About Darby

I’m a longtime corporate operations leader who now helps mid-career millennials reset from burnout without quitting their jobs.

I’m Darby, the middle manager who finally admitted he was done being the shock absorber for everyone else’s chaos.

For years, I lived in the sweet spot of corporate misery:

Too good at my job to get fired
Too responsible to just quit
Too burned out to keep pretending “it’s fine”

On paper, I was thriving. I managed a big remote team, partnered with executives, hit the targets, fixed the problems, translated vague strategy into actual work. I was the one leadership trusted to “figure it out” and the one everyone else came to when things were broken.

Off paper, I was exhausted, resentful, and quietly Googling:

“How do I know if I’m burned out or just dramatic?”

Spoiler: it was burnout.

I didn’t get one big dramatic moment where I walked out of a meeting and never came back.

I got:

The Sunday dread that started on Friday afternoon
The 11 pm “just one more email” habit
The feeling of being both essential and invisible
The realization that if I didn’t change something, my body was going to make the decision for me

I tried all the classic fixes: better planners, new routines, “protect your peace” quotes, productivity hacks. None of it touched the real issue:

I was operating in a system that would take everything I gave it and I had never learned how to stop giving it all.

So I got serious.

I started setting boundaries that weren’t just theoretical. I learned how to say “no” without sounding like I was declaring war. I stopped taking ownership of other people’s priorities. I separated what was mine to carry from what belonged to leadership, the org chart, and the culture.

I didn’t become lazy or detached.

I became strategic about my energy.

And once I saw what actually worked in real corporate life — not on Instagram — I knew other people needed this too.

Who I work with now

I work with corporate millennials who:

Are good at their jobs (sometimes too good)
Are tired of being the glue holding everything together
Can’t just walk away from their paycheck, benefits, or team
Know something has to change, but don’t want to blow up their whole life to do it

You don’t need a hype woman. You need someone who understands the politics, the unspoken expectations, the metrics, and the reality of being that “safe pair of hands” everyone leans on.

You also need someone who won’t let you stay stuck in “this is just how it is.”

That’s where I come in.

How I work

I’m not a therapist, and I’m not going to tell you to manifest your way out of a toxic culture.

What I will do is:

Ask you the questions your boss, HR, or friends aren’t asking
Help you untangle what’s yours, what’s theirs, and what’s the system
Give you actual words to say in real emails, chats, and conversations
Help you build a 30-day plan that doesn’t require you to wake up at 4:30 am and drink celery juice

My style is direct, practical, and grounded. I’m not here to judge you for how you’ve coped. I’m here to help you stop burning yourself down to keep everything else running.

A little more human

Outside of work, I’m still very much an elder millennial:

I speak fluent corporate email and TikTok
I care about nervous systems, not just job titles
I believe “doing the most” is not a personality trait, it’s a survival response

I built Bridgr Connect LLC because most middle and mid-career people are stuck between two worlds: leadership that says “we care about burnout” and workloads that say “we actually don’t.”

You deserve someone in your corner who understands both.

What happens next

If any of this sounds like you, the next step is simple:

Book a free 30-minute Reset Call so we can look at what’s actually going on in your role, what you’ve already tried, and whether working together makes sense.

We’ll look at what’s actually going on in your role, what you’ve already tried, and whether working together makes sense.

No pressure, no sales script. Just clarity and a plan for what to do with it.