ABOUT THE METHOD

The WHOLE Method: a holistic career change strategy created by Laura Simms

I’m Laura Simms

You've already succeeded. You're good at what you do, but somewhere along the way "good at" and "made for" became two different things. The WHOLE Method is how you find a career that feels like home, with your income intact.

It's a career change process that holds strategy and soul in the same conversation. I built it for the person who can see all sides, carries real responsibilities, and can't afford to get this one wrong.

I created The WHOLE Method for mid- and late-career high performers who are done earning well at the wrong thing.

A six-figure professional isn’t figuring out how to use a degree. They’re deciding how to spend the next decade or two of their working life, with income, identity, family, and a ten to twenty-year track record on the line at the same time. There is no single right answer waiting to be uncovered. There are several viable paths, each with their own trade-offs, and whichever one you choose has to fit a life already in motion: a contract that ends in eight months, a bonus that vests in March, a parent who needs care, a partner up for a promotion that would move the family.

The help most people turn to was designed for other problems. Assessments describe general personality or traits, not you and your actual situation. Therapy helps you understand yourself and heal, but turning self-knowledge into a career you can choose it outside its scope. Traditional career coaching skips straight to titles and resume tactics without checking if the job is worth keeping. Personal development changes your mindset, and then leaves you waiting for clarity to arrive. Combining them doesn’t close the gap, and you're left with puzzle pieces but no clear direction.

Holistic career change strategy holds everything at once: who you are now, what you want your days to contain, what your life outside work needs, and the beliefs and patterns behind the choices that got you here. It also provides a way to generate options you can’t currently see, then choose among them with confidence.

I built The WHOLE Method to put that discipline into practice. It considers the whole of you inside the context of your actual life, and it takes you from stuck to a chosen career you can trust, with a plan to get there. If you want the story of how I got here, from actor to career crisis to this work, that’s on my About page.

Choosing a new career after you’ve already built a successful one is its own problem, and solving it is its own discipline: holistic career change strategy

Why It Exists

Why It Works

The WHOLE Method is a five-step, sequential process completed over eight weeks. Each step builds on the one before it.

It considers the whole of you.

In holistic career change strategy, who you are and the circumstances of your life both shape the career you choose. On the personal side, The WHOLE Method accounts for what you have to offer, what you need in return, what you’ve outgrown, and what you want more of. On the practical side, it accounts for the life your career has to fit inside: a chronic illness, caregiving, your partner’s career, a move on the horizon, the time you want for yourself outside of work. All of it goes into building your options from the first step, so the career you choose already fits your life on the day you choose it.

01

It starts with you, not job listings.

Most career resources start with the market, scanning job boards for titles that sound close to what you already do. In The WHOLE Method, I guide you through a process where we turn your criteria for career satisfaction into concrete options. By starting with criteria instead of job titles or business ideas, we’re able to surface careers you never would have found on your own. For high achievers who feel limited to lateral moves, this is where the options open up.

02

It gives you an intentional process to choose.

Choosing between options is where many high achievers stall. Every option comes with trade-offs, and without a way to weigh them, each one dies in a gridlock of problems. The WHOLE Method gives you a structured way to evaluate your options against what matters most to you and what your life requires right now. It also examines the beliefs and patterns you bring to the decision, since those are the same ones that shaped the career you’re trying to leave. You end up with a choice you're confident in.

03

It plans a safe transition.

Six-figure earners who are wary of taking a leap can breathe a sigh of relief here. The WHOLE Method includes a safe and practical transition plan called a Crossfade, a gradual shift from the career you’ve been in to the one you’re moving toward. You leave with a short-term plan that protects you now and a long-term plan that gets you to the full vision, even when it takes time. This is what keeps a right decision from becoming a dramatic exit you regret six months later.

04

It includes seasoned support.

High achievers often carry the weight of this complex, high-stakes decision by themselves. Partners can’t always relate, and colleagues often can’t be told. The WHOLE Method pairs its strategy with personal support from me and our coaching team. You also join a peer group of others making the same kind of change, so you’re doing this alongside people who understand it.

05

What's on the other side?

You leave knowing your Homecoming Career, with a practical plan to get there and the quiet confidence to go do it.

You stop performing a version of success that doesn't fit.

You use your highest gifts, make a contribution you care about, and support a life you actually want to be living.

The work happens to feel a little like magic, but it runs on a rigorously developed method you can trust and use again if your life ever changes on you.