HeyJaredCarol’s Substack
I've spent over 30-years listening to what people don't say. This newsletter is for leaders who have everything - and still feel something down't fit.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 15
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
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- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
The Half Second Before You Speak (opens the original)
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She was the most accomplished person in the circle. I knew her résumé before I knew her face, and so did everyone else in the room.When it was her turn to speak, something happened before a single word came out. Her jaw tightened. Her eyes went somewhere up and to the left, as if the answer might be written on the ceiling. Then she said, very quietly, “I feel really pressured to say something, and I’m not sure what it is.”Carol’s Substack is a reader-supported
Calling the Shots (opens the original)
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My mother had a way of looking at me that told me the verdict before she said a word. Not enough. Not quite. Try again.I don’t think I ever stopped hearing it, even after I grew up and she wasn’t in the room anymore. I just started saying it to myself instead — faster than she ever could, and with less mercy.Carol’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<form class="sub
Take the Number Off the Wall (opens the original)
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Last night I pulled up my Substack stats. Filtered every box, downloaded the CSV, the whole ritual someone taught me to do for when you’re feeling left behind on this platform.83 subscribers. Like a verdict in front of my eyes, full display, on a spreadsheet.I know what 83 is supposed to mean. Small. Slow. Proof the last few weeks of Notes and cross-posting didn’t work the way I hoped they would. I sat with the number longer than I needed to, doing the math on what a “real” platform is supposed
The Twenty-Four Year Practice. (opens the original)
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Paul takes the class with me. Twenty-four years together, twenty married.At home, we’re not guarded. We can be messy. The protection devices I might reach for with anyone else don’t show up between us. In class, when we land across from each other, something passes — a glance, a beat of recognition. The room notices before we say a word.Carol’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscrib
Take Off the Armor (opens the original)
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I’ve been taking an improv class for a while now — not for a stage, just because it keeps growing something in me. Every week it asks me to show up without knowing what happens next.Here’s what I scribbled on a notepad mid-class:Take off the armor.Change your tone. Add a pause. Play with pacing.Watch what happens to your nervous system when you do.Most of us default to careful — clever, correct, composed — because unfiltered felt dangerous once. So we perform steadiness instead of feeling it.Und
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