Five Minutes. One Mic. Zero Filter. Welcome to Las Vegas DisruptHR!

The Audacity to Stand on That Stage

When I stepped onto that DisruptHR stage, I wasn’t just giving a talk - I was reclaiming a narrative. For five minutes, I told a room full of executives, founders, and HR leaders about interviewing while four months pregnant with twins. You could feel the tension in the room. The surprise. The curiosity. The discomfort.

But that’s the thing about truth: it disrupts.
It shakes something loose.
And that night, I realized sometimes the boldest act of leadership is just standing in your own story.

How It All Started

Let’s rewind.
Before the talk, before the applause, before the title slide that read “The Audacity to Interview Pregnant,” there was just me, nervous, nauseous, and wondering if I was crazy for applying for a new executive role while pregnant.

I’d spent my career building people-first cultures.
But when it came time to advocate for myself, I was second-guessing everything:
Would they take me seriously?
Would they see the bump before the brilliance?
Would I lose the opportunity if I told the truth?

That internal tug-of-war is where this story really begins.

The Interview That Changed Everything

I showed up on camera with my softest blazer, my brightest smile, and two babies secretly growing under my desk.

At one point, I almost said, “By the way, I’m pregnant,” just to get it over with. But instead, I decided to let my expertise speak first.
And when the offer came, it wasn’t in spite of my pregnancy.
It was because they saw my value.

That was the moment I realized: we spend so much energy trying to hide the parts of ourselves we think disqualify us, when those might be the exact reasons we’re right for the role.

Behind the Mic, The Fear You Don’t See

People see the confident speaker, not the 2 a.m. rehearsals.
They see the applause, not the anxiety of sharing something that personal in public. Before the talk, I almost backed out.
I told myself it was too soon, too raw, too much.

But then I thought about every woman who’d been told to “wait until after maternity leave” to chase her next opportunity. And I knew, this story wasn’t mine to keep quiet.

The Talk That Sparked a Movement

Five minutes.
That’s all DisruptHR gives you.
20 slides that move every 15 seconds.

When I said, “I had the audacity to interview pregnant,” the crowd leaned in.
Because they’d all seen it happen.
The bias. The silence. The assumptions.

And in that moment, it stopped being my story.
It became ours.

The Lessons I’ll Never Forget

That night taught me three things I’ll never unlearn:

1. Visibility is power. Hiding your truth doesn’t protect you, it just protects the bias.

2. Confidence is contagious. When you show up as yourself, you give others permission to do the same.

3. Disruption is personal. You don’t have to burn the system down to change it; sometimes all it takes is one brave story.

The Aftermath, And What’s Next

Since that talk, I’ve had dozens of women DM me saying, “I needed to hear that.” I’ve spoken with leaders who said it changed how they think about hiring, parenthood, and bias. That’s the real magic, impact that lingers after the lights go down.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!
Because the real “disruption” isn’t the mic drop, it’s the courage to tell the truth out loud.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experience, it’s this:
The stories we’re afraid to tell are usually the ones the world most needs to hear. 💜