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Episode 1: The Right to Define Yourself

You walk into a room with years of experience, nuanced thinking, and complex capabilities. Within minutes, you've been reduced to something manageable. "She's so detail-oriented." "Such a team player." "Really approachable."

This is flattening. And you've been letting it happen.

In this episode, I break down exactly how flattening works—the daily patterns, the language traps, the performance of being smaller than you are. More importantly, I give you three strategic shifts you can practice this week to start resisting it.

This isn't about hoping things get better. It's about the tactical skills you need to demand better and create it yourself.

In this episode:

• What flattening actually looks like (and why you don't recognize it's happening)
• The cost of being "easy to work with"
• Professional masking: why you're exhausted from being someone you're not
• The three strategic shifts that change everything
• Why gratitude became the cage I built around my own growth
• How to start claiming authority you've already earned

Three actions you can take tomorrow:

1. Practice accurate self-representation - Write how you'd introduce someone else with your exact experience. The gap between that and how you introduce yourself? That's the flattening you've internalized.
2. Stop apologizing for your presence - Catch yourself saying "sorry" when nothing requires an apology. Practice occupying space without apologizing for it first.
3. Say no without elaborate justifications - "That won't work for me" is a complete sentence. People who respect boundaries don't need explanations.

Every episode of The Career Strategist gives you three actions you can take immediately. If something doesn't work for you, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong—it means your context is different. Let me know. This is meant to be a conversation.

Season 1 taught me I could be public. Season 2 is me being powerful.

Support the show

You were never satisfying anyone by satisfying everyone. Stop satisfying everyone.

I'm Sarah Caminiti. This is The Career Strategist. If this episode helped you see something more clearly, send it to someone who needs to hear it. And if you haven't yet — subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.