The challenges of managing both parenting and working are often reduced to words like “overwhelming” or “juggling,” but those words don’t capture the relentlessness of back-to-back meetings, deadlines, and a family that needs you. You’re showing up for everyone, every single day, yet you still feel like you’re never enough. The good news? You don’t have to get it right all the time. You just have to show up differently in some of those moments, starting with knowing what to reach for when you’re too depleted to think clearly.

Mary Willcox Smith found herself in the trenches, running her third business and raising four daughters, when she discovered research that gave her the answer she needed: even highly attuned parents are only in sync with their kids about 20–30% of the time, and that’s enough. Not because the rest doesn’t matter, but because what happens in those moments carries the most weight.

With signature wit and warmth, Mary introduces the MicroStep Method®, a neuroscience-grounded framework built on the moments most of us rush past, and walks attendees through the sequence that builds connection, resilience, and better behavior, without needing to do more, or be more.

Attendees will:

• Understand what a Sticky Moment is, and why the smallest ones matter most
• Learn the three-step sequence that turns hard moments into connection, cooperation, and resilience
• Walk away with real MicroSteps to use that very evening

Born out of necessity and tested in the chaos of real life, the MicroStep Method® doesn’t ask you to become a different parent. It just gives you something to reach for, and the reassurance that showing up differently, just some of the time, is enough to change what comes next.

Speaker:

Mary Willcox Smith is a coach, author, and speaker best known for creating the MicroStep Method®, a research-informed framework built on a simple parenting observation: it’s rarely the big decisions that undo us; it’s the small moment when patience runs out, or guilt talks us into one more yes. Prior to this work, Mary’s career spanned three continents and the intensity of entrepreneurship, including founding her own business in Switzerland, which gave her a firsthand understanding of the pressure, guilt, and competing demands that ambitious, high-achieving women carry. But it was parenting four daughters born within five years that taught Mary that success in the outside world does not prepare you for the emotional landmines inside your own kitchen. What finally changed everything wasn’t doing more, trying harder, or becoming a perfect parent. It was learning to notice the small moments that shape how kids – and the adults raising them – see themselves. Mary holds an MBA from INSEAD and is a Master Certified Life Coach and Certified Positive Discipline Expert. She is the author of The MicroStep Method for the Overwhelmed Parent: Small Moments, Big Impact, works with a limited number of coaching clients, and speaks nationally to schools, parent groups, organizations, and professional communities.