AVAILABLE OCTOBER 13, 2026
The Multi-Hyphenate Dilemma
When you could do almost anything, figuring out what you actually want gets complicated.
FOR THE IN-BETWEEN MOMENTS
We love stories about the pivot.
We almost never hear the story that comes before it.
The part where you've outgrown where you are but haven't figured out what's next. When you're still technically good at what you do, but it's draining the life out of you.
The Multi-Hyphenate Dilemma is about that part.
Download a sample chapter for free.
Why I
Wrote
This Book
I spent fifteen years believing the next position, business, client, feature, or pivot would finally make me feel settled.
It never did.
Instead, every chapter of my career introduced a different question: Why do I get bored so quickly? How do I choose when I could do so many things? Should I leave even though I'm really good at it? Do I have what it takes to start over . . . again?
I spent years trying to turn those questions into a plan. I thought if I could find the right title, business model, niche, or throughline, eventually all of my interests would add up to one clear answer.
Eventually, I became more interested in the questions themselves. I wrote this book because I couldn't find anyone talking honestly about that part.
What You'll Find Inside
Personal stories, conversations, and hard-won lessons about:
• Why being good at many things can make it harder to know what you actually want
• What happens when you're still good at work you've outgrown
• Why identity shifts can be harder than career shifts
• How capability, people pleasing, and adaptability shape the choices we make
• What we lose (and gain) when we finally start behaving like the person we're becoming
• What happens to our relationships when we stop being who others expect us to be
• The messy middle between no longer and not yet
It’s part memoir, part investigation, and part companion for anyone navigating what’s next.
Sometimes you need language for the thing you’ve been feeling but haven’t known how to say. I wrote this book to give you that.
About the author
Kim Wensel is a writer and advisor exploring work, ambition, identity, and what happens when highly capable women outgrow the lives they've gotten very good at building.
She feels most alive inside a creative project and will forever have more open tabs than any browser was designed to hold.
An east coaster at heart, she now lives in Pittsburgh with her family. The Multi-Hyphenate Dilemma is her first book.
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