Who Am I Without the Title?
A collaborative free workshop for high-achieving professionals navigating job loss and what comes next.
Hosted by Dr. Carolyn Alter & Kelly Nash
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026 | 12–1:30pm CDT (Virtual)
Losing a job is hard. Losing the identity that came with it is something else entirely.
Your job didn't just give you a paycheck. It gave you structure, purpose, and a ready answer to "so, what do you do?" When it disappears, all of that gets scrambled at once. The calendar goes quiet. The work friends fade. And suddenly a small talk question feels like a gut punch.
If you're anything like most high achievers, your first instinct was to open LinkedIn. Update the resume. Stay busy. Reformat the resume for the fourth time. Apply to something just to feel like you did something. Refresh the inbox. Repeat.
That reflex makes complete sense, but it’s also working against you.
This workshop is for the version of you that's exhausted from pretending to be fine. It’s 90 minutes to stop refreshing your inbox, be around people who get it, and start asking the question you've been avoiding: who am I outside of what I do?
WHAT WE’LL COVER
Over 90 minutes, we'll walk through:
Why this feels like losing more than just a job (because it is).
Who you are underneath the title, and how to find that again.
Why high achievers default to staying busy, and why it's working against you.
A guided reflection to reconnect with what you're good at, what lights you up, and what you actually want next.
Real time with people who are in it too — with an opportunity to have honest conversations and also network.
WHAT YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH
By the end of this workshop, you will:
Name what you're experiencing so it stops consuming you.
Know the difference between who you are and what you did.
Understand why the productivity reflex kicks in and what to do instead.
Leave with a clear next step and a community who actually gets it.
Meet your hosts
Dr. Carolyn Alter
Dr. Carolyn works with high-achieving professionals living in the bittersweet — those both/and moments where loss and possibility, relief and devastation show up at the same time.
She knows that for high-achieving professionals, losing a job is rarely just about the loss of the role. You're caught between possibility and devastation. Between I'm not who I thought I was and maybe I don't want to be that person anymore anyway.
You're keeping up appearances ("I'm fine, just exploring"), but what you won't say out loud is this: you're afraid of putting yourself out there again after this rejection, but even more afraid of discovering what you might actually want looks nothing like your norm. Somewhere around mid-career, when your peers seem to have the answers and you don't, that fear gets louder.
Dr. Carolyn helps people name the fear we keep hidden so we can have the whole story. Once you see what's really driving you, you can move through this transition without fighting yourself every step of the way.
Kelly Nash
Kelly Nash spent over a decade building her career at Salesforce being laid off in early 2026.
When it came, the grief was real, but so was the relief. Because sometimes a door closing is the one you weren't willing to open yourself.
She'd coached enough people through job loss to know what that moment actually calls for, and it isn't immediately a resume update. It's the harder question of who you are underneath the role you've been performing, and what you'd build if you were finally the one holding the pen.
That's the work she does now. Kelly works with high-achieving professionals navigating career transitions, helping them cut through the noise of borrowed expectations and reactive decisions (what she calls Career Static), and build careers that are actually authored by them.
The details
WHO THIS IS FOR
This workshop is for you if:
You've recently experienced a layoff or job loss.
Your job was a big part of who you are.
You're craving a room full of people who get the gut punch of a mid-career loss.
You're ready to stop spinning and figure out what you actually want next.
SPECIAL NOTE:
This workshop will not be recorded. We ask that attendees come camera-on — we'll be working in small breakout groups, and the experience is designed to be interactive. The more you bring to the room, the more you'll leave with.
RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW
This workshop is free, virtual, and built for exactly where you are right now.
*Your information will never be sold or shared beyond what you've consented to above.