Meet Shayna Bergman, who discovered that readiness isn't something you feel—it's something you choose.
Shayna Bergman had reached a career pinnacle. She held a senior talent role at Deloitte, a company she'd always dreamed of working for. She'd climbed the ranks, earned respect, and been promoted into a leadership position that looked impressive from the outside.
But once she got there, it didn’t feel the way she’d expected. "What surprised me was that once I 'made it,' I didn't know what 'next' would be or if I even wanted it," Shayna reflects. "I didn't look at my boss and aspire to her role."
The disconnect deepened during COVID. She was managing a full workload while raising two young kids at home, advocating for flexibility and humanity for others while sitting in a leadership role where the pressure to perform felt as unrelenting as ever.
The misalignment between her values and the reality of corporate life became impossible to ignore.
Shayna had quietly dreamed about coaching since childhood, and it stayed a quiet dream until one interaction—after many like it—became the breaking point. "That night, I finally looked into how to become a coach," she says.
"It wasn't a dramatic moment, just a very clear one. I realized I could no longer ignore the pull toward work that aligned with who I am and how I believe people deserve to be led."
The Question She Couldn't Unhear
When Shayna had her call with the iPEC Admissions team, her goal was simply to explore. She already knew that if she ever did a coaching certification program, it would be with iPEC. But in her mind, enrolling meant something terrifying: committing to start a business and, therefore, resigning from her job.
"While that was always the long-term goal, getting there felt huge," she explains. "Taking this first step felt permanent in a way that scared me."
The investment also felt expensive at the time. She kept telling herself she wasn't ready: to take on the expense, make the time, or commit to this next step.
Then her Admissions Coach asked her a simple question: "How will you know when you're ready?"
That question stopped her in her tracks—and made her laugh!
"I realized I had been waiting for a version of readiness that didn't exist," Shayna says. "I was imagining a future where my workload was lighter, where the next steps felt clearer, where the risk felt smaller. What shifted in that moment was the realization that I didn't need to have the whole path figured out. I just needed to take the first step."
She enrolled without resigning from her job right away. She didn't blow up her life overnight. She just took the first step.
What the Leap Actually Looked Like
As it turns out, ‘making the leap’ wasn't one dramatic moment, but a series of intentional steps. Finishing the program alongside her job. Then resigning. Then launching her coaching practice. She gave six weeks' notice at Deloitte. Her last day was a Friday, and she launched her business the following Monday. 'I was terrified and yet, SO ready.'
But she hadn't arrived at that moment cold.
"What helped is that I had spent a full year in iPEC being coached, shifting my mindset, and slowly getting comfortable with a new and evolving identity. Somewhere along the way, I became less afraid of starting my own thing and more afraid of resigning. Letting down people I cared about. Leaving a team. Walking away from something familiar. But my biggest fear was having regrets of never betting on myself and this dream I'd had since I was a kid."
Behind the scenes, she'd been building quietly while still working full-time. Setting up her LLC. Creating a website. Opening bank accounts. Already coaching clients.
"I was exhausted. I was working my full-time job, often late into the night, and then working on my business after that. I had nothing left in the tank," she admits. But then, she’d remember what she was moving towards.
"Every time I turned my attention to this little practice I was building, it energized me. It felt like a shot of espresso."
The fears were real: that she wouldn't make money, wouldn't find clients, wouldn't be good enough. She and her husband even met with their accountant to understand how long they could go without her income. "He laughed, but he gave us the answer." The fears didn't disappear—but they didn't stop her either.
What carried her through? "I told myself there was no plan B. I was going to make this work. That conviction didn't eliminate the fear, but it gave me the bravery to move forward anyway."
Finding Her Way
Today, Shayna coaches parents in leadership positions, helping them navigate the impossible juggle of high responsibility at work and at home, with more success and less stress.
But finding that niche wasn't a strategic decision at first. "It was my life," she explains.
She'd been a parent in leadership roles for years—through two pregnancies, nursing two babies, pumping at work, hauling gear on and off the metro between daycare and the office. "Add in sick days, long hours, commuting, and still trying to have a life outside of work. At one point, I was even teaching at the university at night—on top of everything else."
The clarity came while building her website. "The process forced me to get clear on who I was as a coach and who I was truly here to serve. Once it clicked, it felt obvious: I was helping a former version of myself."
The 'parents in leadership' niche might sound narrow, but her practice spans much wider. Non-parents, people without formal titles, students, mid-career professionals—the common thread isn't a role or title. 'It's responsibility, pressure, and self-expectation,' she explains.
Some come seeking promotions, stuck in roles they've invested years in, burned out and disconnected from who they are outside of achievement. "What they're all really seeking is relief and clarity," she says. "They want to feel less alone in their thinking, less reactive, and more grounded in their choices."
From Performing to Leading as Herself
Shayna finds the work she’s doing now deeply fulfilling. She watches her clients shift from drowning in responsibility to feeling capable and grounded, from bracing through life to engaging fully in it. The ripple effect extends to families, teams, entire organizations.
When asked how she's turned clients into advocates who spread the word about her work, Shayna's answer is refreshingly simple: "Honestly, I don't do anything strategic. I coach. I show up as myself. And I stay connected to people in a real way."
Her practice has grown largely through word-of-mouth referrals. "I think clients feel my sincerity and my investment in them. Not just in the outcomes they want, but in who they become along the way. When people feel genuinely seen, supported, and challenged, they talk about it."
She stays connected beyond sessions—a text before a big presentation, flowers after a major milestone. "Small moments that let people know they matter and that I'm thinking of them."
Looking back on her journey from corporate life to full-time coaching, Shayna reflects on how much she's grown: "Early on, I was more performative. I felt like I had to prove I knew what I was doing, that I was a coach and not an HR leader pretending to be one. That voice still shows up from time to time. But I've settled in."
What makes her approach distinctive now? "I lead with being fully myself. I came from a corporate world where being 'me' was encouraged, but only certain parts of me. In my coaching work, I don't compartmentalize. I show up as a whole person, and my clients feel that."
Just Start. Ready Is a Decision.
Two things Shayna says to her clients all the time now are "just start" and "ready is a decision."
Both came directly from that Admissions conversation. "It was the moment I stopped waiting for certainty and gave myself permission to move," she reflects.
For anyone sitting in that comfortable but unfulfilling corporate role, wondering if coaching could be their path, Shayna's message is clear: "You don't need to have the whole path figured out. You just need to take the first step. Readiness isn't something you're going to feel. It's something you choose."
Four years ago, she was living on autopilot in a role that looked perfect but felt wrong. She couldn't have imagined where she'd be today: changing lives daily through coaching, living with more joy and purpose than she thought possible.
"If someone had told me then that my life would look like this now, I would have laughed," she says. "And to anyone wondering if this path could be for you too—yes, it absolutely can."
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