People have forgotten how to be themselves at work. That's the thing I cannot unsee anymore: In meetings, workshops, even 1-on-1s - everyone's managing how they appear, avoiding judgement, signalling competence. The exhaustion starts before the conversation does.I write about the gap between who we are at work and who we are when we put down the professional mask. Every week, I share one personal story from my life and a podcast conversation with someone who dared to write their own script, choosing authenticity over performance. The podcast is called Unprofessionalism. Each episode comes with a 1-page summary, in case you'd rather read than listen.
Following our Real Voice || π€ Episode 019 with Cathey Armillas
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Hi Reader, I spent my weekend with a group of strangers to whom I told the most personal story - one that not even my closest friends would be aware of. The shaking of my hands stopped as soon as I started. I didn't need notes because this was my story. While I am used to speaking to groups of strangers, I usually stand there with a specific role: the facilitator. This time, nobody knew about what I was doing from nine to five. All they knew about me was this one story. And wow, that felt good! And now, I am staring at a new blank page as I prepare a keynote for a conference room full of facilitators. How much of that experience, the personal angle will I dare to bring into the space? The topic of my speech - Unprofessionalism - invites me to. Somehow. And still, I am surprised by how strong the urge is to put the professionalism back on: the meta-perspective, the learnings, the big picture instead of the human who has experienced all of it and might be more relatable to the audience than the theory she came up with. What I keep coming back to is that professionalism is an armour. It protects us and allows us to walk into the spaces that scare us most. At the same time, it also creates distance, a metaphorical wall that makes us unrelatable and replaceable. This week's guest has spent years arguing that this wall costs more than it protects. I want to believe her and will trust that I don't need the protective armour because a room full of facilitators will be a very forgiving crowd. π€ Waiting for you on the Unprofessionalism podcast:Cathey Armillas built her career the way most people are told not to. She doesn't separate what she loves from what she sells. Her sneaker collection became a filter for clients. Her obsession with waterfalls became a corporate training product. Her decades as a competitive softball pitcher became her coaching methodology. Her background in marketing psychology became her speaking framework. She coaches TED speakers and executives to do the same. To stop becoming a flatter version of themselves the moment they walk into a professional space, and to trust that what makes them recognisable outside of work is exactly what will make them land inside it. She has a name for what happens when people donβt believe who they are is enough: voice masking. Her argument is that the moment an audience senses someone performing instead of connecting, they stop listening. Not consciously. Viscerally. And no amount of memorisation fixes that. We talked about the wall we are told to build between our personal and professional lives, and why Cathey's career is a case for replacing the bricks with glass so you can see what's on the other side and decide what's worth bringing through. π§ Click here to listen to the interviewπ₯ Download my 1-page summaryβUP_019_Summary.pdfβ π§ The workshops work Podcast ClubIf you miss the workshops work podcast and conversations with the global community of facilitators, join the next gathering of my podcast club! This month, we gather around the question: Who Holds the Pen? Inspired by my conversations with Judy Rees on Clean Language and Ole Qvist-SΓΈrensen on Visual Facilitation. βοΈ Click here to sign up for next week's gathering.β That's it from my side. I hope to see you next week! Myriam
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What does it cost to be yourself β at work?
People have forgotten how to be themselves at work. That's the thing I cannot unsee anymore: In meetings, workshops, even 1-on-1s - everyone's managing how they appear, avoiding judgement, signalling competence. The exhaustion starts before the conversation does.I write about the gap between who we are at work and who we are when we put down the professional mask. Every week, I share one personal story from my life and a podcast conversation with someone who dared to write their own script, choosing authenticity over performance. The podcast is called Unprofessionalism. Each episode comes with a 1-page summary, in case you'd rather read than listen.
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