Do you find that people feel that way about reaching out to you?

I think, you know, coaching was on my radar like a decade before I started it, and I think I arrived at it at the moment where I felt like culturally, the people were more open to coaching, and it just felt as commonplace, almost as commonplace as thinking about seeing a therapist or something like that.

So I think there's been great strides in people's comfort level with reaching out to think about support.

But it's intimidating.

It's still an ambiguous process to people, I think, who don't fully understand, like, what is coaching? And so usually at the top of a new engagement, and we just chat for a little bit about this is kind of my version of it, or this is how to set your expectations about it.

Yeah.

And maybe a question in return for you is, like, we're kinda talking about, I don't know what the right language is, but sort of like people in our field who are kinda like, I guess, like B2C, like having individual customers and clients come on.

There's like a certain kind of like, not template or cookie cutter formula, but sort of like, okay, here's the pathways we have.

Yeah, I guess just real quickly, what's the name of the book? What's it about? Why do you want to write it?

Yeah, so the book is called The Fluid Career.

And so I'm a coach for creatives and many of them are multi hyphenates.

So people are always up to many, many things.

And I think the idea for the book came from sort of a, you know, as one does has an aha on a long airplane ride where you're just kind of stuck there with your thoughts.

And I was thinking about how because I'm a coach, I get to hear what's challenging about something.

And so I do really get to hear a lot about the particular set of, yeah, like particular plight of the multi hyphenate, which is someone who's pulled in many different directions, having to be really adaptable and jump from sometimes identity to identity or world, how to figure out how to manage their time and manage variable income streams, right? There's a lot of complexity that this person is juggling essentially.

Is that right? I

What do you have in mind here, Melissa?

When you are a job seeker, you are constantly putting yourself out there, and it's a lot of, you know, pick me, like, I need attention, l- uh, you know, asking for other people to sort of green-light you in, and that can be really disempowering over time.

And I think energetically, what can help you just as a human to nourish your spirit during this process, but also even strategically to give you a boost in morale, in connection, and even maybe a new portfolio piece, is to make something.

And so, again, I work with creatives, so I, I can't help but think a little bit about that domain, right? Where someone might say, "I'm gonna put together, uh, an anthology.

I'm gonna collect stories around this certain topic, and I'm gonna ask people from my community to submit a story, and I'll sort of be the editor for that." Right? I know someone who did that.

Um, someone could say, "I'm gonna create an, an album, and I want, you know, someone to be the, um, brand designer for my cover, and I need to think about who's gonna help me book my shows." So it could be whatever you want it to be.

Ideally, I mean, in my ideal world, you'd be doing a c- a collaborative project where you really do work with other people toward a shared goal, and I think that can be so, um, deepening, quickly deepening for your relationship with other people.

Uh, what, uh, what kind of break do you recommend people take, and why is it important to do that?