Claire O'Connor

She was about to step down.

Six months later, she took on a bigger role.

She's a Site Head at a major pharmaceutical company. The kind of leader people look to for the answers. From the outside, formidable.

On the inside, she was carrying a new promotion, a team that had let her down, two kids at home, and the quiet sense she'd lost herself somewhere along the way.

Here's what mattered most about her turnaround: it didn't start with working harder. It started with one boundary. One simple, specific thing, in our first session.

By one month in, she was choosing how she spent her time instead of reacting to everyone else's.

By three months, she'd given two keynote speeches.

By six months, she took on a bigger role and she was more present at home than she'd been in years.

The hardest part, she told me, was believing she deserved to start with.

Here in Atlanta, I am getting ready for the new school year. And I know I am not the only one who has been running a mile a minute to this point.

In the same boat? This week, the whole rhythm of your house changes once again as you organize backpacks, school supplies, snacks, bus routes and so much more.

And at work? Everything picks up at exactly the same time. New projects. New pressure. The quiet countdown to year-end reviews.

You'll give your best during the workday. And then the second performance starts at school pickup.

I want to say this clearly: you're not disorganized.

You're not behind.

We're all running two performances a day, and honestly we were never given the tools to manage it. It's just an expectation that we shall manage. (Somehow!)

I have those tools. I have learned them, use them, and want to share them with you.

So on Wednesday, August 5th, I'm running a free one-hour workshop.

Live on Zoom. 11am ET.

We'll work out where your energy is actually going, what it's costing you, and one commitment to carry through the fall. One. Not ten.

The intention is that you may walk in overwhelmed, but you'll walk out with clarity.

Link to register is in the comments

S.T.O.P. is one tool. The workshop is the rest of it: what to do when your attention is being pulled in three directions, and you still have to lead the room at 9am.

Free, one hour, live on Zoom, 5th August. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1993139604210?aff=oddtdtcreator

Men are promoted on potential. Women are promoted on proof.

I've coached a lot of women who are already doing the job.

Running the team. Making the calls. Carrying the responsibility when things go wrong.
They just haven't been given the title.

And when I ask why, the same pattern shows up every time. She's waiting.

Waiting until the proof pile is undeniable. Waiting to be noticed. Waiting for someone senior to make the decision for her, because somewhere along the way, we learned the rules: be good, be quiet, don't get it wrong.

So she checks with the level above before she moves. She softens everything she says so it lands gently. She calls her biggest win of the year "not a big deal".

And the title goes to someone with half her proof and twice her comfort talking about it.
If you're reading this thinking "that's me" you're not imagining it. And it's not a capability problem. It's a visibility problem. Visibility is a set of learnable skills.

That's part of what we'll work on in my free session on August 5th. Link in comments.

There’s a name for that gap.

It’s called functional freezing.

You’ve given everything to the first performance of the day. The meetings. The decisions. The being “on”.

And then you walk through the front door and the second performance starts.

Dinner. Homework. The people you love most, getting whatever’s left in the tank.

Which, some evenings, is nothing.

Here’s what I want you to know: that’s not a discipline problem. It’s not a time management problem.
It’s an energy problem. And nobody ever taught you how to manage your energy the way you manage your calendar.

You can have both. The career and the evenings. But not by pushing harder. By knowing where to spread your attention.

On August 5th I’m running a free one-hour session on exactly this.

Back to Brilliance: Back to School. Back to Routine. Back to You.
One hour. Real tools. No card, no catch.

Link to register is in my bio. Or drop me a DM to let me know if this resonated and why and I’d be happy to send you the link.

Claire 💚

BINGO. 🙃

Full house by Tuesday, usually.

The snacks alone could deserve their own therapy session.

If your brain runs this list all day, every day, that’s the invisible load. It’s real, it adds up, and you’re not imagining it.

Save this. Send this to another working mum who’s trying to juggle keeping it professional at work but still carrying the added load.

How many square did you fill?

“I don’t need you anymore, Claire.”

It’s a strange thing to celebrate a client telling you that. But it’s the whole point of the work.

Britt didn’t need to do less. She needed her time, her words, and her calm back.

If you’re the person everyone leans on and there’s nothing left for you — my free Back to Brilliance workshop is on Wednesday 5th August, 11am ET.

One hour. Real tools.

Link in bio to register.

Something has to change.

You know it. You’ve known it for a while.

You’re successful on paper. You’re holding everything together. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you lost track of yourself.

Back to Brilliance™ is a 90-day programme for high-performing women who are done surviving and ready to start leading themselves, first.

On Aug 5th, the first session is completely free.

11am ET | 4pm GMT.

Live on Zoom. No card required.

Swipe to hear from women who’ve done it.

Then DM me ‘BACK’ and I’ll send you the link. Or you can find the link in Bio!