Six Months In: What I've Learned About Building Something That's Actually Mine
Six Months In: What I've Learned About Building Something That's Actually Mine
I've been sitting with this post for a while.
Not because I didn't have anything to say — if you know me, you know that's rarely the problem — but because I wanted to write something true. Not a highlight reel. Not a list of wins dressed up as vulnerability. Something that actually reflects what these first six months of building Definitions Coaching & Consulting have felt like from the inside.
So here it is.
It started with a blank page. A lot of them, actually.
When I left the structure of large organizations after fifteen years, I thought the hard part would be the logistics. The LLC filings. The website. The decision about whether my logo font was sending the right message. (Spoiler: I spent more time on that than I'd like to admit.)
What I didn't expect was how disorienting it would feel to define myself outside of a title, a team, and an org chart.
I've spent my career helping people answer questions like: Who am I as a leader? What's my story? What do I want my work to mean? And here I was, staring at a blank "About" page, genuinely unsure how to answer those questions for myself.
That's the thing about coaching and consulting — the work has a way of coming for you.
What these six months actually looked like.
I built a lot. A brand. A website. A voice. A practice. I developed offerings. I wrote. I showed up on LinkedIn more consistently than I ever have. I had conversations — with former colleagues, with potential clients, with people who were navigating the exact kind of transitions I built Definitions to support.
And I delivered my first keynote as the keynote speaker.
I've stood on a lot of stages in my career in supporting roles — the person who built the program, developed the facilitator, wrote the framework someone else delivered. But in June, at a conference in St. Pete FL, I walked out as the headliner. I talked about AI and professional identity and what it means to define yourself in a world that keeps rewriting the rules.
I got to connect with an audience struggling to understand the changing landscape around them, and what it means to be human in these confusing and ever shifting times.
What I got wrong.
I thought I'd feel more certain by now.
I assumed that six months in, the fog would have cleared. That I'd have a tidy answer to "how's it going?" and a pipeline that looked like a spreadsheet instead of a prayer.
Some weeks it does. Some weeks it doesn't.
What I've learned is that building something from scratch — something that's actually yours, not someone else's playbook with your name on it — requires a tolerance for uncertainty that no amount of strategic planning fully prepares you for. You have to keep making decisions without complete information and trust that your judgment is worth something.
That's hard for a lot of the high-achievers I work with. Turns out it's hard for me too.
What I got right.
I stayed true to the work I actually believe in.
I didn't chase every opportunity or say yes to every conversation. I built around the things that genuinely light me up: helping people find the through-line in their story, supporting leaders who want to show up with more authenticity and less armor, working with organizations that are serious about culture as a competitive advantage.
I wrote what I meant. I said what I believed. I showed up as myself — not a polished, corporate-glossy version of myself, but the real one. The one who's still figuring things out and thinks that's okay to say out loud.
I did this through the help of a fellow coach and dear friend, Christie Ellis, whose view on positive psychology kept me motivated, and weekly checkins kept me accountable. I know first hand the value of a good coach, which makes me more excited than ever to pursue this work.
What comes next.
More of this. More honest conversations. More work that matters.
I'm expanding what Definitions offers — new coaching engagements, speaking, content, and consulting partnerships that let me do the deepest version of this work with the people and organizations it's made for.
If any of this resonates — if you're in a transition, building something, leading through change, or trying to figure out how to tell a story that's actually true — I'd love to talk.
You know where to find me.
– Casey
Definitions Coaching & Consulting works with individuals, teams, and organizations navigating identity, leadership, and culture. Learn more at definitionscoachingconsulting.com or grab a time to connect: calendly.com/definitionscoachingconsulting/coffeeconnect
