About Joelle
I help people see what is keeping the problem alive, so they can change their part in it.
Not because I have all the answers.
Because I spent years helping other people see what I could not yet see in my own life.
And I learned how much can change when we stop asking only, “What should I do?” and begin questioning what is shaping the choices we believe we have.
HUMAN SYSTEMS STRATEGIST
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXPERIENCE OFFICER, trace
CREATOR OF THE THIRD OPTION AND MARV
01 — HOW I GOT HERE
Since 2008, I have worked with leaders, teams, and organizations across industries, cultures, and countries.
I have sat with executives facing decisions that carried real consequences.
I have worked with leadership teams struggling with trust, accountability, conflict, and change.
And I have watched organizations invest heavily in solving problems that kept returning in different forms.
Over the years, I began to notice something.
People did not always struggle because they lacked knowledge, ability, or another tool.
Often, they were trying to solve the problem exactly as they saw it.
And sometimes, the way they saw the problem was part of what kept it alive.
That observation stayed with me.
Eventually, life made it personal
02 — WHEN LIFE TURNED THE MIRROR TOWARDS ME
For years, I was helping other people see more clearly.
What I had not realized was how much I could not see in my own life.
I was managing.
Achieving.
Anticipating.
Holding everything together.
From the outside, I looked capable.
Inside, something was no longer working.
A couple of panic attacks forced me to stop long enough to see what effort had hidden.
I was not exhausted only because of what I was carrying.
I was exhausted because of the way I had learned to carry it.
I had learned to measure my value through achievement.
To feel responsible for making things work.
To keep moving before asking whether the direction still made sense.
To confuse being strong with needing very little from anyone.
The pressure was real.
But so were the rules, roles, and expectations through which I was carrying it.
That realization did not give me an immediate answer.
It gave me a different place to look.
03 — WHAT I STARTED TO NOTICE
The more I observed my own life…
and the lives of the people I worked with…
the more I saw the same pattern.
We spend years trying to fix what is visible.
The argument.
The pressure.
The behavior.
The decision.
The outcome.
The visible problem may be real.
But it is rarely the whole story.
Underneath it may be an assumption we have stopped questioning.
A role we believe we must continue playing.
A version of ourselves that appears automatically under pressure.
Or a false choice that makes us believe every available option requires a sacrifice.
The responsible woman who carries everything at home may be the leader who takes over at work.
The person who avoids disappointing her family may also avoid the conversation her team needs.
The setting changes.
The pattern often does not.
When we can see what is keeping the pattern alive, we finally know where change can begin.
04 — WHAT I DO TODAY
Different situations. The same place to begin.
FOR WOMEN
I work with capable, responsible women who are used to being the person others depend on.
Women who are making life work but are tired of disappearing inside everything they carry.
Through The Third Option Experience, I help them see the patterns, roles, and false choices keeping them stuck, then use MARV to change how they act, respond, and speak without abandoning themselves or the people they love.
FOR SENIOR LEADERS
I work privately with senior leaders navigating complexity, pressure, difficult relationships, and decisions that carry consequences.
The work is not about handing them answers.
It is about helping them see what others may not tell them, understand their part in the current reality, and lead with greater clarity and intention.
FOR ORGANIZATIONS
As Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer of trace, I partner with organizations to create measurable shifts in leadership, accountability, collaboration, culture, and performance.
We work with the human systems underneath organizational results because lasting transformation requires more than changing processes.
It requires people to see and respond differently.
05 — WHAT I BELIEVE NOW
I don’t believe most people are stuck
because life is too complicated.
I think many of us are living inside
interpretations we’ve stopped questioning.
You cannot choose differently until you can see differently.
But seeing is only the beginning.
Living differently requires action, intentional responses, and the courage to use your voice.
That is why I created The Third Option and MARV.
The Third Option changes the frame. MARV is how you live it. Maybe the answer is not inside the choices you keep trying to make.
Maybe it begins by seeing the frame that made those choices feel inevitable.