Hello! I'm so honored that you want to learn more about me and what I do.

I call myself a Work Doula. I coined the term because after 25 years in sales, marketing, and go-to-market leadership roles, from scrappy startups to Fortune 500s, I realized most leaders don’t need more hustle. They need more support. I help visionary founders, CEOs, and sales/marketing leaders through the messy, magical, sometimes overwhelming world of work and business.

I’ve worked across B2B tech, supply chain, higher ed, government, and nonprofit sectors, and supported everyone from billion-dollar startups to pre-seed founders bootstrapping their first MVP. I’ve been a VP of sales, a CMO, a solo marketer, a consultant, and an analyst. I’ve worked alongside names you’d recognize (Madeleine Albright, Adam Grant, Sangram Vajre) and just as many brilliant people you’ve never heard of who taught me as much or more.

These days, I coach founders, execs, and leaders at startups and scale-ups (all sizes but I especially love companies under $15M in revenue) who are doing hard things with limited resources and big dreams. I am a certified GTM Operating System partner, so I have the research-backed blueprints to help you build the plane while you're flying it

My coaching is rooted in expertise, transparency, kindness, collaboration, and generosity. I bring the pattern recognition of someone who’s been there and the steady presence of someone who knows how to walk with you through it. 

If you’re facing change, conflict, growth, or big decisions (at work or in life) I’d be honored to support you. Please think of me as the person you call when the stakes are high, the strategy’s unclear, or the next chapter feels uncertain.

🧘‍♀️ Try one of my free “How’s Work” workshops: sasadvisorygroup.com/workshops
📅 Book time with me: sasadvisorygroup.com
💌 Subscribe to my Substack on GTM, leadership & life: workdoula.com

Thanks for reading so far, I'd love to connect.

This is literally me. Everyone who lives with me would agree. 

Credit to matt hyams

#entrepreneur #workfromhome

Sarah Allen-Short

Work doula for visionary GTM leaders doing hard things. 25 yrs in B2B, GTM, tech, startups & scale-ups. I coach through growth, change, and chaos—with the frameworks and experience to back it up.

I got quoted this week in a Financial Times article about how to apply self-help guru Mel Robbins' "Let Them Theory" in management. 

Spoiler alert: I'm not a fan. I am the dissenting opinion. I think "Let Them is an excellent and fairly superficial self-regulation technique but it is not a leadership tool. 

My basic feeling if that it's helpful to you, than use it. But please please please don't let this be a trend where everyone on a management team is reading this book-that-could-have-been-an-article as the next hot thing. It's facile and oversimplified. It risks detachment, uneven workloads, and abdication of responsibility. I linked to my full opinion about it in the comments. 

(BTW if you love it, please feel free to comment! I am all about discussion and exchange of ideas, and I have my opinions but am open to others!)

Yes, we should: 
✅Let go of rescuing.
✅ Let people show you how they operate without you rearranging the whole system to accommodate them.
✅ Let yourself stop sprinting after every dropped responsibility.
✅ Let natural consequences teach what you do not need to over explain.

BUT ALSO…
❌ Do not let harmful behavior continue because you want to seem relaxed.
❌ Do not allow clarity to evaporate because boundaries sound spiritual.
❌ Do not confuse checking out with becoming wise.
❌ Do not outsource your authority to a slogan.

Read the article here: (it's behind a paywall) https://lnkd.in/e6Ke8yTM

#letthem #melrobbins #psychobabble #poppsychology

Open article: Could a self-help hit transform your management style? by ft.com

Could a self-help hit transform your management style?

ChatGPT told me not to use the word "middle-aged" in one of my workshop titles because no one identifies that way, it’s off-putting, and people want to think they're young. 

Am I crazy to think there are tons of people who are very actively thinking about how their careers and work-life balance change in middle age?

Different things motivate me; things have shifted, my ambition has changed, my tolerance for BS and assholes is GONE.  

What do y'all think? Is there something unique that happens in middle age related to work and is that relatable?

#middleage #worklife

We're going to the cottage. 
Here are some Zoom backgrounds for ya, to bring a little of Shane and Ilya to your work day in a measured way. 
IYKYK

#heatedrivalry #imcomingtothecottage #hollander #rozanov

Please, please, we need to stop hand-wringing about the danger of mixing work and politics. We need to release the fear of offending people in ways that could impact our livelihoods. 

How is it controversial or political to say that the federal government should not be executing people in the streets? 

I know it is. I know many of us are risking losing income to speak up. 

My friend Anna is a small business owner. She owns two Burn Bootcamp franchises, and one is in a fairly conservative area. She is STILL publicly opposing an ICE detention facility planned for her community (Hanover County for those in the #RVA area). She is doing it knowing she will likely lose members. She is inviting her customers and neighbors to join her at a public hearing to protest. That is incredible courage. She is putting her mouth and money on the line. She is rejecting the notion that she should shut up and just help people exercise. She’s deducted to the health of her community and that means no ICE on her streets. 

If you are waiting for the perfect, risk-free way to speak up, it does not exist. If you are telling yourself this is too “political” for work, that is a fiction. Public execution of dissenters, kidnapping kids, detention without accountability, fear as policy, and the erosion of due process are not abstract isuses and they aren’t just happening in Minnesota. 

Here’s what I want to say. I don’t care who you voted for. I don’t care how much you want to opt out of “politics.” I don’t care if you are avoiding the news for self-care reasons or if you think “both sides are crazy.”I don’t care if you might lose business as a result of speaking out. 

If you are a person with any privilege (racial, gender, economic, whatever) and you think what is happening is wrong, I beg you to speak out so that the collective sound of our voices and the economic power of those of us on LinkedIn can make a difference. My LI network is full of people with power and influence. I beg you to use it. 

You are allowed to change your mind.
You are allowed to say this went further than you expected.
You are allowed to decide that silence is no longer neutral.

Democracy survives when regular people, including business owners, leaders, CEOs, and regular people decide the cost of saying nothing is higher than the cost of speaking.

If a small business owner can risk her income to protect her community, the rest of us can stop pretending this is just “politics” and start calling it what it is.

#iceout #resist #speakup #minnesota

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Happy Monday morning after vacation. 🫠  If you’re back at work and already craving space rather than productivity tips, this is for you.

I've hosted 300 people across dozens of free workshops over the last 18 months, and here's the kind of people who typically show up: 

✦  Successful on paper but feel like something’s missing
✦  Navigating burnout, restlessness, or constant change
✦  Facing (and trying to avoid) a tough decision 
✦  Living through a season of change, transition, or quiet questioning
✦  Craving energy, clarity, and relief from the noise
✦  Carrying emotional weight that no one sees
✦  Working in a culture where they feel flattened or erased

If any of that feels familiar, I'd love for you to join me for the Inner Compass for Leaders: a one-hour workday retreat for people who take both their work and inner lives seriously.

The group is small on purpose.
We start quietly. No icebreakers. No small talk. No forced sharing.
You get one uninterrupted hour with timed writing prompts to sort signal from noise. You don’t need to be a writer. Writing is simply the tool we use to think.

In the first quarter, I'm experimenting with themes. They’re also moving to a small paid model to help better manage attendance. You pay to hold the seat. If you attend, you get your money back. Commitment matters.

2026 sessions:
 • January 9. Clearing Space for 2026
 • January 23. Creating Boundaries at Work
 • February 13. Middle Age, New Ambitions
 • February 26. The Evolving Leader
 • March 6. Managing Work Conflict
 • March 26. The March Work Pause

You can see the full schedule and register here:
https://lnkd.in/e4E84avg

Open article: The Inner Compass for Leaders: Mini-Retreat — Sarah Allen-Short by sasadvisorygroup.com

The Inner Compass for Leaders: Mini-Retreat — Sarah Allen-Short

This Friday: join me for a one-hour workday retreat: a slow down that will give you some space to breathe. 

This is for you if:
🐢  You're a leader who feels stretched thin.
 🐢 You have mixed feelings about the new year and are tired of pretending you don't.
 🐢 You sense a shift coming but can't quite name it.
 🐢 You want a gentler, clearer way to approach what is next.

We won't fix your life in an hour. We will help you stop dragging things forward that no longer belong.

Sign up links in the comments!

#GTM #leadership #leader #retreat

Hey... how are we all doing? 
It's been a crazy start to 2026 in the world. 
We're all in such different places personally, professionally, culturally, economically, and politically. 
So how are you doing? I'd love to hear how you're feeling, good, bad, or complicated.

taplio

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