I was nine when the Pacific Ocean first made me tumble. “Read the wave before it reads you,” my uncle shouted. I paddled early, felt the boogie board tilt, and rode a massive wave. Lesson learned: timing is everything, but insight comes first.

Years later, as a paralegal on a stalled US$60 million acquisition, I applied the same logic. I charted the workflow like swells, spotted the bottlenecks, and helped reset the team’s rhythm. We closed on time. I realized I was less a document jockey than a strategist in training.

After law school I spoke fluent statute but only broken P&L, so I dove into a master’s in business and entrepreneurship. Mid-program, a Harvard Law course on leading firms sparked a passion: legal insight and business savvy can rewire how firms compete and grow.

Rhythm followed me off the shoreline and onto the stage. Drumming with The Tie has taught me that tight fills and clean breaks keep both crowds—and leadership teams—locked in flow.

That pulse carried me from M&A associate to co-leading Alta in 2011, then a 15-lawyer local firm. Today we’re a 200-person internationally recognitionized, regional powerhouse—proof that discipline and creativity can ride the same wave.

Along the way I’ve wiped out often, but each tumble has sharpened my eye. I now help leaders paddle early—first teaching at Harvard, now as keynote speaker, consultant and workshop facilitator at partner retreats from Tokyo to São Paulo, turning classroom theory into boardroom-ready frameworks.

Waves. Drums. Law. Strategy—four movements, one score. Clients don’t hire me to ride a single wave, they hire me to help them read the tide before it peaks.

If your firm is ready to glide ahead of the next surge, I’d love to talk.