In partnership with

• 9 to 5 Dilemma: When Confidence Stops Working.

• Time & The Magic of The Great British Bake Off.

• 1 Small Tweak with Big Brand Impact.

• Dollyism.

You’ve Done It All… But Have You Tried Changing Your Story?

Over the summer, I was asked to sit on a panel for a women’s event called Cracking the Confidence Code.

To be honest, the sheer thought of me sitting on a stage telling anyone about confidence made me laugh.

Confidence doesn’t always live in these walls.

And if most people were honest, confidence doesn’t always live in their walls either.

We all move across the confidence scale depending on the day, the hour, the encounter, the people across from us, and how loud our inner self-doubt is screaming.

But most of the advice and “self-help” out there puts confidence into this elite tier that makes it seem like confident people are vocal, unapologetic, and always on. This skews our view of what it means to be confident and how we’re supposed to feel when we’ve “arrived” at confident.

One thing I see over and over again on potential new client calls is that so many of us struggle with the same challenge:

We’re telling ourselves outdated, inaccurate, and often wildly untrue stories about who we are and what we’re capable of.

And even more commonly, we recycle these stories.

In fact, I’d estimate about 85% of people I meet are still telling the same career story they were ten years ago.

They got comfortable seeing themselves in one way.
They got good at it.
They replicated it.

Your story hasn’t caught up to who you are now.

You’ve grown, changed, and collected new experiences, yet the version of you that shows up in your mind and then on your resume, LinkedIn, or even in conversation is still based on an outdated chapter.

That mismatch is what creates the quiet sense of “something’s off.”
And most of us internalize that feeling and assume it’s because we’re not enough.

Confidence comes from getting clear on what’s true now and communicating it with intention.

Let’s Get Tactical

If you’ve already “done it all” and still feel stuck, here are a few ways to start changing your story that maybe you haven’t tried yet:

1️⃣ Audit how you describe yourself.

Open your resume, LinkedIn “About,” or even the way you answer “Tell me about yourself.”

Ask: Would this describe the version of me today? Or the me from five years ago?

If it’s the latter, start small. Change one line or phrase that feels outdated.

2️⃣ Revisit your “why.”

Think about what actually motivates you now, not what used to.

You might realize your career goals aren’t about climbing higher, but about more autonomy, creativity, or meaning. Naming it gives you direction again.

3️⃣ Collect recent wins and reframe them.

Write down five things you’ve improved, solved, or supported in the last year.

For each, ask: What was the problem? What did I do? What changed because of it?

You’ll start to see patterns in your strengths which are proof points in confidence rebuilding.

4️⃣ Align your online presence with your growth.

If your LinkedIn headline or summary still sounds like a past version of you, update it. Your digital story should evolve as you do, too.

5️⃣ Practice saying it out loud.

Confidence is built in practice. Say your story out loud. Start with telling yourself the new story and then practice saying out loud to those that are a safe space for you.

Confidence Comes from Clarity

Confidence is the outcome of knowing who you are, what you bring, and how to talk about it.

When you change the story you tell about yourself, you stop chasing confidence and start embodying it.

Time & The Magic of The Great British Bake Off.

There’s something deeply comforting about The Great British Bake Off.

No screaming judges. No prize money. No backstabbing plot twists.

Just everyday people in a pastel tent, baking cakes under pressure and somehow still managing to root for each other.

And if you’re like me, watching it feels like an exhale. It’s my Friday night retreat after a long week where I can get into my pajamas, turn on Bake Off, and zone.

You can feel your nervous system soften as contestants help each other plate tarts while the clock ticks down and the gentle voice of Noel Fielding calmy guiding you.

It’s what our brains have been starved for: time.

The Currency We’ve Lost

We live in an era that’s saturated with information and efficiency…we’ve automated, optimized, and streamlined everything we can.

Yet somehow, we’re still working the same 40-hour weeks, answering emails at 9 p.m., and measuring success by how much we can cram into a calendar.

We tell ourselves we don’t have time, so we buy convenience.

We buy more premade meals because who has time to chop an onion. We text instead of call. We eat while we type.

Convenience feels like control until it doesn’t.
What we’ve really lost isn’t time, it’s the experience of time.

The space between start and finish.
The joy of waiting for something to rise.
The satisfaction of doing one thing fully, just because it matters to you.

Bake Off Brings Us Back to the Middle

That’s why Bake Off works. It’s an antidote to our overstimulated, under-savored lives.

It’s about watching people stay with a process.

There’s no fast-forward button when you’re whipping meringue or tempering chocolate.

You watch someone’s hands shake as they frost a cake, see their relief when it holds, and somehow, you feel calmer. Because it reminds you that doing something with care is still worth your time.

It’s nervous-system repair.

The Work Connection

We crave that same feeling in our work.
That sense of calm focus. Of doing one thing well.

But our modern workplaces reward speed, not presence.

We sprint from task to task, convincing ourselves we’re efficient when really, we’re fractured.

That’s why a single, uninterrupted hour of focus can feel luxurious.
Or why finishing a project with a thoughtful team feels so satisfying.
Because for a moment, we stopped multitasking and started creating.

The real reason you’re tired isn’t because you’re bad at time management.
It’s because your brain is exhausted from switching contexts 300 times a day.

And Bake Off, in its quiet way, reminds us what it’s like to focus on one meaningful thing at a time and to do it with kindness.

Try This

If you’ve been feeling drained or “off,” try slowing something down on purpose:

• Give one task your full attention. Turn off notifications. Close the extra tabs. Let yourself finish something all the way through.

• Make something by hand. Bake, knit, write, fix, or cook… not because it’s efficient, but because it’s yours.

• Reclaim small moments of waiting. Don’t fill them. Let your brain wander. “Waste” time for an hour.

Maybe Bake Off scratches that itch because it reminds us what being human actually feels like.

We crave softness in a world that keeps asking for speed.
We miss depth in a culture that keeps rewarding output.

So the next time you catch yourself zoning out to a slow show about biscuits and buttercream, don’t judge it.

That calm you feel is recovery.

PS- If you read this article and thought “I’ve never seen it, but I never have time to watch it!”, it’s time to unplug for an hour, my friend. Grab a cookie or a little sweet treat, plop down in a comfy spot, and relax in time.

1 Brand Adjustment to Make This Week

If you’ve been thinking about refreshing your brand but don’t have hours to spare, start small.

Customize Your LinkedIn URL

Your default LinkedIn URL probably looks like this:

linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-ab13435432

Clean it up by going to View Profile → Edit Public Profile & URL → Edit Custom URL.

Keep it simple and professional, ideally just your name: linkedin.com/in/janesmith

This will make it easier to paste your url into your resume and will also build brand consistency.

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