Hi Friends,

I’m baaaack!

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been (or perhaps blissfully had a slightly less full inbox), I just returned from a 9 day trip to magical Tulum and the beautiful Riviera Maya of Mexico. It was a wonderful time offline and a great reminder of how important taking a break is to fuel growth but I won’t dwell on that today - time off for most of us is approaching in the coming weeks and we’ll talk about how to leverage and enjoy it as it comes.

Instead, today I’d like to share my unexpected lessons from how we started the trip: attending the beautiful wedding of an amazing couple that also, along with some wedding guests, happen to be celebrities 🤩

Sorry People, this will definitely not be a wedding tell-all (I’ll leave that exclusive to the professionals at Vogue) but instead I’ll dig into my own reflection that struck me at the event and continues to reappear 1+ week later: there is clear duality of living a life in the spotlight and there is very real power in being unknown allowing you to be your own author in leading an aligned and evolving life.

I’ll be hosting a free virtual workshop next week to define and help you lean into that power - you’ll walk away with clarity on what you want in your next career chapter and how to best connect your past experience to positioning yourself for what you want most. Those that are looking to make career transitions or get promoted in 2024, you don’t want to miss this:

Now let’s dig in…

Clarify 💡

Some of you may be thinking - “what duality? Celebrities have it all.” I’m sure all of us have daydreamed of living a life in the spotlight - all the money & the fame. And yes, if we measure power only by influence, they have a lot of power.

But celebrities can also be confined by people’s attention and expectations - whether an actress or a baseball player, fans and the general public have preconcieved notions of who they are, often believing they know them when they’ve never met. Their success and career trajectory is constantly compared to what they’ve done before, even if it was a Disney original movie 18 years ago. And, no matter how hard celebrities try, they are often not the only authors in how their career unfolds and how people perceive them.

An alternative definition of power that I prefer is that of authority or control and in relation to self, I define having power as having freedom. Freedom to express yourself in ways that best align to who you really are. This can involve shifting careers, adapting your lifestyle, evolving your opinion while having the freedom to shape the narrative of that change on your own terms.

Famous people are human - although some of their days attending red carpet events or filming on set look different than most - other days are often not far off from our own (cue the US Weekly Stars - They’re Just Like US! feature 🙃).

Except, when it comes down to how they navigate life, they aren’t just like us. And many of us have power that they don’t have: the power to be unknown. We hold the pen to writing our own next chapter and craft our own narrative but many of us don’t lean into that power. We don’t even know where to start.

Well, after navigating my own career transitions and helping hundreds this year write their next chapter, I know where to begin and it starts with gaining clarity on exactly what you want your next chapter to be.

I invite you to harness the last weeks of 2023 to pick up your pen, with my help, by joining next week’s free Cultivate Your Career: Gain Clarity & Connect Your Dots Workshop:

if you can’t attend live, a recording will be sent - space is limited!

Connect 🤝

Clarity on what you want and need next in your career without taking action is just dreaming and is how you stay stagnant. If you dream of writing a book and visualize yourself at a book reading or accepting a literary award but never put pen to paper, your current reality, when you’re out of your dreaming mode, will become more unfulfilling and you unhappier.

But if you take action, even starting small with one page a day, you’ll start to see your current reality connect to your next chapter (ok ok I’ve maybe taken the literary theme too far with this one).

Although saying you need to write to be a published author or buy a lottery ticket to win the lottery seem glaringly obvious, many of us aren’t writing that page or buying that ticket - we’re just dreaming of what could be. If that sounds familiar, it’s likely because you don’t believe in yourself and dreaming of the result is safer than potentially failing in the pursuit.

Another reflection from the nuptials: the happiest high profile people generally disregard public perception of them and swing for the fences when it comes to realizing their dreams. And they do that because they believe in themselves and they accept failure as part of the process. They posess self-confidence.

I’m not here to give a full pep talk because that’s not really my lane but I will tell you how to hack this mindset even if you’re feeling far away from your strongest self and it starts with:

Connecting Your Dots

Here’s a quick quiz for you:

If you’re not entirely sure or don’t believe you have what it takes to reach your goals, let’s dig into it next week. No matter how ambitious your career goal is (I’m talking Broadway actors transitioning into a sustainability career….something I’ve helped facilitate), your confidence to do so all lies in giving yourself data points: transferable skill themes.

If you’re interested to learn what the heck I’m talking about and how to gain that confidence and leverage those themes to position yourself in a way that stands up, next week’s workshop would be a wonderful use of your time.

Confidently Communicate 🗣️

Do you ever wonder how famous people project so much confidence when they talk about their next project? Well for some, they act for a living soooo it may not be genuine. But, I’ve realized for many, their positivity and excitement about their next chapter is authentic because they are clear on what they’re going after and they believe, from their own past experience, that they can do it. They communicate this so confidently because they also know they have a well curated network, in this case fans, family, friends and industry supporters, that will help make it a success.

Whether you believe it or not, you have that network too. It’s likely not in the form of millions of social media followers or screaming fans** but guess what? That means you’re a lot closer to actually knowing who really are your friends and supporters.

But your network can’t help you if you don’t tell them what you’re working on. Whether you’re looking for a new role, starting a business or seeking a promotion, you’ll get there much faster including others in your journey. I”ll share exactly how to do this in a way that doesn’t give you the ick next week - those that sign up will gain access to SO many free resources and some incredible 2024 offers.

**although if you have these and are reading this, let’s chat about a collab 😎

This week…

Until next Sunday! (I promise…no more breaks for a while!)

Jess Storiale