About Us
Karen White
Coach and Co-Founder
Hi, I’m Karen…
Karen White
About 25 years ago, after a bad car-buying experience, I set out to learn how to be a better negotiator. Over the next 25 years, I learned A LOT about negotiating, but also how to use those same skills in other areas of my life. The most amazing discovery I made was that the things that helped me improve the most and the quickest were not the things I was learning in traditional negotiations skills training courses. When I put all my learning together, I found some common threads and the MESSY Method was born. I became a lawyer because I wanted to help others navigate hard things and the MESSY Method has helped me regularly do just that.
A little more about me… I’m a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and a John Maxwell Certified Coach, Speaker and Trainer. I’m also a Certified Personality Insights Behavior Consultant specializing in DISC methodology. I’ve been a professor at the US Army JAG school at the University of Virginia Law School and in my time in the Air Force have been an administrative officer and JAG and run various law departments in US bases around the country. I also headed the Air Force Utilities Litigation Team during my time on active duty. As a coach I’ve worked with various organizations including the Panama City Beach, FL Chamber of Commerce, Mary Kay, Boots to Business and the Recovery Mission in Panama City, FL teaching various leadership, business and negotiations seminars. I’ve negotiated on everything from multi-million-dollar deals, to labor union negotiations, to even interpersonal negotiations with my three awesome daughters. I am confident our MESSY Method will give you the mindset, evaluation tactics, skills, strategies, and insights into your personality AND others to make you a master at any communication.
Co – Founder
Hi, I’m Lynn…
Lynn Norris
Lynn Norris
After the worst “negotiation” of my life, I turned to my sister to recount the experience and get some support. What I initially meant as just a “woe is me” session, quickly turned into the realization that if I had gone to her first for some help and advice, this terrible experience could have worked exponentially better and perhaps the relationship ruined in its wake wouldn’t have been ruined. That left me with only one conviction – she HAD to teach what she knows to others. Because navigating negotiations and messy communication should be productive, not stressful. People needed to learn her methods for approaching these situations to take the stress and anxiety out and leave what’s wonderful in.
A little more about me… when I’m not working with my sister on helping people re-frame what’s messy into what’s wonderful, I’m busy narrating books and providing voice over services for clients in a variety of industries. I’m also a copywriter primarily helping other voice actors translate their value proposition into words on their websites. I also spent 25 years working on Wall Street in buy-side firms as a business analyst where it was my job to speak business to software developers and technology to end users. So I have first-hand knowledge of how messy some communication can be! As I look around at the nature of our discourse in the world these days, I am more and more convinced that everyone needs our MESSY Method to make talking to each other easier and more productive.
Why MESSY?
So why MESSY you ask? Well first, tough conversations where you’re trying to land a deal, make a sale, convince someone to your point of view or get someone to listen to you can be a hot mess. Maybe you’ve caved in for the 100th time, left money on the table or went along with things you didn’t want to because walking away from the conversation was “easier”. Difficult topics and conversations can also dissolve into fights or stay permanently unresolved.
Our MESSY Method focuses on:
M for Mindset
E for Evaluation
S for Skills
S for Strategies
Y for You
When you put them all together, your MESSY conversations go from messy to wonderful!