💌 What’s happening this week:

• Sometimes your ego needs to STFU (lol)

• Journaling prompt: My serotonin menu

• Preparing for the week ahead: “Standing meetings”

• AI took my marketing job

Hi friend,

I honestly didn’t know how to start this week’s newsletter because I was chuckling (and cringing) to myself at just how big my ego is sometimes 😅

Like… really, who do I think I am?!

And this isn’t about the ‘feeling empowered’ and ‘know your worth’ type of ego energy… this is the type of ego energy that gets me in trouble because:

• 🙃 I think I’m entitled to this or that job (or success)

• 🙃 I think “I’m above” doing XYZ type of work (wow, just writing that has got me squirming)

• 🙃 I think I deserve XYZ right off the bat, even though I haven’t built trust or credibility in this new area yet

I’m sure there are more things that this type of ego energy gets me in trouble with… but I’mma stop there because I can’t be spilling all my secrets and how cringey and entitled my ego makes me feel sometimes - yikes!

Earlier this week, I had a coffee chat with a friend, AdeOla, whom I met in a mastermind group. The last time we spoke, we realized we were on similar career journeys. She was sunsetting a media agency she had been running for 14 years with 15 team members. I was in a weird and clunky stage of business, trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.

We connected before the holidays in 2024. She was preparing to launch a new venture, focusing on project management for in-house teams and agencies, and I was preparing to end my adult gap year and plan to rebrand my marketing and media agency, The Quirky Pineapple Studio.

Fast-forward to our coffee chat just a few days ago and we both admitted that we were re-creating old cycles of burnout, ego-inflating work, and chasing ‘big titles’ and career leaps.

I’ve shared it before in a previous Instagram post - while my media and marketing agency was successful and doing great work, I built that business out of survival, scarcity, and ego. I felt like I had SO much to prove back then… I wanted to be seen as this BIG BOSS CEO 💪 who ran a giant-ass marketing agency, with big teams, and had big campaigns.

So when the business started declining and my identity was so wrapped up in the success of my business… my ego took a BIG hit, as well as my self-worth, confidence, and identity.

To be honest, I thought I had gotten over all those feelings because for the past 2 years I talked about it with my therapist, did some deep healing work on my mindset and self-worth, and asked myself all the hard questions to realign my values, priorities, and lifestyle.

Joke's on me, though, because my ego still had a lot to say 🥴 especially when it came time to looking for and applying for jobs, because my business was declining AND I couldn’t live off savings anymore. My ego just couldn’t let me apply to ‘lower’ job titles or ‘do the execution’ work for others because ‘ME?! A STRATEGIST?!’ just doing the work?!

Sigh, just writing this out to you all… I needed someone to give me a lil’ digital slap in the face and tell my ego to STFU 😬

Before this email gets any longer, what I came here to say was that after my call with AdeOla, we both realized a few things:

1. Work can just be work, and if it gives you financial stability to then build financial freedom - THAT’S ALL IT NEEDS TO BE!!

2. Not all career changes need to be about career expansion. This was a hard one to accept… but it’s true. I am not in a ‘career expansion’ phase of my life, I am in a… “I need a MF job to rebuild my savings” phase of life! 😅

3. My ego needs to STFU because it lives in survival mode, and I want to live in peace, creativity, and joy mode. I think my ego wants me to have the big title and big pay because it wants me to be safe… but my body knows I need stability to be safe.

Has your ego gotten you in trouble, too? I’d love to hear about it if you want to share! You can leave a comment on this newsletter or HIT REPLY to share privately.

Cheers to our egos trying to do what’s best for us, when in reality, our body probably knows best 😅

✍️ THIS WEEK’S JOURNALING PROMPT

“What’s on your serotonin menu?”

I put a spin on this popular journaling prompt (the original is “My Dopamine Menu”). The reason I changed dopamine to serotonin is because dopamine is associated with rewards and motivation - like little bursts of energy to make us feel good. Serotonin, on the other hand, is associated with happiness, focus, and calm. For me, I wanted to create a ‘menu’ of serotonin activities that fill my cup and create sustainable feelings of calm and joy… not quick things (which are great but sometimes leave me feeling more empty). Give this prompt a go, and if you’d like, try both menus!

💻 THINGS THAT STUCK OUT TO ME ON THE INTERNET

• COPING WITH UNCERTAINTY: We all deal with uncertainty differently, and in this article, they list 7 different ways to cope with uncertainty that might help!

• CREATING LIFE ON YOUR OWN TERMS: I’m so excited to share that I was featured on The Relocate Podcast, sharing about how I created life on my own terms after moving permanently to Spain. You can listen on YouTube!

• STARTING OVER IS NOT FOR LOSERS: An oldie but still goodie podcast episode on why starting over is NOT for losers and how it can actually give us a chance to do things differently. 

🗓 PREPARING FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

🌻 GOODIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

AI took my marketing job lol 😬

Well, AI took over my marketing job and maybe was the downfall of my small business, The Quirky Pineapple Studio 🥴 I’m sharing how AI like ChatGPT, Deep Seek, and more impacted my small business, a marketing and media agency, and a peek into my next steps to pivot.

🤝 HOW TO WORK TOGETHER

Want to work together to create time and space for intentional connections? Here are a few ways to do that through marketing support, journaling, and education.

• 📓PLANS TO PROGRESS MEMBERSHIP: A quarterly membership for big dreamers to intentionally plan each month with the accountability to transform your ideas into actionable steps and projects. Join us inside the Lounge here!

• ⭐ SIGNATURE BRAND & WEBSITE DESIGN + COPYWRITING PACKAGE: Get 2 brand strategists on your team to elevate your brand visuals, website, and messaging for your next stage of business. Learn more and apply here.

• 👀 WEBSITE AUDIT: DIYed your website copy and want to get an expert’s feedback and edits? Book a Website Audit and get feedback on what’s working and where to improve in just 2 weeks.

Oh my gosh, how could I forget to tell you the good news…

I GOT OFFERED A FREELANCE CONTENT SPECIALIST ROLE!! 🤩🤩🤩

Remember the final interview I talked about last week?! Well, I had the interview and within the next day they emailed to offer me the role 😭 I’m getting onboarded on Monday, and my first official day at the new job is May 5th!!

And on Friday, I finally received an email from the EU-funded program I applied to, and I GOT ACCEPTED!! 😍😍 I’ll be joining 32 other women and queer artists, creators, and business owners in Europe for a mentorship program for the rest of the year!!

It’s wild to think about how much can change in a month, because at the end of March, I was just planting seeds… and now they’re slowly blooming 🌼

What are you planting for the next month?

And until then…

💖 #stayfierce,
Cassandra