Lia James: Career Coach to Connection Architect

She A/B tested her resume with two different names.

One got callbacks. The other got…

Scams.

Meet Lia James (born Aurelia) - a woman whose career has zigzagged from social media strategist to career coach to... woodworking hobbyist.

Her first job interview was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

She'd applied 6 months earlier and couldn't remember which name she'd used on her resume - Aurelia or Lia!

So when the interviewer called her "Miss James," she had to say: "This is embarrassing - which name did I use on my resume?"

Dr. Jean Wesley - a tough woman who intimidated most people at the community college - thought Lia was unique and hilarious.

And hired her for a six-month contract role.

That was a turning point.

Dr. Wesley taught Lia to value her work:

"You're not giving (your hard work) away for free. Here's how you do it."

3 years later, Lia became a freelancer.

She worked with over 1,000 career changers moving into tech - through their divorces, deaths, layoffs, identity crises… and it left her in tears.

Every day.

Eventually, it pushed her to accept that she was burnt out.

So she did something bold - she “Clocked Out”.

Picked up woodworking. Traveled. Consulted.

Then, the unthinkable happened, she experienced a detached retina.

She had to wait two months to be seen during the pandemic shutdown - and was close to losing sight in her right eye completely!

That’s not even the worst part: Her anesthesia wore off when her surgery was delayed.

She felt the pain of the majority of her surgery, which left her with muscle damage.

Forcing her to relearn how to use her eyes together.

But there is a silver lining to this story.

Because out of that horrendous experience birthed The Traveling Table - bringing strangers together in hyper-curated small settings for genuine human connection.

And her company, &human - a reminder that beneath everything we do, we're all just trying to have a good life, feel happiness, find belonging.

Lia clearly had so much more to share beyond this, including

- Why Lia believes "conversations are infrastructure"
- How she learned to set boundaries after holding everyone else's emotional weight
- Why slowing down led to her most impactful work yet

Listen to Lia’s story in full on the Clocking Out Podcast, here