be felt before you speak. It's knowing how to own your narrative, build strategic relationships, and position yourself for what's next — with intention, not luck.

Most women at your level have never been taught this. Not because they couldn't learn it — but because no one thought to teach it to them. The rules of the executive game were written for someone else, and you've been left to reverse-engineer them alone.

That ends here.

Introducing

The coaching program built for women who are ready
to stop being overlooked.

A transformational cohort experience that combines deep one-on-one executive coaching with hands-on executive presence development — so you don't just grow internally, you grow visibly. Group intensives are held in person. Private 1:1 coaching sessions happen virtually. You walk out of this program knowing exactly who you are as a leader, how to communicate it, and how to command the opportunities you've already earned.

Pillar One

Executive Coaching

Private, deep coaching sessions where we get into the real stuff — your patterns, your blocks, your blind spots, your goals. This is where self-awareness becomes strategy.

Pillar Two

Executive Presence

The tactical work: how you show up, communicate, command a room, build visibility, and position yourself as the obvious choice for what's next. Presence is a skill. We teach it.

Pillar Three

Community & Cohort

A curated group of women at your level who become your honest mirrors, your accountability circle, and your network. The relationships you build here outlast the program.

Pillar Four

Strategic Visibility

We build your personal brand from the inside out — your narrative, your positioning, your LinkedIn, your presence in every room that matters. You become someone people recommend without being asked.

The Program

Twelve weeks.
Four phases.
One irreversible shift.

This isn't a workshop you attend and forget. Every phase builds on the last — combining in-person group intensives with virtual 1:1 private coaching — so the growth is deep and the results are real.

Weeks 1–3 · Foundation

Know Exactly Who You Are

We start with radical clarity. Through your private coaching sessions and group work, you identify your leadership identity, your unique value, and the stories you've been telling yourself that are keeping you small. We do a 360-degree presence audit so you know precisely how you're landing — not how you think you're landing.

Weeks 4–6 · Presence

Build the Presence They Can't Ignore

The tactical deep dive. Executive communication, commanding a room, navigating difficult conversations, influencing without authority, and showing up consistently as a leader — even when you're the only one who looks like you. We practice, we film, we give real feedback.

Weeks 7–9 · Visibility

Get Seen by the People Who Matter

We build your visibility strategy — inside your organization and beyond it. Your personal brand narrative, your LinkedIn positioning, your sponsorship strategy, and how to architect the moments where decision-makers see you at your best. You stop waiting to be discovered and start engineering your own exposure.

Weeks 10–12 · Ascent

Position for What's Next

You've done the inner work. You've built the skills. Now we get strategic. Your 90-day leadership action plan, your target opportunity roadmap, and your negotiation framework — for the raise, the title, or the next role you've had your eye on. You leave with a plan and the confidence to execute it.

Who This Is For

This program is selective.
And it's selective on purpose.

This is for you if

Your sphere of influence is growing — you may be managing a team for the first time, stepping into new lines of business, or navigating a role that's bigger than your title
You're tired of being the most hardworking person in a room that doesn't see you
You're willing to do real work — not just consume content
You want a community of women who will tell you the truth, not just cheer for you
You're committed to the full 12 weeks
You know something needs to change and you're finally ready to change it

This is not for you if

You're early in your career and looking for general professional development
You want a passive learning experience with no accountability
You're not ready to examine your own patterns honestly
You're looking for quick tips and a certificate
You're not prepared to show up fully for yourself and your cohort

Your Guides

The women behind
the program.

Between them, they've overseen billion-dollar business units, led strategy and communications work alongside the NFL, NBA, Nike, Google, and Airbnb, and coached hundreds of women into the rooms they deserved to be in all along. This isn't theory. This is lived experience.

Executive Coach & CEO, INSPIRE1

Cynthia Whitfield-Story

Cynthia spent over 25 years ascending the ranks of corporate America — all the way to Field Senior Vice President at Allstate, where she led a $2 billion business unit and managed 2,500+ employees. She knows what it actually takes to lead at the highest levels — not just the strategy, but the inner game, the politics, and the unwritten rules nobody hands you a guide for.

Today, as President & CEO of INSPIRE1, she coaches corporate executives and senior leaders to break through the roadblocks keeping them stuck — and step into the kind of leadership that's impossible to overlook. Her superpower is strategic clarity: helping you see exactly where you are, where you need to go, and what's standing in the way.

Former SVP, Allstate $2B P&L Leadership ATHENA International Award NBJ Woman of Influence Advancing Women in Nashville

Founder & CEO, NDMC

Netta Dobbins-Cunningham

Over the past decade, Netta has led strategy and communications for some of the world's most recognized organizations — including the NFL, NBA, Nike, Google, Airbnb, and PBS — and now brings that expertise to her own firm, NDMC. She's a strategist first, which means she sees something most coaches miss: visibility isn't just about confidence. It's about positioning, narrative, and knowing how to make yourself legible to power.

Her work lives at the intersection of brand strategy and executive presence — helping women not only become stronger leaders but become impossible to ignore. She brings the kind of strategic thinking typically reserved for Fortune 500 brands to the women who are ready to operate at that level. She holds a Vanderbilt Executive MBA and has been recognized as an Adweek Women Trailblazer and Nashville Emerging Leader. Above all, she is deeply committed to making sure the women behind her rise faster than she did.

NFL · NBA · Nike · Google Vanderbilt Executive MBA Adweek Women Trailblazer 2024 Nashville Emerging Leader Forbes · Fast Company

Cohort 1

Meet the women of
the inaugural cohort.

Nine accomplished leaders stepping into their next level of visibility, influence, and executive presence.

Breanna McKnight

Assistant Dean & Director of Residence Life, Belmont University

Diana Pelham

Vice President, Leadership Giving, Tennessee Performing Arts Center

Jasmine Ledsinger

Program Director, The Store

Jennifer Cason

General Manager, Comfort Keepers

Kenita Stokes

Senior Associate Athletic Director & Chief of Staff, Tennessee State University

Sarah Woodall

Senior Director, Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association

Stephanie Kirschner

Sr. HR Operations Leader, Gresham Smith

Virginia (Ginger) Ledbetter

Senior Director, Human Resources & Payroll, First Acceptance

Autumn Prather

Co-Founder and CEO of The Mother & Daughter Experience™ (M.A.D.E.)

“Hearing that other women in the room share the same doubts I carry made me realize it’s not a personal flaw. It’s a universal experience. That realization gave me a confidence I didn’t know I was holding back. I feel powerful, informed, and ready to grow even more.”

— Cohort 1 Participant

Here's what shifts
when you do the work.

Where you are now

Where you're going

Waiting to be called on in meetings you should be leading

→

Walking into rooms and being felt before you speak

Getting feedback that's vague and impossible to act on

→

A clear, specific roadmap for your next leadership level

Watching less-qualified people get the opportunities you've prepared for

→

Strategic visibility with the people who can open doors

Shrinking your ideas before you even share them

→

Ideas delivered with the authority they deserve

Exhausted from doing everything right with nothing to show for it

→

Working smarter, leading louder, doing less invisible labor

Unsure of your next move and hesitant to make one

→

A 90-day action plan and the confidence to execute it

For Organizations

Your best leaders are already
on your payroll.
Invest in keeping them.

Sponsoring a high-potential director-level woman in this program isn't a perk. It's one of the highest-ROI talent decisions you can make — and the data backs it up.

60%

of new managers fail within their first two years — largely due to lack of training

Gartner Research

84%

of workers say poorly trained managers create unnecessary work and stress for their teams

SHRM Survey

59%

of managers received no leadership training at all when they transitioned into their first role

West Monroe / CCL, 2025

The average return on every dollar invested in leadership development.

According to a 2023 report by BetterManager and The Fossicker Group, organizations that invest in coaching programs see an average ROI of $7 for every $1 spent — driven by increased revenue, higher retention, and lower recruiting costs. 99% of L&D leaders said they plan to maintain or increase their coaching investment in the next 12 months.

The leadership gap is real — and it's costing you.

A 2024 Deloitte report found that nearly half of organizations said their leaders are overwhelmed and struggling to prioritize in today's environment. Only 23% believed their leaders had the capacity to navigate current disruptions at all.

The organizations closing that gap aren't waiting for their leaders to figure it out on their own. They're investing proactively in the people who are already showing up — and making sure those people have the tools to lead at the next level.

Sponsoring a high-potential woman in this program is exactly that kind of investment. It's targeted, structured, and designed to produce measurable shifts — not just inspiration.

What you get as a sponsoring organization.

A stronger, more visible leader ready to take on expanded scope and responsibility
Reduced management turnover — and the enormous cost that comes with replacing director-level talent
A leader who returns with a 90-day action plan tied to your organizational goals
Improved team culture, communication, and engagement downstream
A demonstrated signal to all your women leaders that advancement is real here
Access to corporate cohort pricing when sponsoring multiple participants

Request Corporate Cohort Pricing

Join the Waitlist

Lock in your spot.

Applications for the August – November 2026 cohort open July 8th, 2026. Cohorts are intentionally small. Join the waitlist now to be first in line when enrollment opens.

Next Cohort

August – November 2026

Cohort size: 10 women · Hybrid — monthly in-person sessions + virtual 1:1 coaching

Applications open: July 8, 2026

Apply Now

Many participants use L&D or professional development budgets — we provide all documentation needed to make the case to your employer.

A word from us

You've waited long enough
to be seen.

Let us be direct with you the way we wish someone had been direct with us. The path from director to the room you actually want to be in is not paved with more hard work. You've already proven you can work hard. It's paved with strategy, visibility, and the kind of confidence that doesn't shrink under pressure.

We built this program because we know what it feels like to be excellent and overlooked. We know the specific exhaustion of carrying more than your share and receiving less than your due. We know what it's like to wonder if something is wrong with you — when nothing is wrong with you.

You don't need to be fixed. You need to be equipped.

Cohorts are intentionally small — just 10 women per cycle — because the depth of this work requires real attention. Applications for Cohort 2 open July 8, 2026. The program runs August – November 2026.

Apply Now Have Questions? Reach Out

You didn't comethis far to staythis invisible.

You're the one they callwhen things fall apart.So why aren't you the onethey promote?

If any of this sounds familiar,you're exactly who we built this for.