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.
Trusting the Process and Lessons from Running || 🎤 EP 026 on Corporate Drag with Charlie Robertson
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Hi Reader, I'm just coming back from a 20 km run, as part of my marathon training. Funny enough, every week, when I leave the house for a long run, I have a moment of doubt and excitement, wondering whether my body will support me in this endeavour. And when I'm back, I feel amazing and remember that I'm training for this. Each week, the mileage increases by one kilometer. Each week, I believe I couldn't do more until the next week, when I do it and cannot believe the extra kilometer the week after. It's all about trusting the process, I learned last year when I finished my first marathon and was very surprised that I did it! My mind was surprised, my body wasn't. That's what I trained for. And that's exactly the kind of message I needed this week, as I'm going through a business turmoil: my biggest client announced a restructure and the replacement of some of their live training with AI-powered self-paced options. I might not have that client next year. When I got the news, I was surprised by how calm my body remained. The body knew it has done that before: fighting for clients, losing some, finding new ones, re-inventing the business, adjusting the system to make it work and make it grow. Each time it happened, I came out stronger. My body remembers that. On the other side, my brain seems to forget and therefore invents horror stories of why this time could be different. Must be different! As if my brain wants to create drama, in the same way I slightly panic before the long run, before recognising that my body knows what to do. And so today, I decide to trust my body, keep my calm and do what I have trained to do. Do you also have a thing your body knows while your brain dramatises? 🎤 Waiting for you on the Unprofessionalism podcast:Charlie Robertson spent years keeping two lives apart: the consultant at a well-respected firm, and Charlene Coco, the drag persona he mentioned to almost no one at work. About a year ago, he did the thing that still makes him flinch when he posts about it on LinkedIn: he brought Charlene into his business. His argument, borrowed from RuPaul: we're all in drag, every day. The suit, the meeting voice, the performed confidence. The difference is that drag queens choose everything — the wig, the makeup, the walk, the reaction they want from the room — while most of us never chose our costume. We just put on what everyone else wears. This conversation became a working theory of what happens when we deliberately choose how to present ourselves. Charlie speaks about a workshop participant who paces her flat in her highest heels before big video calls which became her small, deliberate switch that turns her confidence on. Her high heels is my microphone which gets me into my podcast mindset and helps me be present with my guests. My personal highlight from the conversation is the moment we explore why it is that the audience wills a drag queen to succeed — and what that reveals about which leaders we're actually willing to support in their actions. 🎧 Click here to listen to the interview📥 Download my 1-page summaryUP_026_Summary.pdfThat's it from my side. I hope to see you next week! Myriam
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What does it cost to be yourself — 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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Hi Reader, And suddenly it clicked into place. It took me almost half a year, more than thirty conversations, to finally land on an important nuance regarding unprofessionalism: It's more than courage, humanity, and authenticity. What really matters is the professional risk. An action only counts as unprofessional if it would trigger a "But you cannot do that!" from those around us. When I quit my day job to move to Amsterdam and redesign my life, that was courageous. It wasn't...
Hi Reader, This weekend I went through my wardrobe and threw out all skirts and dresses I'd kept for years. Since I left my day-job. I told myself to better keep them in case I still needed them - for client meetings, in-person events, important professional occasions. I kept them because they were expensive brands, great quality, still fitting. Fitting. My body yes but not my soul. A week earlier, I was in a bridal store, looking at myself in a dress, and the person I saw wasn't me anymore....