Tell us a little bit about yourself

“Professionally I am a lawyer turned entrepreneur and I spend my time helping business professionals who are stuck in their career figure out what is next and how to get there. I am also a business strategy consultant who helps business owners and their teams grow their business. I published a book in 2019 titled WELCOME to the Next Level: How to Become Unstuck, Take Action, and Rise Higher in Your Career. My second book, What’s Next for My Career? Comes out in August 2020. I am two weeks away from launching my PractiGal Career Mentor webinar series.

Personally, I am a mom to three boys and I spent the last 39 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two of my boys, well, young men really, decided to stay in the Bay Area and work while attending classes remotely. Jasper is 22 and is working at My Wine Guide as a data analyst. And Bryce is about to turn 21 and is working at a start-up doing front end UI/UX work.

In January, my husband and I along with my 18-year-old son moved to Vancouver, Washington (near Portland) for more space and a change of pace. With the shelter-in-place we definitely have a change of pace; A little too much for my taste! I am way more social and outgoing and have had to rethink how I spend my time to make sure I get enough social interaction!”

What inspires you to do what you do?

“One of my missions is to help women get paid what they are worth. I say that I help highly motivated, professional women, AND enlightened, progressive men. The reason I help men too is because these are the men that are allies and sponsors who help support and promote women.

We can’t do this alone because men are a majority in positions of power. I think we need to gather allies around us to help us achieve our goals. I ran across this quote recently and it reminded me why I do the work I do, “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” Malala Yousafzai”

Can you share what your day usually looks like?

“I like to start my day with exercise outside. I walk or run or I throw in a few circuit training exercises as I go. I find that I need the fresh air and sunshine. For about the last 8 months I have been listening to the 10 minute meditation on the Calm app when I start out. Then I listen to a pod cast or book. I love to stop and photograph flowers and nature around me. If you follow me on Instagram (@sonyasigler), you’ll see that effort. The picture I included was from July 4th weekend. After exercising and a shower, I eat a simple breakfast of muesli and kefir before starting work.

I tend to work best from 7 am – 2 pm, so I try to do everything substantive in the morning and early afternoon. Then I work on quieter activities like making phone calls, or writing or research in the afternoon. I work at home most of the time (all of the time now) so I end up doing a few things around the house in between work projects. I like to take time to think and straighten out ideas in my head before I write about them. Thinking while doing a chore gives me the perfect opportunity to marinate ideas.

I usually get a second wind and work from 5 -7 pm. In the evenings, my husband and I love to cook together and play a game or watch a movie. Right now it’s a pretty simple life of serving clients, writing my second book, and hanging out with my husband and youngest son (a man-boy of 19 this week).”

Why did you join The Expat Woman Club?

“I first learned about The Expat Woman Club when I was living in Singapore in 2018. I joined because I think it important to help women excel and be paid what they are worth, especially when they are trying to make it in a foreign country. When I lived in Germany, I made a couple close women friends who helped me navigate everything, which was priceless. I wanted to be able to repay that kindness and support. My favorite part of the group is meeting women I wouldn’t have ever had the change to meet and share their worldwide experience. I love being able to learn from this group of fascinating women.”

Are there any resources or tools you would like to share with our network?

“My two favorite resources at the moment are the Calm App and the book, The 12 Week Year.

I use the planning method described in The 12 Week Year to plan my quarter, month, week and day. It is a beautiful organization method to help you actually meet your goals rather than thinking you have more time to do something and then not actually doing it or getting it done.

Two of my most successful clients use this method and I picked their brains to figure out how they were so successful. It took them about a year of trial and error, experimenting with the right metrics and seeing what action was directly correlated to meeting their goals. I love it. It forces you to hone in on what metric is most important to meet your goals.

The Calm App has an amazing series of daily meditations that I try to listen to first thing when I exercise. They include quotes and a lesson or an important reminder. I find myself often sharing the quotes. However, the part of the App I find most valuable is the master classes. They cover everything from learning to meditate to how to eat nutritiously and healthy to how to be kinder. I use this app to reset my brain and mind every morning, then I am ready to tackle the plan I set up using The 12 Week Year methodology.”