Leading Yourself

Being needed is not the same as being valued.

Most professionals do a version of a mid-year check-in that looks like this: count what got done, calculate what is left, get back to work.

That is a performance review. Not a recalibration.

In this episode, Week 2 of our July mid-year recalibration series, I am going to walk through the four areas of a real career check-in. The kind that goes past whether you hit your targets and into whether you are still growing, still visible, still in the right fit, and still on a trajectory that actually makes sense for where you want to go.

This one is for anyone who has been performing fine on paper but feeling something underneath that has been hard to name. Or anyone who has been so busy in the first half of the year that they have not had a chance to look at the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is worth looking at.

In this episode:

• The difference between a performance review and a real career recalibration
• Four areas every professional should assess at the halfway point: growth, visibility, fit, and trajectory
• Why you can be performing well and still be drifting and how to catch it
• The visibility question most people have not asked themselves since May
• What the excellence zone trap looks like from the inside
• A simple three-category framework for what to do with what you find
• One question to take into the second half of the year

Half the year is gone. Before you sprint into the second half, stop for a minute and actually look at where you are.

This week on Leading Yourself, we are kicking off July with a mid-year recalibration series : Are You Still on Your Path?

And we start where it matters most: your life. Not your goals list. Not your KPIs. Your actual life.

In this episode, I walk you through a five-area life check-in that goes deeper than the usual reflection prompts. We cover energy, relationships, health, joy, and alignment, and I give you the questions that actually surface what you have been not-looking-at, and close with two questions that are simple enough to actually use and honest enough to matter.

If you have been feeling like you are moving but not quite sure toward what, this one is for you.

In this episode:

• Why we skip the check-in, and what it costs us
• A five-area framework for an honest mid-year life assessment
• The energy question most people never ask themselves
• What relationship drift looks like and how to catch it before it compounds
• Why joy is data, not a luxury
• The alignment question that changes everything
• Two practical questions to walk away with

This is Week 1 of the July series. Next week: your career at the halfway point.

After almost 3 weeks in Spain visiting my parents, siblings, family, and lifelong friends, I’m back with a full heart, and a powerful reminder.

In this special episode of Morning Brew, I share what this trip taught me about rest, belonging, connection, and why some of the greatest things we can do for our health have nothing to do with another workout, supplement, or productivity hack.

Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to return to the people, places, and rhythms that remind you who you are.

Grab your coffee and join me for a personal conversation about coming home and what it means to truly come back to yourself.

Back in February 2023, I recorded an episode that I had no idea would become one of the ones you all keep coming back to. I've gotten so many messages about this one, people sending it to a friend going through something hard, listening to it during a tough season, or just telling me it stuck with them.

I'm rebroadcasting it today from Spain, where I'm on vacation with my family and with a full heart, because this episode is the reason my first book exists.

The 9 People You Need in Your Career Squad comes out September 5th, and every story, every chapter, every person in it started right here. If this episode resonates with you, the book goes even deeper including stories I've never shared publicly before.

Pre-order here: ⁠https://buildyourcareersquad.com

“Be careful with the idea that everyone is replaceable. Some people only come into your life once.”

Four weeks. A lot of ground covered. And one honest question to close it out:

What conversation are you still avoiding?

This week's episode is the June series closer, in two parts.

Part 1 is a coaching session. Carolina sits with you and gets honest about where people actually get stuck at the end of a month like this. Three places:

• The person who understood everything and has not moved yet
• The person who tried, and the conversation did not go well
• The person who realized the conversation they are most afraid to have is with themselves

Plus three things to carry forward , not as homework, but as a different way of living with this going forward.

Part 2 is community Q&A. Four real questions, full coaching answers:

• How to stop freezing or backing down when you finally get into the room
• What to do when you asked for the promotion and got vague feedback instead of a yes
• How to handle the aftermath when a hard conversation made things awkward
• How to think through the risk when the conversation you need to have is with your boss

If you have been listening all month, this is the episode that makes it real. If this is your first episode of June, it is a complete coaching session that stands on its own.

“Be forgiving with your past self.


Be strict with your present self.


Be flexible with your future self.”

Most hard conversations do not go wrong because of what gets said.

They go wrong because the person went in without knowing what they actually needed to say. Or they said the hard thing and immediately walked it back. Or the other person got defensive and they lost their footing. Or the conversation ended without a close, a commitment, or any shared sense of what comes next.

This week on Leading Yourself, Carolina gives you the framework she uses with every coaching client before a hard conversation, and goes deep into what actually goes wrong at each stage.

In this episode:

• The four failure points in hard conversations, and why the conversation itself is almost never the problem
• Phase 1: Prep. How to get clear on the one thing you need to say, what you actually want to happen, and how to name the fear before it shows up sideways
• Phase 2: Delivery. How to open without apologizing or presenting evidence, what to do in the silence after you say the hard thing, how to stay in the room when the other person gets defensive or emotional, and how to come back when the conversation goes sideways
• Phase 3: Follow-up. How to close a conversation so it actually produces something, why follow-through signals whether the conversation was real, and how to read the check-in to find out what actually landed
• What the framework is actually for, and the change it produces over time beyond any single conversation

This episode stands completely on its own. If you know someone sitting with a hard conversation right now, this is the one to share.

This week's practice: run the conversation you have been avoiding through the prep phase. Write it out, all three parts. Then identify which phase you personally tend to skip. That is where your work is.

“The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.”