Grit Gently · 1:1 coaching
Your goal goes first now.
Ninety days of one-on-one coaching for women in law, medicine, engineering, and academia. Pick the goal you keep pushing back, and we'll build the plan around the calendar you actually have.
Who it's for
Your workplace was designed for someone else.
You're an attorney, a physician, an engineer, a professor. Whatever the headcount in your field, its structure was built for men, or for women with no one waiting at home: billable-hour targets, call schedules, the tenure clock, the 7 a.m. meeting, the dinner where the real decisions get made. You've been good at the job anyway, for fifteen or twenty years. Mom or not, you're carrying more than your job description.
- You've spent years walking the line between "difficult" and "not leadership material."
- Almost nobody above you has done this job while also carrying a household.
- Rest feels like something you have to earn first.
- Work follows you home in your head, so dinner only gets half of you.
- Most of the coaching you've tried asked you to want less. You like your ambition.
Grit Gently is for her: a woman who wants to keep the career and the ambition, and stop paying for them with every evening.
The method
Three steps, built for a calendar that's already full.
Each step puts a piece of your career back in your hands: what it’s for, where your hours go, and how you mark the progress. We go in order, and we come back to any step when a trial, a grant deadline, or a hard week knocks you off course.
01
Own the Why
We separate what you want from what your field, your family, and your own résumé expect of you. Then we name the goal you keep putting off and why it matters to you now.
You leave with
One goal, in your words, and a reason strong enough to protect time for it.
02
Keep a PACE You Can Repeat
PACE stands for Protect, Anchor, Connect, Execute. We find where your hours are leaking, set boundaries you can hold at work without getting labeled difficult, and build a weekly plan around the calendar you actually have.
You leave with
Protected hours for your goal every week, and a plan that holds up in a bad week.
03
Mark the Effort
This is where my research comes in. With the RISE Ritual Method (Reflect, Intentionally Plan, Sensory Activation, Embody), you build small rituals that close the workday, mark your progress, and let you practice being the woman you're becoming.
You leave with
Rituals that keep the change going after our 90 days end.
How the 90 days run
What the next 90 days look like.
A coaching call every other week, 30 to 45 minutes each. Between calls you have me on Voxer and a short check-in form, so a bad week gets caught in days.
Before we start
Orientation
- Welcome packet and intake questions
- A 15–25 minute orientation call
- Mark what we'll pay attention to
Month 1
Own the Why
- Call 1. Sort what you've been told to want from what you want. Choose your one goal and your 90-day milestone.
- Call 2. Gather the evidence of what you've already done and practice leading from your own authority.
Month 2
Keep a PACE You Can Repeat
- Call 3. Protect and Anchor. Find the leaks, decide what's off-limits, and script the words for holding that line at work.
- Call 4. Connect and Execute. Set up the support that keeps you on track and plan your bold moves around your real load.
- Midpoint: gather the evidence
Month 3
Mark the Effort
- Call 5. Build your start- and end-of-workday rituals.
- Call 6. Tell the story of who you're becoming, look back at the evidence of your growth, close with a ritual, and plan your next season.
How we mark growth
See how far you've grown.
At orientation we mark what you're going to learn to pay attention to. Along the way we gather the evidence, and at the midpoint and on our last call we look back together at how far you've grown.
- 01Your milestoneThe one goal you named, reached. The pitch sent, the website live, the promotion conversation on the calendar.
- 02Protected hoursFrom zero hours a week on your goal to three to five, held for eight weeks running.
- 03Commitments releasedTwo committees stepped off. Three requests declined that you'd have said yes to in September.
- 04Work hoursFrom 60 a week to 50, with email closed after 7 p.m. five nights a week.
- 05Career and income movesThe raise asked for, the role applied for, the first paying client in your own venture.
- 06Promises kept to yourselfFrom keeping about one in five to keeping four in five.
- 07Evenings at homeFour device-free dinners a week.
These are examples. You choose what we pay attention to, and we set it together at orientation.
Results
What changed for them.
Attorney
She worked for her state's highest court and ran a household that needed more than she had left, including fighting for support for her autistic child. She cleared out her home, built a planning practice around her kids' care, and learned to advocate for her child inside the school system.
Academic
At 47 she had one last chance to have a baby, a strained marriage, and no boundaries at work. She learned to speak up at home and at work, negotiated flexibility and FMLA leave, and built a planning practice that gave her back a sense of control. Today she's mom to a two-year-old.
Educator
New job, burned out, and handling hard family dynamics at the same time. She set boundaries at work and in her relationships, reconnected with the parts of her job she loves, and earned more respect at work. Then she brought those same skills home.
"Before working with Danielle, I felt stuck and constrained by everything around me. After, I realized my own potential and began making choices that actually supported me. I began saying no thoughtfully — and yes to things that fulfilled me."
"I stopped waiting for life to slow down to make changes. Even in my busiest season, I feel clearer, more intentional, and in charge."
"Danielle's framework and teaching invite each person to determine what she needs, and build a fulfilling and enjoyable ritual around it."
Fit
What you'll bring to the 90 days.
Most women start in a full season, with a goal they can only half name. That's normal, and it's where we begin.
- One goal you're ready to move on, even if we spend the first call finding the words for it.
- A half-hour every other week for our call, plus a few minutes for check-ins.
- A willingness to be asked hard questions by someone who's on your side.
- Curiosity about small rituals, including the ones that feel a little odd at first.
- The wish to keep what you build long after our last call.
Grit Gently is coaching. Many of my clients also work with a therapist, and the two fit well together.
Your coach
Why I do this work.
Between my junior and senior years of high school, in a very small class, I lost two friends to suicide, and a third attempted. It shook my world and our whole community.
That's when I decided to spend my life helping people see what's possible in them: the brilliance, the beauty, the options they can't see yet. I didn't know how. In college I watched my professors and found my way in. Teaching let me reach people at one of the biggest transitions of their lives.
I've been teaching for more than twenty years now. I'm a tenured professor of communication at a Midwestern university, I study ritual, and I co-wrote a textbook on gender in communication. Coaching carries the same calling to a different transition: women who've built the career and want it to feel like their own.
If you're struggling, you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US).
How to start
Start with a 10-minute audit.
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01
Take the Grit Gently Audit
About ten minutes of questions on where your time and energy go each week, and where they leak.
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02
Talk through your results
We meet for 30 minutes to go over what you found and the goal you keep pushing back. I'll walk you through the three pricing options, and you can take your time deciding.
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03
Begin your 90 days
When you say yes, your welcome packet arrives and we put orientation on the calendar.
Three pricing options available.
Take the Grit Gently AuditQuestions
Before you decide.
How much does it cost?
There are three pricing options, including a payment plan. I walk you through them on your results call, once we both know Grit Gently is the right fit.
My calendar is already full. How do I fit this in?
Plan on 30 to 45 minutes every other week, plus a short check-in form. Our first job is finding the hours that are already leaking and handing them back to you.
What happens when a trial, a grant deadline, or a sick kid takes over a week?
We move the call. Voxer is there for exactly those weeks, and your plan is built to bend.
Is ritual too soft for someone like me?
The method comes out of my research on ritual, and every call ends with a concrete next step. You'll also see your growth written down: hours protected, commitments released, and the milestone itself.
Is this only for moms?
Grit Gently is for women carrying more than their job description, kids or no kids. Some of my clients are raising children, some are caring for parents, and some want their evenings back for a life outside work.
Should I talk to my partner first?
Please do. Bring them in early. They'll feel the change at home too.
Is it selfish to put this much into my own goal?
The people around you get a calmer, more present version of you, and your kids get to watch you go after something that matters to you.
What happens after the 90 days?
On our last call we plan your next season. Some women renew for another 90 days, some move to quarterly coaching, and some head out on their own with the rituals they built.
Your next 90 days
Your goal has waited long enough.
Take the audit tonight, once the house goes quiet. It's about ten minutes, and then we go over your results together.
Take the Grit Gently AuditNot ready for the audit? Grab the 5-Minute End-of-Workday Ritual →