Time to read: 9 minutes
In this newsletter, you will find three topics:
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The Rules Have Changed
- A Quick Pause If This Feels Familiar
- Speed Is the New Skill & How I Coded an AI Tool Without Being A Techie
Hi {{first_name | default: 'there'}}, welcome to 2026!
I hope you had a fab start in the new year and you could enjoy some time off with your beloved ones in the past weeks.
I want to tell you some end-of-the-year stories that I personally experienced in December. And honestly, they aren't as bright as Christmas decorations.
Here in ZĂĽrich, I have noticed in almost every conversation lately: a quiet unease about what comes next.
The Rules Have Changed
Reorganizations. AI transformation. Skills become obsolete overnight.
Just during the last working week before Christmas, I spoke to five senior professionals.
All of them were successful. All of them experienced. And all of them are facing the same challenge: figuring out what comes next in a world that looks completely different than it did two years ago.
These are not people who lack expertise. They have spent years building their careers, becoming the go-to person in their field. Very often, in the same company for over a decade or two.
But suddenly, they are looking for their next careeer move, out on a market, where one new job on LinkedIn gets 400+ applications per day.
They know, the traditional send-CV-and-wait-to-be-called approach doesn’t work. So they ask me, where do I even start?
The challenge is not just finding a new role.
It is figuring out how to position years of experience for a changing market. It is the fear of starting over after building so much. It is the uncertainty about which skills will actually matter going forward.
I see these patterns everywhere. In the ZĂĽrich area. In conversations with leaders across Europe.
A Quick Pause, If This Feels Familiar
If you are reading this and thinking this sounds uncomfortably close to home, you are not alone.
This is exactly the moment when most people pause, gather more information, and tell themselves they will act later.
What I see again and again is that the ones who move forward are not the ones with more certainty. They are the ones who decide before the window closes.
I am currently running the STAR Career Transition Program with a very small group of senior professionals.
It is an eight-week, highly structured process where we clarify direction, sharpen positioning, and turn uncertainty into concrete next steps — without rushing into the wrong move.
This cycle is intentionally limited to four one-to-one clients.
Who lost their jobs or feel like things are about to change.
Right now, there are two spots left.
If you are in a phase where waiting feels safer, but staying still feels expensive, this might be a useful moment to look more closely.
And if you have tried everything alone, and nothing is working, it's definitely a good moment to look more closely too.
A simple way to start is the free STAR Career Readiness Assessment. It gives you a first picture of how ready you really are for a transition, across mindset, skills, and market positioning, before you decide anything else.
You can take the assessment, sit with the results, and then choose your next step consciously. No pressure. Just clarity.
Speed Is The New Skill & How I Built a Tech Tool Without Being Technical
So if the old rules no longer apply, what does?
One word: speed.
Not rushing or cutting corners. Speed as in moving from idea to action without getting stuck in endless planning. Testing quickly, learning, adapting.
This is a mindset shift. We were trained to be thorough. To perfect before we ship. But in a world where skills become outdated in months, that approach can hold us back.
Here is the good news: the tools available today make this kind of agility more accessible than ever. You do not need a technical team or a big budget to test an idea. You just need curiosity.
Let me show you what I mean.
When I started thinking about launching a coaching program for people in a career transition, I knew I needed an assessment tool.
Exactly the one, I mentioned above. 👆🏻
I needed an easy and powerful assessment tool to help my clients find their first steps.
In the past, I would have either hired a developer or set up separate steps for questions, assessment, communication and follow-ups. Both options meant either spending money and waiting days, or spending a lot of time on something, that isn’t my core competence, and hoping the end result matched what I had in mind.
Instead, I partnered with AI. Using Replit and plain English as my coding language.
Here is how it worked step by step:
→ First, I got clear on the concept.
I wanted an assessment that measures transition readiness across three dimensions: mindset, skills, and market positioning. Simple, no big effort from someone who fills it out. I wrote this out in simple terms, no technical language needed.
→ Then, I uploaded a file with all my questions, answer options, and scoring categories. I put in pieces from my coaching expertise, now in a format AI could work with. Again, simple, easy to digest.
→ Next came the collaboration. I guided the logic and user experience. How should the questions flow? What should the results look like? I wanted the output branded to The Change Republic. I even set up email sending through Zapier, and got step-by-step support on which user would receive which type of email based on their results. AI handled the actual coding and design. We went back and forth, refining as we went.
The result? A working assessment tool that I built in under 2 hours, not days. Something I genuinely could not have created alone and maintain so simply. But also something that would not exist without my expertise.
By the way, 20+ people tried it and contacted me for a follow-up discussion in the first weeks. Want to give it a try?
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about human-AI collaboration.
It is not about replacing what you know. It is about amplifying it.
What have you built lately that surprised you?
Did you miss our last newsletters?
Inboxes can get a little crazy, right? Just in case you missed them, here are the links to our previous newsletters:
- Newsletter #23: I’m sharing how AI racing ahead of us exposes what we still can’t define: meaning, maturity, and what truly makes us human. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #22: I’m sharing how I built my TEDx talk with AI and what it taught me about collaboration that no research paper ever could. →
- Newsletter #21: I'm showing the messy middle beats chasing perfection—and why AI can’t replace the human moments that make growth real. Insights, stories, and tools for leaders navigating change. →
Thanks for reading. Just drop a quick reply if you have any feedback.
Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
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