“Like so many of us, I am constantly on the rollercoaster of succeeding and failing. As a behavioral scientist, I’m here to share the tools that help us bounce back and land more steadily on the side of success.”

Rebecca Greenbaum — Author, Scholar, Practitioner

Hi, I’m Rebecca. I’m an author, scholar, professor, wife, and mother of four children. Professionally, I study the psychology of leadership and work. Personally, I’m on a mission to help my family thrive. Like so many of us, I am constantly on the rollercoaster ride of succeeding, failing, and trying again. But, as a behavioral scientist, I’ve gotten very good at bouncing back and landing more steadily on the “success” side of the equation. I am here to share what I know by turning my twenty years of research into stories that help us lead better lives.

I learned quickly as a child that I was better off staying quiet, reading people’s emotions, trying to figure out what I could do to ease their pain. My observations made me curious—why do people do bad things, what is “normal,” can people change?

Following my older sister’s lead, I became the second in my family to earn a high school diploma and an undergraduate degree. But when I landed in a PhD program, I finally ran out of footsteps to follow. Without my sister’s example to tell me, “You’ve got this,” I was terrified. I doubted my intelligence, wondering if I could ever belong in a world so far removed from my upbringing.

In my first week as a doctoral student, I met a mentor who changed everything. He helped me find my voice and showed me how to lean into my lifelong curiosities. He taught me the art of isolating the “aha!” moment of human behavior—the precise point where intrigue meets insight to spark a breakthrough.

Today, I’m a business professor with twenty years of research under my belt. I drew from my time in the insurance industry to pioneer the concept of bottom-line mentality—a tunnel vision mindset that fuels our most important goals—which has been published in top journals and studied across the globe. As an expert in leadership and behavioral ethics, my recent role as an Associate Dean allowed me to put my theories into practice, fostering organizational resilience during a period of unprecedented change.

I’ve spent years putting one foot in front of the other, running the near-constant marathon that we call life—striving for my next academic promotion, building a home life, trying to figure out how to be a good wife and mother to our four children. As time passed by, I was regularly confronted with a persistent sense of dissatisfaction. My research served as a critical compass—I used it to navigate my own successes and stumbles—but I wasn’t reaching a wide enough audience. I had the bottom-line focus to become a top scholar, but I wanted to do more than just publish research—I felt a strong urge to help people navigate their own challenges, so they have the tools to come out on top.

Recently, my life was disrupted from my default focus on achieving success above all else. During a one-year sabbatical, I paused my day job to slow down and take stock of the why behind what I do. What I learned was humbling: my own bottom line had become so focused on professional wins that I didn’t know myself outside of my achievements—and I was making sacrifices I feared I would one day regret. Rebuilding my identity from the ground up gave me the clarity to embrace my broader purpose: I am now taking action by getting my research into the hands of those who are desperately trying their best to be their best, yet feeling like failures because the pressures we handle are simply too many.

My sabbatical taught me that success isn’t just about a blanketed bottom line—it’s about how we use this focus to navigate the ups and downs of everyday life. I’m ready to share what I learned by turning my two decades of research into stories that change how we live.

Let’s explore these tools together. Let’s find a way to ease your burden, drive your most important goals, and forge your very best life.