Your career is an ever-evolving story. Make it yours.
Hi, I’m Kelly.
I've spent my career at the intersection of two worlds, fully embedded in corporate and building something of my own. That dual vantage point is where my work comes from.
I know what it looks like when high-achieving professionals are stuck in careers that fit on paper but don't fit in practice because I've been that person, and I've sat across the table from hundreds of them. I know how advancement decisions get made inside organizations, what leaders are actually looking for, and why the most talented people in the room are often the ones most disconnected from their own career story.
Today, as a Career Alignment Coach and workforce development consultant, I bring that experience to two sides of the same problem: the individuals navigating what's next, and the organizations trying to hold onto and develop the people who drive their results.
How I wrote my own story
How It All Began
I never planned to be a career coach.
It started in early 2018 with a blank page, a pen, and an idea to start a career blog — a choice that would change everything.
As someone who picked up a pen and loved to write from an early age, I felt a pull to share my experiences navigating the corporate world — how I overcame burnout, advocated for myself, and made my own career moves that aligned with my aspirations.
That pull became The Lipstick & Ink® Blog: a space designed to empower women with honest career advice, practical resources, and real stories about the challenges and triumphs of corporate life. I shared the guidance I wished someone had handed me a clear roadmap for. I was doing that work while fully embedded in corporate, living the portfolio career while writing about it.
From Words to Work
Lipstick & Ink® began as a creative outlet, but it quickly grew into something more. Over time, the blog evolved into events, career resources, resume services, and eventually coaching.
Each step felt like a natural extension of the one before it. I followed the nudges, thought bigger, and ultimately built a business rooted in the same belief that started it all: you deserve a career that feels aligned with who you are and how you hope to grow.
Simultaneously, I continued to author my own story, my corporate background shaping everything I built. I shifted into workforce development and started to see up close the disconnect between organizational strategy and individual career reality. I became the person in my organization actively working to close that space, putting the focus on the individual career growth, which increased employee sentiment in measurable ways and reinforced that this problem is solvable.
Authoring What’s Next
Today, Kelly Nash & Co. sits at the intersection of individual career coaching and organizational development.
For individuals, I bring 15+ years of corporate experience that's equal parts coaching and strategy. I help mid-career high achievers get clear on who they are, rebuild their story from the inside out, and write their next chapter with intention.
For organizations, I bring that same framework to workforce and employee development. When people understand their own career story, they show up differently. They engage more fully, advocate for themselves more clearly, and contribute more confidently.
The throughline is Career Authorship™ — the belief that high-achieving professionals have both the right and the responsibility to take intentional ownership of their career story.
Becoming the author of my career
How I picked up the pen and chose to write my story
I know firsthand what it's like to navigate change in a career. My journey has been defined by bold moves — across companies, industries, and roles — all while redefining what a career built on my own terms actually looks like.
From Advertising to Tech
I began my corporate career in advertising, but after suffering burnout of 14-hour work days and lacking growth, I knew it was time to leave. I leaned into my curiosity, which pointed me toward tech, an industry where I'd be challenged and change was constant. By getting clear on my transferable skills and being strategic about my network, I landed a role at Salesforce. It took six months and more patience than felt comfortable, but it led to an 11+ year career that shaped everything that came after.
That move taught me something I now help clients understand: trusting your own read on a situation (even when it takes longer than you planned) is a skill worth developing.
From Customer Success to Employee Experience
Building Lipstick & Ink® on the side did something unexpected. It didn't just become a business; it clarified what I actually wanted from my corporate career.
I realized I wanted to do for employees what I was doing for my coaching clients. I wanted to help them understand themselves well enough to grow with intention, so I made another move. I voiced my aspirations, took on new projects, and built the case for a role that didn't yet exist for me. The transition into employee experience — overseeing strategic career programming inside Salesforce's Customer Success organization of 9,000 employees — took over 18 months, but it changed the trajectory of everything.
Watching that work reduce attrition and improve employee sentiment in measurable ways confirmed something I'd believed for years. Career alignment isn't a soft concept. It's a business outcome.
That experience became the direct foundation for the organizational consulting track of this practice. When I work with companies now on workforce development, Career Authorship programming, or building the kind of culture that actually develops people, I'm not theorizing. I've built it from the inside.
From Career Growth to Career Alignment
Becoming a parent in late 2023 recalibrated everything. Growth stopped meaning titles and levels. It started meaning building a career and a life that fit who I actually was, not who the org chart needed me to be. Every move I'd made started to look less like a career ladder and more like a career story, one I was finally learning to author on purpose.
From Layoff to Authoring My Next Chapter
In early 2026, after more than a decade at Salesforce, my role was eliminated. I won't sugarcoat it. Having the script rewritten for you by someone else is disorienting in a way that's hard to describe until it happens. But I also knew exactly what to do next, because I'd spent years helping others do it: pick up the pen. Decide what the next chapter actually looks like. Don't let someone else's decision become the last word in your story.
That experience didn't just reinforce the Career Authorship framework — it lived it. And it's why this work carries the weight that it does.
Every career move I’ve made has brought me closer to the work that excites me and the life I want to lead. That’s what I want for you, too.
Unique approach
My work sits at the intersection of identity and strategy and it's built on a simple belief: clarity about who you are has to come before strategy about where you're going. That's true whether I'm working with an individual navigating their next career move or an organization investing in the people who drive their results.
The Intersection of Identity & Strategy
Most career support starts with tactics. I start somewhere different: with who you actually are.
For individuals, that means getting clear on your values, your strengths, and the career story you've been living and whether it's actually yours. That clarity is what makes everything downstream work. A resume written from genuine self-knowledge reads differently than one assembled from job descriptions. A networking conversation rooted in real clarity lands differently than one built on rehearsed talking points.
For organizations, that same principle scales. The workforce challenges companies are struggling to solve — disengagement, attrition, stalled internal mobility — are often identity problems before they're performance problems. When employees don't have clarity about who they are and where they're going, they disengage, leave, or stay in roles that don't serve them or the business. Career Authorship™ is the framework that addresses that gap at the organizational level.
Whether I'm working with a single client navigating a pivot or a leadership team designing a workforce development strategy, the work starts in the same place: clarity about who you are and what you're actually building.
A Corporate Insider Perspective
I spent 15+ years inside corporate America, including 11+ years at Salesforce, where I built and led career development and employee experience programming for one of the world's largest Customer Success organizations. I've designed and implemented career frameworks that improved employee sentiment in measurable ways, facilitated high-impact teaming, and partnered with leaders to close the gap between organizational strategy and individual career reality.
That experience shapes both sides of my practice. For individuals, I know what hiring managers are actually looking for and how internal decisions get made because I've been in those rooms. For organizations, I know what meaningful career programming looks like from the inside, not as a vendor, but as the person who built it.
Credentials & Training
ICF Trained Coach, Authentic Leadership Advisors
Career Coaching Certification, New York University
Salesforce Trained High-Impact Teaming Facilitator
Google #IamRemarkable Facilitator
A few fun facts
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Midwestern gal
Born, bred, and currently reside in the Chicago suburbs, where I live with my husband, Adam, and son, James. I lived in the city for 10 years and (no bias) firmly believe that Chicago is one of the best cities in the world.
The essentials
You’ll never catch me without my sunnies or lip color in my purse. I love lipstick and lipgloss so much, I decided to create my own.
On the move
You’ll often find me out for a walk, trying a new restaurant, vacationing with my loved ones, or planning my next travel adventure.
03
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Curious soul
I’m a personal development junkie and a sucker for astrology, human design, psychic readings, all the things! It all has led me to approaching life with a spark of curiosity and an eagerness to learn and grow.
Ready to write your next chapter?
Book a free Alignment Call and let's get clear on what's actually next for you.