Join Me For This Free 60-Minute Masterclass

But there's a voice in your head that says you're not senior enough to be the strategic thinker who belongs in that room (even though you've been doing exactly that work for years).

So you take on more. Because everybody depends on you, because you always deliver, and so, they keep loading you up - and you let them.

You secretly fear - if you're not the one doing everything and always showing up as the capable leader who "has it all together," they might figure out they don't need you.

I call that "proving" energy instead of "peer" energy. Proving means you're always chasing being approved or trying to prove yourself capable of a job you're already qualified for.

This reputation that you've built has served you well, being the go-to person when a problem needs to get solved, when something needs to happen or when somebody needs to make a tough call. UNTIL you walk into conversations about your own value. You know leadership sees you as someone who's capable and they keep loading you up with more work, while the promotions go to someone else.

And you keep delivering because it's what you've always done, and it's exactly why you're continuing to hit a ceiling while working harder.

You're building the case to keep you useful by how much you can carry but the career conversation you really want to have is what's next for you and to get the answer you want. This is the high achiever trap you don't even know you're stuck in.

Underselling doesn't feel like underselling while you're doing it.

It can show up like this:

• In your review, your biggest win of the year becomes "that was a team effort" or bolstering your team's wins and not doing the same for yourself

• With a client, you say your rate and follow it right away with "but I'm flexible on it" or give an immediate discount

• Someone asks what you do and you give them your job title and a list of responsibilities or what you "oversee"

• You describe the call you made, the problem you solved, or the thing you kept from falling apart as "just doing my job"

• You rehearsed your negotiation script and ask before the meeting, and froze during the conversation
  
  

And it matters more than it feels like it does, because the people deciding your salary, your promotion, and whether a client says yes are working from either the story you handed them, or what they absorbed on their own.

Hand them reasons why you're crucial where you are now and you'll get valued as a mid-level worker, not the strategic thinker and leader you actually are.

That's exactly what we're going to change in this workshop.