_edited.png)
ABOUT SONYA BARNES
For more than two decades, I’ve been helping women navigate how they show up in the world.
My work has taken me from corporate boardrooms and Fortune 500 organizations to stages across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Along the way, I’ve worked with women on leadership, executive presence, personal brand and the often complicated intersection between who we are, how we see ourselves and how we are experienced by others.
I began my career in human resources and organizational consulting before building an international image and brand consultancy. For years, my work centered on helping leaders understand that presence is about far more than what you wear. It is how you communicate, how you lead, how you make decisions and how you occupy the rooms you’ve earned the right to be in.
Then, somewhere along the way, the conversation changed. Mine did, too.
WHEN THE QUESTIONS GET BIGGER
Menopause and midlife brought a different set of questions.
Not simply How do I keep performing? or How do I get my old self back? But questions about how I wanted to feel. What I needed now. What still fit, and what didn’t. How I wanted to work, love, lead and live. And what I wanted the second half of my life to look like.
Like so many women, I discovered that information was everywhere, but meaningful guidance was fragmented. Women were often expected to navigate changes in their health, careers, relationships, identity and sense of purpose as though none of those things were connected.
They are.
That realization changed the direction of my work.
THE WORK TODAY
THE SECOND HALF ISN’T
SUPPOSED TO BE SMALLER.
Today, through Studio M and my work with organizations, my focus sits at the intersection of women’s wellness, identity, leadership and what comes next.
Studio M was created for women navigating this season of life, and for organizations that understand supporting women requires more than simply offering benefits.
Through conversations, experiences, coaching, speaking and workplace wellness strategy, I help women access credible information, ask better questions, advocate for themselves and make intentional decisions about their health, work and lives. Because ultimately, this work is about something much bigger than menopause.
It’s about agency.
WE ARE LIVING LONGER.
WORKING LONGER.
LOVING LONGER.
REINVENTING LONGER.
I believe women deserve to understand their options, trust their own voices and participate fully in the decisions that shape their lives.
We should get to decide what we want to do with all that life.
A CAREER BUILT AROUND WOMEN, LEADERSHIP & TRANSFORMATION
EXPERIENCE & IMPACT
For more than two decades, I have worked as an entrepreneur, consultant, speaker and advisor with executives and organizations across industries and around the world.
My professional background spans human resources, organizational consulting, executive presence, image and personal brand, women’s wellness and leadership development—giving me a perspective on women at work that crosses both the personal and organizational sides of the conversation.
Selected Experience & Recognition
GLOBAL EXPERIENCE
Speaking, consulting and training across the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, France and Malaysia.
CORPORATE & LEADERSHIP
20+ years spanning human resources, organizational consulting, executive presence, personal brand, leadership development and women’s wellness.
AUTHOR, SPEAKER & THOUGHT LEADER
Author of The Complete Guide to Thriving Through Menopause and speaker on women’s wellness, menopause, leadership, workplace wellness and identity evolution.
COMMUNITY & RECOGNITION
Leadership Charlotte • Women Executives • Women’s Impact Fund • Mecklenburg Times 50 Most Influential Women • SouthPark Magazine IT List
THE NEXT CHAPTER
WHAT COMES NEXT IS YOURS TO DESIGN
Whether I’m working with a woman considering what she wants from this season of life, an organization rethinking how it supports women, or an audience ready for a different conversation, the work begins in the same place:
with better questions, greater agency and the courage to decide what comes next