Courtney Kirschaum
- Apr 17
- 3 min read

Unplanned triumph

I used to be as "corporate" as you can get.

Think Holly Hunter's high-stress brainiac in Broadcast News or Melanie Griffith's admin-becomes-the-boss story in Working Girl.

My career was gaining momentum. Work sent me across the world - Amsterdam, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Paris - I was making money and chasing the success dragon with the best in business.

Sometimes the only other woman in the room was my friend Liz.

Another woman kicking *ss and taking names in corporate. Liz being in the room made me feel my ambition wasn't as weird as an eyeball on an elbow.

We shopped during lunch, eye-rolled at the same things in meetings, and recommended books to each other.

Spin the world a few times. Life happens. Jobs changed, and I became less enchanted with the corporate world. I moved to Colorado and took a year off to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

One day Liz called me in Colorado and said, "Hey, come with me to a live training session with this guy you told me about!"

I'm thinking, "What guy? What?" This did not sound like me.

"You recommended a book he wrote. I looked him up, and he does these live trainings.

They have this bring-a-friend deal ... come with!"

I was shocked at my reaction. In my corporatized brain, people didn't go to training their company didn't pay for ... or did they? I had this idea if you pay for your own training, you're doing it "wrong."

But Liz was coming all the way from Europe, and no way was I passing up the chance to hang out with a friend at a fancy hotel for a week.

This next part I only realized looking back ...

I had zero expectations. Liz and I met at a resort hotel that delivered your drinks to you in the pool.

The training was intense. There was lots of heavy, personal sh*t.

The experience hit me like a freight train. It moved me in the way only the exact right thing at the exact right time can.

If I had to put a pin in it - to use a corporate expression – that week is when everything changed.

What shifted? I got the tools.

Before, I had the drive and the desire, yet I didn’t have the tools, and I didn't realize it.

You can't just put in 80-hour weeks, grind non-stop, and just hope it'll work out.

That was a long time ago. For reference, I still had a flip phone.

Flash forward to 2023.

It occurs to me now that I'm living the life I said I wanted that week in 2010. I'm there. I've done things I believed were completely out of reach ...

A TEDx talk
Hundreds of other talks
Published a book!
I literally make thousand$ from my writing.

But most importantly... I helped people. I taught them to say, "I can do this!" "I can get that job!" "I can have what I want." And then I watched them do it.

I realize now that the training I went to gave me what everyone is looking for ... The tools to get what you want.

If you want something different for your life, I’ve got the tools to get you there.

Let’s talk about the tools you need.

Courtney

PS - latest boost!