One of my favorite quotes is written on a plaque I bought in Encinitas not long after I quit my job at Participant Media to start my own company nearly 15 years ago.

It says:

“The best journeys answer questions you didn’t even think to ask.”

I’ve been thinking about that quote a lot lately.

Probably because I have a big birthday coming up, and it’s made me more reflective.

The world pushes year-end reviews and New Year’s goals, so I happily do those exercises with my clients annually.

But my dear astrologer friends Angel and Brandon believe our personal years go birthday to birthday, not January to December.

This year, as I somehow prepare to turn 55, I found myself wanting to look back more deeply.

Not just at the past year, but at the moments throughout my life and career that made me who I am today and continue to shape where I’m going.

I ended up bringing the exercise into my next coaching session with Max.

He had good news.

He had the conversation with Alison that we’d worked through in our last session. Max and I had utilized my SAFE framework to help him prepare to share with Alison that he now wanted to keep the business instead of selling as they navigated their divorce.

Because Max approached the conversation openly and thoughtfully, aware that he was the one changing the original plan, Alison stayed calm and receptive.

They agreed to think through possible options and reconnect in a few weeks.

For the first time in a while, Max felt hopeful. Not just that they may find a path forward for the business, but that he and Alison might actually be able to communicate more effectively as they transition their relationship.

Maybe telling the truth didn’t always have to hurt the other person.

Max admitted now that the dust was beginning to settle, he wasn’t just questioning how they would keep the business.

He was questioning whether he wanted to run it the same way.

Since the divorce, moving out, and stepping into a completely different chapter of life, Max had started feeling pulled toward something new. He just couldn’t fully explain what it was yet.

I see this often after major life changes.

Once one area of our lives transforms, we begin to notice what else wants to change.

Relationships end.
Careers get reevaluated.
Priorities shift.
Creative urges surface.
And we suddenly find ourselves with questions that have become impossible to ignore.

The Exercise

I suggested we revisit a version of the timeline exercise we did together in What 2025 Has Been Trying to Tell You About Your Career.

But this time, instead of reviewing one year, we expanded it to his life.

I call it The Life Story-Line.

Because our life experiences hold answers to the questions we never thought to ask.

Just as I had done a few weeks before my birthday, I had Max draw a horizontal line across a page and write down five to ten moments that shaped who he became.

Not necessarily the biggest milestones.

Just the moments that immediately rose to the surface.

Max was honest that he felt resistance return at the idea of looking back.

There was a lot of pain associated with the version of life he thought he was building.

Things hadn’t gone the way he planned.

I told Max that looking back wasn’t the same as going back.

Sometimes the only way to see where we’re heading is to honor the moments that got us here.

And we’re often doing better than we think.

Max nodded, picked up his pen, and began.

A few of his answers included:

• Feeling lost after his parents’ messy divorce.

• Meeting the high school guidance counselor who made him feel seen during one of the hardest periods of his life.

• Realizing therapy helped him so much that he wanted to become a psychologist himself.

• Falling in love with Alison and building an online therapy app he was proud of.

• Becoming a father.

• The divorce.

• And surprisingly, realizing he might not want to sell the company after all.

I reminded Max that when we externalize our experiences onto paper, our brain shifts from emotional processing into observational mode.

This is often what allows patterns and clarity to emerge.

Research from Positive Psychology shows that the stories we construct from our life experiences are how we build a coherent sense of identity and direction.

Which means a Life Story-Line isn’t just a reflection exercise. It’s how we begin to author what comes next.

As Max talked through the timeline, he saw how much of his career had been shaped by his desire to help people feel supported during hard seasons of life.

Max noticed that his biggest turning points involved someone helping him feel understood, guided, and less alone.

It wasn’t surprising that he became a psychologist and built an online therapy platform.

But he wasn’t expecting his guidance counselor to make the timeline list.

It had been years since Max had thought about Mr. Gallagher’s influence on his life during such a vulnerable time.

But maybe the memory was surfacing for a reason.

I watched the spark return to Max’s eyes as he began wondering whether the therapy app he and Alison built could evolve to support adolescents and young adults navigating difficult transitions of their own.

When they first launched the business, it would have been too much to take on.

But now the foundation was there.

It was then that Max looked down at the page, laughed, and said:

“Even the darn timeline looks like an arrow!”

And in many ways, it was.

Because sometimes the experiences that shape us most are quietly pointing us toward what comes next.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Draw a horizontal line across a page ~ this is your Life Story-Line.

Now add five to ten moments that changed the direction of who you became.

Not just the obvious milestones.
Also moments like:

• a time when you felt most alive

• a forced life pivot

• a moment of serendipity when it all came together

Once your line is complete, step back and review it the way you’d look at someone else’s story.

Then ask yourself:

• When I look at the moments on this line, what direction do they seem to be pointing me toward?

• Which experiences or roles energized me, even if they felt difficult?

• Is there a problem I’ve spent much of my life learning how to solve?

• Is there a part of me, a passion, a strength, or a calling that has been waiting for a bigger role in my work or my life?

Your Soul Business Action Step

Take what you learned from your journaling exercise and choose one small way you could honor what surfaced.

This could include:

• a class

• a creative project

• volunteering

• or researching a career shift

Who knows… maybe the step you take today becomes one of the moments you’ll add to your timeline someday.

Rooting for you always,
Laurie

If this resonated, I’d be so grateful if you’d:

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• tap the 💬 and share your thoughts

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I like to revisit goals with my clients at the end of the first quarter.

It’s a natural checkpoint, especially since studies suggest that most New Year’s intentions begin to fade within the first few weeks, with many abandoned by mid-February.

When I met with Diane recently, we reviewed the goals she’d set at the beginning of the year from our Keep Stop Start exercise.

We were both happy to see clear wins. Diane had followed through on a few key priorities and was feeling good about the progress she had made.

But when we looked a little closer, a pattern emerged.

The areas where Diane had fallen short all seemed to revolve around one thing.

Delegating.

This was an important goal for Diane. Since we’d been working together, we had been trying to get her out of the weeds in order to create space for more senior-level responsibilities.

Diane wanted to spend more time leading and thinking strategically so she could contribute at a higher level.

And yet, there were still several areas where Diane was choosing to stay in the weeds.

She continued to be the one people relied on to jump in and get things done. The one everyone knew would make sure nothing ever fell through the cracks.

She was productive and highly valued within the organization.

Diane quickly pushed back that it would take longer to find the right people, train them, and oversee their work.

This is easily one of the top five arguments I hear from my clients, and it’s one I’ve been known to make in my own business.

I get it. Holding onto our responsibilities can be a sticky habit.

But as we know, what got us here won’t get us there.

So I asked Diane a simple question.

What’s the worst thing that could happen if other highly capable people were handling these tasks?

Diane admitted she was afraid she would no longer be valuable if she wasn’t the one holding everything together.

Then she’d have to be seen for something else. And Diane wasn’t sure she’d be as good at that.

I reminded Diane that she wanted time to share her ideas and step into more strategic work.

And managing highly capable people who were keeping the organization running successfully was incredibly valuable.

But Diane still saw it as a gamble.

Showing up differently. Speaking up in rooms where she didn’t always feel seen. Contributing ideas that might not land made her feel vulnerable.

• And vulnerability is where judgment lives.

• It’s where imperfection lives.

• It’s where rejection lives.

But it’s also where courage lives.

Diane had done a beautiful job building a reputation as someone who could handle anything.

Now she had to decide if that identity was enough, or if it was something she was ready to build on.

I asked Diane to consider something.

If she knew she could be a strong strategic partner, someone known for contributing big ideas and influencing decisions, would she be more willing to let go of the busy work?

We both knew the answer.

Of course she would.

The Exercise

Right now, Diane was imagining a future where she failed.

So her brain was doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Protect her.

• Stay with what you do well.

• Don’t give up what makes you valuable.

• Don’t risk being wrong.

The truth is, there’s no way of knowing how something will turn out before we do it.

If you only allow yourself to operate from the identity you’ve already proven, you’ll stay exactly where you are.

That doesn’t mean pretending.

It means getting familiar with what that version of you looks like.

I told Diane that I’m a big fan of something called mental rehearsal paired with evidence building.

In my opinion, it kicks manifesting’s butt.

It’s a simple, science-backed way to make something feel more natural so it can become your reality.

Research in neuroscience shows that mentally rehearsing an action activates many of the same neural pathways as physically doing it.

Over time, this reduces resistance and increases confidence because your brain begins to register the behavior as familiar.

I asked Diane to spend a few minutes each day picturing herself at the next level of her role.

• Leading a meeting instead of just supporting it.

• Sharing her perspective without overthinking it.

• Being someone others looked to for direction, not execution.

Then, to reinforce it, she would spend a minute looking for evidence.

• Moments where she had shared an idea and it landed.

• Times when her judgment had shaped an outcome.

• Small examples that proved she was already capable, even if she hadn’t fully acknowledged it.

I told Diane this is something I do as part of my own morning routine, and it’s been a real unlock, especially in helping me feel more comfortable being seen through my writing.

All we were doing was flipping the switch in her favor.

Diane agreed to do the exercise each morning while she was getting ready. It was the perfect way to habit stack without adding anything new to her day.

Because there’s no better time to start believing in what’s possible than right now.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Think about the one goal that was on your list this year that still matters to you. The one you’ve been quietly avoiding.

Then ask yourself:

• What’s the worst thing that could happen if I fully went after this?

Then go one step deeper:

• If that happened, what would that mean about me?

This is where the real answer lives. Not the outcome.
The identity underneath it.

Now gently reality-check it:

• Is this actually true? Or is this a story my mind is using to keep me safe?

• And even if it did happen, would I find a way to be okay?

Then shift the lens:

• What’s the best thing that could happen if this worked?

• Is there a version of this that actually goes right?

Let yourself really see it.

Because whether you realize it or not, you’re already imagining your future.

This is about choosing a version you’re willing to work for.

Your Soul Business Action Step

For the next five days, take a few minutes each morning to intentionally shift the story.

See yourself:

• living the goal

• following through

• being seen

• it all going your way

Then give yourself one piece of evidence:

• Where have I already shown up this way, even just a little?

• Where have I been told I’d be good at what I want to do?

Notice how it shifts your energy.
How it quietly fuels your motivation.

Because you’ve stopped reinforcing the version of you that’s been keeping you stuck.

And you’re strengthening the one that moves you forward.

Rooting for you always,

Laurie

P.S. I was recently on the Adventures in Business podcast talking about trusting your instincts and building a career that actually feels as good as it looks. Watch it here or listen soon on all podcast platforms.

If this resonated, I’d be so grateful if you’d:

• hit the ♡ icon below

• tap the 💬 and share your thoughts

• send this to a friend who might enjoy reading

One of my favorite things about Max (who you met in What 2025 Has Been Trying to Tell You) is that he sends me an agenda before every session with quirky titles.

Sometimes they involve links and attachments, but they always include Max’s gentle humor.

For our last session, the title was:

Operation: Get Alison Onboard with Retaining the Business Through the Divorce

A very tall order.

Max and Alison had built their company together as co-founders and were now navigating the end of their marriage while trying to determine what came next for the business.

Alison was still very much on board to sell the company, as they had originally planned.

In our last session, Max realized that he didn’t want to sell.

This would have been far less of a problem if he had actually shared that realization with Alison.

But for some reason, Max had kept it to himself and let Alison continue operating under the assumption that they were still looking for a buyer.

It didn’t take long in our Operation Get Alison on Board session to uncover why.

Max had been putting off the conversation because he was afraid of how Alison would react.

As much as Max wanted to keep the business, he dreaded “going another round with Alison.”

Why difficult conversations feel so hard

As we started talking it through, it was easy to see that Max was focused on:

• The hurtful things that Alison could say.

• How quickly the conversation could go sideways.

• The possibility that it would force a decision that he didn’t want.

Before the conversation even happened, Max had already rehearsed all the ways it could go wrong.

It was no wonder he was afraid to have it.

I told Max that if he walked into the conversation with that mindset, he would be:

• Assuming the worst.

• Braced for combat.

• Emotionally guarded.

And Alison would feel all of it, before he even said a word.

Because what most of us don’t realize is that:

A different way to approach the conversation

I told Max he could let himself spiral about how Alison might react.

And that would either keep him from having the conversation or have him showing up with a negative, combative energy that Alison would feel.

Or we could use our time to prepare him to have an open and honest conversation where both of them felt heard.

The SAFE Conversation Framework

S — Set your intention

Max’s first assignment was to gain clarity on his objective by asking himself:

What do I actually want here?
What is my intention?

For Max, it was to have an open and honest conversation with Alison where they could respect each other’s perspectives and explore what was possible.

A — Anchor to your North Star Goal

Then Max needed to ask himself:
What outcome am I looking for?

For Max, it was simple:
To explore what it might look like to keep the business.

F — Frame the energy

I asked Max to notice the version of the conversation he’d already been playing in his mind.

This is important because most of us default to the worst-case scenario.

Instead, I had Max ask himself:
If this conversation went well, what could that look like?

For Max that meant imagining that he and Alison:

• Would be open and honest

• That they were on the same side.

• And that there was a path forward that they would figure out together.

Approaching the conversation with that energy will give Max the best chance of creating a productive and connected outcome.

E — Express cleanly

Max didn’t need to script the entire conversation.

He just needed a few clear, thoughtful statements in the right order.

I told Max to think of the conversation in three parts:

Beginning — Set the tone

Middle — Stay curious

End — Next steps and action

Beginning — Set the tone

I suggested that Max use his intention and North Star goal to guide his opening.

For Max, it sounded like:

“I know we’ve been moving toward selling the company, and it was an important step to explore.

But after taking some time to really reflect, I’ve realized I’m not ready to sell.

I’d love to talk about the possibility of keeping the business in a way that works for both of us.”

This opening would allow Max to take ownership without placing blame, which would make it easier for Alison to stay open instead of getting defensive.

Middle — Stay curious

From there, Max could stay curious and genuinely open to Alison’s response.

If emotions came up, he wouldn’t need to rush to fix or defend.

Instead, he could ask:

• “How are you feeling about this?”

• “What feels most important to you here?”

• “What might a version of this look like where we both feel good about the outcome?”

End — Next steps and action

When it was time to move the conversation forward, Max could ask:

• “What feels like the best next step for us from here?”

• “What would help you feel more comfortable continuing this conversation?”

• “When would be a good time for us to reconnect after we’ve both had some space to think this through?”

The truth about hard conversations

We treat these conversations like something to fear.

When they’re often what moves us forward.

The conversation that Max was afraid to have with Alison had the potential to create the clarity they desperately needed.

It could open doors they wouldn’t have seen on their own.

Perhaps the hardest part to see is this:

And the moment we have it, what’s been waiting beneath the surface finally has space to move.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Think of a conversation you’ve been avoiding.

Ask yourself:

• What am I afraid will happen if I say this out loud?

• What truth have I been softening or delaying?

• What part of me already knows what needs to be said?

Now shift the question:

What could be a positive outcome if I had this conversation honestly?

Your Soul Business Action Step

Using the SAFE framework:

Write down:

• Your intention

• Your North Star goal

• The positive energy you want to bring

Then draft the framework using the same technique outlined with Max.

Map out 1-2 sentences for each of the following sections:

Beginning — Set the tone

Middle — Stay curious

End — Next steps and action

Framing the conversation:

When you’re ready, set the meeting and give a light heads up about the topic. Aim for enough context so they’re not caught off guard, without overexplaining.

For Max, that sounded like sharing that he wanted to talk through some thoughts he had about selling the business.

Setting your energy:

Just before the conversation, come back to your intention and your North Star goal.

Remind yourself what a positive outcome could look like,
so you can enter the conversation grounded, open, and clear.

Then trust that what needs to be said could be the very thing that sets you both free.

Rooting for you always,

Laurie

I think it’s fascinating what we choose to remember.

Most of us can’t recall what we had for breakfast yesterday, yet a song lyric we haven’t heard in decades can resurface instantly.

A memory can come in so strong that you’d think you were back in the moment. And a single line from a poem can live in your nervous system for years.

I can still recite Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, even though it’s been decades since I read it. I was probably ten when I found it in one of my mom’s books.

When Jeni (who you met in The Day You Get Fired is the Day You Get Free) described her latest career dilemma, that poem immediately came to mind.

She’d never heard of it.

Which makes sense. It’s not exactly trending on TikTok.

Jeni had landed a very serendipitous networking meeting. One of those “why not?” reaches that almost didn’t happen.

That conversation turned into an opportunity to interview for a People and Culture role at an impressive, up-and-coming startup, even though Jeni had almost no HR or People experience.

On paper, it checked many of her boxes:

• She genuinely liked the company.

• The woman she would report to came highly recommended.

• And as we’d discovered in our previous session, Jeni felt pulled toward HR and People work after years in events.

But there was a catch.

• The role was entry level.

• It came with heavy administrative work.

• And it paid slightly less than her previous job.

The idea of taking a financial and status “step back” stirred up concerns.

When we mapped out the pros and cons, something interesting happened. The cons weren’t really about the job itself. They were about perception.

• What would her friends say?

• What would her family think?

• How would it look on her resume if she tried HR and wasn’t good at it?

• What if she had to “go back” to events?

Underneath it all was a deeper fear:

What if I fail?

When we looked at the pros, one memory kept resurfacing for Jeni.

In her previous role, she’d once been given the chance to interview and hire interns. She remembered the feeling vividly. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t life-altering. It was just… good.

Like the warm feeling that settles in after your first sip of delicious matcha or coffee.

Like something clicking quietly into place.

I told Jeni that I call those “joy breadcrumbs.”

A joy breadcrumb is when a moment still feels good years later. It stands out above the rest. It lingers. It doesn’t need to be flashy to be meaningful, but for some reason, it’s stayed with you.

We ignore those breadcrumbs all the time because they don’t look strategic enough. But they often point somewhere important.

The Exercise

I asked Jeni how she would feel if she turned the job down and waited for something “better” with higher pay, and less administrative work.

Jeni said she felt nervous she could miss her opportunity, but it didn’t feel definitive.

So, I suggested that we flip a coin, a fun game that I sometimes play with my clients. Not because the coin would decide. But because it allows us to see how we really feel.

Heads, Jeni takes the interview.

Tails, she declines.

It landed on heads.

I asked Jeni how she felt.

Jeni felt relieved.

Another tell.

Jeni said she was inclined to take the interview, but she valued my opinion and wanted to know:

“What would you do if you were me?”

I don’t always share personal stories with clients, but this one felt right, so I took my coaching hat off for a moment and told Jeni that many years ago, I was her.

My Scenic Route

In my late twenties, a similar age to Jeni, I was living in Delaware and working at a Fortune 500 company. My path was smart, stable, and respectable.

On paper, everything made sense.

But quietly, I longed for something more creative. Something that shook me out of my comfort zone. I wanted to work in the entertainment industry.

After a lot of networking and dead-end job searching, an entertainment law firm in New York City offered me a position.

• Entry-level job and salary.

• Six-hour round-trip commute from Delaware.

• Mostly administrative work.

Rationally, it made no sense.

But it checked some important boxes:

• I would learn about feature film development and production.

• I would expand my network in the industry I dreamed about.

• I would get to work in New York City.

I had never lived or worked in a major city before.

I couldn’t move full-time, so I reached out to a former college roommate who was living in Hoboken, and a dear friend on the Upper East Side.

Both offered their apartments a few nights a week, free of charge.

The odds of that job offer landing in my lap when nothing else had come close to materializing, combined with two friends opening their homes to me for free, felt like something more than coincidence.

I imagined taking the job. I felt scared… but alive.
I imagined turning it down. I felt almost heartbroken.

So I took it.

For a year, I commuted from Delaware to New York.

I slept on my dear friends’ couches and learned everything I could about the entertainment industry.

I navigated Manhattan before smartphones, went to every bar and restaurant featured on Sex and the City, and built confidence by doing hard things.

That job gave me the courage to move to Los Angeles, where I’d always wanted to live.

I told Jeni,

Not long after I arrived in LA, one of the founders from my New York City job called me. He had joined a brand-new production company and thought I’d be a great fit.

That company was Participant Media.

The role evolved into Head of People and Operations. It shaped my career. It strengthened my leadership. And it grew me into the person and the coach that I am today.

My job in New York wasn’t a “step back.” It was a gateway.
And I would have missed it if I’d let how it looked to others override how it felt to me.

Only time would tell whether this new people role was a door or a destination for Jeni. There was only one way to find out.

I kept thinking about what she remembered. That small moment interviewing interns. The way it lit something up inside her.

Maybe what we choose to remember isn’t random.
Maybe it’s a nudge from our internal compass.

I told Jeni my favorite part of the Robert Frost poem that had stayed with me all these years.

Perhaps it was meant for both of us.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Think of one career decision you’ve been wrestling with.

Then ask yourself:

1. What part of this feels quietly exciting or relieving in my body?

2. What part of my hesitation is about how this will look to others?

3. If I imagined saying no, would I feel peace… or disappointment?

No need to analyze. You’re just noticing.

Your Soul Business Action Step

For the next seven days, run this simple experiment.

Each morning, briefly bring this decision to mind. This signals your brain to pay attention and allows your reticular activating system (discussed in the last newsletter) to start filtering for relevant clues.

Then go live your life.

As you move through your day, notice:

• Moments of unexpected excitement connected to this path

• Recurring thoughts or memories that resurface

• Surprising coincidences, introductions, or ideas

• Any physical shift when you imagine one direction over the other

Jot down what you notice. Nothing elaborate. Just quick notes.

At the end of the week, review what you captured and see what patterns emerge.

Which road do the internal and external signals seem to be pointing toward?

Then choose one small step you can take to open the next door.

Sometimes the smallest step leads you down the road that changes everything.

Rooting for you always,

Laurie

One of my favorite things about my client Jack (who you met in Harnessing Your Intuition in Business) is that he has a nickname for everyone.

Unfortunately, they tend to be playfully critical, which was definitely the case with Marcus, Jack’s most recent “office nemesis.”

In our last session, Jack said that Marcus, the Chief Marketing Officer of the company, better not try to blame their campaign delay on Jack’s team, because it wouldn’t be the first time Marcus attempted to throw Jack under the bus.

Jack said Marcus couldn’t be trusted and that “Mr. Insta-fabulous” spent more time curating his social media presence than actually marketing their business.

I told Jack that when we decide someone is the bad guy, our brain’s reticular activating system gets very good at proving us right.

Once that narrative is locked in, the mind filters for evidence that supports the belief and quietly ignores any contradictions.

Jack was adamant that he was right about Marcus and already had the full picture, so I asked him if Marcus had ever created a marketing campaign that worked, even a little.

His answer came easily. Never.

I told Jack that always and never are usually a tell. They’re signs we’re reacting from ego. Intuition and logic don’t communicate in extremes.

Jack was amused by the irony…Never?

I chose to ignore the bait and instead asked Jack to look around his office and find something that was red. Seconds later Jack found something.

I asked Jack what he saw that was blue, to which he sternly replied that I didn’t ask him to look for blue. I asked him to find something red.

That was the point.

Because Jack was always looking for red with Marcus, red was all he could see.

Every post. Every delay. Every comment reinforced the idea that Marcus cared more about being visible than being effective.

And when we decide someone is against us, we stop seeing the full picture and start collecting evidence that reinforces the belief.

Without realizing it, we begin to:

• stop collaborating

• become guarded

• grow defensive

The other person feels it, often without understanding why, and responds in kind.

This is how people become office enemies.

Not through a single moment, but through unexamined stories and unchecked reactions.

I told Jack that as he grows as a leader, he will continue to encounter personalities that trigger him and invite quick judgment. He won’t always like or even trust everyone he works with.

It’s a strategic advantage in business that’s often dismissed as being soft. Research from McKinsey shows that leaders who actively challenge their assumptions and seek alternative perspectives make decisions that are over ten times more impactful than those who don’t.

I wasn’t asking Jack to prove that Marcus was a great colleague. I simply wanted him to see that Marcus was human.

Like Jack, Marcus was a first-time C-suite leader. He likely felt the same visibility pressure, fear of failing, and imposter syndrome. He just expressed it differently.

Marcus self-promoted.
Jack self-tortured.

The experiment

As homework, I asked Jack to imagine placing every story he had about Marcus into a suitcase and setting it down.

Not forever. Just for two weeks.

During that time, Jack’s only job was to look for evidence that Marcus was:

• contributing to the company

• trying to do his job the best way he knew how

• acting like a human, not a villain

Psychologist and best-selling author Wayne Dyer famously said,

My hope was that by loosening his grip on the story that Marcus was the enemy, Jack would change how he showed up. Less guarded and more collaborative.

That’s a leadership edge in business, regardless of the outcome.

When we enter conversations open and assuming positive intent, the other person often feels it, consciously or not.

It creates space for the energy to change and for the tone to soften, because defensiveness has less to push against.

This was Jack’s chance to notice when ego was driving the narrative and choose a more expansive way of reacting.

Not for Marcus. For Jack.

The quality of our leadership isn’t determined by how others treat us, but by how we choose to treat others.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Think of one person at work you currently feel tension with.

It could be subtle or obvious.

Then answer these three questions:

• What story am I telling myself about this person?

• What might I be missing because I’m looking through this lens?

• How is this story shaping the way I treat them?

Your Soul Business Action Step

For the next two weeks, run a simple experiment with this person in mind.

Instead of looking for red, look for blue. Look for evidence that challenges the story you’ve been telling yourself.

It might appear as:

• competence

• effort

• neutrality

• humanity

You’re not forcing a positive spin. You’re simply widening the lens.

Notice what shifts when you show up less guarded and more open.

This isn’t about the other person. It’s about the narrative you’ve been carrying, and who you can become when you set it down.

Rooting for you always,

Laurie

If this resonated, I’d be so grateful if you’d:

• hit the ♡ icon below

• tap the 💬 and share your thoughts

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At the end of our last session, Alison (who you met in Your Actions Are Your Answers) agreed to create a private website to house her paintings.

It was easy for Alison technically. The site would only be for the two of us. A place for Alison to gather her work and begin seeing it as real rather than something she kept tucked away as “just a hobby.”

Even though the idea of finding a way to showcase her art excited Alison, she admitted in our next session that she bought the domain name, chose a platform… and then stopped.

Alison said there was a big project she was tackling at work plus lots of activities with the kids, so she couldn’t get to the rest of the website action items.

I asked her a few questions:

• Had she spent time with friends? Yes.

• Watched the new season of The Traitors? Of course.

• Spent time on social media? We both knew that answer.

Alison had time. And she was far from lazy.

So what was actually stopping her from working on the website?

Alison admitted that every time she thought about writing the copy or uploading her paintings, she felt a wave of anxiety and nervousness and chose to do something else instead.

I asked Alison to finish this sentence:

“If I actually do this, then ______ might happen.”

Alison said that if she shared the website and people judged her or her work, she’d feel awful.

I told Alison that fear of being judged is one of the most common reasons we hold back from something we deeply want.

It often shows up as a limiting belief, a learned story about what will happen if we’re seen.

And there’s often more beneath the surface, so I asked if she had any fears about succeeding too.

After a long pause, Alison admitted there were a few questions she hadn’t let surface before:

Yup. Those were the real questions.

Alison’s procrastination wasn’t about avoiding the work. It was protection from expansion.

Since Alison and I both loved quotes, I reminded her of what Maryann Williamson said in her New York Times Bestseller, Return to Love:

I let that settle in, then suggested a quick game.

Without overthinking it, I asked Alison to complete this sentence:

“I wonder if I’ll ever…”

After a few quiet moments, she said, in this order:

• I wonder if I’ll ever be known as an artist.

• Get over my fear of putting my work out there.

• Have a career that fully lights me up.

• Be in a great place with Max as co-parents and ex-spouses.

• Make money from our app.

• Have my body look like it did before kids.

• Find love again.

Having worked closely with Alison, I knew she was driven by meaning and impact. That also makes her brain more sensitive to work that feels identity-defining.

When something carries emotional weight, resistance tends to show up louder.

I understood it immediately because I’m wired the exact same way.

Alison’s brain wasn’t trying to sabotage her.

It was doing what it’s designed to do, protecting her from the vulnerability of being fully seen outside her comfort zone.

That’s expansion resistance.

Unchecked, it looks like baking banana bread, reorganizing closets, and getting lost in low-priority work instead of uploading photos to a website that could change everything.

Resistance like this doesn’t just show up around art. It appears anytime we’re about to do something meaningful, uncomfortable, or identity-shifting.

When we’re supposed to have the difficult conversation, or work on the thing we said matters, the excuses sound reasonable. Responsible even. But that’s usually the moment to pause and notice what’s really happening.

I reminded Alison that in our last session she said if she could do it over again, she would have shared her paintings online and let that business grow quietly alongside her career.

This was her chance to become the version her future self would thank.

The next time she felt tempted to skip the website time we had blocked, I told her to ask one simple question:

At the end of the year, will I be proud I honored this, or disappointed I postponed it again?

Alison got it instantly when I shared that she knew how it felt when someone repeatedly rescheduled a meeting. Either they were disorganized, the meeting wasn’t a priority, or both.

We didn’t want her treating her own time blocks that way, because that’s how dreams get quietly demoted.

The Nervous System Trick

For Alison, this website wasn’t just a task. It was her saying out loud, “I am an artist.” And that felt vulnerable and risky.

So her brain did what brains do when identity is on the line. It tried to keep her safe.

I wanted Alison to see that the resistance wasn’t proof that she should wait until she felt ready.

It was proof she was standing at the edge of her comfort zone and on the other side was growth.

Ed Latimore once said that:

Rather than forcing the door opened, we softened the doorway.

I asked Alison:

“What would make this feel safe enough to begin?”

For Alison, that meant:

• Keeping the site private until she was ready

• Uploading only one painting to start

• Writing just the first paragraph for the home page

Alison knew that resistance might still show up, but I assured her that it would ease once she took the first step.

Because the truth is:

We don’t start acting because we’ve silenced the limiting belief.

We silence the limiting belief because we start acting.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Name one thing you’ve been procrastinating on that you genuinely want to do.

(Remember, procrastination often shows up as busy work. You keep finding reasons not to start.)

Without judging it, finish this sentence honestly about the thing you’re avoiding:

“If I actually do this, then ______ might happen.”

Then ask yourself:

Is my desire to make this happen bigger than my fear of failing or even succeeding?

If you get stuck, play the “I wonder if I’ll ever…” game without overthinking your answers.

Notice if what you’re procrastinating on shows up on your list.

Your Soul Business Action Step

Choose one small action that would make this feel safe enough to begin.

It’s okay to make the goal smaller.

Choose something that even your limiting belief can’t push back on.

Just one step that gently disproves the belief, such as:

• Opening the document and writing only the first sentence

• Sharing the idea with one trusted person

• Working on it for ten minutes and stopping on purpose (You can always increase the time later.)

If resistance returns, ask yourself:

At the end of the year, will I be proud I honored this, or disappointed I postponed it again?

You’re standing at the edge of the next version of you.

And edges always feel like resistance before they feel like momentum.

Keep honoring what matters most and trust your stride. You’re on your way.

Rooting for you always,
Laurie

P.S. I did my own Keep Stop Start (from the last newsletter) recently and made one small but important shift. Soul Business will now land every three weeks instead of twice a month so I can protect more space for writing the book. Thank you for being part of this journey with me. I can’t wait to share more from behind the scenes as it comes to life.

If this resonated, I’d be so grateful if you’d:

• hit the ♡ icon below

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I love the beginning of the year. It feels like anything is possible.

We tell ourselves this is the year we’ll finally follow through, make the changes, and do things differently.

And yet, it’s said that most New Year’s intentions fade within the first few weeks.

Why?

Because while our goals change, our habits don’t. Until we do something about them.

Studies suggest that much of our day is spent on autopilot, repeating the same thoughts, patterns, and behaviors.

Over time, those patterns quietly become our lives.

As leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author Robin Sharma says, “Each day is a microcosm of your life.”

And what we’re not changing, we’re unconsciously choosing.

That’s why, when Diane (who you met in the first newsletter) and I sat down to map out her goals for the year, we started with one of my favorite exercises, a simple but revealing way to see where her time and energy were actually being spent.

It’s designed to surface what I call filler habits.

Filler habits are the things we do because they feel reasonable, not because they move us forward.

They show up as managing tasks, answering endless emails, running errands, and putting out small fires while the work that actually matters gets pushed to tomorrow.

They don’t look like avoidance, but they quietly drain our time, energy, and momentum.

They can also show up in subtler ways, like scrolling, zoning out, or filling small pockets of time with distraction instead of intention.

Once you can see your filler habits clearly, you can decide what deserves to stay and what’s ready to go.

The Perfect Exercise to Kick Off a New Year

I asked Diane to start with a simple exercise.

Three lists.

KEEP: What still felt aligned and worth continuing, and why.

STOP: What was draining her energy or no longer serving her.

START: What she wanted more of in her life.

What emerged was incredibly telling.

As a busy operations executive and new mom, Diane’s Keep list was nearly three times as long as her Stop and Start lists.

Her Keep list was filled with responsibilities like carrying every aspect of her job, handling administrative work, staying on top of every detail at home, and being the reliable one everyone counted on. She was doing a lot and doing it well.

But at what cost?

When I asked Diane to look more closely at how much time these responsibilities actually took, she was surprised to see that nearly 20 percent of her workday was spent on administrative tasks. That’s almost two full hours every day.

Like many high performers, Diane didn’t mind doing the work. In fact, achieving everything on her own had become part of her identity.

She told herself it was easier to just handle things than to explain them to someone else. And even if she could delegate, she wasn’t sure it would be worth the time it took to train someone.

This is where so many of us get stuck.

I had Diane write why next to each item on her Keep list so she could quickly see that many of the things taking up her time weren’t actually moving her closer to her goals.

They were familiar. Comfortable. Habitual. Her filler habits.

Entrepreneur Dan Martell puts it simply:

“Most people spend time to save money. I encourage people to spend money to save time.”

Diane’s energy shifted when I shared a concept from Rory Vaden that has shaped how I think about growth.

Real progress doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from investing the time to train, delegate, or systematize the things that don’t require your unique skills. Over time, that decision compounds.

You are the CEO of your life and your career. If you want to scale, you’re going to need good resources. You earned them. You deserve them.

Diane and I got clear on what could be delegated, simplified, or automated. We talked through bringing in part-time support, transitioning responsibilities to others, and using tools that would free up bandwidth.

Not as an indulgence, but as a strategic choice.

We also named what deserved more space. Time to think. Time to recharge. Time to focus on the work that actually moved her toward her goals.

She didn’t need more discipline.

She didn’t need to try harder.

She needed to recognize the habits running on autopilot and replace them with ones that would carry her all the way to her goals.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Set aside a few quiet minutes and take an honest look at how you’re spending your days.

Then create the following three lists.

• KEEP: What are you currently doing that feels aligned and worth continuing? Be honest about why you want to keep doing these things.

• STOP: What is draining your energy or no longer serving you?

• START: What do you want more of in your life? What have you been postponing that wants to emerge?

As you work through your lists, pay close attention to where your time actually goes.

Many people are surprised to see how much of their day is spent on things they don’t truly enjoy or no longer need to be doing.

If the reason you’re keeping something is “I don’t have anyone else to do it” or “I guess I just have to,” pause and ask whether it’s serving who you want to become.

You may notice that parts of your Keep list really belong in Stop. That’s okay. You don’t have to change everything at once. Begin by moving those items over to your Stop list and simply notice how it feels.

Once you’ve done that, ask yourself:

• What could be delegated, automated, or simplified?

• What could be removed entirely?

• What deserves protected time on the calendar?

Many of my clients are surprised to discover how much time they can free up with small, intentional shifts. Not by doing more, but by doing less of what no longer fits.

Your Next Step

• Choose one or two items from your Start list and give them a place on your calendar. Treat that time the same way you would a meeting or commitment you wouldn’t cancel.

• Choose one or two items from your Stop list and decide what you can delegate, automate, or eliminate. Then make it happen.

• Set a reminder to revisit this exercise in 30 days.

  • Celebrate how far you’ve come and notice what still wants your attention.

  • See if you can add more Keeps to your calendar and delegate, automate, or eliminate more Stops.

This is how real change happens.

Not in dramatic overhauls, but in small, intentional choices made consistently over time.

And before you know it, the habits you’re building start to look a lot like the life you’ve been waiting to live.

Happy New Year,

Laurie

I remember the moment Alison and I realized we shared a very specific love language.

Quotes.

Not just any quotes, but the kind that stop you mid-scroll, putting words to something you forgot you knew.

We bonded over this one in particular:

It made us laugh.

And then it made us pause.

Not because it applied to romance, although maybe there too…

But because it perfectly captured how we were treating some of our biggest dreams.

Keeping them just close enough to feel them, but safely out of reach.

Hoping they might still come true without ever fully looking at them.

Alison was Max’s co-founder and soon-to-be ex-wife, whom I mentioned in the last newsletter. She was a creative powerhouse who could build a brand from nothing but instinct and color palettes.

Her mind worked in imagery, texture, and feeling. But over the last few years, her role had shifted from creative director to operations lead, and I could feel how restricting and soul-draining that box had become for her.

In our most recent session, Alison casually mentioned something that carried far more meaning than she realized.

Max had the kids for the weekend, so she planned to use the uninterrupted time to catch up on taxes.

Instead, she painted.

For two full days.

I reminded Alison of something she shared during our intake session.

When she was young, she wanted to be a painter. She let go of that dream in college because she didn’t believe she could turn it into a career.

I told Alison that after decades of coaching everyone from students to senior executives, including myself again and again, there’s one thing I know for sure.

Our actions are our answers.

And often our non-actions are too.

The things we find time for even when we are busy.

The things we keep avoiding even though we know how much they matter.

The dreams we protect by keeping them private and untouched.

I asked Alison one of my favorite coaching questions. It’s deceptively simple but rooted in how we access clarity when we step outside the pressure of the present moment.

Ever the creative realist, Alison said she would still have focused on graphic design and marketing. She loved those chapters. And she absolutely would have started the business with Max. There was no better business school than building something of their own.

But then Alison paused.

She admitted she would have painted on the side. Shared her work. Sold it online. Let it grow quietly alongside her career.

When I asked what stopped her back then, Alison said what so many of us say.

I told Alison there was nothing stopping her now. In fact, she had a better chance of success today because of her experience in business, branding, and storytelling.

I watched the resistance return almost instantly.

There definitely wasn’t enough time now, given the divorce and the possibility of selling the business. Alison was certain of it.

And yet, she had just spent two full days painting.

It’s interesting how we protect what we love in private.

And insist there’s no time to bring it into the light.

We are creatures of habit. Research shows that much of our day is driven by patterns we repeat automatically.

Even wanting something and believing it’s out of reach can become a habit.

But life has a way of circling us back to ourselves.

And Alison’s answers were telling a different story.

I suggested that maybe the timing had never been wrong.

Maybe Alison had been gathering the exact skills she needed to return to the dream when the moment was right.

Alison admitted the hardest part of her job now was that it didn’t use an ounce of her creativity. She missed having a project. She missed feeling lit up.

So I suggested she “flirt” with her artistry.

Just a little.

Build a simple website to showcase her paintings. Nothing public. Nothing promotional. Something only she and I would see for now.

A micro-step. A gentle toe in the water.

Still a little hesitant, I offered Alison one more quote, a favorite from the actress Josie Bassett:

How can you deny a quote like that?

Alison surrendered. She knew it was time to listen to what her actions had been telling her all along.

Perhaps it’s your time now too.

It would be a beautiful way to welcome the new year.

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

If your actions and non-actions this year were trying to tell you something about what you want, and what you no longer want, in 2026, what would they say?

Write down:

• What you kept doing even when you said you didn’t have time

• What you avoided even though, deep down, it mattered

• What you would go back and do in your career knowing what you know now

• What you would stop doing knowing what you know now

Then ask yourself:

• What truth is hiding inside these patterns?

• What direction are they pointing you toward next year?

Remember, resistance is not always a red light.

Sometimes it’s the feeling of standing at the edge of a dream that’s trying to grow you.

Your Soul Business Action Step

Write down one thing you want to do more of in 2026 because it pulls at you, scares you a little, or feels like the thing you would do for free. The thing you wish you had started years ago.

Create one micro-step toward it.

Put it in your calendar.

Honor it.

You are growing into your next chapter one small action at a time.

I’ll be taking the last two weeks of the year off and hope you are giving yourself a little extra space to rest and reflect as we close out 2025.

I’ll be back on January 4th with one of my favorite ways to kick off a new year.

I’m so grateful for the time we’ve spent together and for the love and feedback you’ve shared around this newsletter.

I’m excited for everything we’ll co-create in 2026. It’s going to be a magical year.

Happy holidays,

Laurie

I started working with Max when he and his co-founder and wife Alison were exploring whether to sell their business after deciding to divorce.

It’s no surprise that Max spent much of the year in the kind of limbo that follows a major life shake-up.

Decision fatigue had settled in, and he found himself questioning choices from the past while struggling to see a clear path forward.

The months were filled with spreadsheets, negotiations, therapy sessions, lawyers, endless “what if” scenarios, and the quiet fear of making another choice that might end painfully.

With only one month left in the year, Max was still unsure of his next step. Sell the company? Shift roles? Buy each other out? Walk away entirely?

No decision felt clean. And no outcome felt obvious.

Since we were nearing the end of the year, I suggested we try a timeline version of a year-end review to help Max gain clarity.

Impressively self-reflective, Max normally enjoyed coaching exercises, but I could see from his tired eyes that looking back on one of his hardest years wasn’t appealing.

I promised him we would keep it short and only focus on the highs and the lows, using whatever surfaced as data rather than drama.

Here’s why:

Psychologists have found that when we externalize a year onto paper, the highs, the lows, the pivots, and the almost moments the brain shifts from emotional processing into observational mode. We stop reliving the moments and start studying them.

This small shift is what allows patterns, truth, and clarity to reveal themselves.

Max agreed, so I had him draw a horizontal line across a piece of paper with January on the left and December on the right.

I asked him to write down the moments that stood out as highs or lows and told him to start anywhere and let the rest follow.

Once he began, the memories surfaced with surprising speed.

🌟 Climbing into the press box

When Max finished, I shared something I once heard about football, which was yet another sports analogy I knew nothing about.

During games, there is always a coach in the press box, because viewing the entire field from above reveals patterns and tendencies that the sideline cannot see.

This exercise was Max’s chance to climb into the press box of his own life.

🌟 What we learned

A low: realizing that selling the company would mean gathering years of messy documents, and fielding interest from buyers who never felt quite right. It drained his energy.

A high: the surprising relief he felt when the most promising buyer backed out at the last minute. Max had been telling himself he should feel disappointed, but the truth was right there on the page. The relief became his data.

Another high: pitching the company during the exploratory phase. He felt energized, proud, and connected to the purpose that started the company in the first place.

As Max stepped back, a clear pattern began to emerge.

Every low was tied to forcing a direction that wasn’t aligned.

Every high was tied to expansion, clarity, and relief.

Max had been trying to make selling the company feel like the right answer because it seemed to make the most sense.

But the highs and lows were telling him something else.

Maybe they could run the business together in a new partnership that lived past their marriage. Maybe Max would find a path to buy Alison’s share of the business.

Those answers would come soon enough, but one truth had just revealed itself.

Max was not ready to sell the business.

Knowing that gave him the clarity to take the next step of sharing what he’d uncovered with Alison.

His year, while still challenging, had become part of the solution.

The past is not there to show us what we did wrong. It is the runway and the roadmap for what comes next.

✨ Your Soul Business Year-End Review

1. Draw a line across a page. Mark January on the left and December on the right. Keep it to this year only.

2. Add at least three highs above the line and at least three lows below it. Trust your intuition on what rises to the surface first. You don’t need to go in chronological order.

3. Ask yourself:

• What made the highs feel high?

• What made the lows feel low?

• Where do I see patterns of energy, relief, clarity, or resistance?

• What is this year trying to teach me about who I am becoming?

4. Let those patterns guide your goals for 2026.

Choose goals that honor what expanded you rather than what you believe you should want.

This exercise is not about reliving the past.

It is about revealing the messages your year has been offering all along.

✨ Soul Business Action Step

• Choose an insight from your timeline or a goal that emerged.

• Write a small step that moves you closer to what expanded you

• Then write one that moves you farther from what drained you.

These become your first aligned shifts for 2026.

Rooting for you all the way,

Laurie

If you’ve just been laid off, think it might be coming, or are secretly wishing something would force the change that you’re too scared to make, this is for you.

Losing a job can feel like the floor falling out from under you, but it can also be the moment a new path becomes possible.

I met my client Jeni a few days after she was laid off from her job when the company did a major workforce reduction. Jeni was twenty-eight and had built her whole identity around being an overachiever-people pleaser who always got the gold star.

She was the president of everything in high school and college. She took furious notes in our shared Google doc while we were meeting, and sent me calendar invites before I even finished speaking.

Jeni didn’t just like being good at her job. She needed to be good at her job because it validated her worth.

The layoff had Jeni convinced that something was wrong with her. She feared that no one would ever hire her again. She kept replaying every meeting and every mistake. Her confidence was in shambles.

I reminded Jeni of something I’ve witnessed firsthand in my career. More than forty percent of the people I have interviewed over the years were fired or laid off at some point. Many of my clients hire people in every department, including the C-suite, who have been terminated from a previous role.

It happens.

And it is often the catalyst to the change you’ve been unconsciously waiting for.

I was able to pause Jeni’s anxiety long enough to help her see her layoff for what it truly was. A chance to allow life to do what life does best, which is provoke us to evolve.

This job loss was giving Jeni the chance to take everything she’d learned from her career up until this point and determine what she wanted to do next.

Jeni’s job needed to evolve along with Jeni, and life had just given her the perfect opportunity to usher in the next chapter.

I asked Jeni a set of questions to help her gain some much-needed career clarity.

• What did you like and dislike about your previous roles?

• What are your strengths and superpowers?

• What do people always come to you for?

• What gives you energy and what drains it?

• What do you read, watch, and follow in your spare time?

• If you could choose any career knowing what you know now, what would it be and why?

Once Jeni’s nerves were calm, she realized that her last role in events hadn’t been the perfect fit. The job before that had exposed her to HR and she had loved that part of the work.

Jeni told me she wished she had stayed on the HR track and feared that it was too late to start over.

At twenty-eight, I told Jeni I had sweatshirts older than her.

But I also told Jeni something I learned through my own career evolution.

We never really start over. Each role teaches us something. Every season builds on the next, adding valuable skills and experience.

When it’s time to leave, we’re not walking away. We’re walking toward a path that will appear when we are ready.

As we dug deeper, Jeni realized that she liked the work she had done in HR but not the industry she was in. She loved the industry at her last job but not the work.

Now she had the chance to find the right role in the right place.

That is not starting over. That’s stepping into alignment.

Once Jeni felt a tiny spark of possibility, we created a plan. She would treat her search like a job. Not scrolling job boards and hoping for the best, but reaching out to everyone she knew, asking for introductions, attending events, setting up coffee meetings, and even offering pro bono help and volunteering while she capitalized on severance and unemployment.

Taking action creates momentum.

By the end of that week, Jeni harnessed all of her high-achiever gold-star energy and sent thirty networking emails and already had a handful of meetings lined up. That’s Soul Business.

Losing her job was not the end of Jeni’s story. And it isn’t yours either. It is the moment you get to write your next chapter. Make it a good one. ✨

Your Soul Business Journal Prompt

Whether you’ve lost your job, fear you might, or secretly hope you do one day, ask yourself:

If this job loss is not a failure but a redirection, what could it be redirecting me toward?

Then write down the answers to these questions:

• What have I loved most in my career?

• What would I do for free?

• What dreams have I carried for as long as I can remember?

• What would I choose to do if I knew I could not fail?

Let yourself name the paths you have been curious about and the possibilities you have not allowed yourself to consider until now.

Your Soul Business Action Step

Reach out to three people this week whose careers you admire. Let them know you are exploring what is next and ask them for their advice, not a job.

This is the beauty of networking. It shows you that you’re not stuck, that others have stood exactly where you are and found their way through, and that you are never, ever alone.

Rooting for you all the way,

Laurie

P.S. If you have career or business questions you’d love answered, send me a message. I’ll share responses on social media or weave them into upcoming newsletters.

I have a client named Jack whose eyes glaze over anytime he thinks I’m going too “woo.”

We’ve been working together for more than five years and are a bit of an unlikely pair. Jack is a whip-smart, introverted engineer who runs his department at a fast-growing startup.

On the other hand, I’m a self-proclaimed yappy golden retriever who would be lost without AI and YouTube to show me how to do anything technical.

Most of our work focuses on leadership and communication, so I usually keep the “woo” to a minimum.

But last week, Jack shared that his team was considering a major product pivot, and he wasn’t sure if it was the right move.

After we walked through the data, projections, and strategic implications, I decided to try a different approach.

Instead of staying in his head, I asked Jack to tune into his body, which of course had him sneering at me through the computer screen.

I asked him to notice what happened when he imagined saying yes to the pivot. Did his chest tighten or loosen? Did his body clench or feel calm?

Once Jack got over judging my question and out of his brilliant brain, he realized that while his mind was nervous, his body was oddly relaxed.

That was the tell.

Psychologists call this a threshold moment, when identity and readiness finally catch up to opportunity, allowing you to step forward with surprising steadiness.

Research on the gut-brain axis and interoceptive awareness shows that the body often registers truth before the mind does.

That “odd calm” before a big leap isn’t confusion. It’s your intuition signaling to your nervous system that you’re in alignment, not in danger.

While Jack might still call it “woo,” more than 60% of leaders say they rely on intuition when making major business decisions.

Even billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson calls it one of his most valuable tools.

Jack decided to move ahead with the product pivot, and it’s going well. As brilliant as he is, he’s learning that clarity isn’t something you just think your way into. It’s also something you feel.

And that’s intuition.

✨ Your Soul Business Prompts

Intuition speaks in sensations, not sentences. Try these journal prompts to help you tune in:

• Think of moments in your day that feel like flow and ease. What do they have in common emotionally or physically?

• Now imagine two paths in front of you, one that drains you and one that energizes you. What do you feel in your body when you picture each path?

• Write down the sensations that stand out.

  ---

✨ Your Soul Business Action Step

Choose one decision, big or small, and let your body make the call.

Before deciding, take three slow breaths and notice:

When I imagine saying yes…

• Does my body feel open, grounded, or quietly energized?

• Do I feel a sense of curiosity or calm anticipation?

• Does my breath deepen and my posture relax?

When I imagine saying no…

• Does my body tighten or pull back?

• Do I feel drained, heavy, or relieved?

• Does my energy drop or my breath become shallow?

1. If the feeling is expansive, even with nerves, it’s likely a growth yes.

2. If it feels constrictive or depleting, that’s an intuitive no asking you to pause.

3. Repeat this once a day for a week and notice how quickly your intuition becomes easier to recognize.

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Until next time ~ rooting for you all the way,

Laurie

✨ P.S. This week, we’re diving into the power of intuition to guide confident career and business decisions. Follow the new series on Instagram.

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I have a theory…

That if all of the amazing people I’ve worked with over the years found their version of the spotlight, that allowed more people to witness their goodness and feed off their energy, the world would be a better place.

I always thought about writing an article called The Rise of the Good Guy, but changed my mind because… why should guys have all the fun?

Instead, I decided to launch this Soul Business newsletter…

Aimed at sharing what I’ve learned from 15+ years running HR & Operations for industry leaders in Media, Tech, Health, and Beauty and the playbook I’ve created from nearly a decade as a business and career coach to the most exciting and innovative rising stars, executives and CEOs across all industries.

I should probably admit that Soul Business is also the name of my book proposal that’s with some amazing agents right now… exciting! It’s a how-to book that reads like fiction, blending storytelling, psychology, intuition, and strategy to guide readers back to their inner compass and the work they’re meant to evolve into.

Like the book, this newsletter will share fictionalized stories inspired by real coaching sessions.

Along with practical methods to help you grow in your life and career, shine a little brighter (because we need good to get louder), and amplify your impact.

This first issue is longer than usual, because I wanted to introduce myself and the newsletter. Each edition going forward will offer:

• a story, a reflection prompt, and a micro-step you can try, because you and your career deserve both vision and action.

If this isn’t your thing, no pressure. Unsubscribe at the bottom and I won’t even know. But if you’re ready to explore what’s possible, I hope you’ll stick around and check out the first newsletter below aimed to help you polish your shine. ✨

When Good Gets Loud: Breaking Free from the Permission Trap

This morning I’m writing to you from my backyard, where hummingbirds dart in and out of the lavender. The pool is still, the mountains in the distance feel steady, and for a moment the world is quiet.

Of course, I know it hasn’t been a soft or peaceful time for many of us. The world feels noisy, uncertain, and often heavy.

And yet, watching those hummingbirds, I’m reminded how often beauty and chaos live side by side. One doesn’t cancel out the other.

Maybe it’s designed this way, because we need the contrast. It’s certainly true in business. For everything we love about our jobs and careers, there’s always something missing, challenging us, or holding us back.

For my client Diane, she loved the company she worked for and her leadership role in Operations, but I’d heard Diane say more than once that she often felt overlooked by her manager and peers. Diane thought it was because her role didn’t directly generate revenue and she lacked the business development flash of her colleagues, who got all of the attention.

Because of this, Diane often held back even when she had ideas worth sharing. Diane was quick to blame her manager and peers for keeping her silent. But as we dug in, she admitted it wasn’t the first time she had felt this way.

Diane was caught in what psychologists call a “permission trap.”

She was waiting for the perfect conditions or for someone else to hand her the microphone.

And she’s not alone: research shows that 50% of employees stay silent at work even when they have something important to contribute, often out of fear that their input won’t be valued.

Waiting for the perfect condition keeps us safe, but that also keeps us small. What we really need is to believe in our value and give ourselves the permission that we’ve been waiting for from others.

I wanted to give Diane a quick and effective way to combat the permission trap, so I suggested that the next time she feels the urge to stay silent Diane can quickly remind herself of:

• One way that her voice brought value and…

• One time that her manager respected her input.

This practice is rooted in cognitive reframing, a well-documented psychology tool that helps us interrupt negative self-talk by finding evidence for our worth rather than against it.

We later added one of my favorite practices…

WWOD

Because Oprah is one of my sheros, when I’m about to talk myself out of saying or doing something because of fear, I ask myself – What Would Oprah Do (WWOD). For some of my clients it’s Steve Jobs or a great athlete, whose name I can never remember.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from my clients is that even the ones with top-rated podcasts, massive social media followers, or publicly traded companies still feel the fear.

They know that silence and inaction cost more than courage ever could. They look for evidence that their voice matters. They ask what courage would do, and they use the answer as their compass.

Social contagion research shows that when one person demonstrates courage, it often inspires others to do the same. By stepping forward, Diane will see that she isn’t just reclaiming her own voice—she is giving others permission to do the same. That’s the power of when good gets loud. We all reap the benefits.

Your Soul Business Prompt This Week

Ask yourself:

1. Where in my life or career have I been waiting for permission to take up space?

2. Is there a pattern I keep bumping into that leaves me feeling small or unseen?

3. What’s one place I can step forward, even if conditions aren’t perfect?

Then pick one of these to try this week:

• List three ways your voice adds value. Keep it nearby and read it anytime that self-doubt creeps in.

• Create a mantra that anchors your worth (e.g., “My perspective matters, and my contribution creates impact”).

• Choose one action you can take this week to get a little louder.

Until next time ~ rooting for you all the way,

Laurie

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I know that age is just a number. Depending on the day, I can feel anywhere from 18 to 80.

But turning 50 got me nostalgic enough to rummage through my old photo albums. I stopped when I found pictures of myself just after my 25th birthday.

The photos were easy to identify because one month after I turned 25… I got married.

I kept going back to this one picture of myself at my rehearsal dinner. I was sitting at the head table, wearing a cream-colored suit dress, drinking Coors Light right out of the bottle.

I felt endeared to the girl in that picture. I wanted to sit next to her, maybe even open a bottle of Coors Light, and hear what she had to say.

More than anything though, I wondered what I would tell her if given the chance.

I can still see myself in her eyes and smile, but there is so much more I know today, 25 years later.

25 years… they went by so fast.

So, I decided to write a letter to that girl in the photo - to my 25-year-old self.

This is what I said:

You are at the beginning of such a beautiful journey. There will be unbelievable highs and devastating lows.

I wish I could protect you from the latter, but it’s a package deal and the only way I’ve found to ever truly grow.

Don’t be afraid to take risks. Don’t shy away from change when you know in your heart it’s for the best.

Staying where you are doesn’t do anyone any favors if it’s time to go.

Remember that at the end of your marriage, when you move to California.
And remember it again when you leave a great job to start your own company.

Don’t hold back from anything, ever. Let life have its way with you.

Get messy. Make mistakes.

Share yourself. All the sides.

Tell the truth in a loving, intentional, non-ego way.

Don’t be a victim. Don’t be a hero. Just show up as you. Every second of every day.

Trust, trust, trust. You are so much safer than you know. And exactly where you are supposed to be right now, yesterday and tomorrow.

Dream big. Love bigger. Cry hard. Laugh louder. Give more. Eat better.

Exercise, journal, practice gratitude, meditate and spend as much time as you can in nature. It’s the fastest way I’ve learned to figure your stuff out.

Listen to your heart. Trust the breadcrumbs. Stop waiting until it’s perfect. If it feels good in your bones, it’s right, even if it scares the daylights out of you.

If you’d do it for free, find a way to make it your career. Try as many jobs as it takes and don’t stop until it feels right.

You’re going to keep evolving. That means making changes to your career. It’s okay to have more than one… or two… or seven.

It’s never too late and it’s always possible.

Remember that everyone is on their own path. Be kind to them and don’t judge. You’ll always have enough on your own sidewalk.

Stop looking at everyone else’s and just send them love. We’re all different and we’re all the same. At any given moment, everyone is doing the best they can.

Let relationships come and go, friendships, romances, anything.

People won’t always stay in your life, but the imprint they make on your heart is forever. That’s what counts.

When someone dies, look for the signs that they sprinkle on your path to let you know that they’re still with you and cheering you on from a much comfier seat.

No matter where you go, the challenges you face, the leaps you take, and the crazy decisions you make…

I’ll be waiting just a little farther down the road, happy, fulfilled, and oh so grateful that you never gave up and you never gave in.

Laurie