Local entrepreneur has made it her mission to empower others in their careers

July 8, 2022, is a day that Uma Subramanian will never forget. It was the day she quit her job, and also the start of her journey to become a leadership coach.

It was a sudden manager change at her startup job that eventually led Subramanian to resign. 

“I felt like in some meetings I was not included, some key conversations were happening behind the scenes,” she said. “I was trying to adjust to his working style.”

Eventually, Subramanian decided to leave on her terms. 

“I knew my self-worth, I knew my values,” she said. “it is very clear to me that this is not something I am going to accept and continue.”

At this point in her career, Subramanian had a strong support system that could help her transition to a new job. But she started to reflect on how she could use her experience and leadership qualities to help others. That unhappy experience gave her the epiphany to help other women recognize their self-worth at work.

“I realized that I want to help other women with realizing their full potential, removing self-imposed barriers and limitations,” Subramanian said. “I was literally going on a walk with my dog in the park when all these things came into my mind.”

She decided to start her career consultancy, Limitless Leaders, earlier this year.

Subramanian grew up in Delhi, India. She moved to Seattle in 2001 with a job at Microsoft, where she worked for 20 years before leaving to join the tech startup that she eventually resigned from.

Before her epiphany in the park, Subramanian had never thought about starting a business on her own. Her father’s serial entrepreneurial failures led her to develop a negative perception of being a business owner.

However, she attributes her decision to start Limitless Leaders to her own investments in personal growth and leadership, as well as to the support from family, friends, and the wider community.

One major step she took was to find a mentor at SCORE, an organization that helps small business owners through mentoring support.

“I found a business mentor from SCORE to help me on the different steps I need to take and consider as I start my own business in Washington,” Subramanian said. “On another track, I started working on how to build a really robust leadership curriculum for what I want to deliver.”

Subramanian did a pilot cohort of clients from February through April this year.

“For three months, we have a group of twelve women meet every week and did leadership workshops on how to unleash our best selves,” Subramanian said. “I call them experimental workshops because they are all very interactive, application and practical-based and consists of a lot of discussions.”

Her program was fully launched in May, and since then, more than 150 women from all over the world have joined the Limitless Leaders community. Members get access to networking events, and group workshops on personal leadership to help them discover the core values of creating their career vision.

“For example, we had a visioning workshop where they were able to develop their five-year career vision,” Subramanian said. “We did a value workshop where they were able to discover personal values that are important to them.”

There are four pillars that go into the curriculum. The first pillar is “Discovery,” where members receive personalized one-on-one coaching.

“I work with them one on one to help them discover their passions, strengths, aspirations, values, and also what is limiting them, holding them back,” Subramanian said.

The second pillar is “Break Through,” an exercise where her clients identify their obstacles and challenges, and Subramanian works with them to break through these barriers and limitations.

The third pillar is “Upskill.” For this phase, Subramanian would help them bridge the gap, whether it is leadership, communication, or anything that they need to improve on.

And finally, with the last pillar of “Achieve,” actual goals and aspirations get realized.

After nearly a year, Subramanian has now scaled Limitless Leaders to all tech professionals, men included.

Subramanian is hopeful about growing Limitless Leaders and extending her impact to more clients.

“We all have limitless potential,” Subramanian said.