There is a verse that used to haunt me.
"Be still, and know that I am God.", Psalm 46:10
I am a worker. Always have been. I would rather do something, anything, than sit with uncertainty.
Send another application. Tweak the resume. Refresh LinkedIn. Take another client call. Say yes to another project. Stay busy so I do not have to feel it.
That verse haunted me because stillness forces you face-to-face with reality. No distractions. No busy work to hide behind. Just you and the truth about your situation, staring back at you.
I know that silence. It is brutal.
The Holidays Force It Anyway
The holidays have a way of forcing clarity.
For some of you, there is no escape from it this year.
Maybe you are between roles. Or you are in a role that is ending, you just have not told anyone yet. The severance is coming. The writing is on the wall. You are going through the motions while quietly wondering what January actually looks like.
Maybe you are the opposite. You have clients. Business is "good." But you are working 80 hours a week, responding to emails at midnight, and wondering if this is really what freedom was supposed to feel like.
I keep seeing this on calls. Different problems. Same forced reckoning.
The holidays are brutal when you are carrying either one.
I keep seeing this on calls. Everyone is celebrating. You are calculating runway, or capacity.
I keep seeing this on calls. Everyone is talking about vacation plans. You are wondering how long you can sustain this.
And somewhere between the forced smiles and the questions you do not want to answer, it hits you.
Something has to change.
Two Lessons I have Learned
It took me years to understand what that verse actually means.
1. Results are often out of your control. Activities are not.
If you are trying to land that first fractional client:
You cannot force a company to hire you. You cannot make the job market want a 52-year-old vice president (VP). The W2 system is rigged against experience. I have seen the data. I have lived it. I have helped thousands navigate it.
100 applications into a broken system is not effort. It is noise.
But warm network, referral partners, and Get Known work that makes you sayable in one sentence? That is a system. Referrals are the primary source. LinkedIn writing and replies pull fit people into that graph. That is activity that leads to results.
If you already have clients but you are drowning:
You cannot force clients to respect your boundaries. You cannot make scope creep stop by working harder. You cannot scale by saying yes to everything.
But you can implement Up-Front Contracts. You can protect weekly time for the referral engine. You can raise your rates and let the wrong clients leave. Answer what Needs you today first. Then partners. Then the writing that makes the next intro easy.
The question is not "am I working hard enough?"
It is "am I working on the right things?"
That is what a system does. It tells you which activities actually lead to results, so you are not just grinding in the dark.
2. Reflection is not weakness. It is the work.
I keep seeing this on calls. The stillness is not quitting. It is clarity.
It is asking:
- What do I actually want?
- What is working? What is not?
- Where am I lying to myself?
- What does the next year need to look like?
Those questions are scary. Especially during the holidays. Especially when you do not have answers yet.
But the answers will not come from another job board refresh.
They will not come from another 14-hour day.
They come from the stillness.
For Those Without a Job (Or the "Walking Unemployed")
If you are between roles, or in a role that is ending, here is what I want you to know:
You are not broken. The system is.
78% of workers 40-65 have experienced age discrimination. Workers 50+ spend 50% longer unemployed. Only 10% of displaced executives over 50 find comparable roles within 12 months.
The path back to W2 is rigged against you. Not because you are not qualified, because the system is designed to filter you out.
Fractional executive work bypasses all of it.
No HR filters. No ATS algorithms. Founder-to-founder conversations where your 20 years of experience is the product, not a liability.
The stillness you did not choose? Use it.
Ask yourself: Do I want another VP role at 55, waiting to get pushed out again in 3 years? Or do I want to own my expertise? Build something that cannot be taken away?
There is a systematic process to land your first client in 90 days. Not networking. Not hoping. A system.
For Those Drowning in "Success"
If you have clients but you are working 100 hours a week, here is what I want you to know:
You do not have a capacity problem. You have a scope problem.
I helped a fractional chief financial officer (CFO) named David before The ReTern even existed. He was making $432K a year. Working 100-plus hours a week. Six clients. Zero referral motion. Responding to every email like his job depended on it.
Six months later: Half the hours. Fewer clients. More revenue. Picking up his kids from school again.
The domino was scope control. Everything else fell from there.
The stillness you keep avoiding? It is where the answers are.
Ask yourself: Is this sustainable? What would I need to change to actually have the freedom I thought I was building?
There is a systematic process to scale without drowning. Different problem than landing the first retainer. Same principle: right activities, clear boundaries, systems over hustle.
The Stillness Is Here Anyway
Whether you chose it or not, the holidays are going to slow you down.
The inbox will quiet. The calls will stop. And you will be left with the questions you have been outrunning all year.
So this weekend, between the noise and the obligations, find 20 minutes.
Be still.
I keep seeing this on calls. Not because you are giving up. Because you are finally getting clear.
Let the questions come:
- What do I actually want the next year to look like?
- What is the honest truth about my situation?
- What would I do if I knew there was a system for this?
When You are Ready
I keep seeing this on calls. The stillness is the first step. The system is the second.
If you are trying to land your first fractional client, take Find Your BEACH. It shows exactly where you are blocked and what to do about it.
If you already have clients and you are drowning, same door. Different pressure. Scope. Referral engine. Pricing. Capacity. The Chart exists so you work the right people in the right sequence once the stillness ends.
I have been refining these systems for over 15 years. Helped thousands of executives make these transitions. The process works, but only after you have sat with what you actually want.
You are not starting over. You are taking back control.
The work is serious. The life does not have to be.
I keep seeing this on calls. Be still this weekend. The clarity will come.
Happy holidays.
Kirk Coburn created the fractional chief marketing officer (CMO) category over 15 years ago and has helped place 2,000-plus executives in fractional roles at $10K to $25K a month. He writes about the systematic path from corporate refugee to thriving fractional executive.
