The Georgia Wolfe-Samuels

Tomorrow I facilitate my first in-person workshop since leaving corporate, teaching professionals how to own their value and impact at work.

200 year old organization. New York City. The same city where an eleven year old girl from Jamaica learned to hide everything that made her different.

Full 180.

Do not underestimate your journey or the power of your story.

A lot of ambitious women were taught to survive at work, as opposed to leveraging their power to build career power.

While the under current to this teaching was well intentioned (keep us safe), it also thought us to romanticize burnout,
overworking,
silence,
being “low maintenance,” and
being everything to everyone.

What this career strategy teaches us is survival patterns that absolutely does not lead to success, at least in a way that is sustainable and fulfilling to us.

Some people will judge you for taking a non-traditional approach to your career.

Simply because it’s unfamiliar.

Because it challenges what they were taught to believe about success.
Because it requires a level of courage they may not be ready to access.
Because it forces them to question paths they never gave themselves permission to explore.

So they label it risky.
Unrealistic.
Too much.

But what they’re really reacting to… is difference.

And difference has always made people uncomfortable.

The real question is not whether they understand your path.
It’s whether you do.

Because when you are clear on your vision, your values, and the life you’re building,
their opinions stop being direction… and start being noise.

You don’t need consensus to move.
You need conviction.

DM me “power” if you are ready to build anyway.

AI is reshaping roles.�DEI nets are disappearing.�Layoffs are hitting “top performers” with zero warning.

So why trust one paycheck with your entire life?

Not because corporate is bad.�Not because every woman should quit.�Not because entrepreneurship is automatically the answer.

But because the working world has changed, and building your whole sense of security around one employer, one title, one manager, and one income stream is too fragile.

While I was still in Big 4, I built four businesses using one simple rule:

Not every good idea deserves ex*****on.

Every venture had to pass five filters:
1️⃣ Alignment�2️⃣ Independence clearance�3️⃣ Market reality�4️⃣ Sustainability�5️⃣ ROI vs. sweat equity

That is how you build options without burning out.�That is how you create leverage without being reckless.�That is how you stop thinking only in terms of “stay or quit” and start thinking like a woman with strategy, agency, and range.

The goal is not to run from corporate.
The goal is to stop letting corporate be the only place where your value lives.

If you are a woman of color in corporate and you know your next chapter requires more than “stay or quit,” follow this page. We are talking about strategy, optionality, self advocacy, power, and building beyond one paycheck.

Q2 Birthday & Business Reset.

Every year, our Q2 vacation lands on my birthday… and we’ve turned it into a non‑negotiable reset.
�My husband and I run five businesses, but we refuse to build a life we’re too exhausted to enjoy.

We plan our year in 12‑week sprints, so every quarter ends with a pause to ask better questions:�– What actually worked in life and business this quarter?�– What drained us that we are not carrying into the next 12 weeks?�– What can we automate, delegate, or delete so we’re not the bottleneck?�– How do we want our marriage and our schedule to feel next quarter?�– What is one bold move we’re willing to commit to together?

This level of clarity doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intention, boundaries, and a willingness to choose rest even when the world is screaming “more grind.”

Before this quarter ends, block off a day or a weekend to step away, ask these five questions, and give yourself permission to build a life you don’t need a vacation from.

Whether you’re in corporate or running a business, your next level of growth probably isn’t in another strategy. It just may be in creating space to think, review, and reset.

I’d love to hear what it stirred up for you, whether you’re in business, corporate, or somewhere in between.

I have thoughts.
I need to read the book to get the full context of what Emma Grede is advocating, but until then, I want to weigh in and address some of her soundbites and the varying perspectives I have heard.

A few things. If C-suite is your goal, a lot of what Emma is talking about is the honest reality.

But success is not one directional and the blueprint needs to match the destination.

The statement that WFH is a career killer is too general and depends on your desired destination.

The real career killers are the inequities, the aggressions, being excluded from the rooms and conversations that shape your future, and as Black women, being managed instead of developed. Maybe she addresses it in the book. I will see.

But what I want to shine some light on is the importance of developing a key skill that is critical regardless of the path to our unique definition of success, and that is the skill of self-advocacy.
Know your value.
Show your value.
Give your value a voice.

And know that if the disrespect gets loud where you are, you have options!