Lions & Tigers

I tap in external pros when I need to skill up, this time on personal brand. Catlin O’Shaughnessy Coffrin shared some of the best self-reflection questions she asks of execs: Who do you exist to serve? Why do you care about them? What got you into this work? What have you learned from it? What do you “always say?” What is at the heart of your business? Why do you do what you do? What wisdom have you amassed along the way? What matters in this next leg of your career? In this short time you have on this earth.. what is it that you want to say? // I've worked through many of these throughout the years, but this one is sitting with me right now, especially: *What matters in this next leg of your career?* With so much change in our workforce happening, leaders REALLY need to think about what dent we all plan to make - because the demand for our skills/products/services/thoughts/personal brand is changing, too. Cat's list reminded me of this picture I snapped a few weeks ago. I was walking through the halls of our office, and was struck by this image: walls filled with thinking out loud, working through problems and developing solutions. All centralizing on this clear call to action: Make something people want. And more than that... I think Cat is asking us to meet the moment by being the leader people want to make stuff for. What is sitting with you right now?

Please help us welcome Julie Morris, ThD to the Lions & Tigers team! 👏 Julie joins L&T as an AI Project Manager Consultant, bringing a unique background that spans academia, startups, and big tech. With experience across AI enablement, instructional design, content strategy, and program management at Microsoft, she’s passionate about building scalable programs that drive adoption, learning, and measurable impact. ✈️🍝🌍 Outside of work, Julie loves travel, food, and exploring new places. After spending a sabbatical moving through Europe via pet-sitting, she’s always ready to share favorite cities, hidden gems, and unforgettable meals. 🌟🌟🌟 Welcome to the team, Julie! #TeamMemberSpotlight #WelcomeToTheTeam #BlendedWorkforce

LinkedIn is the latest company to announce layoffs in the name of agility, while also scaling back vendor spend. The logic doesn't quite hold. Employees and independents are designed for different jobs. Employees carry the long arc: institutional knowledge, IP ownership, multi-year strategy, the ramp time it takes to build deep context. Independents are the flex layer: specialist skills on demand, scale up for a launch, scale down after, no hiring cycle measured in quarters. Cut the flex layer and the work doesn't disappear, it lands on the employees you just asked to be more agile. That's not focus, that's compression. The companies getting this right aren't choosing between the two, they're designing for both. Employees own the long arc, independents flex around the work that changes week to week. That's the blended team model, and it's how agility actually shows up in an org chart. If the future of work is agile teams, the independent workforce isn't the thing you cut, it's the thing you build around.

We’re excited to share that Lions & Tigers Founder & CEO Brea Starmer will be speaking at the 2026 Puget Sound Business Journal Women Who Lead Summit, joining the panel “Career Reinvention.” Brea will be in conversation with Maria Colacurcio, CEO of Syndio, and Karen Lee, CEO of Plymouth Housing, moderated by Cathy Duchamp of the Puget Sound Business Journal. The discussion will focus on what it actually takes to navigate inflection points in a career—when to stay, when to pivot, and how leaders build durable paths that don’t follow a single, linear playbook. At Lions & Tigers, we see firsthand that meaningful leadership is rarely the result of a traditional trajectory. It’s shaped by tradeoffs, reinvention, and the ability to lead through ambiguity. We’re proud to see that perspective represented alongside leaders who are shaping the future of work across the Puget Sound region. 📍 Seattle Convention Center 🗓 Thursday, May 28, 2026 If you’re attending the summit, we’d welcome the chance to connect: https://lnkd.in/gqfq9Ze5 #PSBJWomenWhoLead #CareerReinvention #FutureOfWork #BlendedWorkforce

Careers aren’t always linear. And at Lions & Tigers, we don’t think they have to be.    Shauna Parks-Temple is a great example of what it means to stay connected through different seasons of life.   An avid gardener who understands that growth takes time, Shauna had been part of the Lions & Tigers pipeline for years. After stepping away in 2024 to focus on caregiving, we re-engaged when the timing was right for her return to work.   The role she stepped into offered the flexibility and hours that made sense for that transition, creating the right fit for both Shauna and the client team.   It’s a reflection of something we’ve believed in since the beginning: sometimes the right talent isn’t about filling the next available role. It’s about staying connected long enough to match the right person to the right moment.   That’s the power of relationships, flexibility, and a blended workforce built around real life.   #BoomerangConsultants #BlendedWorkforce

I spent an evening recently with a group of Chiefs of Staff from across Microsoft, comparing notes on how their orgs are navigating AI, RIFs, and the redesign of how work gets done. I noticed something different about the tone in this group. (As a long-time COS fan, I'm always watching where they make bets) A year ago, conversations like this had two volumes: the people leaning all the way in, and the people quietly hoping it would pass. Excitement or resistance. Not much in between. This room had neither. What I heard instead was a kind of clear-eyed acceptance. Not weariness, not resignation, not the brittle optimism that usually shows up in change conversations. More like, 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬, 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬, 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧. Curiosity was still there, but it had a different temperature, less performative, more deliberate. Leaders aren't telling me how excited they are about the transformation. They've stopped trying to feel a particular way about it and started doing the work of leading through it. There's a maturity in that posture I haven't seen at this scale before. It's a different register than the LinkedIn version of leadership tends to be. But it's reality.

Supporting an enterprise executive at a Fortune 100 organization, Mina Garagozlo, MBA helps lead social strategy, content ideation, copywriting, operational processes, and cross-functional collaboration, all with a focus on growing executive presence in meaningful ways.   One standout initiative? A creator-focused video series featuring conversations across industries and communities, designed to make executive storytelling feel more human, relevant, and culturally connected.   From shaping content pillars to guiding video feedback and supporting high-visibility moments like Cannes preparations, Mina’s work sits at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and execution.   But what makes her approach stand out most is collaboration.   Because the best communications work doesn’t happen in silos. It happens when great people build together.   Why Lions & Tigers? For Mina, it was the people first approach. A culture centered on balance, support, and genuine connection. A place where knowledge sharing is encouraged, collaboration comes naturally, and consultants are empowered to learn from each other’s strengths.   #ExecutiveCommunications #ExecComms #BlendedWorkforce

Happy freakin' Mother's Day to all of the amazing women I know, love, admire, collaborate with, conspire with, cry with, and learn from. (I literally have a child screaming at me as I try to write this - which pretty much just sums this whole thing up 😵💫) Transformative. 11 years ago, I remember taking a "Bringing Baby Back Home" class at the hospital before I had my first kid. I heard from a small group of women who all shared the concern that we'd lose ourselves in this process. I remember saying, somewhat tearfully, "I probably won't even have time to watch the NEWS anymore!" And yes, we were all mostly right. But I also could never have anticipated all of the ways that this journey has changed me. Most importantly, the way that this journey has impacted how I work, what I do, and how I show up for my colleagues. Challenging. This role has also been the hardest jobs I've ever had. The advocacy, the relentlessness, and the exhaustion. It impacts everything, all the time. I do think this is part of the job. And the edges of it are the exact pieces you can't predict when you get started. It fortifies us. Community. Above all else, the connection to others walking similar but different paths has meant so much to me. And for those of us who want to honor BOTH our parenting roles and our work roles, I see you. Your experience matters and you aren't asking too much. Happy Mother's Day 2026!! XOXO

Lions & Tigers is #hiring a Director of Business Development to join our internal staff team! This is a full-time leadership role focused on driving strategic growth, building long-term client partnerships, and helping organizations solve complex business challenges through consulting and professional services. We’re looking for someone who thrives in consultative sales environments, knows how to navigate enterprise relationships, and can connect client needs to high-impact solutions. In this role, you’ll: • Own strategic revenue growth and pipeline development • Lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales conversations • Help shape scalable client solutions alongside cross-functional teams • Build meaningful partnerships that drive long-term impact • Collaborate closely with Marketing, Client Experience, Fulfillment, and Executive Leadership This role is primarily remote, but candidates must be based in the Greater Seattle area for occasional in-person meetings, partner engagement, and team collaboration. If you’re excited about helping organizations rethink how work gets done while partnering with a team that values flexibility, collaboration, and results, we’d love to connect.   Apply today: https://lnkd.in/g2WuFYmj   #NowHiring #BusinessDevelopment