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Redefining What Growing the Middle of Your Career Looks Like

Most mid-career professionals have done the work, but nobody taught them how to name it. That's the gap Growing the Middle was built to close.

Growing the Middle is a career development community for professionals in the middle of their career who are ready to stop being overlooked and start being recognized for what they actually do. Not with affirmations. With evidence.

This community is for you if you're:

  • Feeling stuck, overlooked, or underpaid despite years of strong work

  • Pivoting, stepping into a bigger role, or navigating a layoff

  • Moving into tech-adjacent fields like customer success, operations, or strategy

  • Done with generic advice and ready for structure, language, and a plan

About Growing the Middle

The Founder

Meet Mariah Bayne,

Founder of Growing the Middle

I'm Mariah Bayne, founder and principal coach of Growing the Middle. I have 12+ years of experience in sales, customer success, operations, and account management across both traditional and SaaS companies.

Past roles include Director of Customer Success and Operations, Account Manager, and earlier in my career, insurance underwriter for both personal and professional lines.

Key highlights:

  • Responsible for over $500M in new and recurring revenue

  • Personally managed $21M+ in accounts and scaled a team from 8 to 33 people

  • Hired and interviewed 350+ professionals across multiple organizations

Today, I work as a strategic advisor for startups and nonprofits while running GTM's coaching community to help mid-career professionals translate their experience into clear direction and forward momentum.

The GTM Guarantee

If you show me your work, I will show you the skill, the competency, and the business impact behind it. Regardless of your title, your industry, or where you are in your career. That's what builds real confidence. Not inspiration. Evidence.

BUILD YOUR MOMENTUM

Trusted by organizations that invest in their people

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Ready to Start?

Find the Offer That Moves You Forward.

  • Promotional graphic for a career workshop hosted by Mariah Krystal, scheduled live every Thursday at 12:00 pm EST, featuring a woman with short hair and glasses smiling, with text about working through career questions.

    THE CAREER WORK ROOM

    EVERY THURSDAY, 12PM

    This is a free, live drop-in space where we tackle real career questions in real time.

    REGISTER HERE
  • Flyer for a Task to Skill Workshop by Mariah Bayne, featuring her photo and workshop details.

    TASK TO SKILL WORKSHOP

    Turn everyday responsibilities into clear, credible value: tasks → skills → impact → proof.

    Walk away with interview-ready stories you can tell in 60–90 seconds.

    GRAB YOUR SEAT
  • Person in an orange shirt signing a document at a wooden table, with various papers and a bouquet of white flowers nearby.

    RESUME REVIEW W/ ACTIONABLE FEEDBACK

    Receive detailed, actionable guidance on what’s working, what needs improvement, and exactly how to fix it including role-specific KPIs and top-priority recommendations.

    GET YOUR REVIEW

  • EVENTS & COMMUNITY

    The right room changes everything. Join GTM virtual and in-person events.

    SEE UPCOMING EVENTS

  • FREE RESOURCES

    Free tools, templates, and guides designed to keep you moving between sessions.

    ACCESS FREE RESOURCES

What Clients Are Saying

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What Clients Are Saying

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What Clients Are Saying

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What Clients Are Saying

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  • "Mariah has a unique ability to help others see the bigger picture, encouraging us to envision our end goals and navigate the complexities of the industry with clarity and purpose. I'm grateful for her mentorship and highly recommend her to anyone seeking to excel in their career."

    —Cierra C.

  • "Thank you for the excellent workshop today on building your task bank. I found it very informative and will certainly use it for job interviews."

    —Joy S.

  • "This was both engaging and informative. I left with very clear next steps about how to leverage my current skillset to land a higher salary."

    —Audience Feedback, Sista in Sales 2025

  • "I’m so thankful for all the insight and support you’ve given me along the way. You played a big part in helping me land a role. Couldn’t have done it without your guidance. "

    —Eunice W.

  • "Working with Mariah has been such a positive experience. She is consistently helpful and interactive during the placement session. Her guidance and encouragement has made everything feel easier to navigate and has boosted my confidence."

    — Steph F.

  • "I’ve done other impact statement workshops but this was hands down the most thoughtful and actionable framework. I’m glad I trusted the process and fought the urge to skip ahead or rush to Chatgpt. I needed the time and headspace to think through my daily work to connect it to broaden business impact. Thank you."

    —Kisha V.

  • "Mariah's passion for empowering others aligns perfectly with her ability to ignite ambition and build confidence. These qualities make her an invaluable resource for anyone seeking growth."

    —Jamila M.

  • "Mariah's approach is both, strategic and personalized. She takes the time to understand her clients' career goals, experience and unique strengths, ensuring the final product truly reflects their professional brand."

    —Harold V.

  • "Growing the Middle's tool helped me to paint a picture, and to tell my story better. She was able to give me sound feedback on my resume, tips and tools that can help me improve it, and also connections she has that can lead me in the right direction."

    —Emeka A.

  • "Truly one of the best leaders I've had the privilege of working with and learning from throughout my career."

    —Stephany M.

  • "Mariah jumped right in and went straight to the root of who I am and what I do. She guided me in highlighting my unique professional experience and helped me to articulate my past roles to hiring managers."

    —Tahj P.

Big ideas, real impact.
Thoughtfully crafted to elevate what matters most.

Ways to Partner with Mariah:

Speaker:
Keynotes and conference sessions that move the room and leave people with frameworks they can actually use. Mariah speaks on career development, workforce strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship across corporate, conference, and community stages.

Team Building Experiences:
Disengaged teams cost organizations more than most leaders realize.

Structured, skills-based sessions that reconnect teams to the strengths they already have. Employees leave with clarity, confidence, and renewed momentum.

Best for: ERG programming, onboarding cohorts, leadership development initiatives

Workshops (Corporate & Conference):
Hands-on, framework-driven sessions that help employees articulate their skills, strengthening retention, internal mobility, and team performance.

Popular formats: Lunch and learns, half-day workshops, conference breakouts

Panel Discussions & Fireside Chats:
Mariah brings energy, candor, and cross-industry perspective that keeps panels engaging and the audience locked in.With 12+ years across insurance, sales, customer success, operations, and entrepreneurship, she speaks from real experience on both sides of the table.

Topics include: Hiring and talent selection, customer success and retention, sales and revenue operations, employee engagement and workforce development, and building a business from lived experience.

PARTNER WITH MARIAH

Speaking Engagement Highlights

BaddieCon'25, Baddies in Tech

Watch My Reel

Sistas in Sales, Summit ‘24 & ‘25

Watch the Recap

Propel’25

Watch Now

Watch My Speaker Reel 2026

Watch Now

DiversiTech

Watch the Clip
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SMALL MOVES
BIG MOMENTUM

PARTNER WITH MARIAH