The Table You're Not Invited To (And Why That's Your Superpower)
Welcome back to your Peak of the Week, where we explore what it means to live aligned, lead authentically, and build a life that feels as good as it looks.
This Week →
Why the tables you're not invited to are actually preparing you to build something different
How rejection trained you to see what insiders miss
Three ways to transform your outsider wound into belonging you create for others
Read Time < 3 minutes
Sometimes the places we don't belong are preparing us to build the places others need.
What I'm Noticing
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 know that feeling. I ate lunch in bathroom for the last 90 days of my 8th grade after my classmates posted "25 Reasons We Hate Laura" on my locker and turned all my friends against me. I had maybe one friend. And every day, I'd hide in that bathroom stall, eating alone, wondering what was so wrong with me that I didn't deserve a seat at the table.
For decades, I carried this with me. Something was wrong with me. I wasn’t that special.
But now I see that bathroom stall wasn't just me hiding. It was training for what was to come.
If you've ever felt like you don't belong—at the family dinner, in the boardroom, at the networking event where everyone seems to know each other—I see you. Oh do I see you. That ache is real. And it's also telling you something important.
What If?
What if the tables you weren't invited to were actually preparing you to build different tables entirely?
People who've known rejection see what insiders can't see. When you've been on the outside, you notice who else is standing at the edge of the room. You feel the person at the meeting who hasn't spoken. You see the person who is by themselves at a networking event. You see what others miss.
Your wound becomes your superpower.
I think about how that bathroom stall version of me became someone who built a 2,500-person email list for Marketers’ Community and fill a room of 200 people for events. Not because I got "over" rejection, but because I transformed it. Because I knew in my bones what isolation feels like, I became obsessed with creating spaces where people could come as they are.
Come be your weird, quirky, self. You are welcome here.
The people who change cultures are rarely the ones who always belonged. They're the ones who felt the absence of belonging so deeply that they refused to let others feel it.
So if you're dreading a table this week (or mourning one you were never invited to) I wonder if you could hold a different question: What am I being prepared to build?
Sometimes the rejection isn't the ending. It's the qualification.
Micro-Moves
This week, choose one that calls to you:
If you're sitting at a table where you feel unseen: Notice one other person who might feel the same way. Just notice them, maybe invite them into a conversation, or even send a big smile across the room signaling you see them.
If you're carrying an old rejection that still stings: Ask yourself: How has this prepared me to hold space for others? What do I understand now that I wouldn't have learned any other way? You don't have to be grateful for the pain. But you might find purpose in it.
If you're ready to build something different: Think about one small space in your life—your team, your family, your friend group—where you could extend belonging to someone else this week. One invitation. One "I saved you a seat." One "I thought of you."
My belief is we’re not meant to wait for permission to belong. We're meant to create the belonging ourselves.
With deep belief in your magnificence,
Laura
And if you're ready to stop waiting and start taking those bold steps with support in your corner, here are ways I can serve you.
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Career Alignment Accelerator: Let me be your mirror to see what you can’t see. Whether you are trying to land a new full-time role or going off on your own, I will kindly show you your blind spots and where you’re limiting yourself so you can get to your goal faster, with utmost clarity on who you are, what expensive problem you solve, and how to tap into the hidden job market. [Learn More]
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