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Grace Fabian Career Coaching

Bi-weekly career sparks for passionate powerhouses. Inspiring stories, breakthrough questions, and smart strategies to help make work work for you.

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Bring your body to the boardroom

Hey there, you smart, strategic, high-achieving professional, Mind if we turn off your brain for a sec and drop into your body? Hi 👋 We’re here because you want important things for your work and life, and your body is going to help you get them. Yes, your brain too. But you already knew that. To double-check what people really crave in their careers, I dropped anonymized client surveys into ChatGPT and cross-referenced them with Gallup’s Employee Engagement Survey. The results weren’t...

Career coaching isn’t really about your career. Like, yeah, you may land your coveted Staff Software Engineer or Creative Director role at that sexy company that will make all the homies on LinkedIn smash that like button. But we’re actually here for you and your loved ones. To explain what I mean, I asked a few of my incredible clients to fill in the blank: “Since career coaching, I’ve been able to ______ in my non-work life.” Work can really engulf us. And it makes sense, so give yourself...

When I was getting my coaching certification at Brown University School of Professional Studies, we learned the most uncomfortable (but essential!) part of coaching: Challenging our clients. Sure, recognizing strengths and celebrating wins is a one-way ticket to Dopamine City. But real growth comes when you shine a light on how someone’s getting in their own way, and encourage them to take the spicier, better path forward. Do I have your permission to challenge you? (If not, feel free to...

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Are you nodding? Or is your BS-o-Meter blaring? Honestly, I’m somewhere in the middle. Like most oversimplified quotes dubiously attributed to Confucius, the truth is in the nuance. This has been the mission of my coaching practice since the beginning: Design a career you love ✨ And because my worst fear is sounding like a snake oil salesperson, I spend a lot of time unpacking what “love” actually means in the context of work....

It’s 2020. Sorry to make you go there—promise it’s just for a sec. After a particularly draining workday at my tech leadership job, I collapsed on the couch and yelled, “I’m trapped!” I wanted to believe that primal, childlike surge of emotion was because of quarantine. But I knew it ran deeper. I just didn’t know what it meant—yet. Today, folks share similar experiences with me during our exploration calls: “I feel trapped, stuck, and unmotivated in my career.” "I feel stuck in my current...

I know you’re not here because you want more emails. You’re here because you’re a passionate powerhouse—a badass who cares deeply, works hard, and wants to live your one precious life intentionally. But something isn’t right in your career. Maybe you’re... Feeling trapped in a role that doesn’t fit Dreaming of something more, but scared to go for it Reeling from a layoff, reorg, or acquisition Treading water or feeling pulled under by work Navigating a life shift that’s changing how you show...

These are real quotes from folks at real career crossroads. They valiantly tried to DIY their way through it—and eventually came to me to design a career they actually love: “My therapist doesn’t even know what a Google Doc is.” “The stack of self-help books on my nightstand is about to topple over.” “ChatGPT said I should be an astronaut or a veterinarian. But I’m a Product Manager?!” If you can land a dream job, start a business, make your work life sustainable, navigate change, or get...

“Weird times.” That’s what my CTO friend and I kept saying on one of our classic LA rollerblade catch-ups this weekend. We were talking about AI. That thing that went from niche buzzword to novelty toy to personal assistant to existential threat in just a decade. Yes, we’re living in weird times. But I’m not worried. Not because my head’s buried in analog sand. Because I’m curiously plugged into how this is unfolding and calmly, creatively iterating on how I work and deliver value to my...

Hey! Grace Fabian here (formerly Vigeant or Epstein depending on when we met). Same career coach, same obsession with your professional fulfillment. Just a zhuzhed-up sender line. I caught up with a career coaching client recently. She landed a perfect-fit leadership role during our work together and is now renegotiating comp and title (cuz she’s been kicking even more ass than they hired her for). Like most of my clients, she’s a seasoned pro. Not her first rodeo. She’s been the job seeker...

On Monday, I looked at my calendar and blurted out, “Ugh, I’m obsessed with this week!” Far cry from my stress-filled Subway commutes, back when I was a walking bag of cortisol. I coach people to design careers they love. I shouldn’t be in business if I don’t have a career that I love—and continually iterate as I grow and the world shifts. So what made me audibly celebrate my week? Well… My clients are ridiculously cool. Kicked off the week with a creative tech wiz, a comms prof, a...