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Clayton Pulsipher | Living Beneath the Noise

@clayton_pulsipher

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Dog dad making sense of a nonsensical world.
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Most of us don’t actually choose our careers.

We either:
1️⃣ Pick something when we’re young and stick with it.
2️⃣ Drift into a role one small, reasonable decision at a time.
3️⃣ Take the job that’s available and keep grinding.

If you’re nodding (or grimacing), I’m right with you. I’ve been there, too.

How do we change this? By pausing and taking intentional moments to assess our relationship with work—by interrupting the autopilot so many of us get stuck on.

Once I paused and reassessed, I completely changed my trajectory. And in just 3 years, I’d doubled my salary and gotten my footing in an entirely new industry.

I walked away from classroom education after 7 years teaching music and directing choirs. The pandemic threw my physical safety into question, which led me to question the ways teaching was serving my broader life. That pause led me to learning design.

Later, a layoff forced me to pause again. This time, I looked closer at what I’d actually been doing versus what my titles suggested. And there it was: my skills, my impact, the work I innately gravitated toward without others asking… it all showed a clear path to product management.

Along the way, I realized just how little most systems actually reward the work people do. We’re constantly seeking advancement, yet many companies have no clear paths to progression. We’re taught to chase titles and salary, but both are arbitrary at this point.

Recognizing your worth isn’t enough. You have to internalize it—because spoiler alert: you’re the only one really looking.

That’s why I help capable professionals:
- Surface the invisible skills hidden inside their work
- Articulate their value without jargon
- Connect their contributions to a bigger sense of worth
- Decide—confidently—whether to stay put or make a move

Literally all of you deserve this work—this level of personal clarity.
You’re valuable, even if your job doesn’t make you feel like it.

It’s time you stopped to notice what you truly bring to the table.
It’s time you trusted yourself to choose deliberately where to lend your skills.

Drop a 🔥 if you’re ready. by @clayton_pulsipher

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8 months ago

This is what my home office looks like most days.

Ask any of my coworkers—Kai is very present on most of my calls. Sometimes all you can see in the camera frame is his foot poking up.

12/10 would recommend him as a colleague. by @clayton_pulsipher

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6 months ago

A layoff pulls the rug out. No warning, no timeline, no clear next step.

Everything evaporates at once—income, direction, your sense of stability.

But so do the boundaries that were keeping you in a single lane. And in that wide open, uncomfortable space, something unexpected tends to happen.

You start to hear yourself think again. The title is gone, the context is gone, and what’s left is just you—and the skills and instincts you’ve been building your whole career.

Most people never get that kind of forced pause. It’s disorienting and clarifying all at once. by @clayton_pulsipher

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6 months ago

I was laid off a few years ago.

It starts with a sudden message: “Are you available to talk?” Then you log on and learn it’s your last week. And somehow, it has absolutely nothing to do with you.

All the boundaries of my personal life evaporated instantly. No income, no clear path forward, a whole lot of uncertainty. It’s a disorienting, destabilizing feeling. And it doesn’t go away quickly.

But something else happened, too—something I didn’t expect.

My professional boundaries evaporated along with everything else. With no title or job to lock me into a single lane, I was able to step back and look at my work for what it really was. And in that boundary-less space, something clicked.

I saw myself more clearly because the context that had been defining me was gone.

I realized I’d been doing the work of a product manager for years without the title. And I was good at it because it played to something more foundational than any role I’d held.

Puzzle piecing.
Getting to the root of a problem.
Connecting dots and simplifying until everyone’s on the same page.

Those skills don’t live on your resume, they live inside you. And they’ll show you the way forward more reliably than any job title ever could.

Getting laid off didn’t erase your value, but it probably erased your story—which makes right now the perfect time to rewrite it yourself.

That’s exactly what How You Work was built for. Grab yours at the link in my bio. by @clayton_pulsipher

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6 months ago

We’ve been working for years, we’ve done real things, and we still either freeze or ramble on.

No, we’re not crazy (at least in this instance). It’s not our fault, either—the system likes to just keep us moving with our heads down.

Some of the skills I value and hold closest have nothing to do with titles. I’m a puzzle piecer, an instigator, an includer. I ask questions to get to the root of a problem rather than accept an assignment at face value.

Those statements mean more than any resume bullet. They provide a clear lens and firm ground to stand on when talking about what I’ve done.

What are some of your skills—your actual skills? by @clayton_pulsipher

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6 months ago

A while back, I applied for a job I didn’t get. But something happened in the process that I haven’t stopped thinking about.

The role was a stretch—different industry, different direction—so my usual resume wasn’t going to work. Too much context wouldn’t translate, too much industry-specific language wouldn’t land. So I rebuilt my narrative around patterns in how I think, what I’m drawn to, and how I create value regardless of context.

For weeks after, I kept going back and reading that application—not because it was a great resume, but because it was the clearest description of me I’d ever put into words.

Most of us are so busy doing the work that we never stop to look at how we work. We accumulate years of real experience and somehow never develop language for what any of it actually means. There are tools that label your strengths—StrengthsFinder, Myers-Briggs—but none that help you build your own language for who you are as a professional, grounded in your real experiences, in your own words.

So I built one.

When I tried it, mine came back with a 2.5 page document that described me well, including this: “I naturally strip away complexity and noise until the real shape of the problem becomes clear—and then I help people see it too.”

That’s my WorkPrint. And I want to help you build yours—because you know you’re good, you just don’t have the words for it yet.

First 100 copies are $19. You get a PDF toolkit, companion workspace doc, and a bonus guide for making the most out of your AI conversations.

Link in bio. by @clayton_pulsipher

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7 months ago

Life moves in chapters.

The old way of “picking a career” when you’re young, going to college, and then leaning into it simply doesn’t work anymore.

With the pace of today, it’s incredibly difficult to predict what you’ll want in later chapters of life. It’s even more difficult to know what you want until you’ve sampled a few things. And it’s even MORE difficult to fully understand what you’ll need with respect to the rest of your life while you’re still building things like family, relationships, etc.

And what’s easy in the rush of today? Getting stuck on autopilot. Putting our heads down and grinding without thinking intentionally about how work is serving our greater life.

We either pick something and then walk toward it, or we take what we can get and just keep moving. And along the way? We burn out. We lose touch with ourselves. Other areas of life suffer.

I’ve been there. I know you have, too.

It was the pandemic that first forced me to pause. And in that, I realized I’d spent years moving through a career goal I set in high school, and that career wasn’t serving the adult human I’d become.

Fast forward six years, and I’m in an entirely different industry—but that’s not the real unlock.

From teaching to tech, I haven’t just improved my resume.

I’ve drawn a line through my winding career.
I’ve uncovered the invisible skills hidden beneath my contributions.
I’ve learned to articulate my value in basic, human ways—without jargon.
I’ve evolved my sense of worth as a professional.
I’ve defined how I want work to serve me and taken intentional steps to make it so.

In all that, I’ve found a deeper sense of professional confidence. I’ve built a different kind of self-trust.

And I want to help you do the same.

Life moves in chapters. Let’s make the next chapter of your career your best, clearest one yet.

Because there’s never a bad time to pause and reflect on your relationship with work and how it serves your greater life.

🎵 Are you ready for it? by @clayton_pulsipher

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8 months ago

Autopilot can be sneaky.

Most of the time, we look and feel perfectly functional. Everything is “fine.”

We barely even notice we’re not actively choosing our lives.

Today’s world is designed to keep us busy and distracted. But we can interrupt it and push back. We just have to pause, take time to notice, and then reclaim our choice.

Here’s to living with intention. by @clayton_pulsipher

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8 months ago

It’s the paradox of the world today.

We can learn a language, start a business, or “optimize our lives” in ways our grandparents couldn’t have even dreamt of.

But how many times do we finish the day wondering what actually happened?

The world is loud, fast, and endlessly distracting—an entire system designed to keep us on autopilot because that’s how it runs smoothly.

Say it louder for people in the back: you’re not broken. You’re just overwhelmed.

Ignoring the noise and focusing on ourselves is the first step. It helps us notice what’s important so we can actually choose where to put our attention.

Don’t keep moving just for the sake of moving. Pause and check in—are you moving in the right direction? by @clayton_pulsipher

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8 months ago

Today’s world is a literal paradox.

Everything is on the Internet—information, tools, opportunities. You could start a business, learn a language, or “fix your life” in a weekend. All you need is a phone.

And yet we often finish the day wondering where it went. It was full, but with what?

The world is louder than it is meaningful. And most of it is nonsense we’ve been conscripted into taking seriously.

If you’re overwhelmed, you’re not broken. You’re just feeling the effects of living in systems that give you everything but distract you from actually using it.

They’re designed to keep us on autopilot.
And that’s something we have to pause and intentionally interrupt.

So take a beat to look up.
Notice the difference between “feeling fine” and “being here.”
One is drifting, the other is living.

Once you do, the noise starts to fade, and the real stuff—what actually matters—starts to shine through. Then those “20 ways to optimize your morning routine” you read about might actually be useful. by @clayton_pulsipher

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8 months ago

I had a bit of a realization this morning when deciding what to post.

It’s Friday.
It’s been a long, full, genuinely good week.
And now, I’m just ready to get through the day so I can slide into the weekend.

There are two ways to handle days like today:

- Put your head down and power through.
- Consciously acknowledge, “This is a get-through-it day.”

One numbs you and keeps you moving on autopilot.
The other helps you listen so you move with intention.

The world pushes the first one. But we don’t have to keep pretending it’s healthy to ignore ourselves in pursuit of “getting it all done” so we can “rest afterward.”

Just wanting to get through a day is perfectly normal. If that’s where you’re at, great.

Pause.

Take a moment to name it, then pay attention to your body and mind. You three can get through it together better than you can alone.

We talk a lot about “surviving” or “thriving.” Let’s normalize living. by @clayton_pulsipher

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9 months ago

I’m not here to motivate you.

I’m here to interrupt the idea that you’re supposed to be fine with everything.

The pace.
The noise.
The quiet pressure to keep adapting without ever asking if this is reasonable.

(Spoiler alert: it’s not.)

Today’s world is louder than it is meaningful.
That doesn’t mean you’re the problem.

One of the boldest things we can do is admit we’ve been stuck in some sort of weird time loop since the pandemic—running on a hamster wheel.

So look up.
Not for answers—just to orient yourself.

Because sometimes the first step to personal clarity is noticing what you’ve been tolerating. by @clayton_pulsipher

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9 months ago