Why Your Comfort Zone Is Holding You Back (and How to Leave It) with Melissa Cohen
What happens when burnout pushes someone to their breaking point?
Melissa Cohen knows that moment all too well, and the bold moves she made afterward transformed her life. In this powerful conversation with Courtney, she shares the messy, honest truth about stepping outside your comfort zone and rebuilding confidence after setbacks. By saying “yes” to change, Melissa opened doors she never imagined possible.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, drained, or unsure of your next move, this episode is an invitation to take your first bold step toward renewal and possibility.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
How burnout can become the catalyst for bold transformation
The power of stepping outside your comfort zone, even when it feels terrifying
Why resilience is built in the messy middle, not the easy moments
Melissa’s story of redefining success after exhaustion
How confidence is a practice, not a destination
The role of vulnerability in creating authentic connections
Why saying “yes” to small opportunities leads to big shifts
Practical advice for anyone ready to start over with courage
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“What we have in our mind doesn't necessarily mean that's what we're gonna be.” - Courtney Turich
“We need the twists and turns and drops in life to actually come back to the top.” - Courtney Turich
“The boldest moves usually start with the smallest choices.” - Courtney Turich
“We thought we had to have this linear path, like we had to climb the corporate ladder. But in reality, when we take a step back, it's far from the truth of what many of us have experienced today. ” - Courtney Turich
“Your story is your greatest strength, don’t hide it, own it.” - Courtney Turich
“We don't always have to stay doing the same thing that we've always done.” - Melissa Cohen
“You don't have to know today what you're gonna be doing 10 years from now or even five years from now. Figure out what you wanna do for the next 18 months. ” - Melissa Cohen
“We take it for granted sometimes how interesting people really are on the platform.” - Melissa Cohen
“Three things people can do: One, just start, even without confidence. Two, make it about others, not just yourself. And three, never underestimate the power of a thoughtful comment." - Melissa Cohen
“If you never fail at something, you never learn from anything. So don't be afraid to take chances.” - Melissa Cohen
About Melissa
Melissa Cohen, known as the Good Witch of LinkedIn, is a bestselling author, branding strategist, and former fashion executive who transformed personal loss into powerful reinvention. After a decade-long career with iconic brands like Ralph Lauren, Melissa lost her dream job during the height of the pandemic, but found her voice on LinkedIn. From a few hundred connections to becoming a LinkedIn Top Voice, she built a thriving business helping others grow their influence, craft authentic personal brands, and show up with confidence. Today, she’s a leading force in redefining how we connect, communicate, and build careers online.
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A Team Dklutr Production
BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey, it's your friend and host, Courtney Turich, and welcome to Bold Moves, Confident Choices, the podcast where we own our path, make fearless decisions, and get real about what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality.
Okay, we need to get ready because today's guest is here to change the way we think about personal branding and LinkedIn. Her name is Melissa Cohen, known as the Good Witch of LinkedIn. She is a bestselling author, branding strategist, and a former fashion exec. And let me tell you, I think we've all heard of Ralph Lauren, so Michelle went from zero online presence to LinkedIn top Voice. She's built a thriving business by helping others find their voice, grow their influence, and show up with confidence. So, all right friends. Let's welcome the Queen of Authentic Connection, Melissa Cohen. Hello, Melissa.
Melissa Cohen: Hello, my friend. Thank you for making me sound so good. I hope I live up to that.
Courtney Turich: You absolutely do live up to that. for anyone who does not know you out there, you must connect with Melissa. You lead with authenticity through every post you generate, through every conversation you have, Melissa. So I am so honored to have you as a friend and on my podcast today here. Thank you.
Melissa Cohen: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
Native New Yorker with a Bold Mission
Courtney Turich: So, before we jump into the real meat of the conversation, how about you just share a little bit more about you?
Melissa Cohen: Sure. so I am Melissa Cohen. I live in New York City. I am a native New Yorker. I spent about, well, I shouldn't probably even say how many years in the fashion industry, which was always what I wanted to do, and, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit later about how that shifted into the work that I do today.
And, I'm also very passionate about causes that champion women and young girls. And so one that's near and dear to my heart is an organization called Her Move Next, that I serve on the board of, and we empower girls and young women through the power of chess community and competition, which is super fun.
Courtney Turich: Oh, wow. I did not know that, Melissa. That is super cool.
Melissa Cohen: Yes, it's a lot of fun.
Courtney Turich: Okay. It's not every day meet a native New Yorker, either. you are far and few.
Melissa Cohen: New York City does have a lot of transplants, right? Because I think so many people just see the vision of New York City as it's portrayed on TV and in the movies, and so they really wanna come here and experience it. But yes, I was born in Brooklyn, so I am a native New Yorker.
Courtney Turich: It's so cool. Envious always said, it's the one city I should have lived in, and instead I decided to move to Boston.
Melissa Cohen: It's not too late. You can still change the error of your ways and come live near me.
Courtney Turich: Very true, very true, Melissa. But I don't foresee it happening anytime soon. But I will visit you anytime, any day.
Melissa Cohen: Okay, deal.
Ghosted, Shaken, and Stronger: Melissa’s Bold Pivot
Courtney Turich: Okay. Because I know there is a lot of juice to your story, I would like to go ahead and jump into. What was that big, bold move or confident choice that took things for you, Melissa, to the next level? Personally or professionally?
Melissa Cohen: Yeah, so I think there were two. Hopefully I'm allowed to have two. 'cause there's sort of, of course there's sort of steps in the journey, right? So I spent a really long time in the corporate world. I always wanted to work in the fashion industry. I remember the day that someone came to my high school from one of the fashion schools and talked about, you know, the career opportunities that were there.
That was really exciting for me. And so that's what I did, right? I worked my way up that corporate ladder. That's what I always thought the dream was, right? Keep climbing. Eventually, hopefully you get to a C-suite role, you get to that corner office. Um, and that was always the plan, and that's what I was doing until the pandemic came along, right?
So I lost my job in 2020, I'd been with my dream company. That's pretty much where I thought I would just retire. And when I tried to reenter the workforce after things started to settle and calm down a little bit, I just had really bad experiences with job search. Like, there's just no way to say it nicely. It was brutal. Um, I found terrible behavior on the part of recruiters, a lot of ghosting, and I think the final straw for me was one role where I had interviewed multiple times, um, I really felt like it was the perfect job for me. And I had been in constant communication with the recruiter. She was texting me from her cell phone, and the last conversation I had with her was, you're our top candidate. I'm speaking with the president on Monday. I'll keep you closely posted on next steps. And that is the last time I ever heard from her.
Courtney Turich: Wow.
Melissa Cohen: And it, it was really eyeopening to me. And so the first bold move I made was to say, I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna put in all the energy and effort that goes into a job search. And all the preparation, all the interview prep I was doing, you know, store visits, I was doing sourcing strategies, I was coming up with, you know, business models and I said, I don't wanna do this anymore. And so I started my own business consulting. And I never felt that I was an entrepreneur. That was not in my DNA, that was never on my radar, but I ended up really enjoying it. I ended up being successful when I wasn't sure that I could be, and that was really exciting for me.
And the second bold move that I made was realizing that. We don't always have to stay doing the same thing that we've always done. Right. The fashion industry was what I'd always known, and it was good to me. It, it really was. I, I had a wonderful career. I got to travel the world. I got to see countries and meet people that I never would've otherwise. But after a while I started to realize that there was something else that was bringing me more joy, and that was really exciting and interesting. And so I made the change in 2024 to focus solely on what I'm doing now, which is personal branding, LinkedIn strategy, really help helping others to find their voice on the platform. And that was, that was probably even scarier than the first bold move to be honest, because it was completely walking away from the only thing I'd really known for a very long time.
Courtney Turich: So Melissa, there's a lot to unpack here as you go through your two bold moves and you start off by talking about, you know, you remember being in high school, having a fashion exec come in present and you're like, that's what I wanna do. Like so many of us, um, at when we were our younger self, because we're around the same generation, we thought we had to have this linear path, right? Like we had to climb the corporate ladder. Getting the corner office was, you know, that's when you had made it.
Melissa Cohen: Yep.
Courtney Turich: But in reality, when we take a step back, it's far from the truth of what many of us have experienced today. Including yourself.
Melissa Cohen: Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. I, I think that's a really important point, right?
Um, very few of us have linear careers today. It's, you mentioned the, the book that I wrote. That was one of the whole premises of, of the book is that our career paths look very different now than they did in like, let's say our parents' generation. Right?
Courtney Turich: For sure.
Melissa Cohen: For a lot. A lot of people in previous generations, you worked for the same organization for 25, 35, 40 years.
You got a retirement party and a pension. Those things don't really happen very frequently anymore, and so our careers today, you know. A lot of us have what's called a portfolio career. A lot of us will reinvent ourselves multiple times over, and not only is that okay, I think it's exciting .
Courtney Turich: For sure, and it's happening more and more to so many people. And by you bringing this to the forefront, it assures people that it is okay to reinvent yourself. You go again. You were sharing more about your career and the bold moves. I mean, you worked with some big names girl, like you were up there. You really were moving up the executive ladder with some premier brands that so many people idolize.
Melissa Cohen: Yeah. Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. And then to take a step back and realize, okay, you know, COVID hits and you know, you have to go back out there, look for new opportunities. And you, you mentioned you're doing all this work to prepare for each one because again, you're not just, you're just not interviewing to be on the floor of a store. You're actually interviewing to be, you know, at an executive level. So it takes a lot of work.
When Recruiters Ghost: How to Handle It Without Taking It Personally
So I hear of so many people talking about being ghosted by recruiters and the scenarios that you shared or even by companies, what piece of advice do you have for those individuals who are facing that today?
Melissa Cohen: Um, it's a great question. Know that it's not you, right? It's really easy to take these things personally and to think that you did something wrong and you didn't. You didn't do anything wrong. Ghosting is not acceptable behavior ever. And you know, I, I understand the side of a recruiter too, right? So there are people who actually will get upset that they submitted an application and never heard anything.
And while I understand that, I also see the other side where a lot of people are getting hundreds of applications to every role. And so maybe it's not realistic to get a personalized response to every application, but I do believe at a certain point when you've gotten to the, the point of actually having interviews and actually having put a lot of time and effort into the process, a quick thank you email is just the right way to go. Right?
All what would've satisfied me would've just been. Hi, Melissa. Thank you so much for going through this process with us. We really thought you were a wonderful candidate. We decided to go in another direction, but we wish you the best of luck. And I would've been disappointed, of course, but I also would've felt like there was closure, and I would've felt at least that I was respected in the process, right?
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: To just be completely ghosted with nothing leaves you feeling very disrespected. And so I would really tell anybody that that has happened to you. It's not you, it's bad behavior. It's not acceptable and you didn't do anything wrong.
Courtney Turich: Such a good point. And you know, interviewing I feel is always a two way street. It should never be just one sided because even if you're the interviewee, you are interviewing that company as much as they are
Melissa Cohen: Yes.
Courtney Turich: And, right?
Melissa Cohen: Yes.
Courtney Turich: And so then when you're ghosted, it just leaves a bad taste for that company as a whole, even though it might have been one person, they represent the company. And I'm guessing when that happens, you really don't wanna work ever for that company again or try to.
Melissa Cohen: Uh, I would even go a step further and say, I would never buy products from there based on how I was treated. Right.
Courtney Turich: Wow. Yeah. Makes complete sense.
Melissa Cohen: Yeah. There, there, there's a, there's plenty of fish in the sea, right.? Old expression, but very truthful. There's plenty of places where I can buy apparel and even though it was a brand that I, that I liked and thought well of, uh. I have no desire to spend money there now. Right? So.
Courtney Turich: Very interesting. Yeah, and it makes complete sense.
How Melissa Discovered Her Power on LinkedIn
Okay, so let's talk about the second bold move, girl. I mean, you walked, I'm gonna say you walked into this not really knowing that you had such a powerful, I'm gonna say powerful because you bring such an approach to LinkedIn that so many people are craving, so many people are looking for, and that is. True, powerful authenticity from the core. And I would love for you to share how that process happened for you, how you started walking down this path. How did we get to Melissa Cohen, the good witch today?
Melissa Cohen: Totally. Well, I was going to say totally by accident and, and yet also completely with authenticity.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Melissa Cohen: And those two things don't have to be at odds with one another. So I was never a social media user. I, to this day, I don't have Facebook. I, I've never had Facebook. Um, I checked out Twitter for about three seconds and instantly said, no, thank you. Um, and Instagram, you know, I like to look at pretty pictures and brands that I like, but I never really got a whole lot out of it.
So, I joined LinkedIn in 2008, and I know exactly why I joined in 2008. I, I had been working at Ralph Lauren. I had joined Ralph, um, in late 2005, and an opportunity fell in my lap that I wasn't looking for, that was too good to pass up, and so I ended up leaving Ralph at the time and going to work for this high end. I was in children's apparel for most of the time I was with Ralph, so it was a high-end children's wear brands that was relaunching, um, saying and doing all the right things. It was an amazing opportunity. And it was a really fun job, right? I had always worked, as you mentioned, for these big corporate brands. This was the first time that I was working with a really small team. The whole corporate office was, I wanna say, 13 people. And so I got to be involved in everything, right? I, my background is in product development and production, so the manufacturing and sourcing side. But here. I was doing everything. I was going to fabric and trim shows with the design team, and I was helping to pick out fabrics and trims. I was going to our warehouse with our technical designers and doing QA. I was doing all of these things that normally, you know, in bigger organizations you're a lot more siloed. Unfortunately, um, this was in 2007, 2008, and so that was. The global financial crisis, right?
Courtney Turich: Yes.
Melissa Cohen: And so the company that I had been working for went chapter seven.
I didn't even know what Chapter seven was. I had only ever heard of chapter 11. Um, I hope to never hear chapter seven again. It was a really painful time for me personally. And so that, unless--
Courtney Turich: I'm gonna stop you there, because I don't know, chapter seven, I only know chapter 11. So could you enlighten us?
Melissa Cohen: Yeah. So chapter seven is basically, you know, it's, it's bankruptcy, but it's final bankruptcy, right? You can restructure under a chapter 11, right? There are organizations that will go bankrupt under chapter 11, but right then refinance themselves, they reorganize themselves and they can carry on.
Courtney Turich: Okay.
Melissa Cohen: Chapter seven is doors closed, lights out. You're done. And you know, we owed vendors money and that was very painful for me personally, right? I never wanted to ever feel like somebody wasn't getting paid from an organization that I was part of. That was probably the hardest part of it for me personally.
Um. And so I went to LinkedIn because I, I was going to need to find a job, right?
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Melissa Cohen: But I was super, super lucky and I actually ended up going back to Ralph, right? I was out of work for I think, two or three months, and I was able to come back to Ralph. Um, and they did tell me when I re-interviewed for my, for the role that, you know, don't, don't do that again. You know, like, you left once, don't, don't be doing that again. And, and I said, nope, absolutely will not. Um. And so when I came to LinkedIn the second time in 2020, it was because, you know, I had lost my job. We were in this global pandemic, the apparel industry in particular was hit super, super hard, right?
Nobody was buying clothes, nobody was going to parties, nobody was going to the office. Nobody was going to the gym, right? So right barrel sales were just tanking. Brands were trying to cut orders. I mean, goods were literally on the water on a boat and brands were trying to, to get to get out of them. So I knew it was gonna be a very different experience for me looking for a job this time.
And so I said, well, I, I really should go back and check out that LinkedIn thing that I joined a hundred years ago.
Courtney Turich: That LinkedIn thing.
Melissa Cohen: And I had never done anything with it, right.? Because I was lucky and I didn't have to, but I had a memory of it in my head of what it was. Right? It's like a job board. It's where you post your resume. It's where you say, Hey, I need a job. You know, can, can you help me?
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: And what I found when I got there was completely different. And I think it was just this very fortuitous timing of where we were in the world and people really craving more social interaction however they could find it. Right. So I live in New York City. As we talked about at the very beginning of our conversation, we had terrible lockdowns. You know, the highlight of my week was going to the grocery store. And hoping that it was safe, right? With my--
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: You know, with my gloves on and my two masks, I mean, we were really scared, right? We didn't know what was happening at first, and LinkedIn became this social outlet for me where I started to have conversations with people and I started to interact with people and I started to actually look forward to seeing some of the same people day over day. Right? It became my virtual office, it became my virtual water cooler because I didn't have one to go to anymore.
But what I think really, what really sold LinkedIn for me is, and this is from my heart, I I, I talk about this a lot. Um, I didn't realize how much of my own self-worth and self-identity was tied up in who I worked for and what my title was. Until it was gone, right? Until I could no longer say that that's who I was and what I did.
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: Who I worked for, and I felt like my voice was taken away from me. I felt like I had nothing of value to add to a conversation. Right? What's the first thing someone asks you when they meet you? What do you do?
Courtney Turich: What do you do?
Melissa Cohen: I couldn't answer that anymore. Or at least I couldn't answer it the way I had always been accustomed to answering it, and I couldn't answer it in a way that made me proud. Right?
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: And I think the biggest surprise for me is as I started posting, and we can talk about my first post in a minute if you'd like. Um, I love it. But as I started posting and got more comfortable. It was shocking to me that people responded positively to what I had to say, and that was really huge for me. It really made me, it, it gave me back my voice. Right?
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Melissa Cohen: It made me feel like, no, I do have something worthwhile to say. I do have something to share. People do wanna hear what I wanna contribute, and I wanted to do that for other people. Right? I, I never want it to be all about me. Right. Uh, there are people on LinkedIn who just, you know, they just post and it's all about them, and, and then they walk away. Right?
For me, it's all about having conversations. It's about meeting new people and it's about introducing people to one another, right? LinkedIn, that's what it means, right? Linking people up, linking them together. I love to introduce people to one another that I've met on the platform, and I love to also take those relationships offline. I, I'm fortunate where I live, a lot of people come here, right? A lot of people come to New York today for, for business or for vacation, and I love to meet the people that I've connected with on the platform.
Courtney Turich: I actually spoke to someone last week who was going to be seeing you, and I don't remember who it was, but they brought you up and I'm like, oh my gosh, of course Melissa's amazing.
So here's what I do also love about you, Melissa, is you are speaking truth. You're not just speaking that this is what people should do, or you could do you actually. The two posts that I really love of yours a week are when you share highlights of what other people had have said on LinkedIn. And it's not one person, it's multiple people. You take the pearls and the gems and you bring it forward to the community so everyone can see them. And then you also do your, your five to follow and or four to follow. Four. I'm sorry,
Melissa Cohen: Four. It's four.
Courtney Turich: Four to follow. Which is also cool because I've been connecting with those people. They're fascinating.
Melissa Cohen: Oh, that makes me happy.
Those are my favorite posts. Right. So the one on Friday, which is, um, LinkedIn nuggets is the easiest for me, right? Because you guys do all the work. I just have to find them and, and, and repost them, right? But I don't have to write anything. So that's my easiest post of the week and I really love it.
And the Sunday post, the four to follow, that's actually my hardest post of the week to write because, you know, LinkedIn only gives you a certain number of characters. It gives you 3000 characters in a post. And I'm writing about four people. And so it's not giving me a whole ton of room to talk about each person, but I really wanna highlight, why is this person interesting and why should you get to know them? Because I think, you know, the old LinkedIn was, you only connected with people in your industry, right?
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Melissa Cohen: And I was guilty of that too when I, when I resurfaced in 2020, you know, the few connections that I had, and there certainly weren't a ton of them, but they were all in the fashion industry.
Courtney Turich: Mm-hmm.
Melissa Cohen: Right. Because the whole, the whole mantra way back then was you're only going to connect with people. Who work in your field, who work in your sector, who are gonna help you get your next job, right? But first of all, that's really boring and well, it's not necessarily true, right? Somebody might not work in your industry, but they might know someone in your industry and they can make a whole different connection that you might not ever have had.
But I think people are really, they really want to meet interesting people, and there are fascinating people on LinkedIn, and I even surprise myself sometimes when I go to do this of, I'll be like, wow, okay, I really picked a good four this week, right? Like, these four are amazing because we, we take it for granted sometimes how interesting people really are on the platform.
Courtney Turich: We so take it for granted.
Finding Your Voice on LinkedIn: Melissa’s 3 Steps to Make an Impact
And you know, Melissa, as we're going through this, there's a lot of people who are listening thinking, wow, I should really get more involved on LinkedIn. You had mentioned what your first post was like. I want you to touch on that real quick, but I also want you to share, can you give three things people can do to really start to put their voice, to start making that imp impact on LinkedIn within the community?
Melissa Cohen: Sure. Uh, my first post was awful. It's everything I would tell people not to do, right? So, um, it was a repost of an article, so reposts never do as well on LinkedIn as organic content. So strike one. It was a repost strike two. Uh, I didn't. Add anything really of value at, in my words, right? So it, you can just repost or you can repost with thoughts. This was repost with thoughts I shouldn't have bothered because my thoughts were basically non-existent. It was something along the lines of, this looks like an interesting article or some nonsense. And that's strike two. And strike three is that it was an article from Women's Wear Daily, which is the fashion industry, uh, trade newspaper. And oh, guess what? It was pay walled, so most people couldn't read it anyway, so strike three. It was terrible post. But what I got back from that terrible post was that nobody was mean to me. Nobody scolded me. Nobody told me how foolish I was. I got a few likes, somebody actually reposted it. I think they felt sorry for me and I was able to keep going. Right? I didn't get, I didn't get backlash like you might get on other platforms, and that gave me the courage to keep posting. Um, and now, you know, I post like six days a week, so, um, and, and they've gotten better.
Three things people can do. Um, one, just get started. So I think a lot of people, and it's human nature, we're scared, right? We wanna wait until we feel confident. You are not gonna feel confident at first, just make that post. Um, the second thing I would do is don't always make it about yourself. And that actually. It makes it easier for you, right? When the focus isn't always on you and the focus is on someone else, it, it feels easier to you and you're also really making someone else happy, right? Everybody loves to have the spotlight shown on them by somebody else. I had somebody, I had somebody ask me once, have you ever had, or do you ask permission before you post your four to follow? And I said, no. It's a public profile, right?
Courtney Turich: Yeah. Right.
Melissa Cohen: If you're, if you're putting yourself out there, you're putting yourself out there. I've never had anything, but, oh my God, thank you so much for featuring me. It was so exciting. I met some great people, right? People love the connections that come out of that post. And so that would be my second tip is make it about other people too, right? Don't always make it about you. And the third thing I would say, and this is. I feel like I say this so frequently, so sorry if you've heard it before, but don't underestimate what commenting can do for you on the platform, right? I think we're very focused on content, right?
Courtney Turich: Right.
Melissa Cohen: Social media. Social media is content. Social media content and content's powerful, but the comments are where you really get to speak with one another, right?
I love nothing more than to look at one of my posts and see multiple people having a conversation together, like that sort of comment thread. I love that. And so don't underestimate, you know, if you read something that resonates with you, don't be shy in telling that person that you really enjoyed what they wrote and why, and what your takeaways were from it. Right?
We write because we wanna impact somebody. It's like when you write a book. Every single post that someone makes is sort of like a mini publication, right? So they wanna hear how it impacted somebody else.
Courtney Turich: Those are three simple steps, and it's something everyone can do. Even if you fail on the first one of just starting the post, Hey, you broke the ice, you got started, and there's room for improvement for all of us.
Twists, Turns & Reinvention: Life Lessons from Melissa Cohen
Yes, a hundred percent. So Melissa, reflecting back to your younger self, what would you tell 18-year-old Melissa today?
Melissa Cohen: So that question reminds me of an exercise that I did, um, in like a peer coaching group. And, and the question was, if you wrote your memoir today, what would it be titled? And I, my answer was, it all worked out in the end.
And that's what I would tell my 18-year-old self. Right. It, it will all work out. And you don't have to know today what you're gonna be doing 10 years from now or even five years from now. Figure out what you wanna do for the next 18 months. Right. And that might not end up being what you do forever.
I was an Italian language and literature major in college. It was a lot of fun. It was--
Courtney Turich: It sounds fun.
Melissa Cohen: It, it was fun, right. But it was pretty not helpful from a career standpoint. Right. And that's okay. It all worked out in the end and, and it worked out pretty well. So that's what I would tell my 18-year-old self don't, don't stress about the big picture so many years down the line. Focus on small steps and know that everything that you do, if you do it with good intention, if you make a mistake, it's reversible. It's it's fixable. Right. Failure isn't fatal. I know that's like, it's a big cliche, but it's true. If you never fail at something, you never learn from anything. So don't be afraid to take chances.
Courtney Turich: Spot on. We need the twists and turns and drops in life to actually come back to the top. It's so important. So Melissa, I'm thinking back and reflecting on our conversation, and there's again, so many nuggets that you've provided to all of us today, and one is reinvention is possible.
What we have in our mind doesn't necessarily mean that's what we're gonna be your life.
turn, took turns and twists and pivots, and now you're doing something that you never thought you would be doing. And that's helping others share their voice on LinkedIn, create that brand and help them shine through and through. And I am so proud to say that Melissa has also helped me with my LinkedIn and she gave me lots of good advice and I, I, at times, I fall short on LinkedIn.
Melissa Cohen: No, you don't.
Courtney Turich: But I, but I do look to you as a role model and I thank you so much for that. And I'm so honored that you are a part of my life and that I get to share your voice with my community.
Melissa Cohen: Thank you so much, uh, from my heart. You are such a light and such a wonderful presence for me and for so many others, and you're, you're a perfect example of why we need to be on LinkedIn, right?
I get so much joy from what you share because the work that you do is super important and people need to know what you're doing and how you're impacting others. That's just a perfect example of why, you know, LinkedIn isn't just superfluous. It's not just surface level. There's real people doing incredible things.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. Thank you so much, Melissa. And if you would could leave anything with my audience today, what would that be?
Melissa Cohen: People are interesting. People are, are good more than they're not, right? Yes. So be curious, seek out interesting people and learn about them because you never know what's gonna happen when you have a conversation with somebody that you don't know yet.
Courtney Turich: Be curious, everyone, just put your first posts out there, highlight other people and don't forget to comment on other, others’, other people's posts. We see them, we love them, we read them. So Melissa, thank you so much for being here today and to my audience, I want you to go be bold, be confident and be you.
Thanks.
Melissa Cohen: Thanks so much, Courtney.
Courtney Turich: You're welcome. That flew by it.
