Virginia Tech

Wake Forest University

Productivity expert, speaker, author, coach, and blogger

I help successful business owners, executives, managers, and attorneys who want to be more organized and effective at work.  My clients regularly tell me they are thrilled with getting more done in less time and they are experiencing higher levels of both personal and career success.  

Clients typically come to me with saying things like:
• I am tired of working twice as hard for half the result.
• I don't have time for business development/prospecting/social media/_________.
• I need to do a better job of holding myself and others accountable.
• I can't seem to stay on top of my email.
• Our processes are inefficient - we can't keep doing what we've always done.

I’m sure that you’ve never known anyone with these issues, right?

Progress Not Perfection, LLC

Owner and Principal

Because our productivity struggles as adults likely started when we were children, I partnered with NCYI to write a storybook for elementary/middle school-aged children about life balance.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR YOUTH ISSUES

Book Author

Sandler Training is the world’s largest training organization with more than 600 trainers in 32 countries. They specialize in training management/leadership, sales, business development, customer service, and effective communication skills. Sandler works most often with successful executives and business owners looking to continually improve performance.

Sandler Training

Productivity Partner

I owned my company for almost eight years and enjoyed the heck out of it.  I worked one-on-one with over 250 people and led thousands more through seminars and workshops.  I consulted with companies large and small to streamline processes.  When Sandler Training of Chattanooga approached me and wanted to buy my business, I was humbled and thrilled.

MBG Organizing Solutions

Owner & Principal Consultant

In my two years at BCBST, I worked with an amazing team of specialists to ensure that our HR technology operated efficiently and effectively.  We always looked for ways to continuously improve our utilization of technology.

I was also privileged to help lead a project that centralized all HR administrative processes into a customer service and transactional center.  We mapped out the processes and designed a call center that could handle hundreds of different HR transactions.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

Sr. Manager - People Technology and Service Delivery

The best part of teaching is seeing students think about issues in new ways and develop into well-rounded professionals.  I loved being a part of the learning process and teaching my graduate and undergraduate students at UTC.  I still see them from time to time and appreciate it when they share stories of my teaching antics.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Visiting Assistant Professor / Lecturer

I started my career at Protective Life straight out of graduate school.  I was in charge of the annual Employee Feedback Survey.  I also became an internal consultant for statistical measurement and quality improvement.

What I loved the most about the early years of my job at Protective, though, was when I functioned as an executive coach for our top 200 people.  If you can imagine a senior leader allowing a twenty-something HR newbie help them be a better leader, go ahead.  All I can say, though, is that it worked.  I found a calling to work with people struggling through real, day-to-day issues in their jobs.  I learned that you can never assume that just because someone is a senior executive that they don't want to learn and grow.

Later, I grew into a leadership role and managed the employee communications, organizational development, and recruitment process areas.  I left Protective as a trailing spouse when my family relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Protective Life Corporation

Recruitment and Retention Director

In the two summers I interned at CCL, I was fully immersed in research projects under the direction of Jennifer Martineau. Working with a team, I comprehensive critical review of program evaluation research and created a research methodology for merging and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data. I also prepared group reports and aggregated participant data for CCL clients. It was a dream internship!

Melissa Gratias, Ph.D.