You're not lost, you're offscript
Many people feel that despite having followed a script and achieved success in professional life, they find themselves in a place where they are stuck, of course, unsure of how to proceed. Over the past three years I have been working with more than 300 professionals over 1000 hours together and I've heard this sentiment echoed in many forms.
These sentiments are not merely negative, they are also a signal you are at a threshold, a place from which the path forward is more self-authored, creative, experimental.
This is the beginning of Offscript stage. It is filled with ideas, with passion, views on the world, personal histories, talents, visions and motivations. This is a phase filled with pure possibility.
- Sometimes it comes with a determination: “I cannot do meaningless work anymore, it eats me up alive.”
- Sometimes it is almost apologetic: “I know it is not very realistic, but I want my work to have meaning.”
- Other times it comes as a loss: “My work made sense once but that’s no longer possible and I draw blanks at what to do next.”
- It often comes with exhaustion and anger “I need something more sustainable than surviving another contract or a hiring round”.
- Sometimes it comes from a more comfortable place: “I’ve built a career but I’ve lost any sense of joy from it. Did I optimise for the wrong thing and what now?”
These sentiments are not merely negative, they are also a signal you are at a threshold, a place from which the path forward is more self-authored, creative, experimental.
This is the beginning of Offscript stage. It is filled with ideas, with passion, views on the world, personal histories, talents, visions and motivations. This is a phase filled with pure possibility.
What happens in the Offscript stage
When we tune it we realise that what feels like emptiness and chaos has a shape. I offer framework and questions that help to explore it.
- What am I leaving?Naming what is not working, what has run it's course, what is no longer possible and what can be taken from this forward. This creates space for new explorations.
- Exploring relationshipsWhen we try to work out what next, the gaze draws inwards. But we are never alone. This is an invitation to explore our relational systems and what they ask of us in this moment.
- Exploring expertiseThis can mean exploring personal history, lineages, influences, own strengths and wisdom. Getting clearer on your unique expertise.
- Exploring drives and motivationsThis is an invitation to look at what's shifting in how I see what I do. Often what's shifted is our own view point. This can be hard to name and clarifying to explore.
- What am I ready for?Often there is something, an unexpressed facet of life that wants to take centre stage, but there is also a lot of fear surround this. Naming it can be clarifying.
- Taking stock of what shaped usSometimes it's quite clear that we've shaped our life under a certain influence of people, events and situations. This may need updating.
Being Offscript is about action
But the action in this stage is different - it is about exploring, sensing, attuning and testing. It is about giving meaning a shape and prototyping in the ways that are practical and possible. It is also about community of fellow explorers, where roles are not fixed and masks can be removed.
Benefits of the Offscript stage
What happens once you've spent some time deliberately exploring between identities is that decision maker re-appears. What was anxiety-producing becomes a sense of possibility. There is a sense of coherence and desire to try things out, and increasingly to commit. A new story starts taking shape. This gets noticed externally. And once you've done a reinvention, reinvention becomes easier, identities becomes less rigid and you find it easier to stay in the drivers seat no matter what happens.
Exploratory Group Workshops
Workshop 1 - Navigating transitions
This workshop gives you a map of transitions and helps you to locate yourself in the process. You get more clarity about where you are on the journey and what are the possible next steps. Because we do it as group, you gain access to other's sensemaking around this little-talked-about experience.
Workshop 2 - What am I ready for?
This workshops helps you to gain experience of working with the creative engine of transition process - identifying your current edge, what it asks of your and what you are ready to go next. Because we do it as group, you gain access to other's sensemaking around this little-talked-about experience.
Workshop 3 - What am I leaving?
What feels like stuckness is often holding to an old story that needs to be examined. Sometimes transitions require exploring stories, contracts and lineages that need updating. This experiential workshop provides you with navigation and also practical individual exploration.
Individual coaching offers
For those seeking a fresh lens on a specific issue. In these sessions I use systemic constellations approach and transitions framework to map your situation as it is and look at it from different perspectives. This approach is very transparent for the client and is both analytical and intuitive. You can discover things you have been overlooking, develop a greater sense of what matters to you, and generative ways forward.
Sessions last 90 minutes and are done via Zoom using a Miro board.
Sessions at a sliding scale of 250 EUR - 125 EUR. Please sign up for a free 15-min intro call if you are interested.
Sessions last 90 minutes and are done via Zoom using a Miro board.
Sessions at a sliding scale of 250 EUR - 125 EUR. Please sign up for a free 15-min intro call if you are interested.
These sessions are for clients seeking individual support to work on their professional transition. In these sessions I use my transitions framework and select specific interventions to help you explore your Offscript stage with practical focus.
- Four 75-minute 1-1 coaching sessions
- Iterative, client-driven agenda
- Open for ongoing or repeat engagement
- Outcome: Develop new perspectives, experiment with new actions, build sustainable change
- I started coaching with Julia because I was stuck in a professional situation that felt really blocked. The sessions helped me unlock new perspectives, and I came out of them with concrete action ideas and a much more positive outlook. Julia's approach is both empathetic and insightful, allowing me to explore my thoughts freely.GabrielleConsultantixels
- I was very happy to choose Julia to guide me through a quite strenuous transition period. From the beginning, I felt a great driving energy and softness that made me feel safe. A mix of structure, tools, and exercises, paired with deep curiosity and reflection, made each session feel useful. Although we discussed my work experience and plans extensively, the underlying focus was on supporting my internal journey. This created space for me to process, explore, and reframe exactly that which needed to be heard and challenged. I was able to see myself through an objective but more powerful lens. I would definitely work with Julia again.AleksandraLeadership Coach and Change Advisor
- Before coaching, I was feeling really stuck in my career, and it felt nearly impossible to view things from a different perspective. I expected coaching to focus only on professional goals - I was surprised at how much it connected to my wider personal life. I now feel a new sense of direction and confidence in myself and my abilities. I spent many years trying to figure it all out on my own, and I believe that sometimes you just need a little help and guidance. That's where coaching comes in, and I wish I had realised this sooner!LiamLiam, Senior Program Manager in Tech
- Julia is a highly empathetic person with an exceptional ability to understand how others think. She quickly grasps the logic behind the way you operate and, from there, helps you see your potential in a realistic and authentic way. In addition, she uses very thoughtful and relevant techniques and exercises that support a deeper understanding of our inner world and how it influences the way we see ourselves professionally.EvaClimate change researcherul magazine
- Julia was very effective at creating an open space for me to explore a major career change. She’s smart, sympathetic, and knows how to motivate her clients in their personal and professional explorations, without judgement or projecting her own viewpoint. As a result, I was able in a very short time to go from uncertainty about my next career move to developing a business plan.MatteoCommunications Strategist
- I worked with Julia to get some clarity around my next professional steps. The sessions and Julia's calm and welcoming presence helped me to understand my feelings, needs and wishes and to structure what needs to be done. I feel calmer and clearer about my way forward.KatharinaPolicy Advisor
- Julia helped me slow down, focus on what actually mattered, and move forward with more clarity and trust in myself. Her thoughtful guidance and ability to truly listen made every session impactful.MeghaStartup founder
- Working with Julia was transformative. Julia brought an incredible blend of strategic insight and genuine care to every session. I am deeply grateful for the valuable guidance I received, her remarkable listening skills, and her ability to ask the right questions that helped me unlock new perspectives.LisaGlobal Marketing Executive
Download my transitions guide
Comprehensive framework guiding you through professional transitions with curated resources.
$19
Offscript was born on the Camino de Santiago along the Atlantic coast in Portugal. A few days in, I had to walk the "wild stretch" - a day with no route markings, a contrast to all the others that come with arrows pointing the way on the road that had been walked for centuries. I started off at a gas station motel soon finding myself in a dead-end created by a stream that I could not cross. Trying to take a shortcut, I ended up in someone's backyard and soon found myself walking directly on the windy Atlantic beach, stumbling on shaky gravel. Next, I found myself taking off my boots to walk ankle-deep in January Atlantic water, with sun reflecting in myriads of splashes until my feet were numb, my heart joyous and my head emptied by the wind. And then I got lost in the suburbs again.
I was struck by how this offscript stage, of making decisions on a hunch, being allowed by the pull, with every turn being an experiment mirrored my own journey over the last five years. False starts, detours, confusion. Big highs of hitting upon something that feels really good, then losing it and re-finding it again. All while grappling with practicalities of life and making a livelihood. Going Offscript is a gift that we can give to ourselves as we try to make sure that the path we are walking is truly our own. Having traced it myself and worked with hundreds of clients on theirs, I am taking this work more widely.
I was struck by how this offscript stage, of making decisions on a hunch, being allowed by the pull, with every turn being an experiment mirrored my own journey over the last five years. False starts, detours, confusion. Big highs of hitting upon something that feels really good, then losing it and re-finding it again. All while grappling with practicalities of life and making a livelihood. Going Offscript is a gift that we can give to ourselves as we try to make sure that the path we are walking is truly our own. Having traced it myself and worked with hundreds of clients on theirs, I am taking this work more widely.
Julia Karmo
Founder, coach and facilitator
My approach is intuitive and analytical in equal measure. I aim to be a genuine ally to my clients rather than an expert dispensing solutions. I believe that coaching, at its best, is a bespoke thought partnership. I bring the full range of my experience to this work: fifteen years as a journalist, editor and documentary director with AP, Sky News and RTL, reporting across twenty countries; strategic communications consultancy for institutions including the European Parliament and the London School of Economics; and co-founding an award-winning non-profit newsroom in Berlin working at the intersection of migration, media and public education. I'm also trained as a mediator and mindfulness teacher, which means I bring a conflict-resolution lens to relational dynamics, and a wider field of attention to what's possible. This breadth of contexts, cultures, and kinds of complexity is what I bring into the room to support and challenge you.