On the last day of my coach certification at Georgetown, we were each asked to bring an object that represented our journey. When it was my turn, I told them about my kids’ favorite bedtime book, National Geographic’s Little Kids First Big Book of Bugs, and how for months they’d asked, every night, to see “the big butterfly” on page 65 — an electric blue Morpho, as big as an adult’s hand.

Then I told them what happened a few months later, on a walk through Gamboa National Reserve in Panama. We were being eaten alive by mosquitoes on a dirt road in the middle of the jungle when butterflies started appearing out of nowhere — that same brilliant blue — circling us like they’d come to say hello. My kids lost it. “Mama! Look, it’s the butterfly from the book!” A creature from a bedtime story, showing up in real life, unannounced. One of the most beautiful, unexpected moments of my life.

That’s the object I brought to Georgetown: a journey made of exactly that — beautiful, unexpected surprises. In the years since, I’ve watched my clients live the same pattern. The surprise of a confidence they didn’t know they had. The surprise of an old identity finally loosening its grip. Leadership tends to change people quietly, then all at once, when they least expect it.

Later, I looked into where the name actually comes from. “Morpho” is Greek for form, or shape — the root of “metamorphosis.” Which made the name feel less like a coincidence and more like the whole point: the butterfly transforms completely, from caterpillar to chrysalis to flight. And that’s exactly the work — helping leaders and teams change form under real pressure, into something stronger.

One more thing about the butterfly, worth knowing. Its wings aren’t actually blue — there’s no blue pigment in them at all. The color comes from light bending off microscopic structures in the wing, so the exact shade you see depends entirely on the angle you’re looking from. Both angles are real. Both are true. That’s the whole idea behind Tension to Momentum™: most leadership tradeoffs — speed and caution, candor and diplomacy — aren’t a problem to solve by picking a side. They’re energy to direct, once you can see what’s true from more than one angle.

And underneath all of it is something simpler: I care about people, deeply. My work is about helping leaders and teams feel seen, valued, and able to become the fullest version of themselves — not despite the pressure they’re under, but through it. That’s the transformation this name has always pointed to, since before it was a business.