Following the Question
What Am I Here to Contribute?
Hi I’m Courtney. As an Integral Coach, I focus on helping people navigate burnout, uncertainty, life transitions, grief, identity shifts, and the messy middle between who they were and who they are becoming.
Over a year ago, something happened that changed the trajectory of my work and deepened my understanding of service, community, and what it means to show up for one another in times of uncertainty.
When USAID was dismantled and sweeping cuts began impacting federal employees, humanitarian workers, contractors, and mission-driven professionals around the world, I remember feeling heartbroken.
I had no connection to USAID. I was simply someone sitting in Oregon, watching people who had dedicated their lives to service experience an unimaginable trauma and disruption.
I watched from afar, trying to understand the scope of what was happening. Careers upended overnight. Programs serving vulnerable populations slashed without warning. Dedicated public servants and humanitarian professionals suddenly found themselves facing very uncertain futures.
As I read news story after news story, I couldn’t stop asking myself one question:
What am I here to contribute?
This question has become a compass for me, even in each moment.
It guides my coaching practice, my relationships, my volunteer work, and increasingly, the communities I choose to serve.
The clear answer to this question was: find ways to support his community however I can. What it led to was unexpected and continues to beautifully evolve and unfold.
Our Mission: Getting You Back On Your Feet
The Career Pivot team is dedicated to connecting you with resources, guidance, and whatever else you need to make it through this transition. Help us continue this vital work!
How One LinkedIn Message Changed Everything
When the USAID cuts began, I felt a strong desire to help but didn’t know where to start. I wasn’t connected to that world and hadn’t been to DC since middle school.
All I had was a feeling that I needed to do something.
When I read Kyle Dietrich’s post on LinkedIn calling for coaching support I knew this was the opportunity I was searching for.
So I took a small step and reached out to a stranger.
Through that conversation, Kyle introduced me to a community of extraordinary humans navigating immense uncertainty with courage, dignity, and heart which eventually formed Grounded Idealist.
I dove in head first, volunteering as a pro bono coach while also serving as a matchmaker between other coaches and those in need of support.
I had expected to find an opportunity to help others.
I didn’t expect how much serving this community would transform me.
What This Community Has Taught Me
Over the last year, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most thoughtful, resilient, intelligent, and mission-driven people I have ever encountered. Like-hearts and like-minds.
The dedication of years (if not decades) to humanitarian aid, diplomacy, international development, public health, community development, disaster response, and social impact. Having spent so much time serving causes larger than any one person, many of you were carrying prestigious titles and awards.
Yet when disruption arrived, what struck me most wasn’t the professional accomplishments.
It was your humanity.
I witnessed a community supporting one another while navigating your own uncertainty. Opening doors for strangers and showing up despite carrying grief of your own.
Again and again, these actions reminded me that hope is not something we find. It’s something we create together, in community. I learned what collective care really looks like. I also came to understand how leadership shows up when titles disappear, and what resilience looks like when certainty is no longer available.
These experiences reinforced one of my long-held beliefs:
Human connection is one of the most powerful healing forces we have.
Why This Work Matters
One of the things I often say to clients is that transitions are rarely just logistical. Losing a job isn’t simply losing a paycheck. Burnout isn’t simply being tired. Career disruption isn’t simply updating a résumé.
These experiences impact one’s identity, purpose, belonging, and meaning.
Many of the individuals I have worked with over the past year were not simply asking, “What job comes next?” They were asking deeper questions:
Who am I now?
What matters most?
What do I still have to offer?
How do I move forward when the future feels uncertain?
These are profoundly human questions. And they deserve spaces where they can be explored with compassion rather than urgency.
As a coach, my role isn’t to provide answers. My role is to help people reconnect with the wisdom they already carry within themselves, to create enough spaciousness for clarity to emerge, to help people hear their own voice again and to support them in remembering that they are more than a title, more than a role, and more than a moment of uncertainty.
Bringing Community Into the Room
This year, that commitment led me to take another leap.
I traveled from Oregon to Washington, D.C. to host a restorative yoga and community gathering especially for former federal employees, humanitarian workers, and others impacted by these disruptions.
People often ask why I did it, and the answer is simple: because community matters, because healing happens in relationship with others, and because people deserve places where they can set down what they’ve been carrying. Additionally, I felt pulled to put collective care into action in the heart of it all.
Thanks to the generosity of sponsors & community partners: My Career Pivot, OneAID, We Are Wellfed, and Up Dog Yoga Studio, we created a space where people could simply arrive as themselves & connect. For one night they were able to leave behind their role as a job seeker or professional. There wasn’t talk of resumes or networking. There was lightness and a sense of real community.
Watching people connect to their bodies and breath in yoga class then connect, laugh, share stories, and remember they were not alone reaffirmed everything I believe about the importance of this work.
What Keeps Me Here
People often assume I stay involved because I’m a coach, but the truth is, I stay involved because I care and this community has become part of my story. Every person I have met through this work has expanded my understanding of courage, service, and humanity.
I also stay involved because I believe we need more spaces rooted in connection and care rather than performance; More spaces where people are valued for who they are, not simply what they do. The “being” of humanity rather than the “doing”. .
This work continues to evolve – with new opportunities emerging, new collaborations forming and new communities connecting. Yet, the same question remains the same – What am I here to contribute?
So far, the answer keeps leading me back to love.
To presence.
To service.
To creating spaces where people can reconnect with themselves and one another.
I don’t know exactly where this path will lead next but what I do know is that following that question has introduced me to some of the most remarkable people I have ever known, and it has deepened my commitment to human-centered leadership, wellbeing, and collective care.
A reminder that contribution doesn’t always have to be grand. In fact, the question serves each moment.
Sometimes contribution looks like listening.
Sometimes it looks like showing up.
Sometimes it looks like creating a room where people can breathe with ease again.
And sometimes, it starts with a single message to a stranger and a willingness to follow what pulls at your heart.
This is the work I am committed to.
This is the work I love.
And this is the work I will continue to do.
My door is open to you.
Connect with me
If you are seeking guidance or trying to find your way right now, you are not alone. I would be honored to support you in this season of your life. As always, I offer a 50% reduced coaching rate for those impacted by our current administration. I have two openings beginning in July, and would love to connect.
Your first two coaching calls with me are always complimentary, giving you a better understanding of our way forward and to see if it fits with what you are seeking. No pressure, only presence.
I also host a podcast which touches on themes of humanity, connection and care:
Go gently and please reach out for support if you need it right now.
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