Career Identity + Growth Conversations for Professional Women: Exposing the Hidden Reality

Annette Garsteck, Master Professional Career Coach + Sandra Wint, Trauma-Informed Leadership Coach
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Careers
  • Updated Weekly

Bias, burnout, self-worth, and breaking barriers are not just buzzwords — they are the lived reality of women navigating leadership, workplace dynamics, and workplace culture every single day. Women's experiences take center stage here, exploring intersectionality, identity, and the invisible forces shaping professional visibility, belonging, and psychological safety at work.  Annette Garsteck, MBA, MPCC, is the author of Own Your Career: Take Control + Accelerate Your Professional Growth, a Certified Senior Professional Résumé Writer, and a former Fortune 50 hiring leader. She guides women to take ownership of their careers, increase their visibility, expand their influence, navigate workplace dynamics with confidence, and accelerate their growth while staying true to their values. Sandra Wint, GPCC, Human Design practitioner + Gestalt-certified coach integrating shadow work, mother wound healing, nervous system regulation, emotional safety, astrology, and frameworks like the Karpman Drama Triangle to support deep personal transformation and self-awareness. Delivering these in Women’s Circles + leadership retreats, she helps women better understand themselves, their relationships, and the systems they navigate. Each episode goes deep into trauma-informed leadership, the unspoken rules of power for women, and the influence women already hold but are rarely given permission to use. If you are a woman in leadership, or becoming one, who is done shrinking and ready to claim her space, this is your community.  On Exposing the Hidden Reality, we cover topics such as: Why do high-performing women stay in abusive relationships?  Why do women burn out faster than men at work? How does gender bias show up as "culture fit" in the workplace? How can women overcome imposter syndrome and people pleasing at work? What are the hidden barriers women face in leadership roles? How do working women balance personal and professional identity? Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com/ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality 

  1. 5h ago

    051: Resume Writing for Career Reinvention: Show Your Value, Not Just Your Job History

    What if the problem with your resume is not that it leaves too much out, but that it is trying to carry too much? Sandra has not updated her resume in ten years. That creates a very real question: how do you represent a decade of building a coaching business while still honoring the thirty years of IT leadership that shaped the work you do now? Annette shifts the question from “How much history should I include?” to “What is relevant to where I am going next?” From there, the conversation gets practical: how to show evidence instead of duties, use numbers to communicate scope, keep LinkedIn and your resume congruent, handle education and older experience, decide which skills have become basic expectations, and use the job description as more than a list of ATS keywords. And with AI making it easier than ever to create polished, interchangeable resumes, the details only you can provide matter even more. If this conversation has you looking at your resume differently, join the Exposing the Hidden Reality email list at exposingthehiddenreality.com. You will get access to additional resume resources from Annette and an invitation to her August 24 interactive workshop, Rethink the Resume: Don't Let AI Make You Average. Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

  2. Aug 13

    050: Career Pivot: How to Know When It’s Time for a Change

    Most career pivots do not begin with a resignation letter. They begin much earlier, with a question that keeps returning: Is this still the life I want to be living? For Sandra, the answer emerged slowly. She liked her company and the people she worked with, but she was exhausted, disconnected from the creative parts of herself, and increasingly aware that she did not want her children to look back and remember “Mom was a ghost.” Annette sees a similar pattern with women whose work may not have changed at all, but whose lives have. Children grow up. Caregiving shifts. Priorities move. What once felt tolerable starts to feel impossible to ignore. The harder part is deciding what those feelings mean. Are you running away from a bad boss or toward something that is calling you? Is it a bad week, a difficult season, or a deeper shift? What happens when your title has become part of your identity, or when a decision affects a partner, children, finances, and the future you cannot see yet? This conversation makes room for the uncertainty, grief, self-trust, and exploration that can exist long before a career change becomes visible. If questions about your own career keep coming back, you do not have to answer them today. You may only need to stop pushing them aside. Continue the conversation with us each week by joining the Exposing the Hidden Reality newsletter at exposingthehiddenreality.com.  Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

  3. Aug 6

    049: Intentional Visibility: The Story People Tell About You

    What if visibility is not about becoming louder, but becoming clearer? People are already forming a story about your work, your leadership, and what they can rely on you for. The question is whether you are participating in writing that story or waiting for someone else to notice you and get it right. Sandra and Annette return to a question that was left unanswered in their previous conversation: What does visibility actually mean? They explore the difference between intentional and accidental visibility, why talking about your accomplishments can feel uncomfortable, and how one-on-ones, stretch assignments, cross-functional relationships, and even mistakes can shape the way your value is understood. The conversation also moves beneath the career strategy. What happens when visibility has felt like touching a hot stove? How do you separate the part of a story that belongs to you from the part created by someone else's perception? And what if the feedback you receive reveals that the problem is not who you are, but where you are? This conversation invites you to stop waiting to be discovered and begin asking a more useful question: What do I want to be known for? Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

  4. Jul 30

    048: Visibility Starts with Safety: Why Choosing Yourself Changes Everything

    Most advice about becoming more visible tells us to speak up, network more, or promote ourselves. But what if visibility isn't a confidence problem at all? What if the real question is whether it feels safe to be seen? Sandra Wint and Annette Garsteck explore how our earliest experiences shape the way we show up at work, in relationships, and even with ourselves. Along the way they unpack nervous system responses, workplace culture, privilege, self-trust, and why so many accomplished women still hesitate to share their voice. One realization becomes the turning point: "I choose me." Because visibility isn't about becoming someone different. It's about becoming safe enough to stop performing and start living from who you already are. If this conversation resonates with you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and join our community at ExposingTheHiddenReality.com where the conversation continues. Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

  5. Jul 23

    047: Uncovering Story through The Success Codex: Ankara Rose on Human Design and Astrology

    On this episode, we continues exploring stories with our guest Ankhara Rose creator of The Success Codex.  Since Episode 42, we've been exploring the stories we carry about ourselves, those we've inherit from other people and the ones we create about others. Today, you'll hear us  share thoughts and insights about authenticity, safety, and what it actually takes to stop performing a version of yourself and start living as the real one. Join our newsletter community at ExposingTheHiddenReality.com. About our guest Ankara Rose is the creator of The Success Codex, a system that blends human design and astrology through the lens of business, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She has spent more than twenty years as an entrepreneur and has trained a community of practitioners to use these tools without turning them into a new set of rules to live inside.  She is also a certified menopause doula, a musician, and a mother of two. The conversation opens with a question that comes up constantly in Sandra and Annette's coaching work: why is it that learning something about yourself so rarely translates into actually living differently? Ankara offers a way to think about that gap, moving from gathering information, to testing it in real life, to the point where the change simply becomes who you are without conscious effort. From there the conversation turns toward fear, and specifically the fear of being rejected for showing up as yourself.  We share personal experiences and the freedom that is possible when we see ourselves more clearly.  We talk honestly about the limits of any self-knowledge system, astrology and human design included. Ankara is candid that these tools are meant to be a starting point for self-trust, not a new authority to obey, and she describes how she asks consent before offering intuitive guidance to a client so that the relationship never tips into her being someone else's decision maker. The episode closes with a discussion of free will, and the idea that a chart or a codex hands you ingredients, but what you choose to bake is still entirely yours. Connect with Ankara Rose To generate your own Success Codex, visit freesuccesscodex.com and enter your birth date, time, and location. Ankara shares live readings most Fridays on Substack, searchable under The Success Codex at this link: https://thesuccesscodex.substack.com/ Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

  6. Jul 16

    046: Why We Create Stories About Other People at Work

    How often have you convinced yourself you knew exactly why someone behaved the way they did? A delayed email. A difficult conversation. A decision you didn't expect. Before long, we've filled in the blanks with a story that feels completely true. But what if the story says more about us than it does about the other person? In this episode, Sandra and Annette explore how quickly we create stories about coworkers, leaders, and even strangers. Through everyday examples, including a simple coupon code that turned into an entire story about a team and its leadership, they unpack the difference between people problems and process problems, why curiosity is often replaced by certainty, and how those assumptions influence leadership, workplace relationships, and career decisions. If you've ever replayed a conversation, questioned someone's intentions, or wondered whether you've been carrying an old story longer than you should, this conversation invites you to pause before deciding you already know the answer. Join our newsletter community at ExposingTheHiddenReality.com. Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

    046: Why We Create Stories About Other People at Work

  7. Jul 9

    045: Why Smart Women Get Workplace Conflict Wrong: When We Assume We Know Someone's Intentions

    What if one of the biggest causes of workplace conflict isn't what someone did, but the story we've created about why they did it? Sandra Wint and Annette Garsteck continue their exploration of the stories we carry, but this time, they turn their attention outward. Together, they unpack how quickly we assign meaning to other people's behavior and how those assumptions shape our relationships, leadership, workplace culture, and even our most intimate personal relationships. From bosses and coworkers to partners and family members, the stories we tell about other people's intentions often feel true, even when we have very little evidence. Sandra and Annette explore why smart, self-aware women still fall into the trap of assuming they know what someone else is thinking, feeling, or intending. They discuss the difference between facts and the stories we attach to those facts, why our past experiences color our interpretations, and how curiosity can transform conflict into understanding. Along the way, they share personal examples, leadership insights, and practical reflections on accountability, trust, favoritism, and the assumptions that quietly damage relationships at work and at home. The conversation concludes with two powerful frameworks for navigating difficult conversations: the BICA feedback model and the "withhold" process, offering practical tools for addressing conflict without judgment, assumption, or unnecessary harm. If you've ever found yourself convinced that you know exactly why someone behaved the way they did, this episode invites you to pause and ask a different question: What if there's another story? Join our newsletter community at ExposingTheHiddenReality.com for additional reflections, behind-the-scenes conversations, and resources that don't make it into the public episodes. Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

    045: Why Smart Women Get Workplace Conflict Wrong: When We Assume We Know Someone's Intentions

  8. Jul 2

    044 Human Design for Leadership Self-Awareness and Career Growth

    What if the reason you've struggled at work isn't because you're doing something wrong, but because you've never fully understood how you're designed to work, lead, and grow? In this episode, we continue our exploration of Human Design and discuss how greater self-awareness can transform leadership, career growth, workplace relationships, and professional fulfillment. Sandra and Annette unpack how understanding your Human Design profile can help you navigate job interviews, workplace conflict, leadership transitions, organizational culture, entrepreneurship, and career decision-making. They explore the differences between generators, manifestors, manifesting generators, reflectors, and projectors, discuss why some work environments energize us while others drain us, and examine how understanding ourselves can help us stop internalizing every professional challenge as a personal failure. The conversation moves beyond Human Design itself and into one of the most important questions professional women face: How do we release the stories we've built about ourselves, extend grace to earlier versions of who we were, and create careers and lives that align with who we are becoming? Whether you're navigating leadership, considering a career change, building a business, or simply trying to understand yourself more deeply, this episode offers a powerful invitation to rethink the relationship between identity, work, and personal growth. Join the Exposing the Hidden Reality community and newsletter at ExposingTheHiddenReality.com for more conversations about leadership, identity, workplace dynamics, and growth. Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality Connect with Annette Garsteck: https://www.annettegarsteck.com Connect with Sandra Wint: https://www.me-her-us.com Photography of Sandra Wint + Annette Garsteck taken by Katie Garlock, Portrations

    044 Human Design for Leadership Self-Awareness and Career Growth
See All (51)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Bias, burnout, self-worth, and breaking barriers are not just buzzwords — they are the lived reality of women navigating leadership, workplace dynamics, and workplace culture every single day. Women's experiences take center stage here, exploring intersectionality, identity, and the invisible forces shaping professional visibility, belonging, and psychological safety at work.  Annette Garsteck, MBA, MPCC, is the author of Own Your Career: Take Control + Accelerate Your Professional Growth, a Certified Senior Professional Résumé Writer, and a former Fortune 50 hiring leader. She guides women to take ownership of their careers, increase their visibility, expand their influence, navigate workplace dynamics with confidence, and accelerate their growth while staying true to their values. Sandra Wint, GPCC, Human Design practitioner + Gestalt-certified coach integrating shadow work, mother wound healing, nervous system regulation, emotional safety, astrology, and frameworks like the Karpman Drama Triangle to support deep personal transformation and self-awareness. Delivering these in Women’s Circles + leadership retreats, she helps women better understand themselves, their relationships, and the systems they navigate. Each episode goes deep into trauma-informed leadership, the unspoken rules of power for women, and the influence women already hold but are rarely given permission to use. If you are a woman in leadership, or becoming one, who is done shrinking and ready to claim her space, this is your community.  On Exposing the Hidden Reality, we cover topics such as: Why do high-performing women stay in abusive relationships?  Why do women burn out faster than men at work? How does gender bias show up as "culture fit" in the workplace? How can women overcome imposter syndrome and people pleasing at work? What are the hidden barriers women face in leadership roles? How do working women balance personal and professional identity? Connect with Exposing the Hidden Reality: https://exposingthehiddenreality.com/ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/exposingthehiddenreality Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/exposingthehiddenreality Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/exposingthehiddenreality 

Information