$79
Career Kryptonite
The book with the stuff they never tell you (but absolutely judge you for).
Some careers don’t fail dramatically. They just… stall.
Not because you’re bad at your job. More often because of invisible rules, bad reflexes and small misreads of the room that slowly undermine your credibility while everyone politely pretends not to notice.
Career Kryptonite is a guide to the things senior people know but will never formally explain. Mostly because it sounds terrible out loud and they’d quite like to stay employed.
It’s sharp. It’s funny. It’s practical. And it may save you from learning all this the hard way: slowly, awkwardly and with just enough embarrassment to make it memorable.
You’re not broken. You’ve just been playing the game without the rules.
What’s actually inside
This is not leadership fluff.
Inside, Career Kryptonite lifts the lid on:
The subtle ways smart people sabotage themselves without meaning to
Why some people get labelled “high potential”… while others keep their “reliable” tag
Why “shiny object syndrome” is career crack
How competence without visibility turns you into the office equivalent of background music.
There’s practical advice, a few uncomfortable truths and the occasional nudge in the ribs.
By the end, you won’t just work harder or louder. You’ll finally understand how the game actually works. And why some people keep getting ahead while others keep “doing great work.”
Who this is for (and who should probably skip it)
This book is for:
People who suspect they’re not the problem… but can’t quite prove it.
High performers who keep getting “almost” feedback.
Managers who were promoted and handed exactly zero instructions.
Career climbers competing in the Guess What My Boss Is Thinking Olympics.
This book is not for:
People who confuse talking about work with doing it.
Anyone looking for permission to stay exactly as they are.
Executives who “don’t believe in politics” (we wish you well).
Anyone convinced their workplace is a pure meritocracy.
Some lessons are easier to learn from a book
Than from your career. Join the waitlist for Career Kryptonite.
Meet me, JB
(Otherwise known as Julie Byrne)
I’ve spent the last two decades in the marketing and digital trenches, from scrappy tech startups to global heavyweights like Autonomy, Vodafone, BUPA, Microsoft and ResMed.
I haven’t just talked the talk. I’ve lived the targets, survived death by back to back meetings and sat through more “quick chat?” invites than any human should reasonably be subjected to. (They’re never quick and rarely chats.)
I cut my teeth at Autonomy in the UK, jumping from Marketing Executive to European Marcomms Manager in eight months. Back in Australia, I landed a General Manager gig at Vodafone at 29, then went on to lead digital marketing at BUPA, step into a regional role at Microsoft running Microsoft Stores across APAC and then global with medtech giant ResMed, overseeing their digital ecosystem worldwide.
Since 2018, I’ve been doing my own thing, elbow-deep in coaching, consulting, strategy and transformation work for everyone from big corporates to fast moving small businesses including ENGIE, Craveable Brands and SoundScouts.
In other words, I’ve seen how this game works from just about every angle, including the parts that never make it onto the shiny careers pages. Which also means I’ve seen exactly where smart, capable people start to trip over the stuff nobody ever teaches you.
And after seeing that play out again and again, it became painfully obvious that practical training and real mentorship for new and mid-level managers is weirdly hard to find. There’s theory aplenty, but not much in the way of “here’s what to actually do on Tuesday.” And what does exist is often delivered with the charisma of a 2009 compliance module and bear little relevance to real day to day life.
So that’s the gap I fill. No BS, hands on training and straightforward coaching from someone who’s been in the room, made the calls and can tell you exactly where capable people start to come off the rails.
