This post is from 2019 and reflects a coaching partnership VIDA no longer offers. We’re keeping it up as a look back — Sydney’s advice below still holds up. Today, connection and support at VIDA happen through our member community itself, especially in VIDA Virtual, where you’ll find daily coworking sessions, community events, and a network of women who get what you’re building.
If there’s one thing that unites entrepreneurs and business owners of all kinds, it’s this: We could all use a little help.
VIDA gets it. That’s why, in 2019, we partnered with Personal and Professional Development Coach Sydney Labadie to provide coaching services to our members. In addition to individual sessions, Sydney offered monthly community talks and quarterly events focused on building a professional life that supports the things that matter.
About Sydney
Sydney hasn’t always been a coach. Earlier in her career, she worked in the corporate world, helping small business owners manage their day-to-day finances and helping huge companies analyze the financials of potential partners. She stayed home with her children in the early years of their lives, and when she re-entered the workforce, she was hit with the difficulty of balancing and blending it all. This is when she knew she was meant to help others who faced the same challenges.
“I realized helping people through life’s moments, the good, the bad, the losses and the victories – was so rewarding,” says Sydney. Following her instincts, she enrolled in iPEC, an accredited personal development and executive coaching program.
Sydney says she brings her whole background—professional, personal, and emotional—to her work with clients, and that she particularly enjoys working with small business owners, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs because of the unique challenges they face integrating their personal and professional lives.
“Really, large companies measure of success is profit and stock prices. Small business owners are trying to make their business work inside their life, so they need the business to be part of their overall life balance,” says Sydney.
Knowing What Matters
Achieving that integration often boils down to setting priorities. Sydney compares life to a vessel that we fill up with glass and rubber balls.
“A lot of creating the quality in life is addressing which of those balls are rubber and can bounce if dropped, and which need to be held tightly as they are fragile and will shatter. Often, we think of family time or self-care as rubber, but actually those are the most delicate. Identifying our priorities based on our values is the key to living our most authentic and rewarding life.” says Sydney.
VIDA is a coworking community designed to #MakeLifeWork for our members. With locations in Portland and Beaverton, Oregon, we offer private offices, dedicated desks, and open coworking, along with thoughtfully curated amenities and a member community that feels like your own. Book a tour of VIDA Portland or VIDA Beaverton and see what it feels like to be a regular. Prefer the community without the commute? Explore VIDA Virtual instead.