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

Kate Minogue Advisory

- Part-time product leadership in Consumer and Ad Tech companies (or GM in Product-led orgs).
- Connecting the dots between data and AI capabilities, customer needs and behaviours and industry trends to deliver impactful strategies for growth and success.
- AI advisory for business leaders to drive transformational impact.
- Product Innovation sprints for large multinationals that want to incubate big bets for future growth.

Fractional CPO/General Manager and AI Advisor

-Advisory work with SMEs from Start-up to Scale-up in contract and fractional capacity
-Providing expert guidance and oversight on Data Driven Growth strategies
-Auditing processes, operations and GTM strategies in various industries including Adtech/Martech, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), Consumer Technology, App to capitalise on scaling opportunities.
- Supporting Executives, Founders and leadership teams in maximising their usage of Data for decision-making as an advantage.
- Providing domain expertise and market foresight for roadmapping

Fractional CxO, Advisor and Consultant

MOVE Ireland

Vice Chair Board of Directors

Board Trustee, Risk Officer and member of Strategic Planning Commitee

Non Executive Director / Board Trustee

SoundBoard

SoundBoard is a coaching and advisory community for ambitious, commercial professionals who want to own and accelerate their career trajectory.

SoundBoard Advisor

By Rotation

Angel Investor

frekkel

Provide advisory support and oversight to ensure a successful Beta period to deliver insights for next stages of development.

Product and Strategy Advisor

Fractional Chief Product Officer for Skincare Startup Frekkel.

I took the product from 0 to 1 taking a very early idea and translating it into a product roadmap, partnership strategy and launch ready MVP.

Owned the vendor selection for product development and oversaw the partnership from contract negotiations to full project management, tech selection, feedback and iterations.

Partnered with the CEO and founder to define product direction and strategy combining Data and AI capabilities with consumer insight and industry/business model expertise.

Instrumental in positioning the startup and future plans for attracting new partners and investment.

Ownership of Consumer value, AI enablement, product-market-fit and monetisation.

Chief Product Officer

AI Advisor

Head of Marketing Science, App EMEA

Lead the Marketing Science Team and strategy for Gaming industry in EMEA.  We support advertisers in growing their businesses through best in class use of Data and Science for marketing.

-Cross-team, Global Strategy development for key industry challenges.
-C-Level engagement on future proofing their businesses
-People management and development for team of senior consultants
-Industry thought leadership across range of topics
- Lead the Signals Task Force for Marketing Science EMEA in partnership with other functions (Product, Product Marketing, Sales, Solutions Engineering) and regions to build a response to changes in data sharing rules and availability. This included Server-to-Server solution roll out and adoption, development of new performance best practices for the platform, Measurement methodology innovation exploration projects and SKAN understanding and education.

Head of Marketing Science, Gaming & Signals Lead EMEA

Marketing Science Manager, Gaming & Ads Ranking Performance Lead EMEA

Marketing Science Partner, Gaming EMEA

Bank of Ireland

Manage the Data Science team within Customer Analytics, insights and marketing including a number of both remote and local data scientists.

Developed a performance analytics function to sit alongside existing strategic and business analytics, statistical modelling and machine learning verticals within the team. Championed a strong measurement culture within the department through focus on testing methodology, attribution modelling and accurate sales and campaign reporting as well as cross functional collaboration. 

Delivered customer focused strategic segmentation project to underpin marketing and analytics activity.  Acted in a Product Management capacity to consider end-to-end requirements of this project to deliver customer value across channels and touchpoints. 

Instrumental in building out data science roadmap and priorities for the Group.

Data Science Manager

Data Scientist within the Advanced Analytics component of the Customer Analytics, Insights and Marketing Department.

Responsible for end to end management of the propensity modelling function including the coordination of a team of four offshore modelling analysts. Project prioritisation, validation of all models and translation to campaign are among my primary roles within the team. Consistently introduce and encourage new approaches (modelling, machine learning, feature engineering, documentation) to ensure model and analysis output is of high quality and impact.

Partner with Base Management, Marketing and Campaign Execution teams to optimise sales performance across digital, retail and outbound calling channels. Instrumental in bringing campaigns straight through from insight into action employing a combination of statistical modelling, machine learning, customer profiling and strategic analysis as well as collaboration with product and sales teams.

Additional tools: SAS modeller, Tableau

Senior Data Scientist

PADDYPOWER

Lead Analyst in the Online Customer Intelligence Team primarily focused on predictive analytics. Managed predictive modelling projects as well as training and mentoring junior analysts within the team. 

As well as development of models and extensive customer analytics heavily involved in automation and model deployment projects with Business Intelligence Team.

Positioned as a company expert in Predictive Analytics, regularly attend meetings with Senior Management regarding existing suite of models, future projects and model deployment processes.

Regularly deliver tactical pieces leveraging predictive models, segmentations as well as mobile and web data.

Lead Customer Intelligence Analyst

Senior Analyst in the Predictive Modelling vertical of the Customer Intelligence Team. Responsible for the development of predictive models and creation of baselines for different areas of the online business. Positioned as part of an internal consulting team which provides insights and analysis to the Sportsbook and Gaming P&Ls and the Online Marketing Group and regularly identifies opportunities for new strategies or improvement in existing processes. 

My team and I work closely with other areas of Customer Intelligence including Campaign, Acquisition and Web Analytics as well as having extensive interaction with Business intelligence and reporting teams to find automated solutions and create repeatable and robust deployment of models.

Actively involved in the recruitment and subsequent training of analysts in different areas of the Customer Intelligence Team.

Additional tools- KNIME, Qlikview

Senior Predictive Modelling Analyst

Within Customer Intelligence Team in Paddypower.com. Responsible for development, deployment and reporting of propensity and segmentation models for the UK and Ireland online business, primarily eGaming channels such as Games, Live Casino and Bingo as well as Sportsbook. Also completed a great deal of adhoc analysis for the different P&Ls including budget and forecast analysis.

While in this role completed a short rotation to the Customer R&D group in the Quants team under the risk department. Here similar models were developed but on a larger scale and for a wider range of stakeholders in the business. Also gained exposure to the risk side of the company and learned about the development of large scale pricing and sports models.

Modelling Executive

BMO Nesbitt Burns

Account Transfers Analyst

Quantum Recruitment, Toronto

Held various temporary clerical roles including a 3 month contract as Executive Receptionist for Deloitte.

Temporary Admin Contractor

AI Product and Operations leader.

Helping business leaders turn AI overwhelm into confident, strategic decisions | Enrolment now open for The AI Leadership Lab (Digital course) 

Fractional CxO and advisor to Consumer Tech and Ad Tech startups and scaleups. Working with businesses and leaders to turn ideas into reality and execute strategies for excellent results.

Data and AI strategy consultant for businesses of all sizes driving holistic whole-company approaches to data and its role. Passionate about the potential of data for good in business and society and ensuring data, strategy and people are always discussed together.

Website: kate-minogue.com
Find me on Medium: @kminoguem 

Executive MBA with focus on Strategy, Leadership and Global Business. Certified in AI Product Management. 

-- Are you an early stage founder with an idea centred on data or AI but unsure about how to best move forward to build something that is truly great for customers?

-- Do you have the product and foundations in place but need advice on industry positioning or building a resilient operation with data at the core of your internal or external opportunity?

-- Are you a leader that sees their company strategy breaking down with how data is used, positioned or how decisions are made throughout your organisation?

Reach out on kminoguem (at) gmail.com to see if I can support!


Topics of interest: 
Effective Decision Making | Data for Good | Business Innovation | Strategy Execution | Female Founders | Data Science and AI | Operational Efficiencies | Customer Intelligence | Marketing Effectiveness | Consumer Technology | Growth | Corporate and Competitive Strategy |  Organisational Transformation | Ethics in AI, ML| Leadership | Management | Diversity & Inclusion | Mental Health |

Famous quotes you will hear me use frequently:

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts” (Attribution unclear)

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing" (Stephen Covey)

Kate Minogue

I’m happy to share that I’ve obtained a new certification: Recognising and Responding to Technology-Facilitated Abuse from University College Cork!

GM Consumer Tech | AI, Strategy & Product Leadership | ex-Meta | MBA & MSc | Board Director

What a lovely delivery!!

I’m very excited to start a book shelf of authors I know personally and these two are great additions, beside Tony Evans of course.

Amanda Goetz has written something very special in “Toxic Grit” for those of us that don’t want to have to choose our ambition with a side of burnout. 

Sairam Sundaresan I’ve already spoken about how important “AI for the rest of us” will be but my little quote on the back cover is there for anyone that wants to hear it again.

I’ll never not be thankful to LinkedIn for connecting me with such inspiring and intellectually generous people.

Trust and truth are more important than ever.

I started my Web Summit 2025 with two talks at centre stage. 

This event is so big it can be overwhelming so I’m singularly focused on the intersection between Consumer Tech and AI.

From both I got that same lesson- whatever we are building in tech from now on we need to put a premium on trust and truth - because our customers are.

The talks?

1. Who owns the news?

A fireside chat with traditional media giants Time Magazine and The Independent. While I’m not in the business of news, it is still a perfect canary in the coal mine of what users fear in the era of AI.

2. Max Tegmarck (of course) and the 95% of AI.

Max presents an optimistic alternative of AI progress centred around what people want and what the vast majority of tech can achieve without us giving away control. Within that he sees a paradoxical role for AI in “truthfinding”. 

Any suggestions for what I should see or who I should meet on the topic of consumer AI?

Human dignity and shared benefit - those are the AI themes I took from this mornings talks.

1. Forging a fair digital future: AI, data and consumer empowerment. 

Europe gets a lot of scrutiny for its regulation-first approach so it was great to see this talk anchored in human rights and ethics. I loved the positioning of human dignity as being at the core of our right to be forgotten not just in a traditional database context but also in terms of AI memory. It really is about considering how we can empower rather than exploit our consumers because it’s the right thing to do not just because of the law.

2. The innovation inequality paradox.

Technology and innovation offer the possibility of equality and shared economic benefit but that is rarely the reality. We are seeing AI success further concentrate wealth among a small few and there is the possibility that marginalised groups as well as the global south be left behind. The solutions offered here were two fold: be a doer and focus on community. Bias is everywhere but building for your context in that can be an advantage if you don’t leave it to others to fix.

While women still get so so so little funding that only tells part of the story. Women are innovating, leading and bringing others along with them. 

How do you think about the “for people” messages here in the context of AI?

When Emma invited me to be part of her gorgeous “A Love Letter to Leadership” series, I was eager to take part.

It was an opportunity for me to personally reflect on what leadership means to me but also to wrangle with the journey it has taken for me to arrive at that meaning.

Not every company, culture or community will share your definition of what good leadership looks like- despite what LinkedIn thought leaders might have you believe.

Define it for yourself.

Learn from the good and the bad of what you’ve experienced (and even done!).

And either find a place that values your version or carve it out where you are.

Founder @Walker&Co | Enablement Consultant | ACC Coach | Speaker

If you meet Kate Minogue, you can't help but feel her energy, warmth, and humour makes her incredibly likeable and relatable. When reading her Love Letter to Leadership, it all starts to make sense. 

This week, we’re featuring the brilliant Kate Minogue, who challenges the old idea that leaders have to be flawless experts.

Kate makes a powerful case for two underrated qualities: humour for connection and self-awareness for growth. She shares her golden rule: always be the leader you wish you had.

Dive into the full article to discover why self-awareness is the quality that truly separates good leaders from great ones!

#LoveLettertoLeadership #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #Coaching #Development

Featuring Kate Minogue, AI Advisor and Fractional Product Executive Growing up, what single word best described your perception of leadership? Knowled

Open article: Vol.7: A Love Letter to Leadership - Kate Minogue by Emma Walker • 2 min read

Vol.7: A Love Letter to Leadership - Kate Minogue

Thank you for your service Kim.

We will take AI education anywhere we can get it!

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The Battle

Amanda Goetz

Kate Minogue

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAmanda Goetz's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKate Minogue's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Amanda Goetz

Kate Minogue

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Amanda Goetz's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKate Minogue's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAmanda Goetz's LinkedIn Performance