Anyway: On being different, and doing it anyway

Laurence Paquette

Anyway is about being different, and doing it anyway. I spent 15 years at Vestas, across six roles, the last as VP Marketing and Brand, never quite fitting the corporate mold. Along the way I built content for neurodivergent people, introverts, and anyone who feels different at work. Now I've left corporate to be my own boss. This show is all of that: working in corporate, not fitting the mold, and leaving a career to build something new.

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Thursday · 3 min
Most leadership advice was written for extroverts
Every leadership book describes the same person. Commands the room, projects authority through their voice, takes up space without thinking about it. And the message underneath is that this person is a great leader and everyone else isn't. In this short episode I talk about why introverted and neurodivergent leaders have capabilities that stay invisible in cultures where confidence gets measured by volume, and why the companies fixing this aren't being kind, they're solving a talent problem their competitors haven't noticed yet.
Tuesday · 3 min
Creativity vs. Efficiency: How to Survive in a Rigid Company
Learn how to maintain creativity in a conformist corporate culture that prioritizes efficiency over innovation. Stop letting fear of mistakes hold back your professional growth. Corporate structures often demand consistency, which can stifle creativity and prevent teams from taking necessary risks. This video explores why professional settings frequently punish standing out and how this culture of compliance acts as a barrier to innovation. Whether you are an individual contributor or a leader, understanding these dynamics is the first step toward building a more adaptable environment. By actively encouraging diverse perspectives, you can help shift the internal narrative away from fear and toward progress. We look at actionable strategies for nurturing new ideas, even when the broader organization seems resistant to change. Implementing these shifts helps teams break free from rigid corporate norms and fosters a more creative workplace. Subscribe for weekly career strategy breakdowns, and comment below on how you handle creative friction at your office.
September 7 · 3 min
How to Build Authority When You're Younger Than Your Team
Managing people older than you can be a challenge for new managers. Learn how to build respect and foster collaboration effectively. Stepping into a leadership role where you supervise team members with more life and career experience requires a shift in perspective. This video explores practical strategies to help you navigate this dynamic, ensuring you create a positive work environment where everyone feels valued. Whether you are leading a seasoned veteran or a peer, the goal is to bridge the experience gap. We focus on the importance of active listening to gain valuable lessons from your team. By showing genuine appreciation for their contributions, you can build a stronger, more cohesive unit. Implementing these management techniques helps you establish authority through collaboration rather than just hierarchy, making the transition into a new management role much smoother. Subscribe for weekly leadership breakdowns, and comment below on the biggest challenge you have faced while managing a team.
September 6 · 3 min
When Certainty Fails: The Hidden Skill Every Leader Needs
Learn the essentials of leading with ambiguity to maintain clarity and direction for your team during times of crisis. Effective leaders know that uncertainty is an inevitable part of the professional landscape. This video breaks down actionable strategies for navigating organizational change by shifting your perspective when challenges feel overwhelming. Instead of reacting to every shift, you will learn how to step back, assess the situation objectively, and focus on concrete solutions that move your team forward. Developing strong leadership skills requires the ability to remain composed when the path ahead is unclear. By embracing uncertainty rather than fighting it, you can turn disruptive situations into opportunities for growth and stability. This approach helps you reduce anxiety within your team while maintaining focus on core objectives. Subscribe for weekly management breakdowns, and share in the comments: what is the biggest challenge you currently face when leading your team through change?
September 5 · 2 min
Why Your Boss Isn't Promoting You (It's Not Your Work)
Improving your managing upwards skills might be the only way to fix your stagnant career trajectory. You might be working hard, but your career trajectory often depends more on how you interact with leadership than on your output alone. Many employees assume that excellent performance speaks for itself, ignoring the reality that their superiors need active support and clarity to advocate for them. Without intentional workplace communication, even your best efforts can go unnoticed by those making promotion decisions. Managing upwards is about becoming a partner to your manager rather than just a task-executor. This involves being proactive when solving issues, seeking feedback, and accepting constructive criticism to improve your output. When you align your professional growth with the needs of your superiors, you stop waiting for recognition and start creating the conditions for your own advancement. Subscribe for weekly professional growth breakdowns, and comment below if you have struggled to build a strong relationship with your manager.
September 4 · 1 min
The underrated benefit of corporate life
I love working for myself, but I massively underestimated one thing: how much structure corporate life gives you without you having to create it. Now I decide what to work on, what matters most, who to follow up with and what happens next. Freedom is great. Constant decision making is a lot.
August 31 · 1 min
I Left Corporate and Discovered I Actually Like Selling Myself
Before leaving corporate, I assumed finding clients would be one of the parts of working independently that I would hate. Cold outreach. Following up. Talking about myself. Selling what I can do. Except that isn't really what it has felt like. In this short reflection, I talk about one of the most unexpected things I have discovered since leaving a 15 year corporate career: I genuinely enjoy the commercial side of working for myself. Maybe selling feels very different when what you are really doing is meeting interesting people, asking questions and finding out whether you can help. Part of my ongoing series about leaving corporate and figuring out what comes next.
August 22 · 2 min
So what happened after I left corporate?
Almost three months ago, I left a corporate career that had shaped most of my working life. Since then, quite a few people have asked me some version of the same question: what do you actually do now? The answer is a bit less simple than the old one. Now, I work with different companies, I write, I speak, I’m building PAQ Anyway, and I’m still figuring out what this new working life looks like as I go. So I made a short video explaining it properly. It is also the start of a little series about the reality of leaving corporate after 15 years, including the parts I love, the parts that stress me out, and the things I really did not expect.
June 7 · 2 min
What a Fractional CMO actually is — and who needs one
What a Fractional CMO actually is — and who needs one Fractional is not a polite word for freelance. It's not junior support. It's not "a little bit of marketing help." In this episode I explain what fractional leadership actually means, who needs it, and why more experienced executives are choosing portfolio careers over the traditional model. Two minutes. No slides. Just a point of view.
May 4 · 3 min
You’re Already Playing Office Politics
Office politics has a bad reputation, mostly because people confuse it with manipulation. So a lot of people pretend they don’t participate in it at all. But the truth is, everyone navigates power, influence, relationships, and perception at work to some extent. The real question is whether we do it unconsciously, or honestly and with integrity. This video is about the latter.
April 28 · 5 min
The spiral after being wrong in public
Being wrong in public is one thing. The hours and days after are another. Most leadership advice tells you to own it quickly and move on, which skips the part where your nervous system still thinks you're in danger. In this episode, Laurence talks about why recovering from a public stumble is slower than anyone admits, and why nobody tells you that the uncomfortable part is actually normal.
April 19 · 4 min
That nervous feeling before executive meetings? Here's why!
Even at VP level, the meetings that make your heart race don't go away. The ones where you're there to challenge something, defend your team, or push back on a decision in a room full of senior people. In this episode, Laurence talks about the invisible internal work that happens before those meetings — and why it doesn't disappear with seniority, especially when you've never quite fit the standard leadership mold.
March 24 · 3 min
The gap between who you are and who work wants you to be
We keep saying “bring your whole self to work.” But that’s not really what’s expected, is it? In this episode, I talk about the gap between what companies say and what they actually reward. Why energy and performance are welcome, but grief, anxiety, and exhaustion are not. And what that does to our mental health over time. This isn’t just about burnout or work life balance. It’s about the constant pressure to edit yourself to fit a version of “professional” that leaves very little room for being human. If you’ve ever felt like you have to leave parts of yourself at the door to be taken seriously at work, this one’s for you.
March 9 · 4 min
The Most Underrated Leadership Skill: Asking Questions
Most people think leadership is about having the right answers. I think it is often about asking the right questions. In this episode I talk about why questions open conversations, create trust inside teams, and lead to ideas you would never get if the leader was doing all the talking. If you lead a team, coach people, or simply want better conversations at work, learning how to ask better questions might be one of the most powerful skills you can develop.
February 28 · 3 min
Stop people pleasing at work
Always saying yes at work can look like commitment, but over time it can dilute your focus and drain your confidence. In this episode, I reflect on how people pleasing shows up in professional environments and share practical ways to build healthier boundaries, communicate more clearly, and prioritise what actually matters without becoming less collaborative.
February 1 · 2 min
How I Stopped Overthinking Every Decision
I used to overthink everything, turning even small decisions into something heavy and exhausting, as if every choice was a test I was afraid of failing. In this episode, I talk about what helped me move out of analysis paralysis and start making decisions with more clarity, less fear, and more self trust, without becoming reckless or careless. I share the simple questions I now ask myself when I feel stuck, how I tell the difference between fear and misalignment, why not every decision needs to be permanent, and how letting go of too much external input helped me hear my own voice again. This is not about having perfect confidence or always getting it right. It is about learning that clarity does not always come before action, and that sometimes you only find it once you move. If you tend to overthink, freeze between options, or wait for certainty before taking a step, this episode is for you.
January 25 · 3 min
How to Build Meaningful Connections in a Digital World
Building meaningful connections has always mattered, but in a digital world where many of our relationships live entirely online, it can feel harder to do well. In this episode, I talk about practical ways to build meaningful connections through a screen, from being more intentional in how we engage, to personalising outreach, prioritising quality over quantity, and remembering there is a real human on the other side. Nothing here is revolutionary, just small and deliberate actions that make online interactions feel more human.
January 10 · 1 min
20 Years Living Abroad. Here’s What I’ve Learned
Twenty years ago, I moved abroad and built my life in a country that was not the one I was born in. In this episode, I reflect on what living abroad actually teaches you over time, beyond the logistics and the clichés. How identity changes as you grow, how exposure to different cultures and norms shapes who you become, and how the idea of home shifts from something familiar to something you actively choose. This is not a story about wanting to go back, but about growth, adaptation, and learning to find your place when you are shaped by more than one country. If you have lived abroad, or if life has taken you far from where you started, this episode might resonate.
January 4 · 5 min
How to End a Meeting That Should Have Been an Email
Unproductive meetings are one of the biggest energy drains in corporate life. They waste time, reduce focus, and quietly damage morale and culture. In this episode, I share practical and respectful ways to end meetings that have lost their purpose. Without confrontation. Without awkwardness. And without needing authority. You will learn how to recognize when a meeting is no longer useful, how to redirect conversations with clarity, and how to close meetings gracefully while still being seen as focused and respectful. This episode is for leaders, managers, individual contributors, introverts, and neurodivergent professionals who want to protect their time and energy while modeling better ways of working. Because leadership is not about staying longer. It is about knowing when to close with clarity and kindness.
Dec 6, 2025 · 5 min
When Your Mind Goes Quiet in a Meeting
Ever had your mind go silent in a meeting or important conversation? You know what you want to say, but the words refuse to show up. It happens to many of us, especially when the moment feels emotional or high stakes. For years, I thought freezing meant I was not confident enough or fast enough. Now I understand it for what it is. A nervous system response. A pause that protects more than it limits. In this episode, I share the scripts I use when my brain stops mid conversation. These short, intentional phrases help you stay calm, buy time, and answer with clarity instead of panic. If you lead while processing deeply or if you ever freeze when you are put on the spot, this episode will feel familiar and hopefully supportive. Thank you for listening.

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