After more than 30 years leading innovation and strategy inside some of the biggest names in the pet food industry, Laura knew one thing for certain:

She didn’t want another traditional executive role.

She had already done the nonstop pace, the pressure, and the constant demands that came with VP-level leadership.

But she also knew she wasn’t finished contributing.

Laura still had deep industry expertise, big ideas, and decades of insight she wanted to share—she just wanted to do it differently this time.

The hardest part wasn’t experience.

It was figuring out how to structure a business around it.

Passport gave Laura something she hadn’t had before:

A clear plan.

Instead of trying to recreate a traditional career on her own, she built a consulting model designed specifically around the way she wanted to work.

Today, Laura advises pet food companies on innovation strategy through a flexible business model that includes project rates, milestone-based fees, and long-term revenue-sharing agreements tied to product success.

And the model is working.

She’s already signed multiple clients while creating a business that leaves room for the rest of her life, too.

Now, her time is split between consulting, mentoring university programs, supporting women in her industry, traveling, and enjoying a pace of life that feels far more sustainable than the one she left behind.

She also built something else she didn’t expect:

A strong community of women entrepreneurs who continue to support, challenge, and encourage each other as they grow their businesses.

For Laura, success no longer looks like climbing higher.

It looks like building work that fits the life she actually wants to live.