We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melanie Stuber a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Melanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of my organization, Cultivate and Thrive LLC, is inspired by my purpose and passion to empower leaders to achieve their goals and cultivate a culture where everyone can thrive.

I understand leadership can be hard, really hard so I partner with leaders as their organizational culture and business strategy guide to help them gain clarity, boost efficiency, enhance experiences, and improve overall performance within their teams and organization. I focus on culture and strategy as I believe it is essential for an organization to have a healthy culture where everyone feels valued, supported, and connected, and to align strategy with culture to position their organization for success.

Melanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a former executive with diverse experience across three leading organizations, I realized I could offer valuable insights to other leaders, particularly in aligning strategy with culture in achieving long-term success. I believe a positive organizational culture leads to enhanced employee well-being and optimal business performance. This belief is at the heart of Cultivate and Thrive’s core values (prioritize people first, relentlessly improve, embrace strength in our differences, and partner for mutual success), which guide my consulting work and interactions with clients.

Since my corporate career focused on the financial services industry, I also understand what it feels like to be the “only” in a male dominated industry. I knew my experiences would resonate with women leaders, whether it was learning to advocate for myself, embrace confidence to effectively lead, or manage team dynamics and conflict.

I offer interactive keynotes and workshops on leadership development, employee experience, and culture. I love engaging with the audience. While my goal is to inform and support others, I also create an environment where we can learn from one another, bringing diverse perspectives and experiences into the conversation.

I also provide customized consulting services on organizational culture and business strategy designed to empower leaders and their teams. My approach helps leaders and teams gain clarity, boost efficiency, enhance experiences, and improve overall performance. And, although my focus is on supporting women leaders, I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with all leaders.

The journey has been truly rewarding, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much my story of how I built a support system, or personal board of directors, while transitioning from corporate life would resonate so strongly with others in the community. Over the last several months, I have been speaking with organizations about this topic, providing participants with insights and guides they can use to meet them where they are to help them take their next steps to build their support system. As I see how much this is helping others, I am in the process of creating a program to empower leaders from understanding their core values, showing up effectively with others, advocating for themselves, and cultivating relationships to build a support system to help them grow as a leader and navigate their highs and lows in their careers.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason, so when my role was eliminated during a reorganization, I recognized it as a gift and opportunity to pursue something greater. After a fulfilling 25-year career in the corporate world, I felt a strong pull toward entrepreneurship. While a corporate career offered me stability, I didn’t want to have any regrets for not following my purpose and passion to help leaders with their culture and the performance of their business.

The transition was filled with both excitement and uncertainty. Even though I had the business knowledge and experience, running a business is a completely different challenge compared to being a full-time employee. As I knew it would be a difficult transition, I was intentional with building my support system, my personal board of directors, to help me navigate the entrepreneur journey. I reached out to those who filled the role of coach, mentor, sponsor, expert, and peer to meet me where I was to guide me, support me, and hold me accountable. I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for my amazing support system.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The lesson I had to unlearn as a young professional was to keep my heads down and let my accomplishments speak for my value.

Over the years, I learned to know my value and to advocate for myself. I learned that my value includes my unique skills and strengths in addition to my accomplishments.

It’s important to understand that advocating for ourselves does not mean bragging. Everyone is busy so it’s in our best interest to highlight the value we contribute to our organization, especially when opportunities present themselves.

If we do not advocate for ourselves, who is going to advocate for us when we are not in the room?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cultivatethrive.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniestuber/

Image Credits

Julie Farrell
Capturely, Inc.