No joke, the first time my listening skills came up as a thing, was in Kindergarten. My mother reminded me of it, teasing me playfully when I was older. But sure enough, she was right. I had carefully stashed away various report cards and teacher evaluations in one of those school journal books where the pages are pockets that you can stuff papers into. I pulled out Kindergarten. There it was…in writing…as young as age 5 or 6?

Fast forward to corporate life… the pressure was always high, and there was never enough time to get everything done. So when someone came to present a project or ask for my approval, I would skip ahead. I was often pretty sure that I already knew where they were going, and I was definitely certain that it was taking them far too long to get there. So I would interrupt. Cut them off. Jump in and finish the thought for them.

A lot of the time, I was right. So I justified it as efficient. They’ll learn to get the the point faster or they’ll be cut off. When I did know where they were headed, I did move the meeting along. But, I was not always right. Every so often someone would stop and say, “Actually, that’s not what I was going to say.” Even then, I felt justified. At least I made them get to the point faster.

The problem is, that was not listening. That was not getting to the heart of the matter. It cost us. Sometimes we had to backtrack over the very thing I thought I had shortcut. It earned me a reputation as an interrupter. And more than once, it left a good person feeling unheard.

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There is a name for exactly where I was stuck, which I only discovered later.

Lately, I have been building training workshops around the 5 Levels of Listening, adapted from Stephen R. Covey’s five levels of listening in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, with inspiration in adapting it for modern corporate life from Justin Wright’s Brilliance Brief. The levels go like this:

I was living at Level 2, comfortably…for years.

What finally moved me was not some grand decision to become a better listener. It was actually a coach! My very first micro-practice was small and not so noble. It was simply to stop interrupting, so the person in front of me could feel heard.

So I gave myself something to do with my hands and my racing mind. I took notes. Any notes. Honestly, in the beginning, I would sometimes write “taking notes, taking notes, taking notes” across the page, just to keep my mouth shut and my impulse in check. I had it bad.

But a funny thing happened over time. Those meaningless notes slowly turned into real ones. I started catching an actual insight, a hidden barrier, a quiet ask for support tucked inside what someone was saying. I would write one important word down, wait for them to finish and then address it. I was climbing. Level 2 became Level 3, and some days, Level 4 and even 5.

Did I reach perfection? No. But the reputation changed. Over time I became someone people trusted and respected as a leader and a manager of people. Oh, I still interrupt sometimes, but when I catch myself starting to cut someone off, I stop. I insist they finish, and I laugh a little in the back of my mind at how badly I got stuck at Level 2 for so long. I still wonder what I missed in those years.

Getting to Level 3-4-5 with micro-practices.

None of this requires a personality transplant. You just need one deliberate move per level, and the next conversation you have is the next opportunity to practice. By the way, it works as good in life as it does at work.

• Level 3 (Understanding the Message => Practice Pause): Before you reply, take one pause moment to ask back if this is what they actually mean. You can literally say something like:

  “Your feedback is xyz, is that what you meant?”

  “So what I’m hearing is your main concern is the timeline, not the budget. Did I get that right?”

  Or, even better, keep it open. The open version invites them to say more, so you can understand deeper => clarity. That’s usually where the real information lives.

  “When you say this feels rushed, what’s the piece that worries you most?”

• Level 4 (Recognizing Emotions => Practice Noticing): Ask how they are feeling about a project or approach. Notice non-verbals.

  “I noticed you hesitated at the end there, what’s giving you confidence on this recommendation and what’s giving you pause?”

• Level 5 (The Unsaid => Practice “What else”): Notice the pause, when someone sits back in their chair, sighs, gets squirmy with excitement or nervousness. There is something they almost said. Name it gently, to uncover what’s hard for them to say. It’s what they need you to hear.

  “I noticed you paused at the end, what have you left unsaid?“

  “It sounds like there’s something underneath this. What haven’t you said yet?”

  Or simply, “What else?”

Start with just Level 3 this week. Master the art of asking “is this what you meant?” before you jump to your reply... and watch how people start trusting you with the harder truths.

Seeing the shift.

Here is what I love about this exercise. When you truly listen, when you pause and sometimes just let someone keep talking, it is amazing what else comes out. I saw it at work leading teams and I see it a lot in the coaching work I do today. A brilliant idea. An honest truth. The thing they almost did not say. In coaching sometimes you just sit there until they say something else. Silence at first seems uncomfortable, then becomes magical. You’ve probably heard people talk about “holding space”. It’s a thing. In a busy day-to-day, when there is rarely silence, it’s a gift to just let someone think…just one more thought. You’ll be amazed.

The honest truth is that I believe we can all be better listeners, at work and in life. This is just a piece of my own story, of how I went from an interrupter into someone who now listens, and listens very deeply, as a coach to others.

It is a powerful shift. And it is available to every one of us.

Powerful Question of the Day

Which level are you listening at most often right now?

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Pour yourself a coffee — I want to talk about a kind of skill that is almost never named specifically. Ironically, these skills are usually what is looked for in leaders, they just aren’t verbalized in a concrete way. I will argue that it will be the type of skill group that matters most for the decade ahead.

What are neural skills?

Simply said, learned skills got you here. Neural skills are the ones that will take you forward to a next level. Let me elaborate.

When we talk about “skills” in career conversations, we usually mean what you picked up on the job: the software you mastered, the industry knowledge you accumulated, the playbook for product launches or business building. Call these learned skills — facts, procedures, and expertise, built through instruction and repetition. They’re real and they’re valuable, and they live largely in what neuroscientists call declarative memory: the part of you that stores and retrieves what you know. This is how we’re taught almost everything in school and in training — explicitly, through explanation and recall. Rinse, repeat.

But if your brain is always just referencing what it knows from the past, what happens when that playbook doesn’t work anymore, especially when everything is changing with AI?

So….there’s a second category running underneath all of that.

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Neural skills are your brain’s capacity to perceive, learn, adapt, and guide decisions, especially in the messy areas that are hard to automate.

They’re how you form a mental model of a situation, notice a pattern across conflicting signals, learn from limited feedback, and steer attention toward what matters. It’s the way business leaders figure out that continuing to focus on something is a waste of time and it’s time to pivot to another thing. In practice, neural skills show up as how quickly you read a room, integrate diverse information, anticipate second- and third-order effects (risk assessment) and land on a decision, even when there is incomplete information available.

Learned skills are knowing something…where facts get encoded through explicit training or accumulated knowledge. The deeper stuff (demonstrating good judgment, maintaining composure through regulated communication, embodying true empathy) is developed through procedural learning: lived experience, encoded as sensation and repetition until it becomes a trait, a habit, or a default response.

Why this belongs in a career development conversation

The encouraging part is that none of this is fixed. If you tend to get reactive and stressed, it’s not that you are just a reactive, stressed person and will always be. Your brain is plastic. You may have heard the word, neuroplasticity. Your brain reorganizes itself in response to experience, strengthening the neural pathways you use and quietly pruning the ones you don’t. Put simply, how we repeatedly think, feel, and act shapes the brain. It’s true for you, and it’s true for every person you lead and every stakeholder you’re trying to move. If you want to be a better leader, understanding how brains actually change is no longer a “nice to have.”

This is also why the usual fixes don’t stick. Organizations try to solve stress, burnout, and disengagement with snacks, dogs in the office and summer Fridays. It’s not going to do it. Perks don’t rewire people. Only people change people. When your team reads an IM ping or a terse email and their brain reads it as a genuine threat, no amount of free fancy coffee resolves it. That’s a nervous system doing its job, and it responds to practice, not policy.

The more you get irritated over an email that lands in your box, the more your brain will wire itself to see EVERY email as a threat. And believe me there were times when this was true for me. Every email WAS an irritation.

Why AI makes paying attention to neural skills urgent, not optional

You’d think automation would make the human stuff matter less. The opposite is true. In a world where AI can execute many tasks faster and more cheaply, your differentiator as a leader won’t be whether you can use the tools, but how you set direction, build trust, and make decisions when the ground is shifting.

Neural-skilled leaders are the ones who translate fuzzy ideas into crisp experiments, who sense when an AI’s output is out of step with reality, and who reframe a stuck problem so it becomes solvable again. They build cultures that turn failures into feedback, seek multiple stakeholder perspectives and make decisions that hold up under ambiguity and conflict. Automation can produce answers. But a leader decides which questions matter, why they matter, and how to act responsibly when the next outcome isn’t guaranteed.

That’s the work AI can’t replicate. It can simulate emotional intelligence, but it can’t feel accountability. It can generate options, but the judgment, trust, and culture still have to come from us.

In Summary

Neural skills — deep understanding, good judgement, sense-making, adaptability, true empathy (seeing it from another perspective), resilience, regulation — are becoming the real edge.

First, understand them. Recognize that your leadership isn’t just what you know; it’s what your brain has been shaped, through repetition, to do by default. Naming neural skills as their own category is the shift from managing your career passively to strategizing it.

It’s not only what you know. It’s how you operate.

Second, develop them through practice. Lasting change comes from small, self-directed micro-practices repeated over time. The same way any default response was built, is the same way a new habit will form. You can deliberately train focus and attention, stress regulation, adaptability, empathy, and recovery. Not through a one-time workshop, but through practice, the way you’d build any muscle or habit.

Understand how your brain works. Be conscious of what you are shaping. Then coach others to lead in the age of AI.

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Your career can benefit from the same strategic rigor that businesses apply. This article walks you through building a strategic presentation of YOU in a six-section deck that shifts you from passive career management to intentional strategy and action. Building one or two slides per section, you’ll have a complete career narrative that speaks to where you’ve been, what you uniquely offer, and where you’re intentionally headed. That narrative is your unique value proposition — and if you can’t clearly and confidently communicate what makes you distinct, no one else can do it for you.

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Section 1: My Story

Every strong strategy opens with context, and yours is no different. This is your origin narrative — where you’ve come from, the defining moments that shaped you, and how those moments point toward where you want to go. Write one to two short paragraphs, told the way you’d share it with a mentor over coffee. Most careers look like a zigzag from the inside. Told well, that zigzag becomes a through-line. Your story connects you with like-minded people, passionate about the same things you are, when it comes to work.

Section 2: My Mission Statement

Your mission statement is your why — your purpose, your north star. Unlike goals, which shift with circumstances, your mission expresses your beliefs and values. It becomes a filter for every career decision that follows: when an unexpected opportunity lands in your inbox, you’ll know whether it aligns. Draft it in one sentence. If you’re stuck, check out my other article on creating your personal mission statement. It’s all about the value you want to add to the people, communities or the world through the work you choose to spend your time doing each day.

Section 3: My Pillars

Here’s where you move from narrative to architecture. Write out every skill you’ve gained across your entire career, then bucket them into three to five pillars that define the recurring value others rely on you for. Give each pillar a punchy header, then write one sentence capturing your unique contribution. It’s not any single skill that makes you distinct; it’s the combination. That sentence is the thesis statement of your entire presentation.

Section 4: My Star Stories

Claims without evidence don’t build trust. For each pillar, develop one slide telling a star story — an accomplishment you’re genuinely proud of that shows the skill in action. Use the hamburger method: the context and problem (bottom bun), the strategic thinking which are the tradeoffs, judgment, and insight behind your approach (the meat), and the result and impact (top bun). The meat is where trust is built and it’s why someone hires you..for your strategic thinking. Don’t skip it.

Section 5: My Career Path Options

Now the deck turns forward. Create your one, three, and five-year vision of where you’d like to be. Then, for your five-year vision, draw the stepping stones — five to ten steps that could get you there: additional education, experiences that close a skill gap, roles you’d need to hold first. A vision without a path is a wish. Stepping stones turn ambition into a sequence of achievable moves.

Section 6: My Networking Plan

Careers don’t accelerate in isolation — they accelerate through people who know your value. Create your networking map. Start with your direct connections, then track the introductions that grow your map outward. That second ring is usually where breakthroughs happen. It’s the connections of your connections. Write a key learning next to each connection. Over time, those notes compound into real market intelligence about your field and your options.

In Summary:

These six sections build a narrative that only you can tell. That’s exactly the point, because no one else has had the amazing, different combination of experiences that make you especially good at what you do. Now tell the world!

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We are six months in.

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Where are you at?

I mean you…the version of yourself you said you wanted to grow into this year. Did you name a growth goal? Something beyond accomplishing something at work or a New Year’s resolution? Did you write it down, share it with someone, sit with it long enough for it to take shape?

If you set a “growth goal”, how is it showing up? If you didn’t, the year isn’t over. Summer is actually a great time. The rhythm of life changes. There is often more space. That space is where reflection lives, if you let in a pause. Hopefully, while you are staring out at an ocean, a lake or beautiful mountain.

The question I keep coming back to.

How do we know we are growing and evolving? Growth that actually evolves you is about knowing yourself better. That means understanding your default patterns, your strengths, your hangups, and learning to navigate all of it with more intention. We often all have some negative thought patterns that would serve us well to shed. A growth goal can be as simple as recognizing one of them and deciding to cast it away each time it comes up.

Back in January, my own growth goal was about energy regulation…being more consciously aware of the energy I bring to every meeting, ever conversation, every encounter. Six months later, I can tell you, the work is subtle, daily, and it compounds. Some days I catch myself in real time. Some days I only see it in the rearview and beat myself up for not realizing I was getting into a reactive vs responsive mode on something.

The notion of “becoming” is hard work. It’s consciousness. It’s a series of small awarenesses, stacked over time.

Your mid-year prompt.

As you head into summer, I want to leave you with three questions. Picking one to focus on amidst your summer adventures is just like when you were a kid and had a summer book reading list. If kids can do it, so can you!

1. What have you learned about yourself in the first half of this year that you didn’t know in January?

2. Where have you noticed yourself operating from strength…and where have you noticed old patterns that you’d like to shed?

3. What does the second half of this year need from you— not your calendar, not your career — but the person you are growing into whose ripple effect will impact others in this world?

Becoming takes time and attention. Give yourself both this summer. A little time for you. A little attention on yourself, for yourself…and all that you are becoming.

The year is still yours.

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people don’t need a leader with all the answers…

They need a leader who is grounded.

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I learned this by watching. Over the years, the leaders I trusted most were the ones who were a stable presence. They were the ones that made everyone feel like the situation, however difficult, was survivable. When it became my turn to lead, I tried to give my teams that same thing.

Crisis, of course, is inevitable. And when they came, I would sometimes hear a v team member say: “Why aren’t you freaking out?”. That is because I had learned two things.

First:

Almost every crisis is ultimately solved by more time, more money, or more resources. Solve for one of those three, and you usually have a path forward.

Second:

Trust begins with stability. Leaders that seemed to be freaking out, lost my confidence. This second lesson, in my opinion, is a lifelong practice.

My work today in coaching has drawn me into the study of neuroscience. The science has a lot to say about why a calm leader changes everything for the people around them.

Today’s reflection: Two simple questions

1. Who is the leader in your life that you remember most for their stable, grounded presence? What did you notice about them?

2. What are you doing every day to maintain YOUR grounded presence for the people who rely on you at work and in life?

Groundedness Starts in the Body

Neuroscience has made something clear: groundedness is a physiological state, not just a mindset.

A regulated body stabilizes the mind. A grounded body and mind produce a stable presence. Before others consciously decide whether they trust you, their nervous systems have already made an assessment. Our brains scan faces, tone of voice, pace of breath, tension in shoulders. The human brain is constantly running a threat-or-safety calculation (fight or flight), and your body is the primary data source.

This is the foundation of what researchers call emotional contagion. It’s a well-documented phenomenon by which one person’s nervous system state entrains others. Stability is contagious. So is anxiety. When you walk into a room regulated, others unconsciously register safety. When you walk in rushed and reactive, they sense it before a word is spoken. And they react to it.

Emotional steadiness is the root of credibility and psychological safety. Trust is fragile and nonverbal. It is built less through what you say and more through the consistency of your tone, your pacing, and the micro-expressions that cross your face when things go sideways.

To build trust, the work begins with your nervous system.

Practicing Groundedness

Developing a grounded presence is a daily discipline. Here’s a few ways to do it:

Grounding the body first. Breath and sensory awareness are the fastest, most evidence-based ways to a regulated state. Before a hard conversation, before a team meeting when you’re carrying bad news…breathe. In for 4. Out for 6. Feel your feet on the floor. These are not mystical practices; they are physiological interventions that shift your nervous system state toward groundedness.

Noticing your physical signals. Tension in the jaw, a shortened breath, a clipped tone. A lot of people don’t have the self awareness (or pay attention) to how they are coming off. These are the things teams read before you speak. Awareness of how your body holds stress is a prerequisite for managing what you project under pressure.

Regulating before responding. The leaders who lose credibility in a crisis are the ones who react before they regulate. The pause between stimulus and response is where grounded leadership lives. That pause gives you a moment to choose how you either mindfully respond or react. Feel. Pause. Choose. Repeat that as you enter a tough meeting.

Practicing under mild stress, not just in calm moments. The practice is in the ordinary friction of the week — the meeting that runs long, the email that irks you, the decision that needs to be made without enough information. Notice and regulate when you are alone and with others.

The goal is not to become unfeeling or artificially calm. The goal is to become a steady signal. The goal is for others to feel calm in your presence. The goal is to signal that in uncertainty neuroscience tells us that we can think more clearly when we are calm, instead of in fight-or-flight mode.

That is what groundedness offers. In an unsteady world that keeps shifting, it may be the most important thing a leader can provide.

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Not everyone dreams of entrepreneurship from the beginning of their career. In fact, many people find themselves pulled toward it gradually, as I did…often after years inside corporate environments. Sometimes it starts with feeling disconnected from company culture. Sometimes it’s frustration with layers of approvals and limited freedom to execute ideas. And sometimes it’s simply the realization that your individuality no longer fits neatly inside the system you’re working within.

Chris shares his own journey from large staffing firms into entrepreneurship, including the emotional realities behind taking the leap: uncertainty, financial risk, fear of failure, and the challenge of leaving behind the identity and the perceived security that can come with corporate life. One of the most powerful moments in our conversation was discussing the idea that the “safety” many people feel in corporations is often an illusion. Companies restructure. Leaders change. Layoffs happen. Nothing is guaranteed.

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We discuss how entrepreneurial spirit can exist inside corporations, startups, partnerships, side ventures, or independent consulting. Some professionals thrive building something completely on their own, while others—like Chris—discover they work best with a partner alongside them. There’s no single formula. The key is self-awareness.

Questions Worth Asking Yourself

• Are you feeling increasingly constrained by your environment?

• Do you crave more autonomy and ownership over your ideas?

• How comfortable are you with uncertainty and risk?

• Can you tolerate failure, setbacks, and the possibility of starting over?

• Do you want stability—or control over your own destiny?

• How important to you is the sense of belonging and identity inside a more formal corporate environment?

These are not easy questions, but they are important ones.

One theme that surfaced repeatedly in our conversation was resilience. Entrepreneurship can be exciting and deeply fulfilling, but it also requires grit, adaptability, and the ability to keep going when things don’t immediately work out. As Chris points out, most successful entrepreneurs spent years “toiling in anonymity” long before anyone recognized their success.

At the end of the day, entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily about leaving corporate life behind. Sometimes it’s about reclaiming ownership of your career, your ideas, and your direction—wherever you are.

Lastly, Chris motivates us and leaves us with this thought…are you tuning up your career intentionally, or waiting until stagnation forces the change for you?

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Sometimes it happens years in—when you’ve been achieving, checking boxes, and doing everything “right.” But sometimes it happens right at the beginning, when you’re trying to get in, find your footing, fit in, and prove yourself.

You’re moving. Doing what you think you should be doing. You’re in motion, but not really in any direction.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this through the lens of David Brooks and his book The Second Mountain. These thoughts I have today are relevant for anyone feeling off, and also a caution for those entering the workforce.

The Second Mountain on Amazon

I have no doubt that who I have become was shaped by the years I spent in a corporate environment and I know that now…because I left. It was only after I left that I started to realize it. Over the last few years, I have taken an inventory, kept what I love and dropped certain habits or aspects that no longer serve me…or in some cases seemed toxic to my wellbeing. In all truth, I had some moments when I realized I didn’t like some aspects of who I had become. So when I read this in the book, it really started to make me think about it.

If you’re early in your career, this can look like learning the ropes, reading the room, figuring out how to belong.

If you’re further along, it can look like optimizing, refining, becoming even more effective within the system. Learning to be “political”.

But something may be shifting.

“The ‘How do I succeed?’ questions…eclipse the ‘Why am I doing this?’ questions.” —David Brooks

And that’s the moment I see most often in my coaching work—at every stage.

And this is the question to ask yourself in all this.

You may be playing the game well.

But the internal compass? Quietly fading.

When Success (or the Pursuit of It) Starts to Cost You Something

“You begin to view yourself not as a soul to be uplifted but as a set of skills to be maximized.” —David Brooks

That line stops people—whether they’re just building their career or deep into it.

Because it explains why someone can be doing all the “right” things and still feel disconnected.

You become efficient. Strategic. Productive.

But maybe a little less curious. Less bold. Less you.

“Workaholism is a surprisingly effective distraction from emotional and spiritual problems.” —David Brooks

This one breaks my heart. But it’s true.

For someone early in their career, this can look like over-proving. Saying yes to everything. Trying to earn your place.

Later on, it can look like over-functioning. Filling every gap. You are always busy, trying to keep up. You avoid asking yourself the hard questions.

More output. More goals. More validation. Often more rewards and perks.

Less reflection. Less questioning. Less truth-telling.

“Have you noticed how many people are more boring and half-hearted at age thirty-five than they were at twenty?” —David Brooks

I have. Not because they lack potential. Possibly because they are burning out.

But perhaps really because they’ve slowly shaped themselves to fit environments that never asked for (or started to squash) their full selves—in favor of only their most useful parts.

The Coaching Question That Changes Everything

Not: “How do I succeed?”

But: “Why am I doing this?”

It sounds simple. It’s not.

Answering it honestly may require you to confront:

- Where you’re trying to fit in versus where you actually belong

- Where you’ve been performing / being productive, instead of choosing

- Where your environment is shaping you more than you’re shaping it

Challenge The Environment

The breakthrough moments rarely come from fitting in.

They come from constructive tension.

The times I spoke up.

The times I disagreed.

The times I stopped over-calibrating for approval.

The time one of my coworkers seemingly lost it and said “I don’t give a X anymore, I’m going to tell it like it is”. And they listened.

Those were the moments something new opened up—not just for me, but often for the business itself.

Great leaders don’t want more polished agreement.

They want perspective. Judgment. Courage.

When people stop being overly concerned with pleasing everyone…

When they decide, “I’m going to be thoughtful, but I’m not going to over-filter myself”…

I’ve seen them start to perform better, not worse.

Because they’re operating from clarity—not constant self-editing.

A Simple Reflection for This Week

Over your next coffee, ask yourself:

- Where am I being shaped by my environment in ways I don’t fully like?

- What part of me feels “unfed” right now?

- If I stopped trying to succeed for a moment… what would I question or speak up about?

You don’t need to blow up your career to answer these.

But you do need to be willing to see clearly.

Because the goal isn’t to reject your environment.

It’s to stay awake and stay yourself inside it.

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When you start to see it that way, everything changes. Chris and I break down corporate life through three metaphors: the maze, the machine, and the game. Each one offers a way to understand what’s really happening around you, so you can navigate it more intentionally.

The truth is, change is constant. Roles shift. Priorities evolve. Leaders come and go. If you’re not paying attention, when things change (less recognition, job satisfaction wanes, internal career movement stagnates, layoffs happen) it can feel personal when it’s not.

Through the lens of Who Moved My Cheese?, we explore why change is inevitable, why comfort can become a trap, and how failing to adapt can quietly stall your career. When you understand the system you’re operating in, you stop playing the game you wish existed—and start navigating the one that actually does.

You’ll walk away with:

• A clearer understanding of how to look at corporate environments
• Tools to navigate uncertainty with more confidence
• A mindset shift from reacting to staying vigilant and ready for change
• A reminder that whatever happens, you are building experiences you carry with you

Understanding the true nature of the corporate game is key to making work WORK for you—rather than the other way around. Always be seeking cheese!

Paid subscribers: Change—whether chosen or unexpected—often brings a mix of opportunity, uncertainty, and emotion. While it’s natural to focus on what’s ahead, the real power in navigating change comes from pausing to reflect…Keep reading for a coaching exercise on navigating through change!

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Tune Up Your Career (on Amazon)

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Who Moved My Cheese PDF Book

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AI can be a very helpful thought partner in helping you shape one, if you give it something meaningful to work with. Over time, I’ve seen a common thread among people who create momentum in their careers. They aren’t necessarily always the most experienced, but they are almost always good at clearly articulating their value.

That’s what a personal branding statement will help you do. AI can be a surprisingly effective partner in helping you shape one.

Personal Branding Statement vs. Personal Mission Statement

Before we get into the “how,” let’s quickly separate two ideas that often get mixed together.

A personal branding statement is outward-facing and is your “WHAT”.
It answers: What do you do? Who do you help? What value do you create?

A personal mission statement is inward-facing and is your “WHY”.
It answers: Why does this work matter to you? What drives you?

Both play a role. When you need to say exactly what you do, you bring out the personal branding statement. When you really want to connect on a human level, you talk mission.

The personal branding statement will most often be helpful in day-to-day career moments — meetings, interviews, networking. It helps people quickly understand where you fit and why you matter.

Key Components to Define Your Personal Brand

A strong personal branding statement can be built using this structure:

I am a [WHAT], and I help [WHO] achieve [OUTCOME] by [HOW].

It is simple and clear. It moves you beyond job titles. And it helps you communicate impact. Let’s break it down.

WHAT — your expertise

This is how you describe what you do at your core. It’s not your exact title, but your business offering. If you owned your own business, you could think about it as the service you offer.

• strategic marketer

• career coach

• brand builder

• talent development leader

• business storyteller

WHO — who you help

Who benefits from your work?

• high-growth brands

• organizations navigating change

• beauty obsessed consumers

OUTCOME — what changes because of your work

What do people actually get as a result?

• clarity on something

• stronger positioning

• better decisions

• accelerated growth

• a sense of belonging, confidence to face the world

HOW — your “magic sauce”

This is the part most people skip. It may be the most important. How do you work in a way that is distinctly yours? This is where your differentiation lives.

• translating complexity into clear strategy

• combining marketing thinking with talent development

• asking the right questions to unlock insight

• turning ideas into actionable plans

• uncovering the roots of emotion and identity in purchasing beauty brands

Where You’ll Actually Use This

You can use it everywhere!

• introducing yourself in during onboarding

• meeting new colleagues or leaders

• networking conversations

• interviews

• your LinkedIn headline or About section

• your resume summary

• your bio

It becomes your anchor. A clear, consistent way to communicate your value, without overthinking it every time.

Utilizing AI

AI is not doing the thinking for you. You are.The real work is in getting clear on your WHAT, WHO, OUTCOME, and HOW.

AI helps you do two things:

1. Turn your ideas into concise language

2. Give you a draft in a flash and variations for you to make your own

You can use any AI model you’re comfortable with — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok — most have free versions. Think of it less like a tool that gives you “the answer,” and more like a really efficient editor and thought partner.

The Prompt You Can Use

Here’s a version you can copy, paste, and use:

Prompt:

You are a strategic brand positioning expert. Using the brief below, write 3 options for a personal branding statement in this exact structure:

“I am a [WHAT], and I help [WHO] achieve [OUTCOME] by [HOW].”

Keep each option clear, concise, and confident. Avoid buzzwords or overly polished language.Then recommend the strongest option and briefly explain why.

Brief:

I am a [WHAT]:
(List 2–3 ways to describe your expertise)

I help [WHO]:
(Describe the people, groups, or organizations your work supports)

To achieve [OUTCOME]:
(Describe the results your work creates — include 2–3 options if helpful)

By [HOW]:
(Describe your approach — what makes the way you work distinctive?)

A Quick Example

Here’s what this might look like in practice.

I am a [WHAT]:
certified professional coach; strategic career coach

I help [WHO]:
ambitious, career-driven professionals

To achieve [OUTCOME]:
clarify direction; plan their next move; accelerate their growth

By [HOW]:
using a clear, structured, and thought-provoking process that helps them uncover their strengths and turn insight into an actionable career strategy

One possible output:

I am a strategic career coach, and I help ambitious professionals achieve clarity and accelerate their growth by guiding them through a structured, thought-provoking process that turns self-insight into an actionable career strategy.

From there, you refine it. You make it sound more like you. Keep what you love, toss what you don’t. That final layer matters more than people think.

Quick Tips

If there’s one thing I want you to take from this, it’s this: The quality of your input shapes everything.

We used to say this all the time in marketing: garbage in, garbage out. If you rush through the brief, you’ll get something generic. If you actually take the time to think about the following, you’ll walk away with a power branding sentence.

• what you’re really good at

• who you genuinely help

• what outcomes you consistently create

• and how you uniquely do that

In Summary

The higher you go in your career, the more clear and concise you need to be. Start with yourself in how you speak, how you position yourself, and how others understand your value. AI can help you say it better, but it can’t tell you who you are. When you take the time to get it right, that one simple sentence can start to open new, very real doors.

Open to sharing? Post your branding statement in the comments.

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Urmi’s journey is as a self-described “third culture kid” — born in Italy to Bengali parents and now based in Canada. A third culture kid is a term meaning raised between multiple cultures, and can feel like you belong everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Urmi talks about how navigating multiple identities shaped both her career path and her voice. She knows what it means to feel pulled between expectations. Cultural expectations. Societal expectations. Family expectations. And the quiet, often harsh expectations we place on ourselves.

From discovering her love of finance in university to earning the prestigious CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), Urmi walks us through what it takes to build a career in portfolio management. But this episode isn’t just about markets and portfolios, Urmi has an empowering message to share. It’s about breaking through those cultural, societal, and self-imposed expectations. It’s about redefining networking as genuine, lifelong human connection. It’s about why imposter syndrome often holds women back, how perfectionism quietly erodes confidence, and why we must stop apologizing.

Many of us carry those invisible pressures into our careers.

We overanalyze.
We second-guess.
We apologize.
We wait until we meet 100% of the qualifications before raising our hand.

That’s imposter syndrome at work.

Persistent self-doubt despite clear competence.

Interestingly, it often shows up strongest in high-achieving women.

In this conversation, Urmi shares how she moved beyond self-doubt to earn the CFA designation — one of the most demanding credentials in global finance — and built a career in portfolio management. But what moved me most wasn’t her technical expertise. It was her mindset.

She reframes networking not as transactional “resume passing,” but as genuine, lifelong connection. The colleague from 10 years ago. The professor who remembers you. The career advisor who still answers your email. Networking, at its best, is human.

And beyond her 9-to-5, Urmi is building something more — mentoring women, leading within Women in Leadership in Canada, hosting her own podcast, and amplifying immigrant stories. She calls it her “5-to-9.” I call it her second mountain.

Here’s what listeners will walk away with:

• Permission to break beyond cultural and societal expectations

• Clarity that perfection is not the price of opportunity

• A deeper understanding of what imposter syndrome really is

• Encouragement to build authentic connections — not transactional ones

• A reminder that investing in yourself includes thinking beyond work to make your impact on others through spreading a message

Urmi leaves us with a powerful reframe:

See yourself as an asset.
Invest in yourself.
Share your voice.

Because wealth isn’t only financial. It’s the courage to choose yourself, unapologetically.

If this episode resonates, share it with someone who may be exhibiting temporary imposter syndrome insanity or just needs the reminder that their story, culture, and voice can be inspirational.

They’re assets to the world.

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Meaning:

That question is what led me to challenge us all to make it The Year of Becoming—and it’s the heart of my conversation in Episode 011 of the Coffee & Careers Podcast. Stacey and I didn’t talk about productivity hacks or five-step plans. We talked about self-growth that starts beneath the surface: self-awareness, energy and the patterns that quietly shape how we show up at work and in life.

Throughout the podcast, we share powerful examples of what self-growth goals can look like. For example, people who paused instead of rushing in, who clarified what they actually wanted instead of reacting out of fear. Small moments of awareness can change the way we look at life, work, everything.

One example of a growth goal is to focus on the energy we emit when we show up—something most of us never name, but everyone feels. The energy we silently emit can shift the way people perceive us and receive us. While I talked in my previous article about the FEBI assessment (Focus Energy Balance Indicator), in the podcast Stacey goes deep on the four energy patterns and how we can be aware of them and consciously access them in the moment:

• Driver

• Organizer

• Collaborator

• Visionary

None are “good” or “bad.” The real growth comes from learning:

• which patterns you default to

• how others experience you

• and when a different energy would serve the moment better

You’ll hear my story about how my Driver energy was perceived and how that realization was eye opening for me!

Get inspired. The invitation of this episode:

If you’ve ever felt successful but restless…
If your resolutions keep repeating themselves…
If you sense you’re meant for more, but can’t quite name what that “more” is…

Maybe the question isn’t What should I do next?
Maybe it’s Who am I in the process of becoming—and what do I need to grow in?

Listeners can also get a discount on doing their own FEBI assessment with Stacey.

Reach out to Stacey Bevill

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Often, we approach a new year the way we approach a to-do list: more discipline, clearer goals, better habits. Achieve more. Do better. Try harder. What if the work to be done is about becoming…growing as a person?

How do you move through the world?

How does your energy lands on others?

In my continuing coaching education, I’ve been focusing my learning more and more around neuroscience —how our internal wiring can shape each and every interaction and therefore our leadership, relationships, communication and behaviors. Paying attention to the brain/body connection can help us become more conscious of who we are—and how that shows up in motion to others.

Today I will give a concrete example of a growth goal of my own, based on a coaching assessment that I recently took that is rooted in our nervous system energy patterns—how mind, body, and behavior link together in predictable patterns, especially when under pressure.

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The FEBI Assessment (Focus Energy Balance Indicator)

The premise of the FEBI assessment is simple, but profound. Most of us just go about approaching each interaction, project, or meeting running powerful internal patterns on autopilot.

The FEBI assessment evaluates your preferred mode of operation between four energy patterns: Driver, Organizer, Collaborator, Visionary. It provides insights into how we move, feel, think and behave and how that energy comes off to others. Knowing your energy profile means being aware of the physical and sensory aspects of your communication that are coming out, in addition to your words.

Why is this important?

The further you go down your career path, the more important your interactions with others become, especially when you move from an individual contributor to a manager and leader. The way you are perceived by others matters a great deal and can often be different than what you intended. This is the part in some people’s careers where they start to get feedback that they don’t understand and don’t agree with. The old expression “perception is reality”, is true in this case. A person may not intend to come off a certain way, but none-the-less, someone has perceived them this way, through tone, body language, pace, behaviors…ENERGY.

One of the biggest areas of coaching for executives is something often framed as “executive presence”. This was a buzzword at L’Oreal (where I worked for 20+years) that was parroted by many managers. When this term was utilized with an employee for the first time, they often walked away confused. What on earth does that mean? Answers can be found in the concept of the FEBI assessment, energy-regulation.

Growth, in this framework, isn’t about fixing a bad habit…though sometimes it can be, such as a Driver with a tendency to interrupt and cut others off. The main concept about energy regulation is understanding the patterns you default to, and learning how to access other patterns when the moment calls for it.

Think => What energy pattern will serve me best in this interaction right now?

We all have all four modes available to us. Some are fast and decisive. Others modes are expansive and others yet are integrative, relational. Over time, we tend to favor certain patterns because they’ve worked for us. They’ve helped us succeed, lead, move quickly, or create impact. But the very patterns that give us strength can also create friction when they run on the extremes, unchecked. Not because they’re wrong—but because they’re powerful.

My FEBI assessment scores.

My FEBI assessment showed that my highest energy pattern is Visionary, followed by Driver. My detailed report and coaching session focused on even greater insights into how I utilized Visionary/Driver as a preferred energy pattern and may leverage Visionary/Organizer as a backup pattern. There were many insights and I have reflected on a four part growth plan based on this.

Overall my growth goal for the year is:

Today I will focus on one point as a specific example of how I can bring this growth goal to life.

FEBI Reflections: What corporate leadership reinforced in me => Driver

In my corporate leadership roles, Driver energy was consistently reinforced: decisiveness, speed, clarity, forward momentum. Those traits were rewarded. They were necessary. They worked. And they still do. It’s not surprising to me that my Driver energy is still high.

Coaching however - requires a different layer of mastery on energy patterns and Driver cannot be the sole default, so I have no doubt that while I exercised visionary patterns in my corporate role, I’ve started to default to it more as a coach in the work that I do to help others envision their potential.

Having the combination means my energy may come out in these types of visible ways:

• I think fast

• I explore ideas widely (vision), then synthesize quickly (driver)

• I move toward action

These patterns have served me well. I don’t want to lose them. But I also saw the shadow side throughout my career—how those same patterns can land when unmodulated. When that energy runs unchecked, people can experience me as the following and that did happen at times, especially in my corporate role:

• Impatient / interrupter

• Critical

• Running ahead of the room

• Selective listener

My transition to coaching was a huge moment of becoming and it unfolded overtime. First I joined HR and had to shed many of the former business leader driver behaviors that were on the extreme end of Driver. I needed to be a consistently good listener. Without losing drive, I regulated my Driver and tapped into a different energy that served me in my new role. This became the foundation for what I was to become — a more regulated, patient, expansive listener that still thinks fast, synthesizes and helps people create action plans.

The continued work to be done.

Becoming is always in process. My Driver still goes on overdrive sometimes. Instead of saying “Oh, there is my driver again”, —impatience, an occasional cutting of of someone mid sentence— and beating myself up to stop / eliminate it, I am asking myself a new question: What energy am I emitting—and how is it landing in this situation?

That shift changes everything.

Watching out for the energy in how I move and speak and observing when old patterns emerge under pressure, helps me regulate how I show up, without dulling my strengths. This kind of distinction matters. Especially for high performers who may be asking, will this “soften” me or reign in that which makes you successful? No, it will make you more perceptive and more efficient in your energy use and productive in your interactions with less conflict, tension, and miscommunications.

A concrete goal: Naming the mode I’m in when the situations calls for it.

One reflection that hit me is that Drivers often love connecting with other Drivers who all talk really fast and get impatient with others. Non-Drivers often have little tolerance for extreme Driver behavior, which can be off-putting. Similarly going into Visionary mode may be well received, or perceived as being “out-there”. One ah-ha moment for me is that when I really reflect on it, I do notice that sometimes I lose people. And this explains so much!

It can happen when I’m in Driver mode and drive too hard, my energy is perceived as a strong push and not always well received…pushy. Or it can happen in Visionary mode when the person is expecting decisiveness and my energy feels chaotic and etherial instead of my usual to-the-point. Net net, people can get lost in my exploration—or steamrolled by my decisiveness when I am operating at the extreme of my energy pattern.

Hence, here’s a concrete action step leveraging this insight and aligned with my goal to be more aware of / adapt my energy patterns to serve the moment.

Action: Make internal logic visible.

I can do this by identifying it as an orientation moment using a “bridge sentence” to signal the mode I am in:

1. Exploratory / Generative Mode (Visionary)
Ideas are forming, not formed. Language is approximate. Chaos is productive. Nothing is being decided yet.

2. Decisive Mode (Driver)
Ideas are synthesized. Language is precise. Momentum matters. Clarity is the goal.

The Micro-Practice: Mode signaling bridge sentences.

Bridge sentence options:

• “I going to explore widely first, so I can decide cleanly on this.”

• “I’m in exploration mode right now—this isn’t fully formed.”

• “Let me go out there for a minute—this will then get clearer.”

• “Okay, let me ground this now.”

• “Here’s what I’m actually saying.”

• “Now I’m clear—this is my direction.”

This pacing and orienting language can help me intentionally chose and use my energy pattern in a regulated way AND helps others to stay with me by understanding what is going on in my brain.

This is the work of becoming.

While I of course have specific goals of things I want to achieve this year, I also have this self-growth goal with defined action steps like this one. This is just one example of what The Year of Becoming is looking like for me—not a resolution, but a self-growth goal aimed to help me grow in the way I am perceived in each and every encounter I have with people along the way. It’s not “be less direct” or “be less of a Driver”, it’s learning to recognize and regulate my energy pattern, signal my mode, and adapt my energy toward what will serve the moment the most in my interactions with others.

In Summary: The invitation I’m holding for you this year.

What if your growth goal isn’t about doing more—but about becoming more fluent in what energy you are showing up with?

More about FEBI.

I took the FEBI coaching assessment through ICF Certified Coach Stacy Bevill, who studied with the developer of the FEBI assessment and is certified in it’s administration. Listen to my upcoming Coffee & Careers Podcast Episode 011 to find out how you can get a discounted rate on the FEBI assessment / coaching session with Stacey Bevill.

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Becoming is an active, daily practice. I hope to inspire each of you to strive and grow each day throughout the year in The Year of Becoming.

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We are all in process.

The question is…What are you in the process of becoming? What great things lie ahead for you, yet to be discovered? The idea of becoming has been philosophized by many. Thinking about yourself as “becoming” something greater each day is the antithesis of “striving”. What if you are not here to force outcomes or rush into an identity—but rather here to grow into who you’re meant to be through patience, awareness, and alignment? How would that concept change your approach to the New Year?

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Gathering vs Growing

The mindset for this exercise is to take a look at what you are gathering vs how you are growing. The first part of life is often about accumulation (titles, money, validation). We must work to live. We must do something to earn and establish stability. It’s OK to have gathering goals. Yet, life gets busy for a long time in a gathering process. We gather objects, titles, knowledge, friends, money, a list of great places we’ve visited, mountains we’ve climbed. We gather and gather into our basket of life. We become a collection of our experiences which defines us. But who are we?

As we stand atop the mountain of our gatherings, small at first and then progressively larger, there is often a moment where we start to look ahead and realize, there’s more. Maybe it starts with a question. Is there more? Then a demand. There’s got to be more! The “more” part is about integration: learning, refining your gifts, and allowing wisdom to emerge through lived experience and spread out, integrating into the world. You realize that your strengths, experience, and skills are unique to you and layer up to wisdom. Wisdom that can be of service to humanity in small or large ways. Service then often becomes a natural expression of who you are.

It doesn’t mean we are all going to join the Peace Corps. It means that you can start to think more deeply about who you are and the impact that your mere presence on this earth has on others that you encounter. Every day, you can utilize your gifts and wisdom to serve first in small ways —on a work project, helping a friend, family member or neighbor— and then in bigger ways as you become who you are meant to be. You are someone that can add value to the world in a positive, impactful way.

A Career Coach’s Perspective on Becoming

As you face the new year, shift your focus from GATHERING => “What should I achieve?” to GROWING “Who am I becoming?”

Careers unfold best when they are thought of as an evolving, energetic, living system, not a ladder. Pay attention to the skills, curiosities, and challenges that keep showing up—these are signals pointing toward your deeper work. Instead of pressuring yourself to have it all figured out, commit to showing up consistently, learning deliberately, and allowing your path to clarify as it unfolds.

Your gifts are not meant to be gathered and hoarded in isolation; they’re meant to be shared and practiced in the real world. Growth happens when you use what you know—even imperfectly—to help others move forward. Ask yourself where your strengths intersect with real human needs. When your work is anchored in service rather than self-gathering, motivation becomes steadier and burnout less likely.

For countless career coaching clients, I have seen them shift from gathering to growing. A recent client’s initial career goal was, “to grow businesses”. After diving deep into her experiences, talents, curiosities, and motivations, she reframed into a goal about creating products that made people’s everyday lives easier, simpler and helped people connect with their inner selves and need for self-care. This goal is about serving people, and is especially meaningful, relevant and needed as we live in a digital world that often makes our every day experiences impersonal, leading to a loneliness epidemic in society. What a shift this was from a vague, gathering KPI (key performance indicator) goal to a goal that has purpose.

A Year of Becoming

This year, what if you thoughtfully defined success less by what you collect and more by what you contribute? How might that mindset shift the goals you have in mind for this year? Growing in your self-discovery and knowledge turns into wisdom which can be applied with humility and shared generously. Whether you’re creating, leading, mentoring or simply being present and listening well, your work is part of who you are becoming. Your work can become more and more meaningful when it serves. In time, as you become who you are, you will help others become more fully themselves, as well. That’s not just a career strategy—it’s a life philosophy that cares for humanity. This year, grow in your goals!

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What does “find your calling” actually mean? Why draw your career map in pencil? Are great careers intentional—or the result of unexpected turns?

These are just a few of the great questions we dive into. The conversation is about the mindset behind a long-term career—ambition, intuition, and the truth about setbacks: obstacles often mean you’re getting close to something meaningful. These reflections serve as a blueprint for anyone early in their career—or stuck and ready to move.

This episode isn’t a checklist or tips on how to update your resume. It’s about the mindset needed to build a career.

A sneak peak on the key aspects of that mindset…

Self-reflection, openness, ambition, resilience, and the honest reality that careers unfold over time.

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The rarest skill in the world is coming to know what you’re meant to do and doing it so well that you become difficult to replace. People will come to you as an expert, because of what you and only you, uniquely know how to do.

Economist Gary North said:

“Your calling is the most important thing that you can do in which you are most difficult to replace.”

So how do you become skilled in knowing what you are meant to do?

A lot of self-reflection.

We live in a world obsessed with assessments and frameworks — CliftonStrengths, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram — all tools that point you toward yourself. But even the best tools can’t tell you who you are. They can only give you clues. The real answer comes from paying attention to what you can’t help but get good at.

I was reminded of this while listening to a story on a true crime podcast. A man — once one of the most skilled counterfeiters in America — told the story of how he became an expert. He started in a printing shop, learned layering techniques, tested paper textures, ink reactions, weight, feel, color shifts — perfecting every detail until his fake bills consistently passed all the detection techniques.

It was an unlikely masterclass in focus, iteration, and excellence.

When he was finally caught, the government struck a deal with him: teach the FBI how to spot counterfeits. In the end, his mastery — even of something illegal — became useful to others.

What struck me was this: he didn’t start out trying to be “the best” at something. He just followed what fascinated him, learned deeply, failed repeatedly, and built an uncommon depth of knowledge. That’s how mastery happens.

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So how do you find your own version of that? (hopefully in a legal field of work).

Ask yourself:

1. What am I naturally good at compared to others?

2. What knowledge have I built layer by layer?

3. What opportunities or people keep showing up in my path?

4. How does my work make life better for others and the world?

That’s the target. These are big questions. This is not meant to be an easy exercise. It’s not just what you can do — but what only you would do, in the way that you do it. Like anything in life, the skill of knowing what you are meant to do comes over time…following what fascinates you, learning deeply, failing repeatedly, and building an uncommon depth of knowledge. If you want to develop this skill, the first step is to actually think about yourself. Take a pause from what you are doing today in order to think about what you might do tomorrow.

In summary:

Becoming the person only you can be.

Purpose doesn’t announce itself. It emerges through curiosity, connection, and courage.

I met a man at a craft fair selling bottles of vanilla extract. He told me that while traveling in the Caribbean, he met a family from Southeast Asia who owned a vanilla bean farm. That one encounter turned into a partnership, a product line, and eventually his own home-made vanilla bean ice cream shop and line of vanilla extract.
He didn’t plan it — he just followed the thread of fascination, stayed open, and built something beautiful around it.

That’s what calling looks like in real life. It’s not mystical. It’s practical devotion.
It’s saying yes to what pulls you forward. Then learning everything about it.

When you dedicate yourself to what you love, what you’re good at, and what others need — you will offer something truly unique to the world, because no one else is YOU.

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In the episode, I shared my top three coaching tips for creating a personal strategic plan. I often say, coaching isn’t about fixing things — it’s about deep self-reflection to unlock all the potential already within you.

What is coaching all about? A thought-provoking and creative process that inspires someone to maximize their personal and professional potential.

That’s the essence of coaching.
So today, I’m sharing a deeper look at the three pillars I spoke about on the show — and how you can apply them right now.

Leadership: A Skill, Not a Title

Leadership is a skill. Which means it can be learned, practiced, developed. It’s about mindset, self-awareness, and observable, measurable behaviors…which is why in coaching there are so many different kinds of leadership assessments. In corporate settings, these are often called 360 degree assessments where the employee assesses themselves and so does their n+1 manager, their direct reports, and often their peers. In this way the employee can see where there are correlations or disconnects in how they see themselves and how others see them when it comes to leadership.

There have been many articles, books, and studies on leadership and in a nutshell, here are what I call the Big 5 that are usually a common thread:

• Setting a clear vision and rallying a team around it.

• Being results driven.

• Seeking different perspectives.

• Solving problems effectively.

• Being supportive.

When I coach executives, we explore aspects that shape leadership including creative competencies (authenticity, relating, big-picture thinking) and reactive tendencies (controlling, critical or sometimes “eager to please” complying behaviors). Growth comes from recognizing both — and consciously choosing how to lead.

The leaders that will continue to be successful as we head into the future will be those with the ability to lead across generations, manage complexity, and have strong adaptability in today’s quickly changing times to upskill and re-skill continually…both for themselves and their teams.

Reflecting on these Big 5 areas of leadership and taking a leadership assessment is a first step to creating your strategic plan for enhancing your leadership skills.

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Communication Skills: The Art of Influence

Your success isn’t just about what you know — it’s about how effectively you communicate and influence.

In communication coaching, beyond “presentation skills”, I often help leaders:

• Set clear communication objectives and desired outcomes.

• Develop strategies to motivate, influence, and engage.

• Prepare for presentations that are concise, confident, and aligned with audience needs.

• Address barriers to authentic communication.

• Read the room — and adjust dynamically.

A great executive meeting isn’t about informing; it’s about impact.
Creating a strong communication skills growth plan can start with some simple questions:

• What does my audience want and need right now?

• How can I inspire engagement — not just present or “talk at” my audience?

• What if I have half the time I expected — how will I adapt?

• Am I showing confidence and presence, or letting nerves take over?

Strong communication is a practice, not a performance. It’s how trust and influence are built — one interaction at a time.

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Career Design: Building What’s Next

Career Design Coaching is one of my favorite processes because it’s creative, iterative, and unique. No two career paths are ever the same!

Our lives are constantly evolving — so are our careers. Career design helps you reflect on your values, strengths, and aspirations to intentionally shape your next chapter.

The process is generative and iterative. Here’s 7 key steps that I focus on in career coaching:

1. Define your values and craft a personal mission statement.

2. Identify and articulate your strengths.

3. Map your skills and experiences across three key pillars.

4. Write your professional summary / unique selling proposition.

5. Create a career decision-making framework.

6. Ideate and prototype potential paths.

7. Engage in focused networking and strategic job seeking.

Each iteration brings new insight. Each prototype helps you refine who you are — and who you’re becoming.

Career design isn’t about linear progress; it’s about strategic alignment — creating a career that matches your evolving sense of purpose.

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The Through Line: Growth Through Awareness

Whether you’re leading a team, communicating your ideas, or designing your next role, growth always starts with awareness. The work of self-reflection, whether you do that with a coach or on your own, bridges the gap of where you are today and what you will become. It’s where curiosity meets courage, and insight becomes action.

🎧 Listen to the Episode

You can tune into my conversation with Glossy here:

Glossy Podcast: Executive Coach Angela Bennett Shares Her Top 3 Tips for Execs

And if you’re looking to explore your own leadership, communication, or career design journey, reach out!

Because your potential isn’t something to find.
It’s something to design.

Listen to The Glossy Beauty Podcast

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In this episode of The Coffee and Careers Podcast, I am joined by interview coach Ramon Santillan to talk strategies for nailing job interviews.

Don’t like to talk about yourself?

Find yourself rambling?

Anxious about interviews?

We dive into common challenges like under-promoting, rambling, and interview anxiety, while also exploring the unique needs of neurodivergent candidates. Ramon shares his personal journey from tax consulting to interview coaching and discusses how preparation, storytelling, and authenticity can transform the interview process.

Interviewing is a skill.

Practice and preparation are key. It’s all about communicating your value to show up as the solution employers are looking for. I can write all this, but what’s better than a live demonstration! So in this episode I take an active job description from LinkedIn and Ramon demonstrates his interview skills in a live mock interview for this job:

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Check out the podcast for tips and guidance on interviewing and authentic self-promotion without feeling arrogant.

5 Key Takeaways to Nail Interviews

• Turn Self-Promotion Into Storytelling
  Many candidates struggle with feeling “icky” talking about themselves, fearing they’ll come off as arrogant. Ramon reframes this as giving employers the facts they need to make an informed decision. Share your skills and accomplishments through authentic stories — explain what you did, how you did it, and why it mattered. Think of it less as bragging and more as helping them see the full picture of your value.

• Stop Rambling — Be Strategic
  Rambling often happens when candidates panic and keep talking in hopes the “next line” will sound better. The fix? Simply stop. Silence is far less awkward than five more minutes of unfocused chatter. Use the job description as your roadmap — every answer should show how you are the solution to the problems the company is trying to solve.

• Shift the Focus: It’s Not About You
  One of Ramon’s boldest reframes: “No one cares about you.” What employers care about is whether you can solve their problems. Instead of starting with your life story, position yourself as the answer to what’s listed in the job description. When you reframe responses with WIIFM —“what’s in it for me”— (meaning the interviewer) you demonstrate strategic thinking and value alignment.

• Practice, Don’t Memorize
  Interviews aren’t speech competitions. Over-memorizing scripts can backfire if you forget a line. Instead, know your key stories deeply so you can adapt them on the spot. Visualize key points, practice with mock interviews, and focus on conversation over perfection. This reduces pressure and allows your authenticity to shine through.

• People Often Hire People They Like
  At the end of the day, interviews aren’t just about technical skills — they’re about connection. Employers want to know if you’re a fit for their company and that you’ll both enjoy working together day in and day out. Confidence, eye contact (even virtually with good camera placement), curiosity, and authentic conversation make you memorable. Other competing candidates will likely have similar skills, but likability and cultural fit can be a differentiator that seals the deal.

Connect with Ramon at:

https://www.persuasiveinterview.com/

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Here’s the truth: the old job search playbook doesn’t work anymore. The process has changed and it’s time for a new strategy.

In Episode 9 of Beauty Talent Talk on LinkedIn Live, I joined beauty industry executive recruiter Debbie Johnson to unpack:

What’s happening in today’s market
Why traditional methods are falling short
A modern, 7-step playbook to help you stand out and stay confident

This playbook provides tools to navigate a tough market with clarity and resilience.
Check out the full webinar to dive into a checklist of 7 key aspects that can help you level up your job search game with strategies that match today’s market.

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In this episode of The Coffee and Careers Podcast, career coach Angela Bennett welcomes back Debbie Johnson, President of Premier Executive Recruiting, to discuss how to reinvent your job search and stay competitive in today’s tough market.

They explore the seismic shifts in hiring—from generalists to specialists, the digitalization of recruiting, and the growing role of private equity in shaping talent needs, especially in the beauty industry. Debbie and Angela offer actionable strategies for resume SEO, the "hamburger" interview framework, building confidence, and leveraging networks to avoid the “digital black hole.” The conversation highlights tips for maintaining resiliency for job seekers navigating longer searches and greater competition.

From coffee as ritual to swimming your own way “against the grain,” this conversation explores how counterintuitive decisions can lead to fulfilling careers and personal growth.

10 Key Takeaways

• Shift from Generalist to Specialist – Companies are hiring for precision, seeking candidates with targeted expertise who can solve specific problems and deliver immediate results. | job role positioning |

• Tailor Everything – Resumes should be concise (ideally two pages) and focused on accomplishments relevant to the role, using keywords aligned with the job description. | resume strategy |

• Interview with Intention – Keep answers under two minutes, use the “hamburger strategy” (headline → details → headline, and ask interviewers what’s most relevant to them to keep the conversation focused. | interview skills |

• Combat the Digital Black Hole – Go beyond mass applications. Leverage SEO keywords on your resume to “beat the ATS” Applicant Tracking System, soft outreach to hiring managers, and networking to pull your name and resume to the top of the stack. | networking strategy |

• Resist Desperation Moves – Taking a much lower-level job is often not a viable solution; stay focused on targeted roles where you’re an 80%+ match. | job match |

• Show How You Strategically Think – Especially at senior levels, hiring managers want to understand your decision-making process and ability to handle uncertainty, not just what you’ve done. | executive presence & critical thinking skills |

• Demonstrate Confidence through Knowledge – Seek to engage in your interview to avoid rambling. Keep responses simple, short, and targeted. Show you have researched the company/brand so you can speak as an informed expert during interviews. | confidence building |

• Prepare Your Toolbox – Have 5–10 “career stories” ready that highlight your proudest moments and can be flexibly adapted to different interview questions. | storytelling |

• Practice Mindset Resiliency – Adopt a growth mindset, focus on silver linings, and use strategies like positivity, learning, kindness, self-care, and humor to stay grounded through setbacks. | mental fitness |

• Reinvent Your Playbook – If your job search has not produced the results you are looking for, challenge yourself to refine networking, interview delivery, and personal branding.

Stay tuned for the play book coming soon:

“Rewriting the Job search Playbook to thrive in today's market”

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Lots of people (and the news media) are all talking about “The Great Lock-In.” TikTok, Instagram, even LinkedIn abound. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s the Gen Z-inspired movement to “lock in” your habits, goals, or routines from September through December. The last four months of the year can be your personal boot camp for becoming your “next level” self, whatever your goals may be. It’s billed as a Gen Z thing mostly because they are the predominant ones naming it, sharing it, and turning it into a mini-social movement with accountability posts, hashtags, and trackers.

As a Gen Xer, my first reaction was, “Here we go again”. It reminds me of how we’ve labeled The Great Resignation, The Great Reshuffle, and even The Great Return-to-Office. Media loves a big “Great” moment. But for me, “locking in” isn’t exactly a new concept — it’s just a rebrand of New Year’s resolutions shifted to the back-to-school season. For those of us who grew up with physical planners and setting goals with pen and paper, this doesn’t feel revolutionary — just newly packaged, with a hashtag of course to make it sticky.

It’s like coaching yourself.

Though my initial reaction was che ridicolo, here’s what I actually like about it. As a coach, I love anything that gets people setting intentions and creating a time-bound focus. Coaching is all about clarifying where you want to go, deciding what success means to you, and then taking small, meaningful steps to get there. If a catchy phrase and a social media trend helps a generation rally around committing to something and talking about it openly, that’s a win in my book.

But here’s where I’d expand the trend. Rather than just locking in for four months, make this the season where you create your ongoing self-development plan. Start with a big-picture goal — your “north star” — then break it down into micro-goals that feel close enough to hit. Think of it like moving the goal posts in, just a few feet away, so you can kick the ball through. Then move them out to the next micro-goal. Keep going as you head toward your north star. Alway be evolving.

Strategic business planning => strategic life/career planning.

Through career coaching, I help clients create a strategic plan…for themselves. Most of my clients are used to creating strategic business plans at work. It’s usually a 3-year plan with quantifiable goals, strategies and actions that put a brand/company on track toward a greater vision. So, the idea is to use Sept–Dec for your strategic thinking. Map out where you want to be in a year or two or three, then choose 1–2 goals you can realistically accomplish before year-end.

Here are a few prompts to get you started:

• What does success mean to you right now? (Career evolution, learning something new, or taking on new responsibilities?)

• Where do you want to grow and evolve? (Skills, relationships, habits, creativity, health?)

• What micro-goal could you hit in the next 90 days that would make the biggest difference?

Goal setting can revolve around a number of areas. My recommendation is to choose specific focus areas and develop a complete strategic plan for that area of your life/career. Here’s a few of the goal setting areas that you may consider. Paid subscribers, keep reading to check out the Goal Setting Tool Coaching Exercise.

10 top areas to consider for your goal focus area:

• Long-term career

• Current work situation

• A stressful concern

• A new phase of life

• A change you want to make

• Balance

• Happiness

• Inner peace

• Health

• Home/family/finance

While I started out skeptical about “The Great Lock-In,” I’ve come around to loving it — mostly because it gets people moving. And after all, the tagline for my Beauty in Motion Coaching & Consulting business is: “There’s beauty in motion. Move with purpose.”

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Powerful Question 041:

What micro-goals do you want to “lock-in” by the end of the year?

Set the goal posts close to achieve them in this timeframe so you keep you marching toward your greater life and career goals.

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