Pathfinder Coaching

Traditional career advice wasn’t built for ADHDers—especially mid-career professionals navigating pivots, identity shifts, and burnout.

They’re handed rigid frameworks.
Told to “network more.”

They’re left overwhelmed by:

— Tabs.
— Dumb to-do lists.
— Advice that never sticks.

I created the Core 4 Framework™, a system designed for clarity, momentum, and sustainable job search success.

Together, we focus on:

• Clarity – Clarifying strengths and direction
• Cohesion – Building a brand that feels authentic
• Connection – Making networking natural, never forced
• Communicate – Creating original content that builds authority

Wins include:

• 100+ ADHDers coached through mid-career pivots
• LinkedIn profiles that draw leads and recruiter outreach
• Clear personal brands that open doors to roles that finally fit

This isn’t about fitting in—it’s about finally aligning with what works.

📅 Book a free chemistry call: www.pathfinder.coach/connect
✉️ david@pathfinder.coach

Career Coach

White Path Search

At White Path Search I leveraged an extensive network of professionals to help talented executive-level support find their way to the right career path. 

Through building deep relationships with my clients, I helped employers find and connect with top executive-level talent. My recruiting approach was relationship-centric, which was essential for building long-term, trusting, and open relationships.

Executive Recruiter

Green Key Resources

I led Green Key Resource's IT Division and, as Director, assisted in defining the firm's broader strategy for continued growth of the team in NYC.

Director

Career Group Inc.

Vice President, Full Time Division

Strategic Moves

Staffing firm specialized in placing telecommunications professionals with manufacturers, re-sellers, ISPs, and the financial services industries.

Recruiter

Royal Air Force (RAF)

Human Resources

ADHD Career Coach | Founder of Momentum — the 8-week coaching program built to get ADHD brains off the overthinking line and into a rhythm of task execution (even on low-energy days)

Starting was always the hardest part. I could see the work in front of me and knew what needed to get done. 

But getting off the line always felt impossible.

The more tasks piled up, the heavier it got.
I’d stall, not because I didn’t care, but because I wasn’t sure I could finish.
That stall cost me a promotion.

They gave it to someone from the outside.
I smiled through it, but inside, I knew I hadn’t done enough.
I didn’t know how to change it.

I spent 20 years in recruiting and HR. Running a full desk. Building teams. Closing searches from kickoff to offer.

Edtech. Martech. Hedge funds, PE, and asset managers who expected results yesterday.

That pace? I could handle it.
Last-minute scrambling was my superpower.

But longer timelines and steady execution?
Total kryptonite.

Then in my 50s, I got diagnosed with ADHD.
And suddenly, everything made sense.

Once I stopped trying to “just focus” and started building around my brain, everything shifted.

✅ Timers
✅ Systems
✅ Boundaries
✅ Automation

Not hacks. Just stuff that works.

Now I coach mid-career professionals with ADHD who are stuck at the starting line.

That’s why I built Persona™ — the world’s first AI job search engine for ADHDers.

It takes 80% of the work off your plate so you can get off the line, into motion, and all the way to completion.

For most of us, the real stall isn’t starting. It’s the dread of not finishing.
That fear is rooted in past failures and impostor syndrome.

Persona changes that. 

It builds in structure and support to see things through.
Small wins stack up, the dopamine hits, and finishing becomes the new normal.

And here’s the part that matters most. Persona is built around your actual speaking voice.
Everything you touch — your resume, LinkedIn profile, comments, content — it all sounds like you.

By the time interviews roll in, they already know what it’s like to talk to you.
You’re not walking in cold.

Through my 8-week Momentum program, I combine Persona with one-on-one coaching to help you get clear, get visible, and off the line — without burning out or pretending to be someone you’re not.

Because ADHD isn’t a flaw.
It’s just a different operating system.
Once you learn how to run it, momentum feels possible.

📩 DM me "Momentum" if you’re ready to stop staring at the starting line and finally move forward.

David Hannan

Just crossed 60,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Want to know what I'm actually proud of?

I didn't buy a single one of them.

No engagement pods. No $200/month growth gurus. No trading reach through 'mutual' comment spam.

And still, every month...

Someone with a big following slides into my DMs with an invitation to some exclusive club to '10x my reach.'

Latest one? 

Claimed they went from 2K to 155K followers in 15 months. Had the balls to call it 'authentic visibility.'

They all lead with follower count like it matters.

It doesn't.

You can't control who follows you. 

But you can control who you connect with. 

You can control the quality of what you create. 

And you can damn sure control where you show up and who you engage with every day.

Took me four years to go from 5,000 to 60,000. 

Four years of being real, showing up, and writing what I actually think instead of what performs.

- No hacks. 
- No shortcuts. 
- And no bullshit.

Just consistent, organic, human content.

If you're building something that matters, you don't need a pod to prop it up. 

You need patience. 
You need clarity. 

And you need to trust that quality compounds faster than tricks ever will.

The followers came because the work was real.

That's the only metric worth celebrating.

P.S. Who's still doing this the real way?

I help senior leadership build clarity, visibility, and authority for their next career move | Founder of Momentum | Ex-recruiter | Girl dad

"I can't say no to people who need me."

That's what he told me during our second call.

Smart guy. Former VP. Built teams. Coached juniors.

Always the guy people called when things got hard.

And now?

Six months into his own job search.

Still hasn't finished his resume.

Here's what was happening:

Every week, someone would reach out.

→ "Can you review my LinkedIn profile?"
→ "Can you hop on a call to discuss my search?"
→ "Can you intro me to someone in your network?"

And every week, he'd say yes.

Because that's what good leaders do, right?

Except now he wasn't leading a team.

He was unemployed.

And his "helpfulness" was costing him momentum.

If you've got ADHD, you know this pattern. 

You feel people's pain like it's your own.

Someone asks for help, and your brain absorbs the urgency. Suddenly their problem is your problem.

So you say yes.
Again. And again.

Until you realize you've been everyone's coach, connector, and therapist…

…but you haven't sent a single application this week.

Here's the lie your brain tells you:
"If I don't help them, I'm selfish."

But here's the truth:
You can't pour from an empty cup.

Every time you put someone else's career first?

You're practicing self-abandonment.

The boundary phrase that changed everything:

"I want to help you, but I need to finish this round of my own search first. Can we reconnect next week?"

That's it.

→ Not "no." 
→ Not "I'm too busy."
→ Just honest resource allocation.

Most people said, "Of course. Good luck."

A few disappeared.

The ones who respected his boundary stuck around.
The ones who didn't were just looking for free labor.

Here's your permission:

→ You're allowed to prioritize yourself.
→ You're allowed to safeguard your energy.
→ You're not selfish for choosing yourself first.

Because the best way to help people long-term?

Get yourself across the finish line first.

Where are you still helping before you heal? 

Drop it in the comments... or just sit with it.

Either way, you already know the answer.

——
♻️ Share if someone in your network needs to hear it.

Follow me, David Hannan, if you're done sacrificing your own career to fix everyone else's.

I got something wrong this past year, and it's been sitting heavy for a while.

A lot of people who need help never reach out.

Not because they don't want support.

Because they don't want to label themselves to get it.

Some are dealing with ADHD, but it's not the same for everyone.

Some aren't.
Some aren't sure.
Some never want to say it out loud.

I've shared a lot about my recent diagnosis, and I'm comfortable talking about it.

But that doesn't mean everyone else is.

That's something I didn't fully appreciate until recently.

I used to think narrowing my focus to ADHD was the inclusive move.

I see now that I was wrong about that.

It ended up having the opposite effect.

And for that, I'm deeply sorry.

Over the last few weeks, I've had long conversations with clients, coaches, and people in the ND space.

Some of those talks were heavy.

They made me realize something I should have understood from the start.

For a lot of people with ADHD, the struggle isn't the brain.

It's the label.
It's the stereotype.
It's the fear of being boxed in.

It's the pressure to explain yourself before you can even ask for help.

The last thing I ever wanted was to add to that.

So I'm widening the front door.

The work isn't changing. 

My clients still get the same structure, support, clarity, and steady path forward.

The shift is simple.

People shouldn't have to decide what to call themselves before they ask for help.

Nobody should feel boxed in by a label just to start a conversation.

That's the part I'm fixing.

This isn't about turning away people who don't have ADHD.

It's about making sure people with ADHD aren't forced into a corner just to get help.

They deal with enough already.

Widening the doors makes the room bigger so people get to ask for help without feeling boxed in.

More people get to feel safe.

That's the goal.

Let me be honest. LinkedIn can mess with your head if you're not careful.

You scroll long enough and it starts to look like:

— Everyone else has their sh*t together
— Their week seemed to make sense
— You're the only one stuck in the drafts

I see this every week with ADHD clients.

They look at somebody's clean, final version and forget there was a messy middle.

Probably the same kind of week you just had.

The real pressure isn't posting, it's:

— Trying to make your week look "cleaner"
— Worrying the finished draft won't "succeed"
— Feeling like you need to polish the whole thing

That's usually the moment everything tightens and you stop sounding like yourself.

Here's what helps when the overthinking kicks in.

One-Line Audit:
"Is this real, and does it help?"

If yes, that's enough.

❌ You don't need shiny.
❌ You don't need clever.
❌ You don't need perfect.

You just need something honest and useful to the next person who thinks the way you do.

Authenticity isn't a brand play. 
It's authority.

People trust what feels lived, not polished.

PS: What kind of post feels most real for you lately?

The one thing that gets my ADHD brain into a dopamine loop isn't what you think.

Some people meditate or journal in the morning.

But I needed something with guaranteed results.

The best way I've found isn't some fancy hack.

It's posting insightful comments on LinkedIn.

— The thing is, good comments get answered.
— Because I'm adding value people can use.
— And that's my built-in feedback loop.

That loop hits every switch in my head.

Connection. Movement. A quick win.

And it's enough to get me going.

— After school drop-off, I'm 20 comments in.
— And by late morning, I'm closer to 100.
— All from my phone, just my thumbs.

People think this is discipline.

It isn't.

— It's me giving my brain something that works.
— Most ADHDers wait for motivation.
— I can't do that.

I built a loop that rewards me before anything slips.

And here's why commenting feels easy for me.

I stick to posts that matter to me.

— Stuff I relate to.
— Stuff I can actually add value to.
— That's when ideas flow, even on low-energy days.

The question that keeps it simple?

"What opinion can I share, and how can I add something useful to the thread?"

That's the whole thing.

— One question.
— One intention.
— Zero pressure.

And that's enough.

— Some mornings I'm sharp.
— Some mornings I'm cooked.
— But that tiny prompt still works.

It warms up the quiet parts of my brain and turns LinkedIn into a place where I show up, not hide.

If you want visibility without the overwhelm.

Don't worry about posting content.

Start by posting comments.

— Make it light.
— Make it daily if you can.
— Let it feel good enough to repeat.

Consistency comes from the reward.

Not the grind.

P.S. What gets you moving?

Tried to take it easy last night in front of the telly.

Ended up sorting my sock drawer instead.

I swear my brain can’t just “rest.”

It needs a mission.
Any mission.
Even a stupid one.

Been binging The Man in the High Castle recently, so I figured I’d put on an episode and switch off for a bit.

Next thing I know, I’m standing over the drawer rearranging every folded sock bundle.

⬅️ ➡️ From left to right.
⬆️ ⬇️ To top to bottom.

Like some deranged Marie Kondo fanboy who can’t follow his own advice.

ADHD rest works like this for me.
I go looking for calm.

My brain finds a tiny project it can finish before it loses interest.

And honestly, I’m learning to roll with it. It’s harmless.

It settles my head in a way “relaxing” never does, and it gives me a quick win without asking for much.

So if tonight’s “rest” turns into rearranging something that didn’t need rearranging, I'm cool with it.

At least it gets me out of my own way.

You got a version of this?

She made more progress on Tuesdays than the rest of her week combined. 

I didn't notice it at first.

But when we charted her week during our weekly Momentum check-in, the pattern was unmistakable.

𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆? 
☑ Comments left.
☑ Applications sent. 
☑ Conversations started. 

𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆? 
☒ Total collapse.

Here's what struck me:

She wasn't inconsistent.
She was predictably consistent.

Her energy had a rhythm. She just didn't know it yet.

Most people with ADHD think they're chaotic.

They're not.
They're 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱.

The brain craves certainty. 

When you can't predict your own capacity, you assume you don't have any.

But the second you start tracking momentum instead of tasks, something shifts.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴:
"𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺?"

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴:
"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

Here's what we did.

I told her to stop logging what she accomplished.
Instead, log days in motion.

Not hours worked. Not tasks completed.
Just: Did I move forward today? Yes or no.

No judgment. No shame spirals.
Just data.

𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭: 3 days in motion.
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟮: 4 days.
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟯: 5 days (one of them was a Friday)

By Week 4, she wasn't asking me for motivation.

𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴:
"𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘛𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴? 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

That's the shift.

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺:
"I'm broken and unpredictable."

𝗧𝗼:
"I have patterns I can work with."

Quantifying momentum doesn't just reduce self-doubt.

It replaces guessing with evidence.
And evidence is calm.

Here's my challenge for you.

Stop tracking tasks for one week.

𝗔𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
"𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺?"

Yes or no. That's it.

By the end of the week, you'll know more about your actual capacity than any to-do list ever told you.

What would you learn if you tracked motion, not minutes, for a week?

Drop a comment. I'm curious.

And if this hit ♻️ repost it.

Someone in your network needs permission to stop lying to themselves about "consistency."

A marketing SVP joined a call with a plan for her next chapter.

I asked her to print it out. Then rip it in half.

She smiled for the first time in weeks.

Like a lot of people I meet, she’d turned “career clarity” into a side project.

Every night:

— Job boards filled with roles she could do.
— Browser full of "maybes" that never felt right.
— Spreadsheets for tracking apps and salary bands.

By Friday, she’d built a case study instead of a plan.

That’s what happens when the smartest people I work with start overthinking their next move.

They research to feel safe.
They gather data to calm the noise.

And it works, until it doesn’t.

Chasing proof while ignoring what was clear all along.

At that point, the work is about doing less.

— So we slowed it down.
— No ten-step plans.
— No frameworks. 

Just a few simple questions:

— What parts of the week still feel solid?
— Where does energy show up without effort?
— What’s been quietly pushing you the whole time?

Twenty minutes in, her tone shifted.

— No more lists.
— No more rehearsed logic.
— Just honest proof of what actually fits.

That was the moment it clicked.

Her voice changed and you could hear the weight come off.

Clarity isn’t about finding something new.

It’s about finally noticing what’s been steady underneath everything else.

PS: Sometimes the next step starts with ripping up the first one.

Many creators won't see me in their comments soon.

I'm seeing a shift I'm not okay with.

I’ve been on this platform a long time.
Long enough to know when something's off.

And the comments lately?
They're turning into a landfill of AI slop.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹.

You know the deal. You leave something real, and the author hits you with an AI echo.

- same tone
- same phrasing you used
- same "thanks for the valuable insight" garbage

It's everywhere. 
And from people I've followed and admired for years.

Here's what it tells me:

- you didn't write it
- you didn't read my comment
- you didn't give a shit enough to be yourself

And look, I get using AI to draft, explore, brainstorm, whatever. I literally build GPTs for a living. 

That's not the issue.

The issue is outsourcing your presence.
The part that's meant to be you.

Because when someone takes the time to comment on your work, that's effort.

That's attention they didn't have to spend on you.

That's a moment of connection you just handed to a VA or to a ChatGPT agent with a copy-paste prompt.

It cheapens the whole thing.

I'm not feeding into it anymore.
And I'm done pretending it's fine.

So here's what I'm doing this month:

- blocking people who "bot" their replies
- stepping out of spaces that don't feel human
- tightening my circle to folks who show up as real

If you’re one of the real ones, you’ll still see me.
If not, don’t take it personally.
You already checked out before I did.

And let's be honest.
A lot of you won't even read this.

You'll have your AI tool skim it for "sentiment" and spit out a nice little reply.

Which is exactly the point.

I still believe in actual people.
That's who I'll be showing up for.

PS: What’s your read on all this?

Three days before Thanksgiving, and I’d make the same list four times.

Couldn’t find any of them.

Monday, I felt ready. Wrote it out.
Tuesday, it disappeared. Started again.
Wednesday, back to ShopRite for the 2nd time.
Thursday morning, arrival texts lighting up my phone.

It came together. Sort of.

The turkey was okay. The sides were fine.
Everyone said it was good.

I nodded along even though the cranberry sauce sat in the fridge until someone asked where it was.

This is the part I didn’t understand for years.

Holiday chaos is grim because the whole week is built for people who plan three steps ahead. 

That setup burns through anyone whose brain runs hot or needs more space to ramp up. 

I’m in that camp. You might be too.

So stop trying to feel ready.
That feeling never shows up.

Prep one dish the night before. One.
Take a break when you need it.

Even if that means hiding in the guest room for ten minutes so your brain can have a bit of a breather.

One thing I’m thankful for this year?

Having it at someone else’s house.

What’s one thing that gets you through holiday prep?

Most weeknights used to follow the same pattern in my house. 

Olivia would walk over with glitter nail polish in her hand and say, “Can you play with me, Daddy?”

And there I’d be, still trying to knock out something work-related I should’ve finished earlier.

— I’d tell myself it’d take a minute.
— Then another minute.
— Then another.

My brain grabbed onto whatever I was working on and refused to let go. 

I was off the clock, but I was still “finishing” things. 

Meanwhile, she’d stand there, glitter ready, already deciding what color she wanted to paint my nails.

(blue, every time)

And after a bit, she’d skulk back to the living room.

By the time I finally closed my laptop, she’d be curled up on the couch, convinced I didn't want to play.

That sat with me longer than anything in my inbox.

After-work hours can get messy with ADHD because your head keeps running long after the day’s over. 

If you stop too fast, you lose your place, and that jump between tasks can be absolutely brutal. 

Which makes it far too easy to stay stuck. 

You think you’re trying to protect tomorrow, but you end up stealing from the moment right in front of you.

I saw that pattern more clearly the more it happened.

The drifting, the coming back, all those moments where my body was in the room but my mind wasn’t.

And I hear this from a lot of other parents with ADHD. 

— You want to be present. 
— You’re trying to be in the moment. 
— But unfinished tasks follow you around the house.

And remote work only amplified this nonsense.

Home ends up being as noisy as your job. You close your laptop, but the work sticks around if you let it.

I don’t live in that pattern anymore. 

Dad time comes first now, and nothing in my inbox wins over glitter nails or Barbie doll pool time.

That shift didn’t happen overnight, but it changed everything about how we spend our weeknights.

Yesterday, I went deeper into why this hits harder for ADHD brains and how easy it is to get pulled away from the moments you care about most.

I also shared the 3 things that help me let go without getting pulled back into the day’s leftover noise.

If you’d like to dig in a bit with me and 5,126 others who read it, I’ll drop the link in the comments.

Success opened more doors than I ever imagined.

That's when things went sideways.

After recruiting, I saw four clear paths ahead of me.

– I could stay in the game with in-house recruiting
– I could go the Learning & Development route
– I could slide into a corporate training role
– I could build a coaching practice

All four looked doable, something I'd be good at.

But that's what made it harder.

It wasn't confusion. 

Just too many options at once.

So I tried to think my way through it.

– Pros and cons
– Writing out two columns
– Even walking around the block with it

None of it moved anything.

What helped was a question I didn't see coming:
"Name the one part of your career you'd miss most."

My answer was immediate:
"Working with job seekers."

It told me more than any spreadsheet ever could.

And it made the path in front of me clearer.

Coaching wasn't some grand idea, but it was the only lane that kept the part I cared about most.

And once I saw that, I could move again.

Nothing dramatic.

Just a quiet sense of "this feels real enough to start."

If you're staring at a few different versions of your next move, shrink the question.

What's the one thing you'd actually miss if you lost it?

Start from that.

PS: What’s the one part you’d miss the most?

Every Friday around 2pm, my brain starts narrating my life like David Attenborough.

"And here we see the coach. Staring at his laptop. Cursor blinking. Zero thoughts happening."

Yep. Friday.

All week I'm fine. 

- Sharp.
- Making sense. 
- Juggling six things at once.

Then Friday rolls around and I'm reading the same email three times like I've never seen words before.

I used to think something was wrong with me.

Nope. Just what happens when your ADHD brain spends five days running on fumes.

Here's the deal.

When you have ADHD and work with people all week, you're not just doing your job.

You're also doing this whole other job in the background:

- Manually staying on topic every 90 seconds
- Not blurting out the weird thing mid-meeting
- Pretending your brain isn't playing the Bluey theme

That takes energy.

So by Friday you're not tired from work. 

You're tired from managing your brain 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 you work.

Eventually you just stop.

I used to fight it. Now I just let it happen.

I do three things:

𝟭. 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗸.
Just clear it. Two minutes.

𝟮. 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱. 
That's the win.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗼𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜'𝗺 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗼𝗳. 
"Didn't bail on anything" counts.

Five minutes total, and it keeps me from spiraling.

The Friday fog isn't you failing, it's your brain going: 
"We worked hard. Can we stop now?"

Yeah. You can stop.

Brain running at 40% and beating yourself up? 

Stop.

People with ADHD burn hot all week just to keep up with a world that wasn't built for us.

By Friday the tank's empty.

Let it be empty.

Mine showed up on schedule today. 

- Cleared my desk. 
- Wrote my sentence. 
- Logged my tiny victory.

Done. 

Not because I finished everything, but because I'm allowed to be done.

So are you.

P.S. How does your brain tell you it's Friday?

TLB Coaching & Events

Your brand is the experience you leave other people with when you leave the room. It’s a feeling. An imprint. 

Every individual has one. Every business has one. And it's what business relationships are built on. 

Yes, even in the digital environment 💡

Other coaches and consultants may tell you that they can create a brand for you. And that might sound good (and easy). But if you want your brand to feel authentic, it needs to BE authentic. Which means someone else can’t create it. YOU need to create it. 

The act of branding is what you do once you: 1) have the clarity of what your brand is, 2) have the confidence to show up like that, and 3) have a community of people around you who support that version of you. Once you have the holy trinity, you can start taking intentional action to create brand experiences that leave THAT mark on other humans.

Can you imagine having that kind of alignment within a team?  

Whether the experiences you are creating are social media posts, 1:1 discovery calls, management meetings, virtual summits or simply showing up at a virtual networking event, the human experience during those interactions is what other people take away. 

So, I'll ask you...do you know what people are taking away after an interaction with you?

In almost any interaction, especially in the digital space, there is WAY more intention that we could be bringing to the table. If you’re not already in the conversations that help you explore what type of experience YOU are creating for people, it’s time you got in one. Come and check out my weekly LinkedIn Live series Conversations: The Business Files , or better yet, let's have a Tea Chat (yes, I do tea chats, as I don’t drink coffee). 

Hope to see you in the conversation soon :)

Authentic Marketing Advisor

Your Business Peeps Community

What do you do when you can’t find a place where you feel like you can be yourself? You build one! Or at least, that’s what Terra Argo and I did with Your Business Peeps. 

The online communities that we found were all related to DOING a thing. But we couldn’t find a place that was based on BEING the person you wanted to be, in both life and business, and finding YOUR way to do that (not following someone else’s way). 

One of the things that I deeply believe is that my path is my path. Others might be able to learn from it, but it’s not their path. And SO many coaches in the industry today are just selling people the path they took, and then going one step further to say, if it doesn’t work for them, they just aren’t dedicated enough. 

Well, of course they’re not…it’s not their path. 

It’s not the easiest thing to find your path. It takes exploration and mistakes. It comes with wins and losses. And isn’t that a lot easier to go through when you have your peeps around?

The Your Business Peep Community is a place for business owners and leaders to connect to their personal brands, build an authentic & genuine network, and find their business peeps! So you can get the support you need in YOUR journey, to make the impact that YOU’RE here to make. 

No one here is going to tell you what you SHOULD do…but we will share our insights and support you in choosing the things that work best for you. And celebrate the cr@p out of you when you show up as your most authentic self; at work and in life.

We have open houses at least once a month, so if you need a place like that, DM me and I’ll get you on the invite list for the next one :)

Co-Founder & Chief Peep

Velocity AI

I think by now you all know how important I think branding and authenticity is. But a lot of the time, these two things don't make the priority list when it comes to Sales. And especially when it comes to AI in Sales. Which I think is because most companies creating AI tech DON'T have the industry experience required to understand the actual problem.

A lot of people (and businesses) think that the sales industry has changed. But there's one important thing that HASN'T changed >>> people have problems they need to fix. 

What HAS changed, is that we don't want to put in the effort any more to understand your problem. We just want you to buy a solution.

But no one BUYS that way. 

Which is why sales today is broken. And people DON'T want to do it. 

But what if we brought sales BACK to fixing problems?

What if sales people got be show up as experts in fixing a specific problem? Especially if it was a problem they were EXCITED to fix?

And then...what if we automated THAT?

What if sales people could work within your defined brand guidelines AND find their own voice and process that worked for them? And what if they had an AI co-pilot that could customize that for them?

In fact, it could customize EACH sales reps experience so that each one of them could sell as much as THEY could. What could THAT look like for revenue?

That's Velocity.AI. And I'm SUPER stoked to be working as a Strategic Advisor with this phenomenal organization to bring that reality to the world. 

Because Sales People deserve to be people too 💖

Strategic Advisor

Online Cardio Dance with Tracy Borreson

I love to dance. And I love fitness. So when Zumba became a thing, I was convinced that I was going to teach that. But when I started taking the classes, I realized that it was made for people who could pick up choreography very quickly…people who were already dancers. But, what about all the people who loved to dance who weren’t good dancers, or had little experience? Didn’t those people deserve a dance workout as well?

So, I created Cardio Dance. A fitness program that includes all kinds of dance styles, works the entire body, but focuses on simple dance moves so anyone can get the most out of the workout. 

I taught the class at Trico Centre in Calgary for 6 years. It was the longest running registered class they ever ran. 

In March of 2020 when the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trico Centre shut down as well. But I couldn't very well leave my students high and dry like that. So, we moved online. The first few classes I taught were Facebook lives (not ideal), and then we moved over to Zoom. And huge thanks to Zoom who has made their platform MUCH better for this purpose since then!

We have a small but mighty contingent of Cardio Dancers that dance together online every Wednesday (6:30pm Mountain Time) and Saturday (10:30am Mountain Time), and every once in a while, when there are 5 weeks in a month, we have a Free Trial Class! If you ever want to give one a try, DM me :)

Cardio Dance Instructor

The All-In Mom

Although the site has since been disbanded, I launched The All-In Mom blog when I was on maternity leave. As a new mom, there were so many things I found people weren’t talking about, and I wanted to create a platform to open up the conversation about so many things that were flying under the radar when it came to parenting. 

I blogged about what’s normal vs. what’s common, a theme that was introduced to me as part of a Post-Natal Personal Training Program I took on maternity leave. I blogged about how to actually FIND something you love that gives you the time and space to re-energize yourself. I blogged about work-life balance, creating moments, being the change we want to see in the world, time management and wardrobes. I blogged about how children are the mirrors into ourselves, and how we can use that to learn more about ourselves to create our own personal development journey. All of that eventually morphed into how Personal Branding could empower our parenting. All in all, there were some great articles from myself and others in the space that were meant to empower moms specifically to bring their awesomeness to the world. 

But once I launched my own business and started blogging more often about Personal Branding from a wider lens, it just didn’t make sense to upkeep two separate blogs. The last post on that site was in December 2020; A New Direction for 2021. The essence of the entire All-In Mom experience is outlined in that blog (which I also published on the TLB Coaching & Events blog). It’s about the power of being yourself; of turning off the noise to hear the real you inside. 

I still blog from time to time, but now solely on the TLB Coaching & Events website.

Blogger

SPLICE Software

Once I was in this role, I had a huge realization: that the thing I loved the most was coaching people. Now in charge of two departments, I had an amazing opportunity to coach each individual team member in the way THEY needed it, to empower them to do their job in the way that felt good for them.

I coached each team member for an hour a week. We worked on their goals. We developed individual processes that worked for them to reach those goals. And it was amazing to watch the team grow. For many individuals, it meant that they grew beyond the team and got move onwards and upwards in their careers.

But something was nagging at me. I now had sent my son back to daycare full time, and there was something that kept telling me that the time I was spending at work wasn’t a good trade.

That message became louder when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020. I started working from home; my husband started working from home, and Nicholas couldn’t go to daycare. Suddenly, 100% of the time I spent working was in direct contrast to time that could have been spent with Nicholas; making memories with him as a small boy that I would never be able to get back. And that instinct became over-riding for me. 

In June of 2020, I gave my resignation. Not because of anything SPLICE had done wrong, but because, at that point in my life, I needed to be with my family, and not work 60+ hours a week. I left believing I could find a way to spend half the amount of time working and make the same amount of money. So, I started to look for ways to do that.

VP of Marketing

After taking my year of maternity leave (thanks Canada!) I knew I didn’t want to go back to work full time. Which also meant that managing the team from the top didn’t make sense, because I wouldn’t be available the way I would want. So, I came back in a Project Management capacity. 

But I really struggled with the role. I was so used to being “all-in” and trying to manage my new expectations of myself was extremely difficult. I needed to figure out how I could go all-in working only 15 hours a week (from probably 60ish before maternity leave), to make an impact that felt good for me AND the rest of the team. 

Luckily, about 4 months after I got back, a new project got thrown at me: The Website Project. The Marketing Team (which didn’t include me at this point), was redoing the entire site and was behind schedule. I came in as the PM to get the new site released as quickly as possible, while still making all of the relevant changes. 

Well, we got it done. We changed the site from 42 pages to a simple 8. Highly focused, highly optimized, and speaking to a specific audience, with a specific goal. We defined what role the site was playing in the marketing and sales cycle and built it for THAT, instead of it being all things at all times. It has since been through some more iterations, but I was super proud of it. 

The success of that project led the CEO to offer me a part-time VP of Marketing role. I wasn’t sure how I could be a part-time VP, but she seemed confident, so I took her up on it. Then, 4 months later, when the VP of Sales resigned, there was no one better to run the joint Sales & Marketing departments than me. So, back to full time I went.

Client Success Project Manager - New Endeavours

This was an opportunity to restructure the internal team as well to help them get as much satisfaction from their jobs as possible. I implemented two key leadership practices that allowed this to happen:

1) Start-Stop-Keep Conversations that would help me understand what I could Start doing that would help the team, what I should STOP doing (things that are hindering them) and what I should KEEP doing, because they depend on it.

2) Love/Loathe Lists as part of our annual reviews. These helped me to see what job activities people liked and didn’t like, and allowed me to restructure job responsibilities so that everyone can do more of what they love. 

This created a team of specialists instead of a team of generalists. Whereas before everyone on the team could do every task, afterward, each team member had one key responsibility and they got really good at that. Account Managers were the relationship experts. Data Analysts were data experts. Voice Engineers were sound experts. And each client not only got an Account Manager, but a team of experts to create the success they were looking for. 

And it worked. Client Success rates were off the charts. Client retention was 100% YOY. The team loved their jobs and got to grow and learn in the areas they enjoyed. Everyone was winning. 

And then, I got pregnant with my son. It seemed like perfect timing. The team was functioning beautifully. The clients were all happy. Our portfolio was growing nicely. Everything was going to be fine. I would go on Maternity leave and the team would handle it. And then I would come back, and everything would be the same. What I didn’t count on was the fact that I wouldn’t be the same when I came back.

Senior Vice President of Client Success

And so, I became the Director of Client Care. All client experience rolled up to me at the end of the day...and I was all about it. Because, to me, it’s always about the human experience; how can I improve the employee experience so THEY can create the best client experience. And, how can we use the software to create the best END customer experience? The puzzle of optimizing all these experiences was my jam.

I gained a lot more leadership experience in this position. I got to practice hiring for the first time, although I would still say that, based on those hires, I leave something to be desired in the hiring department. My track record with hiring was NOT great, and quite honestly, I still have a lot to learn about how to hire well…although, in retrospect, I think there might have been a bit of a misalignment between what I was looking for and what my boss was looking for. 

The biggest success I was a part of during this time was the opening of our offices in Chicago. It was the first time SPLICE had hands-on-the-ground in the US (although most of the clients were already there), and it was my first time to go to Chicago. The next time you’re in Chicago, if you haven’t tried Garrett’s popcorn, it’s a MUST! I would make our Chicago team bring me some Chicago mix every time they came to Calgary for a team event :)

After a while, and with more additions to the leadership team, the management layer was re-structured to remove Directors and go directly to a VP level. Since I had been with the company for so long, and because of the team's tendency to default to me when my boss (the CEO) was out of the office, I was given the new title of Senior Vice President. At that time, we also decided that my role was more about creating success for the clients than just taking care of them, so I became the Senior Vice President of Client Success.

Director, Client Care

I joined the SPLICE Software team in their Calgary offices in 2012. Remember SPLICE from earlier in the story? Yes! They were the ones that ran the VIP events for The Brick, and had expanded to a bunch more international furniture retailers by the time I joined the team. Here’s to staying connected to your contacts after you leave one organization…I simply reached out to Tara Kelly when I decided to come to Calgary and asked her if she had a position for me. Luckily, she said yes. 

Client Operations Manager was a new role when I joined the team, and I got to standardize a bunch of processes. I remember the very first campaign template I made in Excel, which has a fancy calculator that would tell you the due date of all the pieces of a campaign if you just put in the event date. I think there were still people using that, at least for training, when I left :)

Because of my background in Marketing, I always did a lot of marketing support for the team as well, especially when it came to representing the company at trade shows. I got to attend my first international event in Vegas the first October after joining the team and I was in heaven! Meeting all types of people, sharing with them a solution that created an amazingly unique experience for customers, it really was a dream. 

As the SPLICE Team continued to grow, and because I’m such a big fan of supporting other people in growth as a team, it was pretty clear that I would be added to the Management layer at some point. That point came when the VP of Marketing abruptly left and I became the interim VP of Marketing. But running Marketing AND client programs was too much, and so my boss let me choose which direction I wanted to go. Because of my past relationship with Marketing, and my love for taking care of people, I chose the Client Care route.

Client Operations Manager

Kirk Marketing

I joined the Kirk Marketing team as a Project Manager and quickly worked my way up to Senior Project Manager and then Team Lead, thanks to the support of my wonderful manager. 

The number one thing I learned at Kirk was how leadership can influence a rising star. After only a few months on the team, my manager observed how I naturally fell into a role of taking care of the rest of the team, and supporting them to get their jobs done the best way possible. He offered me a six month trial as official “Team Lead”, after which, if I liked it, I could stay Team Lead, and if I didn’t, I could simply go back to being a Senior Project Manager. Since the risk was so low, I went for it!

And never looked back, from a leadership perspective. 

I learned that one of my favorite things to do is to learn about people so that we can find better ways for everyone to perform. Whether that means new processes, training, or team building activities, we explored it all. And we had a kick-@$$ team because of it. 

I would have stayed at Kirk for much longer, but personal life got in the way. 2 weeks of vacation were spent every year going to Edmonton where my family was (if you know, you know) and my personal relationship was falling apart. I needed to be closer to my family for those reasons, and so I had to give my resignation. I cried when I gave it, because I did NOT want to leave. If remote work was available at that time, I might STILL be with Kirk (although it has since been bought out by a larger organization). Of all my work experiences, it was one of the best; the best leadership hands down. But, to get closer to my family, I went to Calgary for the next chapter.

Senior Project Manager & Team Lead

Honeycomb Direct Mail

Work-wise, most of what I did at Honeycomb was the same as at Pennylane but with two major differences. It was the first time that I got to work on RFP’s (Requests for Proposals) on behalf of the company, for some REALLY big pieces of work. And it was my first introduction to sales and networking. 

When I entered the networking arena for the first time I was SUPER nervous. I remember going to a local marketing industry event in downtown Vancouver and having NO idea what to say or do. But one of the things I always knew about myself was that I would figure it out, so I just started talking to people. But first, I listened.

I developed a networking strategy I still use today which is based on:
 - Getting a feel for the room by tapping into the energy in different conversations
 - Finding a group that seemed to fit my vibe (I wasn’t always right, but it was a good start)
 - Listening first to see if there was anything I could contribute
 - Adding some flavor with a story of my own to get into the conversation
 - Going with the flow

It’s funny to write that out now, because it’s the same thing I do in my virtual conversation spaces still. I guess some habits do die hard.  

During my time at Honeycomb, the VP of Marketing from one of the local competitors called me out of the blue and asked me to coffee. I didn’t know what was the right thing to do, so I said yes. Since I really enjoyed that conversation, and felt so at home when I met the team, I took him up on the opportunity to leave Honeycomb and join the team at Kirk Marketing.

Direct Marketing Advisor

Russell House Marketing

In my search to find a new opportunity within marketing to test my passion, I discovered Pennylane Communications, owned by Russell House Marketing, which was just down the road from The Brick. I really loved the opportunity to ADVISE people in a marketing capacity instead of solely focusing on execution, so I jumped right in.

It was my first time working in any sort of production-oriented environment. As a print shop, I got to learn all about paper stock, print speeds, mailing costs and all the different ways to distribute a message to a person. Mass mail, direct mail, addressed, unaddressed, targeted or not, it was amazing to learn all the ins and outs of getting mail to people’s doors. 

The greatest challenge I experienced at Pennylane was not anything work related, but culture related. It was the first time that I was REQUIRED to eat lunch away from my desk. At the time, I really couldn’t understand that, as it took me away from getting more work done. We had to do all of our calls via video chat (LONG before Zoom was a thing), which I hated at the time, but can see the value in relationship building now (the head office was in Halifax). The one thing I did love was that, if you took your entire 2 week vacation allotment at one time, you got a bonus week…the management was WAY ahead of their time in encouraging employees to take their time off. As a 26 year old I didn’t understand it, but I do now. 

My biggest win here was the opportunity to move to Vancouver as part of the corporate buyout of Honeycomb Direct Mail. When my boss asked if anyone would be interested in going to Vancouver to help set up the new shop, I volunteered! I spent three days in Vancouver meeting the team and finding a condo, and then over I went!

The Brick

Yes! It did pan out. I finally was in a role that should keep me busy full time, and would give me budget responsibility. That’s what everyone wants right? 

The biggest challenge in this role was how important direct marketing was in the overall marketing scheme. At the time, SO much budget was allocated to flyers and TV, and even newsprint. All non-direct mechanisms. So I challenged myself to use 1% of the budget (that’s all direct marketing got) to create the largest ROI of any marketing strategy. Why? Because I believed in the power of 1:1 relationships (still do).

That’s when the team from SPLICE Software showed up and pitched us a VIP event with personalized phone invitations. It was so different from all the paper mail and email personalized invitations we had done, and since I’m all about growth, I was all over it. After a small pilot that delivered HUGE results, we rolled the program out nationally. As far as I know, some of those events are STILL the largest sales days in the history of the company. 

But that didn’t really make me feel like I was making a contribution that mattered. I implemented the Passport to Fitness Program, facilitating daily workouts for corporate employees. THAT felt amazing, especially the feedback from one participant that she lost 75 pounds and found a new sense of self-confidence through the program. THAT felt closer to the contribution I wanted to make. 

That experience made me realize that I wasn’t making MY contribution in my actual work. It made me question whether marketing was the right place for me, and I strongly felt that I needed to test that out. The right move for me was to go somewhere else, still in a marketing capacity, to do that.

Direct Marketing Coordinator

After I graduated from University, I took a couple of months off before focusing on finding a job. During that time, my dad, who was working at The Brick at the time, asked me if I could come in and help him with some presentation material for a week. I said sure. Three days in, the CEO of the company asked me if I wanted to be the new Event Coordinator. And I thought…I can take everything I learned as a party host and get paid to do that full time? I’m in. 

My biggest challenge here was to not just be “Owen’s daughter”. So many people thought I got the job because my dad was a VP. And quite honestly, that really WAS why I GOT the job. But I wasn’t going to let that be the ONLY reason. 

When I got the opportunity to run an autograph session with Cindy Crawford (we were launching her line of furniture), I owned it. We designed the store so it was secure. I found ways to meet all the requirements of her rider. I planned a private meet & greet for the staff. I’ll always remember walking around those events, with my walkie talkie on the belt of my power suit, and thinking, “I’ve made it”. I coordinated a thing to create a specific experience, and it delivered on all fronts. 

And all of a sudden, I wasn’t in my dad’s shadow. I WAS the Event Coordinator. 

Honestly, there weren't really enough events to plan to keep someone, especially someone like me, who is all about efficiency, busy. So, when the Direct Marketing Manager left the team, I asked my boss if I could move into that role. Did that transition pan out? Check out the next chapter of the story.

Event Coordinator

History tells us we can't "belong" unless we're the SAME. But what if we could create Togetherness based on our uniqueness instead?

I never had one space where I belonged when I was growing up. I always flitted between a whole bunch of spaces.

I wasn’t a cool kid by any stretch of the imagination. BUT, I was on the sports teams (basketball and volleyball), and the cool kids were on the sports teams, so I fit in ENOUGH to be “safe”. I wasn’t an artist, but I did paint watercolor and dance. So, I fit in ENOUGH there as well, although I was never a top performer. I primarily identified as a “nerd”; I loved school and I learned all the things that I could; so much so that I took an EXTRA Academic Challenge class “for fun”. That made me fit in with the academics ENOUGH, but I was the only one who traded study time for softball practice. 

I never 100% fit into any of those predefined categories. Which also meant that I never had a place where I could be myself 100%. I could be ONE specific part of myself at a time. I couldn’t bring my interesting science factoid to the basketball team. I couldn’t be in the school musical, because basketball practices and musical rehearsals were at exactly the same time. I couldn’t turn off my artistic side in my IB classes, and it showed in my grades compared to my classmates who focused solely on academics.

And so, I got good at being who I needed to be in any given space. A Jack-of-All Trades per se; if each “trade” is a part of my identity.

But when I became a mom, I looked at this path and compared it to what I want for my astounding multi-dimensional son. I realized how often I had to hide the pieces of myself growing up; and while that made me a “master of disguise”, I don’t want my son to have to hide any piece of himself EVER. I might be able to “fit in” anywhere, but I never had a place to belong. And all I want my son to feel is that he belongs, no matter what.

He deserves it. And I deserve it. 

My LinkedIn profile is a place where I actively curate belonging; primarily for me (because I deserve it), and for everyone who comes here. 

So if you’re looking for a place to belong, WELCOME 💖

Tracy Borreson

What does it TRULY look like to be collaborative as an entrepreneur? Well, if you haven't found something that works for you, the best thing to do is experiment...and this event is where you do precisely that 😉

Come and join us for the next LAB on November 20th!

#collaboration #entrepreneurship #connection #community

History tells us we can’t “belong” unless we’re the SAME. But what if we could create Togetherness based on our Uniqueness instead?

View event: Collaborative Entrepreneurship Lab

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The Battle

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Tracy Borreson

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The Battle

David Hannan

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