It was a perfect collision of talent, persistence and events that led to one of the highlights of Brandi Stankovic's career. The most recent Trailblazers 40 Below honoree was presenting at a conference when she got the opportunity to share the stage with executive leadership coach and New York Times bestselling author Mark C. Thompson. The two had a great onstage dialogue, according to Stankovic, senior partner at Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates and human resources consultant at the $553 million, Boulder City, Nev.-based Boulder Dam Credit Union.

The onstage success led to a post-presentation selfie, and Stankovic asked Thompson to email her the photo – knowing she would then have his contact information. Stankovic capitalized on the opportunity to network with Thompson by setting up a meeting and beginning to professionally collaborate with him. The meetings went so well they decided to co-author an executive coaching book called The Strategic MVP, which was published in December 2015.