Tyche Career Coaching

I started a Substack!

Yeah, I'm excited enough about it that I NEEDED to include that exclamation point.

It's called Inside the Messy Middle with Lauren and it's where things get a little ( or a lot) more honest.

I've always tried to be real on LinkedIn, but let's be honest: there are limits. Some conversations are too nuanced, too personal, or too messy for a platform built around promotions, announcements, and professional wins.

If you're of a certain age, you might remember the opening of The Real World:
"When people stop being polite and start getting real."

That's kind of what this is.

We'll talk about careers, of course. But we'll also talk about identity, ambition, motherhood, burnout, reinvention, disappointment, success, and the weird experience of looking around at a life you worked hard to build and wondering why parts of it no longer fit.

The polished version of these conversations happens on LinkedIn.

The real version happens on Substack.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, I'd love to have you there.

https://insidethemessymiddlewithlauren.substack.com/

That's a wrap on Series 2: The Actual Career Transition.

Eight videos.
Two series.

You now have a framework for surviving where you are and a roadmap for getting to where you want to go.

The only thing left is to actually move.

Not a plan for all the things.
Not a complete strategy.

One concrete action this week.
The smallest useful thing you can actually do.

Send the message.
Pull the job postings.
Do the math.
Have the conversation.
Book the consultation.

One thing.

Momentum is built in small consistent actions that compound over time.

And it starts with one thing.

You know what yours is.

Schedule a consultation if you're ready to stop figuring this out alone: https://tychecareercoaching.coachvantage.com/event/free-consultation-of-career-services

The networking that actually moves career transitions isn't cold outreach to strangers.

It's the warm stuff.

The people who already know you, already like you, and would genuinely be happy to hear from you -- if you actually reached out.

Those relationships aren't dead.
They're hibernating.

And they wake up much faster than you think.

This week: identify 10 people you genuinely like and respect who you haven't talked to in a while.

Reach out to one of them.
Not with an agenda -- just to reconnect.

One conversation a week with people who already like you.

No scripts.
No mass blasts.
No transactional energy.

Warm networks move when you activate them.

DM me and let's talk about how to do this without it being weird.

Most people who tell me they can't afford to leave have never actually done the math.

They're running on a vague, anxious feeling that it would be catastrophic.

Not real numbers.
And vague anxiety always feels worse than actual math.

➤ Get specific.
➜ What are your real monthly expenses -- not your current lifestyle, your actual floor?
➜ What's your savings runway?
➜ What would you need to cover six months without income?

Most people find one of two things: it's more survivable than they thought, or the number is real and now they have a target instead of a fear.

Both are useful.
Because now you're working with information instead of anxiety.

You might not be as trapped as you feel.

DM me and let's talk through your situation.

You found a role that sounds exciting.
You read the requirements.
You started crossing yourself off the list.

Stop doing that.

Job descriptions are wish lists, not minimum requirements.
No candidate checks every box.
The person who gets hired checks enough of them and makes a compelling case for the rest.

You are not underqualified.
You are under-translating.
You haven't learned yet how to take what you've done and map it onto what they're asking for in language they recognize.

Fifteen years of adjacent experience is often more valuable than three years of exact experience.

You just have to learn to say it that way.

DM me and let's look at what you're actually bringing.

How long have you been thinking about a career change without looking at a single actual job posting?

Months?
Years?

I know.

Looking makes it real.
And real is scarier than hypothetical.

But here's what happens when you actually go look: you learn things. Fast.

Which options have real market demand.
What titles exist for the work you want to do.
How your experience maps to what they need.

Pull five real postings this week.

Not to apply.
Not to judge yourself.

Just to gather information.

Twenty minutes of real research will teach you more than months of imagining.

DM me and let's reality test together.

Your career transition wish list probably feels like a scattered collection of grievances and hopes.

It's not.

There's a pattern in there.
And once you find it, 'I want something different' starts becoming an actual direction.

Here's the move: look at each thing you want and ask what's the underlying need, not the surface want.

➤ More autonomy
Underneath that is probably 'I need to be trusted.'

➤ Less bureaucracy
Underneath that might be 'I need to see the impact of my work.'

➤ Better leadership
Underneath that could be 'I need to stop carrying everyone else's dysfunction.'

The need under the want is where your direction lives.

DM me and let's find your pattern.

The skills you've built over a 10, 15, 20 year career have become invisible to you.

Not because they're not impressive. Because they're so automatic you don't register them as skills anymore. They're just how you operate.

But the way you navigate complex stakeholders, translate expertise across audiences, lead without authority -- those are not universal. Those are genuinely valuable. And you've stopped seeing them.

Make the list. Not your resume. The real list. Everything you actually do, everything people come to you for, everything that feels too obvious to mention.

You will surprise yourself.

Download the Messy Middle Survival Guide here:
https://www.tychecoaching.com/survival-guide

Series 1 was about surviving where you are.

This is Series 2. The Actual Career Transition. Now we figure out where you actually want to go.

And we start with the question most people have been avoiding for years: what do you actually want?

Not what's realistic. Not what makes sense on paper. What do you actually want, with no limitations and no practicality filter.

In my experience, 'I don't know' is almost never true. What's usually true is 'I know but it feels impossible.' Those are very different problems. And they both have solutions.

This series is 8 videos on the real version of a career transition. Not the fantasy. The actual thing.

DM me and let's figure out what you actually want.