Sourcebooks

Toxic Grit - How to have it all and (actually) love what you have 
COMING OCTOBER 21, 2025!

Author

Be Clear Communications

We help progressive organizations and their leaders build robust digital presences that reflect their values, elevate their message, and reach the audiences who matter most.

Advisor

Anonymous

Chief Marketing Officer

🧩 Life’s a Game, HLG Projects

Marketing Consultant, Brand Builder, Creator and Author of Life's A Game: An anti-hustle newsletter about building a life on your terms. Personal and professional growth tips and frameworks delivered every Thursday at 8am.

Founder

The Post

Brought on by board as Fractional CMO to grow and scale The Post: the leading community for Leaders: Built By Sport.

Shaklee Corporation

Consulting with the global leader in health & wellness supplements working on innovation & partnerships and go to market positioning of new products.

VP of Marketing - Consultant

House of Wise

Empowering women to take control of their SLEEP, SEX, STRESS and STRENGTH with trusted CBD products.

Founder, CEO

Nue Life Health

4 month contract as fractional CMO to help with brand and marketing strategy.

Teal

6 month contract to help with positioning, team building and go to market strategy.

The Knot Worldwide

Following the December 2018 merger of XO Group Inc. and WeddingWire: We are The Knot Worldwide. With the mission of helping all couples around the world plan every aspect of their unique weddings, The Knot Worldwide is positioned to innovate and accelerate growth in the global wedding industry through The Knot, WeddingWire, bodas.net, and its family of leading wedding and lifestyle brands across the globe. The Knot Worldwide will deliver leading wedding marketplaces, wedding websites, planning tools, registry services and more to over 20 million unique visitors each month internationally through our brands. We're excited for all that is ahead for our brands, our couples, and our partners.

VP of Marketing

Amanda Goetz is a 2x founder, 3x CMO, brand builder and content creator on personal and professional growth and brand building, inspiring over 150,000 people every week through her social insights and weekly newsletter, 🧩 Life's A Game.

Amanda Goetz, was the founder and visionary behind House of Wise, a wellness company focused on creating space for more sleep, hotter sex and less stress. She started House of Wise during the pandemic in her garage, raised two rounds of venture capital and sold it in 2022 all while homeschooling three young children as a single mom.  

Born and raised in a single traffic light Midwest farm town, Amanda is a first generation college grad. Her dad is the town plumber & electrician. A self proclaimed over-achiever, Amanda worked three jobs in college while maintaining a 3.9 GPA and graduating early. 

Fast forward to 2017. Amanda found herself in NYC with 3 children under the age of 5 and navigating a divorce at the height of her career. Living life by a societally-approved checklist of success left her nearly broken. She spent the next 6 years unlearning hustle culture and learning a new way to approach her ambitious life. 

Amanda was the former head of brand for The Knot - the global leader in weddings. Previously, Goetz served as a startup founder building availability software for the wedding industry after spending years analyzing companies for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year program. She also worked for celebrity wedding planner David Tutera as Head of Marketing developing the go-to market strategy for his brands, licensing deals and client partners.

She has built an audience of over 150,000 in the startup and business community learning to live a life of ambition and success without subscribing to today’s hustle culture. She launched a newsletter called 🧩 Life’s a Game with Amanda Goetz to help high performers learn actionable tips for living a life of intention.        

Amanda’s been featured on Access Hollywood, The Skinny Confidential, Forbes, Business Insider and more.

Amanda Goetz

I stopped bringing my whole self to work. 
And I stopped bringing my work self to home. Let me explain…..

The work version of me is assertive, cares about deadlines, financial security and being at the top. 

The home version of me is silly, soft and cares about being the best mom and caregiver possible. 

Those two versions of me don’t often see eye to eye and yet we are constantly being told to find “alignment”. 

My book is about how alignment isn’t always possible. 

It’s about:
- awareness of the character that’s leading
- prioritization 
- focus on their character’s goals 
- timeline for how long you wjlm focus 
- transition sequences to the next character 

Check out my latest op ed for The Wall Street Journal in the link below. 

And if you struggle to make space for all the diverse versions of yourself - grab a copy of Toxic Grit now!

USA TODAY Bestselling Author of Toxic Grit | 2x Founder (acquired) 5x CMO | Mom x3 | Keynote Speaker | Subscribe ➡️ 🧩 Life’s a Game Newsletter

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Popping on to say this: for every day I spend offline during this post book tour spin cycle….

the more ideas start flowing. 
the less anxiety I feel about the algorithm. 
the more clarity I have about 2026. 

If you never stop to pause and look up, you might miss the beauty of the changing landscapes on the climb.

I'm creatively tapped after my book tour so I'm running a spin cycle. 
If you are feeling the same.....steal this below 👇

Story time....I've spent the two years: 
- writing a best selling book 
- publishing a weekly newsletter for almost 80k people
- conducting interviews for the Girlboss podcast - Ambition 2.0

In Toxic Grit, I talk about “spin cycles” as intentional seasons where you wring out the heaviness that’s built up....... the pressure, the stimulation, the expectations, the constant output.

It's not quitting.
It's not laziness.

It is maintenance.

A spin cycle is a defined period of time where you reduce your RPM so you can keep going without burning out.

Here’s what my current spin cycle looks like:

1. Lower the creative bar
No “big” new projects. I’m focused on maintenance mode only: my FT CMO role and my weekly newsletter. Everything else is being held until next year. 

2. Shift from output to intake
I’m reading more, listening to conversations, and paying attention to what’s landing with people instead of trying to force new ideas. 

3. Tighten my containers
Shorter work blocks, hard stops in the evenings, more white space on the calendar. The constraint is what gives my brain room to reset. 

(and resisting the urge to use that white space for scrolling)

4. Name what can wait
I have a literal list called “Not right now” for every fun, shiny idea that pops into my head. It goes there, not on my actual plate.

5. Redefine “progress”
During a spin cycle, progress is: rested brain, clear thoughts, regulated nervous system. 

Save this for the next time you feel tapped out and ask yourself:
What would a 2–4 week spin cycle look like for me?

What can I pause, simplify, or say no to so I can actually keep going?

This is the path to sustainable ambition.

The number one complaint from employees I talk to? Lack of context + micromanaging. 

I've been silently working in a full time CMO position since July and I can't wait to share more about it soon. 

But I wanted to share the operating rhythm that I have used for 10+ years to increase context and agency across the functions of marketing. 

EVERY WEEK: 

Monday: Async priorities 

I send out an async email called "managing up monday"
This email does 2 things: 
- everyone replies with their 2 main areas of focus for the week so we know where everyone's brains are at
- allows everyone to update the dashboard with previous week's metrics

Tuesdays: 1:1s and team chat 

All of our weekly meetings happen on the same day to get aligned for the week. Since we already know what people are focused on we can use this time to either remove roadblocks or brainstorm ideas. 

Wednesdays: Hallway chat

Now that we are moving and groovin' for the week we use 1 hour on Wednesday for a "sync'd Slack hour". This mimics the hallway chat where you casually ask for the updates and things you need from someone. 

By doing this in Slack at the same time you ensure everyone gets a prompt answer AND everyone gets line of sight into other things moving forward. 

Thursdays & Fridays are open for deep work and closing out the week. 

Thoughts?! 
What do you find that works for your team?

So excited for this event!! If you are in NYC - please come by for this powerhouse event with Girlboss and Her Workplace 

See you December 15th!

✨ NYC, we’re ending 2025 with a moment. ✨

​Join Her Workplace and Girlboss on December 15th for an intimate fireside chat with Amanda Goetz—2x founder, 4x CMO, and author of Toxic Grit—as we explore how to balance drive with joy, ambition with alignment, and growth with grace.

🎤 Redefine ambition without the burnout
📚 First guests receive a signed copy of Toxic Grit
🤝 Connect with women rewriting the rules of success
🍷 Sip Juliet Wine & enjoy an evening powered by Blu Dot

Close the year in a room that fills your cup and your ambition. 💛

Register here—https://lnkd.in/eYU9Xs6V

Toxic Grit isn’t a success just because I worked hard. (I mean, I did work hard but that wouldn't have gotten it to best seller status alone....)

It’s a success because people showed up for me.

Friends who posted the book without me asking.
Podcast hosts who invited me on before they read a single word.
Former coworkers who introduced me to the right editors or hosted events at their companies.
And yes....I had to actually put myself out there and ask for help.


Me asking for help on LinkedIn.
But here's the thing...

Most of the help didn't come from cold networking connections.

These were people I've kept in touch with for years.

People who I have checked in with when I didn’t need anything. I sent voice memos when I saw they were going through something. I celebrated their wins like they were mine.

So when it was finally my turn to ask?

The trust was already there.

A lot of people get networking wrong.

Even the word itself feels transactional. “Be in my network” is just code for: “I’ll contact you when I need something.”

But community?
That’s different.

Community is built when you show up before it’s convenient. It's when you give without tracking what you’re getting back. It's when we remember that humans aren’t LinkedIn headshots...…they’re living, breathing, emotional beings (likely going through their own shit).

I believe it’s more important than ever to have a community of people supporting you through the ups and downs and life yet it’s harder than ever in this current social media landscape.

And to all of those who have been that to me along the way....as I found myself a single mom of 3 kids under the age of 4....as I found myself moving to a new city with no friends or family....or as I shifted careers....

....I'm so thankful for you.

Today's newsletter goes into how I think about networking and doing it differently. 

Read it here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ebw89dUw

graphical user interface, text, application, email

Being a CMO of a new brand launching in Q1 while planning a wedding on a book tour. 

AMA. 

🫣

I took a week off from posting after the first leg of my book tour wrapped and I have to be honest.....I am creatively zapped. 

Every time I go to post something, my brain just......fizzles. 

Is anyone else feeling this way?

My portfolio career Black Friday wish list.....

1. Wish = Less time on social media 
Must have ➡️ Taplio 
30% off today!! 

I barely log into LinkedIn these days because I schedule all my content on 
Taplio. Use code BF30 at checkout! 

2. Wish = Less time in email & scheduling 
Must have ➡️ An EA 

I use Athena EA for my services. Get $2000 off your EA using my link below. 

3. Wish = More time back for other parts of your life 
Must have = USA Today Bestseller ➡️ Toxic Grit: How to have it all and (actually) love what you have

I wrote this book to share all the systems I use to juggle work, life and everything in between. On sale today!!

This week on Ambition 2.0: we sit down with Erika Ayers Badan, former CEO of Barstool Sports, current CEO of Food52, bestselling author of Nobody Cares About Your Career, and all-around master of building a career entirely on her own terms. 

Erika shares candid stories from her time leading one of the most controversial (and successful) media companies in the world, what she’s learned about managing men and underdogs, how to stay emotionally regulated at work, and why she advocates for not bringing your whole self to work (compartmentalization can actually enhance your authenticity). 

🎙️ Listen to Ambition 2.0 here: https://lnkd.in/gsrfr7cC 
💻 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gGTD-pT4 

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and let us know your biggest takeaway (there's lots!) ✍️🙂‍↕️ 

Amanda Goetz

Play Big Careers

Play BIG is a leadership and career development consultancy that helps high-agency leaders and teams trade reactivity for presence so they reconnect with their value, lead with energetic intelligence and build cultures of trust, ownership and clarity.

Because playing BIG isn’t about doing more, it’s about showing up differently, leading with grounded confidence, aligned action and the kind of presence that shifts the room.

Whether you're navigating a career transition, ready to fully step into your current role or an intentional leader who wants to build a team culture where people think, speak and lead together, without the heaviness of traditional training, let’s talk.

Through 1:1 coaching, group programmes, workshops and talks, we work with mid-to-senior leaders who are done going through the motions and ready to lead with:

1) Relational intelligence – Building trust that starts with self-trust
2) Emotional awareness – Sensing what’s beneath the surface and naming it with courage
3) Energetic intelligence – Leading from presence, not pressure
4) Systemic thinking – Seeing the dynamics, not just the individuals

Because leadership isn’t just about strategy.
It’s about how you show up, what you embody and the space you create around you.

For more details email me at hello@playbig.careers

Founder & Coach

Lead In Public

Building a community of curious startup leaders that prioritise the human side of leadership. Those looking to strengthen their toolkit so that they can raise standards, innovate, and build psychologically safe and high-performing environments.

Co-Founder

Bags

Set up & led the Client Success & Customer Operations function: Recruited and led a team, aligning customer success strategies with organisational goals, setting up key systems and processes, managing a $100,000+ deal pipeline and supporting over 500 entrepreneurs through partnership programs.

Head of Client Success & Customer Ops

Head of Customer Acquisition & Success

I set up the Launchpad function. Hired and led a team to partner with wellness creators with over 1.5M combined followers, launching 4 digital products in 3 months, cumulatively achieving 6 figure sales. I developed the end-to-end product launch process. Integrating customer feedback loops from discovery to GTM, reducing product development cycles to less than 2 months for faster validation and continuous improvement.

Head of Launchpad

Accenture Song

Partnered with FTSE 100 companies and global brands to facilitate over 40 workshops, run strategic initiatives and lead cross-functional teams across social impact, health, sustainability and financial services.

Growth & Experience Strategy Manager

Experience Strategy Consultant

Rondah

Partnered with Monzo’s former Chief of Staff to build Rondah, focusing on digital product creation with Latin American creators. Responsible for managing and delivering the programs, successfully launching 2 digital products in 3 months with a wellness creator, generating over $80,000 in sales.

Head of Creator Success & Delivery

Accenture Interactive

Combining design thinking methods and processes to deliver high quality briefs, business propositions and solutions to our clients centered around the user and customer experience.

Innovation Consulting Analyst

Princes Trust

5 teams participated and we were 1 out of the 2 teams that successfully completed the Prince's Trust Annual Million Makers Challenge. Chair of a team of 7 analysts participating in the challenge. Prince's Trust is a charity which helps young people aged 13-30 into training, education and employment. The Million Makers competition is a fundraising competition whereby each teams take £1,500 given by the Princes’ Trust and turn it into at least £10,000 in 6 months.

Chair, Accenture Million Makers initiative

L'Oréal

Marketing Intern Maybelline NY

Arise and Shine NGO

Devised a new strategy to increase community involvement and financial accessibility in self sustainability projects. Delivered a report based on analysing field work activities and opportunities for development.

Volunteer

Mexican Trade and Cultural Office

Intern

I help mid-career professionals stop overthinking and decide on their next career move with clarity & confidence 🤸🏼‍♀️ | Combining strategic actions with mind & body awareness for lasting change | Ready to get unstuck?

There’s nothing more painful than watching brilliant people play small.

Not because they lack skill. But because they’ve disconnected from their power.

From their voice. Their presence. Their worth.

They’re in roles they’ve outgrown, leading on autopilot or second-guessing their next move while trying to keep up the appearance of confidence.

And underneath it all?

That quiet knowing:
I’m meant for more than this.

I work with high-agency professionals and leaders who are done waiting. Done performing. Done dimming themselves to fit outdated moulds of leadership or career “success.”

Through 1:1 coaching, group programmes and team workshops, I help them reconnect with their value, lead with presence and build careers and cultures rooted in clarity, trust and alignment.

Because your next chapter isn’t about doing more.
It’s about showing up differently.

--
Over the last 10+ years, I’ve worked across 30+ global brands (like L’Oréal, GSK and Vodafone), led multi-million-pound initiatives and coached leaders, founders and high-achieving professionals to step into their next level not by grinding harder but by aligning deeper.

I’ve helped:

→ Corporate leaders get promoted into roles that reflect their truth, not just their CV
→ Startup founders and creators position themselves for visibility, sales and expansion
→ Team leads create cultures of ownership, not overwhelm
→ Professionals launch aligned businesses from a place of clarity and self-trust

No matter the context, one thing is true:

You don’t need to earn your next opportunity. You need to embody it.

--
My coaching and workshops are rooted in my Play Big framework: a system built around the 5 dimensions of aligned career growth:

1) Genius & Contribution
2) Strategic Visibility
3) Relationships & Reputation
4) Openness & Presence
5) Aligned Positioning

This is deep work, not just about moving up, but about moving inward to lead from a place that’s real.

Because when you lead with energetic intelligence and truth?

You become the tuning fork of trust, clarity and impact everywhere you go.

For the professionals at a crossroads.
For the leaders who want to inspire, not just manage.
For the humans who are done playing small.

It’s time to get off autopilot.
To stop proving, and start leading.
To play big, not from pressure, but from presence.

Let’s build your next chapter, on your terms.

👋 DM me to connect
🤸 Subscribe to my newsletter, Play BIG, for bi-weekly insights [link in featured section]
📩 Reach out at hello@playbig.careers to explore coaching or team facilitation

Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️

How I turned my 9–5 into a career ecosystem that finally felt like me:

Most people build careers like ladders.
I did too.

Consulting → Startups → The next “right move.”

Always climbing, hoping the next step 
would finally feel right.

But paths are narrow.

And I’ve never been just one thing.

So instead of searching for the perfect role,
I started creating space for the full range of who I am.

That’s when everything began to change.

I stopped building a career path
and started building a career ecosystem.

A living mix of work, learning, creativity and rest,
that grows and rebalances with me through every season.

When I was in consulting, that looked like:

✨ starting sustainability, coding & infographics clubs
✨ joining the women's football club
✨ doing online MBAs

In startups, it looked like:

🎙 launching a podcast
📝 taking a writing course
💌 co-creating a newsletter with someone I met online
🥂 hosting dinners for women who wanted deeper conversations

I didn’t know it then
but each piece was part of the same design:

→ An ecosystem that made room for my full aliveness.

And that’s what I help people build now.

Because most 9–5ers aren’t unfulfilled because they’re in the wrong job, they’re unfulfilled because one part of their ecosystem is undernourished.

So before you plan your next big move, try looking at your ecosystem through these 7 lenses:

1️⃣ Core work: your main role/ primary source of income
2️⃣ Experiments: side projects, creative tests
3️⃣ Learning: new skills, mentors, perspectives
4️⃣ Relationships: community, connection, collaboration
5️⃣ Regeneration: rest, wellbeing, nervous system care
6️⃣ Legacy & Contribution: impact and service beyond yourself
7️⃣ Financial Foundations: money management, income diversity, future planning

Then, take a few minutes to notice:

→  Which areas feel full?
→  Which ones feel forgotten?

That’s where your next moves are waiting.

📆 And if you want to make space to design your own career ecosystem, join my free workshop next Wednesday on Nov 19 at 6PM GMT / 1PM EST.

We’ll map your ecosystem together and help you make your next aligned move, without burning out or abandoning yourself in the process. 

🔗  Link in the comments to sign up.

Career change coach | I help you turn 9–5 stagnation into an abundant ecosystem of fulfilling work, income & expression, without starting over | Host of Board Walks London | Community: Play Big Space

I thought being prepared would make me confident. Turns out, it just made me afraid to not know.

For most of my life, I felt like I had to be of value to be worthy. And that meant having the answers.

No surprise that my first job was in consulting 😅

Luckily, I've come a long way and I'm still doing the work.

But I was reminded of this recently in a session with a client who told me she felt the need to overprepare for every talk or panel, doing endless research to make sure she could answer every possible question.

Now, I’m a BIG believer in preparation.

The kind that comes from love of the craft, from care, from wanting to serve well. Preparation can be an act of devotion, a way of saying, “This matters to me.”

But there’s a difference between 
preparing from care and preparing from fear.

When the drive to be ready comes from a sense of inadequacy, from that subtle pressure to be perfect, something in us disconnects.

We stop being with ourselves and start performing who we think we should be.

The one with all the answers.
The competent one.
The perfect one.

But in trying so hard to become “enough,” we lose the very things that make us magnetic.

The quirks that make you, you.
The stories only you can tell.
The imperfections that make you human.
The wisdom that only comes from lived experience.

The moments that create genuine connection.

When we perform for safety, we trade authenticity for approval and reinforce the belief: “I’m only safe when I know everything.”

But what if safety isn’t found in knowing all the answers…
but in staying connected to yourself when you don’t?

I’ve been testing this theory.

And here’s what I’m learning:

Freedom comes when you can say, “I don’t know AND I’m still worthy.”

That’s when the shame of not knowing begins to dissolve.

That’s when you rediscover the quiet confidence that doesn’t need to prove itself.

As a recovering over-preparer, I can tell you:

it’s so much lighter to just show up as me, not to impress, but to be in relationship with whatever’s here.

And to trust that the right people will resonate with that.

The ones who don’t? 
They were never your people to begin with.

Because the deepest kind of worthiness isn’t earned through performance, it’s remembered through presence.

→ What part of you still believes you need to know it all to be safe?

→ Could you turn toward that part with a little compassion today?

🔔 Follow me Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️ for stories & practices to help you make bigger, aligned career moves with confidence and conviction.

I have a library of 100+ exercises I use with my coaching clients. This is the one almost everyone chokes on:

Owning and articulating their unique value.

That's why we cover this in the beginning because if you can't name what you're great at, you can't choose your next move with any real conviction.

You can’t make grounded decisions from a blurred identity.

And the moment people finally see their value?

Everything sharpens.

Clients say things like:

“I finally recognise strengths I couldn’t see before.”
“I’ve rebuilt the confidence I thought I lost.”
“I can actually talk about what I do with clarity.”
“I feel credible, capable, ready.”

When that happens, two things shift:

1) Their self-perception expands
2) Their voice returns

And suddenly, decisions that felt impossible become obvious.

So what blocks people from owning their value?

Honestly… it's not a skills problem.
It's a self-protection problem.

You try to conform, to sound "right," to speak in the language everyone else uses... You shape-shift, dilute your voice, dim your light.

And then you wonder why nothing is gaining traction.

But clarity doesn't come from conformity.

It comes from recognising the exact way you think, build, lead, create. 
The stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into a template.
The stuff you’ve been taught to tone down.

Your job isn’t to replicate what already exists.
Your job is to reveal what only you can do.

Because when you hide your difference,
the world never meets your depth.

So ask yourself:

→ Where am I sounding like everyone else in my career story?
→ And what would shift if I highlighted what's uniquely mine?

--

If you're in a season of confusion about what comes next and you want to reconnect with your value, your direction and the version of you that's ready for a new chapter…

Join my free workshop today: Figure out your next career move with courage & confidence

📅 Wednesday, Nov 19
⏰ 6 PM GMT / 1 PM EST
🔗 Sign-up link in the comments

It'll be a grounded space to reconnect with yourself and take the next step with confidence.

Career change coach | I help you make your next career move with confidence by building the internal capacity and clarity you need to create a fulfilling ecosystem of work | Host of Board Walks London & Play Big Space

When a workshop participant said this exercise opened possibilities for her career and her soul, I knew I had to share it with you:

Last Wednesday in my workshop, people had huge aha moments, not because they finally “figured out” their career…

…but because they finally saw where their energy naturally wants to go vs. where their current career structure is keeping them.

For the first time, they weren’t looking at their career as a single path or title, but as a living ecosystem: a mix of work, creativity, learning, rest, contribution and income that evolves with them.

And when you see your entire career ecosystem, things click:

✓ You understand why you feel stretched thin
✓ You see which parts of you are starved of expression
✓ You realise the misalignment isn’t “you,” it’s the imbalance

For example:
 
→ When regeneration: rest, play, wellbeing, is starved, your nervous system slips into survival mode.

And in survival mode, everything feels wrong: your job, your direction, your confidence.

Here’s what attendees said after mapping their own ecosystems:

→  “The ecosystem exercise helped me see the 360° view of my career: multi-faceted, interconnected and with co-existing lanes I hadn’t noticed.”

→  “You opened up possibilities for me, not just in terms of career, but where my soul can expand. I’ve been wanting to do my Ikigai for days. With your 7 lanes, I can now see it in a deeper, more intentional way.”

→  "The exercise made me realize how much I didn't take care of my regeneration and connection lately!"

This is why mapping your ecosystem matters.
It helps you answer the questions that actually create clarity:

→ What matters most in this season?
→ What needs to be front-burner?
→ What gets to be “enough” for now?
→ What wants to grow next?

When you see your ecosystem clearly, you stop:

→ second-guessing yourself
→ shaming yourself for not doing more
→ trying to be everything at once

…and you start making decisions with calm, clarity and authorship.

This is where momentum begins, not with a leap, but with truth.

📩  If you want the exact ecosystem exercise we used in the workshop, just comment “ecosystem” or DM me and I’ll send it your way.

Last night reminded me why it’s never truly about chasing numbers. 


Confession: I’ve always been a “less is more” type of person.

In elementary school, I had two close friends. In high school, I left the “popular” group for a circle of two. In university, maybe five close friends.

You see the pattern 😌

So now, as I build an online community, Play Big Space, I sometimes catch myself feeling “behind” because my community isn’t in the thousands (or hundreds!).

But what I come back to is that depth matters more to me than breadth.

Play Big Space is intentionally invite-only for now because creating a space where people feel safe enough to be witnessed requires careful attention to who's in the room.

I prioritise creating the conditions where people feel:

→ safe to bring their whole self
→ seen beyond their CV
→ heard without having to perform
→ challenged without being judged
→ understood without being fixed
→ encouraged to expand beyond their 9-5

Where we don't all agree but we lead with curiosity and compassion.

And yesterday, 4 members joined for our first in-person dinner. I wrote personalised cards for each person, created connection prompts and let the rest unfold naturally.

We laughed, we listened, we challenged, we witnessed one another without trying to fix or solve.

And it reminded me:

We get to define the pace, the container, the size of what we’re building. You don’t need a community of thousands, you just need a community that feels true for you.
 
Enough for me is bringing open, kindhearted humans together for conversations that connect rather than separate.

A space where people can see themselves more clearly through others.

Where the humanity of their struggles and the beauty in their scars can be held with care.

→ What’s one question you’d bring to open a real conversation?

Follow me Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️ for stories & practices to break out of career stagnation and make bigger, more aligned moves with confidence and conviction.

Most people don't get stuck in career transitions because of confusion. They get stuck because:

a part of them doesn't feel safe to want what they actually want.

Here's what that looked like for one of my clients.

When she came to me, she’d been growing her personal brand, speaking at events, getting noticed.

From the outside, everything looked aligned.
But inside, something felt off.

She told me:

“I’m most excited about building my personal brand right now but is that because it’s truly aligned or just because it feels easier than the other option?”

(This level of honesty is what creates transformation, it’s the moment you stop abandoning yourself)

Through our sessions, she saw that what was blocking her wasn’t clarity, it was safety.

Because when the body doesn’t feel safe, even the most aligned ideas can’t take root.

So we focused on rebuilding that safety from within, through small, low-stakes experiments that give her real proof of alignment:

1️⃣ Listening before fixing
She’s slowing down to notice when her body opens up vs. shuts down, catching those moments when she’d usually override herself to keep the peace.

2️⃣ Gathering evidence, not opinions
She’s committed to posting weekly about a topic she’s curious about, not to prove anything, but to feel what’s aligned through experience, not theory.

3️⃣ Trusting connection over control
In panels and webinars, she’s time-boxing prep and trusting her lived experience instead of trying to have every answer.

That’s it.
That’s the work.
Not deciding faster.

But learning to stay with yourself long enough to feel what’s true.

Because clarity doesn’t come from more thinking.

It comes from being more honest with yourself and having the courage to act on it.

--

If you're caught between paths, overthinking your next move, this is the work I do with clients, helping you move:

From analysis → alignment
From performance → presence
From “I should” → “I choose”

If that’s what you’re ready for, join my upcoming free workshop: 

Figure out your next career move with courage & confidence.

📅 Wednesday, Nov 17
🕐 6:30 PM GMT / 1:30 PM EST
💻 Live on Zoom

In 90 minutes, you’ll replace confusion with grounded clarity. Walking away with a map of what’s keeping you stuck, where your energy actually wants to go and how to build career momentum for 2026.

🎟️ Learn more here → https://luma.com/8m4pqh9e

🔔  Follow me Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️ for stories & practices to help you make bigger, aligned career moves with confidence and conviction.

The question isn't "Should I leave my job?"
It's "Do I have a way to hear what's true for me?"

Most professionals don't stay stuck 
because they lack options.

They stay stuck because 
they've lost contact with themselves.

Here's the pattern:

People try to make big decisions without a baseline of truth.

They don't know what their body needs, what their heart wants, what actually matters in this season or what gifts feel most alive.

So the mind loops forever, trying to think its way to an answer it can only feel.

You know how it goes:

Monday: "I need to leave."
Wednesday: "Maybe I'm being dramatic."
Friday: "I'll give it six more months."
Sunday: "I can't do this anymore."

The exhaustion isn't from the job.

It's from holding an unanswered question in your body for months.

What actually works?

→ Shift the question entirely.

Instead of building a career path, 
build a career ecosystem.

Because often the answer isn't "leave" or "stay."
It's rebalance.

And to rebalance, you first test your current role against these four dimensions:

→ 1. NEEDS: What you require to thrive
Not what sounds reasonable. What your system actually needs.

Does this role give you the autonomy, growth or psychological safety you need to function well?

→ 2. STRENGTHS: The problems you're built to solve
Not skills on your CV. The work that makes you come alive.

Are you using your natural strengths or getting stuck in mundane admin?

→ 3. VISION: What you actually desire
Not what would look good on LinkedIn. What you actually want.

When you imagine staying another year, does your body expand or contract?

→ 4. VALUES: What matters most right now
Not your values in theory. Your values in this season.

Maybe money mattered most five years ago. Maybe right now, it's spaciousness.

When you reconnect with these four dimensions,
the decision often becomes clear on its own.

Alignment doesn’t mean everything feels easy.

It means your yeses and nos are honest
and your career has room for all of who you are.

So instead of asking: “Should I leave?”
try asking: “How does this fit within my larger ecosystem?”

That’s where truth lives 
and clarity follows.

Want to go deeper?

📆  Join my free workshop Wednesday, Nov 19, 6 PM GMT / 1 PM EST. Learn how to design a career ecosystem that expands with you and make career moves rooted in truth, not fear.

🔗 Secure your spot: https://luma.com/8m4pqh9e

Most of us are sourcing power from career identities we didn't choose. 
That's identity lag.

For years, I wore labels that were handed to me:

"The responsible one"
"The doer"
"The one who has it together"

They worked...
until they didn't.

Lately, I'm seeing the same pattern with clients:

They have the skills, the vision, the track record.

But something keeps them small.

It's not imposter syndrome.
It's identity lag.

They're still operating from roles that kept them safe, 
not true.

A client who works in consulting told me that he wants to shift from "dependable contributor" to "trusted builder and orchestrator."

He can see the role he wants.
He knows he can do it.

But every time he steps toward it, his old identity pulls him back into execution, not leadership.

Here's what I'm learning:

There are 3 layers of identity:

1. Borrowed identities.

The parts of you that learnt which roles earn safety and belonging
→ They work hard to keep you accepted but their power depends on who’s watching.

2. Chosen identities.

Truth, values, aliveness you claim
→ They give you sourced power because they come from within.

3. Beneath both: I am.

→ The presence that doesn’t need a label to be enough.

The shift happens when you stop asking:

→ "What identity will keep me safe?"

And start asking:

→ "What identity feels true to source my next move?"

Because you can't build a new ecosystem from an old identity.

When the borrowed identity runs the show,
you’ll keep choosing safety over aliveness.

When the chosen identity leads,
opportunities reorganise around your truth.

So ask yourself: Which identity are you willing to let go of to expand into what’s calling you?

- -

If you're ready to do this work: to expand your identity and design a career ecosystem that grows with you, join my free workshop next Wednesday, Nov 19, 6 PM GMT / 1 PM EST.

We'll explore who you're becoming and what your ecosystem needs to support that emergence.

🔗 Link in the comments.

These are the 3 shifts that helped my client find career clarity in just two coaching sessions:

(She’s now interviewing for a role that actually aligns with her strengths + interests)

Before we get into it, let me clear something up:

You don’t need months to get career clarity, 
You need honesty, courage and the right mirror.

When my client came to me, she’d been exhausted and anxious by a role she’d quietly outgrown. She was trapped in the familiar loop so many mid-career professionals know:

“Should I stay?”
“Should I go?”
“Why can’t I figure this out?”

But after two sessions, she told me:

“I have so much more clarity about my direction, I feel calmer (even my partner noticed) and I actually feel confident in my uniqueness and what I bring."

Now, she’s interviewing for a role that actually fits her, not from panic, but from grounded self-trust.

Here’s 3 things that shifted:

1️⃣ She saw the truth about what wasn’t working

For months her body had been signalling: This no longer fits. The dread, the tight chest, the spiralling thoughts.

Those weren’t problems.
They were information.

But after running some experiments she realised the truth: “I’ve outgrown this,” and her system started to soften.

2️⃣ She reconnected with her signature energy and strengths

Through my reflection exercises and her actions, she realised what differentiates her as a marketer:

She’s a strategist, a connector, someone who creates momentum with quiet confidence.

Once she saw it, her confidence, voice and presence shifted. Not because she “fixed” anything but because she stopped arguing with her truth.

3️⃣ She released the identity keeping her stuck 

She’d been clinging to a job title she’d already outgrown. When we worked through my identity expansion process, her perspective widened and, no surprise, opportunities started appearing that matched her new clarity.

--

This is what happens when you stop pretending the old shape still fits.

Clarity doesn’t come from forcing an answer.

It comes from:

→ noticing what’s outgrown
→ telling the truth about it
→ reconnecting with what’s uniquely yours
→ letting yourself imagine what’s next

So let me ask you: What are you still trying to fit into even though you’ve clearly outgrown it? And what might become possible if you gave yourself permission to expand?

If you want support finding career clarity from the inside out, my newsletter is where I share the practices and frameworks that help you make bigger, more aligned career moves with calm, confidence and conviction. 

Join us here: https://lnkd.in/eaBnb7Mf

→ Which shift resonates most? 1, 2 or 3?

I didn't expect a brand expert who's worked with Gary Vee and Alex Hormozi to give such great career advice:

Caleb Ralston was asked on a podcast: "What percentage of people actually have clarity in their business?"

His answer: "Next to none."
Just sit with that.

The people you admire most, the ones who seem so decisive?

They're making it up as they go 🙃 

And if you feel like you're the only one 
improvising in your career… you're not.

I work with mid-career professionals every day: VPs, directors, managers... and they ALL feel it too.

Yet everyone thinks they're the only one 
who doesn't have it figured out.

→ And this confusion peaks when you’ve quietly outgrown the version of you that built your success…

but don’t yet feel safe expanding into who you are at your core. 

Your highest Self that’s always been there, patiently waiting to lead.

And a part of you whispers: "Everyone else knows what they're doing. I'm the only one stuck."

This lie keeps people paralysed.

But the leaders who seem most decisive haven't found certainty.

→ They've built capacity.

Capacity is your ability to stay present and take action EVEN WHEN you don't have all the answers.

It looks like:

→ Staying grounded when you don't know yet
→ Recognising and embodying your values
→ Having simple frameworks to test what's true for you 
→ Running small career experiments instead of high-stakes leaps

You don't need a perfect map for your career. 
You need a direction you trust enough to walk toward.

Because clarity doesn't come from more thinking.

It comes from regulating your nervous system so uncertainty doesn't trigger paralysis, then taking small, grounded steps over and over until what's aligned becomes obvious.

That's how you build the strength and trust to make bigger moves without freezing.

If you want to learn to dance with uncertainty instead of being paralysed by it, join my newsletter where I share practices and stories on finding career clarity from the inside out, so you can make bigger, braver, more aligned moves without burning anything down.

📩  Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eaBnb7Mf

Every career decision you make comes from one of two states: Protection or exploration.

And which one you're in determines everything: 

how you lead, what opportunities you see, 
whether you play small or step forward.

1/ Protection mode

This is your body saying, “Not safe yet.”

Your system senses threat (real or imagined).
You tighten, control, defend.
You disconnect from yourself and others.

And from that place, you can’t see new possibilities.
You’re too busy protecting yourself from perceived danger.

2/ Exploration mode

This is your body saying, “We’re ok, let’s play.”

Your system feels safe.
You open, stay curious and present.
You can hold discomfort without collapsing or controlling it.

This is where grounded influence lives. 

It’s what allows you to have hard conversations without armour, make decisions without urgency and create from vision instead of fear.

The problem isn’t dropping into protection,  
it’s staying there far longer than you need to.

Because what your body perceives as unsafe might simply be:

➡️ More visibility at work
➡️ Moving toward the unknown 
➡️ Receiving feedback
➡️ Speaking up

So the work isn’t to always stay in exploration mode.

It's to notice when you’ve dropped into protection
and regulate your way back to openness, presence and choice.

Because the real work of navigating career change & expansion isn’t staying regulated when things are calm. 

It’s knowing how to return to presence when they’re not.

That’s how you build emotional range.

That’s how you rebuild self-trust
not because you have all the answers,
but because your nervous system can hold it.

P.S. If you want a simple regulation practice, check out the comments

🔔 Follow me Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️ for stories and practices to break out of career stagnation and make bigger, more aligned moves with confidence and conviction.

This is when self-care becomes harmful:


Since September, I’ve hosted 8 Board Walks and ~140 people have joined the Meetup group.

We walk 10k+ steps through some of the most beautiful parts of London.

These walks are not a fitness event or casual chat.

It’s a walking think tank.

A space to explore life’s big questions together.

On last Saturday's walk, we explored the quiet forces that shape how we live: triggers, masks, the loss of curiosity, the rise of hyper-individualism and how often our choices are built on shoulds rather than truth.

We asked:

→ Why have we become so self-protective that 
we’ve forgotten how to be with each other?
→ Why does connection feel harder?
→Why does commitment feel fragile?

And one theme that stayed with me was how we’ve shifted from a communal orientation to an individualistic obsession.

So much of the wellbeing narrative tells us to:

Protect yourself
Prioritise yourself
Optimise yourself
Guard your energy

But when we over-correct, we stop seeing the other person altogether.

We forget that connection isn’t built on perfect conditions, it’s built on presence.

We’ve created lives so centred on self-maintenance that we’ve forgotten the gift of shared experience.

→ Movies watched together
→ Moments compromised for the sake of togetherness
→ The joy of belonging, not just curating our own micro-universes

We’ve mistaken self-care for self-centredness. And then we wonder why we feel lonely.

We suffer not because life is hard
but because we’ve forgotten how to be with ourselves and others without conditions.

To be with discomfort.
With difference.
With uncertainty.
With another person without asking: “What do I gain?”

So this week, just notice...

Where can you go out of your way to serve someone else, not for recognition, not for reward, but simply for the quiet beauty of shared humanity?

That’s what I’m coming back to.

--

🔗 And if you're in London and want to join us on a walk, here's the link to sign up: https://lnkd.in/eepkyvw4

What's love got to do with building a successful career? Brad Jacobs showed me that it's more than you think.

Jacobs, who has built not one, but multiple billion-dollar companies, opens his book with a simple idea:

→ Love is one of the most useful emotional states in business.

He says it this way: 

"Love gets your brain in the right place to make good decisions.

Fast-paced business environments swing between ups and downs. Love is an expansive emotional state that allows you to neutralize conflict and get everyone to a better place."

So imagine this:
 
in the first chapter of a book called "How to Make a Few Billion Dollars," he chooses to open with love and nervous system regulation.

And I'm obviously here for it 😅 

Because what Brad is pointing to is that when you're under pressure, your system does one of two things: it contracts or it opens.

When it contracts, you get tunnel vision:

→ You overcorrect
→ You choose safety instead of truth
→ Your options shrink

When it opens, clarity comes back:

→ You can see choices again
→ You respond instead of react
→ You stay curious instead of defensive

Jacobs has a surprisingly simple practice for staying open:

When he feels tension in a meeting, he pauses and reconnects to the love he felt at his daughter's wedding.

He lets that feeling settle his system before he responds.

From the outside, it looks like calm leadership.
On the inside, it's just regulation.

And here’s why this matters for your career:

→ You can’t make good decisions from a contracted state

A fearful nervous system narrows your world.

But when your system is open, when you’re in a state that feels like love, this is what becomes possible:

→ Your options expand
→ Your vision sharpens
→ Your intuition comes back online
→ Aligned moves feel obvious instead of impossible

So, what’s one decision you can make today from love instead of fear?

P.S. I broke down these career lessons from Jacobs in this week’s newsletter.

Sign up here if you want to read it: https://lnkd.in/eaBnb7Mf 

🔔 Follow me Cristina Espinal 🤸‍♀️ for stories and practices to break out of career stagnation from the inside-out so you can make bigger, more aligned moves with confidence and conviction.

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