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Untold Stories with Dr Gabby · May 27, 2026

All the Cool Girls Get Fired...Like me ;)

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Gabrielle Pelicci PhD · Untold Stories with Dr Gabby

A few months ago, I found myself at the Colony Hotel for a book talk with Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill, the women behind All the Cool Girls Get Fired.

If you don’t know the origin story: Laura was let go from InStyle in 2022. Kristina was let go from WSJ. Magazine in 2023. They met for drinks, posted an Instagram photo together, captioned it “All the cool girls get fired,” and the internet collectively cheered. Women everywhere celebrated.

I remember laughing as they told the story.

What I didn’t know was that a few months later, I’d be adding my own name to the list.

Last Friday, I was unceremoniously let go from my position at Amrit Ocean Resort on Singer Island. If you DM me, I’ll spill the tea. But what I can say publicly is this: it had nothing to do with a lack of talent, effort, or results. Sometimes the circumstances surrounding a situation are simply beyond the scope of good work.

And honestly? I wasn’t even surprised.

Energetically, that job had been over for months. I could feel it in my body — that particular hollowness of continuing to show up somewhere that no longer fits. But I had made commitments. I had clients I personally booked into retreats and experiences at the resort, and I wasn’t going to disappear on them. So I stayed. I showed up. I did the work. And I waited for what I already knew was coming.

Here’s what I haven’t talked about publicly, and probably should: this was not my first time getting the boot.

In the past ten years, I have been fired, laid off, axed, pushed out, or forced to walk away seven different times.

Honestly, I have a real gift for finding unusual situations. Kind of like the men I date. Lol.

One business was sold out from under me. One company ran out of money. One owner turned out to be a criminal wanted by the feds. Another was a compulsive gambler. One simply decided they no longer wanted to pay my rate and delayed payments until I had no choice but to leave.

Seven different versions of the same story.

And I was very good at my job every single time.

I think there is still a thick stigma around losing a job or client — this quiet implication that if it happened to you, you must have done something to deserve it.

That simply isn’t true.

Maybe you are drawn to high-risk, high-reward environments that are inherently less stable than working at the DMV. Maybe entrepreneurship and corporate hierarchy are fundamentally incompatible with your temperament. Maybe you have a highly creative brain and are not always easily understood by clients, coworkers, or leadership.

Whatever the reason, the work was still real.

The ending does not diminish what you built or who you became while building it.

Be proud of what you created, regardless of how it ended.

Seasons have expiration dates. Some chapters last ten years. Others last ten months. Neither is inherently more valuable than the other.

Every experience — the brilliant ones, the chaotic ones, the ones involving federal investigations — adds to who you are.

And when something ends, you do not start over. You start from here, which is always further along than you think.

The next opportunity usually arrives more aligned than the last. What comes next meets you where you actually are, not where you used to be.

Expansion is irreversible.

Not once, after any of these endings, have I found myself smaller than I was before.

Now, back to my story.

I have to tell you: the timing of this breakup is actually excellent.

Because I fully intend to spend this summer doing exactly what I want — beach, paddleboarding, Pilates, long lunches, beautiful dinners, creative projects, and whatever else feels alive — with full commitment and zero apology.

My brain needs a real rest.

In the past year alone, I hosted hundreds of guests and more than 30 retreat leaders at Amrit. Simultaneously, I taught six university courses, completed a book project for Anne Mahlum, founder of Solidcore, and on May 12th, stood in a room at Tideline Palm Beach with 130 beautiful humans celebrating one full year of Conscious Palm Beach — a wellness community I built from a small tiki hut meetup that has now grown to more than 1,900 members.

And there is more coming.

More clients. More opportunities. More money. More adventure.

The work does not stop. It evolves. It expands. It finds its next form.

But right now?

Right now I’m putting on sunscreen and getting in the water.

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I’m Dr. Gabby and I write really good books, teach transformative classes and run @consciouspalmbeach. Learn more about me at gabriellepelicci.com or @gabbyinpalmbeach

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