What does it really cost to chase ambition—and what happens when success starts to blur your sense of self?
In this episode, I sit down with Caroline Palmer, former Vogue editor and author of the buzzworthy novel Workhorse. Drawing from her years inside the high-gloss world of fashion publishing, Caroline takes us beyond the clichés of The Devil Wears Prada to reveal a more complicated—and at times darker—story about ambition, identity, and the quiet trade-offs women make to get ahead.
We talk about the mythology of glamorous careers versus the reality behind the scenes, the difference between “workhorses” and “show horses,” and why Caroline set out to write a female protagonist who doesn’t always make the right choices—and doesn’t apologize for it.
Caroline also opens up about her own career pivot during the pandemic, the moment she walked away from a high-powered job, and how writing this book helped her rebuild confidence and redefine success in midlife.
Plus, we get into:
- What it was really like working inside Vogue during a transformative era
- The financial realities of starting out in New York on a $25K salary
- A negotiation story that led to a major salary leap—and what you can learn from it
- Why saying “yes” early in your career can pay off long-term
- And the surprising creative discipline behind writing a novel at 4:15am
