A Recruiter Hustle Original Series
The Sober
Success Series
Recovery is not a liability in leadership. More often, it is the source of it.
The premise
There is a room full of executives who got sober and got sharper. They run companies. They close the deals. They sit on the boards. And almost none of them will say a word about the single hardest thing they ever did, because they have been taught that the truth would cost them the chair.
The Sober Success Series exists to prove the opposite. Every feature is a long-form profile of one leader, told in their own words: the turn, the cost, the clarity, and what recovery gave them that no board seat, no MBA, and no amount of money ever could.
This is not a wellness column. This is an executive media platform reporting on where great leadership actually comes from.
Who belongs here
Leaders whose recovery is not a footnote to their success. It is the foundation of it.
C-suite, presidents, founders. People with real weight on the line and real distance behind them.
Anyone who rebuilt a career, a company, or a life on the other side of the hardest yes they ever said.
People willing to go on the record so that the next person does not have to do it in the dark.
The contributor promise
You are handing us the most personal chapter of your life. Here is exactly how it gets handled. No fine print, no surprises.
Our terms to you
- 01You talk. We write.Thirty minutes on a recorded call. You do not draft a word, prepare a thing, or write your own piece.
- 02You can pass on any question.Say pass and we move on. Nothing is a trap, and nothing is a test.
- 03You review before anyone reads it.Facts, titles, tone. Anything you want softened or pulled, we pull.
- 04You decide how much of your story is public.Full name and face, or the parts you choose. Your recovery, your terms.
Nothing publishes without your yes.
Founding contributors
Six seats at the table for the leaders who go first. Their stories set the standard for everyone who follows.
Names announced as each feature publishes. We do not put a leader’s name on this page until they have said yes in writing.
Why I am the one asking
I am seven-plus years sober.Cathy Trinh, Founder, Recruiter Hustle
I have spent 26 years in executive search, which means I have sat across from more leaders than I can count and watched them decide, in real time, which parts of themselves were safe to show.
I know what it costs to get here. I know what it costs to say so out loud. That is why I do not hand this series to a freelancer, and it is why I will not turn your story into a headline you did not agree to.
This is not a curiosity piece. This is the room I live in.
Know someone whose story belongs here?
Nominate a leader, or put your own name forward. Every conversation starts privately, and stays private until you decide otherwise.
Nominate a leaderDirect to Cathy. Not a form, not an inbox, not an assistant.
Heart. Human. Hustle.
The Sober Success Series · Recruiter Hustle