Work with Thomas
Career Development Start-to-Finish
$4,800
Discover a Career Path
Starting at
$1,425
Advance your Career
Starting at
$1,425
About
I spent 17+ years in tech leadership - from Technical Account Manager at DoubleClick to Product Manager at Google to VP of Product in MarTech. On paper, it looked perfect: the salary, the downtown Chicago apartment, the world travel. I was checking all the boxes. But here's what nobody saw: I was exhausted, overwhelmed and disconnected from myself. I pushed through back pain, loneliness and a constant voice telling me that I was a fake. I was "successful", but I didn't feel it. The breaking point came during what should have been my dream honeymoon. My boss told me right before we left about a massive company reorg that was happening while I was gone. That kicked off three years of chaos: leaving that company, joining a new one on the brink of acquisition, buying a house, becoming VP of Product and going through infertility treatments. I was barely surviving. One night the two magic questions hit me... Do I want to live my life like this? NO! How do I want to live my life then? Those questions changed everything, I realized I had the power to change my circumstances. I dove into my own personal work, invested in coaching and eventually followed my calling to help others do the same: quiet the self-doubt and own their careers from a place of self-trust. Throughout my career, I learned that technical expertise alone isn't enough. I've watched brilliant people chase another certification, another degree, trying to finally feel 'enough.' But more credentials won't quiet that voice. What changes everything is learning to trust yourself and own your worth without needing more proof.
Thomas also coaches for Leadership Coaching and Product Management. View all.
Thomas’s Career Coaching Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Vice President
20+ Career Coaching clients
Thomas has helped clients get into these companies:
I help professionals in tech navigate career transitions and build fulfilling careers without exhausting themselves trying to prove they deserve to be there. With 20+ years across product management, executive coaching, and tech leadership (including Google and VP roles), I help you clarify your next move, build authentic leadership presence, and develop the confidence to navigate your career from a place of self-trust; not constant proving. Whether you're exploring a career change, stepping into a new role, or breaking through to leadership, I help you move past the internal barriers that keep you stuck and build a career that aligns with your values and aspirations.
Thomas can help with:
Career Planning
Cover Letters
General Exploration
Interview Prep
Job Search Strategies
Leadership
Networking Strategy
Professional Networking
Resume Review
Salary Negotiation
Skill Building
Why do I coach?
Because I've been that person who looked successful on the outside while barely surviving on the inside. And I've watched too many brilliant people do the same thing. I coach because I spent years believing that if I just worked harder, got the next promotion, or proved myself one more time, I'd finally feel like I belonged. But that day never came. The voice questioning my worth didn't care about my title or my salary. What I've learned - and what I help people realize - is that your career isn't going to fix your relationship with yourself. No amount of external validation will quiet that internal voice. You have to do that work from the inside out. But here's what's powerful: once you do that internal work, everything external shifts. When you stop questioning your worth, you show up completely differently. You speak up in meetings instead of rehearsing what you'll say and then staying quiet. You negotiate for what you deserve instead of accepting the first offer. You set boundaries instead of taking on everyone else's work. You advocate for yourself without apologizing. That's when the promotions come. That's when you get the roles you actually want. That's when people start seeing you as the leader you already are. Here's the pattern I see everywhere: brilliant people creating impossible standards that only exist in their heads. They convince themselves they need to prove they belong before they can speak up. They hold back questions, over-execute to compensate, operate like they're still earning their seat at the table, even when no one is questioning them. I recently coached two senior leaders in new roles. Both were exhausting themselves trying to demonstrate immediate value. But when we dug in, no one had told them they couldn't ask questions. No one expected them to have all the answers on day one. The pressure was entirely self-imposed. Once they gave themselves permission to bring curiosity forward, to ask strategic questions instead of just executing, everything shifted. They stopped performing credibility and started leading. That's what this work does. I coach because I believe you can build a career that's fulfilling AND sustainable. You can be a leader without burning out. You can own your worth without needing another certification to prove it. And you can trust yourself enough to speak up, set boundaries, and lead from a place of authenticity. That's the work I do. Not helping you get better at performing. Helping you stop performing altogether.
Work Experience
Executive Coach
Jamie Martin Coaching
April 2019 - Present
Executive coaching practice helping senior leaders in tech and consulting stop exhausting themselves trying to prove they belong and start leading from authority they already have. Client Work: ▪ Coach VPs, directors, and C-suite executives who are technically excellent but operate under self-imposed pressure to constantly prove their worth: over-executing instead of leading strategically, and creating standards no one else is demanding ▪ Guide clients to give themselves grace, bring curiosity forward without apology, and own their authority leading to VP/Director promotions and leadership presence without burnout ▪ Specialize in helping women in STEM navigate the double bind of being seen as "too technical" or "not strategic enough" Thought Leadership & Speaking: ▪ Speaker at 25+ organizations including Xerox Women's Alliance, Uber, Alnylam, Women in Product, and Women in Technology on authority, self-doubt, and sustainable leadership ▪ Nominated Speaker of the Year (Women in Tech Global Conference, 2024 & 2025) ▪ Featured: Forbes, GoBankingRates, 10+ podcasts including What Has My Attention and Data Bytes Recognition: ▪ ICF Certified (ACC, 2022) ▪ Top 15 Coach in Chicago (Influence Digest Media, 2023) ▪ Top Women's Empowerment Coach (Coaching Foundation, 2024)
Senior Director of Product Management
DialogTech
March 2019 - October 2019
Hiring Manager
DialogTech connects digital and call experiences, to enable marketers to better personalize the experience for their customers. As the Senior Director of Product Development, my focus was on creating an environment where the product team was able to connect with clients and uncover the unstated needs or the needs behind the needs. What did a client really want when they asked for a specific feature? We wanted to find out, so we could build the solution they needed and not the one they thought they needed.
Vice President, Product Management
DialogTech
January 2018 - March 2019
Hiring Manager
During my time as Vice President of Product Management, I focused on rebuilding the product management team through expanding the team with new hires and driving to connect us in new ways with our internal and external clients. I coached the team on ways different ways to consider product management and how they interact with our client base. Looking for more behind what is said because a client may ask for a report, but what they want is an integration into another system to send the data.
Director of Product Management
DialogTech
July 2017 - January 2018
Hiring Manager
Product Lead, Operations and Servicing
The Vitality Group Inc
July 2016 - July 2017
Hiring Manager
The Vitality Group's mission and vision was to give employees access through their employer to opportunities to improve their health and well-being. In my role as a Product Lead, I focused on creating a strategic vision to streamline the back-end processes that were causing our clients the most pain. In addition to creating a front-end experience that allowed their employees to learn more about the offerings and products available to them.
Manager of Client Relations, Implementation Management
The Vitality Group Inc
January 2013 - July 2017
Hiring Manager
A manager by name but a coach and mentor by action, I led a team of 5 Implementation Managers who launched 94 clients with 416K employees onto the Vitality wellness platform. As a coach and mentor, I continuously looked for opportunities to grow the teams skills for their long term career desires and journeys while also balancing their needs in their current roles.
Implementation Manager
The Vitality Group Inc
June 2012 - January 2013
As an Implementation Manager, I focused on providing my clients with the best experience in launching on the platform as possible. Listened for the areas that my clients weren't fully comfortable with the progress or information they needed to make decisions. I used this information to make sure that every decision they made they made intentionally and with full understanding. In addition, took this feedback to help improve our documentation for our next clients.
Head of People Development Center of Excellence and Manger, People Development Programs
Publicis Groupe
June 2010 - June 2012
VivaKi Nerve Center (A Publicis Company) launched a Center of Excellence in Ad Operations focused on providing strategic partnerships to all agencies under the Publicis network. I created opportunities for the different agencies under Publicis network to come together in an offsite meeting to cultivate knowledge sharing, networking across agencies and establishing best practices. Topics ranged from privacy, tag management and ad verification.
Product Manager
April 2008 - May 2010
Responsible for evaluating the user experience of DART Search and maintaining a positive user experience with development of new features by working with the engineering, user interface developers and user experience researchers. I focused on receiving feedback on projects by our Global Technical Services team, Sales and external clients. Through interactions with our EMEA / APAC Global Technology Services, I built a strong understanding of the nuances between building product for a North American audience and a global one and the unique needs of different clients.
Product Manager
DoubleClick
November 2006 - April 2008
DoubleClick, Inc developed DART Search, a paid per click search management and bidding tool. Our mission as a Product Organization was to scale DART Search and streamline the user experience. I focused on both the North American and EMEA Global clients to ensure that the different needs were identified and accounted for during development.
Senior Technical Account Manager
DoubleClick
January 2005 - September 2006
DoubleClick, Inc developed DART Search, a paid per click search management and bidding tool. Our mission was to provide advertising agencies access to a tool that allowed them to automate their paid search marketing on Google, Yahoo and MSN. As a Technical Account Manager, I led and mentored a team of 4 through relaunch of DART Search, revamped processes for launching clients, while maintaining a client list of 4 advertising agencies utilizing DART Search
Education
Accomplishment Coaching
Coach Training, Ontological Coaching
2019 - 2020
Activities and societies: Accredited Coaching Training Program with the International Coach Federation https://www.accomplishmentcoaching.com/ Communication, Executive Coaching and +3 skills
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
BSE, Industrial and Operations Engineering
1998 - 2002
Activities and societies: Alpha Phi Omega, LeaderShape Practicum Hospital Systems (University of Michigan Hospitial): Reduced case time for Urology surgical procedures by identifying variation among surgeons and defining tasks done in sequence that could be done in parallel. Provided a framework for further studies to improve Operating Room efficiency. Alpha Phi Omega: Vice Present of Membership: Led the Rush Committee, Leadership Development Committee and Membership Outreach Committee; Publicity and Leadership Development Chair; Provided service to the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas through projects such as Blood Battle and Knitwits. LeadersShape Institute: Facilitator: Assisted participants in developing leadership skills using a variety of challenging activities. Participant: Participated in a week long seminar that focused on enhancing individual leadership skills and highlighted the importance of individual integrity and values. Communication, Critical Thinking and +3 skills
5.0 average review
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Overall rating
Thomas has helped clients get into these companies:
Career Development Start-to-Finish
$4,800
Discover a Career Path
Starting at
$1,425
Advance your Career
Starting at
$1,425
Thomas also coaches for Leadership Coaching and Product Management. View all.
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