• 9 to 5 Dilemma: Stuck in the Middle…

• Bad News: You Have to Greenlight Yourself

• New Session for June: Change is Hard

• Don’t Crowdsource Your Personality

• Walk This Way: June Walk & Talk

• Dollyism

Let me tell you something I wish more people would say out loud:
You can be doing everything “right” and still feel completely wrecked inside.

That doesn’t make you broken. It makes you honest.

I’ve been there, too. The mornings where you stare at your inbox and think, “I don’t even know if I can respond to the same emails again and again and again.”

The moments where everyone else seems to have cracked some invisible code, and you’re just... tired. Showing up, doing the work, trying to keep your head above water, but also wondering when you’re finally going to feel like yourself again.

A client told me recently, “Everyone around me is accelerating, and I’m standing in place trying to remember how to want things for myself again.”

And mannnnnnn, that hit.

So, we started by giving her space to breathe. Space to ask better questions. We rebuilt her mornings. We looked at how she spoke to herself before she even opened her laptop.

That’s what this work is.
It’s not about finding the right job or perfect path right away.
It’s about grounding yourself before the next thing becomes clear.

So if you’re in that place right now feeling stuck, behind, heavy, not going to tell you to hustle through it. I’m going to tell you to listen. To your tired parts. Your curious parts. Even the parts that feel unsure.

You don’t need to overhaul your life today.
You just need one moment of clarity. One small change. One different choice.

And that might look like rest.
Or saying no.
Or finally admitting to yourself that you want something more.

Start there.

The middle isn’t something to rush through, it’s something to move with.
In the quiet work of questioning, reflecting, and reconnecting, something steady starts to build.

You may not see it yet. But it’s happening.

Bad News : No One Is Going to Give You The Greenlight, Except for You.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time waiting.

Waiting for a moment when I’d finally feel ready enough to take the leap.
Waiting to feel like I wasn’t faking it.
Waiting to believe the good things people said about me.
Waiting for the doubt to go quiet before doing the thing I really wanted to do.

That moment rarely came. Not on its own, anyway.

Most of the time, I only started to feel enough after I did the thing scared.

After I said yes and showed up awkwardly. After I realized I could trust myself in motion.

The confidence didn’t show up first. The courage did.

I’ve been sitting in that reminder again lately, not because I’ve figured it all out, but because I haven’t.

The past few weeks have felt heavy. Foggy. I’ve had ideas I haven’t acted on yet because I can’t seem to gain clarity in my thoughts.

I’ve also had tough mornings that I’ve spent wondering if I’m still as good at this work as I thought I was.

So I came back to this poem.
Because it doesn’t ask me to do more, prove more, or be more.
It just invites me to believe that what I carry inside me is already enough to begin again.

Sometimes we forget our own magic because we’re too close to it.
We mistake exhaustion for failure.
We mistake quiet seasons for irrelevance.
We mistake not being seen for not being valuable.

But none of that is true.

You’re allowed to be tired and still worthy.
You’re allowed to be uncertain and still brave.
You’re allowed to begin again, without needing a sign from the universe or a fully fleshed-out plan.

So if you’ve been waiting for permission to trust yourself again:
Here it is.

Not next year. Not next month. Not when you’ve earned it.
Now.

You are ready.
You are enough.
And that’s not up for debate.

Walk This Way… Introducing Walk & Talks.

Career support, advice, and guidance doesn’t always happen best behind a desk or on a Zoom call. Sometimes, the clearest insights come when you're moving through the world…literally.

Introducing our Walk & Talk Series.

Each month, we host a low-pressure, high-impact audio session designed to give you space to think, reset, and move forward mentally and physically. Whether you’re walking through your neighborhood, strolling on a treadmill, wandering a park, or pacing your kitchen because of rain, you’re invited to reflect, listen, and reconnect with what matters to you.

These sessions are intentionally different:
✔ No cameras
✔ No pressure to talk
✔ Just grounded support you can take with you

And there’s science behind it. Walking boosts creativity, lowers cortisol, and helps regulate your nervous system, making it one of the most accessible ways to process uncertainty and get unstuck. When your body moves, your mind loosens its grip.

June Walk & Talk: Listening Inward (with Chloe Nassau)

This month’s Walk & Talk is a 30-minute audio-only session led by Chloe Nassau, one of my favorite voices in emotional clarity and processing ambiguous loss. This is a guided experience designed for you to walk, listen, and absorb at your own pace.

You’ll explore ambivalence, internal resistance, and what it means to move forward with self-trust, even when the path isn’t clear. Using a 3-2-1 structure inspired by James Clear, Chloe will guide you through grounding prompts that help you shift out of spiraling and into presence.

June 18 at 12 pm EST/9 am PST
Register Here: https://lu.ma/ihl32gph 

Free for gumption. clients! Check your email for your promo code.

What to Expect

• A live, audio-only call (you can dial in anonymously if you'd like)

• 30 minutes of guided support, no interaction required

• Gentle pacing, open reflection, and space to just be

We encourage you to join from outside if possible. Whether you're walking a trail, your block, or the path between your car and a quiet bench, you're welcome here. All bodies, abilities, and paces are respected.

Bring:

• A fully charged phone or device

• Headphones or earbuds

• A space where you can move at a pace that feels right for you

Whether you walk two miles or twenty steps, the goal is the same: to show up, reset, and reconnect.

Don’t Crowdsource Your Personality

(Aka, why your next job shouldn’t require shapeshifting to survive)

One of the things I coach on constantly in job searching is knowing your audience. You have to understand what they value, what they need, what problems they’re trying to solve. That’s how you build a resume that resonates. That’s how you write a cover letter that lands. That’s how you interview strategically.

But here’s where it gets dangerous:
When you start confusing alignment with approval-seeking.
When you bend so hard to match what you think they want, you forget what you want.

I see this happen a lot.

Someone lands a job by being what the hiring team wanted to see.
Polished. Adaptable. High energy. Conflict-averse. A “culture fit.”

Six months in?
They’re drained. Frustrated. Burnt out.
Because the version of them that got hired isn’t who they really are, it’s who they performed for that one hour in a glass box.

That performance becomes the baseline.
And they’re stuck maintaining a version of themselves that isn’t sustainable or honest.

You’re not ChatGPT.
You are not here to morph into whatever prompt is in front of you or shift your personality based on whether or not the end user likes it.

There’s a difference between being relevant and being inauthentic.

Relevance is strategic. It's thoughtful. It’s, “Let me show you how my real strengths match what you need.”

Shapeshifting is self-erasure. It’s, “Let me dim or distort who I am to win your approval.”

And the problem with shapeshifting is: even when you “win,” you lose.

Because you’re building your next chapter on top of a version of yourself you don’t want to maintain.

So what do we do instead?

We lead with clarity.
We name our nonnegotiables. We speak to our audience, but we don’t abandon ourselves in the process.

We ask:

• What energizes me, and what depletes me?

• What kind of communication or leadership style actually works for me?

• Where have I made myself small in the past, and what would it look like not to this time?

You don’t need to be a blank slate to be a compelling candidate.
You just need to be honest and relevant.

The goal isn’t just to get hired.
It’s to get hired into a role that doesn’t require you to betray yourself to stay in it.

Don’t Be a Stranger!

Like my content?

Tired of always talking about how much you hate your job anytime you hang out with friends or family?

Think more people need to hear what I say?

5 Ways to Grow Our Networks:

1) Connect with me on LinkedIn!

2) Like, share, and engage with my content across social

3) Refer friends and co-workers to subscribe to Cup of Ambition!

4) Refer anyone who tells you they hate their job to me! Refer a new client, spin the prize wheel, and we both win!

5) Recommend me for speaking opportunities within professional networks, community groups, ERGs, workplace events, or other groups you’re a part of.

If you don’t want a Cup of Ambition in your inbox, no worries. Just break my heart 💔 and unsubscribe using the link below