The biggest driver of your professional success
- Tosca DiMatteo
- May 8
- 5 min read
The model of career advancement that I was raised in was about harnessing the skills needed to get the job done. Gain the skills, show the results, get to the next level. This model still exists today, and the other thing that exists is the walls that you will hit if you put all of your energy into this one-dimensional approach to career management. Even if you make it all the way to C-suite.
The biggest, most profound uplevel in your career; be that with regards to your fulfillment, satisfaction, financial success or effectiveness will come when you focus first and foremost on your personal growth.
Maybe you’ve heard me say that the work I do is at the intersection of personal growth and professional breakthroughs, in fact I have a whole podcast episode on it. Today I wanted to bring to life what I mean by this through some other examples.
Over the years I have coached several entrepreneurs in their goal to take their business to the next level. One of the major themes that holds them back from stronger financial success is holding onto the types of clients they have outgrown. If you work for a company, this translates into overstaying either your company, or a particular role for too long. Continuing with the entrepreneurial example, there is usually an emotional attachment to the client or the work itself that prevents the business owner from playing in new lanes - which means taking on different types of clients / projects or even ending work with existing clients.
While the business owner may understand logically it would be in their best interest to seek clients that are more aligned with the work (and the rates) they want to charge, it’s the personal growth work that’s required for them to actually change their actions. This personal growth requires shifting the narratives they are telling themselves about what’s possible to attract the kind of clients they want now. It also requires work to value themselves, their time and their expertise. Most importantly, the work requires processing old emotions and situations so that the patterns can be broken not just in this moment, but long into the future.
As one such example, one of my clients (let’s call her Tammy) had to go on a personal growth journey of understanding what was driving her decisions to continue to say yes to work that she didn’t want to do. This included understanding the motivations behind her scarcity inner critic. It also meant she had to lean on trust (in all senses of the word) that she would be able to find clients that would hire her for the kinds of problems she actually wanted to solve. This led to her building the courage to turn down work that she no longer wanted to do - even though she wanted the income. The result? Within a matter of weeks she ended up getting clients that excited her, and within months she attracted so much business she had to hire help in order to accommodate. This was a huge change from the empty client pipeline when we first started working together. I’ve been doing this work long enough to know this is not by chance or by luck.
Personal growth leads to all kinds of professional breakthroughs every. single. time.
Another client of mine, let's call her Roberta, was struggling with overwhelm at work to the point where she agreed to make herself available to her company while on vacation. This didn't align with how she wanted to live her life, or what she needed - which was time to truly disconnect from work so that she could reset. (sound familiar!?) Even though she knew what she needed (time off) her inner narrative was keeping her from taking the actions she desired. Her personal growth work was to investigate what her values where, what she believed was true about holding boundaries, and in this process started to see where her narrative came from. Before it was time for vacation she had a different conversation with her manager, and shared that everything was in place and there was nothing the team couldn't handle without her. She felt empowered because she was in alignment with herself, and took a vacation that allowed her to truly reset and came back to work a more refreshed employee. By the way, if this conversation is striking a chord - check out this podcast episode: Ep. 1 Boundaries Will Change Your Life.
My clients aren't the only source of proof points; the past decade of my life has been one big example of professional breakthroughs that happened because of my personal growth work. I shared one story about this in my 5 min talk; Born Different, Built Strong. How I Reclaimed My Power. This is the story I told as a finalist in the storytelling competition that I’ve been talking about since the beginning of the year. Now you finally get to see how it all netted out, and also deepen your understanding of what I mean by personal growth leads to professional breakthroughs.
When we level up how we show up, we expand what’s possible. Doing this involves rewriting our narratives and redefining our needs, because we live the stories we tell ourselves, and we take actions on our needs.
No skill set, no completed to-do list, and no title achieved is more powerful than shifting these two things. Personal growth opens way bigger doors than any certificate of achievement ever will.
Catch up with the latest episodes of The Unlock Lab:
Ep. 55 Inner Critic Series: Networking Sucks
Ep. 54 Lead So That People Love To Follow. An Interview with Brian Rollo.
Ep. 53 What to do when it doesn’t work out
In Other News
I'm so excited to tell you that I did my first photoshoot since 2019 this month (April, 2025). It’s part of my own personal branding effort and will show up on my new website (launching soon). Personal branding is one of the things I love to support folks with and as someone in my circle, I’m excited to give you a heads up about my evolution. I started to share in this recent reintroduction on LinkedIn - because that's what managing our own brand requires sometimes!
If you’ve been wanting to dust off your personal brand but aren’t sure where to start then reach out, I’d be happy to help you with that immediate next step.
Until next time…
Cheers to the climb,
Tosca DiMatteo
