For people who thought they'd have it figured out by now.
Get the free Oh Shit Kit ↗No secret handshake. No performative networking. A bunch of people in the messy middle, sharing what worked, what didn’t, and what they wish someone had told them.
The mistakes, checklists, and decisions we wish someone had handed us sooner.
Open the free kit ↗Dear Shitshow is where we tackle the complicated decisions nobody puts in their LinkedIn announcement.
Ask Dear Shitshow ↗What happened? What helped? What did you spend too much on? Your experience might save somebody a very expensive Tuesday.
Here’s the deal: you can take the tools without joining anything. You can also share a lesson or send a question. For now, this is an editorial club—not a forum or a member-matching service. No story goes public without review and explicit permission.
Because “you've got this!” is not a business plan. Five starter tools for the moment when everything feels wonderfully, terrifyingly up for grabs.
Free. No email hostage situation. No surprise mastermind invitation.
Open a kit, check off what you've done, and print your own survival sheet. These are practical prompts informed by what we're learning, not a guarantee that everything works out.
Maybe you should leave. Maybe not yet. Before making a big move, ask yourself some very unromantic questions.
If your change wasn't voluntary, skip the guilt trip. Start with practical stabilization and the first choice you can control.
These are starter rules of thumb, not a claim about purchases Mel and Francesca personally made. We’ll add specific receipts when we can verify them.
Not what your last employer paid you. Not what a stranger on LinkedIn claims to charge. Start with four real inputs:
A price is a hypothesis until someone agrees to pay it. Get professional tax and legal guidance where appropriate.
You bring the situation. We bring two opinions, decades of experience, and potentially conflicting advice.
FIVE OPEN LETTERS / EDITORIAL STARTERS — NOT READER SUBMISSIONS
We’re collecting the dilemmas people actually wrestle with. Here are five we want to tackle first. Mel + Francesca’s answers are coming; the questions below are hypothetical, not submitted letters.
Money can give you options. It can also make change feel impossible.
Get the answers when they land ↗Expertise and self-promotion are two different muscles.
Get the answers when they land ↗You deserve room to grieve and room to experiment.
Get the answers when they land ↗Chemistry is not a substitute for agreements.
Get the answers when they land ↗Changing your mind is allowed. So is making the math work.
Get the answers when they land ↗Wondering whether to quit? Pricing an idea? Thinking about going back to corporate? Tell us what you're wrestling with.
Different beginnings. Plenty of shared lessons. Real-life detours, questionable decisions, and things worth passing on.
Pick the one that sounds familiar. We’ll show you what others tried, learned, and wish they’d known. No personal disclosure required.
Or skip the labels and browse everything below. Nobody's grading you.
“I left a job where I managed a team of 30. I now spend Tuesdays troubleshooting a printer.”
WHAT HELPEDBuying less software, talking to three real customers, and discovering that asking for help is not a moral failure.
“Twenty-three years at the company. One reorganization. My calendar was suddenly empty.”
WHAT HELPEDWriting down essential expenses first. Giving myself permission not to have a five-year plan in week one.
“I’m great at my job. I just don’t want to do it for another 20 years.”
WHAT HELPEDStopping the hunt for one big passion and trying three tiny experiments before deciding anything permanent.
“I rehearsed my resignation speech for weeks. I had no script for the next morning.”
WHAT HELPEDA weekly routine, honest conversations about money, and one friend who didn’t turn every coffee into networking.
“Everyone loved my idea. Unfortunately, enthusiasm does not pay invoices.”
WHAT HELPEDAsking what somebody would buy instead of asking whether they liked the concept. Painfully different questions.
“I started a business and discovered that, against all odds, I miss having a boss.”
WHAT HELPEDTreating a return to employment as new information, not a personal failure. Also: admitting I missed coworkers.
No matching stories. A rare moment of clarity. Try another filter.
These are fictional examples showing how the exchange could work—not member testimonials. When real stories are invited, we’ll review them and ask permission before sharing anything publicly.
Then we became beginners again. How exciting. How rude.
We're Mel and Francesca. We spent years in corporate jobs, left to build Your Work Friends, and found out that being great at your old job doesn't come with instructions for starting something new.
We made this club because it turns out there's a whole lot of us in the messy middle. We're putting the things we learned the hard way in one place, alongside the lessons other people want to pass on. You don't have to be an entrepreneur. You don't need an inspiring ending. You can just be here.
Meet Your Work Friends ↗No tip jar. No paid membership. No merch (yet—we love good swag). If this place helps, the best thing you can do is send it to somebody who could use it. That's how the club gets bigger.
Get the best advice, honest stories, useful tools, and occasional existential crisis in your inbox. Every other week. Free. No motivational mountain quotes.
Tell us the honest version. Your story does not need a happy ending, and your lesson can be “still figuring that part out.” This is a demo: submissions are saved only to your current browser, not sent to Mel or Francesca.