My client, Dr. Lindsey Grabek works as an anesthesiologist. Which means she spends her days with people in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives, aware in a way most of us are not of how temporary and precious those lives are. She also spends her time building a coaching practice focused on emotional intelligence for female physicians, doing it alongside one of the most demanding clinical careers imaginable.
The conversation I had with her stayed with me for a long time. Not primarily because of what she has built, though what she has built is genuinely impressive. But because of the honesty she brought to talking about what it cost her to get there, and what finally allowed her to move forward.
How She Found EQ Coaching
Lindsey did not come to emotional intelligence coaching through an interest in the field. She came to it through necessity. She was a new mother. She was starting a new position. And she was, as she put it plainly, miserable, caught between two consuming identities with no space in either one for the other.
EQ training was what she found when she went looking for something, anything, that would help. And what it gave her was not a set of techniques. It was a different way of living in her own life. Her inner critic quieted. Not disappeared, she was careful about that. But quieted. Her relationship with her husband deepened in ways that surprised her. And the thing she talked about with the most visible emotion was this: she is proud of the mother she is becoming for her daughter. She is aware that she is creating her daughter's inner voice by how she shows up every day. That awareness is not a burden for her. It is a source of meaning.
That personal transformation is why she now coaches female physicians specifically. Not because they are the only ones who need this work, but because she recognizes their experience from the inside. She has been the new mother starting a new job, miserable in the gap, not knowing what she needed. And recognition is where real coaching begins.
Two Years of Asking Who Am I to Do This?
For almost two years, Lindsey built her coaching practice while quietly wrestling with a question that many coaches know well: who am I to do this? She had the training. She had the experience. She had seen the same patterns in her colleagues that she had lived herself. And still, something made it hard to step forward and claim the work publicly.
Part of what shifted was doing her own original research. She designed a survey focused on the state of emotional intelligence among female physicians and sent it to everyone she could reach. One hundred and twenty women responded. What came back was not just data. It was confirmation that her people's struggles were real, widespread, and waiting for someone who understood them from the inside.
She described the shift clearly: she went from hoping people would trust her to having something concrete she could point to. The research was not scientifically rigorous, she was the first to say so. But it was hers. It came from her questions, her relationships, her genuine curiosity about the people she most wanted to serve. And having it changed how she carried herself in every conversation about her work.
Living from Legacy Right Now
There is something particular about the way Lindsey thinks about time and purpose that I think comes directly from her clinical work. When you sit with people in their most vulnerable moments, when you understand in your body that life is fragile and temporary, it changes how you think about waiting.
She described her orientation as living from legacy in the present tense. Not as a destination she is working toward. As a daily practice. Her life is complete. She has done what she came here to do today. And if something unexpected happened tomorrow, she would not be left with the feeling that she had been waiting to start.
I have heard a lot of frameworks for thinking about purpose and urgency in a coaching practice. This is one of the most honest and most useful I have encountered. Because it removes the condition. You do not need to be further along. You do not need the perfect offer or the right time or the validated credential. You need to begin, and to keep beginning, every day.
That is what Lindsey is doing. Alongside an anesthesiology career, alongside motherhood, alongside all of it. She is showing up for the work she came here to do.
About Dr. Lindsey Grabek: Lindsey is an anesthesiologist and emotional intelligence coach who helps female physicians leverage their EQ to reduce overwhelm, lead with steadier confidence, and increase their influence. Her EQ Deep Dive coaching package is designed for leaders who want deep insight into their emotional intelligence, a clear picture of their strengths, and an actionable plan to elevate their leadership. She is the founder of The Authentic Pulse.
https://www.theauthenticpulse.com/
🎁 Free gift: recording of her masterclass and the insights from her survey of 120 female physicians: https://www.theauthenticpulse.com/IEI
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