Forgiveness. Grit. Becoming.
Tammy Soares’s story is what happens when fierce ambition, deep love for family, and a nontraditional path collide—from a small mountain town to the president’s seat of a global digital agency, all while raising two kids and reinventing herself more times than she can count.
This episode isn’t about “having it all.”It’s about becoming—again and again.
From Mountain Roots to Big Possibility
Motherhood was always part of Tammy’s DNA.
She grew up with humble beginnings—camping in the Sierras, wearing hand-me-downs, watching her dad work for the school district. She could see the appeal of summers off and stability, but she was hungry for more possibility. She imagined becoming a kindergarten teacher, taking early childhood education classes while working full-time.
Then Silicon Valley intervened.
A tiny startup called Career Mosaic. A salary that dwarfed teaching. A leap that changed everything.
The Degree She Didn’t Finish—and the Career She Built Anyway
Tammy didn’t finish college—and for years, that fact was both a wound and a superpower.
She left school assuming she’d go back “someday,” only to find herself promoted quickly, out-earning expectations, and building a track record that spoke louder than credentials. Still, she was warned she’d “hit a ceiling” without a degree.
When Accenture later offered her a senior role, even their online application required a college field she couldn’t honestly complete. Ten anxious minutes after flagging it, the recruiter called back:
“We don’t care.”
Her work had already answered the question.
Motherhood Didn’t Slow Her Down—It Split Her in Two
Tammy had her son, Sam, in 1999. After preterm labor, she spent bedrest working from home—propped up with a turquoise iMac beside the bed. Six weeks after birth, she was back at the startup, nursing in her office with a pack-and-play nearby.
She and her husband, Matt—her high school sweetheart—ran a relay. He took early shifts. She took late ones. Their baby had a full-time village even while both parents worked more than full-time.
Office freezers filled with breast milk. “Do Not Disturb” signs during pumping sessions. A young leader modeling that a woman’s body and career could coexist in the same room.
The First Big Reset: Staying Home
When the startup sold and relocation wasn’t an option, Tammy made a radical choice for someone so driven: she stayed home.
Sam was 15 months old. She was pregnant with Alyssa. She spent a year as a full-time mom—grateful, present, and slowly losing sight of herself. Everyone called her “Mama,” including her husband. Somewhere between laundry, dishes, and nap schedules, Tammy disappeared.
The itch to work wasn’t a lack of love for her kids.It was a longing to feel like herself again.
Reentry, on Purpose (and on Her Terms)
Coming back wasn’t glamorous—and that was the point.
Tammy took an inside sales role close to home: eight hours a day, no laptop, no late-night email. A way to rebuild confidence and income without sacrificing every moment with her young kids.
She was wildly overqualified—and said so.
“You get to benefit from this.”
She crushed it: salesperson of the year, quotas shattered, grit sharpened. At the same time, she navigated a different kind of challenge—raising a strong-willed daughter whose big emotions were often mishandled by adults, leaving Tammy wrestling with guilt and heartbreak she couldn’t fix from the office.
Another Pivot: The Deli
Then came the deli.
Tammy and Matt bought a small shop next to a cluster of schools, imagining community, flexibility, and ownership. Reality looked more like 4 a.m. openings, six-day weeks, and slipping out of camping trips at dawn to bake cinnamon rolls while her family slept.
The sacrifice outweighed the return.
She missed technology. She missed learning. She missed the version of herself who thrived on complex problems and big ideas.
Selling the deli wasn’t failure.It was Tammy choosing a new path when the old one no longer fit.
The Rocket Ship, Restarted
Her return to digital started quietly—with an instant message from a former colleague.
A new agency in San Luis Obispo. Small town. Big ambition. The perfect bridge between the mountain kid who loved trees and the woman who loved tech.
That message led to leading major global accounts, building teams, and eventually becoming president of Rosetta. It also meant long stretches on the road—trips to Waterloo, Canada—while her daughter cried on the phone because she missed her mom, and her husband became the day-to-day parent at home.
Tammy carried both ambition and absence.
Seeing Gender Clearly—For the First Time
In her 20s, gender felt invisible.
She laughed off strip-club lunches. Snapped at a VP staring at her chest: “My eyes are up here.” Raised with brothers, she was comfortable being “one of the guys.”
It wasn’t until she became president that women began pulling her aside to ask, “How did you break through?”
Only then did Tammy look back and see the pattern: being passed over for roles she was already doing, brought in as the token female leader, called in last-minute so the room looked balanced.
The role that changed everything?
She had to walk into her boss’s office and say it out loud:“I want it. And I can do better than this.”
A Redefinition of Failure
Tammy doesn’t believe in failure.
To her, failure means giving up—and she doesn’t. Lost clients, stalled roles, parenting missteps, even businesses that no longer fit aren’t dead ends. They’re data.
You learn.You adjust.You choose a new route.
That mindset is what allowed her to navigate career leaps, economic realities, and the complexity of raising two very different children while holding big jobs.
Where She Is Now
Today, Tammy is a seasoned executive, a human-centered technologist, and the mother of two grown kids who still call her “the best mom ever.”
Her kids carry what they watched: independence, resilience, and permission to define success on their own terms. Her decades-long marriage—shaped by lean years, dual careers, deli dawns, and global travel—remains her anchor.
Her leadership philosophy is simple:Stay human as you rise. Protect your people like a mama bear. Make more room for others.
Three Words That Say Everything
When I asked Tammy to describe her journey in three words, she chose:
Forgiveness. Grit. Becoming.
Forgiveness — for herself, for imperfect seasons, for the years she felt “behind” or “too much.”
Grit — the daily choice to keep going, ask for the job, open the door at 6 a.m., book the flight anyway.
Becoming — the understanding that there is no final version of you. You’re allowed to pivot, grow, and rewrite the script at 25, 35, 45, and beyond.
This episode of Look Both Ways is honest and unvarnished—about ambition without a roadmap, motherhood without a tidy work-life-balance bow, and the courage to define success outside a traditional résumé.
