Professional
What's Next for You?
Whether you're stepping into leadership, making a career pivot, or discovering work that's more aligned with who you are today.
Professional Journey
Creative Professionals • Mid-Career • Leaders
You may be doing good work and still know you are capable of more.
Perhaps you want a more creatively ambitious agency, brand, company, or team; stronger leadership; better clients; more responsibility; or work you are more excited to put your name on.
Your Career Compass helps you explore what a meaningful step up could look like and strengthen your positioning, relationships, and strategy before you urgently need to make a move.
Build a Career That Reflects Who You Are Today
You may be actively pursuing your next role, considering a transition, or simply thinking more intentionally about your future.
Wherever you are starting, Your Career Compass helps you understand what you want next, communicate the value you bring, explore stronger opportunities, and remain ready when the right one appears.
How We Help
Define what a meaningful next step looks like for you
Explore more creatively ambitious agencies, brands, roles, and environments
Clarify and communicate what differentiates you
Strengthen your professional story, visibility, and positioning
Build and maintain your network before you urgently need it
Prepare for leadership opportunities, interviews, and salary conversations
Navigate career transitions and changing industry expectations
Stay ready for opportunities now and in the future
Ready to Be More Intentional About What Comes Next?
Whether you are actively looking or simply preparing for future opportunities, there is a way to begin.
Compass Membership
An ongoing place to work intentionally on your career even when you are not actively searching.
Inside Compass, you’ll find the MAP framework, live workshops, Office Hours, Career Guide conversations and interviews, community, tools, and resources to help you stay clear, connected, and ready.
1:1 Coaching with Sam
Personalized support for a specific career decision, transition, leadership goal, search, or professional challenge.
Together, we’ll focus on your direction, positioning, relationships, materials, and strategy.
Your Questions Answered
I’ve been doing this for years. Do I really need coaching?
Experience does not always make the next decision easier. Senior professionals often have the most to lose by making the wrong move—and the least objective support for figuring out what comes next.
Coaching gives you a confidential place to step back, challenge your assumptions, and make a more intentional decision.
What if I’m not sure I want to leave my current role?
You don’t have to be.
Plenty of clients work with me to determine whether to stay, leave, pivot, or wait. Sometimes the answer is a new role. Sometimes it is changing how you approach the role you already have.
Clarity comes first. The decision comes second.
Is this for in-house professionals, agency professionals, or both?
Both.
The framework applies whether you are navigating agency life, an in-house role, freelance work, or the possibility of going independent. The vocabulary may shift, but the underlying work is the same: understanding what you want, recognizing what you bring, exploring your options, and deciding how to move forward.
What’s the difference between Compass and 1:1 coaching?
Compass is community-based. It includes live workshops, group Office Hours, Q&A with me, and a practical resource library.
1:1 coaching is private. It is just you and me, working through your specific situation, goals, decisions, and next moves.
Both use the MAP framework. The difference is the format, level of personalization, and depth—not the quality of the insight.
What if I’ve already been through several career transitions?
Then you have valuable information to work with.
Past transitions become data: what worked, what did not, what you have outgrown, what you keep returning to, and which environments have brought out your best.
We use those patterns to make your next move more intentional.
Meet Your Coach
Hi, I’m Sam — an ICF Certified Coach (ACC), trained through Brown University’s ACT program and a former recruiter in advertising, marketing, branding, and design.
I help professionals move forward in thoughtful, strategic ways grounding emotional clarity in tangible next steps.
I’ve supported creative people in career transitions for over 25 years as both a coach and a recruiter.
I help people move forward in thoughtful, strategic ways.
My Clients have worked at agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, Mother, BBDO, Droga5, Ogilvy and Landor as well as companies including Apple, Google, Lyft, CAA, and Brooks Running.
From a place of heart, the Next Chapter Lab is a space to drop your shoulders, be met where you are at and build a plan for what’s next.
Kind words from clients
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"Sam and I met back when I was recruiting for an agency and she was an external headhunter. I instantly connected with her because she was genuine, a great listener, had great taste and always supplied candidates that were a great fit. Sam was never trying to "make the placement", she was genuinely interested in the needs of the agency and also the career trajectory of the candidate. That was her sweet spot and what makes her so good at her job - truly helping the candidate figure out what their best career move is and then helping them land it. Sam is incredibly connected and has excellent judgment in helping people determine their superpower and position their skills to land their dream job. I trust Sam's taste, advice and heart.” implicitly."
Amy Starkman Global Talent Operations Director at Wieden + Kennedy
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"I love Sam because I trust Sam. She has always picked up the phone when I call, and she always tells me the truth but in a way that we both end up laughing together. At every pivotal moment, transition, move, promotion in my career I've had Sam in my ear, brain and heart.”
Tim Roan - Former Chief Creative Officer, McGarrah Jessee
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“Sam found my book in the most unorthodox of ways. She recognized potential and talent in me as a junior creative coming from a smaller shop with not a ton of produced work that really felt representative of my capabilities as a creative copywriter. Not only did Sam help me land two job offers in a tough industry to break into, but she became my go-to when I needed career advice over the years. Though it wasn't her official job at the time, Sam was a personal career coach to me as I received other offers and worked out how to navigate the advertising industry as a whole. Unlike many recruiters I'd worked with, I never felt that Sam's advice was self-serving. She nudged me in the direction that she knew would be best for me, not the one that would land her a bigger bonus check. We'd all be lucky to have someone looking out for us as much as Sam looks out for her creatives.” Hallie Cain Associate Creative Director / Copy at BBDO New York
Hallie Cain Associate Creative Director / Copy at BBDO New York
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After struggling to find answers to justify career choices, I started working with Sam. Thanks to her attentive listening skills, I heard through my noise and began to listen to myself — not an easy task. This is a discovery and in my opinion, is a worthwhile process for clarity. The insights earned have enabled me to make intentional choices that align with my creative vision, even if that means staying the course.New List Item
—Flavio Arnizant de Zorzi Award-Winning AD | Former Droga5 and Mother CreativeDescription goes here
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I had the privilege of working with Sam through a time of big cross roads in my life. Personal and professional were colliding in a way I had never experienced before. Her kindness coupled with the engaging and thoughtful work we did together really helped me to through. Discovering how interictal my core values and balance would be in this next chapter has been a game changer. I highly recommend working with Sam if you're looking to unlock and grow in your journey.
— Samantha Yeager Director of Retail Supply Chain at SoulCycle Inc.
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Sam's career coaching has been incredibly helpful and insightful as I've been navigating the next chapter in my career. But most importantly, her expertise and genuine interest in helping her students really shines through. You become a part of a community, as well, where there's a real sense of a collective support system. I'd highly recommend YourCareerCompass for anyone wanting to either take the next step in their career or pivot into another profession.
Nick Choremi Freelance Associate Creative Director (Art) | Ex. R/GA, BBDO, TBWA