Sunsetting No Directions
And introducing 90% Mental
This will be the final post of the No Directions blog but, fear not, there is more writing, thought provoking interviews, and original essays to come. More on that and how I got here below.
Why I’m Sunsetting No Directions
No Directions came about at a time in my life where I was feeling the weight of carving out my own path. I’d just left my position climbing the partner track at a growth equity firm to become an executive coach. It was the kind of move where I got the sense that a lot of my peers in the industry were thinking, “What is she doing? Who gives this up?” The only thing I knew for sure at that time was that the path I’d been on was the wrong one. I was burned out and only just coming to the realization that achievement without fulfillment, and working from a sense of obligation and pressure, couldn’t sustain me for the long term. It was daunting to realize that the map of the life and career that was the most me probably didn’t exist yet. I’d have to create my own.
I also quickly learned that there isn’t really a map for business building either. Even when there are already established businesses operating in your space and theoretical playbooks you could follow, there’s only so much instruction someone else can give you. Sure, there’s advice others can share around things like getting clients and building a reputation, but there’s only so many “answers” someone else can give you in terms of how to do that effectively, what’s going to work for you, and how to do all of that in a way that feels right. And the execution part is 100% on you. You’re probably beginning to sense how I arrived at the name “no directions.”
The thing that makes creating your own map so challenging isn’t necessarily the work itself but more so all the things that come with it. I found myself inhabiting an unfamiliar mental arena: How the hell do people deal with the discomfort of uncertainty and having no way of knowing if or when it’s going to work out? How do you fake it until you’ve done enough to earn some self belief? What’s the right balance between experimentation and having formally laid plans? How do you turn down the volume of other people’s opinions and create the space to figure out what you think? Not to mention the seemingly endless barrage of mostly useless internal thoughts like Did that person like me? Am I going to figure this out? What if this failures miserably?
No Directions actually originated as a poorly formatted page on my old coaching website. It was mostly a series of random posts with no name or defined focus that came about because I liked writing, and writing every week seemed like something that I could do, that was firmly within my control. This blog ended up becoming an invaluable tool for building my business, but it mostly started as a way to maintain my sanity as a relatively new entrepreneur. Funnily enough, many of my early posts explored the sports world (something that you’ll see is about to come full circle).
Eventually those random posts on everything from Shohei Ohtani’s baseball journey to the phenomenon of the yips coalesced on a clear direction and a name that spoke to me - the blog you see before you today! I noticed that I was curious about unconventional career paths beyond the limited number I’d been exposed to, and I wanted to know how other people navigated the mental arena I’d been unknowingly catapulted into as an entrepreneur. As it turns out, if you’re curious and willing to look, there are an endless number of paths out there and many, many generous people who are happy to share their story.
It’s hard to do justice to what this platform has meant to me. It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to speak with and learn from all the No Directions interviewees that generously gave me there time and answered my vulnerable questions openly and honestly. They have become my teachers. There were countless moments when I heard the exact thing I needed to hear during the course of an interview and found a spark to keep going. Their stories gave me the courage to create my own map.
In the end, I wrote 44 original essays about my own experience navigating a “no directions” path and spoke to over 50 individuals living in the cities you might expect, like Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, and Austin but ultimately this blog traveled all over the world. I spoke to individuals in Anchorage, Alaska; Mason City, Iowa; Key West, Florida; Shropshire, England; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Boise, Idaho; Callahan, California; Wichita, Kansas; Southern Pines, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; Lake Tahoe, California, and more.
The blog also made it clear to me that is really never is too late to make a change and try something unconventional. I spoke to individuals in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s who made major career transitions and took personal and professional risks.
More than anything the blog became a testament to the fact that there truly are an endless number of paths out there. To highlight just a few of the incredible people I spoke with:
A high school counselor turned peony farmer (Creating a Life Full of Adventure with California Peony Company Cofounder Anne Hilton)
The lead singer of well known alternative-reggae band who went all in on making it post college (Go that Road with Iration Lead Vocalist Michael Pueschel)
A space engineer and entrepreneur who deliberately slowed down for a long sabbatical before making the decision to build his latest company from his home state of Alaska (Learning to Live While Living with Entrepreneur Ben Kellie)
A pop folk singer turned philosophy professor (Left Turns and Hanging Things on the Wall with Morningsiders Lead Singer and Professor Magnus Ferguson)
A sales executive who built a golf putter brand by teaching himself how to use CNC mills and manufacture putters out of his hometown in Iowa (The Underdog Mentality with Hanna Golf Founder Jared Doerfler)
A laser physicist turned origami artist (When Origami and Mathematics Collide with Robert J. Lang)
Many conversations also took me in unexpected directions. Writer and entrepreneur, Alex Michael, talked to me about his journey declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his business. He told me that cultivating a sense of agency and continuing to build a life and identity that is multifaceted helped him successfully get to the other side of the process. The thing that stuck with me from that interview is the lesson that the worst case scenario isn’t always synonymous with the worst life.
Fishing captain and sockeye salmon farmer, Tara Hines, taught me that sometimes the best way to make a challenging experience positive is to own where you’re at. It’s one of the strategies she used to navigate her early seasons as captain after buying her own boat and launching her business post college.
Eric Steffen, the founder of custom denim brand FITTED Underground, emphasized the role spirituality has played in his 10+ year entrepreneurial journey. He reminded me that there is a power in listening to your inner voice, and that while that voice may not give you step by step directions, it often becomes a compass for gauging if you’re headed in the right direction.
Natural resources investor Brent Lawson navigated the twists and turns of a journey that took him from Wall Street and the world of finance to guiding fishing trips in Patagonia, Argentina and later Boise, Idaho. Ultimately, he told me that having the audacity to follow his own curiosity allowed him to finally find a path that could reconcile two very different parts of himself; one that loves being immersed in nature and another that thrives on the intellectual challenge of working in financial markets.
Charlotte Jackson, a writer, transition and creative coach, and the cofounder of community and connection centered projects such as Reading Rhythms and CANDID shared that getting over the fear of “scraping her own knees” enabled her to feel more confident in her own skin, be open to trying things, and immerse herself in a season of life that has produced tremendous connection and creativity. It’s a season she calls “homecoming” because of how clear she feels about who she is and who she is not.
Alas, I can’t reprint every word from the past two years in this newsletter because substack tells me there’s a limit. I can only say that every interview and essay meant the world to me and that there is more wisdom in every story than I could ever impart here.
What’s Next: Introducing 90% Mental
This summer I found myself creatively stalled for the first time since starting this blog over two years ago. The lull prompted me to pick my head up and look at what I’d built. As it turns out, if you put one foot in front of the other long enough, you do eventually end up somewhere new. Fortunately, coaching has taught me the benefit of slowly down, getting curious, and resisting the urge to immediately find an answer. I slowed down the pace of publication over the past few months and gave myself the space to figure out where to go from here. In time I realized that my intuition was telling me to push the edge again because I wasn’t just trying to figure it anymore. I’d finally created my own map.
My friend Christie put it wisely when I spoke to her about my feelings. She said, “It makes sense that it feels like it’s time to evolve No Directions because you yourself have a strong direction now.” She was right.
If you look closely at how No Directions interviews and essays have evolved over the years, you will notice that the questions increasingly trend toward a focus on building a strong mental game and the associated self awareness, resilience, emotional control, comfort with uncertainty, curiosity, and ability to learn from failure and setbacks that a strong mental game requires. This also aligns with the way my executive coaching practice has evolved over the years. I’ve slowly transitioned away from career transition work and built an executive coaching practice where the majority of my work is focused on helping entrepreneurs, executives, leaders, and sports professionals develop a strong mental game. Of course, I’ll always make room to support a “no directions” story or two!
So, what’s ahead? Next week I will be launching a new blog under the name 90% Mental, which will explore what it means to build a strong mental game on the courts and fields of the sports world, at the office, and in life.
The name is inspired by a quote that has been attributed to hall of fame catcher and legendary Yankees player Yogi Berra. Berra is quoted as saying,
“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.”
While the percentages were clearly made in jest, Berra’s point remains a sound one. While skill, talent, and aptitude play an incredibly important role in success, a well developed mental game can make the difference between good and becoming truly great. I believe that this isn’t just true in the realm of sports but also in the arenas of leadership, entrepreneurship, and life.
The new blog will absolutely still feature unconventional career stories and original essays, but it will also include interviews with athletes, sports professionals, business leaders, and academics whose research on mental training and leadership have influenced my coaching work.
Fear not - the No Directions page isn’t going anywhere. I plan to leave it up as a resource in the hope that someone going through a career or life transition and taking those first steps off the beaten path will find it, discover a spark of inspiration, and leave with the knowledge that they are not alone and that unconventional paths are, in fact, possible. It’s the kind of thing I would have loved to discover all those years ago.
If you are currently a No Directions subscriber, you will automatically become a subscriber of 90% Mental. Thank you to each and every person that has followed my journey, shared feedback, and encouraged me on. Your support means more than you know.
Stay tuned and keep an eye out for the first post from 90% Mental next Friday, November 7th.
With tremendous gratitude,
Madeline