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Grace Fabian Career Coaching

Bi-weekly career sparks for passionate powerhouses. Inspiring stories, breakthrough questions, and smart strategies to help make work work for you.

Featured Post

The 5 beliefs that almost squashed my dreams

This is a photo of a page in my journal from July 2021: At the time, I was working in tech middle management in exchange for big $$$ and Cadillac benefits for me and my partner. I helped people pivot careers during my lunch breaks and after hours, and admired the creative entrepreneurs my company supported—but never in a million years thought I could be like them. I also sang little ditties around the house and sent my friends funny Memoji songs over text. But I didn't dare call myself a...

Greetings from the sky! I’m flying back to LA with a full heart after throwing my dad a 75th birthday bash in my native NY. Almost 100 family members, childhood-through-present-day friends, and fellow musicians turned out to celebrate Mr. Gregarious himself. My brother and I rented a restaurant on the Hudson River, complete with our own DIY music setup so we could play live for each other. We opened with “Home” (fitting), wound through everything from “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” to...

When I started this career coaching business, I thought I'd spend my days helping people pivot. Changing roles, companies, or industries. Launching new values-aligned, lucrative businesses. Kicking down the front door of their corporate drudgery past, revealing their new meaning and money-filled future. And we still do that a lot! But an increasingly large part of my job is helping people stay sustainably—at least for now. Sometimes that’s because they're the breadwinner or caretaker and...

This message is for anyone who’s feeling overwhelmed by the job market right now. For anyone who’s stressed about the AI specter of death hanging over your job, the "forever layoffs” and “job hugging” headlines, the DOGE downsizing tornadoes reverberating through the federal government, and the rising price of groceries and gasoline. There are a million ways to calm your nervous system.There are a million ways to make yourself more indispensable.There are a million ways to proactively land or...

Picture this: After months of mental swirl, forced smiles on Zoom, and “doomjobbing” on LinkedIn, you finally take a big gulp of fresh air and decide to figure out this career thing once and for all. You show up to our first chat. You start talking. And somewhere in the first few minutes, you say something out loud that you’ve never quite said before. A dream that felt too ridiculous, a fear that’s been sitting on your chest, a paradox that feels impossible to untangle (money and meaning?!...

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Are you enthusiastically nodding? Or is your BS-o-Meter blaring? Honestly, I’m somewhere in the middle! Like most oversimplified quotes dubiously attributed to Confucius, the truth is in the nuance. This has been the mission of my coaching practice since day one: Design a career you love This is the ROI that I promise to my clients. And I take that promise seriously. As a data nerd who measures success by real impact on real...

Let's get this out of the way: There's no such thing as a perfect career. There's no single job or path that provides 24/7 positive energy and early retirement. There are actually infinite incredible work choices available to you at any given moment! But you will not see or seize them until you drop the illusion of perfection. So with love: put down the Scantron, former A+ student turned ladder-climbing executive. And loosen your white-knuckle grip on that outdated definition of success. You...

I know you’re not here because you want more emails. You’re here because you’re a passionate powerhouse. A heart-driven high-achiever who cares deeply and is motivated to make a meaningful impact in and out of work. But… Something’s off in your career, and you’re feeling it Maybe: Your signature passionate powerhouse energy is zapped You don’t feel equipped for today’s labor market, political landscape, or AI disruption Your priorities shifted (family, health, projects) but work is still...

I used to be more bossy. Call it eldest daughter syndrome. Call it soothing anxiety by pretending to know all the answers and have total control over the situation. Call it leadership skills (if I was a boy). These days, I aim to be more of an expert listener, synthesizer, and reflector-backer. A master question-asker and onion-layer-peeler. A scaffolding-builder and interrogator of everything holding you back from what you want. Friends and family often ask how I bite my tongue when a client...

This weekend, between idyllic sun-kissed park hangs, ocean views, and coffee shop chats, I finally faced the reality that my LA home is also host to wildfires and potentially an earthquake so devastating that it simply goes by, “The Big One.” I wrote out my emergency plan and packed a go bag. Some of my friends lovingly roll their eyes at my “prepper” behavior. Others plotted their exit routes immediately after the 2025 wildfires, and are shocked it’s taken me this long. Ultimately I chose...