681: Career Change When Your Work No Longer Matches Your Values: Glenn’s Career Reinvention

(00:00) Scott Anthony Barlow: What happens when you've been doing the same type of work for almost two decades and suddenly life throws you a wake-up call that changes everything?

(00:07) Glenn Strecker: It puts you in a present moment like nothing else. You don't know day to day how much time you'll have on this earth.

(00:13) Scott Anthony Barlow: That's Glenn. He's an executive-level sales leader, and he's also been fitness-focused for most of his life, so he never imagined that he'd have this type of health scare. It completely changed what he wanted from his work.

(00:24) Glenn Strecker: You know, you only have X amount of working years left. Let's make darn sure that you're doing something, again, that is very well aligned with your mission, with your vision in life and your values.

(00:37) Scott Anthony Barlow: So what was the problem? Well, turns out the work and organization Glenn was in didn't fit his values.

(00:45) Glenn Strecker: There just seemed to be missing elements, so missing pieces of the puzzle that weren't in play.

(00:50) Scott Anthony Barlow: The real question is, how did he go from misaligned values all the way to work that did fit?

(00:56) Glenn Strecker: In the right sales environment, representing the right product at the right company with the right mission, vision, values, which again, like I didn't realize how critical that was.

(01:09) Scott Anthony Barlow: Okay, here's the twist. Glenn was 61 when he made this shift.

(01:14) Glenn Strecker: I may be aging, but I'm not growing old.

(01:16) Scott Anthony Barlow: Today, Glenn has more energy, more focus, more passion than ever. Proof that reinvention has no expiration date.

(01:25) Glenn Strecker: You're totally worth every amount of energy investment you make in yourself. Don't regret it. Dive in and make the decision to invest in yourself.

(01:35) Scott Anthony Barlow: This is the Happen to Your Career podcast, where we share stories of real people making real transitions to work that fits them and the lives that they want to build.

If you aren't already subscribed, go ahead and hit Subscribe right now or follow so that you can get notified of every single episode and learn to design an extraordinary career for yourself. Here's Glenn sharing how he got started along a path in sales.

(01:58) Glenn Strecker: I really feel like I had gone through some things in my career. I'd been doing the same thing for almost two decades. So I've been selling a variety of clinical solutions to health plans, so for almost 20 years and had a lot of really high highs, extremely well-performing years in my career. But I also, through the blessings and curses of having a deep perspective of 20 years of experience, I also realized there were times when I performed extremely well and things seemed to be in alignment and synergy, and then there were other times where there just seemed to be missing elements, so missing pieces of the puzzle that weren't in play.

I also went through a pretty significant health event in my life. Got diagnosed with something in November of 2020, had a big surgery in March of 2021. Not that I didn't have a really good perspective on life and a perspective of gratitude, but that event most definitely got me to focus on things a little bit more differently. So it was probably at that point that I started evaluating my career and just really wanting to make sure, again, that things at work were in alignment with my core values and my strengths, and most certainly providing the opportunity to do really meaningful work for good people. I had back pain for about a year, couldn't figure out what it was. Finally, after 14 months, my physician sent me to get an MRI, and unfortunately, they found something called an ependymoma, which is a extremely rare spinal cord tumor, so it doesn't grow on the spine, it grows in the cord canal.

And that was just like a, you know, a holy cow moment. Definitely, I'm a very problem-solving type of individual, so immediately I'm like, “All right, how do we fix this? How do we get through it?” And that put me into a place of, this is now my first priority to get this thing removed, which was a pretty extraordinary process. I got to go to UC, San Francisco, which is probably one of the only places on the West coast you'd want to go to have this done. And thank goodness, it's not easy, but over the course of about four months, I got down there, had the surgery, and, you know, I'm four years post doing phenomenally well.

But I think when you go through something like that, again, it puts you in a present moment like nothing else. And until you've been in that moment, you really don't understand what that feels like. But for me, I think I just started to realize that you don't know day to day how much time you'll have on this earth.

Let's make darn sure that you're doing something, again, that is very well aligned with your mission, with your vision and life and your values. I knew what that meant conceptually, but I don't think I had defined it to the level that I was able to do when I started listening to your podcast and I started to actually go through the program because you can reflect on it by yourself, but until you've got a feedback loop, it's difficult to see what that really means in the workplace. So yeah, I hope that's helpful.

(05:08) Scott Anthony Barlow: Yeah, that's incredibly helpful. And I think that one of the things that I know about you is you are a pretty big biker, so you take health pretty seriously. What I don't know, though, were you just as big of a biker prior to that situation, prior to going through that?

(05:26) Glenn Strecker: That's a good question and something that I don't think people realize. So like for me, being athletic has always been a part of my life. I was a, you know, high school athlete. I raced for the University of California at Santa Barbara on my bike. I used to, you know, spend about 8,000 miles in the Seattle every year as a younger person.

And then even as I got older, I've just always considered myself a competitor and athlete. I played competitive tennis. I won't tell you how many rounds of golf I was playing a year, but I was playing a ton of golf and riding my bike just for fun at that point. And so, yeah, when you have something like I had, it took me back to my foundation of going, “Hey, am I gonna be able to have this athletic part of my life moving forward?”

Which again, also got me to really focus on how important health is, not only physical health, but mental health. And so I think getting those two things in alignment, coming out of, going into surgery, and coming out of surgery. It's critical, that holistic balance that we all need to be at our best.

I was focused on it before pretty well, and I'm focused on it now afterwards to probably even a higher degree. But yeah, I think without physical health and activity for me, I would just feel kind of incomplete. So it was important to recover as much of that as I could, which thankfully I have.

(06:54) Scott Anthony Barlow: Yeah, and I can definitely identify with that in terms of the, if that's not there, it feels incomplete,

(07:02) Glenn Strecker: I think, as individuals, right? Like, if something has been a part of our life and a part of who we are, so we'll, I know we'll get into strengths and talk about that, but if something like that is automatically just removed or taken away temporarily and the fear of not getting it back again, I think you value to a higher degree, to a higher level than you might have done before. So yeah, for me it was incredibly important to get that back as who I am and then to be the best that I can for my kids. I still, you know, I'm active every single day doing something. Thank goodness I can do that.

(07:42) Scott Anthony Barlow: Changing directions on you a little bit here. What do you feel like originally drew you into sales way back when?

(07:50) Glenn Strecker: I think I knew I was more of a promoter, Scott, than maybe what you would term a typical salesperson. I really enjoy sharing with other people things that I feel are of benefit, things that may be enjoyable, ways in which we can live a fuller life.

So I've always just kind of been what I would describe more as just a promoter, but I think I was drawn to sales because there were also performance elements to it. I know this has been huge my whole life. Like when you're performing, when you're training for different events, when you're very structured in your thinking about an outcome that you want to have, I think for me, sales was a pretty natural progression to say, “How can I bring those performative elements that I like physically into my professional work?”

And then I just feel like I have a curiosity mindset as well. Like, I love to solve problems. I'm a completionist, so I like to see things through. And again, I think these inherent foundational elements of my personality are a pretty complementary fit to most elements in sales. I won't say absolute, a hundred percent alignment, but really good in the right sales environment, representing the right product at the right company, with the right mission, vision, values, which again, like I didn't realize how critical that was. I guess I did at some level, but I didn't to the level I do now because of what I went through.

(09:24) Scott Anthony Barlow: Well, let's talk about that, though, Glenn, because I remember when you and I first got to meet; that was a big driver for you wanting to do this next change in an even more intentional way. Because you'd had some great experiences and you'd also had some experiences, if I remember correctly, where it didn't feel like that right environment for sales, and you didn't get to perform in the way that you're great at.

(09:54) Glenn Strecker: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think one of our first conversations together was me kind of sharing frustration around that. And again, I think it's twofold. So I think the first part of that is sometimes as an individual like myself, you're not just trying to please people, but you're trying to, again, solve a problem.

And so for me, I think there were a couple of opportunities that I accepted. And I knew there were some concerns there, at least red flags going on in my mind about is this the right opportunity for me? Am I aligned? And because, again, I wanted to solve a problem and I felt like I could potentially fit in there, I accepted positions.

What I learned was I was putting myself into positions where there wasn't that synergistic element of me being a totally good fit. And it wasn't that I wasn't being very transparent and honest with who I was, it was that some of these other individuals just had a completely different take on how they were gonna run the business and some of the values that were expressed.

Again, for me, what I learned, and it was really through like the Clifton Strengths assessment part of the course, I think is super cool. Again, from a self-discovery perspective, not if it was an aha moment, but just that there were so many things that were confirmed about my personality and total reinforcement.

And one of the things that still sticks with me, I had a couple sessions with Petal who's, you know, really interesting person and she listened to me pretty carefully. And she's like, “You went against some of the things that are non-negotiable for you from a moral perspective, from a values perspective.”

And I was like, “You're right.” And we all have reasons why we do certain things and accept certain jobs, but I think it's so important to have those non-negotiables for yourself. And to know that there just can't be a compromise there, or it's not gonna ultimately work out as well as it could if they weren't there, if there was better alignment.

So for me, that was like, you know, it doesn't seem like a breakthrough moment, but it was. It was like, “Hey, Glen, do not compromise. These things are what make you unique. These things are what make you credible and empathetic in the marketplace when you are selling and representing products. Do not compromise on these core values. Do not negotiate on things that will ultimately cause you strife and misalignment.”

(12:37) Scott Anthony Barlow: Yeah. So what I'm curious about then is how did you leveraged that information when you got into the transition part of the process?

(12:46) Glenn Strecker: I think I became more aware and more intentional in every conversation that I had, every interview that I had, every amount of follow up that goes into the interview process, my research into various companies, all of that was just much more focused and much more intentional.

And again, I know that it's a, it's a bi-directional thing, right? You're being interviewed and, but you should also keep in mind. That you're interviewing them. And again, I know it's easy to say, “Oh, if you're not aligned, don't accept a job.” I don't wanna make it that simple, 'cause for a lot of people, like, you have to take a job, right?

I had a little bit more flexibility to wait this out. And so for me, that was a blessing and I didn't want to screw it up. I really wanted to say, “Hey, this time around you, you've learned some hard lessons, you've had great coaching. You have people in your corner that are supporting you to make sure you know how important it is to not give in on points that are critical for you.” That's all about treatment of others. Pretty basic stuff for me, but hard lines in the sand.

(14:07) Scott Anthony Barlow: Tell me about a couple of those pieces that fall into that values category for you. And I think that, you know, way back when, when you and I first got to meet, some of those came out loud and clear, but I think some of those you uncovered or validated throughout the process of your, you know, you making this transition too. So tell me about a few of those that were on the top of your list.

(14:29) Glenn Strecker: Treatment of others is just, you know, and professionalism is number one. It seems so simple and yet I think when you're put into sales positions, maybe even more so, you can be asked to do things that maybe don't align, again, back to your value system.

So I think that was number one. So not that I didn't know that coming in, but just really holding true to that. I also think really believing in the solution that you're providing, I'm in the healthcare space, so for me, the whole reason I went into healthcare was to hopefully make it better overall holistically, and then whatever solution I'm delivering, I wanted to have meaningful impact on the member or patient that would be receiving that solution.

And so I was even more deep thinking around that saying, 'cause I've sold, you know, I've sold analytics, I've sold, you know, a bunch of different things where yes, it's having an impact and it's, it's a positive product. But you're kind of a little bit removed from the end patient. And with the company I join now, they are all about the patient.

They're all about the member experience. They're all about making sure that a high-quality clinical outcome is first and foremost. And if you do that, then the potential savings is there and, you know, the mitigation of maybe going to surgery is reduced. Those things I started to realize when I examined my value system, like meaningful work, impactful work, and being able to see it at the base level of a member and a patient, like getting better, working towards full recovery, reducing pain in their life.

I had gone through that with my recovery from the ependymoma, well over a year of figuring out how to take my first steps and going through physical therapy, both in the hospital at home, you know, in a brick and mortar location for like a year. So I really relate to the fact that this solution aligns so well with my values.

Again, back to getting to a place of full recovery and being able to lead your fullest life. So that alignment, and I just think it's fortunate that it worked out so well, but it kept reinforcing how important those values are to me. Again, to get back to the, am I doing something of meaning?

(17:12) Scott Anthony Barlow: Well, and I think that's so interesting too. It, especially since you had had this experience with this, I mean, let's just call it like this health experience overall. And that in itself was influencing a different level of meaning here in this next opportunity, as you are representing something that is within the health system.

But then, in addition to that, at the same time, you have a different level of needing to hold onto, you know, staying on the right side of your values and what is most important to you. So it's being the stakes in many different ways.

(17:48) Glenn Strecker: Yeah. And I, you know, one other point, just to add onto that, the experience that I went through has shaped me in a way that, like, I didn't know the level of resiliency I had within myself.

I know I'm not patient, ask my family if Glenn's a patient man, they'll say no, but I might. But am I perseverant? Yes. And like what I went through was so transformational as far as understanding what we can all overcome, that I feel like this is now part of my story and I've been lucky enough that during my interview process, because what I'm doing now is all about people's individual stories of recovering from pain and going through the process with our solution set.

And so for me, I got to talk about it with people when I interviewed. I'm meeting colleagues in the United States. This company's based in Europe. So, you know, I'm meeting people in Portugal and I've had conversations about my own personal story of recovery and like that connection, not that I wanna be vulnerable, but that ability to be vulnerable with people and say, “This is how important it was to me. I have a passion for this. And look how nicely it aligns with our product.” Again, I like sharing that, Scott, because I don't wanna just throw it out when it's not appropriate. But when people understand we all have our own stories and we do recover, and we do go through these things, I just think that that builds way better human bonds.

And for me, those are the kinds of bonds that I want to create at work. You know, I want people to know everything, or not everything, but I want people to know a lot about, you know, again, what I'm motivated by and what I want to accomplish, so.

(19:49) Scott Anthony Barlow: Well, I think it's important. I mean, not just because it's important to you, but I think it creates those stronger connections.

Well, it also leads to a question for me too, as you were getting into that two-way street that you mentioned earlier, where this, you know, you're in interviews, you're in interactions. And this has to go both ways. It can't just be good for the organization and whoever is serving as your boss, coworkers, et cetera.

It also has to be great for you. With this reinforced knowledge, what did 1-on-1 or maybe a couple of those conversations look like, sound like differently than how you had pursued career transitions in the past. How did you ask questions differently? How did you interact differently? What did that look like? Do you remember?

(20:27) Glenn Strecker: Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that, you know, definitely kind of stood out, I went through a variety of interviews with my sales leader. I went through an interview with a colleague who's more on the customer success side. I went through an executive interview and then a big pitch that I did to them.

But that second middle interview was actually with a gal who very emotionally intelligent, super culture oriented, and I kind of knew going in that, you know, this was gonna be bellwether interview to understand what kind of culture existed before I entered the organization and would I be, I felt very confident from my previous interviews, but what kind of a contribution could I make to that culture with my personality, and could I be my authentic self?

I mean, my connection in that interview and the conversation that I had with that individual was just so confirmational in a positive way that they took seriously evaluating what kind of people they brought into the organization as much as their resume, as much as the success that they've had, you know, licensing to health plans.

That was a huge paramount part of the decision-making process for them. So I went into that because I think my coach, Dianna, and I had had so many conversations about interviewing and how to represent myself that I just felt like it was much more connective than maybe previous interviews that I've had at that stage.

And again, I think it was meant to be because I just feel like there was such a nice, synergistic, comfortable, gracious feeling during that interview. And that's the kind of environment that I'm looking to be a part of, right?

(22:22) Scott Anthony Barlow: Do you remember any of those reframes that were helpful for you as you came across them?

(22:32) Glenn Strecker: I mean, you know, there were a lot. I think, again, one reframe, which I've already shared is, you know, yet, not that you're gonna say, “Yes, I'm older.” But I really, I told them how focused I am now. I told them, again, the energy level and I've never had more experience than I do right now, right. So you should walk into every conversation knowing, hopefully, you're better now than you've ever been in your life.

I do believe that pretty deeply. But it's tough when, again, you get reinforcement from the interviewing process that there's just so much rejection.

(23:15) Scott Anthony Barlow: Let's go back to what worked for you particularly to get this opportunity working for Sword, so how did that come to be?

(23:27) Glenn Strecker: Again, connections. I had a really authentic initial connection with an internal recruiter at the organization, yeah. Just a really super gracious, genuine woman who right away, there was a connection level.

(23:50) Scott Anthony Barlow: How did you get, did you apply or how did you end up in this conversation with–

(23:56) Glenn Strecker: Yeah, she and I had gone back and forth on LinkedIn. She had actually approached me with a role that she thought would be well-suited for me.

And again, using my evaluation skills, I was like, “Nope, that's not the right, that’s not the right spot.” And I said, “But I'm very interested in Sword.” 'Cause I had started to look into what they stood for and their solution set. And so I don't know how much time went between the first time we talked and I kind of said no, but still had created that relationship and she got back to me and because I had told her kind of what I, not kind of, I told her what I was looking for.

And she's like, “Oh, that's interesting. I don't see anything right now,” but, you know, we made such a good connection. So yeah, it was probably a week and a half or two and sure enough, she reached out again and there was super good connection with the role, with my experience set.

And so that kind of catapulted us forward. Again, I had another really lengthy conversation with her, shared some of my deeper-level values and what I was looking for. I was really open about the fact that I had taken a pretty prolonged period of time off to figure all these things out. So I wasn't hiding from that.

And it didn't scare her off it, it made her even more connected to my story and what I stand for. So that was the impetus of how I began. And then, like I said, I had a series of interviews with executives and other, you know, team members that I work closely with now. Ultimately, I had to go through an hour-long pitch to them.

Pitched both the solution. Also, did a pretty extensive territory management plan. And again, even in that process, for me, I was getting confirmation from them, Scott, that they had their act, they had their act together. They knew exactly what they were looking for. They were looking for organized, structured, mature, understanding of the market, emotional intelligence, things beyond paper that they knew would fit well within their really smooth-running operation. They're a relatively, you know, newer company. They've been around since about 2020 commercially. But they had it together. And so the stuff that I was receiving back from them, telling me how important this decision was for them, and then showing me how important it was by investing the time in all those interviews and all the preparation and, you know, listening to me present.

Again, just connection point after connection point was positive.

(26:36) Scott Anthony Barlow: But what advice would you have for that person who is back where you were, you know, many months ago?

(26:44) Glenn Strecker: Yeah, so I'll kind of steal this and I, I don't know who said it in one of your podcasts, 'cause there there were different like statements that people made that, I'd listen when I was on my bike or I'd listen when I was walking, and somebody would say something and I'm like, “Man, lock that away.” And I can't remember who it was, but they were talking about the story they'd like to tell their kids or their grandkids when they're older, about how they lived their life and how they pursued things in their professional portion of their life. And they said like, “I want to be, I wanna be proud of that.”

We all wanna be proud of what we do each and every day. And I am proud of my life. I have two wonderful kids. I've been married for a long time to an amazing person. But for me, that was the other thing that I kind of wanted to feel like, you know, the runner that comes across the finish line with his hands up versus crawling across the line, you know?

Yeah. And so for me, that's what drove me to keep going, even when it was frustrating, was to say, not that I wanna leave a legacy, but I want to be consistent with who I am, which is always trying my absolute best, always being more interested in trying and failing than shriveling away and giving up.

So yeah. My advice to anybody is to kind of keep those things in mind, that you're totally worth every amount of energy investment you make in yourself. And if you need a resource like this, like coaching that can get you to a place that you're striving to be, don't regret it. Dive in and make the decision to invest in yourself.

And then you'll have a team of other people that are helping you through the tougher times, 'cause yeah, there's even a plan. You know, I know the plan to reach out to people when it gets tough, right. And like that's a huge part of it. You guys recognize that there's gonna be troughs and low points during the course of it.

But yeah, in my case, I'm just really grateful I got to a great place and feel like, again, the percentage of me getting here would've been way, way lower had I not had the help and assistance, so.

(29:07) Scott Anthony Barlow: And if you've listened to very many episodes of the Happen to Your Career podcast, you know that this is the entire reason our company exists. To help you find meaningful work that actually fits what you are looking for, help you build the life you want, and figure out how work fits within it.

So if you're ready to take control of your career journey and find work that aligns with your strengths, we'd love to help. All you have to do is just pause this right now and drop me an email, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just shoot me an email. Put “Conversation” in the subject line, scott@happentoyourcareer.com.

I'll connect you with my team, the specific team member who can help with your unique situation. That's all you need to do. Drop me an email right now.

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