Author: Phyllis Reagin is an Executive and Leadership Coach, Leadership Psychology Expert, and founder of At the Coach’s Table. She supports leaders in the entertainment and media industry to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Your summer vacation is over. The emails are back. The meetings are back.
And yet…your motivation? Still somewhere sipping margaritas.
If you’re finding it hard to get back into rhythm after summer, you’re not alone.
Last week, my client Jade, a Marketing Director at a major streaming company, slumped into our session and said,
“I’m showing up. I’m in the meetings. But everything feels flat.”
Normally, Jade is the spark in the room — energized, quick-witted, thriving on bold campaigns. But after her summer break, she felt pressure to “get back to it” and came up empty. Her calendar was stuffed with draining tasks, leaving no space for the creative work that lights her up. And deep down, she sensed her priorities had shifted.
Here’s how Jade and I worked through it — and how you can reset without forcing fake energy:
1. Shift from pressure to curiosity
At first, Jade’s instinct was to scold herself: “Come on, just power through.” But pressure wasn’t giving her motivation back. It was making her feel heavier.
So I asked her to get curious instead. She asked herself:
- What exactly feels flat?
- What am I craving more of, and what do I need less of?
Almost immediately, she saw it wasn’t her that was broken, it was her environment. She was buried in spreadsheets when what she craved was collaboration and creativity. That insight took her from guilt to clarity.
2. Reconnect to what energizes you
When I asked Jade, “When do you feel most alive at work?” her answer was clear: “When I’m brainstorming campaigns, pitching ideas, and working side by side with my team.”
But since coming back, she had fallen into tasks that sidelined her strengths. So we redesigned her week:
- She blocked off two “no-meeting” windows for creative focus.
- She launched a team brainstorming session for an upcoming fall campaign.
By the next week, she told me, “I feel like myself again.” Her motivation didn’t come from trying harder. It came from doing more of what gave her energy.
3. Stop expecting it to feel the same
Jade also realized she was chasing an old version of motivation. Before summer, she ran on adrenaline from a high-stakes product launch. But now? That intensity didn’t fit anymore.
Once she let go of the idea that it had to feel the same, she found a steadier kind of drive, a focus on guiding her team and building long-term strategies.
Her words stuck with me: “Maybe I don’t need to get back to that frantic push. Maybe this season is about a deeper kind of motivation.”
If you’re feeling flat, it’s not because you’re lazy or losing your edge. Like Jade, you might just need a reset.
Try this today: Look at your calendar. Circle the tasks that drain you and the ones that energize you. Then make one small shift this week to bring more energy back into your day.
If Jade’s story resonates with you, you don’t have to power through alone. Sometimes what looks like “lost motivation” is really a signal that it’s time to reset, realign, and tap back into your zone of genius. That’s exactly the work I do with leaders in the entertainment industry and beyond.
I’m offering a free 60-minute strategy session where we’ll uncover what’s draining your energy, what truly fuels you, and how to reset your rhythm so you can lead with confidence again. Book your session here.
Meet Phyllis — A former entertainment exec turned high-impact coach. Phyllis is on a mission to help trailblazing leaders in Hollywood and beyond ditch self-doubt or Imposter Syndrome, use their strengths to make the biggest impact, and to start living from their own genius. She’s coached thousands of leaders and teams (from Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon MGM Studios, Google, Meta, Spotify, Atlantic Records, Paramount Global, and more) to lead with greater confidence, influence, and impact. If it boosts leadership impact and builds confident leaders, she’s on it! Read more about her here.