From Ill-Fitting Careers to Finding the Perfect Fit with Ellen Mihalovich

From Climbing the Corporate Ladder to Designing an Anti-Fragile Career with Sinem Furtana

What if the career fortress you’ve built to stay “safe” has also been quietly locking out your curiosity, your creativity, and the version of yourself that would feel most alive? That's the conversation at the heart of this week's episode with Sinem Furtana, an ex-Procter & Gamble and Amazon supply chain leader who walked away from corporate to deliver food aid for the UN in Cairo, before taking a self-funded year-long career break to slow-travel Southeast Asia, write her Substack, Sinem in Flux, and figure out what comes next. In this episode, she’s sharing her perspective from within the messy middle of redesigning her own career, and what she's discovered along the way. In this episode, you'll hear: * How to build an anti-fragile career instead of climbing a ladder that's breaking down in real time * How to build "leap capital" so your reinvention is funded, not a fantasy * Why "I don't know yet" can be a valid answer for years, and how clarity actually comes through doing * How to shift from being pushed by pain or fear to being pulled by curiosity Links: * Sinem in Flux on Substack [https://sineminflux.substack.com/] * Learn more about Second Mountain Mastermind [https://www.conscioussuccessco.com/the-second-mountain-mastermind] * Follow Emma on Instagram: @conscioussuccessco [https://www.instagram.com/conscioussuccessco/]

The Quiet Power of Loving the Work More Than the Wins with TV Writer Meredith Dawson

What does it actually take to chase a creative dream for years before it materializes? To keep showing up through rejection, through industry contraction, through every "no" that lands in your inbox? That's the heart of this week's conversation with TV writer and cookbook author Meredith Dawson, whose credits include ABC's The Wonder Years, Hulu's Four Weddings and a Funeral, and AppleTV+'s Central Park. Her debut cookbook, Party for One, hits shelves May 19th. If you have a dream you've been quietly chasing while wondering if it'll ever land, this one is a masterclass in staying power, delusional positivity, and loving your craft more than the wins. In this episode, you'll hear: * The bold, risky pilot script that got her signed at CAA * Her "cookies in your back pocket" concept and why it's the only way she's survived a decade of rejection * The reframe that lets her receive a "no" without internalizing it as personal failure * How a frustrating pandemic dinner challenge became the idea for her debut cookbook Links: * Buy the Party for One [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/meredith-dawson/party-for-one/9781454958826/] cookbook * Follow Emma on Instagram: @conscioussuccessco [https://www.instagram.com/conscioussuccessco/] * Apply to the Second Mountain Mastermind [https://www.conscioussuccessco.com/the-second-mountain-mastermind]

How to Become Your Own Best Coach

There's a voice inside of you that knows exactly what to do next. The boundary you need to set. The conversation you've been avoiding. The next right move. The problem is, most of us can't hear it anymore. We've filled every quiet moment with podcasts, scrolling, Slack, and to-do lists, and the wisest part of us has been drowned out by the noise. In this episode, Emma walks you through the single practice she returns to daily to connect to that voice and return to her power: a journaling practice. She breaks down exactly how to do it, why it works, and what to expect as you build it into your own routine. In this episode, you'll hear: * Why high-achieving women lose access to their inner voice, and the cost of going entire days without ever turning your focus inward * The exact morning pages practice from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way that Emma has done for five years * The three lies your brain will tell you to keep you from journaling, and how to call BS on each one * How to move from journaling feeling like an obligation to the place you go to for your best ideas Links: * Grab Emma's free Morning Pages Guide [https://www.conscioussuccessco.com/morningpages] * The Magic of I Lined Vegan Leather Journal [https://magicofi.com/products/moi-vegan-leather-journal-lined] * Join The Mastermind [https://www.conscioussuccessco.com/the-second-mountain-mastermind] * Follow Emma on Instagram: @conscioussuccessco [https://www.instagram.com/conscioussuccessco/]

From Head of Marketing Strategy to a 7-Figure Mastermind Business in a 4-Day Work Week with Ellie Swift

What do you do when you finally get the title you've been climbing toward for ten years, and you feel nothing? That's the exact moment Ellie Swift had at 28, when she hit Head of Marketing Strategy and realized the "safe" corporate ladder she'd been climbing was actually her outsourcing her power to someone else's payroll. So she left, and built a seven-figure coaching business that runs in a four-day work week. Ellie is the founder of The Mastermind Model and the host of the Scalable Freedom podcast. Since walking away from corporate, she's built a business that scales without consuming her and a model that's now helped many other women hit six, multi-six, and seven figures.  In this episode, you'll hear: * Why the "safe" corporate path isn't as safe as it looks, and what actually creates financial security * Why women specifically build better when we have a foundation of safety underneath us, not by blowing it all up bro style * How Ellie built to 6 figures in under 12 months and what she did differently from day one * How she actually hit her first million-dollar year while going through seven rounds of fertility treatment and pregnancy loss * How to string together the skills you already have into something nobody else can offer * Why your business success doesn't require you to be the sparkliest, shiniest version of yourself at all times If you've climbed to the top of your first mountain and realized you climbed the wrong one, this episode is for you. Links: * The Scalable Freedom Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scalable-freedom-show/id1526779357] * Follow Ellie on Instagram: @elliehswift [https://www.instagram.com/elliehswift]  * Ellie on YouTube: @elliehswift [https://www.youtube.com/@elliehswift]  * Learn more about The Second Mountain Mastermind [https://www.conscioussuccessco.com/the-second-mountain-mastermind] * Follow Emma on Instagram: @conscioussuccessco [https://www.instagram.com/conscioussuccessco]

From Ill-Fitting Careers to Finding the Perfect Fit with Ellen Mihalovich

What happens when you stop forcing yourself into a linear career path and start building a multi-faceted one that actually fits the life you're living? Ellen Mihalovich spent years bouncing between fashion, entrepreneurship, and freelance design, each chapter teaching her something but none of them feeling quite right. As a self-described multi-passionate creative, she made herself wrong for not being able to just pick one thing and stick with it. In this episode, Ellen shares how coaching helped her uncover her gifts and how that clarity led her to design a business in a way that actually works for her. She started by honoring her love of both writing and fashion, launching the Substack Blue Jean Baby, which grew into a personal styling business for women who want to look good without adding one more thing to their mental load. In this episode, you'll hear: * Why she spent years making herself wrong for being multi-passionate, and what finally shifted that * Why the question "so what do you do?" became the hardest part of her career transition, and how she stopped letting it define her worth * The moment she realized that if she, a fashion obsessive, was struggling to get dressed as a busy mom, millions of other women were too * How a conversation with her husband about AI convinced her to bet on the one thing technology can't replace: real, human, one-on-one experiences * What it really feels like to be in the "figuring it out" stage of building a business, and why she thinks more women need to talk about that honestly Links: * Follow Ellen on Instagram: @bluejeanbabyestyle [https://www.instagram.com/bluejeanbabystyle/] * Ellen's Substack: bluejeanbabyedit.substack.com [https://bluejeanbabyedit.substack.com/] * Ellen's styling business: bluejeanbabystyle.com [https://www.bluejeanbabystyle.com/] * Ellen's design portfolio: ellenbreckendesign.com [https://ellenbreckendesign.com/] * Follow Emma on Instagram: @conscioussuccessco [https://www.instagram.com/conscioussuccessco/] * Work with Emma: www.conscioussuccessco.com [http://www.conscioussuccessco.com]