I know precisely what can happen to our mental health in this industry.
I graduated with my bachelor's degree in Graphic Design shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and one of the largest economic downtowns in U.S. history.
I was in for a struggle that would challenge my mindset, my energy, and my self-worth every single day. What I didn't know is that this was just the first of several professional mental health challenges I would face.
I spent the next two decades bouncing back and forth between agency and in-house while advancing my career from solo Graphic Designer to Sr. Creative Director for a $4B corporation. I also ran a side-hustle freelance LLC for 10 years supporting local nonprofits.
My resume looked polished (and I even won a bunch of cool awards for my design work) but I often felt lost, stressed, anxious, and misunderstood—especially during pivotal career transitions like layoffs, re-orgs, acquisitions, and even any promotions.
I wasted so much of my creative energy feeling frustrated, isolated, and making upsetting career mistakes.
I was exhausted trying to "collect" creative career advice from a million different sources, never getting to the actual root of all my confidence struggles.
• Therapists didn't understand the creative industry experience.
• Mentors weren't equipped to help me dig into deep mindset work.
• Career counselors provided practical guidance, but not emotional support.
• Recruiters only had time for confident, polished candidates.
• Social media left me feeling envious, disconnected, and like an imposter.
This is what I assumed my career confidence would feel like as I gained professional experience.
This is what my career confidence actually felt like.
I’ve been furloughed and lacked purpose.
I’ve been laid-off and felt unwanted. Twice.
I’ve been forced to lay other people off and punished myself with obsessive guilt.
I’ve experienced corporate restructuring and felt powerless.
I've been promoted and struggled under the weight of perfectionism.
I've been hired into roles I'd never done before and felt like an imposter.
I've been interviewed by 20 people at once and felt overwhelmed.
I've made impulsive career decisions because I felt panicked and desperate.
I've bombed interviews and felt like a failure.
I've frozen up when presenting to clients, C-suite execs, and boards of directors.
I've managed on-site teams remotely in multiple cities and felt unprepared.
I’ve been asked to manage people without being given a manager title (or salary) and felt disrespected.
I’ve been given work that was another designer’s and felt guilty.
I’ve had my design work given away and felt angry.
I've been afraid to delegate work and became the bottleneck.
I've been afraid to negotiate timelines and burned myself out.
I've had clients reject my work and lost my confidence.
I’ve had supportive bosses that were laid-off and felt isolated (and shook).
I’ve had micromanaging bosses who didn’t value creativity and became disgruntled.
I’ve worked on amazingly talented teams that were dismantled and felt gutted.
I’ve been hired into dysfunctional teams and felt uncomfortable.
I've managed teams that didn't vibe and felt overly-responsible for their happiness.
I've had my ideas trampled on by managers and felt like an imposter.
I’ve searched for entry-level design jobs during a recession and questioned my talent.
I’ve searched for creative leadership roles during a recession and felt terrified.
I've taken the residue of toxic work environments with me into new positions.
I’ve cried because no one replied to my countless applications.
I've cried because I felt alone, misunderstood and mistreated.
I’ve cried because I felt like my creative career was dead-ending.
I’ve sabotaged myself with negative thoughts that kept me stuck, small, and constantly stressed out.
• Understand and manage the unique challenges that contribute to ongoing mental health struggles in the creative industry.
• Implement effective science-based strategies to manage the stress, anxiety, and burnout cycles in your career.
• Define the root causes of self-doubt in your career so you can shift into positive patterns that fuel creativity & career progress.
• Learn how to process grief after job loss or industry shifts, so you avoid the harmful practices that stunt your career progress.
• Learn the neurobiology behind your response to toxic or unhealthy work environments so you avoid carrying old baggage into new roles
• Connect with a global community of like-minded creative professionals who are also prioritizing their mental health JUST LIKE YOU! 😎🌟