I coached her. Then she became CEO.
She went from head of marketing to CEO in 3 years. Here's what she had to unlearn.
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I was scrolling LinkedIn on my way into the gym when I almost spit out my coffee.
One of my old clients (head of marketing) had just been promoted to CEO.
(I wasn’t surprised she made it - just that it happened so fast.)
And when her boss made the offer, she actually did spill her coffee.
Her name is Arielle Johncox. And she built her entire career on one move.
Someone would ask if she could do something. She’d say yes. Then she’d figure out how to do it later.
Social media manager who’s never run a campaign? Yes.
Create an integrated marketing calendar with no idea what that means? Yes.
Become head of marketing at a SaaS scaleup with no marketing infrastructure? Yes.
If you only looked at her resume, you would safely assume it worked. In 6 years, she went from social media manager to CEO.
But somewhere in the middle, saying yes became a bug, not a feature.
She described it liked this:
“I had completely built my career around saying yes to every single thing. In retrospect, it made me work until 1 or 2am a lot of times, and then I'd find myself waking up at 5am again too. It was a really great way to burn myself out."
That was one of the first things we worked on together during our coaching engagement.
Arielle had recently been promoted to head of marketing. She already knew how to get stuff done. We needed to figure out what to stop.
Here’s what I’ve seen coaching people like Arielle.
The habit that gets you to head of marketing, head of growth, VP of whatever, is the same habit that becomes a liability once you’re there. You said yes to every project. You raised your hand before you knew the answer. You out-worked everybody in the room.
And then you land the role. Suddenly you’re drowning in great ideas you can’t execute. You’re in every meeting. Every decision flows through you.
The muscle memory says: say yes, figure it out, grind through.
The job now requires something different. Sequencing. Saying no to things that feel important. Being okay with mediocre in some areas so you can be exceptional in the ones that actually matter.
That transition is hard. Not because the skills aren’t there. But because the identity is still attached to the old model.
Arielle figured it out. She went from head of marketing to CEO at Balsamiq in 3 years. And the unlock wasn’t learning new skills. It was recognizing that who she’d always been was enough, just expressed differently.
We got into all of it on this week’s episode of Growing Forward.
How the CEO transition actually happened (it involved spilled coffee).
What she had to unlearn to lead at a different level.
Why she stopped thinking about her career as a ladder.
And what she’d whisper to the version of herself she was when we first started working together.
ps - and if you’re a Director, VP, or Head of Growth who’s tired of navigating this stuff alone, I’m opening a group coaching program in Q2. Join the waitlist here.