I Wasn't Ready for the Messy Middle

This week it's just me. First, a quick update on the show. We slowed down in September so we could line up a slate of interviews I'm excited for you to hear. New episodes start the first week of October and drop every other Sunday on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Then I want to talk about the messy middle, the part of change we tend to skip. We talk about who we were before and who we became after, but rarely about the stretch in between. A year into building my own business, someone asked me what I do. I heard myself answer with the title I left behind and a list of things I could produce. I had walked away from that story on purpose, and I was sliding right back into it. I didn't catch it until a friend handed me a piece of paper and asked which version I wanted. Knowing the new story didn't change my behavior. Under pressure, I kept making the familiar choice. So I stopped trying to force my way into it. I'm practicing new choices in low-stakes moments: how I dress, how I spend my mornings, how I walk into a room. And I'm letting those choices carry over into the moments that matter more. The messy middle isn't a detour. It's where the change happens.