If you’re craving more than a polished job title and a packed calendar, if you’re hungry for work that feels aligned, impactful, and genuinely fulfilling these are the 10 truths I wish I’d known when I began rewriting the rules of success.
Ten years ago, I made a call that would change everything. I left behind a 16-year executive career, relocated my family, ended an 18-year relationship, and started again. Not with a strategic plan or a step-by-step guide, but with a gut-level knowing that something had to change. I wanted to feel fulfilled, not just look successful.
What followed was a zigzag decade of career reinvention. It was messy, confronting, and at times completely overwhelming. But it was also the most purposeful chapter of my life. Along the way, I’ve worked with thousands of women asking similar questions:What if there’s more to success than ticking boxes? What if I’m done performing, and ready to lead on my terms?
These 10 truths are the lessons I come back to, personally and professionally. They’re not prescriptive. They’re invitations. To lead, create, and choose differently.
The experience: Every major shift I’ve made, career, relationship, identity was drenched in fear. But fear didn’t mean stop. It meant I was brushing up against something meaningful.
The takeaway: Your body is wired to keep you safe, not to help you grow. Fear is data. Where there’s tension, pay attention. It’s likely to expose the answer you’ve been looking for yet avoiding.
The reflection: What would change if you stopped avoiding fear and started using it as a compass?
The experience: I spent years trying to map the perfect plan. What moved the dial? Micro bravery. Saying yes to messy, uncomfortable action like running workshops when no one knew who I was or pitching ideas before I had the “right” credentials.
The takeaway: There’s no blueprint for meaningful work. It’s built in motion. Action gives you feedback, and feedback gives you clarity.
The reflection: What’s one uncomfortable action you could take this week that teaches you more than another month of planning?
The experience: I used to wait for someone to call me credible. Until I realised I wasn’t alone. In fact, I launched a whitepaper to unpack why women hold back from claiming their expertise and what we can do to change that.
The takeaway: Expertise isn’t about being the loudest or most polished. It’s about showing up with insight and lived experience. The moment you stop asking for permission and start sharing what you know, things shift.
The reflection: Where are you still waiting to be picked, when you could be leading instead?
The experience: I used to believe great work spoke for itself. But staying silent didn’t open doors visibility did. When I started owning my story and my voice, the right people started listening.
The takeaway: Visibility isn’t about ego. It’s about clarity. It’s how you build credibility and open doors, not just for yourself, but for others who need to see what’s possible.
The reflection: Where are you hiding your voice when it could be creating momentum?
The experience: The biggest shifts in my work came when I stopped filling every minute. When I created margin for thinking, reflecting, feeling—new insights emerged. I call this the marinade.
The takeaway: You can’t build a new vision in a back-to-back schedule. Space is where alignment grows.
The reflection: What could open up if you gave yourself the space to actually hear your own thinking?
The experience: My first attempts at reinvention were full of rejection. Crickets. Dead ends. But those noes weren’t failures. They were signs I was in the game. And eventually, the right yeses came.
The takeaway: Rejection isn’t a red light it’s a result of being brave enough to ask.
The reflection: What if every no is just a step closer to your next big yes?
The experience: When I walked away from my title and team, I questioned whether I was still a leader. But through research and experience, I realised something vital: women lead differently, and the system hasn’t caught up.
The women I work with lead through wisdom, compassion, and long-term vision. We don’t need to perform leadership. We live it. The problem isn’t our approach it’s the outdated model.
The takeaway: You don’t need a title to lead. You need conviction.
The reflection: How would you lead if you didn’t care what anyone else thought?
The experience: I’d ticked all the boxes and still felt numb. Happiness wasn’t waiting at the end. It was in the way I started showing up every day with presence, purpose, and permission to feel it all.
The takeaway: You don’t need to feel happy all the time. You need to live in a way that can hold both joy and discomfort.
The reflection: If happiness wasn’t something to earn, what would you stop chasing?
The experience: I built the Proof Over Hype framework because I was tired of watching women with real credibility being overshadowed by surface level noise. If you want to build trust, lead with outcomes, not optics.
The takeaway: Data. Results. Insight. That’s what cuts through.
The reflection: Are you hoping to be noticed or are you showing why you should be trusted?
The experience: There were years I questioned whether any of it was working and yet something inside me told me to keep building. A decade later, the compound impact is undeniable.
The takeaway: Forget the quick wins. Sustainable impact takes time, care, and consistency. That’s the game that actually matters as it means your work ripples long after the fluff is forgotten.
The reflection: Are you creating something for now or something that will still matter five years from now?
Here’s the thing: you don’t need to blow up your life tomorrow like I did. But if you’re reading this, you already feel it something’s off. The version of success you’ve been sold no longer fits; perhaps it never did. You’re craving something with more meaning, more real-world impact, more you in it.
Start there!
You don’t need a perfect plan. Just the next brave move.
Penny Locaso is a Behavioural Scientist, Speaker, Leadership Coach and Facilitator. She helps ambitious women turn credibility into career defining opportunities. Grounded in behavioural science, her work is built for real world impact and grounded in proven outcomes.
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