1. What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of your job?
It can be a challenge staying relevant and up to date on changes to regulations and requirements impacting clients. Other challenges include making all client interactions relevant and engaging, making sure we at Wipfli are rewarding internal talent and helping it grow, and staying a sustainable firm for those talented people to become future leaders.
The rewarding parts include being able to overcome all the challenging parts; the fact that we serve clients who have missions to serve those who are the most disadvantaged throughout communities across the U.S.; the ability to offer education and consulting to clients where they are, when they need us; and working within a company where team members, I am grateful to say, are an extension of my family and friends. You don’t get that combination in every job!
2. Who do you look up to or admire in business?
I admire too many to choose one.
The leadership traits I admire most are the ability to come up through the ranks and make an impact; the passion to do what you love, not just have a job; the resolve to do great things in a manner that doesn’t step on others to do it; the ability to personally and professionally change and grow; and the power of self-responsibility to make life the balance you need it to be, not what others dictate.
3. Thinking back on your career, what advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
Once you negotiate income, it is harder to negotiate again as you move forward in your career, so be mindful of the wage market from the beginning.
You will royally screw up, but as long as you own up to it, fix it, and don’t repeat it, you are on your way!
Be kind to yourself, especially on those days when no one else is being kind to you.
You will not like everyone. Everyone will not like you. But you can still try to be respectful, open, and learn (even if you learn what not to do).
Be there for others, especially when you think you are too busy with your own thing.
Have fun! If you are not enjoying work 80% of the time, change what you are doing.
Try everything once. You won’t know what you can do until you try.
No one will work harder or smarter for you — you have to take ownership yourself.
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4. What would you say are the best things about living and working in Dane County?
The access to water. My husband, Jim, and I love boating and can enjoy different scenery all around Dane County from our boat.
The people here really have staying power. Once you are in the fold, you are there for life.
There is always something cool to do within a two-hour drive.
It’s not too big, it’s not too small, it’s just the right size.
5. Do you have any secret talents or abilities that people would be surprised to discover?
Not a ton of secrets. I am a pretty open book; what you see is what you get.
They are not talents or abilities, but people are usually surprised that I grew up on an 18-wheeler semi, traveling cross-country with my grandparents until I was school age — and then summers after that until I was 10.
They are surprised about my lack of roots. I have lived in numerous states. I never went to the same school for full a grade until I was a sophomore in high school. I never lived in one place for more than two years until I was in my 30s. This is why when people ask me where home is, I answer, “Jim’s arms,” and I mean it. Home is not a location to me, it is wherever those I love are located.
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