We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

What Corporate America Gets Wrong About Career Development:
Most companies treat career development like something you have to earn instead of something every employee deserves. You see those “Grow with us” slogans everywhere, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find growth comes with strings attached—you have to be a top performer first, prove yourself worthy, or follow one specific path they’ve laid out. That’s not development. That’s putting up barriers.

Career development should happen before problems arise, not after. But here’s what actually happens: companies wait until someone’s burned out, handed in their resignation, or is pounding on their manager’s door demanding a promotion before anyone talks about career paths. We’ve got it completely backwards.

Here’s a story that shows what I mean: I was working with a company where employees were hungry for growth, but their managers had no clue how to talk about careers. One woman told me, “I have no idea what’s next for me here, and nobody’s helping me figure it out.” She was gone within the month. Once we taught those managers how to have real conversations—asking the right questions, helping people build their own career plans—everything changed. Engagement went through the roof. And here’s the best part: people stopped sitting around waiting for someone to give them permission to grow.

Why this matters: When you tie development to how high someone sits on the org chart instead of treating them like a human being who wants to grow, you lose good people. You end up with a system where only the people who shout the loudest or know how to play the game get any support. Real career development starts with believing that everyone—no matter what level they’re at or what their title says—deserves the tools to take charge of their own growth. That’s the whole point of Own Your Career.

You can’t just offer a career ladder—you have to teach people how to climb it, and let them define where it leads.

Michelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Michelle King, the founder of Own Your Career, LLC, and I’ve spent over 15 years in Learning & Development, DEIB, and leadership strategy roles—both inside major global organizations and as a consultant across industries. I started my career in education and eventually moved into corporate leadership development, holding roles like Global Head of Enablement at SAP and leading transformative programs at companies like NetApp and SuccessFactors.

But here’s what drove me to start my own business: I kept seeing how many people were waiting. Waiting for someone to notice their potential. Waiting for a manager to give them a growth plan. Waiting for the “right” moment to invest in themselves. And I realized—corporate systems are not built to support individual career ownership. So I built a business that is.

At Own Your Career, we help companies and individuals transform how they approach career development, leadership, and people strategy. Our work includes:

Manager and leader development programs that prioritize coaching, psychological safety, and real-world application—not just slide decks.

Train-the-Trainer and Facilitator Certification programs that raise the bar for what high-impact facilitation looks like.

Strategic consulting and fractional L&D services for companies who need deep expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire.

Custom learning experiences and workshops on everything from inclusive leadership and conflict management to decision-making and feedback.

We work with high-growth companies, mission-driven organizations, and teams who are tired of transactional learning and ready for transformational change. Whether I’m designing a microlearning path for new managers, coaching a team through strategic planning, or using storytelling in eLearning to increase engagement, my focus is always the same: make development personal, practical, and powerful.

What sets us apart?
We don’t do off-the-shelf. Every solution is grounded in behavioral science, adult learning theory, and inclusive design. And because I’m also a doctoral student at ASU studying innovation in leadership and education, I bring both the research and the real-world experience. I’m constantly testing, refining, and improving how people learn, lead, and grow at work.

What I’m most proud of:
Watching people light up when they realize they have agency. Seeing teams finally have the hard conversations they’ve been avoiding. Hearing someone say, “This is the first time I feel seen in a training.” That’s what keeps me doing this work.

If you take away one thing about me and my brand, it’s this:
We don’t just help people move up—we help them move forward. On their terms. With intention. With support. And with the belief that your career isn’t something you wait around for—it’s something you own.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was this: If I just work hard and deliver great results, my career will naturally grow.
Like a lot of people, I bought into the idea that effort and excellence would speak for themselves. I thought if I kept my head down, proved my value, and outperformed expectations, I’d be rewarded with opportunities, promotions, and support.

But that wasn’t what happened.

I watched others—some less experienced, some less effective—get tapped for roles I wasn’t even considered for. I realized that being capable and being visible aren’t the same thing. And that career growth doesn’t just happen by accident. It happens by design.

That’s when I made a shift. I stopped waiting to be recognized and started getting curious: What does it actually take to move forward in your career—intentionally, sustainably, and on your own terms?

That question led me to build the tools I now teach through Own Your Career, LLC. I took what I learned the hard way—through trial, error, and burnout—and turned it into a framework that helps others skip the confusion and step into clarity. Because no one should feel stuck in a career that doesn’t see them, grow them, or reflect who they really are.

So I unlearned the myth of meritocracy. And in doing that, I built a business around helping others reclaim their agency too.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Most of my clients come through referrals, and I take that as the highest compliment. Whether it’s a leader I’ve coached, a company I’ve partnered with on learning strategy, or a former participant in one of my workshops—they’re the ones who tell others, “You need to work with Michelle.” That kind of word-of-mouth only happens when people feel seen, supported, and better equipped after our work together.

I’ve built Own Your Career, LLC on trust, real results, and a deep belief that development should feel both human and practical. So when someone refers me, it’s usually not because I ran a flashy campaign—it’s because something we did together made a lasting impact. And that’s exactly the kind of growth I want to keep building.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ownyourcareernow.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/own_yourcareer/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ownyourcareernow/