A quick heads-up: this episode discusses grief and the loss of a parent.

This week marks one year since Kimberly lost her mom, and in this deeply personal solo episode, she opens up about what it's actually taken to grieve and run a business at the same time. Kimberly shares the eight things that have helped her keep showing up over the past year — from reducing her schedule to therapy, asking her doctor for help, and learning that reduced capacity is still capacity. For anyone in the "sandwich generation" caring for aging parents, anyone grieving right now, or anyone who's ever wondered how you're supposed to keep working when your heart is heavy, this one meets you where you are.

In This Episode:

• Why "time off" hits differently as an entrepreneur — and Kimberly's honest take on being "fake offline"
• Reducing her schedule down to two client-facing days and protecting space to simply feel
• Leaning on weekly and biweekly therapy as an unfiltered sounding board
• Talking to her doctor and why she believes there's no shame in getting help ("you don't have to raw dog your grief")
• Apologizing to friends, telling people where she really is, and letting them show up for her
• Giving herself permission to rest and "rot" without guilt
• Drawing on "mom energy" from the women and community around her
• Understanding that every emotion is normal — and journaling to get to the root instead of the surface
• Her bonus lesson: make things easier on yourself, and don't always trust your feelings when you're grieving, because your feeling isn't always the fact

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It's Kimberly's birthday — and she's celebrating with her most personal episode yet. In this solo conversation, recorded with handwritten notes and a whole lot of nerves, Kimberly opens up about the dissonance she's been feeling between the vision she has for her life and how she's actually been showing up. From playing small in her corporate days to realizing she's built a "penitentiary" of perfectionism as an entrepreneur, she gets honest about the fear, people-pleasing, and perfectionism that have kept her hiding. As she turns 39 — on Episode 139, no less — Kimberly declares this her year of facing her fears out loud, and she's inviting listeners along for the journey through her brand-new Substack, Fear Means Go.

In This Episode:

• The elevator moment at her corporate job that revealed how long she'd been playing small
• Why perfectionism, people-pleasing, and fear of judgment have kept her hiding — even as her own boss
• The quote that stopped her in her tracks: structure precedes success
• The journal exercise that revealed she was the box standing between herself and her goals
• Why she's launching a Substack and returning to her 2011 blogging roots
• A first look at book number two, tentatively titled Fear Means Go, and why fear is at the heart of great leadership

Follow Kimberly's journey on Substack: https://substack.com/@kimberlybonline
Watch the YouTube video Kimberly references: https://youtu.be/krsobVoZVnk?si=JVT9CbbIjDW9VIny
Grab Kimberly's first book, Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning Into a Career You'll Love: www.nextmovebestmovebook.com

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LAST CHANCE TO ENROLL ON THE VISIBILITY SHIFT THIS SUMMER: WWW.KIMBERLYBONLINE.COM/TVS

What do you do when the business is successful, but you're ready for something new? In this episode, Kimberly sits down with Lauren McGoodwin — founder and CEO of Career Contessa, author of Power Moves, and content marketer at Atlassian — to talk about her decision to return to corporate after a decade of entrepreneurship without shutting her business down. Lauren gets refreshingly honest about what it actually takes to juggle a full-time job, a media brand, and three kids under five (spoiler: it's money and a village, not a morning routine). She also breaks down how public speaking took Career Contessa from a blog to a nationally recognized brand — starting with free intern workshops, landing a book deal, and eventually speaking at TEDWomen — and why companies wouldn't pay for her tactical workshops but happily paid for her keynotes.

In This Episode:

• The evolution of audience-building from the blog and RSS era to today's personal-brand-first landscape — and what Lauren would do differently if she started over
• The three phases of Lauren's speaking career: free workshops, the book that changed everything, and paid keynotes at companies like Google and Amazon
• Why tactical career workshops are a hard sell to corporate buyers — and what shift finally got her paid
• Workshop speakers vs. keynote speakers: how Lauren worked with a coach to stretch beyond her "give them three exact steps" comfort zone
• The sting of turning down speaking opportunities during pregnancy, and why Lauren keeps her basket full of more than just work
• Where to find Lauren: connect with her on LinkedIn, where she shares career advice from her own corporate diaries and the Career Contessa podcast

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmcgoodwin/

Connect with Career Contessa: https://www.careercontessa.com/

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