Have you ever gotten pulled in a direction that you excites you and scares you at the same time?

Almost like a calling?

I’ve been on this path for about 3 years now, following the voice of my intuition and soul. It hasn’t made sense to a lot of people. It hasn’t made sense to myself at times. Yet, there’s a peace that washes over me and whispers “you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be” even when my logical mind says “you’re crazy”

A year ago, I was with a few friends and they asked me about how hiring really works.

I told them that it’s not always fair. It rewards people who have practiced knowing their narrative. They’re better at talking about themselves. They can see (and talk about) their own brilliance.

Things they never taught us in school!

Now here we are and so many smart, accomplished people with impressive backgrounds are struggling to get traction.

So I want to share something that we go DEEP on with my career alignment clients.

I keep having the same conversation. Over and over. And it's weighing on me.

Talented people… people who did everything "right." Worked at the best companies. Built impressive resumes. Stayed loyal. Stayed quiet. Followed the rules for 10, 15, 20 years.

And now? Laid off without ceremony. Searching for 12, 18, sometimes 24 months. Barely any traction. And story after story about how poorly the market has treated them along the way.

After two decades in this space, I can confidently say… this is not slowing down. The landscape is shifting faster than most people realize.

If you’ve ever been in a career transition, you know the depth of emotions you cycle through. It’s a lot.

I’ve seen so many iterations of how people navigate career transitions. Not just because of my vantage point as an executive recruiter for almost two decades, but as a young girl seeing my father.

My dad had been let go as the GM of a $400M business as he and the CEO did not see eye to eye (I later found that out). He was going on month 8 of his search. He had other opportunities but that would require moving our family, which he didn’t want to do since I was a freshman in high school and my 2 younger brothers were settled in their schools. I’ll never forget the defeat I saw in his eyes one morning as we ate our cheerios together before my 6:50am bus arrived. I remember turning back as I left the house and that’s when I saw it…my dad crying. It was the first time I ever saw my dad cry.

Heavy times in the job market right now. But I promise this note today is NOT doom and gloom. Stick with me!

I had coffee with someone last week who kept telling me “Laura, I just can't get traction."

Director-level. Fifteen years of experience. Super impressive resume.

And I could feel it. That familiar weight of being qualified but invisible.

After conducting 30,000+ interviews trust me I know how hiring decisions get made…and like it or not, it’s not always fair. I see GREAT talent getting passed over all the time because they haven’t worked on themselves.

You see it’s not about what you’ve done. It's about how you position what you’ve done.

Heavy times…

And yet, there’s a stirring in you.

What’s that about?

When the world feels divided, loud, fearful, or uncertain, it’s easy to think the problem is “out there.” But so often, what we’re witnessing in the collective is simply a mirror of what’s happening inside each of us.

Moments like these invite deeper questions… like…

Where might I be holding myself back in fear, lack, or limitation?

What am I giving my power and energy away to?

Not as judgment or blame, but as awareness.

Jan 1, 2026 Reflection:

Showing up to write for you every week for the past 100 weeks has provided more growth than I EVER could have imagined. If you know, you know. Some of you know me really well and some of you I’ve never met. This newsletter has exploded from 0 to 1200 people in 2 years! While it's fun to look at stats, it’s honestly not about that. It’s about showing up + being consistent. I just want to begin by saying thank you. Because of you, I committed to showing up.

What has transpired over the last 24 months, especially the last 12, has been the biggest up level of my entire life, both personally and professionally. When you launch a book into the world, you confront all the different pieces of yourself and question whether you really want to put yourself out there. There have been times when I've wanted to crawl into a hole and just not come out. And there have been times when I have felt the greatest joy knowing that I am truly living my purpose.

Welcome to January where everyone's talking about goals, you can’t find a parking spot at the gym, and your motivation is high…until it isn’t.

Yeah…you know what I’m talking about!

You set ambitious targets for 2026….Revenue goals. Team goals. Personal transformation goals.

And by March, most of them will be gathering dust in some forgotten notebook.

Not because you didn't want it badly enough or because you lacked discipline. NOPE.

Because we’ve collectively misunderstood what goal-setting actually is.

I hope this finds you in a moment of stillness.

It's the end of the year and I'm reflecting on all that happened in 2025.

This was the year I stepped into my life's work.

I've always had this pull toward helping people become the best version of themselves. But I doubted myself (because who doesn't have self-doubt when they do something new?).

But I moved forward anyway. Did it scared because I know it was a calling. I reached a point where I knew I’d regret not trying.

The holidays have this way of exposing triggers.

You've spent months setting boundaries, doing the inner work, and practicing presence in your daily life. Then you walk into a family gathering, and suddenly you're 15 again (no? just me?)….defending yourself, keeping the peace, pretending everything's fine when it's not.

You've probably seen this happen before:

A team finishes a client call. The leader asks, "How did that go?" and gets a chorus of "good" and "fine."

But in that same meeting, someone had a point they wanted to make and didn't. Someone else filled every silence. And the client walked away without the clarity they actually came for.

The leader genuinely wants their team to show up with a confident presence. But wanting it isn't the same as creating the conditions that make it possible.

I was in a meeting a few weeks where someone in the room had a brilliant idea. Like, genuinely valuable. But they started with "This might be nothing, but..." and then apologized twice before they even got to the point.

The idea was amazing!!! But their presence collapsed the moment they started speaking.

I’ve seen this pattern on repeat as an executive recruiter. Smart, capable people shrinking themselves, not seeing or leaning into their value. Or the opposite….jumping in so fast, filling every gap, “proving themselves” instead of actually being present and curious.

I had coffee with a CEO recently who said: "We optimized everything. We're more efficient than we've ever been. And everyone is completely exhausted."

He wasn't confused about the problem. He was confused about how they got there. They'd done everything right. Hit every metric. Streamlined every process. Removed every bottleneck. And somehow, in all that winning, they'd created an organization where people felt like replaceable parts.

The very systems we built to succeed are now the systems making us sick.

This week, millions of people will sit at tables where they feel like they don't quite belong.

Maybe it's Thanksgiving with family members who don't really know you anymore (the real you)

Maybe it's the workplace where you smile through meetings while feeling invisible or misunderstood.

Maybe it's the career you've built that looks impressive but feels like a costume you can't take off.

I talked to someone this week who's been in their field for fifteen years and is exceptional!!! But when I asked them what makes them valuable beyond their specific role, they went quiet.

"I'm a marketing director," they said.

"Okay, but what happens when your company needs something outside that box? When there's no one to hand it to?"

More silence. Then: "I guess I figure it out?"

"Have you?"

"Well, yeah. All the time, actually."

This brilliant talent has been solving problems outside their job description for over a decade, but couldn't articulate that they're someone who figures things out.

Have you ever done this?

You share an idea in a meeting—something you've been thinking about, something that could really make a difference in how your team operates. And the second you finish talking, you hear yourself add: "I mean, it's probably nothing. I'm sure someone else has thought of this already."

You just deflated your own contribution before anyone else could even respond.

I had coffee with a client last week who's brilliant at what she does. Like, genuinely exceptional. But when we started talking about her next career move, she kept circling back to the same phrase: "I'm just not ready yet."

And I sat there listening, and I could feel it. That familiar weight of a limiting belief doing its quiet, relentless work.

We're not actually stuck because we lack the skills or the opportunity or even the courage. We're stuck because somewhere along the way, we picked up a belief about ourselves or the world that's running the show. And we don't even realize it's there.

I want to start by acknowledging what might be true for you (if not for you, then for someone you know) — and that is, if you're struggling with your professional situation right now, it probably feels like you're drowning. And I need you to know that struggling doesn't mean you're not strong enough. It means you're carrying something heavy, and it's okay to feel the weight of it.

I've been sitting with something lately that I've been watching play out everywhere: in my own life, in conversations with clients, in the energy of our community. This pattern of waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting for the fear to subside. Waiting for some cosmic green light that says, "Okay, NOW you can move forward."

Friday night. My phone buzzed with an invitation from neighborhood friends. A night out, laughter, nothing fancy. Just connection.

Old Laura would have declined without hesitation. I'd done it so many times before. I had work to do, things to finish, ways to get ahead. So much to do. No time to have fun. Staying in felt responsible. Going out felt indulgent. So I'd sit at my laptop after I put the kids to bed, manufacturing urgency, creating tasks to justify the sacrifice.