Lactic acid coaching.

It seems like every week I come across another LinkedIn post announcing someone's transformation into a coach. They've built services, created frameworks, developed "work therapy" for every rung of the corporate ladder. Decades of experience packaged up and ready to solve problems that thousands of other coaches are already solving across every sector. 

I can throw this shade because I did it too—three years ago. Before corporate mass layoffs became all the rage in bro CEO circles and 220 million people signaling they're ready for a change because we're all burnt to a crisp.

I'm happy to be wrong, but I see a throughline in all of these new coaching programs in that they are aligned on yesterday's problems. The challenges so many folks are going through today might look familiar, but we're operating in completely different conditions now. The old playbooks don't work when the entire system has shifted underneath us.

What so many of us desperately need right now is coaching to take down and pin the real culprit of what keeps us from working and living our best life—imposter syndrome.

People who are struggling today are buried under broken systems. Whether you're buried under poor leadership and walls of meetings, or you're one of the 220 million people signaling 'Open to Work' on LinkedIn, the system has you questioning your worth. They need survival tools, not nice-to-haves. Most coaching is offering peace-time solutions to people who have been thrown into wartime footing. It's like handing someone a vision board while running from incoming mortars.

Most of the coaching I see is focused on pulling or pushing people toward idealized versions of old systems want to see. Be more resilient. Adapt better. Tolerate more. But that's not coaching—that's cheerleading you into a therapy subscription plan.

Good coaching isn't about forcing you forward. It's about finding and eliminating the blockers that keep you from achieving what you're already capable of and providing ample inspiration. It's about identifying the root cause of your weaknesses and applying the right training to clear the path. The goal isn't to transform you into a different person. It's to help you see your actual potential, recognize you aren't alone in the struggle, and understand that the real victory is just putting one foot in front of the other.

When you're drowning in dysfunction—when your manager doesn't know how to lead, when you're trapped in back-to-back meetings that accomplish nothing, when you're doing the work of three people because "we're doing more with less," when you've been laid off after giving everything to a company that called you family, when you're sending out hundreds of applications into the void—of course you start questioning not just whether you can keep up, but whether you have what it takes at all. Of course imposter syndrome takes root.

Imposter syndrome isn’t just fear of being exposed. It's a flywheel that keeps you from achieving what you're truly capable of. Anxiety, depression, perfectionism, low self-worth, stress, burnout—they all make you more vulnerable to imposter syndrome, which then reinforces those same mental health struggles, which strengthens the imposter feelings, and on and on.

The real work isn't helping people reach higher. It's helping them see that their struggle isn't a character flaw—it's a rational response to an irrational situation. Most coaching assumes you have the mental bandwidth and safety to work on yourself. But when you're in survival mode, you need someone to help you identify and eliminate the immediate blockers that are crushing you right now.

There are few things I hate more than watching good people invent reasons why they can't do something or don't deserve something—especially when those reasons are actually trauma responses to broken systems.

When I coach, I'm like lactic acid—ready to make you confront, sometimes with agony, why you need to stop hiding behind the real fear you've dressed up as something else. And to make the work a priority. Too often I’ve worked with people who signal that they know what needs to be done, but slink back into their imposter flywheel simply because they don’t make it a priority, and the cycle continues.

Last week I spoke with a longtime friend who I hired and worked with twenty years ago. They're driven like few people are. Not afraid to jump into chaos and fight their way out. Eager to learn and demonstrate excellence. Little ego. High on life. The definition of someone who delivers under pressure. A clutch leader and player.

I've watched my friend navigate institutional failure, successfully switch career paths multiple times, and dealt with incredible, debilitating life challenges. All of that—and they're still wrestling with imposter syndrome. It has zero to do with their actual capabilities and a portoflio of success. They've proven themselves time and time and time again, but they’re fighting the devil of self-doubt which is so hard to do on our own.

Imposter syndrome is so stupid. A seemingly simple nervous reaction to made-up situations that blocks you from productive evolution and confident progress. The fear that someone might know better than you and for whatever reason call you out and shame you publically, even when your track record proves the exact opposite.

If I were coaching today, crushing imposter syndrome is the only thing I would focus on. Not because I want to push you past it, but because I want to eliminate it entirely. Remove the blocker. Clear the debris. Let you see what you're actually capable of when that voice isn't whispering lies in your ear.

We all carry this inside—it's just a matter of how deep you are in the hole of the real, underlying causes.

Admitting this to yourself is where the burn comes in. It's going to feel scary and painful.

But that's how you know it's working.