When the Future Feels Hard to Imagine

How do we move forward and make life plans when the future feels uncertain and we have low fuel in our motivation tank? I share five emerging trends that are showing up in my coaching calls that all indicate that people are trying to set a vision and plan for their lives despite the ground feeling shaky. But it's hard. It's really hard sometimes. In this tender episode, I present five "salves" or practices you can try out when nothing feels like it's working, when nothing feels worth it, and when you need a reminder about what is in your control. You do have agency in this moment. In fact, the world really needs you to use it now more than ever. Resources: Want to diversify your work and run a sustainable dynamic portfolio career? Check out The Fluid Career book⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidMelissa’s FREE Work That Works Training

What if your career wasn’t a ladder but grew more like a net, with different roles, skills, relationships, and interests strengthening one another over time? That’s the goal of the fluid careerist. In this special episode of Coherence Podcast, I’m handing over the interviewer seat to my longtime friend and fellow fluid careerist Paige Polk. Paige turns the questions on me to talk about my book, The Fluid Career, and what it takes to build a career that is adaptable, flexible, and interconnected.We talk about why I wrote The Fluid Career as a practical, interactive guide rather than a traditional career book and what becomes possible when we create a diversified support system instead of investing everything we’ve got in one lane. We'll cover: Why agency is such an important part of building a fluid careerHow to recognize the skills and throughlines that persist even as your work changesWhy different seasons of life may call for different versions of your careerWhy your career story needs to be expansive enough to hold new interests and identitiesHow experimentation can help you grow into new ways of seeing yourselfIf you’re navigating multiple interests, moving through a career transition, or simply wondering whether there’s a more flexible way to think about what comes next, this conversation will help you celebrate and sustain a fluid career. Resources: Check out The Fluid Career book here⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidJoin Paige's monthly newsletter: www.paigepolk.com/newsletter

Quarterly taxes are due Sept 15th. Which means it’s a perfect time to get more confident in wrangling your taxes. If you tend to feel a wave of dread just hearing the word "taxes," you're not alone. According to this week's guest, that fear is by design. There's no real tax education in this country, which means most self-employed and fluid careerists are left guessing on how to do something that could give them more freedom, not less.Hannah Cole is on a mission to change that. A working artist turned tax educator, she founded Sunlight Tax and wrote Taxes for Humans to hand people the knowledge that's usually locked behind expensive advisors and intimidating jargon. In this conversation, we explore how the emotional and the practical sides of self-employment are far more connected than we're taught to believe.Hannah shares the most common tax questions that come up for her clients and a few myth-busting surprises about deductions. Tax tips shouldn’t feel like “secrets” but they really do have a magical power to them because once you know them, you see how they work in your favor by opening up new pockets of money that you never knew existed. You can find Hannah at:  Website: www.sunlighttax.comVisual guide to tax deductions.Hannah's Substack for tax tips, deadlines and explainers for freelancerTaxes for Humans: Simplify Your Taxes and change the world when You’re Self-employedThe 2-Day Intensive: For self-employed business owners who are making money, but still aren’t sure the business behind the scenes is set up correctly.

How do you feel grounded when your work is changing at such a fast pace? [Toots horn] This is the season finalé of the Fluid Career series. Not a boring summary of everything we’ve covered but a deepening into one key area: your well being. (New to the podcast? Go check out Episode 1 to learn what exactly a “fluid career” is.)Today we're shifting our focus inward. We'll explore what it means to steady your internal foundation through periods of change, how to separate your sense of self from the roles you play, and the practices that help you stay equanimous (and sane) when work inevitably evolves.You'll leave with a renewed perspective on what it means to build a sustainable, meaningful career and why your greatest source of stability is most certainly within your reach. Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction or pre-order the book here:  https://www.coherence.studio/fluid

This episode shares my CreativeMornings talk that I presented live in Portland, Oregon in November 2025. It’s all about the topic of GROWTH. In my talk, I share lessons learned from seven years of coaching client work and from my own winding journey about how to grow meaningfully according to our own unique path. Applying the art of good story crafting, I’ll guide you to think about your own growth through the lens of the protagonist of you and what a strong thematic growth arc looks like. You’ll leave with a set of prompts to stir up new ideas about what direction you want to evolve next. A big thanks to CreativeMornings PDX team for making this talk happen and granting me permission to re-share the audio from the talk here. If you want to watch the original recording of the talk which includes slides, go here.If you want to find a CreativeMornings event near you, go to their website here.   Resources shared in my talk: Podcast episode: Making Sense of Where You Are: The Four Stages of Life ChangePurpose ExerciseValues Exercise Podcast episode on how to find your themes

The promise of a fluid career is not only that you get more choice over how you spend your time but you have more direct influence on how much  money you make. But for creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and multi-hyphenates, increasing your income is not as simple as asking for a raise or climbing the next rung on a career ladder. There are a dozen potential paths forward and not all of them are right for you.Many people assume the answer is to work harder, take on more clients, or squeeze more hours out of an already packed schedule. But if you really want sustainable income growth, you need to be asking yourself how you can work smarter, not harder. Otherwise you’re just going to replicate the overworking and burnout that you purposefully wanted to get away from. In the previous episode, we focused on building a money management system that creates stability when your income is variable. In this conversation, we're turning our attention to the other side of the equation: increasing what's coming in.I'll walk you through the different levers you can pull to make more money—from raising rates and expanding your offerings to growing your audience and identifying the opportunities that best align with your strengths. This episode will help you think strategically about which income-growth paths make the most sense for your goals, personality, and season of life.You'll walk away with a clearer understanding of your options, practical ideas for increasing your earning potential so that you can make more money without sacrificing the things that matter most.Resources: ⁠Get the Money Guide here⁠Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠.Learn more about 1:1 coaching with Melissa here

Worrying about money can feel like you have a cloud over your head, following you wherever you go. When we’re financially stressed we make choices that our higher selves wouldn’t make. We operate from a place of scarcity and it directly impacts how much we’re able to expand into our potential because our risk aversion keeps us small. For freelancers, creative entrepreneurs, or multi-hyphenates balancing multiple streams of work, good money management practices can be the difference between making it and… not.  Wrangling your money when you have a fluid career is a unique challenge because you’re managing multiple income streams that all have their own logic. Money is coming and going at different times, often unpredictably. So how do you find any semblance of stability?In this episode, I’ll walk you through two of the most essential money skills you can learn as someone with variable income — cash flow awareness and how to pay yourself a regular salary. We’ll talk about how to create a money ritual that actually works for you so you can start feeling more in control of your income, instead of constantly fretting about if you have enough and how all the numbers add up. You’ll walk away with concrete next steps for how to build a more secure relationship with your money and keep your fluid career alive. Resources: Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidLearn more about 1:1 coaching with Melissa here: https://www.coherence.studio/coaching

This is a short reminder to my people out there who have not had a linear career path. And the reminder is this: Being multifaceted doesn’t mean that you have to be incoherent. Sometimes all you need to do is take a minute to step back and look for your bigger motivations, values, and role themes in order to realize that there has been an organizing structure, a method to your madness, despite the feeling of chaos or fragmentation that you might sometimes feel. The act of intentionally forming a generous and coherent career story is one of the most impactful things you can do for your career right now. It’s the difference between you going for an opportunity of your dreams or sitting at home lamenting that you are not qualified for anything. I’ll share a link to my free Work That Works training below that can help walk you through the steps of reimagining your career story, remixing your skills, and charting the steps it takes from the idea of a new path and actually walking down it. At the end of the episode, I leave you with a prompt you can chew on to start giving yourself and your story credit today. Resources: Work That Works Training 

You have a lot going on. Multiple projects, multiple roles, multiple tabs open. And somehow, despite being busy every single day, you still end that day feeling like you didn't get to the things that actually matter. It’s not a you problem. It’s a structure problem.In this episode, I break down why traditional time management advice doesn’t go far enough for the fluid careerist — and what to do instead. Whether you're a freelancer juggling three clients, a creative with a day job, or a full-time multi-hyphenate trying to make progress on everything at once, this episode will change your relationships to your most finite resource.You'll learn:Why context-switching is stealing your best hours and why you need a “personal control system” to manage all your different worldsHow to clarify what actually deserves your time right now The "identity batching" method that reduces overwhelm without sacrificing flexibilityHow to build a weekly time structure that works with your energy, not against itThis is the episode to come back to every time you feel like you're running fast but standing still.Resources: Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidGet the TIME guide here: https://www.coherence.studio/fluid

If you’re feeling disempowered, uninspired, or disconnected, consider my go-to way to get back into a space of power, inspiration and connection: collaborations and side projects. For those who have been seeking other people’s green light through job applications or client sales, being able to make something counterbalances the external striving energy. Because when we step into the role of creator, we put ourselves in a generative place. In today’s episode I’ll go over how to think about who to collaborate with, how to scope your project, and how to side step common collaboration challenges. And if you’re not stoked to start a joint project, I’ll walk you through how to run a personal side project that bakes relationship building into the process.You’ll walk away utterly convinced that collaborations and side projects are the most underrated career tools to spiff up your portfolio, deepen connections with creative peers, and remind yourself of the many ways you can add value.Resources: Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidGet the RELATIONSHIPS guide here: https://www.coherence.studio/fluidMelissa’s collaborative project example, The Shape of Now on Metalabel.