Why You Shouldn't Hire Me: A Woman Executive Coach Calling Out the Industry's Biggest Myth
Why You Shouldn't Hire Me
10 years into coaching, and I feel the limits of my vocation more sharply than ever.
Maybe it’s because 2025 is the year I officially started menopause hormone therapy — finally making it undeniable that the brain fog, night sweats, and migraines are part of being in perimenopause... Or said another way: verifying my longevity beyond the utility of my ovaries.
[In case you're curious, you can read about my perimenopause adventure on Elektra Health blog here, under the satisfying title: "Taboo Smasher".]
Whatever the reason, here's the truth:
Don't Hire Me for This
Don't hire me because you want to replace your licensed mental health practitioner with someone who will tell you exactly what to do in an authoritative, all-knowing tone.
If you're hoping to outsource authority over the chaos of your fast, anxious, hyper-verbal brain...
Please don't hire me. And honestly, please don't hire ANY coach for that.
Interview a new therapist. Consider plant medicine under guidance and with moderation.
Don't Hire Me to Outwit Ned
If your goal is to magically earn more money than your nemesis Ned -- the guy whose career progress feels like a cocktail of cronyism, nepotism, or in-group bias -- then no, I'm not your person.
Coaching won't erase systemic inequities.
Coaching won't dethrone Ned or any other "naked emperors."
Coaching won't fix the workplace habit of rewarding the least self-aware but the most vocal pale and male person in the room.
Don't Hire Me for the Mirage You Want to See
The coaching industry, like every industry, is full of well-packaged illusions.
People who spend tens of thousands on certifications, branding, and funnels can make you feel like your whole life will transform -- or miraculously make you immune to the brokenness of our world -- if you just hire the right guru.
This is a mirage.
And being a person on the internet, I'm not exempt from it. So I'm calling myself back IN to alignment with what I say I'm here for: to actually help people, not promise magic tricks.
Don't Look for a Savior
Don't fall for the myth of instantaneous transformation.
And absolutely do NOT incur credit card debt to hire a shiny charlatan off the internet (I’ve been there, done that myself multiple times!)
Sometimes change can happen fast. But honestly, real, lasting change is slow, nonlinear, unsexy, and deeply inconvenient.
No one wants you to acknowledge this, least of all the people who are buying up your limited, precious attention.
So What Do You Actually Need?
Not a coach. Not a guru. Not a savior.
You need courage. The courage to see through the marketing illusions.
The courage to tell the truth to yourself about what’s not working. And the resourcefulness to start something with what you already have, already know, and already are.
Have two sticks? Then you need the willingness to rub them together.
Have a smartphone? Then the wits to Google one small actionable step at a time and do it.
If you can do that?
Then someday – maybe – you might hire a coach.
Not because the coach will save you, but because you’ve already decided to save yourself.
And you’re simply ready for a partner in the work who will give you tough love and call out your blindspots, while making no pretensions about their own limitations.
