Happy International Women's Day

It's 2007. I've just graduated art school, and the Great Recession hits — hard. Jobs were scarce, and I found myself juggling three low-level roles, from tech support to retail, all while freelancing to build my portfolio.

Then, by happenstance, I met Toby Rosner.

We met through another client of mine, Lynda MacDonald Keith, and Toby immediately stood out as someone I should look up to. She wasn't just a mentor — she was a masterclass in client relations, deadline management, self-promotion, and how to be kind through all of it. She saw that I wasn't the most experienced person in the room, but that I had grit, and she took me under her wing.

Toby had a real impact on where my career went. She introduced me to her cousin, Asaph Benun, which led to a pivotal opportunity at Mike Nethercott's firm, deecipher — a stepping stone that eventually led me to start my own business.

What makes her mentorship even more remarkable is her own trajectory. She moved through several high-ranking marketing roles in tech — a notoriously difficult environment for women — into impactful nonprofit work. She showed me what resilience and adaptability actually look like.

Today, we celebrate women like Toby Rosner, who navigate their own careers with grace and determination, and still make time to lift others up along the way.