There are always possibilities to do more of what you love. Identify opportunities that align with your life priorities, the best of your skills, and an environment where you’ll thrive.
Business is all about the people. We’ll partner with you to enhance team engagement, develop interpersonal communications, and improve individual performance.
Great leaders, whatever their role, can inspire others and change lives. Whether you’re an established leader or a new leader, this is a powerful way to enhance your skills and drive day-to-day results.
Whether for a 30-minute keynote or an all-day workshop, we’re passionate about presenting dynamic and inspiring content. Our underlying message is always about leadership and its power to move individuals, teams, and organizations successfully forward.
"Stephanie is masterful at bringing clarity to things and helps me look at the big picture. She was instrumental in my decision to leave a long time job and open my own firm—the best career of my life."
Angie Galimanis, Owner/President @ Lawrence PR, Portland, OR
"Heather empowered me to look inside and see what it was I truly wanted out of work and life. We set out my priorities, my criteria for my next job, and I learned about the strengths I had as a person, not just a list of software acumen!"
Zöe Flanagan, Research Assistant @ Pacific Research & Evaluation, Portland, OR
"Linda’s Executive Coaching has helped me become a better leader. She coached me to not avoid difficult discussions, but to approach them in a non aggressive way. I feel like much more of a natural leader, and I’m having a lot more fun now."Jeff Fuchs, City Engineer for the City of Tualatin, OR
"Working with Heather changed my life in ways I didn't know were possible. This year I launched a business that has gone from nothing to flourishing in so many ways. I'm so grateful to Heather for her personal, heartfelt, and out-of-the-box style. I'm so grateful for all you do!"
Meghan French, Licensed OR Broker, Scout Realty, Portland, OR
"Working with Stephanie has been the single most transformative experience. Thanks to Stephanie’s advice and support, I entered and completed graduate school, have made it through many professional challenges, and have established my own business."
David Hanna, Couples, Family, and Individual Therapist @ David Hanna Counseling, Portland, OR
"Linda unlocked some doors inside me with some ready understanding of concerns that face me as a leader, a parent, and a partner with some very simple solutions and practices. Linda's been an integral part of my successful leadership role at work and home."Katy Patricelli, Former Sr VP @ Wells Fargo
"Stephanie has been an invaluable sounding board. My coaching sessions with Stephanie have provided me with a case study-like approach to work through current business challenges, a constructive unbiased listening center which provides immediate stress relief, and an actionable and useful “nugget” to put into immediate action from each session."
Kathryn Loescher, MBA, Sr. Director of Compensation, The Standard
"Heather brought order to my chaos and helped me pursue my goals in a more purposeful, fulfilling way. Now I feel less stressed, more in control and able to enjoy taking some big steps that I’ve been working towards for a long time."
Carolyn Cosgriff, Owner/Artist/Designer @ HissBuzzHum, Portland, OR
"I love working with Heather, she's not only my productivity coach, she’s my accountability partner. She helps me stay on track with my goals, my weekly tasks and I’ve been able to accomplish more in the past 3 months than I have all year.”Shannon M. McCaffery, Founder @ SoulfulVisionMarketing.com, Richmond, VA
"In my work, I found myself challenged to engage the physician leaders across the organization. With Carpenter Smith Consulting, we learned strategies that resulted in a dramatic growth in provider satisfaction from the 11th percentile to the 73rd percentile!"Sharon Crowell M.D. @ The Vancouver Clinic, Vancouver, WA
"Linda is a great listener and powerful observer. I rely on her wisdom and pragmatic advice around team dynamics, culture and leadership. Simply put, Linda makes me better."Katherine Durham, VP Individual Disability Insurance and Corporate Marketing & Communications @ The Standard, Portland, OR
"I found my sessions with Heather to be very insightful, practical, and useful, and focused on elements of employee behaviors which we normally don't pay attention to. Our discussions helped me grow in my new role at work as well as out of work."Kunal Dugal, QA Manager @ Logitech, Camas, WA
"Heather helped me see that work isn't just about the money. She took the big picture view of my life and gave me the tools I needed to commit to my pursuits. My stress is gone and both of my businesses are better than ever!Theresa Provitola, Founder/CEO @ Pixels & Ink Media, llc, Vancouver, WA
"I learned more about how to be a leader from Carpenter Smith Consulting than I did from my Master's program at Harvard."
Alfred Seekamp, M.D., Chief Medical Officer @ The Vancouver Clinic, Vancouver, WA
Linda is described as a powerful ally and skilled strategist in helping them develop their personal and professional leadership to move their businesses forward.
Stephanie is known for providing trusted advice and management techniques to people seeking personal and professional success.
Heather is unmatched in her ability to motivate clients, friends, and family members to take charge of their lives and to boldly step into their leadership.
As you know, we have a lot invested in you taking good care of yourself because we know that you are your instrument. If you’re not taking good care of yourself, you’ll be more tired, less creative, more reactive, and less resilient in the face of all that’s coming at you. That said, you may be asking, What does it really mean to take care of myself? Followed by all the ways your life and the world is pressing you…
We’ve heard from so many of you as you struggle to know how to move forward in this difficult time, that we want to share a lesson that can be game-changing in your personal and professional life. And that is that voting is not always the best way to a decision. As we work with communities, non-profit organizations, and businesses, we frequently see decisions being made by a vote. It makes sense as we have all grown up with the…
This political season has amplified a clear division in our country between US and THEM. The ‘US’s and the ‘THEM’s of our country are both experiencing great pain. From pain comes fear, and from fear, anger. US versus THEM. As coaches and consultants, we have quite a bit of expertise working with and understanding people, and the thing we have seen over and over is that everyone wants to be seen and heard. Everyone. People want to know that their…
Whether you’re leading a multinational organization or a family of 4, if you’re going to be a successful leader you need to take care of your health, get enough rest, move your body, and stay connected with people you care about. Yet, even with that knowledge, we all have those times when we hit the wall. It may be that you were traveling across multiple time zones, had several evening meetings in a row, or had a young one up…
One of the key aspects of being a good leader is determining the road forward and figuring out how to stay on that road despite the sometimes unfavorable conditions. We often meet individuals who turn off the road to success for what appears to be an immediate gain without considering how this short-term diversion will impact their long-term goal. Each of these distractions puts them on the road to nowhere. We’ve been working with a lot of organizations of late…
Do you remember that feeling of simple childhood joy, like you could do anything you dreamed? Do you remember the many times you were asked as a kid what you wanted to be when you grew up? Without even knowing it, that question probably shaped your current work satisfaction, and it may be limiting your success today. Many of us have chosen life and work based on childhood dreams and/or the values that someone else held for us when…
Linda was recently describing the experience of doing her PhD dissertation research. She said that although she was interested in the question she was studying, she felt fearful and incompetent about taking on such a large project knowing that it would require her to do a fair amount of work that simply didn’t interest her. So, instead of tackling her dissertation she cleaned the back of the refrigerator—literally! As she scrubbed, she realized that in the face of…
Last summer there was an article by Kathryn Schulz in the New Yorker called “The Really Big One” about the scientifically based prediction of a devastating earthquake that is overdue in the northwest. Living in Portland, OR, we took notice. At this point, over one year later, there is considerable effort going into preparing for this potential disaster. Most people understand the need to prepare for disaster even if they don’t do it. What most of us forget is that…
As you may have noticed, we love helping people succeed! While we often help people succeed at the intersection of their life and their work, we believe these skills are of value to anyone trying to choose happiness and overcome overwhelm. And, we know you’ll get closer to happiness and more effectively be able to manage all that’s on your plate if you get the right people on your team. For some of you, your team is the group of…
Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had conversations with executive leadership teams, parents, soccer coaches, and midlevel managers that have focused on how to help others succeed. To a person, they were struggling with how to know when to be hands on and when to be hands off. At one of those meetings, an executive said that they use the what, what and how, and how continuum—which looks like this: When deciding how hands on to be, a good…
