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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/fluid Melissa’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 career How to recognize the skills and throughlines that persist even as your work changes Why different seasons of life may call for different versions of your career Why your career story needs to be expansive enough to hold new interests and identities How experimentation can help you grow into new ways of seeing yourself If 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/fluid Join 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.com Visual guide to tax deductions. Hannah's Substack for tax tips, deadlines and explainers for freelancer Taxes for Humans: Simplify Your Taxes and change the world when You’re Self-employed The 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 Change Purpose Exercise Values 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 worlds How to clarify what actually deserves your time right now  The "identity batching" method that reduces overwhelm without sacrificing flexibility How to build a weekly time structure that works with your energy, not against it This 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.

Time to go deep on relationships, the currency of the fluid careerist. How can you be making and strengthening relationships as a regular practice, not just something you do in spurts when you need it? I’ll lay out all my outreach tips in this episode.  Let’s approach relationship building (not “networking”) as the living, breathing infrastructure that makes a fluid career work. We'll talk about the mindsets that make outreach feel less terrifying (including the one that trips up almost everyone I coach) and get into the tactics: how to know who to connect with, invite them into a conversation, and structure your weekly outreach.  I’ll share the most common blockers I see that trip people up with their outreach and people-fueled job searches so you can be sure to avoid them.  Get ready for a mini-outreach bootcamp. Resources:  Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠: https://www.coherence.studio/fluid Get the RELATIONSHIPS guide here: https://www.coherence.studio/fluid

A diversified skill set can be a great advantage right now. But you still have to be strategic about which skills to protect, which to augment, and which to say goodbye to.  In this episode, we dig into the classic cleaning out the closet question: what is sparking joy and what is making you look out of season.  We'll map your skills across three dimensions—recency, proficiency, and transferability—and I'll introduce three portfolio shapes (the T, the M, and the Comb) to help you figure out which pattern actually fits how you work.  And yes, we're going to talk about AI. Because everyone and their mother seems to be expecting you to be “AI literate” by now. But what does that mean and how do you make sure you’re keeping with the times while staying true to your ethical compass? No small question. If you're already navigating what I call a “fluid career”, one marked by increased movement, variety, and interdisciplines, it’s essential to know how to purposefully curate your skill set, because it directly influences how you spend your time and how confident you feel. Resources:  ⁠Get the SKILLS guide here⁠Get a FREE download of The Fluid Career book introduction here⁠

Whether we like it or not, we have been reared in a society that conditions us to tie our identity and our worth to our job.  In this episode, we go deep on identity, the most foundational piece of building a fluid career. Before we can talk about how to wield time, money, or skills, we have to talk about how you see yourself. Because that self-concept shapes the opportunities you give yourself permission to go for. We’ll explore three perspective shifts that can fundamentally change how you see yourself professionally: moving from perpetual employee to career owner, from a single professional identity to many, and from rigid self-presentation to what I'm calling "contextual authenticity."  We also get practical with a framework called "Jobs to Be Done", a way of understanding what each role or project in your life is actually doing for you so you can embrace your work ecosystem for the multi-purposed system that it is.  Along the way, you'll hear from multi-hyphenates who've stopped forcing themselves into one rigid box and discovered that they can conceive of themselves in a more flexible and forgiving way.  Resources: Get the IDENTITY guide hereGet a FREE download of The Fluid Career Book⁠Get the Fluid Career Checks and Balances Guide⁠ to see how fluid your career already is and get tips on how to make it even more resilient.

How do you build a career when the old career playbook no longer applies, and a new one hasn't been written yet?  We're at an ahistorical moment. The big picture job numbers are not yet reflecting the existing and impending market shake up, but the AI disruption is happening already, and most of us are somewhere between anxious and in denial about what it all means for how we work. Looking to find a recommendation for how to conduct your career during shaky times, I argue that the people who are more distributed, more in motion, more multi-hyphenate  might just be the ones best positioned for this moment of seismic change.  In this first episode of Coherence Podcast's fourth season, I'm sharing more about an exciting project I've been steadily working on: The Fluid Career book. This podcast season is a companion to the book: a way to introduce the core ideas, bring in voices of people living them , and to give you a taste of the general framework before the book is fully available.  This kickoff episode lays out the big picture of what a fluid career actually is, why it matters right now, and the five domains we'll be exploring together over the next ten episodes: identity, time, skills, relationships, and money. You'll also hear clips from interviews I’ve conducted with an array of multi-disciplinary careerists who are already managing fluid careers.  If you're looking for guidance on how to be thinking about your career trajectory and how to maintain your livelihood now that AI is closing in on your industry, this could be the very thing you need to hear.  ⁠⁠Get the FREE Fluid Career Checks and Balances Guide⁠⁠ to see how fluid your career already is and get tips on how to make it even more resilient.

Working from home, working for yourself, creating independently - so many of us have to actively TRY to collaborate with others. It’s not built into our workflows or home offices.  Last summer I got tired of hearing myself complain about feeling isolated in my job and decided to strike up a creative collaboration with a group of other coaches and guides in my existing network. Seven months later, the “Resonance Collective” launched our first project into the world on Metalabel (a platform helping artists release co-created work).  In this episode, I’ll walk you step-by-step through what I did to get this collaboration from up and running to cheers-ing to the successful completion of our group art project: The Shape of Now.  Once you have the blueprint for how to create your own Shape of Now project or any collaborative project of your design, you will have zero excuses for wishing you had more teamwork and partnership in your work. Zero!  ✨The Shape of Now Project on Metalabel ✨ Thanks to my collaborators:  Amelia Hruby - Off the Grid podcast + founder of The Interweb membership community  Xenia Viray - Myths of Creation -- Imagination Healer + Frequency Artist who runs business incubators, retreats, workshops  Lexi Merritt - The Pretty Decent Internet Café - writer and runs the membership community The Study Callie Rojewski - Online and IRL - brand and business consultancy for founders, leaders and creatives shaping the future with technology   More resources from Melissa:  Coherence Studio Website: Explore 1:1 coaching FREE GUIDE: Career Crossroads: From Confusion to Confident Action in 30 minutes FREE TRAINING: Work that Works: Design your next career move with confidence