"Professional Pam" and Real Pam

I spent many years trying to toe the line between the “Professional Pam" persona and the “Real Pam”.

Exhausting. Impossible. Inauthentic.

Professional Pam:
- Boring suit ✓
- Corporate speak ✓
- Serious all the time ✓
- No personality ✓

Real Pam:
- Wears sequins to client workshops
- Smiles a lot, celebrates her team, and makes jokes in steering committees - sometimes
- Navigates lunch menus like a detective (coeliac life)
- Still her parents' little girl at nearly 40 😅

Here's what I realised: The constant performance is what burns us out.

Not the long hours. Not the travel. Not the challenging conversations, nor the ’difficult’ projects.

It’s the constant persona and code-switching. The pretending. The leaving yourself at home.

Now? I make real efforts to bring all of me, the Real Pam, to my role. And you know what? It works better.


Clients need humans who solve problems collaboratively, not humans who act like corporate robots performing professionalism.

And consultants need to stay human, or we burn out before we can help anyone.

Do you show up to work as yourself? Or some alter-ego that you think others expect?