EVEN Member Story: How Emma Used a Personal Board of Directors to Find Career Clarity at Mid-Career
When You Help Everyone Else Grow: Emma’s Path Back to Career Clarity
Emma has spent her career helping other people find theirs.
As a capability and learning professional, her work has always centred on building leadership capability, strengthening culture, and creating environments where people can thrive. She's good at it. But somewhere along the way, she realised the investment wasn't flowing both ways.
"Ironically, somewhere along the way I realised I hadn't been giving myself the same space to grow."
For Emma, the gap between what she gave professionally and what she received became impossible to ignore.
"Between work, raising a small family, and navigating some difficult chapters, there was a period where I felt completely stuck, uninvested in, undervalued, and tired. It felt like I couldn't get to, nor see how to get to, the next foothold on my journey."
When the opportunity to join EVEN came up, she took it. "I needed the space to reset, rethink about what I wanted, and how to back myself again."
How EVEN's Personal Board of Directors Became Emma's Village
Ask Emma what her favourite part of EVEN has been, and she doesn't hesitate.
"Without a doubt, the community of women."
It wasn't what she expected. "It's been the best part of the experience, and something I didn't even realise how much I needed. Since becoming a parent, I've quietly craved that sense of a village. A place where you feel heard, understood, and supported. Unexpectedly, EVEN became that."
At the centre of that community is EVEN's Personal Board of Directors model, a small coaching group of women from different industries, facilitated by an EVEN coach. Members meet monthly, work through real challenges together, and build the kind of peer relationships that most professional development programs never create.
For Emma, it delivered something she hadn't anticipated. "Our coaching group brought together strangers who quickly became people I now genuinely lean on as very real sounding boards. It's been a space where I can laugh, cry, question life, or occasionally have an existential crisis, all while being gently guided through the process."
Finding Clarity in the Messy Middle of a Career
Emma is candid about what mid-career actually looks like right now for many women.
"The future of careers isn't linear anymore. It's uncertain, and often a little messy."
But uncertainty, she says, doesn't have to mean paralysis. "EVEN helps you create clarity, craft your options, and see the opportunities for what you need now, while still moving towards where you want to be. There's no race to the finish. Just reflection, progress, and a commitment to yourself."
Alongside the coaching, EVEN's weekly masterclasses, delivered by expert women across industries, added another dimension to Emma's development. "They kept me engaged, deepening my learning and understanding of myself and others, providing some great tools for very real scenarios women navigate in life and work."
The cumulative effect surprised her. "Quite honestly, it's been one of the most supportive and reassuring development experiences I've had."
What Emma Would Tell Other Women Considering EVEN
"The real value comes from being open, reflective, and willing to sit with some uncomfortable questions. Show up as you are, polished or not. Give yourself permission to be incomplete while making small steps rather than big breakthroughs."
She talks about the rhythm of membership and the importance of protecting the weekly commitment to yourself. "Make the space every week to pause, build your confidence, connect with what matters most, take the masterclass, connect with your peers and the broader networks you'll create."
One piece of advice that’s stuck with Emma from her trusted Personal Board of Directors "Be scared... and do it anyway."
If Emma's experience resonates, EVEN membership is designed for ambitious women at mid-career who are ready to invest in themselves.