ABOUT
KATHY ONETO
Hi! I’m Kathy.
I believe meaningful work is a part of a fulfilling life, and I wish finding that work wasn’t so angst-ridden and frustrating for many. I get jazzed when people uncover a spark for pursuits or identify what motivates them at this moment. I believe that glimmer is out there waiting for us.
Sustainable Ambition® grew out of my belief that personal life ambitions are just as important as work ambitions and that pursuing both shouldn’t have to leave us feeling overwhelmed, constantly spent, or like we’re treading water. I spent over twenty years in a corporate career in both large and small organizations, working inside companies and for clients, and for the last three years have been coaching executives and individuals navigating life and work changes—those who either want to make a bigger impact at work or want clarity on a path forward while making more room for their personal lives.
My coaching approach addresses the concerns that are so difficult for us to move past: how to feel motivated by our work, how to better integrate life and work goals but not at the cost of depleting ourselves in the process, and how to navigate the inevitable changes that are sure to come our way.
My mission is to help people craft a life with work for more joy, fulfillment, peace, and ease.
I help ambitious individuals, organizations, teams, and leaders explore how to live and work differently for more success, satisfaction, and sustainability.
I provide strategic approaches to life and work decisions and practices. I offer content (guides, tools, a blog, a bi-weekly newsletter) to help you thrive in both life and work.
I’m the host of the Sustainable Ambition podcast, where I explore rethinking traditional beliefs and conventions of success and ambition and explore new ways of living and working in the 21st Century so we can thrive in both our professional and personal lives. You can listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast player.
My forthcoming book on Sustainable Ambition will come out in June 2025. The book is for people who are ambitious yet not at all costs and are figuring out how to better align their life and work and continue to pursue their ambitions in a sustainable way. If you’d like to come behind the scenes with me on my book journey (and it sure is one!), you can join in here.
This is also me.
Alongside Sustainable Ambition, I’m a strategy consultant, advisor, and facilitator working across business, branding, innovation, and talent. In my work today, I partner with ambitious organizations and leaders who want to do better for their business, customers, and people. I help them illuminate and make progress on what matters.
Prior to this, my career was spent inside companies such as Clorox, Minted, a natural food start-up, and a branding and design agency where I built things: businesses, brands, products, organizations, and processes. I have a knack for being able to bridge multiple disciplines and see multiple sides. I can bridge strategy and execution and establish structure and clarity in complex situations, while being disciplined and agile and entrepreneurial at the same time.
I’ve worked alongside senior leaders all my career, from working for the CFO of the world’s largest PR firm out of undergrad to being the Chief of Staff to a start-up founder. I’ve been described as kind, empathetic, and conscientious.
As a knowledge seeker, I love to curate ideas and information, seeing patterns and finding trends, and turn them into practical tools that can ease decision-making in life and work.
-
I asked questions about success, ambition, and navigating life and work starting with a time in college when I questioned the pursuit of one goal over another and then as I navigated choices entering adult life on my own and beyond. For decades I’ve been curious and searching for the answers to questions like:
What is success for me?
Do I really want this?
Where do I want to contribute to this world?
What choice will I make at this time to allow room for both my career and the life I want to lead?
How can I pursue my ambitions and not destroy myself?
I’ve been contemplating careers since I was 15 when I started to think about colleges to attend and majors to select. I’ve learned that I use the question, “Where should I take my career next?” or “How should I be applying myself in my life?” as a touchstone each time I feel a transition coming. It kickstarts the process of exploration that guides me to the next stage in my career and on my life journey.
I’ve asked myself that question many times over the years, having navigated and made career transitions over my 25-year career. Through these adventures, I’ve worked with several leadership coaches and career strategists, participated in career planning sessions (even created and hosted my own while in business school), have taken multiple assessments (haven’t met one I wouldn’t try!), have read extensively on the topic, interviewed and counseled friends on their own path, conducted research with mid-career changers, and so on. I finally took the plunge and got trained as a Co-Active Coach several years ago to complement my other work experience.
I’ve often found I am just as ambitious, if not more so, about my non-work pursuits—pursuit of life ambitions like marathons, triathlons, and long-distance backpacking where I learned the challenges and strategies to be resilient and sustain myself. Or, researching and writing about ideas and concepts, like I do with Sustainable Ambition.
-
As I paused to reflect and start developing a framework around Sustainable Ambition, I realized I’ve been intuitively practicing some form of it throughout my life and career.
When I left college and moved to New York City, I chose a job that wouldn’t expect me to work 60-80 hours per week. I wanted to be able to train for triathlons and enjoy the city fully. Who does that at 21? In some respects smart, in other ways it may have hampered some of my career ambitions. I then chose a business school at Berkeley, because it aligned with my values and the type of environment I wanted to be in. I realize now that the school has defined its values clearly that I appreciated being around other professionals who worked with “Confidence without Attitude.”
I then landed at Clorox in Brand Management, drawn towards the company’s values, especially “Do the Right Thing” and “Work Together to Win.” I was pulled to a start-up where I wanted to work on a product that aligned with a purpose I believed in, healthy food. And so on… you get the idea.
At one point in 2017, I took the ultimate plunge for Sustainable Ambition—my husband and I finally took a sabbatical after longing for one for years. Now, I’m finding my way being self-employed. It’s been a journey of balancing my aspirations and ambitions over the decades, finding my own definition of success, and figuring out how to work with the right effort. Admittedly, I’m still working the most on that last pillar. As an overly committed professional who’s a night owl and loves to cross tasks off her list, cutting myself off is a constant practice.
-
One of my top values is growth and learning. My husband once said that a good analogy for me is Altoids, the curiously strong mint. Why? For one: I’m curiously curious. You can often find me amidst my stack of non-fiction books about topics related to Sustainable Ambition and more, taking a class on coaching or other relevant topics, or that help me explore a new inquiry I’m wrestling with. It drives my desire to travel, exploring new destinations to experience cultures far away and close-by.
He also sees me as small (I’m petite at 5’3”) and packing a punch (I strive to make a powerful, positive impact for others).
Yet at the same time, I prioritize pacing myself and taking breaks to sustain myself. I do that in San Francisco, where I live with my husband and the fog. As a former triathlete and marathon runner, I’m happiest building up my resilience outside, so you'll often find me out taking walks and runs in Golden Gate Park, on urban or mountain hikes with my husband, or enjoying the experience of reading with the sun on my face.
I’m constantly practicing Sustainable Ambition, as it is a practice. I continuously revisit what’s motivating me and where I want to put my focus now and make sure I’m pacing myself and building my resilience to sustain myself over time. There’s no magic wand here, even for me.
But I do believe that the more of us who embrace Sustainable Ambition can make it easier for all of us to thrive in life and work.
-
Kathy Oneto is an executive and life-work coach, speaker, and facilitator who helps ambitious individuals and organizations explore how to live and work differently for greater success, satisfaction, and sustainability.
With a portfolio career, she is also a strategy executive who bridges her two worlds applying strategic approaches to life and work decisions and practices. Kathy is the founder of Sustainable Ambition® and host of the Sustainable Ambition podcast.
As a strategist, Kathy has had a twenty-five-year career working across business, branding, innovation, and talent. In her work today, she partners with ambitious organizations and leaders to illuminate and make progress on what matters, helping them do better for their business, customers, and people.
She holds an MBA from the UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School. She is certified in the Co-Active Coaching Model and by the International Coaching Federation.
Her writing has appeared in Fast Company, Brandingmag, and MediaPost, and she’s been a guest lecturer at the business schools at Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, Duke University, and the University of Colorado.
As a former triathlete and marathon runner, Kathy embodies the principles she teaches. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and the fog, where she builds her resilience outdoors. Her approach to life mirrors her work: finding joy in the journey while pursuing sustainable fulfillment across life and work.
Find Kathy on The Sustainable Ambition Podcast and as a podcast guest here.