Once you have your story back, and some of your visibility (thank you linkedIn), the next question is not just whether you do this alone or get help. It is more foundational than that. Who are you? That is a big question for any woman. But it hits differently in your 50s, especially after a job loss, a layoff, or a season that forces you to stop and rethink everything. If you are reading this, chances are you have been quietly asking yourself that question lately. And you may

One of the main reasons All the Cool Girls Get Fired hit a nerve with me is because its key message is so empowering — and honestly, liberating. The authors basically hand your power back to you. They tell us to own our narrative. To take back the control we momentarily (emphasis on momentarily) lost when someone else made a decision for us. “Own your firing” is a sentence they use a lot, and it’s refreshing — because it doesn’t ask you to hide. It asks you to stand in the tr

In Part 4.1 of Inside the Cool Girls Club , we sat with the first four truths from the women in All the Cool Girls Get Fired : It is not all about you, but you still need to look in the mirror. Loss begets growth, if you give yourself time to grieve. This is your moment to be a lifelong learner, not a panic applicant. “What went wrong?” is a better question than “What did I do wrong?” That was about understanding what really happened. In this part, we move to a different qu

By now, you have the lay of the land. Part 1: I got let go. Now what. Part 2: Three truths — you are not alone, you are not done, and you will not only feel better, but you will also be better. Part 3: Oxygen mask first, with your severance and legal basics. This one is different. This time, we are listening in on some of the high-profile women in All the Cool Girls Get Fired  and asking a simpler question: How does my story shift if I let their experience shape it? A quick n

If there is one blog to read in the first days after getting let go, it is this one. Part 1 and 2  were more about the emotional side: you are not alone, you are not done, and you will BE better. This one is about something more technical but oh-so-important: your severance package and the basic legal steps that protect you. Think of this as putting on your own oxygen mask first. I am not a lawyer, HR expert, or financial advisor. I am a woman in her 50s who got let go and

In Part 1 All The Cool Girls Get Fired: Start Here , I shared why I am starting The Swan Chapter with the All the Cool Girls Get Fired  blog series. This post is about what the book actually does, and the three truths you need to hear as a 50+ woman who got laid off. What This Book Actually Does (and Doesn’t) Even though All the Cool Girls Get Fired  is not a step-by-step formula for landing your next dream job, it is full of very practical action steps: legal, financial, he

If you’re here, you probably didn’t just “decide to make a change.” You were laid off. You were restructured. You were invited to “explore other opportunities.” You were performing and giving it your 200%. And then, one day, you weren’t needed anymore. Same. I’m a 50+ former media executive whose career ended quickly and not on my terms. One calendar invite, one short meeting, and suddenly the role I had poured myself into and the identity that came with it were gone. The Swa