How’s Your Mid-Career Confidence?

Here’s something no one tells you when you start your career: your success tactics at the beginning will start to sabotage you over time.

I started my media career on a sprint. I felt like I was making up for lost time (taking longer-than-expected gap years to “find myself” will do that). Every decision was guided by the mantra: every opportunity is a chance to earn or a chance to learn. This guided me through multiple job changes and promotions. With every job interview or year-end review, I was focused on what new skill I could learn, or what new experience I could gain.

Bosses loved it, and I was repeatedly rewarded for this attitude.

And then I started stalling. I couldn’t see the new lessons or opportunities from where I sat. Not only did I stop seeing new learnings from the job I had, I also couldn’t get excited for any new opportunities that came my way.

I was stuck and didn’t know how to get unstuck.

I languished there for five years, filling my life outside of work trying to maintain that sprinter’s pace my career started with. This didn’t lead to work-life balance. It lead to burnout and frustration. It took a global pandemic and massive corporate restructuring to kick me off the conveyor belt my career had become.

Want to know what saved me? McEwen Media.

Not just the business itself, but the idea of sharing my expertise with others. The act of turning my experience and training into a marketable product forced me to engage with my career in a whole new light.

Instead of seeking opportunities to earn or learn, I dove deep. I explored everything I learned so I can earn from this very unique process.

We tend to think of thought leadership as a chore. A thing we do because our colleagues and competitors are doing it. For me it’s been a lifeline.

I coach others to harness their subject matter expertise so they can build trust and credibility in their work. That’s the effect it has on an audience. And it has a transformative effect on how you show up in the world.

I started my career full of hustle and eager to prove my worth. Now, I move through the world with a quiet, knowing confidence. A confidence that comes from knowing you’ve arrived and have valuable knowledge to share.