Our Women Warrior this week is Laura DeNatale, owner of Laura D Coaching based out of New York.
Laura is a Leadership & Career Coach who helps ambitious, creative professionals optimize their relationship with work and create a more intentional career path. Laura utilizes a highly creative and collaborative process designed to increase self awareness, identify and overcome blocks and empower clients to take meaningful actions toward their goals. By implementing creative tools and reflective exercises, clients are able to tune into their own inner wisdom, find clarity and make powerful moves forward.
Coaching is done privately in one-on-one sessions and engagements are customized to meet my clients where they are in their development journey.
Where it all began…
Laura started her career in marketing as a brand strategist for a branding agency. Her enjoyment in studying people, their habits and understanding how they make decisions led her in this direction. She went on to become a strategy consultant and learned how to think critically, lead teams and build relationships with her clients.
“As time went on, I noticed I was more interested in the potential of our firm’s people than the businesses we were advising so I moved into a corporate role to focus on talent.” Starting in Recruiting and eventually moving into People Operations, Laura “sat smack in the middle of supply (our consultants) and demand (our client work) and had to find effective ways to match people’s experience, strengths and expertise with the needs of our clients. It was like working a giant jigsaw puzzle every week. I had to understand all the puzzle pieces and find new ways to fit them together to produce smart, strategic work for our clients.”
This is where Laura discovered coaching. “I was coaching leaders internally for years, and also advising consultants at all levels about their career, how to advocate for themselves, helping them transition into new leadership roles and working effectively with their teams. I loved this work, it came naturally to me so I decided to go back to school and get my professional certificate to advance my skills. This opened my eyes to a whole new way to coach. I learned about energy leadership, how to help people increase self awareness and what that inner work could unlock for people’s potential. The more I learned the more I wanted to do it. However, it wasn’t until COVID hit and I got laid off that I really made it happen. It was the push I needed and the universe’s way of saying GO DO IT! So I did.”
What are you most proud of?
“I’m most proud of…Starting before I felt ready. This was a big one because even though I had been coaching internally at a consulting firm for years, and had the skills and credentials to do this effectively, new fears emerged as I planned to step out on my own and start my business. Moving through those doubts and not letting fear make decisions for me was paramount to getting my business off the ground. Sticking with it. I haven’t always been good with follow through. I’m a creative, ideas person so I get distracted easily and have to resist the urge to jump ship when things get hard.”
“However, I’m a big believer in sitting with the discomfort and paying attention to what I can learn from it. This is where the growth comes and I’ve witnessed it working it’s magic on me, my business and most certainly with my clients. My client’s progress – this is hands down the best part of my job and something I’m deeply proud of. I’m inspired by the work they put in, their willingness to be vulnerable and their openness to the process. The shifts are subtle, but incredibly transformational to who they are and how they lead.”
Who inspires you?
Laura is inspired by her mom and sister, Ali. She credits them as “wise women who I’ve been lucky to learn from.”
Another inspiration for Laura is “a talented woman named Morgan Rose who lives locally in Glen Cove. She’s a writer, a Katonah yoga master, a lover of Great Nature and a seasonal teacher. I’ve been practicing and studying the seasons with her for years and she’s been instrumental in helping me find my voice as a creative, a coach and a wholehearted woman. I admire her curiosity of the world, how she lives her life and the creative work she’s doing with a special group of women in her membership program called The Spiral.” www.instagram.com/moreganrose.rituals and https://www.morganroseyoga.com .
Challenges and Overcoming Them
“I’ve been lucky to be raised by loving parents who gave me tons of opportunities to explore, spread my wings and discover the world. They instilled a strong work ethic in me, a love for the arts and a thirst for learning. Where I’ve needed more help as an adult is getting comfortable with my emotions (I buried them as a child), embracing conflict as a healthy part of life and unlearning my tendency to want to please others. This has been my inner work over the last 10+ years and I’m grateful to be here for it.”
Future Plans
“I dream of teaching life skills and emotional agility to high school and college age students. These are skills I had to learn the hard way far too late in life so I’d love to give kids an opportunity to practice some of these vital skills when they are young so they can live with more emotional awareness and compassion for themselves and those around them.”
Inspiration to Your Younger Self…
“Spend less time searching externally and more energy looking inward. There is magic in there!”
Laura’s Favorite Inspirational Quote
“You are the sky, everything else is just weather.” – Pema Chodron
Advice for Other Women…
“Be unapologetically yourself and do things that light you up.”
Connect with Laura...
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.lauradenatale.com
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lauradenatale
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