Field Notes
Issue #1
May 20, 2026
Welcome to the Field!
You’ve been getting a monthly email from me for a while now called More Than Work. It has typically contained a link to my latest article plus a handful of related resources, and many of you have made such good use of the material that I felt it was time to offer more. That's why I've migrated and reimagined More Than Work as a weekly Substack newsletter. I hope you'll join me there as a reader. More on that below.
That shift means this monthly newsletter changing, too, starting now. Each month, you can look forward to a short letter from me called Field Notes. Every issue will share an observation from my coaching practice — or from my own practice as I continue to create my own Bespoke Life.
It will be my honest take on something worth thinking about, and you won’t find it anywhere else. I'm reserving these thoughts for you.
Why?
You’ve been on this list for a while. That means something to me. You likely found your way here through a real connections with me. A coaching engagement, a conference, a conversation that mattered, years of following along as I figured out what I was building. You’re not a stranger. You’re someone I actually want to talk to directly, on a regular basis.
That's why I created Field Notes. It's the raw, sometimes messy, always authentic working draft of how I'm seeing things each month. It's what I'm noticing and what I'm wrestling with.
It's what the practice looks like from the inside, when the practitioner is also doing the work.
About that work.
I’ve been in a significant career transition for a while now — again.
That sentence is strange to write, because career transitions are my expertise. That’s what I coach. I’ve helped hundreds of people move through the fog of uncertainty, the season between what was and what’s next, where the work is more internal than external and patience feels like the hardest skill.
I've built my career transition framework across 4,000 hours of coaching conversations. I know it well.
And I still find myself wrestling with the same questions I urge clients to explore:
What do I actually want? (Not what am I good at: What do I want?)
What would I build if I were designing this life, right now, from scratch?
What am I holding onto that has passed its useful life?
Why does an executive coach need to explore these questions? I need to explore them because I am human, and because this is a process for a lifetime.
I’ve been rethinking what’s sustainable in my own life — as a professional, a spouse, a daughter, a caregiver and a human being who is aging — and in the current economic and political environment. That process of rethinking has been slower, messier and far more instructive than I expected.
Field Notes is, in part, where I’m going to write about it honestly, as a dispatch from the middle of it.
You’re already on this list, so nothing needs to change on your end. If you like this transition, let me know. If it’s not your thing, unsubscribe anytime.
More soon,
More Than Work is my free Substack newsletter, with structured content about the changing world of work and what it means for you.
Every Tuesday, I share a free tool, a coaching question and an inspiring story to get you thinking — and to help you create a Bespoke Life characterized by success, satisfaction and alignment with your values and priorities.
Whether you're focused on your own career design or supporting others' professional development, More Than Work will help you with practical insight and meaningful impact.
Learn more at morethanwork.substack.com, or by clicking the button above.