Our Story

Our founder, Amy Brown, had a dream.

Since her childhood, Amy has been endlessly fascinated by people dynamics. Her parents, both career educators, were in kindergarten together and are wildly different personality types. Amy grew up seeing the impact that people’s behaviors, actions, and decisions have on lives. She heard stories of schools, of jobs, of purpose, and of dreams.

As she progressed in her own career, she witnessed the impact of how people show up at work, and how it plays out in a professional setting. As most of us do, she experienced great managers, and not so great managers. She knew what it was like to be highly inspired and energized by work and the team, and how critical it was to work in an environment where you were truly set up to do your best work. She also learned that what each of us need to do our best work will vary. During her 13 years at Microsoft, she began to distill and hone her personal purpose. One day it became clear to her: her purpose is to help others achieve theirs.

In 2007, Amy attended an offsite in Tokyo where the strategy of developing high potential employees was being discussed. She took part in a visioning activity that was being considered for inclusion in a Microsoft wide program. As a participant, she was asked to reflect on where she had been 10 years before in all aspects of her life, where she was today in those same aspects, and where she would like to be in 10 years, again in those same aspects.

Her list of where she envisioned herself in 10 years:

• Move back to Seattle from Redmond, WA

• Buy a house with a fireplace and a view

• Become a mother through adoption

• Become a wife to Jim

• Enjoy good health

• Have her parents be healthy

• Own a consulting practice specializing in Leadership and Team Development

Her dreams were taking shape and becoming more clear.

Now she just needed help activating it. She decided to turn to a coach, who could be objective in helping her figure out exactly what this dream could become. Her coach helped her put a roadmap together – what steps did she need to take, when could she take them, what barriers existing, and how she could break through any that were self-limiting. Once the roadmap was in place, Amy knew what she needed to do.

Fast forward to 2009. She had just picked up her newly adopted daughter from China, where she had gotten engaged on the Great Wall. She was driving across a bridge from her house in Seattle that had a fireplace and a view. Her health was great. She passed by a sign that she had traversed countless times over years of commuting. The sign read “SODO” and stood for the neighborhood South of the (King) Dome.

That particular day, as she passed the sign, it changed shape in front of her eyes. Instead of reading as SODO, it now read to her as SoDo, as in, so do it. She literally felt it was a sign. She knew that day that her business was about to be born, and it would be called SoDo Consulting. If she realized her dream, SoDo would help others ‘so do’ their purpose, their hopes, and their dreams. It would help others turn their goals into reality. SoDo was launched in 2010. Today, Amy wants for you to turn your goals, whatever they may be, professionally, organizationally, and even personally, into reality.