Why subscribe?

You’ve worked hard to build your career.

From the outside, it probably looks successful.

But lately you’ve found yourself asking questions that don’t have simple answers.

• Is this really what I want?

• Why does success feel different than I expected?

• If I don’t want to keep climbing, what else is there?

• Am I burned out, or have I simply outgrown this version of my career?

Most career advice assumes your next move is obvious.

• Get promoted.

• Find another job.

• Update your résumé.

• Network harder.

Those can all be useful. But they’re answers to a much smaller question than the one you’re asking. The real question is, “What kind of career am I building?”

What you’ll get

One issue every Thursday at 12pm ET.

That’s where this newsletter begins. I believe too many talented women make career decisions from the passenger seat.

They react to circumstances, expectations, fear, burnout, or opportunities that happen to appear. Over time, it starts to feel like someone else is driving.

My work is about helping you get back behind the wheel. That doesn’t mean every decision is easy.

Some roads are constrained by finances, caregiving, health, workplace realities, or timing. But even when the road feels rigged, you still have more agency than you think.

Together we’ll look for the third, fourth, and fifth option, not just “climb” or “quit.” We’ll think through tradeoffs instead of pretending every opportunity is equally good. We’ll question assumptions about success instead of accepting them as fixed.

We’ll build a career that fits your life rather than forcing your life to fit your career.

My background spans leadership, coaching, organizational strategy, and helping professionals make thoughtful decisions about complex career challenges. More than tactics, I’m interested in how people make choices, what keeps them stuck, and how they can build careers that remain sustainable over decades.

If you stay here long enough, I hope you’ll notice something changing.

• You’ll start seeing possibilities where you once saw dead ends.

• You’ll make decisions instead of waiting for circumstances to decide for you.

• You’ll stop asking permission to design a career that reflects your life.

You’ll remember something that’s easy to forget:

• Your career belongs to you.

• There’s more than one way to build a meaningful career.

We’ll leave no stone unturned until you find yours. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives and two free tools in the Resource Library. The Unscripted Career is sent out every Thursday at 12pm ET.

Who am I?

My career hasn’t followed a straight line, and neither has my life.

I’m Meris E. Stone, founder of No Stone Unturned Consulting, an ICF-certified coach (ACC), and a PMP-certified project manager. Over the past 15+ years, I’ve worked across international development, global health, DEI, and social impact/CSR in 11 countries.

In 2019, I left a job that no longer fit without another one lined up. I spent months making a deliberate pivot from international development into corporate responsibility. It wasn’t quick or easy, but it was worth it.

Two years later, I was laid off.

Instead of rushing into the next job, I built a different plan. I sublet my apartment, figured out how to import my dog, bought a one-way ticket to Mexico City to study Spanish, and started my job search from there.

Three weeks later, I met my husband and the plan changed.

That’s the thing about plans. They’re meant to adapt when life gives you new information.

I got married at 40. I became a mom at 42. And those experiences only strengthened what I’d already come to believe: there isn’t one right timeline for building a meaningful life or career.

I’ve spent my career looking for options most people overlook instead of accepting the choices everyone assumes are the only ones. I start with the realities of the situation, question the assumptions, and then look for room to experiment.

In coaching, I believe in structure first, then we play. We work with the realities and constraints you have. Challenge the assumptions that don't belong there. Then explore the options most people never consider.

That’s the approach I bring to every client I work with.

Because there are almost always more options than “climb or quit.”

Free vs. paid

The Unscripted Career is free. Every issue, in full, is released on Thursdays at 12pm ET. That part doesn’t change.

• Paid subscribers receive full access to the Resource Library: the worksheets and exercises I use with 1:1 clients, with new material added every month. Plus member pricing on The Sandbox Session, my 1-hour coaching session.

• Cornerstone founding members receive a free Sandbox Session and gets you first seats and member pricing on every workshop and cohort I run.

Paid and Cornerstone subscribers are the reason I can spend the hours this takes.

If you want to work directly with me, I offer:

• 1:1 coaching (nostoneunturnedconsult.com) and

• run a six-week group coaching program, The Transition Lab for women of color (thetransitionalab.lovable.app).

If you’d like to learn more about working with me, schedule a free 30-minute discovery call.