1. Start Here: All The Cool Girls Get Fired

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 Swan Chapter is where I’m building my next chapter after that layoff. And this first blog series is specifically for us: women who were let go. As Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill perfectly say in their book All the Cool Girls Get Fired (don’t you love the title!): “Welcome to the party, baby.”

The energy, vibe, and key messages of this book are why I’m starting here.

What I’m Doing With This Book

You don’t need a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. You don’t need homework.

You need:

• To feel less alone — and, let’s be blunt here… less like a “loser.”

• To hear the truth about what this feels like, especially at our age.

• A few ideas that make this whole situation feel a little less like a failure and a little more like a turning point.

So here’s how I’ll use All the Cool Girls Get Fired on this blog:

• I’m not summarizing every chapter.

• I am pulling out the moments and ideas that hit hardest for me as a woman 50+ who was laid off.

• I’ll always bring it back to one question:What could this mean for you, sitting where you are right now?

This first series will be simple:

• The key messages I took from it as someone who got laid off.

• What genuinely surprised me.

• How it changed the way I look at my own layoff.

• A few questions to help you use what’s useful, even if you never read the book.

You do not have to buy or read the book to get value from this (although I highly recommend you get a copy). You can just follow along and see what resonates.

I’m Not Over It — And I’m Not Done

I’m not writing this as a “before and after” success story.

I’m still in my own career reset:

• Still processing what happened.

• Still figuring out what I actually want next.

• Still working on my confidence, a sense of self that is not just a job title and my finances.

Some days I feel calm and focused. Other days, I feel angry and discouraged.

So I’m not here as an expert. I’m here as someone a few chairs over at the same table, saying:

• Here’s what I’m reading, listening to (I’m a huge podcast fan), and learning.

• Here’s what helped and what didn’t.

• Here’s what I’m trying next.

That’s the tone you can expect from this series: straight, honest, no spin.

What Comes Next

If you’ve been laid off or “left,” this series is for you.

In the next post, I’ll share how much All the Cool Girls Get Fired resonated with me, and why it felt like someone was finally telling the truth about what so many of us are going through. 

Wherever you are in that story, you’re not the only one. And you’re not done. You’re between chapters.