Inspiring Conversations with Roberta Vommaro

Hi Roberta, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am an international coach and wellness entrepreneur, specializing in helping high-achievers heal burnout and reconnect with their inner passions. But before this, I was a driven International Tax Lawyer working incredibly long hours, quickly climbing the legal ladder. At the height of my legal career, I had all I dreamed of: the job title, the riches, the relationships, but I was secretly anxious and burnt out.

I couldn’t even acknowledge what I had. With each personal accomplishment, I would raise the bar even higher in pursuit of what I considered “perfection”. Extremely long hours at work, tight timelines, saying YES to every single project – all aimed at the next big thing that would prove to everyone (and to myself) of what I was truly capable of. The work had its natural stressful demands, but in search of perfection, I pushed my body to its absolute limits, eventually landing in a hospital bed.

It was a big A-ha moment. I was literally forced to stop, to take a break, during which I started to rethink all of my life choices. “Am I truly happy? Whose idea of success is this?” The answer to these questions revealed a stark reality: I was living someone else’s life. I quit my job as soon as I recovered and shifted my career into wellness and coaching.

Over my now 15 years of coaching, including owning a wellness studio, I was exposed to different methodologies and organically noticed a need for integration of different aspects and methods in order to address my client’s needs. I knew this too from being on the other end of the coach-client relationship when recovering from my own burnout. At the time, I had 4 different coaches and wellness specialists, all addressing different angles of the same problem. My bespoke method for healing burnout and cutting through anxiety was developed based on the need to address the many different layers through which healing happens. I am excited to support the community this way, particularly now, when so many people are experiencing burnout.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
As I transitioned from law into the wellness field, an interesting thing happened. I was a few years into wellness coaching when suddenly my body felt it again: another burnout. I couldn’t believe it. Part of me felt like a fraud (“how could I be experiencing another burnout with all the resources I had available to me now?”). But I felt there was a deeper lesson here.

It became very clear to me that there was something wrong with the narrative that burnout is the job’s fault – or the industry, the company, or even the system. It is true that the environment can impact how we feel, but this narrative simplifies things. Because burnout is a complex issue that is not so much about how many hours/ day you work, but how you manage your energy. Are you giving your energy away? Are you measuring your worth by other people’s expectations? It was only when I learned to understand how my unique energy pattern operates that I unraveled the mechanics of dealing with and banishing burnout. This in turn helps me to support others that might be going through the same thing, stuck on the same patterns.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Roberta Vommaro is a consulting and coaching company that helps driven high-achievers banish burnout, cut through anxiety and other low-energy states. We uncover each client’s energetic blueprint to craft a unique roadmap for how to better handle stress, increase fulfillment, satisfaction and energy levels.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I’m a nature lover, particularly fond of oceans. I remember as a kid I would go to the beach every weekend and my sister and I had this thing where we did not consider the sandy part of the beach as “beach” – only the ocean. So we would arrive at the beach with our family, put down our towels, immediately look at each other and scream: “let’s go to the beach!”, as we ran towards the ocean, fearlessly.

To this day my favorite place to be is the “beach”, and whenever I need a reminder to slow down, put things into perspective, or recharge myself, I make a point to go for a swim or simply dip my toes in the ocean. The simple things have this capacity to bring us back to ourselves. We just have to make a point to reconnect with these stories and feelings every now and then.