11.02.2026

From Book to Burnout — and Beyond. The Final Chapter of the C3 20-year Journey: Part 4

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been reflecting on the now 20 years that C3 has existed, and it’s interesting to walk that notverystraight path again. We’ve arrived at the 4th and final part of the story, and wow — what a rollercoaster the years from 2019 until now have been

If you haven’t yet read parts 1, 2 or 3, you can quickly catch up here.

Part 4

“Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Why don’t you write a book?”
… “No, no, no,” was my response, “NOT gonna happen.”
“Annette — you should put all your ideas on paper!”
NOOOOO… I’m NOT writing a book.

Apparently, I didn’t remember that the brain is horrible at listening to the word NOT. In April 2018, while waiting for my flight in Manila, I suddenly saw the full outline of the book clearly in my mind. YES, we’re writing a book.

Now, real life hit us. How would I make time for the actual writing? We ended up copypasting the method we used for writing our blog posts: I was interviewed about the cultural models, insights, techniques and more — and the amazing Fiona wrote it all down. That approach worked wonders, and all the interviewing was such a joy. But wow… getting all the nittygritty details ready was… well, excruciating. I was fortunate to have colleagues who were much more detailoriented than me, and with team effort, the C3 book was published in November 2019. Today I’m still utterly proud of the book (yes, and biased) and it keeps on selling.

Usually, the first few months of a C3 year are spent reading new stuff and making plans for the year, but not in 2020. Q1 was packed with trainings delivered all over the world…yippie and then ups… On the 11th of March, the Danish prime minister Mette went on TV and, in the first of many press meetings, closed the country due to COVID19. Shock!
In the blink of an eye, our calendars were blank. Zero cultural trainings to be delivered. Anywhere.

Once the first shock had settled, we took a deep breath and realized that we had already prepared ourselves for working online and delivering highend virtual facilitations. Up until then, it had just been hard to sell it to companies, since they doubted it could work.

Sure, there was a lot to learn, but our C3 facilitator team of facilitators shared what worked and what didn’t – plus the best online tools to use — and soon our calendars started filling up again. Disaster avoided.

Since we were now working from home and online, I could work around the clock! Smart, right?!

03:30–05:30 — Siemens Shanghai office global mindset workshop
09:00–12:00 — Danfoss global team training
14:00–16:00 — Nilfisk Global Sales Leadership Team
17:00–18:00 — 1:1 leadership cultural coaching

Just do it .

I realized something I’d never noticed before - how much landing in the room before a cultural training set me up for success. You know — arriving early, settling in to enhance the learning space, greeting people with a smile, a little small talk, and welcome.

In the online context, I found myself alone in the Teams learning space up until seconds before the beginning of an important facilitation — panicking. Where are people?!!! …and then, hearing the lobby chime just in time. Phew… they are here. I adapted because I had to, but nothing beats the buzz of real people in a real room.

We’re now in January 2022. My husband Simond and I had moved into our beautifully renovated house, which we’d spent weekends and holidays overhauling for 3 years; the C3 calendar was still full, and the path of C3 — well, once more you’d find me in the overtaking lane, driving too fast, and not quite in control to be very honest. I found myself exhausted again and didn’t know which direction to go or which exit to take, so I just continued without change.

What I didn’t know was that the perfect storm was building up. Over the next half year, too many tough things happened in my closest family. And boom. Crash and burn. I collapsed completely. That was June 2022 and the path of C3 changed dramatically.

Back in May last year, I disclosed my challenging time in an honest LinkedIn post — read it here: linkedin link. In short: I went through a horrible spiral of serious burnouts, and after a long time I was diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD and recently Atypical Autism and suddenly all the pieces of my life’s puzzle fell into place.

It’s now Feb, 2026. 20 years have gone by and C3 is still standing – even after a whirlwind of a journey. I’ve shifted to a more sustainable speed, cruising safely in the inner lane - taking pauses and appreciating the view along the way. As a wonderful friend of mine puts it – “now you’re a ‘real’ director”, meaning I start my day later, practice prioritizing and delegate. I now work part-time from my lovely home office and enjoy collaborating with both my son Jonathan and my husband Simon. I’m in charge of sale, help design the C3 facilitations and do my beloved 1:1 executive coaching. My job finally matches my energy level — and, I still carry the passion and drive to make a difference .

The C3 trainer team we’ve built over the years has turned out to be even more precious than I realized - they continue to deliver amazing cultural trainings every week for our C3 clients.

If you’re a C3 trainer or a C3 client I can’t thank you enough for being a part of this adventure . And if you’ve walked this C3 journey with me as a reader, my sincere thanks go to you too .