The Stoic philosopher, Seneca, wrote: "Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future."  If His words still ring true today because FEAR is still the #1 determinant of your career satisfaction and success.

Your fears dictate what you value and how you manage your most precious resources (time, money, energy), your fears set your tolerance for dysfunction and disrespect in the workplace, and most importantly for high-achievers and those who aspire to leadership, your fears throttle your motivation to disrupt the status quo on behalf of yourself, your colleagues, your clients, or your customers.

What if your next job interview could feel as effortless—and impressive—as a Taylor Swift interview? Whether she’s discussing her creative process, navigating career lows, or drawing parallels between her artistry and others’ expertise, Taylor has mastered the art of convincing the world she’s worth betting on. And that’s exactly what interview success is about: presenting yourself as the best investment in the room.

In this blog, you’ll learn three strategies Swift uses in interviews that you can apply to your own—so you can walk in with confidence, communicate your value, and leave your audience (or hiring manager) wanting more.

Successful professionals love to share their highlight reel - anecdotes about how they made bold career moves and achieved significant wins for themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

What gets less airtime is exactly how they found courage during the lowest points of their career: those emotional moments when their boldest ideas were deemed ‘too risky,' their biggest projects failed to deliver, their collaborators threatened to bail, and they silently wondered: WTF?

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by how people think. When I was a graduate student at Columbia University, I studied critical thinking, strategic thinking, and creative thinking, but it wasn’t until 2022 when I stumbled upon a very different kind of thinking that unlocked my ‘smart’ brain and changed everything.

In 2022, I did a deep dive into what I now call positive subconscious reprogramming (PSR) - a mental practice that helps high-achievers confront their fears, visualize their future success, and unlock their performance in the present.

Many high-achievers and leaders I work with quietly recognize they’ve developed an extreme relationship with work and play.

They describe long hours, 24/7 mental engagement, and trouble sleeping. They feel essential to team performance. They worry that taking time off will slow progress. They experience vacations as a juggling act: catching up on sleep, cramming in memory-making experiences, and occasionally sneaking away for work calls.

Over time, this pattern—so normalized in corporate culture—erodes focus, credibility, and performance.

So, what’s a better way?

In today’s AI-driven workplace, even the most experienced leaders face uncertainty. The skills and strategies that once guaranteed success are shifting, and mid-career professionals can no longer rely on the “old rules” of advancement. This post explores why having a clear career strategy is essential for navigating change, aligning with your purpose, and creating a sustainable, impactful path forward.

Over the course of my career, I've received a lot of feedback and been confronted by many inconvenient truths - and after years of working, I suspect this might be true for you too!

But just as I've tried to resist some of it in my professional life, I've noticed its undeniable value in my personal life…

Toxic habits rarely look toxic at first! In fact, some of the most destructive workplace behaviors and communication habits often go unnoticed for quite a while. My latest blog breaks down three performance killers to watch out for and how you can start turning things around without blaming others, burning out, or blowing it all up.

Over the years, I've gotten better at navigating big career decisions, and it’s not just because I’ve coached clients through hundreds and hundreds of them. I have gotten better because I’ve uncovered four simple rules that help people escape thinking traps when the stakes feel exceptionally high.

If you are facing a complex career decision, here are my four simple rules for getting more of what you want.

After years of studying adult learning, leadership, and creativity, I am humbled to admit that there is no magic formula for inspiring and leading change!

Yes, countless books have been written on the subject by successful innovators and business icons, but they all have a shelf life because leadership arises out of context, and context changes constantly.

So, how can you inspire your followers to help you create positive change in a constantly changing world?

I’ll give you a hint: Let in more laughter.

Since the 1970s, American psychologist Carol Dweck has been spearheading mindset research. Her 2006 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success popularized her findings and initiated a seismic shift in management and leadership conversations across the country, so there’s a very good chance you were introduced to her ideas earlier in your career!

The crux of her teachings urged professionals to relinquish a fixed mindset and embrace a growth mindset.

If you and your co-workers are finding it hard to feel secure at work - especially when pressure to innovate, sell, and prove your worth has never been higher! - you are not alone. To help you, I created this leadership behavior cheatsheet to help you break through a culture of fear inside your organization and elevate your team’s performance at the same time.

Whenever an ambitious leader enthusiastically lists all their plans to transform their team, I gently caution them against "flooding the zone."

This strategy of deliberately saturating an environment with simultaneous changes might seem like an effective way to pressure people into hitting performance targets, but it invariably undermines performance and leaves people more fragile.

For my entire career, I have worked alongside highly ambitious professionals. I have drafted countless talking points, helped leaders prepare for more than a few board meetings and Town Halls, sat beside them in public and private moments, and heard some of the most brilliant individuals hurl brutal criticisms at themselves (and others) because they believed it would help them perform better.

Most mid-career professionals I coach are surprisingly bad at assessing their own success in real time. They tend to focus negatively on what they haven’t been able to do, what hasn’t gone well enough, and what still needs to be accomplished. It’s as though they believe staying vigilant and critical in the short term ensures success in the long term…but this is an outdated belief.

Just about every week, a client, friend, or acquaintance shares something with me that’s rather painful…and not like, “gee, that sucks” painful. I’m talking like, “I don’t share this with many people…” painful.

To be clear, it is a privilege to be entrusted with these personal and painful stories, as they are usually rich with insights. However, I can also tell you that there are two words that always come up that I wish we would all stop using: FIX IT.

Watching someone you love navigate change is hard, and initiating it yourself is even harder - so whether you are preparing for a disruptive career move, or planning to shake things up at the highest level of your organization - I can tell you that good change is absolutely achievable when you dedicate yourself to three powerful priorities.

…and this may shock you, but none of them are about nailing the time, budget, or plan just perfectly!

At an early age, Sarah* was trained to follow instructions and win.

She became a stand-out student, athlete, and musician. She attended great schools, landed competitive internships, and was on track to surpass her own career expectations, but in the last few year's relationship with work started slipping.

Her deep-seated drive to avoid missteps, impress her stakeholders, and expedite decisions consumed all her time and energy, and she was finding it impossible to…

Several weeks ago, my husband and I met with an architect to articulate a vision for our family’s future home.

“A take on Nordic modern, with a warmer palette and loads of windows to maximize natural light…” we blathered with unqualified confidence.

The architect graciously replied, “Can you share some pictures with me?”

Of course, we had a few ready because we’d been geeking out on the idea of building a home for years, but it wasn’t until we were asked to share them that I realized just how undefined and incoherent our ‘good' ideas still were.

Way back in 2015, I had the privilege of consulting on strategic work inside a world-famous corporation. It was, and still is, known all around the world for its bold brand positioning and its high performance culture…so you can probably guess which one I’m talking about.

If not, I’ll give you a hint: its name rhymes with “Mikey.”

During my tenure, I got to work with some truly brilliant professionals: category leaders, functional leaders, innovators, and creators, and I was charged with leading workplace transformation inside various departments.