Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Coherence Podcast
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| Hold Your Center: How to Stay Grounded in a Fluid Career | 01 Jul 2026 | 00:45:35 | |
How do you feel grounded when your work is changing at such a fast pace? [Toots horn] This is the season finalé of the Fluid Career series. Not a boring summary of everything we’ve covered but a deepening into one key area: your well being. (New to the podcast? Go check out Episode 1 to learn what exactly a “fluid career” is.) Today we're shifting our focus inward. We'll explore what it means to steady your internal foundation through periods of change, how to separate your sense of self from the roles you play, and the practices that help you stay equanimous (and sane) when work inevitably evolves. You'll leave with a renewed perspective on what it means to build a sustainable, meaningful career and why your greatest source of stability is most certainly within your reach.
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| How to Make Sure You’re Really Evolving (and Not Going in Circles) | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:43:42 | |
This episode shares my CreativeMornings talk that I presented live in Portland, Oregon in November 2025. It’s all about the topic of GROWTH. In my talk, I share lessons learned from seven years of coaching client work and from my own winding journey about how to grow meaningfully according to our own unique path. Applying the art of good story crafting, I’ll guide you to think about your own growth through the lens of the protagonist of you and what a strong thematic growth arc looks like. You’ll leave with a set of prompts to stir up new ideas about what direction you want to evolve next. A big thanks to CreativeMornings PDX team for making this talk happen and granting me permission to re-share the audio from the talk here. If you want to watch the original recording of the talk which includes slides, go here. If you want to find a CreativeMornings event near you, go to their website here. Resources shared in my talk: | |||
| How to Make More Money Without Taking on More Work | 08 Jun 2026 | 00:40:27 | |
The promise of a fluid career is not only that you get more choice over how you spend your time but you have more direct influence on how much money you make. But for creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and multi-hyphenates, increasing your income is not as simple as asking for a raise or climbing the next rung on a career ladder. There are a dozen potential paths forward and not all of them are right for you. Many people assume the answer is to work harder, take on more clients, or squeeze more hours out of an already packed schedule. But if you really want sustainable income growth, you need to be asking yourself how you can work smarter, not harder. Otherwise you’re just going to replicate the overworking and burnout that you purposefully wanted to get away from. In the previous episode, we focused on building a money management system that creates stability when your income is variable. In this conversation, we're turning our attention to the other side of the equation: increasing what's coming in. I'll walk you through the different levers you can pull to make more money—from raising rates and expanding your offerings to growing your audience and identifying the opportunities that best align with your strengths. This episode will help you think strategically about which income-growth paths make the most sense for your goals, personality, and season of life. You'll walk away with a clearer understanding of your options, practical ideas for increasing your earning potential so that you can make more money without sacrificing the things that matter most. Resources: | |||
| Beyond Survival Mode: How to Create Financial Stability with Variable Income | 20 May 2026 | 00:35:07 | |
Worrying about money can feel like you have a cloud over your head, following you wherever you go. When we’re financially stressed we make choices that our higher selves wouldn’t make. We operate from a place of scarcity and it directly impacts how much we’re able to expand into our potential because our risk aversion keeps us small. For freelancers, creative entrepreneurs, or multi-hyphenates balancing multiple streams of work, good money management practices can be the difference between making it and… not. Wrangling your money when you have a fluid career is a unique challenge because you’re managing multiple income streams that all have their own logic. Money is coming and going at different times, often unpredictably. So how do you find any semblance of stability? In this episode, I’ll walk you through two of the most essential money skills you can learn as someone with variable income — cash flow awareness and how to pay yourself a regular salary. We’ll talk about how to create a money ritual that actually works for you so you can start feeling more in control of your income, instead of constantly fretting about if you have enough and how all the numbers add up. You’ll walk away with concrete next steps for how to build a more secure relationship with your money and keep your fluid career alive. Resources:
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| Give your self and your story credit | 12 May 2026 | 00:11:59 | |
This is a short reminder to my people out there who have not had a linear career path. And the reminder is this: Being multifaceted doesn’t mean that you have to be incoherent. Sometimes all you need to do is take a minute to step back and look for your bigger motivations, values, and role themes in order to realize that there has been an organizing structure, a method to your madness, despite the feeling of chaos or fragmentation that you might sometimes feel. The act of intentionally forming a generous and coherent career story is one of the most impactful things you can do for your career right now. It’s the difference between you going for an opportunity of your dreams or sitting at home lamenting that you are not qualified for anything. I’ll share a link to my free Work That Works training below that can help walk you through the steps of reimagining your career story, remixing your skills, and charting the steps it takes from the idea of a new path and actually walking down it. At the end of the episode, I leave you with a prompt you can chew on to start giving yourself and your story credit today. Resources: | |||
| Busy Every Day, Behind Every Night: A Better Way to Manage Your Time | 28 Apr 2026 | 00:40:07 | |
You have a lot going on. Multiple projects, multiple roles, multiple tabs open. And somehow, despite being busy every single day, you still end that day feeling like you didn't get to the things that actually matter. It’s not a you problem. It’s a structure problem. In this episode, I break down why traditional time management advice doesn’t go far enough for the fluid careerist — and what to do instead. Whether you're a freelancer juggling three clients, a creative with a day job, or a full-time multi-hyphenate trying to make progress on everything at once, this episode will change your relationships to your most finite resource. You'll learn:
This is the episode to come back to every time you feel like you're running fast but standing still.
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| The Best Antidote to Feeling Helpless: The Self-Boosting Magic of Collaborations and Side Projects | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:43:18 | |
If you’re feeling disempowered, uninspired, or disconnected, consider my go-to way to get back into a space of power, inspiration and connection: collaborations and side projects. For those who have been seeking other people’s green light through job applications or client sales, being able to make something counterbalances the external striving energy. Because when we step into the role of creator, we put ourselves in a generative place. In today’s episode I’ll go over how to think about who to collaborate with, how to scope your project, and how to side step common collaboration challenges. And if you’re not stoked to start a joint project, I’ll walk you through how to run a personal side project that bakes relationship building into the process. You’ll walk away utterly convinced that collaborations and side projects are the most underrated career tools to spiff up your portfolio, deepen connections with creative peers, and remind yourself of the many ways you can add value.
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| Outreach 101: Your next opportunity is probably already in your network | 13 Apr 2026 | 00:46:53 | |
Time to go deep on relationships, the currency of the fluid careerist. How can you be making and strengthening relationships as a regular practice, not just something you do in spurts when you need it? I’ll lay out all my outreach tips in this episode. Let’s approach relationship building (not “networking”) as the living, breathing infrastructure that makes a fluid career work. We'll talk about the mindsets that make outreach feel less terrifying (including the one that trips up almost everyone I coach) and get into the tactics: how to know who to connect with, invite them into a conversation, and structure your weekly outreach. I’ll share the most common blockers I see that trip people up with their outreach and people-fueled job searches so you can be sure to avoid them. Get ready for a mini-outreach bootcamp. Resources: Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here: https://www.coherence.studio/fluid Get the RELATIONSHIPS guide here: https://www.coherence.studio/fluid | |||
| What’s in Your Skills Closet?: How to Keep Your Skill Set Relevant and Sparking Joy | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:38:03 | |
A diversified skill set can be a great advantage right now. But you still have to be strategic about which skills to protect, which to augment, and which to say goodbye to. In this episode, we dig into the classic cleaning out the closet question: what is sparking joy and what is making you look out of season. We'll map your skills across three dimensions—recency, proficiency, and transferability—and I'll introduce three portfolio shapes (the T, the M, and the Comb) to help you figure out which pattern actually fits how you work. And yes, we're going to talk about AI. Because everyone and their mother seems to be expecting you to be “AI literate” by now. But what does that mean and how do you make sure you’re keeping with the times while staying true to your ethical compass? No small question. If you're already navigating what I call a “fluid career”, one marked by increased movement, variety, and interdisciplines, it’s essential to know how to purposefully curate your skill set, because it directly influences how you spend your time and how confident you feel. Resources: | |||
| Stop Picking a Career Lane: Let Complex Identity Be Your Competitive Edge | 16 Mar 2026 | 00:39:37 | |
Whether we like it or not, we have been reared in a society that conditions us to tie our identity and our worth to our job. In this episode, we go deep on identity, the most foundational piece of building a fluid career. Before we can talk about how to wield time, money, or skills, we have to talk about how you see yourself. Because that self-concept shapes the opportunities you give yourself permission to go for. We’ll explore three perspective shifts that can fundamentally change how you see yourself professionally: moving from perpetual employee to career owner, from a single professional identity to many, and from rigid self-presentation to what I'm calling "contextual authenticity." We also get practical with a framework called "Jobs to Be Done", a way of understanding what each role or project in your life is actually doing for you so you can embrace your work ecosystem for the multi-purposed system that it is. Along the way, you'll hear from multi-hyphenates who've stopped forcing themselves into one rigid box and discovered that they can conceive of themselves in a more flexible and forgiving way. Resources:
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| Introducing The Fluid Career: A Practical Guide to Dynamic Resilient Career in the Age of AI | 27 Feb 2026 | 00:31:36 | |
How do you build a career when the old career playbook no longer applies, and a new one hasn't been written yet? We're at an ahistorical moment. The big picture job numbers are not yet reflecting the existing and impending market shake up, but the AI disruption is happening already, and most of us are somewhere between anxious and in denial about what it all means for how we work. Looking to find a recommendation for how to conduct your career during shaky times, I argue that the people who are more distributed, more in motion, more multi-hyphenate might just be the ones best positioned for this moment of seismic change. In this first episode of Coherence Podcast's fourth season, I'm sharing more about an exciting project I've been steadily working on: The Fluid Career book. This podcast season is a companion to the book: a way to introduce the core ideas, bring in voices of people living them , and to give you a taste of the general framework before the book is fully available. This kickoff episode lays out the big picture of what a fluid career actually is, why it matters right now, and the five domains we'll be exploring together over the next ten episodes: identity, time, skills, relationships, and money. You'll also hear clips from interviews I’ve conducted with an array of multi-disciplinary careerists who are already managing fluid careers. If you're looking for guidance on how to be thinking about your career trajectory and how to maintain your livelihood now that AI is closing in on your industry, this could be the very thing you need to hear.
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| Feeling Creatively Siloed? Here’s How to Get Back Into Creative Collaboration | 19 Feb 2026 | 00:28:14 | |
Working from home, working for yourself, creating independently - so many of us have to actively TRY to collaborate with others. It’s not built into our workflows or home offices. Last summer I got tired of hearing myself complain about feeling isolated in my job and decided to strike up a creative collaboration with a group of other coaches and guides in my existing network. Seven months later, the “Resonance Collective” launched our first project into the world on Metalabel (a platform helping artists release co-created work). In this episode, I’ll walk you step-by-step through what I did to get this collaboration from up and running to cheers-ing to the successful completion of our group art project: The Shape of Now. Once you have the blueprint for how to create your own Shape of Now project or any collaborative project of your design, you will have zero excuses for wishing you had more teamwork and partnership in your work. Zero! ✨The Shape of Now Project on Metalabel ✨ Thanks to my collaborators:
More resources from Melissa:
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| What Really Fuels Bold Action (The Fire Horse Episode) | 15 Feb 2026 | 00:33:33 | |
The Fire Horse Lunar New Year has arrived, signaling passion, independence, innovation, and rapid action over strategy. Easy right? For so many of us, the gap between knowing what we want and actually moving toward can be hard to traverse. What I’ve found in my coaching sessions is that the resistance toward advancing our audacious goals comes from low belief in… ourselves. In this solo episode, I use the symbol of the Fire Horse as a jumping-off point for something I’ve been sitting with for a while: the inner capacity that makes action possible in the first place. Self-esteem. If you’re someone who knows what you want but keeps finding reasons not to go after it, this episode is for you. 🔥 Join the Fire Horse Power Hour workshop - Tuesday, Feb 17th More resources from Melissa:
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| The Ingredients for Grounded Striving | 20 Jan 2026 | 00:20:51 | |
At the top of 2026, I am inundated with prospective clients signing up to do 1:1 coaching. What are they all looking to find? To solve? I’ll tell you what I heard. For anyone feeling both a tug to strive and a pull to stay under the covers, this episode will remind you of the main ingredients that go into having enough clarity, enough confidence, and enough hope to move forward in your life with grace. | |||
| Give it to me easy: Season 3 cliff notes for a quick dose of insights | 18 Aug 2025 | 00:29:37 | |
Give me the Coherence Podcast cheat sheet. What are the things you need to know from this past season? In this cherry-on-top, Season 3 finale, I’ll walk you through the five essential takeaways from six months of weekly episodes. I didn’t need no ChatGPT to help me distill all of the good conversations into five key takeaways. I lived the conversations! For both newcomers and those who have been with me along the way, this episode will give you a primer on the biggest themes that came up in my conversations with self-employed creatives creating their own custom jobs. I’ll share why I am especially proud of this season, and give you a hint about what’s coming next. I’ll be taking a couple months off to regroup and gear up for Season 4. If you miss Coherence Studio in the meantime:
You can also find Melissa at:
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| "So You're Having an Existential Crisis. Good." AI, Soul Work, and the Future of Creative Careers with Kat Koh | 11 Aug 2025 | 01:04:26 | |
What does it mean to create "exquisite work" when machines can mimic human output in seconds? In this special episode of Coherence Podcast, my friend and collaborator, creative career coach Kat Koh and I pull back the curtain on the urgent questions that we coaches are grappling with as artificial intelligence reshapes the creative landscape. Kat describes herself as a "career therapist" (though she's quick to clarify she's not actually a therapist) who celebrates existential crises because they signal growth and aliveness. Drawing from her decade of coaching and deep background in art history, she introduces the concept of “exquisite work”—her thesis for how creatives can not just survive but thrive in the AI era by returning to what makes us fundamentally human. We wrestle openly with the real dilemmas their clients face: Should a podcaster become a therapist for job security? Can idealism coexist with pragmatism when AI threatens traditional creative roles? We explore the tension between wanting to encourage our client’s artistic souls while understanding that financial worry kills creativity faster than anything else. I hope you can feel the unscripted, emergent nature of this conversation and our belief that self-trust becomes more crucial than ever during times of rapid change and uncertainty. You can find Kat at:
You can find Melissa at:
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| How Do You Want People to Feel?: Creative Structure and Intentional Chaos with Olivia Vagelos | 04 Aug 2025 | 01:06:20 | |
How do you create a custom career that feels good in practice (and not just recreate the subpar working conditions you intentionally left behind?) Olivia Vagelos runs a creative agency called Design for Feelings Studio where she does everything from coaching couples designing their weddings to consulting on the experience of "people pooping in space on commercial space travel." With a background in product design and years at IDEO.org, Olivia has crafted a unique practice centered around one deceptively simple question: "How do you want people to feel?" In this conversation, we explore how Olivia left IDEO during peak COVID days only to accidentally recreate all the same structures she'd purposefully wanted to leave with her corporate job. And how she course corrected to build a business that actually lets her take time to stare at trees and research magic tricks. She shares practical wisdom about playtesting early and often, designing time itself as an experience, and how she's building her latest creative sandbox, The Good Chaos Club. Listen to find out why Olivia thinks that the best creatives often fall prey to burnout (it has to do with being radically uninspired!) You can find Olivia at:
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| You're Doing Better Than You Think | 28 Jul 2025 | 00:12:26 | |
Your relationship with acknowledging yourself might feel more… non-existent than it needs to be. The skill of recognition has a way of getting overlooked in our daily lives, especially when we're so busy focusing on what we haven't accomplished yet! In this solo pep talk episode, I break down why being seen and acknowledged brings up so much emotion—and remind you that you can give yourself credit right now, no major accomplishments required. This episode will hopefully feel like you just got a good hug. | |||
| Creative Ecosystems Not Career Ladders: Multi-Project Mastery with the Ferocious Kaitlin Carpenter | 21 Jul 2025 | 01:02:18 | |
Kaitlin Carpenter runs her freelance company under the name "BattleCat"—inspired by her family's first cat and the perfectly fierce energy she brings to her work. From a small town in rural Idaho to working on projects like NASA Earth Sciences and heading up CreativeMornings Portland, Kaitlin embodies what it looks like to build a career around values rather than a predetermined strategy. In this conversation, we explore her journey from being discouraged by a dismissive creative writing professor in college to now pursuing her MFA while maintaining a rich ecosystem of meaningful work. Kaitlin opens up about the bridge-building potential that comes from understanding both rural and urban perspectives, her seven years leading CreativeMornings Portland with intentional attention to justice and representation, and why she created a literal punch card to reward herself for saying no to social invitations. We dive into the benefits and challenges of having multiple professional identities—from the cross-pollination of ideas between projects to the constant juggling act of competing priorities. Kaitlin shares practical wisdom about templatizing what you can while accepting what you can't predict, the importance of talking through decisions with trusted friends, and why she believes deciding is more important than making the perfect decision. You can find Kaitlin at: | |||
| When Secret Passions Go Public: From Post-it Note to Publishing House with Krystie Yen | 14 Jul 2025 | 01:16:29 | |
The moment you make a big life change—quitting your job, ending a relationship, moving across the country—you might expect to feel immediately transformed. But usually your internal world doesn’t change as fast as the external structure of your life. Coach and founder of Slant’d, Krystie Yen shares about how learning how to pause has often been the key to getting through the "structural lag," that disorienting gap between outer change and inner alignment. From chasing the quintessential Asian American dream in corporate America to building her own freelance branding business, Krystie shares her journey of saying goodbye to prestige and comfort for something more authentic. You'll hear how a simple post-it note idea evolved into a nonprofit publishing house and how Slant'd continues to capture her attention years later. Whether you're contemplating a leap or finding yourself in the messy middle of transition, this conversation offers practical wisdom for honoring both the courage to change and the patience to let transformation happen at its own pace. You can find Krystie at: Substack: https://burnthegoodcandle.substack.com/ Website: krystieyen.com | |||
| Three Money Moves That Will Change How You Sleep at Night | 07 Jul 2025 | 00:49:39 | |
Your relationship with money might feel more… tense than it needs to be. Anxiety about money has an insidious way of creeping into how we run our lives, especially during uncertain times when the world feels unstable and we grip our resources tighter. In this solo episode, I break down three concrete exercises that can quickly shift how you feel about your finances—no complicated jargon required. I'll walk you through creating a financial snapshot that gives you clarity on how to assign a job to every dollar you make, understanding the financial order of operations so you know what to prioritize first, and optimizing your savings to work harder for you. Whether you're drowning in decision paralysis about debt versus emergency funds, or you're ready to move beyond survival mode into intentional abundance, this episode offers practical steps you can take immediately after listening. To be notified about future Savvy dates, add your info here: https://coherence-studio.myflodesk.com/getsavvy Coherence Studio - Savvy Financial Snapshot Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qu3MWeV-YEdOQQUHxp1vugps86BRxPgehBeGPz6UURU/edit?usp=sharing External Resources mentioned on the episode: https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/investing-for-beginners/ | |||
| Online and IRL: Sustainable Internet Business Beyond the Personal Brand | 30 Jun 2025 | 00:55:02 | |
Callie Rojewski refuses to accept that logging off is the only solution to our complicated relationship with technology. In this conversation, she shares her journey from a decade of banging her head against the creator economy wall to building her branding and business strategy company, Online and IRL. “Online and IRL” helps entrepreneurs and creators move beyond the pressure and perils of sustaining a personal brand to build truly sustainable platforms rooted in authentic connection and long-term impact. In partnership with Cyber Collective, she helps people learn about how to protect themselves online and use ‘internet street smarts’. For anyone who has ever wondered if their brand should be one based around their personal identity and name or broadened to an organization or studio name, this conversation might help you make up your mind! You can find Callie at:
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| Getting Still During Turbulent Times | 24 Jun 2025 | 01:14:45 | |
Experience designer Anthony Rocco and I sit down to record on the summer solstice and engage in a unique episode for Coherence Podcast -- one that doesn’t dip back into the past to connect dots but explores this present moment. Anthony describes this summer as "weird" and "challenging"—his inner world feels calm while the outside world grows increasingly turbulent. In this reflective conversation, we explore what it means to choose stillness over reactive action when everything around us feels chaotic. He shares his journey from peak experience seeking and American "go and get it" culture to prioritizing ancient wisdom traditions, daily spiritual practice, and humble living. From swimming in San Francisco Bay as moving meditation to singing Marvin Gaye in the kitchen for nervous system regulation, Anthony offers practical tools for staying grounded when everything feels unmoored. He even guides us through a micro-meditation practice using the five senses and issues a challenging homework assignment that we can practice right after listening. You can find Anthony at: | |||
| The Ecstatic Artist: How to Make Joy-Centered Creative Work in a System That Doesn't Support Artists | 16 Jun 2025 | 01:07:26 | |
Rashid Zakat is a filmmaker and artist based in Philly. His work spans video production, interactive installations, and ecstatic gatherings like Revival!—a video DJ experiment that explores what collective joy and resilience looks like in times of crisis. From following a group of boys into his church's video ministry as a child to recently hosting hands-on workshops at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rashid has spent his career exploring how creativity can be both a tool for solving problems and a vehicle for asking deeper questions. In this episode, Rashid reflects on the balance between his work as a capital “A” artist and his freelance work as a creative director and cinematographer for non-fiction, experimental films and music videos. He shares how he’s navigated the tension between being a "creative plumber" who helps others bring their visions to life and prioritizing his own artistic inquiry. Listen to this conversation if you want to explore the artist's life beyond the romantic notions—the reality of building sustainable creative work in a system not designed to support artists— and to remember the power of side projects that can evolve into something bigger. This episode offers a meditation on staying true to your questions while building a life around them.
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| A Rallying Cry for Agency - and the Hope It Brings | 07 Jun 2025 | 00:23:33 | |
When we step into our personal agency, we step into a place of engagement with the world and we start to grow hope. I made this episode to respond to the mounting scarcity energy that I’m witnessing in my client calls. People are frustrated with not hearing back about job opportunities, outreach emails, and are in a ‘what’s going to keep the lights on?’ moment (both literally and figuratively). This all is super challenging and it all requires a LOT of resilience. I hope this listen can be a dose of inspiration to keep trying, to keep showing up and remain awake to yourself and to others. Stay until the end of the episode to hear me run you through a clarity exercise that you can do to take a next step toward figuring out what you, the protagonist of your life, can do to remember that you have the Author’s pen in your hand. | |||
| Do This To Get Out of Analysis Paralysis and Actually Change your Work | 01 Jun 2025 | 00:31:22 | |
Stuck in the endless loop of "What should I do with my life?" When you're stuck between knowing you want change but feeling paralyzed by the pressure to figure it all out perfectly, it's easy to get caught in what I call "analysis paralysis." In this solo episode, I’ll dismantle the problematic "follow your passion" advice and introduce a drastically different approach that actually leads to results. Through real examples from my own transition from Kickstarter to founding my first business, New Women Space, I’ll show how the people who successfully create meaningful career changes aren't making one dramatic leap. They're making a series of small, strategic experiments that build confidence and gather real-world data. You'll learn two specific tactics you can start this week: the coffee chat challenge and how to offer small versions of your ideas in low-stakes settings. If you've ever felt haunted by not knowing your "passion," overwhelmed by too many options, or stuck researching without ever taking action, this episode offers a practical roadmap for getting unstuck. Resources referenced:
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| The Restorative Rebel: How to Break Free from Internalized Capitalism and Find Your Joy Again | 26 May 2025 | 01:14:04 | |
Do you have a productivity monkey on your back? Have you ever realized that endless productivity doesn’t actually equate to happiness? For Dani Bicknell, the wake-up call came during the pandemic. As she continued to climb the career ladder and check all the "success" boxes, she felt more burned out than fulfilled. The solution wasn't working harder; it was remembering what brought her joy. In this episode, Dani joins Melissa to reflect on the transformation that followed a few exploratory coaching sessions, the pull of creativity in the wake of burnout, and how parenting during a pandemic sharpened her sense of what really matters. From rediscovering her love of writing to publishing a book about internalized capitalism, she illustrates the messy, non-linear process of integrating creativity back into a productivity-obsessed life. If you've ever noticed the diminishing returns of working more on a never-ending quest for some unreachable finish line, this episode offers encouragement to let go of old definitions of success and embrace the chaos of creativity. You can find Dani at: | |||
| The Well-Rounded Advantage: How a Systems Designer Turned Her Intersection Into an Innovation Career | 19 May 2025 | 01:17:03 | |
Melanie Kahl is the founder of Meld Strategy, a design, strategy, and experience practice that works with purpose-driven organizations to craft new programs, services, and visions for the future. I wanted to interview her because of the impressive range of companies that she has worked for and with — from building public schools to leading innovation programs within Meta, from coveted design agencies like Dalberg to sustainable brands like Patagonia and The Design Gym. An innovation leader, strategist, storyteller, and experience designer, Melanie walks us through her career journey, starting with early dreams of working with primates (and a cold email to the Jane Goodall Institute!), turning down Yale, and finding herself building her own design studio after a pandemic sabbatical. For anyone who has struggled with being “too well-rounded” and wanted to integrate all your interests under one career home, Melanie’s story will remind you that it’s possible. She’ll also share her ‘plate’ metaphor and how it helps her know how to balance and select her client load. You can find Mel at: 🔗 https://www.melaniekahl.com/ 🔗https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniekahl/ | |||
| Making Sense of Where You Are: The Four Stages of Life Change | 12 May 2025 | 00:34:56 | |
Ever feel lost in the messy middle of a major life transition? When you're questioning your career path or contemplating a big change, it's easy to feel disoriented without a map. In this solo episode, I share a powerful framework for understanding the four distinct stages of personal renewal—release, heal, explore, and launch. Through the story of client "Ester," I illuminate how each phase has its own unique energy, emotional landscape, and aligned activities. You’ll learn why (literally or metaphorically) pushing yourself to train for a marathon when your body craves restorative yoga creates unnecessary friction and does not set you up to feel like you’re doing anything right. If you've ever felt the void of meaning in work you once loved, wondered who you are without your old identity, or felt the stirrings of excitement about a new direction, this conversation offers practical wisdom for navigating change with more self-understanding and tactical tips. Resources mentioned in the episode: Enter the code “COHERENCE4EVER” to get the email series for free. | |||
| Spring Cleaning Your Commitments by Asking Better Questions | 05 May 2025 | 01:26:28 | |
Ritesh Gupta is the founder of Useful School, a pay-what-you-can creative school for overlooked talent, and a multi-hyphenate kind of creative. On any given day you might find Ritesh in the midst of a design client feedback round, coaching a rising design leader, or deciding what outfit to sport at a vintage clothes event. In this episode, Ritesh shares about navigating a season of doubling down on what brings them joy — making room for texture, fragrance, and cultural heritage— and asking better questions. We talk about his philosophy of expanding scope, why he wears the same outfit to build trust, and how being unafraid of numbers has made him a stronger, more intuitive designer. If you’ve ever wrestled with balancing wealth and values, questioned when to let others into your creative process, or wondered how to do an audit of all of your work activities to figure out what is worth keeping, give this one a listen! You can find Ritesh at:
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| Building a Wildly Values Aligned Business that Lets You Surf, Bike, Camp (and Work Half the Average Work Week) | 28 Apr 2025 | 01:01:24 | |
What shifts in your life when you stop asking “What should I do?”—and start asking “What feels most true to me?” Relationship coach Alice Turpin-Johnson bravely quit her teaching job (and the encroaching burnout) to return to her core value: Wilderness. I wanted to interview Alice because so many people claim to want a job that fuels their life, but they are still working the grand majority of their waking hours and not truly letting their values guide their business design. I have been so impressed by how Alice truly gets rigorous in the amount of time she lets her work take up (and she loves her work!) so that she can spend more time with nature, adventure, and the people she loves. Alice shares how she restructured her life from the ground up to honor what matters to her most. From two years living on the road to building a coaching practice that supports people through the heartbreakingly tender decision of whether to stay or leave a relationship, Alice reminds us that we get to choose how to work. (Maybe your weekdays and weekends could all feel the same so that there was no such thing as a ‘workday’?) To access the free personal values exercise that is mentioned at the end of the episode: https://www.coherence.studio/personal-values-exercise You can find Alice at: Website: https://www.alicetj.com/ | |||
| The Under-Examined Superpower of Coherent Visioning | 22 Apr 2025 | 00:34:43 | |
How can Coherence help you move your personal story forward? In this episode, I'm making the connection between how our current crisis of collective meaning-making and absence of shared stories impacts our ability to know how to make confident decisions in our life. Developing personal coherence can become your navigation system in a world of endless options but few trusted sources of wisdom. I'll break down five powerful narrative patterns—from the “Wound-Gift Transformation” to becoming the Guide you once needed—that can help you understand your own life themes. If you've ever felt lost trying to make sense of your next chapter or wondered how your past experiences might actually be guiding your future, this episode offers a framework for seeing your life as a meaningful story unfolding with a specific pattern. If you want to check out Coherence Course go to: https://www.coherence.studio/coherence-course | |||
| The Transitions Expert: How to Do Something New Without Losing the Best Parts Of Yourself | 14 Apr 2025 | 01:00:02 | |
Victor Saad is an entrepreneur, coach, and talent leader who helps people through transitions. After deciding against traditional grad school and instead creating his own successful masters program “The Leap Year Project”, Victor founded Experience Institute, a new type of higher education rooted in real-world experience. But that was over a decade ago. Victor recently transitioned from being the full time CEO of the company he had started to advising on the board and stepping into a new full time role at another company in a different industry. In this episode, Melissa gets curious about what it takes to make a transition away from a business that you’ve built. And what does it feel like to start in a new role after being the leader and expert of your own thing for a long time? Victor shares about the entrepreneurial “tick” that shaped his early career, the creation of his self-designed “Leap Year”, and how to transition without losing the core of who you are. If you’re navigating your own leap—whether it’s career, identity, or a more quiet shift in direction—this conversation offers a crash course in how to change your life. You can find Victor at: Website: victorsaad.com IG: @victorsaad | |||
| The Audacity to Change: Debunking Five Common Career Transition Myths | 08 Apr 2025 | 00:23:31 | |
Feel like everyone else has found their perfect career fit while you're still searching? When you're stuck in work that doesn't align with your talents or passions, it's easy to believe you're simply not destined to find that elusive "click" so many others seem to have. But what if the roadblocks to your career change are simply myths you've unconsciously internalized as truth? In this episode, I dismantle five common myths that I see keep talented professionals trapped in unfulfilling careers. Through real client stories—from a digital marketer turned Bachata instructor to a creative soul who found her calling in medicine—I reveal how our self-limiting narratives about linearity, identity, planning, age, and finances create artificial barriers to transformation. If you've ever thought "it's too late," "I need the perfect plan first," or "my background is too different," this conversation offers liberating perspective on how shifting your mindset can open doors you never knew existed. Discover why your past doesn't dictate your future and how embracing a different mindset might be the most powerful career move you'll ever make. >>> FREE OFFER: If you want more support on how to create custom work that really makes sense for you, I host a free training on how to get started with your own career transition that you can attend by signing up here: coherence.studio/work-that-works-training | |||
| Turning Pain into Power: How navigating ADHD and Painful Sex Led to a Paradigm-Shifting Business | 31 Mar 2025 | 01:11:27 | |
What happens when a painful secret becomes a revolutionary business idea? For Emily Sauer, painful sex wasn't just a personal struggle—it was a problem no one seemed to be solving (or talking about). So she took matters into her own hands and made a prototype in her kitchen and started talking about it. A lot. Emily’s story reminds us that innovation often starts with a worthy problem to solve, empathy, and some guts. In this episode, Emily, founder and CEO of The Pelvic People, takes us through her career story from art school and high-fashion photo shoots to building a company that’s redefining pelvic health. With candor and humor, she reflects on her early days figuring out how to solve problems and do well in school even with her ADHD diagnosis, and connects a (retrospectively obvious) line to how she transformed something she felt shame around into an empowering solution and movement that now reaches thousands of clinicians and customers. If you’ve ever felt like your body wasn’t doing what it was “supposed to,” or you’ve wondered how to use your relationship (and charismatic) skills to your advantage, this should be an inspiring listen. You can find Emily at: website: thepelvicpeople.com IG: @sauerhour | |||
| The Good Enough Job Expert: The Controversial Idea about The Future of Work that Just Might Make You Happier | 24 Mar 2025 | 00:59:19 | |
Simone Stolzoff is an author, designer, and workplace expert whose debut book The Good Enough Job catapulted his speaking career and recently landed him a TEDx talk. Simo and Melissa talk about the challenge of being pulled in two different directions, and the time he declared something on Twitter that changed his life. Simo worked for the reputed design consultancy IDEO for many years, so it’s no surprise that he helps other people design their next career steps and applies an extremely experimental approach to his own business. Listen in to hear here why Simo is doubling down on his business despite the challenges that come with doing your own thing. Fun Fact: Melissa was the matchmaker who connected Simone with his now wife! You can find Simo at: website: https://www.simonestolzoff.com/ | |||
| What’s your Authentic Sharing Style? | 18 Mar 2025 | 00:45:38 | |
Tired of hearing conflicting content advice that leaves you overwhelmed in inaction? When your livelihood feels tied to getting the word out about your work, it can feel like your only option is to show up on every platform and to force yourself to post all the time. But people feel tension around social media, not wanting to add to the noise or not knowing how to show up in a way that feels not… icky. In this reflective solo episode, host Melissa Wong unpacks the concept of "authentic sharing style," offering a personalized framework for sharing your work without burnout or vulnerability hangovers. She guides you through understanding your core motivations, addressing common fears like judgment and imposter syndrome, and identifying which communication mediums help you naturally show up with more ease. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by social media "shoulds" or wondered which content approach would actually feel sustainable, this conversation provides practical wisdom on finding the sweet spot where your strengths, audience needs, and unique voice converge. | |||
| The Sex and Dating Expert: Getting Down to Business Your Own Way | 11 Mar 2025 | 01:04:10 | |
Myisha Battle is a certified clinical sexologist and sex and dating coach, educator, and speaker. She is the author of This is Supposed to Be Fun: How to Find Joy in Hooking Up, Settling Down, and Everything in Between. In this episode, Myisha takes us through her evolution from middle school peer counselor to psychology graduate student to working four jobs while trying to grow her business to today as a respected sexologist, author, and Time Magazine columnist. Myisha talks about how the business philosophy of "form follows function" allows her to create a coaching business that really works for her not just in theory but in practice. If you've ever wondered how to build a thriving practice around taboo topics, this conversation just might inspire you to have the courage to speak about issues that really matter. You can find Myisha at: website: https://myishabattle.com/ IG: @myishabattle | |||
| The Hard Pivot to A Creative Life: From Corporate Lawyer to Poet and Indie Publisher | 03 Mar 2025 | 00:51:20 | |
What happens when you trade corporate success for creative pursuit? For Janet Wong (Melissa’s cousin!), leaving her role as director of labor relations to write children's books wasn't just a career change—it was a return to the artistic spirit she'd never been encouraged to take seriously. In this episode, Janet takes us behind the scenes of her 30-year journey in children's literature, from her early days of doubt to becoming an award-winning author and independent publisher. Through family artifacts, rejection letters, and pivotal moments of mentorship, she illustrates how our professional lives can become richer when we stop trying to fit into others' expectations. If you've ever felt torn between practicality and passion, or wondered how to maintain longevity in a creative field, this conversation offers wisdom on embracing your quirks, finding your voice, and remembering that there's always "room for me" in spaces that matter to you. You can find Janet at: Website: https://janet-wong.com/ IG: @janetwongauthor | |||
| Are You (Really) Ready to Work for Yourself? | 01 Mar 2025 | 00:20:02 | |
Ever catch yourself daydreaming about breaking free from the 9-to-5 grind, but wonder if you're actually ready to take that leap? You're not alone in this, and today's episode walks you through an exploration of what's really possible. I'm diving deep into what it truly means to be ready for self-employment—beyond business plans and savings accounts. I'll share my own journey of questioning, planning, and finally making the switch, along with the inner work that made all the difference. We're getting real about the emotional rollercoaster of creating your own path and I'm breaking down both the mindset shifts and practical steps that will help you move from "someday" to "day one." Whether you're feeling that gentle nudge or a full-on push toward self-employment, this episode will help you understand if you're ready to write your own rules. If you've ever looked at your career and thought "there has to be more than this," consider this episode your guide to figuring out if going solo is your next right move. I truly believe that creating a career that truly fits you is possible when you know what to look for and how to prepare. | |||
| The Relationship Expert: The Surprising Ingredient to Building a Business You Love Enough to Commit to it Long-Term | 05 Feb 2025 | 01:20:35 | |
Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky is a keynote speaker, workplace belonging & future of work expert and a bestselling author of four books that have been translated into multiple languages, including The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, and The Workplace Belonging Toolkit. Melissa and Smiley used to live together in a 13 person co-living house in Oakland, CA. In this conversation they talk about the secret ingredient to his success getting his first book published and building the fulfilling and dynamic speaking career that he has today. Listen in to learn the classic and often overlooked tactic to growing a business that you love. You can find Smiley at: Website:https://www.smileyposwolsky.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/whatsupsmiley/ Substack: https://substack.com/@friendswithsmiley | |||
| The Mosaic Maker: The Chaotic Career Path that Finds Satisfying Cohesion | 05 Feb 2025 | 00:38:42 | |
Your host Melissa Wong shares about her zig zagging career journey and how she found her work calling. It's a very personal episode that kicks off a new season of episodes all about people who have designed work that is custom tailored to their unique skills, stories, and sensibilities. Hear how Melissa went from crying in the career counselors office to becoming a career coach herself. | |||
| Stella Gold: a wealth coach who believes the way to create a more abundant future is to show community care through economic ecosystems | 31 Oct 2024 | 00:44:12 | |
Stella Gold (they/them) is a Rebirth + Wealth Coach for changemakers and comes from a lineage of activists. They are the founder of My Gold Standard, providing financial education and business coaching as well as grief, death, and end of life planning support. In our conversation Stella shares about how we can use business as an ecosystem for financial solidarity for ourselves AND the collective. We also face the hard fact that while entrepreneurship does give you more control in some ways, it also gives you less control in other ways. You can find Stella at: Website: mygoldstandard.co
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| Laura Patterson: an education advocate who believes interpreting the experience of others is the way we build a more just future | 31 Oct 2024 | 00:43:49 | |
Laura Patterson currently works as an associate partner at Promise Venture Studio, a nonprofit accelerator for social entrepreneurs in early childhood. Melissa asks her about the common thread between her past work: her mission to increase access to high quality education for all students. Laura shares her personal experience navigating different educational environments and the disparities she observed. She emphasizes the importance of community engagement and the role of catalyzers in fostering connections and how we might actually have reason to be optimistic about our collective future if we just look at what’s happening around us locally. Fun Fact: Melissa was a member of a giving circle that Laura started in 2020 in response to the pandemic. What started as a six month commitment ended up lasting three years! You can find Laura at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraepatterson | |||
| Ilana Lipsett: a Civic Designer who believes the way to build collective resilience is to tend to our nervous systems and talk to each other more | 26 Oct 2024 | 00:40:21 | |
Ilana Lipsett is a civic designer who has built her career around helping communities and cities become more resilient when preparing for the future. As a participatory futures design strategist she facilitates challenging conversations with the goal of arriving at innovative solutions, and creating more empathy along the way. In this conversation, Ilana presents a hopeful and grounded perspective of how we begin to come together at every level of human relationship. You can find Ilana at: Website: www.ilanalipsett.com LinkedIn: @ilanalipsett | |||
| Jenny Gottstein: a Play Designer who believes living in your sparkle zone will make the world a better (more fun) place | 29 Sep 2024 | 00:49:12 | |
Jenny Gottstein is a play designer who knows how to make activism fun. She understands that fun and joy are mission critical to social change. From zombie apocalypse disaster preparedness games to voting education parties to climate action game shows, Jenny has built her career helping organizations harness the infectious power of a good time to support missions like disaster resilience, textile recycling, financial literacy, civic engagement, environmental stewardship.
You can find Jenny at:
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| Meg Busse: a foundation COO who believes spaces for witnessing are the way to increase collective care | 20 Sep 2024 | 00:47:36 | |
Meg Busse is a program designer, facilitator and currently the COO at The Roddenberry Foundation, where supports activists and entrepreneurs on their missions to bring original solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. She also wrote the book on how to get a non-profit job as a first time job seeker while working as a director at Idealist.org. Meg and I talk about the importance of creating spaces for connection and care and how to think about reciprocity in relationships. Listen in to hear her inside knowledge about what some of the country’s most prominent activists and innovators talk about when they get a space of their own.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/megbusse/ | |||
| Xenia Viray: an Imagination Healer who believes authoring our own belief systems will undo collective harm | 12 Sep 2024 | 00:58:08 | |
Xenia Viray is an otherworldy writer, artist, facilitator, and overall spiritual wise person who is on a mission to heal our imaginations @mythsofcreation. Melissa invites friend, collaborator, and former coaching client Xenia to be the first guest of the Season 2 reboot of Coherence Podcast because of her gifts of seeing how all the parts contribute to a system, from the microbes and bugs to the stars and planets. Xenia fuses philosophy, science, creativity, and metaphysics to help her clients return to their essential nature. In this episode, Xenia and Melissa talk about the importance of creating your own meaning making system, embracing your authenticity (and caring less about what others think), and the vulnerability and faith it takes to create something new. You can find Xenia at: Website: www.mythsofcreation.com IG: @mythsofcreation | |||
| We're back! - Season Two Trailer | 10 Sep 2024 | 00:01:07 | |
Welcome back to Coherence Podcast! Season 1 was about how individual creatives bring together the different parts of self. Season 2 is all about making sense at the collective level and envisioning a compelling way forward for our society as a whole. This new conversation series features innovators helping to create new meaning for our society during a time where we are missing a shared sense of what makes life worthwhile. | |||
| Ahran Lee: on keeping creativity close through intentional pleasure practices | 01 Mar 2023 | 00:56:30 | |
Ahran is a multidisciplinary artist, mindset coach and group facilitator who uses art, improv, conversation and storytelling as a way to help us shift ancestral patterns. Ahran shares about the multi-chaptered journey she’s taken to get to a place of authenticity with her art practice. A practice of vulnerability and pleasure — she trusts creative expression as a critical component to shifting deep seated family patterns. This is an open-hearted conversation that is bound to have you reflecting on your own relationship to your creativity. ** At the end of the episode Melissa breaks down one of the topics from the conversation and offers up a personal challenge you can try. Learn more about Ahran: IG: @ahranmakes Email: ahranleecoaching@gmail.com | |||