Moonshot Mentor with Laverne McKinnon

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comRemember when lockdown happened and there were all those stories about people showing up to Zoom meetings looking perfectly presentable from the waist up — and if you got a peek below the camera line, you’d find them in their underwear and socks?I loved that. It was so human. So real.It was a great contrast to the pressure to get my wardrobe choices right. All those spoken and unspoken rules: Women wear heels, men keep shirts tucked. Dress for the role you want, not the one you have. First impressions happen instantaneously and last a lifetime — so be careful of what your sweater says about you.When we all worked remotely in 2020, those rules — and a gazillion others — started feeling more like suggestions.But here’s the thing about rules going soft, whether by a global pandemic or a career transition, chosen or not: it’s disorienting. When the pre-approved look comes off, a lot of people don’t know what to put on instead. Because for years, the job dressed them, in every sense of the word. And when the job changes, so does the style guide.When I made the transition out of corporate and into indie filmmaking, my Manolos and Pradas were not only inconvenient on set — they genuinely felt like a costume I’d been wearing for decades.If you’re in the middle of a career change, contemplating one, moving up, or been pushed into one, you may no longer feel confident about what to wear — or even who you’re dressing for anymore. When you open your closet, do you stand there longer than you used to?What Your Wardrobe Is Actually Asking YouHere’s what I’ve come to believe: getting dressed during a career transition isn’t really a fashion problem. It’s a values question.Let me explain what I mean.When I was in an executive gig, I genuinely valued the stability of that world — the sense that I could build something there over decades. Wearing those Manolos was part of that deal. I knew the rules, I understood the culture, and I made a conscious choice to dress for it. It wasn’t always comfortable, but it was mine to choose.My brother Jim is a great counterexample. Jim would sooner show up to a board meeting in a tuxedo than wear a suit to work — and he never has, except on his wedding day. He works in construction because he loves the outdoors, loves working with his hands, and is completely at ease getting grubby. His wardrobe is a direct expression of what he values. He just never had to think about it because his work and his values were two peas in a pod.When you’re in a career transition, you get a chance to ask a question most people never pause long enough to consider: Does what I’m wearing actually reflect what I value? Or have I just been dressing for someone else’s idea of who I should be?.The Difference Between Choosing and DisappearingWhen I dress in a way that feels true to me, I can regulate my nervous system. I stay grounded. I stay clear. In high stakes situations — interviews, pitches, hard conversations — that is an incredible advantage.At the same time, I’m not going to pretend the external piece doesn’t matter. It does. Every industry has a visual language. Every culture has unspoken dress codes. The goal isn’t to ignore that. The goal is to look at it clearly and decide — consciously, on your own terms — how much of it works for you and how much of it doesn’t.That’s the distinction I want you to hold onto: there’s a difference between choosing to dress for a culture and being swallowed by it. One is a decision. The other is erasure.Which brings me to someone I want you to meet.And Then There’s DacyDacy Gillespie is an anti-diet, weight-inclusive personal stylist whose Substack is about letting go of what you’ve been told to wear so you can find what’s actually yours. She also made a significant career pivot herself — from musician to stylist — so she knows firsthand what it feels like to rebuild your identity from the inside out.Where my work lives in the values and identity side of this conversation, Dacy lives in the practical, embodied, what-do-I-actually-put-on-my-body side. Together we cover a lot of ground.I’ve invited her to join me for a live conversation on Wednesday, April 9th at 12pm PST right here on Substack. We’re going to talk about her pivot, what it taught her, and what to wear when you’re job searching, interviewing, or just trying to figure out who you are now.No registration needed. Just show up. And if you have questions you want us to tackle, drop them in the comments below — or bring them live on the 9th.👉 Follow Dacy on Substack here.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* Is There Something Wrong With Me?* How Perfectionism Leads To Imposter Syndrome* Is Expertise Really All It’s Cracked Up To Be?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are three journal prompts for Solid Ground members. These are here to help you explore the connection between what you wear, what you value, and who you're becoming in this next chapter of your career.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comMost of us are gonna hit turbulence at one point or another in our careers. A faceplant. A missed opportunity. A project that goes sideways. A job that ends in a way that feels unfair or messy.The painful part is not just what happened. It’s what happens inside of you afterward.When a professional failure goes unprocessed, it turns inward. It shows up as imposter thoughts, burnout, low confidence, and that weird dread that kicks up when it’s time to take the next risk.Sometimes it even pushes people to abandon dreams they still care about, not because the dream stopped mattering, but because their internal capacity got depleted.That internal capacity to weather tough times is resilience. And when resilience is low, you don’t have the energy to keep going.What resilience means, for realResilience is your capacity to recover after something knocks you off course.I think of it like the elasticity in a pair of Spanx – they bounce back to their natural shape after having been stretched to their full capacity. I’m wearing Spanx under this dress and it’s like a modern day miracle how it bounces back!When our resilience runs low, rigidity kicks in because we have no energy to be supple and nimble. It’s like the shoes I wore with the dress. They had no give what-so-ever. They looked lovely and solid, but fell apart that night. They broke under pressure.In your work, rigidity might sound like I’m going to keep doing things the same way despite market contractions or expansions, new responsibilities, or that the tools of the trade have changed.Elasticity sounds like: I’m adjusting my approach because the market has altered, I have new challenges or I need to close a skills gap.One more thing that matters here.Resilience is not an endless spring of water. It’s a well. It gets drained by stress, disappointment, and unprocessed emotion. It gets refilled by rest, pleasure, community, and by taking the time to metabolize the turbulence that knocked you off your path.So yes, self-care helps.But processing is how you stop the leak.Seven steps to refill your resilience after a failureBefore you start re-filling with these steps, regulate your nervous system. If you try to do this work while you’re activated, your brain will turn it into a courtroom.Take a walk. Breathe slowly. Put on a favorite song and move your body. Do something that helps you feel grounded enough to think.Then walk through these steps.1. Name what happened: What failed. What went off track. What didn’t get done. Say it plainly, with as few adjectives as possible. Think: incident report, not inner monologue.2. Separate facts from story: Write down what you know is true, and what data supports it. Facts do not start with “I think” or “I feel.” Facts are observable. Then write down the story your brain added and notice how you are describing yourself and your part in what happened.3. Name the impact: What did this cost you. Time. money. reputation. confidence. belonging. a sense of safety. Motivation. This matters because resilience gets drained when the impact is real and unnamed.4. Own your part without blame: What was within your control that you would do differently next time. This is not the same as fault. It’s agency. Blame collapses. Agency mobilizes.5. Identify what changed: This is where elasticity comes in. What shifted that made your old approach less effective. Market conditions. leadership. resources. technology. expectations. Timing. If you skip this step, you’ll default to pushing harder at a strategy that no longer fits reality.6. Choose one course correction that matches your values: One small step. Not a life overhaul. Something you can do this week that aligns with who you want to be, even under pressure. A conversation you need to have. A boundary you need to set. A skill to update. A decision to stop discounting yourself. A new way of measuring progress.7. Close the loop with a refill: This is the part most people skip. You faced something tender. You told the truth. You chose agency. Now refill the well on purpose. Do something that signals to your system: the danger has passed. Rest. laughter. prayer. art. a meal. a long shower. calling a friend. sitting in the sun.Processing builds resilience because it reduces emotional drag. Refilling builds resilience because it restores capacity.Both matter.Case Study: HeatherHeather built a solid business as a copywriter. Then the last few years of AI advancement hit, and the work started drying up. Fewer gigs. Smaller budgets. Clients asking for “a quick rewrite” when what they really wanted was an entire campaign.It was devastating. Not just financially, but emotionally. She had built something she was proud of, and it felt like it was slipping out of her hands for reasons she couldn’t control.It also brought up shame.Her self-talk sounded like: I’m stupid. I should have seen this coming. I waited too long. I don’t know what I’m doing.When Heather and I started working together, we did not start with a pivot. We started with resilience.First, we named the facts. The marketplace had changed. Her clients were using AI tools to generate first drafts and they were hiring humans differently. They still needed thinking, positioning, voice, and editorial judgment, but they were no longer paying the same way for pure execution.Then we named the story. Heather had turned a market shift into an identity verdict that she should have seen this coming. So she was “naive” and “not cut out for this.”Next, we owned her part without shame. She had been trying to solve the problem by hustling harder, discounting her work, and saying yes to low value assignments because she was scared. That was the leak.Once she could see that clearly, she could see a course correction that matched her values: stop racing to the bottom, and start moving toward roles where her real advantage was still language, but at a higher altitude.Heather did a deep dive into how AI actually works in content workflows. The thing that felt like the enemy became a tool she could direct.She pivoted into content strategy and operations, helping a small team build an AI assisted content system that turns one strong idea into a smart set of assets across channels, without losing voice, clarity, or credibility.And here’s the quiet truth of that pivot.Heather did not abandon who she was. She carried her strengths forward and put them in a role that needed them.That’s elasticity.Bottom LineResilience is not about pretending something didn’t hurt.It’s the ability to recover your capacity after it did.When you process what happened with honesty and without turning it into a verdict about you, you stop bleeding energy. When you add intentional refilling, you restore enough internal room to make your next decision from clarity instead of fear.That’s how you get your resilience back.If you’re reading this and thinking, “Okay, but I still feel wrung out,” Solid Ground is for that. It’s my paid membership space for rebuilding capacity after career heartbreak so you can feel more like yourself again and get unstuck without white knuckling it. Monthly lessons and worksheets, live coaching, journal prompts, and guided meditations.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* Is There Something Wrong With Me?* How Perfectionism Leads To Imposter Syndrome* Is Expertise Really All It’s Cracked Up To Be?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 5 journal prompts for Solid Ground members. Use these to rebuild resilience after a recent professional hit, without turning it into a story about who you are.

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comOkay confession time. When I was getting my MBA, I had to take my statistics course twice.The problem wasn’t my capacity or that I was “bad at math.” I’m actually quite good at it. The issue was the teaching method. It was lecture heavy, and that’s not how I learn. It didn’t matter how hard I worked or how tenacious I was. Nothing stuck.And I really wanted my MBA because I believed it mattered for being considered for leadership roles in corporate environments. So I withdrew from my statistics class the first time because I couldn’t keep up. The second time, I hired a tutor to get me through it.What I realized with my tutor’s help is that I don’t learn well when I’m being lectured at. I need to read, write things down, and work through examples to make sense of them.So if you’re struggling to close a skills gap that affects your next career step, figure out what kind of learner you are so you can learn in a way that actually sticks.Why This Matters More Than It SoundsA skills gap is not just logistical. It can get emotional fast. I know C suite leaders whose confidence has taken a hit because they couldn’t learn quickly enough. It can show up as second guessing, slowed decision making, and playing smaller than they normally do.When the learning method fails, it can feel like proof that you’re behind, about to be found out, or not cut out for the next level.That proof is flimsy without a lot of evidence. A better explanation is often true. You’re using the wrong training format for your brain.The Four Learner TypesThink of the four learner types as a shortcut for choosing the right training. They describe how you take in information, how you make sense of it, and how you’re most likely to turn it into real skill on the job. Most people are a blend, but one or two types usually lead.Quick note: these categories are a tool, not a box. Use them to choose smarter methods, not to decide what you “can’t” do.* Visual learners: You learn best when you can see it. Diagrams, examples, demonstrations, a whiteboard moment where it finally clicks.* Auditory learners: You learn best by hearing and talking. Conversations, hearing it out loud, talking it out loud, listening, asking questions in real time.* Kinesthetic learners: You learn best by doing. Reps, role play, trial and error, building a tiny version, practicing in the real environment.* Reading and writing learners: You learn best through text. Clear steps, notes, frameworks, outlines, and writing your way into understanding.If you’ve been following me, you can probably see how I’m a reading and writing learner. I’m always providing frameworks and asking questions.Quick Self CheckHere’s a simple way to figure out how you learn.Start with a time you struggled to learn and it just wouldn’t stick. What format was being used: reading, watching, listening, or jumping in and doing it?Now think of something you learned more easily. How did you learn that one?You’re not hunting for a perfect label here. You’re noticing what makes learning click for you so you can choose training that matches your brain instead of forcing yourself through a method that keeps you stuck.Match The Training To The LearnerIf you’re a visual learner, stop forcing yourself to “just read the manual.” Find a short demo, a template, or a marked up example.If you’re an auditory learner, do not learn alone in silence. Find a live session, a study buddy, or record yourself explaining it and listen back.If you’re a kinesthetic learner, stop collecting information and start collecting reps. Practice first, study second. Use simulations, mock runs, and real world tasks.If you’re a reading and writing learner, give yourself clean instructions and time to synthesize. Take notes, create a checklist, and write a one page summary in your own words.When my youngest daughter was learning her times tables, we would drill them in the car. She hated it and never got them right. Then I realized she’s a kinesthetic learner. So we tossed a tennis ball back and forth as she ran the tables and everything clicked.Bottom LineIf you’ve identified a skills gap and you’re struggling to close it, don’t jump straight to “I should be able to pick this up faster.” Start by checking the training method. When you learn in a way that matches how you learn best, effort turns into skill, and skill turns into momentum. Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t more effort. It’s a different approach.Before You Go! A Special Invitation!If you’re longing to hear more personal stories and insights about how other folks are navigating career grief, join me this Thursday, March 26 at 9 am PST for a Substack live. My guest is global entrepreneur Amanda O who was a successful barbershop owner and YouTuber and is now an investor and coach. She has had some significant pivots in her career and we’ll be chatting about why it’s important to recognize not just the visible losses of career grief, but also the hidden ones. Come join us!If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* Is There Something Wrong With Me?* How Perfectionism Leads To Imposter Syndrome* Is Expertise Really All It’s Cracked Up To Be?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 3 journal prompts for Solid Ground members. Use these to spot the learning methods that actually work for you so you can close a skills gap without burning extra energy.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comYou got the interview. Yay.You prepared. Well done.You had great rapport with the hiring manager. Love that.You left thinking, “That went really well.”You send your thank you email. You tell them you felt energized by the conversation, you’re excited about the opportunity, and you’d love to be considered. You add the classic closer: let me know if you need anything else.Then crickets. What the heck happened?We don’t have a crystal ball, but a common place things go sideways is the thank you note.The Thank You Note Is Your Second InterviewThe hiring process is not a dinner party. Managers are trying to make a call with imperfect information. They’re trying to reduce risk and picture who will actually deliver once the role is real.A generic thank you won’t hurt you. It just won’t help you.So here’s what you gotta do. Put as much energy into your thank you email as you did to prep for the interview. The best follow up isn’t the one that repeats your enthusiasm. It’s the one that adds clarity.Reference a specific question that came up in the interview. Offer additional thoughts on how you’d approach it. Keep it short, keep it practical.You’re no longer asking to be chosen. You’re showing what it would feel like to work with you.How to Write the Follow Up That Helps Them DecideLet’s name what we’re doing here. A high signal thank you email is a short follow up that does two things at once: it shows appreciation, and it adds useful information.Pick up one thread from the interview and pull it a little further. One specific question. One challenge they mentioned. One priority they hinted at. You’re basically saying, I’ve been thinking about what you shared, and here’s how I’d start.Let’s unpack the thank you note without overthinking it.Right after the interview, open a notes app or grab a piece of paper and do a quick download. What did the two of you actually talk about? Most interviews have a few repeating themes:* A problem they need solved* A process that’s not working* A goal they’re trying to hit* A handoff that keeps breaking* A relationship they need managed betterYour job is to pick one. Then write your thank you email around that thread:* One line of appreciation that feels specific* One line naming what you heard as the challenge* Two or three lines with practical thoughts on how you’d approach itThat’s it.If you want to go one step further, you can add a simple attachment. A one page outline. A short list. A rough sequence of steps. Something skimmable that shows your thinking without trying to do free labor.Because the point is not to prove you can do everything. It’s to make it easier for them to picture you doing the job.That Time I Blew the Thank You NoteLet me tell you what I mean with a real example.Several years ago, before I fully pivoted into coaching and speaking, I interviewed for a deep-pocketed entertainment start up. I was a few interviews in when I finally met with the head honcho. During our meeting, she asked me what I would do in the first ninety days in the role?Well, I hadn’t prepared for that question. Most of the time, I interviewed with people who understood what the role required. But she was new to the industry so it was a legit question. But I bumbled it.And here’s where I wish I could time travel. I sent a thank you email that did what most thank you emails do. It expressed appreciation. It said I was excited. It closed with: let me know if you need any references.🤦🏽‍♀️What it didn’t do was pick up the thread she handed me. That ninety day question was the thread. The follow up was my chance to course correct: to be clear, succinct and specific about how I would approach the work.That would have done two things. It would have answered the question I fumbled. And it would have made it easier for her to picture me doing the job.I’ve since heard versions of this from HR leaders too. The follow up that moves the needle is rarely the warmest one. It’s the clearest one.Bottom LineIf you want your thank you email to matter, it has to do more than be polite. It has to be useful. Reference something real from the conversation and add a small piece of clarity. You are not trying to prove you are perfect. You are helping them feel more confident about choosing you.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* Five Reasons You May Be Stuck* Are Smart Career Moves Hiding In Plain Sight?* How Can You Stay Calm Under Stress?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 5 journal prompts for paid Moonshot Mentor members. Use these to upgrade your post interview follow up so your thank you note adds clarity and makes it easier for them to picture you doing the job.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comWhat if the reason you’re not getting what you want at work has nothing to do with your talent and effort? What if it has everything to do with where and how your actual workspace is set up?Maybe you want more money. More growth. More work-life balance. More freedom. More stability. More belonging. More meaning.Most people try to close that gap by doing more. More special projects to prove your worth. More networking to meet the “right” people. More closing of the skill gaps to remain relevant. More soul searching to figure out “what the heck am I doing?”Well, what if the issue is that your literal environment is stagnant and needs an upgrade? Welcome to the ancient Chinese wisdom and practice of feng shui: arranging space to direct energy toward specific outcomes.What Is Feng Shui, Really?Feng shui means “wind” and “water.” Movement and flow.At the center of feng shui is the concept of chi.Chi is life force energy. Think of it as the vibe moving through you and everything around you.In feng shui, chi either flows or it stagnates. When chi flows, opportunities circulate. When chi stagnates, things stall.This isn’t just mystical language. This practice has been around for thousands of years and is widely used today by everyone from interior designers to architects to entrepreneurs.How I Used Feng ShuiAfter it became clear in 2020 that working from home was not going to be a two week thing, I applied simple feng shui principles to my home office since it was no longer temporary. I saw my space declutter and my mind had a kind of spring-cleaning. From there, I made a decision to pivot out of my long career in the entertainment industry into being a full time career strategist and grief coach.Here’s the thing: Your environment shapes your nervous system. Your nervous system shapes your decisions. Your decisions shape your career.From an energetic lens, chi attracts what you circulate.If your space feels heavy, cramped, chaotic, or stale, that is the frequency you’re reinforcing every day.What Stagnation Looks LikePeople talk about how their careers have “stalled out” or “plateaued,” which is another way to say stagnant. Or there’s a general sense of malaise, it’s all fine, I don’t want to rock the boat, I’m lucky to have a job in this economy. Or there’s a real sense of fear and anxiety, what if this is it?Before you go deeper into that rabbit hole, consider that your environment may be under-supporting you.Here’s the part most people miss. Stagnation is not just a feeling. It has a physical footprint. It shows up in what’s around you, what you keep postponing, and what your eyes have gotten used to skipping over.Stagnation shows up as: • Piles you keep meaning to sort • Objects tied to roles you’ve outgrown • Broken items you’ve “learned to live with” • A workspace that feels dim, cramped, or forgottenIf you want to attract more money, more visibility, more recognition, more stability, clear what isn’t moving.Energy needs circulation before it can compound.Three Feng Shui Shifts to Move Career EnergyWhile I’m not a feng shui expert, I’ve tried these three feng shui shifts when I was pivoting and leveling up and they worked really well for me.1. Remove One Stagnant Object: Choose one item in your workspace that represents:• A job you resent• A rejection you’re holding• An identity you’ve outgrown• Something broken you’ve ignoredGet rid of it. Stagnant objects hold stagnant chi.One of the objects I removed was a lame ring light I bought for the endless zoom meetings I’ve been on since 2020. I wanted to keep up appearances while I watched the entertainment industry stall out, in an attempt to look like I was weathering it fine. Once I removed it, I felt more like me and that gave me confidence to make some hard decisions.Psychologically, stagnant objects create identity friction. Energetically, they trap movement.Clearing stagnant objects creates space for fresh circulation. And honestly, sometimes the “stagnant object” isn’t a thing. It’s a professional relationship that’s run its course. Not in a vicious, mean way. More like an honest assessment that you may have outgrown each other.I had an actor client who parted ways with their agent and booked more jobs after that, without a new agent. They felt freer to pursue opportunities the former agent never went after on their behalf.2. Activate Your Money FlowIf you’re trying to attract more money but your environment signals neglect, there’s a mismatch. Take a look at the space where you spend most of your time working. Let’s say it’s a desk.When you’re seated, the far-left corner represents wealth and self-worth. Place something living there. A small plant is ideal. Living things grow slowly and steadily. They require attention. They reflect investment.In feng shui terms, you’re signaling that money is welcome to grow here, and that you have the capacity to tend what you earn.In addition to a lot of fancy MBA techniques I use to figure out how to earn more money like tracking ROI and KPIs, SEO optimization, and paying attention to funnel metrics, I do have a small plant on my desk.While I can’t say for certain that the financial success of my coaching business is correlated to the Cyclamen plant, I feel happy when the flowers are blooming. When I’m happy, I have the energy to do the sales things I need to do to feed my company.3. Use a Mirror to Expand Stuck EnergyIn feng shui, mirrors are used to redirect and expand chi. They bounce light. They create the illusion of space. They shift the flow without requiring structural change.My client Jess was in the same role for five years and literally felt boxed in by cubicles and a lack of opportunity for advancement. So using feng shui, she placed an art deco mirror that belonged to her grandmother on her desk to gather good energy. The mirror was from the 1930s and it reminded Jess of just how strong and brave her grandma was, and it gave her a little more courage. She placed the mirror where it could capture light from a window and send it back into her workspace.In what some might call a fluke, her boss’ boss noticed it, asked about it, and they ended up talking about feng shui. Turns out he dabbled in it too. He was intrigued not just by the mirror, but by why Jess brought it in.While no magic promotion came about to alleviate her being in the same role for years, he did assign her a handful of special projects over the next six months that gave her two significant wins and more visibility. She was able to use that to revamp her resume and found a great job outside the company and left with his blessing and endorsement.That mirror was not for decoration. It was an energetic amplifier.When chi hits a wall, it stops. When chi hits a mirror, it moves.One rule. Don’t aim it at clutter. Mirrors expand what they reflect. Reflect light, order, and something that feels like the version of you you’re becoming.What to NoticeFeng shui is a rich opportunity to look at your environment and how it affects your state of mind and your well-being. Remember, your environment shapes your nervous system. Your nervous system shapes your decisions. Your decisions shape your career.So after you make one shift, observe. Do you feel clearer? Less irritated? More decisive?Energy shifts are subtle before they’re obvious.What we’re doing here is not passive, waiting for feng shui “magic” to get you more money, growth, balance, freedom, stability, belonging and meaning.It’s about developing a practice to be more aligned so that energy flows freely.Want To Go Deeper?If you’re as excited and intrigued as I am about feng shui and have questions and comments, I got you. On Thursday, March 12 at 12pm PST, I’m hosting a live conversation with feng shui expert Dorena Kohrs about how to apply these principles intentionally to your work life.We’ll talk about what “chi attracts” actually means in real life, and how to get things moving again. We’ll cover what to tweak when your career feels stalled, even if you’re doing everything “right.” And we’ll share practical shifts you can make without a perfect office or a big budget.If you’ve done the mindset work and the strategy work and something still feels blocked, this conversation is for you. Mark your calendars and bring your questions or submit them here!If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* Five Reasons You May Be Stuck* Are Smart Career Moves Hiding In Plain Sight?* How Can You Stay Calm Under Stress?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 6 journal prompts for paid Moonshot Mentor members. These will help you get clear on what you want at work and what kind of environment would actually support it.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comThere’s a moment that hits a lot of people right after a promotion or a new role.You have the new title. The bigger scope. The visibility.And then your brain goes: who do you think you are?If that’s happening to you, I want to offer one reframe that changes the whole experience.Imposter syndrome is not proof you’re unqualified. It’s what doubt sounds like when your courage puts you in a bigger room.Why This Shows Up Right When Things Are Going WellMost people think the goal is to eliminate doubt.But doubt is a normal response to new conditions. New team dynamics. New expectations. New exposure. New stakes.Your nervous system is doing its job. It’s scanning for risk. It’s trying to protect you from being judged, getting it wrong, or being seen as inexperienced.The problem is the interpretation.When doubt shows up, we often treat it like a capability report card. Instead of what it actually is: you adjusting to new conditions.The Five Common Flavors Of Imposter SyndromeImposter syndrome shows up in different ways, and sometimes we rotate through a few depending on the season. You might recognize yourself in one of these:* The Perfectionist: If it is not flawless, it does not count.* The Soloist: If I need help, I do not belong here.* The Superhuman: If I’m not excelling in every lane, I’m failing.* The Expert: If I don’t know everything, I shouldn’t be here.* The Natural Genius: If it’s not easy, maybe I’m not built for this.Notice what these have in common. They all turn growth into danger.Two Tools That Help, FastHere are two approaches I use with clients because they work without requiring you to become a different person.Tool 1: Hold two conflicting feelings at the same time. You can feel nervous and ready enough. You can feel exposed and still be the right person for the job. The goal isn’t to erase the doubt. It’s to make enough space to act with courage.Try this sentence: I can feel unsure and still lead well. That’s not a mantra. It’s a leadership skill. Senior roles involve incomplete information, messy tradeoffs, and decisions that can’t be validated in advance.Tool 2: Change the thought, change the feeling. Imposter syndrome thrives on vague thoughts that sound true because they feel intense. The antidote is precision. Here’s an example. You get the promotion and you think: “I’m not ready.” Now ask yourself: Ready for what, exactly? What’s the actual requirement in this moment? Most likely it’s something you know how to do or is in your grasp. And if it’s not, you wouldn’t have gotten promoted if you didn’t know how to solve a problem. Then rewrite the thought into something that’s truthful that you can act from.Try one of these:* I’m in the learning curve phase of this role.* I don’t need to know everything to be effective. I need to know what matters most.* I can figure this out as I go.* Accuracy calms the system. Vague drama ramps it up. And when you’re calmer, you make better decisions.A Quick Case StudyLinda had just landed her first C suite role as Chief Creative Officer. Big moment. Big visibility.And then week one happened.Seventeen people wanted her feedback. Seventeen. Meanwhile, she hadn’t even had time to read all the briefs, let alone form thoughtful opinions. Her brain did what brains do in new conditions. It turned a workload that would overwhelm anyone into proof she was an imposter.I’m behind. Maybe I don’t have what it takes.Linda’s imposter flavor was the Soloist. The voice that says, “If I need help, I shouldn’t be here.”So we used Tool 1. We practiced holding two truths at the same time: I’m leading this and I can ask for help. Then we added one simple thought that brought her back to earth: I’m not the first Chief Creative Officer in the history of media.Her next move was small, but it was a turning point. She reached out to a former boss and asked, “How did you handle the workload in your first month?”The workload didn’t disappear. But the spiral did. She stopped treating uncertainty like a red flag and started treating it like part of the job.Bottom LineConfidence is not the price of entry for leadership. Courage is.Doubt is not a verdict. It’s information about the moment you are in.Let evidence steer your decision, not the story in your head.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* How To Turn Powerful Failures Into Powerful Breakthroughs* The 3 Things To Do After You Lose Your Job* Why Does My Career Setback Still Bother Me?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 3 journal prompts for paid Moonshot Mentor members. Use these to separate what you’re feeling from what is actually true, so you can lead from clarity instead of self interrogation.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comMental health is a hot topic these days - as it should be! According to the World Health Organization anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder with approximately 4% of the world’s population affected. And stress is right there on its heels. According to the American Institute of Stress, around 35% of the U.S. population is feeling stressed. I get it! But what many people don’t get is that stress and anxiety are not the same thing. They are frequently lumped together which impacts your ability to deal with them. It’s like applying a band-aid to every ouch - except some ouches are a skinned knee and some are a broken heart. Instead, they need very different approaches. In this week’s blog, I take a deep dive into the distinctions between stress and anxiety and share coping mechanisms that have helped me. 

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comCareer grief is not just an emotional experience. It’s a physiological one.Most of us expect grief to look like tears, sadness, maybe anger. But a lot of the time, grief shows up as: “What is wrong with me lately?”For me, it’s looked like this.I wore my pants inside out and didn’t realize until I was already out in the world.I left the faucet on.I ate an entire pizza by myself, and not because I was celebrating. Because I was trying to feel something other than what I was feeling.In those moments, I wasn’t thinking: “I’m grieving.” I was thinking: “I’m losing it.”What was really happening:. I was experiencing a normal brain and body response to loss.How Grief Shows UpGrief is the natural response to any kind of loss. Not just death. Any loss. A job. A role. A team. A dream. A sense of status. A version of your future you were counting on.When grief goes unnamed and unmourned, your brain often can’t organize the experience. It can’t file it neatly because it keeps trying to treat the loss like a problem you should solve, not something you need to metabolize.So your body starts speaking up.That can look like exhaustion. Headaches. Insomnia. Appetite swings. Stomach issues. Muscles that feel tight, wired, and braced.If the physical stuff is not loud enough, grief can also show up cognitively. Trouble concentrating. Forgetfulness. Confusion. Rumination. Intrusive thoughts. That looping reel you can’t shut off.And then it shows up in behavior. Withdrawing from others, losing interest in things that once brought joy, avoiding certain places or people, or self-medicating just to get through the day.None of this means you’re broken. It means something inside you is trying to adapt to what has changed.The Real Problem Is Not The “Stupid” MomentsThe problem is that you’re doing “stupid” things and you’re making them mean something about your character.You start narrating it like this. I’m off my game. I’m losing my edge. I’m incapable.And that story adds a second layer of pain. Shame.That’s the part I want to interrupt.Because when you look at those symptoms at face value, they can seem random. But they’re not random. They’re signals. They point to something deeper. Unrecognized grief.Why Career Grief Can Feel Like an Existential CrisisCareer grief rocks more than your schedule and bank account. It rattles your psyche.Because work is rarely just work in our culture. It’s identity. It’s belonging. It’s validation. It’s structure. It’s the place we get reflected back to ourselves.So when work breaks, it can feel like you break.That’s why career grief can border on an existential crisis. It disrupts your sense of purpose, belonging, and identity.And when grief goes unacknowledged, the price is steep. You lose resilience. Not because you’re weak, but because your system is carrying a load it was never meant to carry alone.The Solution Is Compassion For The Non Emotional Parts Of GriefHere’s what I’m asking of you. Instead of treating your symptoms like personal failures, treat them like information.Compassion is not letting yourself off the hook. It’s seeing clearly what’s happening so you can respond with wisdom instead of self attack.Here are a few ways to practice that, especially if you’re in a season where you can’t stop everything and “process your feelings”.1. Name the loss, even if it feels small. Try a simple sentence. Something changed. Something ended. Something didn’t happen. You’re not trying to make it bigger than it is. You’re trying to make it real.2. Replace the character story with a body story. Instead of “I’m being an idiot,” try: My brain is overloaded. My nervous system is on alert. My body is asking for recovery. That one change can lower shame fast.3. Build a tiny relief ritual. Not a life overhaul. A small, repeatable cue that tells your system: I’m paying attention. A short walk without your phone. A hot shower with the lights low. Ten minutes lying on the floor with one hand on your chest. A meal that is not eaten standing up. It’s not glamorous. It’s effective.4. Reduce decisions for a week. Grief burns energy. Decision making burns energy. Stack them together and you start leaving faucets on. Choose two or three defaults for the week. Default breakfast. Default outfit. Default work start and stop time. You’re not becoming predictable. You’re becoming resourced.5. Tell one safe person the truth. Not the whole story. Just a true sentence. I’ve been more affected than I expected. My focus has been off. I’m dealing with more loss than I’ve named. Grief becomes more workable when it has language and witness.If you lead a team, this matters too. When a team goes through layoffs, reorganizations, leadership changes, or public setbacks, unprocessed loss doesn’t vanish. It goes underground.And underground grief tends to reappear as: More conflict over small things. More risk aversion. More second guessing. Lower trust. Lower energy.Leaders don’t have to turn the workplace into group therapy to address this. But they do need to name what changed and what it cost, at least in human terms.If you’re noticing strange mistakes, low morale, or unusually thin patience on your team, consider this question: What loss are we acting out that we have not acknowledged?Bottom LineIf you’ve been making “weird” mistakes, craving comfort food, forgetting simple things, or feeling uncharacteristically foggy, don’t rush to self judgment.Consider the more accurate explanation. Your body might be grieving.Career grief is not only emotional. It’s physiological. It shows up in your focus, your appetite, your sleep, your memory, and your ability to self regulate.The move is not to shame yourself into functioning. The move is to meet the symptoms with compassion, name what’s been lost, and give your system a little more care than you think it deserves.If you want support applying this to your own situation, I have three 1:1 coaching packages available right now. Book a consult to see if we’re a match.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* How To Turn Powerful Failures Into Powerful Breakthroughs* The 3 Things To Do After You Lose Your Job* Why Does My Career Setback Still Bother Me?Longing To Feel Lighter?Professional heartbreak can leave you spinning. You replay what happened, question your judgment, get stuck in indecision, and worry you’ll never get your mojo back.Solid Ground is the paid member program inside the Moonshot Mentor Substack community that helps you move from spinning to forward motion.Paid members tell me they feel less weighed down. Empowered. Relaxed for the first time in a long time. Here’s the thing. It’s not because they got a pep talk. It’s because they finally got an accurate explanation for what’s happening and a way through it.You’ll get monthly video lessons with a guided companion to help you apply the work, live coaching for real time support, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to rebuild confidence and make decisions without panic.Become a paid member to access Solid Ground, stop misdiagnosing yourself as broken, and start moving again.Journal PromptsHere are 5 journal prompts for Solid Ground members. Use these to connect the dots between what your body is doing and what your life has been carrying.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.comIf your career is shifting, your money story gets a vote in every decision you make. And it’s not because you’re bad at math or you “should have planned better.”It gets a vote because money is not just money. Money touches safety. Options. Identity. What you can say yes to. What you have to say no to. And when work gets uncertain, money stops being background noise. It walks right up to the microphone and says, “Hello, hello? Is this thing on?”I learned this the hard way.The first time my unspoken money story showed up was in my early twenties, when I was transitioning jobs and going through a divorce. At the time, I was (barely) earning more than my husband who was a middle school teacher. When we separated, he asked for financial support.I felt guilty about the state of our marriage, so I agreed. And then guilt met fear, and I made a decision I could not sustain. I racked up a lot of credit card debt trying to keep everything looking fine.It got so bad I had to cut myself off from my credit cards and use the envelope system. Actual cash in actual envelopes. Gas. Food. Utilities. Car repair. There were no envelopes for going out, clothing, or self care.All I could hear in my head was: “There isn’t enough. There will never be enough.”That sentence didn’t come out of nowhere. It was inherited.My dad grew up during the Great Depression. My mom lived in poverty in Japan during World War II. Not having enough was a true, lived experience for them. I’ve been fortunate to have enough, but that generational trauma is in me.This is why I’m writing about money in a post about career strategy.Because during a setback, a pivot, or a dry spell between gigs, your money story is going to cast a vote. It will influence what work you take. How quickly you panic. Whether you avoid looking at your accounts. Whether you undercharge. Whether you overgive. Whether you freeze.You do not have to shame yourself for that. You do have to notice it.Your Money StoryYour money story is the relationship you have with money. It’s what money represents to you. What it proves. What it threatens. What it feels like.For some people, money equals safety. For others, it equals freedom. For others, it equals worth.And for a lot of high achieving people, especially in unpredictable industries, money becomes evidence. Evidence that you’re doing it right. Evidence that you’re still viable. Evidence that you can relax.That is a lot to ask of money.When work gets shaky, money anxiety gets loud. And money anxiety tends to do two things at once.First, it triggers your nervous system into threat mode.Second, it distorts perception, so those panicked thoughts start masquerading as reality.So before we “do the numbers,” I want to offer something that sounds simple, but changes everything.Regulate your nervous system first, then look at the truth.Regulate First, Before All ElseMy client “April” came to see me in full blown panic. It was early 2024. As an actress and writer, she had already been hit hard by the COVID years, then the 2023 strikes happened. Her nervous system was a wreck and she was in constant panic and she couldn’t “see clearly.”Before we opened a spreadsheet, we worked with her body. Not because breathwork pays rent. But because you cannot make a clean career decision when your system is convinced you’re in danger.Here are a few regulation tools we used. They’re practical. You can do them in your car. You can do them before you open your banking app. You can do them when you feel that familiar drop in your stomach.Nervous System Regulation Tools* Extended exhale breathing. How to do it: Inhale for 4. Exhale for 6 or 8. Do 6 to 10 rounds.* Why it works: Longer exhales tend to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps your body settle so your mind can think.* EFT Tapping. How to do it: Tap gently on points like the side of the hand, eyebrow, side of the eye, and collarbone while you say a simple two part sentence. The first part names what you’re feeling or noticing. The second part adds a cue of safety, choice, or self support. You’re not trying to talk yourself out of the feeling. You’re reminding your body you can stay here with it. Example: “Even though my money story is loud right now, I’m the one who gets to choose.”* Why it works: Pairing steady tapping with naming what’s true can lower intensity and help your nervous system shift out of alarm, so you can access clarity and make decisions without rushing.* Deep pressure touch. How to do it: Use a weighted blanket, drape something heavy over your shoulders, or press a firm pillow to your chest for 2 to 5 minutes.* Why it works: Deep pressure can be calming because it gives your body a clear sense of containment.* Wall support. How to do it: Stand with your back against a wall. Feet grounded. One hand on your chest, one on your belly. Stay for 60 to 90 seconds.* Why it works: Your body gets a felt sense of support. That matters when everything feels uncertain.These are not magic tricks. They are proven techniques. A way of telling your body, we are safe enough to look.Because that is the real goal. Safe enough to look. Safe enough to get honest. Safe enough to make a decision that’s not driven by panic.And once you can do that, you can meet your money story directly.How To Find Your Money StoryWhen money feels tense, a lot of people do one of two things. They obsess, spiraling into worst case scenarios. Or they avoid, hoping the problem will magically get quieter.This exercise is a third option.It slows everything down. It gives you distance from the fear. It turns the swirl into language. And when something becomes language, you can work with it. I learned this tool from my first coach, Mona Miller (RIP), and I still use it today because it is highly effective at getting underneath the noise quickly.Here’s the writing prompt with the goal to not edit. Just write what comes up and don’t judge it.Dear Money,When I look at you, I see…When I look at you, I feel…When I look at you, I think…When I look at you, I believe…When I look at you, I act like…Signed, [Your Name]Then reverse it and make the letter from Money to you.Dear [Your Name],When I look at you, I see…When I look at you, I feel…When I look at you, I think…When I look at you, I believe…When I look at you, I act like…Signed, MoneyWhat we’re looking for are themes or patterns.For April, money was proof. Proof she was successful. Proof she was making the right choices. Proof she was still allowed to belong. So every dip in income felt like a personal failure.Once she saw that, she had leverage. Because now her money story was not running the meeting in secret.Career Strategy Comes Back When You Name What You Are ProtectingThis is the part that pulls everything together.When your money story gets loud, it starts pushing you toward choices that can step on your values. So we named April’s values, not as inspiration, but as a decision filter.April told me her values included achievement, freedom, love, and travel.Here’s what we noticed.Achievement turned into a scoreboard. Money became the proof she was doing it right, so she felt pressure to take anything immediately, even if it pulled her away from her dreams.Freedom got replaced with avoidance. She stopped looking at her numbers because she assumed they would trap her, which kept her trapped.Love turned into overgiving. She said yes to commitments she could not afford because disappointing people felt more dangerous than debt.Travel became a symbol of “I’m still okay.” If she couldn’t afford it, she felt like she was failing, so she swung between denial and deprivation.When she could see that pattern, she could interrupt it.First she regulated.Then she returned to her values.Then she looked at the numbers without spiraling.And when she did, she discovered she had more runway than she thought. Not infinite runway. But enough runway to choose with intention so she chose to hold off on travel so she could have more time to find a job that was a match for her.This is what I mean when I say your money story gets a vote. It will show up in the room. But it doesn’t have to run the meeting.Where We Go From HereAt this point, if you’re thinking, okay, but I still have a hundred questions, that makes sense. Some of them might be emotional. Some of them might be very practical. What do I cut? How do I plan when income is inconsistent? What do I do first after a layoff?So I invited my friend and money mentor, Katy Chen Mazzara, to join me for a Substack Live conversation. Katy is a certified trauma-informed financial wellness coach who pivoted out of entertainment pre pandemic. She helps creative entrepreneurs and freelancers break free from scarcity, release traumas and fears, and build lasting financial freedom. With deep compassion and bold clarity, Katy empowers clients to align their finances with their truth, purpose, and power. She’s willing to share what helped her make that pivot, and she’ll answer your money questions.Quick note: This conversation is educational and not financial advice. For guidance specific to your situation, talk with a qualified financial professional.Join us Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 1:00 pm PST.Bottom lineIf your career is shifting, your money story gets a vote in every decision you make.Regulate first, so you can see clearly. Name the story that’s hogging the spotlight. Reconnect to what you’re trying to protect.Because career strategy is not just planning. It’s choosing well, even when your system wants to panic.If someone came to mind while you were reading this—please send it their way. You never know the impact a well-timed message can have.Related Content* How Do You Rewrite Your Career Story?* How To Tame Your Inner Critic* Embracing Hard Truths By Hugging The BearPerks for Paid MembersMoonshot Mentor is for people and teams moving through professional change that hits harder than expected. Get short monthly video lessons on career grief, plus a simple guide that helps you turn insight into your next right step, live monthly coaching to work through what’s happening in real time, and weekly meditations and journal prompts to steady yourself and move forward with clarity.Journal PromptsHere are 4 journal prompts for paid Moonshot Mentor members. These are here to help you name your money story, calm the noise, and make your next career move from truth instead of threat.