Brian Rella

EverNext

You're talented, driven, and ambitious. You've worked hard to climb the ladder, and you’re grateful for what you have. But lately, it feels like you're stuck on a career dreadmill.

Whether you’re an aspiring executive feeling undervalued and unclear about your next steps or in the C-suite navigating high-pressure demands and critical career moves, your path forward doesn't have to feel overwhelming or uncertain.

Here's How I Can Help:

▶︎ Off the Dreadmill
My foundational program, "Off the Dreadmill," is designed specifically for aspiring executives committed to long-term career success. You'll gain access to a proven playbook—complete with actionable strategies, frameworks, and community support—that lays out a clear, intentional path toward meaningful career growth.

▶︎ Executive Career Coaching
For established leaders and C-suite executives, I offer highly personalized coaching that goes deeper, addressing strategic career growth, navigating transitions, and optimizing your performance at the highest levels. Using my proven frameworks and signature CASE method (Context, Assess, Strategize, Execute), you'll achieve measurable breakthroughs in your career trajectory and leadership impact.

This Isn’t Just About Your Career—It’s About Your Legacy.

When you perform at your highest level professionally, the benefits ripple through every area of your life. Improved career clarity and performance naturally lead to reduced stress, greater fulfillment, and deeper connections at home. While we lead with career excellence, the personal and family benefits inevitably follow.

What You Can Expect:

▶︎ Clear strategies for impactful career advancement.
▶︎ Personalized guidance for high-stakes transitions.
▶︎ Actionable tools for sustainable growth and peak performance.

Ready to step off the dreadmill and into meaningful, strategic career growth?

Let’s talk.

Book your strategy session here:

https://www.brianrella.me/

Founder / Head Coach

Wells Fargo

CIB Agile Transformation Coach

Partnering with executive leadership across the Wells Fargo Corporate and Investment Bank to transition all lines of business from Program Management to an Agile Operating Model.

Executive Director

Head of Business Execution Services for Electronic Trading. 

Serve as a trusted advisor and change management leader to the COO, Head of FICC, and Head of Equities. Lead planning and execution of strategic transformation initiatives across asset classes.

BGC Partners

Partnered with business and technology executive management to develop and lead strategic programs focused on revenue growth and operational efficiency. Measurables include customer satisfaction, productivity, stakeholder transparency, cost variance, and schedule variance.

•	Led 5 product teams to deliver a new D2C RFQ platform for Fixed Income. Year 1 revenue forecast of $1.2 million.
•	Led 3 product teams to redesign the Fixed Income API offering by consolidating 4 APIs. Collaborated with sales as an SME to establish a multi-quarter pipeline of 13 clients and $1.7 million in revenue.
•	Coached global integration team leads to overhaul onboarding processes resulting in a drastic reduction in client integration time, increased client satisfaction, and greater transparency across the company.

Director

Bloomberg LP

Revitalized the Bloomberg Tradebook offering for Futures, Options, and FI. Launched a new IaaS product.

•	Conceived and launched Tradebook Market Access Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering. Generated $450,000+ in recurring annual revenue in the first 7 months of going to market.

Senior Product Manager

HSBC Global Banking and Markets

Led a cross-functional, cross-business team to deliver strategic digital transformation projects.

•	Executed portfolio of algorithmic trading and UX redesign projects for fixed-income trading resulting in improved Fixed Income industry ranking from #18 to #5. 
•	Conceptualized futures and options electronic trading platform strategy. Proposed and delivered a 2-year roadmap resulting in technical debt reduction of 8 trading systems to 3. Shrank run costs $1.7 million (14%) over 2 years.

Vice President

J.P. Morgan

Directed a global team of project managers and business analysts to create and execute global electronic trading programs for Futures and Options. 

•	Increased e-trading revenues by repurposing equities algorithmic trading and analytics engine for futures & options. Increased algorithmic trading volumes by 40% YOY (2011-2012).
•	Improved straight-through processing for Futures trade allocations 200% YOY

Reval

Professional services lead for Reval’s hedge accounting software.

Senior Consultant

UBS Investment Bank

Co-head of Futures and Options Client Solutions Team.

SAC Capital Advisors

Senior Trade Floor Support

CS Technology

Staff Consultant

Get off the DREADMILL and into a Career that inspires you | Executive Career Coaching | Career Development | Job Search Strategies

This isn’t just about your career. It’s about your legacy.

I help high‑achieving leaders excel in their careers and thrive at home through my Dual Impact Leadership system. 

Whether you’re an up‑and‑coming exec feeling undervalued and unsure of your next move or a C‑suite leader under relentless pressure, you don’t have to navigate complexity alone.

We start with pinpointing your highest‑impact actions at work. When your clarity and performance improve, the effects spill over into every area of your life. As you gain momentum professionally, you’ll notice the benefits ripple out, resulting in less stress, deeper fulfillment, and a more present, connected family life.

That’s the power of Dual Impact Leadership. Strategic growth at work that naturally elevates your life at home. 

What You Can Expect Working With Me:

▶︎ Clear strategies for impactful career advancement.
▶︎ Personalized guidance for high-stakes transitions.
▶︎ Actionable tools for sustainable growth and peak performance.

Ready to step off the dreadmill and into meaningful, strategic career growth?

Let’s talk.

Book your strategy session here:

https://www.brianrella.me/

CEO and Head Coach

Career coach and job search strategist helping executives get the career they want 🎯

There’s a difference between being trusted to execute
and being trusted to decide.

Many senior leaders are heavily relied on,
but only to carry out what others have already decided.

Execution builds credibility.
Decision authority builds influence.

The frustration sets in when you’re accountable for outcomes
without being part of the decision that shaped them.

Next week’s Executive Strategy Session is for senior leaders reassessing where they sit in that gap.

Details are on my profile.

Trusted Advisor to Senior Leaders at Career & Leadership Inflection Points

Career transitions don’t announce themselves loudly.

They show up as small signals.

A role that no longer stretches you.
Decisions happening without you in the room.
Responsibility that grows faster than authority.

Most leaders sense this long before they act on it.

The question isn’t whether something is shifting.
It’s whether you’re taking the time to assess it deliberately.

I’m hosting a private Executive Strategy Session on Executive Transitions this Thursday for leaders who want to think clearly before the window narrows.

Details are on my profile.

Senior roles don’t get easier.
They get quieter.

Fewer obvious moves.
Fewer clear signals.
More decisions that shape months, not weeks.

At that level, success isn’t about speed.
It’s about decision quality.

The leaders who advance aren’t the most active.
They’re the most deliberate.

Next week, I’m hosting a private Executive Strategy Session for senior leaders navigating these quieter, higher-stakes decisions.
Details are on my profile.

At senior levels, waiting feels safe.

Nothing breaks.
Nothing forces a decision.

But while you wait:
• scope gets redefined
• expectations shift
• the narrative around your role hardens

Not because you did anything wrong.
Because organizations keep moving.

Strategic leaders don’t rush decisions.
But they don’t drift either.

Thursday’s Executive Strategy Session is for leaders who want to assess where they stand before momentum decides for them.

Details are on my profile.

The fastest way to stall your career isn’t failure.

It’s tolerating things you shouldn’t.

Tolerating:
• being accountable for outcomes you don’t control
• scope that keeps expanding without real authority
• compensation that’s “close enough for now”

Strong leaders don’t wait for permission to raise standards.

They decide what no longer fits, and stop normalizing it.

If this resonates, I’m hosting a private Executive Strategy Session next week for senior leaders reassessing scope, leverage, and positioning.

Details are on my profile.

Most leaders are over-working the wrong problems.

They spend months optimizing execution
while avoiding the harder question of leverage.

Leverage isn’t effort.
It’s where your judgment changes the outcome.

When leverage is clear:
• fewer meetings matter
• fewer decisions matter
• fewer people need convincing

I’m covering how to identify real leverage in a private Executive Strategy Session next week.

Details are on my profile.

Clarity isn’t motivational.
It’s operational.

When things are clear:
• decisions accelerate
• energy stops leaking
• trade-offs become obvious

Most leaders don’t need more ideas.
They need fewer open loops.

Precision isn’t intensity.
It’s restraint.

That’s exactly what we’ll work through in next week’s Executive Strategy Session.

Details are on my profile.

Most career transitions don’t arrive during moments of stress.

They surface during moments of comfort.

When things are “fine.”
When the role still works on paper.
When there’s no forcing function to decide.

That’s when decisions quietly get made for you:
· by the company
· by shifting priorities
· by the market

Nothing goes wrong.
But your range of options narrows.

If you’re using this weekend to think more carefully about where you stand, I’m hosting a private Executive Strategy Session next week for leaders navigating career transitions.

Details are on my profile.

Some decisions don’t surface during the workweek.

They emerge in quieter moments when there’s space to think without reacting.

Knowing:
• when to stay and recalibrate
• when to push for expanded scope
• when a role has reached its natural limit

Those aren’t emotional decisions.
They’re strategic ones.

That’s exactly what we’ll work through in next week’s Executive Strategy Session for leaders navigating career transitions.

Details are on my profile.

Most leaders don’t need advice.

They need space to think without reacting.

Space to step back from:
• the weekly noise
• the internal politics
• the pressure to “just keep executing”

That space is rare.
Which is why it has to be created intentionally.

Tomorrow I’m hosting a private Executive Strategy Session on Executive Transitions.

Registration closes shortly.

If you’ve been meaning to step back and assess your next move, details are on my profile.

Graduate corporate life for entrepreneurial freedom — without jeopardizing your income or family 💚 | Pod: UncageYourself.FM 🎧

Directors. VPs. Executives.
Ready to go Corporate → Founder in ONE Year?

This is the smart path out — without blowing up your life.

We help corporate veterans turn their employer into an investor, compress their job by 50%, and launch a 1-of-1 premium business.

Corporate becomes a short-term asset — not a lifelong trap.

The system is called Corporate Graduation™.
And it works.

You’ve built a strong corporate life. But you’re likely facing 2+ of these:

1) Your time isn’t yours.
2) Work consumes everything.
3) Family & health get leftovers.
4) You’re just going through motions.
5) You know you’re meant for more — but have no idea what.

It’s costing you — emotionally, physically, financially.
You feel stuck. Fading.

That was me.
Divorced. Burnt out.
Later — remarried, rebuilt, and free.

I made my employer my investor.
Cut hours in half.
Launched a business around my genius.
Graduated corporate life — forever.

Now I help others do the same.

Corporate Graduation™ is the system.
165+ have used it to:

✅ Compress their job into 20 hours/week
✅ Exit with runway, not regret
✅ Build a premium service business that reflects who they are
✅ Create leverage through proprietary IP, not more hours

This is how you build your founder future — without burning bridges.

This isn’t about dabbling.
It’s about reclaiming your life.
For your family. Your future self. Those you’re meant to serve.

No “passive income” BS.
Just active transformation — with revenue, clarity, and agency.

Ready to graduate?

👉 DM me “GRADUATE.”

Matt Doan

I left corporate 4 years ago.

Here’s what actually changed:

1) Mondays have energy again.
I wake up early because I want to. Not out of discipline or obligation, but out of genuine excitement for the week ahead. That feeling was gone for years in corporate. Now it’s normal.

2) The Sunday dread disappeared.
That quiet weight that used to settle in by Sunday afternoon — the sense of re-entering a system that didn’t fit — lifted once I started building something I actually owned.

3) My wife became my partner — in a new way.
Cecilia and I now talk about clients, strategy, and impact together. We’re building something side by side. Corporate never could have offered that, and it’s deepened our marriage in ways I didn’t anticipate.

4) My kids see a different version of me.
They see energy instead of depletion. Engagement instead of exhaustion. They’re watching what it looks like to build something you care about... not just talk about it.

5) My health followed my work.
When work creates energy instead of consuming it, everything else responds. Sleep improved. Stress dropped. At 41, I have more capacity than I did at 35.

6) I’m building skills that compound.
Psychology. Sales. Marketing. Persuasion. Category design. These aren’t corporate skills. They’re human skills. They don’t expire when roles or markets change.

7) I finally understand who I am.
Not my title. Not my employer. Me. The founder path forced me to confront things I could avoid for years in corporate. On the other side was clarity I never found climbing the ladder.

This isn’t about hating corporate.

Corporate gave me my Career Capital:
judgment, pattern recognition, credibility.

But it couldn’t give me ownership.

That required a different structure.

---

For those who've outgrown their container.
Jan 19 → https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

I messed up a lot in 2025.

9 mistakes shaping everything in 2026:

It's been four years since I left BCG. Four years building Corporate Graduation™. This year made one thing clear: being a founder isn't a career — it's a complete reconstruction of how you live.

Here's my honest accounting:

IDENTITY MISTAKES

1) Positioning to be the authority instead of being it.
I kept "getting ready." Waiting for permission that was never coming. Authority isn't granted — it's declared. In 2026, I'm done preparing. I AM the authority in my space.

2) Tolerating small stages and obscurity.
I've been playing too small. Nothing remarkable is done alone — I need multiplier partners. Stages that reach millions, not hundreds. I've talked about "going big" but haven't truly lived it. Obscurity isn't noble — it's a bottleneck.


FOCUS & ENERGY MISTAKES

3) Saying yes to too many things.
Scattered focus = scattered results. I know this. I teach this. I still violated it. Every diluted yes was a no to what actually mattered.

4) Being distracted around my family.
My wife and four kids deserve my presence, not just my proximity. Too often I was physically there, mentally elsewhere. Unfinished tasks follow you into the evening. In 2026: fewer priorities, cleaner endings, real presence.


RESOURCE MISTAKES

5) Not asking enough of my team, coaches, mentors.
I invested tens of thousands in people who could help me — but didn't nearly extract the full value. I made too many excuses to myself.

6) Over-investing but under-implementing.
I was a collector of insights instead of an executor. The gap between what I know and what I do became too wide. In 2026, implementation is what matters.

7) Being too ad hoc with AI.
Random prompts. No system. I treated AI like a convenience instead of infrastructure. This year, I'm architecting it into how I think, create, and operate.


LEADERSHIP MISTAKES

8) Not pushing my clients hard enough.
They didn't join the Corporate Graduation™ program for slow and incremental. They came to compress a decade into a year. My job is to install new fire — and make them feel the cost of not showing up powerfully.

9) Not being bold enough in what I said.
I softened hard truths. Hedged when I should have declared. Here's what I held back: The work world is being restructured. AI is here. The old playbook is dead. Corporate is a burning platform. I'm done holding that back.

---

These mistakes cost me time, money, energy, presence.

But they gave me clarity.

My "hard lines" for 2026: 
Stop preparing. Start declaring.
Stop tolerating small. Start building big.
Stop over-investing. Start implementing.
Stop holding back. Start saying what must be said.

Which mistake hits home for you?

---

PS - Corporate → Founder this year? 
matthewdoan.com/2026

Monday, your Career Capital starts compounding.

Or it doesn't.

One-time, special event:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Here's what most people miss about workshops like this:

It's not information.
It's decision-making.

You slow down and show up.
You become a captive audience — to yourself.
You stop scrolling. Stop reacting. Stop drifting.

And for the first time in months (maybe years), 
you do the actual work:

1) You stop making excuses for your delay
2) You uncover your Career Capital
3) You decide how to deploy it
4) You see what's possible beyond the role
5) You start forging a path no employer could match

That's not just inspiration.
That's the compound effect, taking hold.

Imagine where you'll be 90 days from now.

Not just "thinking about it."
Not merely "planning to start."

Actually in motion.

Energy returning.
Clarity sharpening.
Your family feels the new you.

This is what Corporate Graduation™ looks like.

Those who've already committed to Monday aren't hoping for answers. They're giving themselves permission to move.

One decision.
One workshop.
A new trajectory.

The Career Capitalist™
Monday, January 19
$50: Live + Recording + Assets

One time only.
See you inside.

https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

---

PS - Registrants get the IP Builder GPT, Corporate Graduation Readiness Scorecard, category design tools, case studies, and a private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call. Recording included.

Vision isn't just what you see.

It's how you live.

Back in my corporate days, I climbed the ladder on autopilot.

One rung. Then another.
Trusting that's how it worked.

But there was no real vision.
Just a bigger title and the promise of becoming my boss's boss.

Then I looked up.

And realized I didn't want their life.
It looked awful.

That was the wake-up call.

I had sight.
I could see the next step.
But I had no vision for where I was actually going.

So I built one.

I wrote about it. Journaled about it.
Got coached on it. Talked about it.
Surrounded myself with people walking the same scary path toward something that felt impossible.

Vision isn't a destination you arrive at.

It's something you embody.
Every. Single. Day.

You might have sight.
You might see the next rung.

But if that's all you're chasing?

You'll wake up one day full of regret.

What's your vision beyond the next step?

The moment I knew corporate couldn’t hold me.

5 lessons it took too long to learn:

For a long time, I couldn’t name what was wrong.

I was progressing.
Respected.
Trusted.

But every time my thinking stretched a little too far — every time I tried to hold a bigger picture — it was quietly contained.

Not shut down.
Just… redirected.

That’s when the tension started.
Not dramatic.
Just constant.

Here’s what I eventually learned.

---

1) Big thinking can be praised and still be unwelcome.

I’d offer a strategic view and hear, “That sounds good.”

Then came the quiet clause:
“But we’re not taking that outside.”

I wasn’t wrong.
My imagination just didn’t fit the system’s design.

---

2) Being valued doesn’t mean being usable.

I was told my work mattered.

But my judgment had nowhere real to land.

When your best thinking can’t move anything, it doesn’t disappear. It withers.

---

3) Side outlets are signals, not solutions.

Publishing in HBR.
MIT Sloan.
The Atlantic.
Think tanks. External channels.

Those weren’t mistakes. They were proof I was trying to breathe outside the box.

What I didn’t see at the time:
External validation was a symptom, not a cure.

Every byline was evidence of capacity the system couldn’t absorb. I kept finding outlets because the main channel was blocked.

Useful moves.
Never satisfying.

---

4) Breakthroughs aren’t about talent. They’re about ownership of environment.

Everything clicked when I sat in a room full of founders.

They had Career Capital too. Decades of it.

The difference was simple:
They didn’t need permission to create.

They built conditions where judgment could compound.
They said yes to themselves.

---

5) Staying longer has quiet, compounding costs.

The financial ceiling was obvious.

The real toll was energy.
Family.
Self-trust.

Saying yes to work that wasn’t me.
Knowing I could be far more impactful — and accepting I wasn’t.

---

That’s when I stopped asking how to optimize my role.

And started asking a harder question:

Where does my Career Capital actually belong?

That question led me out of corporate.

Four years later, I’m a founder.
Still answering it.
On my own terms.

---

PS - If you’re standing at the edge of that question, don't miss what's unfolding here: https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

If corporate feels a bit "too small" lately, 
you're not imagining it.

That feeling usually shows up when your Career Capital has outgrown the container it's in.

Most people respond the same way.

They start with business logic.
Offer. Niche. Monetization.

Or they quietly reach for passive income.

Passive income won't solve under-leverage.
Only owned Career Capital does.

That's why so many smart exits stall.

The real issue isn't effort.
It's missing conditions.

You can't access, package, and deploy Career Capital into founder leverage if you don't first create:

Space.
Then Self.
Then System.

A recent client — VP in ops — followed this sequence. It changed everything:

1) Compressed his corporate load by ~50%
No drama. No bridges burned. No reputational cost.

2) Reclaimed control of time
Now works 3–4 focused hours/day. Deliberate. Surgical.

3) Restored personal leverage
Energy returned. Health improved. Relationships at home strengthened.

Only then did the founder work begin.

He codified his Career Capital into language, frameworks, and IP.
He clarified category direction.
He ran his first program and delivered real results.

Corporate became optional because leverage was no longer trapped inside the role.

That's real Corporate Graduation.
Not escape. Not dependency.

Leverage.

---

If you want to do this work in the right order, I'm running a live, private, one-time workshop:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁™
Monday, January 19
$50 (Live + Recording + Assets)

Included with registration:

• IP Builder GPT (to structure your Career Capital)
• Corporate Graduation™ Readiness Scorecard
• Category-claiming exercises you can reuse
• Case study pack + common traps guide
• Private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call

See you on the inside:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Has work stopped creating energy for you?
This isn’t burnout.
It’s worse.

Most senior pros describe something quieter.

Disinterest. Going through the motions. Sitting in meetings you've sat in a hundred times, solving problems you solved three years ago. Doing "good work" without feeling engaged by any of it.

(After 15 years, this is how I felt about cybersecurity.)

Work used to create energy. It used to sharpen you. Stretch you. Feed the rest of your life.

At some point, that flipped.

Now it drains energy — and nothing meaningful is replacing it.

That state is not neutral.

When work consumes energy instead of creating it, the deficit shows up everywhere. In patience at home. In health. In imagination. In your sense of building toward a future that's actually yours.

What's really happening underneath is simpler (and more damaging) than most people want to admit:

Your Career Capital — years of judgment, experience, pattern recognition, and hard-earned capability — is going undeployed.

Not unused. Undeployed.

You're applying a fraction of what you've built inside a system that can't fully use it. And when Career Capital isn't exercised meaningfully, it doesn't just sit idle.

It decays.

The most dangerous response here is waiting. Waiting for a reorg. Waiting for renewed motivation. Waiting for something external to force clarity.

Energy doesn't come back on its own.

If work no longer creates it, you have a responsibility to create conditions where it can.

That doesn't require a drastic leap. 

But it does require an environment where your thinking actually matters again — and people who understand what you're navigating.

I'm hosting a private workshop next week for people who recognize this moment and want to think clearly about what to do with the Career Capital they've built.

Details: https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

The cost of waiting is quiet. 
But it compounds quickly.

I didn’t know how valuable I was until I stepped outside the corporate system.

Not because I lacked confidence inside.

But because the environment couldn’t show me.

That’s why I built The Career Capitalist™:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Happening Monday. A live, private workshop designed to surface, package, and deploy your Career Capital into founder leverage.

Inside corporate, your value gets filtered.

Your judgment gets diluted by consensus.
Your instincts get buried in approval chains.
Your best ideas get spent in meetings that go nowhere.

You’re performing.
Contributing.
Delivering.

But not seeing the full picture of what you’ve built.

It took stepping outside for me to realize:

Every story I lived through → raw material
Every pattern I recognized → deployable insight
Every hard-won lesson → Career Capital to be claimed

And it’s why I hear this constantly from clients once the conditions change:

“Corporate feels simple now. Almost optional.”
“I finally feel in control of my days.”
“I didn’t know I had this much to offer.”

That last one makes me so proud.

Because most people don’t lack value.
They lack the conditions to see it clearly.

Corporate systems are too constraining to reveal what you’ve actually accumulated.

You have to put yourself in founder conditions.
Where your thinking is deployed on your terms.

That’s when Career Capital stops being theoretical.

And starts compounding.

---

Details for The Career Capitalist™
Monday, January 19
$50 (Live + Recording)

Included:
• IP Builder GPT
• Corporate Graduation™ Readiness Scorecard
• Category-claiming exercises
• Case study pack + common traps guide
• Private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call

https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

This is a one-time, private event for people who are done playing small inside a big system.

Burnout isn't the real problem.

You've reached a structural mismatch.

After years in the arena, you've built something substantial.

Pattern recognition.
Lived experience.
Relationships.
Reputation.
Judgment.
Talent.

Taken together, this is your Career Capital.

It's stacked. It's real. And it's valuable.

The problem is that the system you're in can only use a tiny fraction of it.

Not because you're capped.
Because the environment is.

Corporate systems are designed for efficiency, predictability, and control. They define a role, reward you for staying inside the lines, and call it success.

Over time, that role becomes a box.
And then a box within a box.

No matter how much Career Capital you accumulate, the system can't meaningfully expand to meet it.

Even changing teams.
Even changing companies.
Even "one more promotion."

The system is the system.

So while your Career Capital keeps compounding, its expression gets constrained.

Your best ideas die in approval chains.
You're solving problems you solved three years ago.
Work that energized you now = going through motions.

That's when the tension starts.

Not because you're ungrateful.
Not because you've lost motivation.
And certainly not from a lack of ambition.

But because you've outgrown the container—which will never change enough to hold who you're becoming.

This might be your first quiet signal that something else is required.

Not a better role.
But a different relationship with corporate altogether.

And a deliberate decision about where your Career Capital will compound.

---

PS - I'm writing deeply about Career Capital this month. The first long-form essay drops on Substack this Saturday — it's about the hidden tax you pay by staying put and what happens when you stop tolerating it.

Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

Career Capital doesn’t sit idle.

It either compounds — or quietly decays.

Inside corporate, decay is the default.

Not because you’re underperforming.
Because the system is designed to consume judgment, not multiply it.

Your experience gets spent in meetings.
Your insight gets diluted by consensus.
Your best instincts get buried under endless “alignment.”

Over time, something subtle but costly happens.

You’re still “successful,” but your optionality shrinks.
Your leverage flattens.
The work takes more energy and gives less back.

That’s not burnout.

That’s Career Capital being used up instead of built on.

Here’s the distinction most people never make:

Most professionals let their Career Capital decay inside systems they don’t own.

Founders decide — deliberately — where it compounds.

Not louder.
Not riskier.
More intentional.

They choose where their judgment is deployed — and who benefits from it.

At some point, the question stops being:
“How do I make this role better?”

And becomes:
“Where does my Career Capital actually belong?”

That question changes everything.

---

PS - I’m writing deeply about Career Capital this month. Saturday’s Corporate Graduation essay breaks down the hidden math of staying put — and what most pros never calculate.

https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

The quiet frustration you feel isn't burnout.

It's trapped leverage.

Your career capital is decaying right now.

Not because you're losing skill.
Because you're not deploying it.

Yesterday I ran The Career Capitalist™ workshop.

Here are the five ideas that hit hardest.


1) Career capital is stored energy.

Years of judgment, pressure, and decision-making accumulate as untapped power. But stored energy doesn't stay neutral. If it isn't released into the right environment, it implodes.

Career capital needs motion, leverage, and somewhere to be used (hint: someone else's system won't do.)


2) Career capital must become a compounding asset.

Your career capital can only compound when converted into something you own. Left unconverted, they get spent linearly through effort.

Ownership is the difference between earning repeatedly and compounding over time.


3) Labels suffocate career capital.

SVP. Director. Consultant. Coach. Speaker.

These are pre-priced containers with fixed ceilings. The market decides what they're worth.

Labels come with limits. Founders build the room.


4) Career capital has a window.

Experience is sharpest when it's recent, relevant, and energized. Delay too long, and it decays.

Not from lack of ability. But from missing your window of opportunity.


5) You must intentionally package and deploy it.

Unpackaged career capital goes to waste. If you don't turn it into assets — frameworks, language, IP, owned systems — it never compounds.

It just leaks out through time, effort, and obligation.

---

This is what I wish I understood five years ago.

Career capital isn't something you simply have.

It's something you either convert and compound.
Or you quietly lose it.

---

PS - If this resonates, doors are open for the February cohort of our Corporate Graduation™ program. DM me "LEVERAGE" for details.

Your career capital has a shelf life.

If you don’t claim it, it dies.

Most people assume experience compounds automatically and forever.

That once you’ve earned judgment, pattern recognition, and credibility, it stays available, waiting patiently for whenever you’re “ready.”

That’s not how it works.

Career Capital behaves like any other form of capital.

If it isn’t surfaced, packaged, and deployed while the window is open, it decays.

Corporate environments are very good at using your best thinking. They are terrible at helping you own it.

So the decay is quiet.

Your instincts sharpen, but only inside meetings.
Your judgment matures, but stays behind the logo.
Your leverage increases, but never sees daylight.

Over time, a dangerous gap opens.

You are highly capable.
And increasingly under-deployed.

Directors, VPs, and executives feel this most.

Not because they lack opportunity.
But because they’ve outgrown permissioned contribution and haven’t yet claimed authority.

The people who notice this early make a different move.

They don’t rush.
They don’t panic.
They don’t freelance their way out.

They slow down long enough to extract what they’ve actually earned.

They turn experience into language.
Judgment into frameworks.
Reputation into owned direction.

They understand one simple truth.

Capital that isn’t claimed gets spent by someone else.

That’s why I built The Career Capitalist™.

A one-time, live workshop for Directors, VPs, and execs who know they’re sitting on real leverage and refuse to let it expire unused.

This isn’t about quitting faster.
It’s about learning how to own what you already have before the window closes.

The Career Capitalist™
Private workshop + recording + working tools
Monday, January 19

Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

This experience is built to create motion, not inspiration.

---

If this resonates, trust the signal.

Hidden Career Capital doesn’t unleash itself.
It gets claimed — or it withers.

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The Battle

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