Quiet Cracking: When You Hate Your Job But Can’t Leave

EPISODE 3 Quiet Cracking: When You Hate Your Job But Can't Leave (feat. Kadine Cooper)

You smile at your desk. You show up on time. You do the work. But inside? You are quietly cracking. In this episode, Nakeisha sits down with guest Kadine Cooper to talk about one of the most common but unspoken experiences working women face — hating your job but feeling completely trapped, like leaving is not even an option.

If you've ever counted down the minutes until 5pm, cried in your car before walking into the office, or fantasized about what your life could look like if you just had the courage to leave — this conversation was made for you.

What you'll take away:

• Why so many women stay stuck in jobs that are draining their life
• The hidden cost of staying somewhere that no longer serves you
• Practical first steps toward building a life and income on your own terms

This episode pairs with The Freedom Blueprint — the roadmap for the woman who is done surviving her nine to five and is ready to build a life she actually loves. Grab your copy here: https://bit.ly/4lLPKtA

 🔜 Something else is coming for the woman who is ready to go even deeper into her freedom journey. Stay connected with Nakeisha to be the first to know when it drops. 

If this episode spoke to you and you’re ready to go deeper…
my book The Freedom Blueprint: For Women Ready to Leave Survival Mode is your next step.

It’s for the woman who is done surviving and ready to live with alignment, clarity, and purpose.

📖 Get your copy here:
https://bit.ly/4lLPKtA

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to Activate Your Freedom with Nakisha Geddes, a space for women who are ready to move beyond survival mode into clarity, structure, and intentional living. I'm Nikisha Geddes, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and someone who understands what it means to carry many roles while still hearing the deeper call to become. Here we have honest conversation about healing, identity, leadership, faith, business, and the practical shift required to build a life that truly aligns with who you are becoming. If you know there are more for you than just simple managing life, then this is the space for you. Let's begin. I'm super grateful for you for you know coming alongside me with this journey. It is uh it has been an amazing, amazing experience. And today I want to talk about something that is dear to my heart, and it's called quiet cracking in the workplace. And what this is, is when employers feel deeply unhappy and disengaged and burnt out, but we're still showing up at work. But the difference with this is there's quiet quitting and there's quiet cracking. With quiet quitting, you just don't care. You just show up and don't care if they file, you don't care if, you know, whatever happened, right? But with quiet cracking, you do care. You care in a way because you have financial needs, you have obligation, you have things that are holding you in that position, but you're quietly checking out, you're burnt out, you're no longer there, you're doing the bare minimum. And what that bare minimum does, it's just getting you by, however, it starts showing up in your performance. And you're just physically there, but mentally cropped up. And the best person to have this conversation with, I have a special guest with me today, is my business bestie, Kadeen Cooper. Hey girl. Okay, so for those of you who don't know Kadeen Cooper, I've met Kadeen Cooper in 2020, during COVID, in the heart of COVID. We were both on a coaching call together. And ever since then, we just hated off. We talk almost every day. We do business strategy together, we do business everything together, right? Yep. Inseparable since 2020. Okay, so I'm just gonna give you a little insight about my girl Kadeen Cooper. So Kadeen Cooper is an award-winning certified executive leadership coach, master facilitator, and speaker dedicated to helping eye achieving leaders led with confidence, presence, and purpose. Recognized as one of Toronto's top 15 coaches and Canada's top 100 black women to watch, and featured CP24 and the Global Mill. Kideen brings over 20 years of corporate H HR experience and a track record to developing 500 leaders across CPG. Woo! Now you see why she's my business bestie. So, Kedeen, um I want you to, I want to start this off with a quick tell me something fun about you. Let's start it off lightly. Something that nobody knows, but it's you know, it's a little fun side to you.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

You know what, Keish, when you ask the question, the first thing that came to mind is our traveling, because we both love to travel. And I think because of social media, people already know that about me and about you. Something fun about me. I'm a foodie. I don't think that's something that I've really shown that people know. I love to eat. Don't love to cook, but love to eat. And that sweet tooth of yours. Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I do have a sweet tooth.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Okay, so we're just gonna have a regular conversation because this is a topic that both of us experience in different ways. And what I wanted us to kind of take our listener to this journey and how you were able to overcome this and walk into your purpose right now. And I'll kind of share a little bit of my journey because our journey is similar, but the path is different. But we both end up as business owners, right? And for different reasons. So, what is quiet cracking for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

So, for me, quiet cracking is exactly what you said, and it's not a new phenomenon or a new, I think it's just maybe being highlighted a bit more where it's it's just just before burnout. It's on the cusp of I'm about to get burnt out, but I'm showing up at work. I may have anxiety, I may have the butterflies in the morning, maybe I'm crying on my way to work or after work, but nobody knows because I show up with this performative identity. But inside, I'm like, I'm dying, I'm crumbling, right? Feeling stuck, feeling unfulfilled. But you wouldn't know it because I show up anyways.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yes, I love that. And I think for me, quiet cracking was me showing up because I work in the field with developmental individual. And for me, when I was going through my season of quiet cracking, what it looked like was that I was showing up at work, I was doing the bare minimum, but the person that was the people that was experiencing the loss from me showing up were the the people that I served, my clientele, right? So it seems like I was working, but I really wasn't working. And I remember one time looking back and like, wow, I'm really not serving from a full place, right? I'm here, but I'm not here, and I really don't want to be here. And my clientele is the one that's suffering because I'm just here.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

And and it's not that I don't care about them, it's just that I didn't know how to serve them.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, because you are at a place of depletion. You know, you were at that crossroads as your book, you know, when you share that in your book about the crossroads of it's almost like a misaligned identity with who you truly were or who you were becoming.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

And I think for me, I didn't even know. Honestly, I've never heard anyone speak those kind of language. Where who are you? Who are you becoming? Like such language wasn't spoken amongst the people that I was hanging out with. Even at work, nobody speaks like that, right? So it was kind of like I was existing, yeah, right? Yeah, and we're just going through the motion, but we have no clue what motion you're going through. But you know something is off, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah, you know something is off, but again, you're still showing up until you figure out to what extent am I feeling off. And also, is this something I'm just gonna get over? Is this just a temporary thing? Or is this a true feeling identity? And for me, just really quickly to share, because I think for myself, when I quit my job, it may have looked like it was sudden to some people, but I had gone on or started this personal development journey, I would say, a good five or 10 years before actually making the decision to quit my job, because something just no longer felt right within me. But like you said, I couldn't put a name to it. I just knew something wasn't aligned. And I think that's why I speak so much about the aligned leadership method, right? Because I worked so hard in the last, I would say, maybe 15 years to get more aligned with who I am at my core.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Okay, I want to ask a question because for me, I was going on a journey, but I didn't recognize that I was going on a journey.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Did you know you were going on a journey? No. At the time I didn't looking back now, but at the time I didn't. At the time, I think I was just in it. And I was just like, what can I do? What do I need to do? So it was just like figuring it all out, but not naming it as an idea as an identity shift or not naming it as something that I was going through because I was in it.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

What was that pivotal point for you where you say there must be more?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Wow, that's a deep question. So the last corporate, not even the last corporate, yeah, I think it was the last corporate organization that I was working in three years, and I've gone through five managers, and every manager you had to kind of re-reidentify who you were, that you were worthy to be on the team. So it was this constant performing, and I was just like, I'm done masking, I'm done trying to prove who I am, and seeing other people get promoted more than qualified, but they were getting promoted and I wasn't, or I was being told, oh, Kadeem, you're too qualified for these stretch assignments that they had. And I was just like, but I want the opportunity to shine just as much as somebody else does. So always being told, or you know, go to school, get a good education, climb the corporate ladder. So when I started feeling like this cannot be it, there has to be more to life or to my career than this, I felt like something inside of me was missing. You know, so it was that almost like that awakening within me that this cannot be it. Life can't just be about striving. And I talk about it a lot now, you know, my five F's, because before success for me was climb the corporate ladder, make the six figures, you know. That's what success looked like. Now it's faith, family, fun, freedom, and flexibility.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

We're gonna talk about principles after. Okay, that that that is like I live by my principles, and it's so important for us to say principles. But what I wanted to share with my pivotal point, and just when you're speaking, I realized I know where my pivotal point was, but I don't speak about it often. My pivotal pivotal point was I had a supervisor that we were good, like we will fight, but we were good. And you know, we could go through those motions where you know she could reprimand me or whatever. But if you know me and you know me, I don't hold grudge, you know. We could go through that phase and I'll go to, hey, how are you doing? I was your son, you know what I mean. So it was it was a comfortable environment because of the supervisor, but it was a toxic environment at the same time because it's coming from how would I say from top management. So the the organization itself was toxic. But I had a manageable, uh supervisor that make it bearable or manageable, right? So for me, that pivotal point was when they transfer her. So she got transferred, and then I got a new supervisor. Now, this new supervisor, because I used to, I was part of like starting the union, I was part of, you know, just collective bargaining agreement and everything, right? So I know what was going on in, I think they had like over 30-something different locations, but I'm aware of what was going on in most of the locations because people tend to either reach out to me for advice and stuff. So when that supervisor was coming, I knew exactly who she was. I knew the experience that other co-worker had with her. So my walls were up. So I knew that I couldn't work for her because of what she stands for and the experience that my fellow co-worker had with her. So that was my pivotal point where I knew I could not. There's no way I could work for this woman.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

See, I love that you said that because some of the times, like, you know, when I'm doing career coaching, one of the things that I say to my clients is you play a dual role. You're the interviewee and you're the interviewer. So to your benefit, you knew what you were getting into or who was coming into the organization that you were gonna have to report under their leadership. And that's something that us as human beings, when we're kind of caught up in people pleasing or caught up in I just need a job or I need we we don't listen to the clues and the cues that are right in front of us. So the benefit of you knowing that and knowing, okay, this is I'm either gonna sink or swim here. You know, whereas an individual kind of just goes into the organization, but I always say, You're checking their boxes, what about your boxes?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

But nobody taught us that. I didn't know that I have a choice. I just knew that when I'm looking for a job, I have bills to pay. And if they hired me, I was happy. Hey, the first person offered me the job, that was it. Exactly. Now I know I have choices, but back then I didn't. No, you're and neither did I. We didn't, neither did I. Okay, so let's get into that transitional piece for us. What led to your transition? Walk us through that and why being an entrepreneur was a choice for you instead of finding another job.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Hmm. So funny, I've been saying for years that I'm an accidental entrepreneur because it wasn't like a dream or a goal of mine. I wasn't like, I want to be one. But what did it for me, I would say, is the last VP that I was reporting into, I knew I wanted to get into coaching. I knew that that was something that was in me to in a way that I wanted to serve others. And she said to me, I don't think you're ready for it. And I was just like, in my head, I was thinking, girl, I'm in my 40s now. This is like five years ago. I'm like, I'm in my 40s. I'm like, I don't have time to waste. I'm like, and also, nor do you get to, you don't control my career passing trajectory. I think it was just also frustration, and I think it was a bit of maturity as well. Because, like you said, we weren't taught that. And that's why I have so much respect for this Danimker generation because they're like no nonsense. Yes, and they know what they want and they know what they're not gonna tolerate, and they're not gonna allow you to stop them from getting that. And so I think it took me in my 40s to realize that wait a minute, I may be reporting into you, but you don't get to dictate my future career goals. And so I was like, if where I'm at right now is not gonna support my career goals and trajectory, then I'm wasting my time. And I'm like, I don't have time to waste. And I literally left. I left, I didn't have a backup plan, I didn't have a framework of blueprint, but I met an amazing coach who encouraged me. He's like, You can do this. He's like, You have how many years of experience in coaching or just didn't, you know, HR? He's like, go out there and help people. And so I just started.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Listen, coaching for me, coaching is the number one thing. Honestly, if you're in that position where you want to do that transition and you have no clue what it is, or you already made a transition, but you need support to get to where you need to go to, like coaching, find someone that resonates with you, find someone that it's I was I always tell people make sure they achieve the goal that you desire to achieve. Because basically, what they're gonna do is help you to get there. So if you first need to know your goals, right? Right, and then get there. But however, in my position, when I just started, unlike Karen's in the beginning, we didn't know what goals we have. We wanted, we didn't know where we wanted to be. We didn't like I I had no clue. But a coach just like you helped me to see the potential in myself and encouraged me to launch my book. My my journey started from my book, right? And if it wasn't for that coach that said, hey, when are you gonna give me a due date for your book? When are you gonna launch that book? And like we're sending it now, we're gonna put it out there, and I'm gonna help you and walk you through that journey, even to do a photo shoot. What the heck was that? Right? You know, branding shoot, you know, and have me doing a branding shoot, you know, help me with the self-publishing of the book, help me with the book launch. Like, listen, I'm gonna shout out to Elizabeth Carrier. Yeah like she's amazing. Like, if it wasn't for her, I would not be on this journey right now. Because when I didn't see possibility myself, when I didn't understand the journey that I was on, she was the one that said, you could do this. She hold my hand and said, Help you. And because of that, I'm here right now doing this podcast and on this journey of you know, my version of success, because success looked different for everyone, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I just realized I'm so sorry to cut you. Elizabeth Korea was how we came to be. We ended up in her coaching program, but my first coach was Edwin Korea. They both are like EC, EC. A lot of coaches. Elizabeth and Edwin were kind of our the, I guess, the people who saw and held our vision for us, or what they saw. And that's one of the beautiful things that coaches do is they hold your belish, your vision, and your belief for yourself until you catch up with it. And I'll tell you, not because I am a coach now, but coaching, I feel like I'm leaps and bounds ahead in my career and my life because I've made that investment. So for your listeners, whether you can monetary or otherwise, if you can't get a coach, maybe get a mentor. Um, but just make that time investment or financial investment in yourself. And I guarantee you, when you invest in yourself, you can't fail.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

You know what I love about you and I? Our target audience is the same. And I I want to put this out there so you guys could understand that there's no competition in this game. Both our target audience are women in transition, right? And we know that we're where we picket back on each other, we support each other down to the T. And so Kedeen. From day one, too, I want to say too. From day one. From day one, yes, no competition. And our audience is the same. Kedeen helps her clientele with career transition, life coaching, everything coaching, like everything coaching. And on the other end, we're more like the business mindset, the business structuring, and so forth. But her transition, our clientele, or women in transition from their nine-to-five executive coach leaders, basically, right? We're executive presence, coming to the you know, levels. Exactly, exactly. I want to level up. So bring us back to where we were in the workplace. I want you to touch on what it was like, like we did talk about like you going through that transition, you got into a coach. What it's like now, like when you look back, what it's like now that now that you're walking into I want to say your purpose, because it feels like your purpose, right? What is it like now that you're walking into your purpose compared to when you were working in that executive position?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

So, an easy way that I can explain it is before it was always striving for what's next, what's next, what's next. Now I feel like it's this or this. Like there is no plan B for me. Boundaries. I just want to stay in this space of service, helping women to recognize their greatness and to lean more into their values and what really serves them. And like you just said, like just the boundaries around that. Because there's such a misconception. People feel that boundaries are for other people, boundaries are for you, right? To protect you. And others just have to recognize them. But what happens sometimes, I find, is when we don't honor those boundaries and our values, right? And we allow people to either walk over them or we're just wishy-washy with them.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

And I think this is going to transition right into our philosophy for self. Tell me about your philosophy for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Well, I started in the pandemic with this motto that anything that costs me my piece is too expensive and I can't afford it. And I think for me, it's I mean, you cannot love or lead anybody else until you can love and lead yourself. And so when you start bypassing that and just becoming a people pleaser or focusing on other people, you're losing yourself. So I think it was that it's kind of like that rediscovering and finding of how I'm just as important as you, as my mother, as my father, as my husband, as my kids. And if I can't pour into me, then how then me giving them the excess isn't even possible. I'm just pouring into them, pouring into them, but I'm depleted, constantly depleted. Yes. And so I don't know if I answered the question, but that's what's coming up for me right now. And then talk about your five core values. Oh my god, the five F's? Yes, yes. So faith, God first. I put God before anything and everything, because but God. If I wasn't, if it wasn't God, I don't think I would be here. My family, I'm a boy mom, I've got three beautiful boys, then an amazing husband that I love, and I like to have fun. Keisha and I like to have fun. We love to travel. And then the freedom, the freedom and flexibility that we have right now to do work that we love and to show up in our lives and our businesses, it's priceless.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yes. And I think for me, what I learned, I think it was early on, and I have to give it back to Elizabeth again. One of the things that she had us do in one of her coaching calls very early is to find in your values or your philosophy. What when you think about the woman that you're becoming, who is she? And three words that describe her. And for me, it was freedom. I knew I wanted to be free to live the life on my terms. Yeah, I knew I wanted freedom where, cause I know for me, honestly, working for someone, uh that's all I knew, but there was always resistance. And I was always the type of person where, like, say, for instance, if I if I wanted to go on vacation, right? And if somebody was like, I put in my vacation request and my boss will say to me, Oh, it depends on sonority. I I don't know if this is approved. My response to them is like, I know I'm going, you do what you need to do, and I'm gonna do what I need to do, right? So I was that type of employee.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

A little bit rebellious, Keisha was rebellious.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Whatever did you do. I'm like, You did what? Yes. I I and they would do whatever. I'm like Like, listen, one thing with me, I wasn't afraid. EI is for me, eh?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Being Canadian, for you American and non-Canadian listeners, that means the employment insurance, the Keisha always even had her back.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Listen, I'll figure it out, but I wasn't gonna let you stop me. And I remember even when I was younger, I had a boss that speak to me in a certain way, a tone. Like she was correcting me in a tone. And I remember being outside, and I was like, what the hell? Who the heck was she talking to? And I was just simmering on it. And I went inside and I said, Listen, I'm quitting. I'm giving you till lunchtime to find a replacement. And that was it. So two weeks' notice. No, no, no, no, no. I was always that type of person. So I knew freedom was something that I desire. Yeah, I knew freedom was something that was on the top of my list no matter what. And the next one was peace. Peace and what peace looked like for me was like in every aspect of my life. If it was gonna stress me, it's a no. If I feel a nod in my stomach, it's a no. I think yesterday, was it you I was talking to? And I said if I was having a conversation with someone and it didn't feel good, and it was time to get off the phone. Yeah, right. And it doesn't matter what the conversation was about, it could be one word you said, and it makes me feel uncomfortable or shift how my emotion is, it was time for me to exit. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 23:24

I just want to pause you there for one second because one of the things that I love and admire about you is you're so in tune with yourself. Oh so in tune with yourself, and that's something that I'm learning because I think you know, our body, our mind, everything sends us signs and signals. But for me, I spent so many years suppressing them or just brushing them off. Not anymore though, but before. So I just wanted to apologize there because I just I admire that so much.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

So, what I want you to do right now, think about a woman who is quiet cracking right now. I want you to speak to her, speak some life into her, please.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Well, the first thing that I would say is identify, you know, what this quiet cracking might be costing you. Is it your physical, mental, emotional health? The why behind it? So once you figure it out what it's doing, because your health is your wealth, then the why is important, you know. Is it the environment? Is it the toxic environment? Is it your boss? Is it the workload? Is it the capacity? Is it lack of fulfillment? Because then once you know that, then we can we can figure it out. So it's doing some self, and I actually have a mojo journal to self-discovery coming out. Keisha's been bugging me to put this out for a while. It's coming out this year for sure, maybe even this month, who knows? Because I've got drafts of it everywhere. But it's really about sitting with yourself and doing some self-reflection because we're always in choice and you have choices. You just need to figure out what you want. Because if you don't know what you want, then I can't help you. Keish can't no one can help you. But once you establish and identify doing some souls, and I'm talking just sit with yourself, ask yourself a series of questions like what is it that I want? What makes me happy? What makes me feel fulfilled? What brings me joy? What makes me upset? What puts knots in my stomach? How do I feel when I work up or I hear the word work? You know, and what do you want? Because everything that we want is possible. I always say none of us are broken, none of us need fixing. All we need is time and resources to figure ourselves out. The right psychological safe space where you can. Right? So everything is figure outable. The what the one thing to summarize all that is I would just say find a safe place or person that you can just download with, no judgment, that can give you kind of a reflection as to back as to what they're seeing, maybe different perspective.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

And I love that you say that because the only thing that I I wanted to add to that is seek help. If you're not able to put your finger on it and figure it out for yourself, seek help. Whether it is um somebody professional, honestly, that was the route that I went. Same here. Like I went to shout out to all the therapists and the doctors did um diagnose me depressed. Like I was clinically depressed, I was on medication, and you know, and that's when I decided to seek therapy. And it was that therapist that helped me to see things differently, basically. Because sometimes how we view things, it's really not that way. It's it's in our head, right? Because of what we're going through, it's a perspective. Yeah, but sometimes that's really not it because we limit ourselves, we put these limitations on ourselves and we tell ourselves we can't. We can't do this because I'm a mom. I can't do this because I'm a wife, I can't do this because of my mother, I can't do this because of my father, I can't do this. But who says you can't?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Who says you can't?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

We're the one that tells ourselves that. And that was the hardest lesson that I learned. Where I, the biggest lesson I learned from my therapy session was that I chose to stop living.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, it's all up to you. And one thing I remember when I was going through one of my deepest moments, my doctor said to me, How important is quality of life to you? And I was like, Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

You know, that's all I needed to hear is I was like, it's it's important. Yeah, I don't want to live like this, feeling like this. So she's like, Well, you have a decision to make. And we all have choices, and some things that I'll tell my clients too, like, you know, we'll dance in moments and we'll go back and forth on something, and then I'll be like, Well, if you're not willing to change something, then you're choosing this now, you're either choosing to stay or choosing differently. Because nothing changes if nothing changes.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yes, yes, yes. So true. So, what I want you to do right now is uh if someone wants to do this transition right now, pretend they're your coaching client, right? They're quite quitting, but they come to you for that life coaching, right? Give me like a minute, something that you could help them to just trigger that emotion and bring them back to life.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Well, I have a couple different modalities that I use. Sometimes it's visualization, sometimes it's affirmation, different modalities that would help them because what works for you may not work for somebody else. So it's really about identifying who they are. First of all, identifying if we vibe, if I'm even their their coach, right? But it's really about getting to know them at their core and what's really important to them, what's going to make them feel safe so that they can share with no filter with me. So honestly, the beginning is just really establishing that trust and that relationship. Because for me, there is no bias, there is no judgment, because I'm not here to judge anyone, but I am here to help you to get unstuck or get you from where you are to where you want to be. And that's honestly even in the first preliminary free discussion or chemistry call that I have with my clients. And from there, based on what you've shared, I may have some takeaways from you because I'm a resourceful person. I I have so many resources, but it's I will give you what I think you need in order to get you unstuck in this moment. So I can share with you a couple of things, but it's easier for me to share when I know what the situation is. Right? So there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Here's what I want to point out right now. I want to point out, and I want you to help me to point out the difference with showing up in your purpose and showing up to work. Right? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

That's easy for me. It doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like work. Like this where I'm at right now just feels effortless.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

And I watch it, just feels like when you had to be heavy, heavy knots in my stomach.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

I mean, you've heard of the Sunday moods or Sunday blues. Yeah, like all of that. It didn't feel like me. It was almost like you're living in this outer body experience. You're doing what you feel like you have to do. Now I do what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

I love that. You know, love that. I I feel for me when I had to go to work, as you say, it was heavy. It was something that I have to do, not something that I chose to do. The choice. Right. And now that I'm walking in my purpose, where I get to show up. And one of the biggest things, I get to choose my client.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

I get to choose who I work with, I get to choose how I spend my day, I get to choose every aspect of my daily life, which is different than showing up to work on somebody else's time, on somebody else's clock, doing and and for me, working in the developmental sector, I wasn't able to, how would I say, use my skill because I was hired for this, even though I was qualified for other things, I wasn't able to use utilize all my qualification and skill because I wasn't hired for that. Right? Who told you to do that? And then I had to be working with clients and then had somebody else come and tell me what to do with the clients that I'm working with when I knew what worked with the client, but because I wasn't hired for that position, right? I had to listen to the person that didn't know my client.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Because you're overstepping it almost like, why would you do that? Exactly. That's not what we hired you for.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

And now I'm able to utilize all my skills, and that's my best quality. And at first, when I just started, I used to second guess myself. You know, when I get called for certain situations, like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, what am I walking?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Because you're holding back. You're holding back apart, you're not showing up as, you know, and I'm kind of getting tired of this authentic self, but I always say the real and ideal version of you. You were masking parts of you. Now you just show up as Nikisha. Yeah. And that's what people love. That's what people want. Honestly, like when you show up as yourself, you're not masking, you're not filtering. Because here's the other thing, too. We we're not supposed to be for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yes, it's so true.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

But when you don't show up as your best or as your real and ideal version of you, who are you? Who are you? You're figuring it out, and the other person's trying to figure out who you are.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yes, yes, yes, yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

So, and that's one of the things now. I will say, you know, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, I'm an aunt. But more than anything, I'm just cadeen. Yes, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

And honestly, I want you guys who are listening to this podcast right now to look at quiet cracking or quiet quitting as your signal for transition. It's time you gave it wherever you're currently at right now, you gave it your all. Yeah, you have got to your cap. This is your limit. There's nothing more for you here. Right. This is it. That if you stay here for the next 10 years, this is it for you. It's time for you to start, how would I say, that transition plan. What does that transition plan look like for you? And I I remember myself, I gave myself five years and I transitioned within two. But here's the thing when I gave myself five years, I didn't know what that transition was going to look like, but I knew I had to transition. And I gave myself five years. But when I gave myself that five years, I was ready to transition. So I was seeking that. I was seeking something new.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

And I agree with you, because even though I didn't know what I what this next phase or duration of my career or life was gonna look like, just like you said, I was seeking something different.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

So I think that's yeah, so if you guys don't take anything away from this conversation today, I want you guys to realize that this is a transitional phase for you.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

And it's time for this is 2026.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Girl, I was gonna say, this is the year of the horse. We are entering Q2. We're galloping, we're galloping through, galloping, guys. Yeah, don't hold back. Yes, yes, surround yourself with like-minded, like-hearted people that want to see you win and that can actually be your cheerleader, your champion. That's all you really need. Yeah, at least to start.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

And with that, it's a wrap mic drop. I think this is amazing, amazing episode. And I just want to say thank you, Cadeen, for joining me with this journey. Thank you for always supporting me. Thank you for loving me. And what I love about both of us, there's days where we really don't feel like showing up. And we could speak life into each other.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

You know, we could be authentic to each other, we could be truthful to each other, and that's what I love about our relationship.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, because we need that, we need each other. Like you said, Keish, from the beginning, there was no competition between the two of us, nothing but love. And I think the love has just continued to grow over the years.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Yes. And could you just let our listener know how they find you? How could they connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Sure. So on LinkedIn, you can find me under my name, which is Cadeen Cooper, and on Instagram, it's career coach underscore K.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

All right, thank you all for listening. I want you guys to um share this live with anyone that you know you think will benefit from this um podcast today. And as usual, have a great and blessed day. Bye. Before we close, I want to leave you with this. Just because you've learned how to function doesn't mean you have to stay there. Freedom starts with awareness, with honesty, with choosing to listen to yourself in a deeper way. If this episode spoke to you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who needs it. And if you're ready to go deeper, make sure you follow the podcast so you don't miss what's next. This is Activate Your Freedom, and your next level starts with you.