584: Redesigning Your Career to Align with Your Evolving Priorities

Haley details how she shifted into a more flexible role for her family without jeopardizing her careerā€™s momentum.

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Guest

Haley Stomp, Business and Marketing Consultant

After climbing the corporate ladder as a marketing executive, Haley realized it was time for a change when her home life and work life were no longer meshing.

on this episode

Ever felt like your career was driving your life instead of the other way around? šŸš—

For Haley Stomp, a successful marketing executive, this realization hit hard when she realized her career was taking her away from moments she wanted to share with her family.

Through her 20s and 30s, her foot had been on the gas for her career. She had traveled around the world and been promoted many times, ultimately ending up as the Vice President of Global Marketing at a large corporation. šŸ“ˆ

“You’re not just going to put the gas down 100% until you die. I mean, it’s okay to kind of work everything together, and maybe that was the realization that this phase of my life needs to all fit together or stack together. It doesn’t have to be, ‘My career is driving everything, and I’ll try to fit everything in there.’ It’s more like, “How do I make this phase of my life ideal with all of the factors that are in it?'”

Haley decided it was time to take a step back and find a career that allowed more time for her family, especially since her children were getting older.

“Now it’s about what works for me in this part of my life. And I only have eight more years till my kids go to college. What do I want that next eight years to look like?”

Discover how Haley took a bold leap to redesign her career, finding a path that fit her evolving priorities without jeopardizing her career trajectory.

If you’re wondering how to do meaningful work while still having time for what matters most to you, you’re going to want to give Haley’s story a listen! šŸŽ§

What you’ll learn

  • How intentional career design can lead to greater fulfillment
  • The importance of being selective and waiting for the right offer
  • How to know when itā€™s time to leave your long-term career (even if itā€™s going well!)
  • The importance of being open to growth and change as your family evolves.

I really walked away with the tools and resources but really more importantly, like the knowledge and insights and understandings of the mindsets that are likely to hold my clients back in their careers, understanding those mindsets and how to coach them through those or really coach them in face. OR professional career coach training and certification program has really helped me in my career in a variety of ways. First one off the bat it's really allowed me to successfully launch my coaching business. It's brought me a long ways and just a handful of months. And it has really provided me with that strong confidence that the roadmap and coaching techniques that I'll use with my clients are tested and proven. I'm no longer guessing and hoping something will work or wondering if I've done enough to prepare for a client. On top of that, it's helped me in my career as someone who is building their business as a side hustle on top of a full time job. This program has really saved me incredible amounts of time by not having to figure out on my own or recreating all the tools and content to use with my clients that allows them to go deeper into their limiting beliefs and obstacles. So as someone again, who has a lot of things going on in their life, it's actually saved me a lot of time. OR So coming in to the professional career coach training and certification program, so much information was shared and the outline looks great. And I really had high expectations coming in and all of those were met and exceeded. The piece that I maybe didn't expect or underestimated was, how quickly I could incorporate these concepts into my coaching practice that this wasn't learning and then studying and six months down the road, okay, maybe I'll start doing that thing. These were techniques and strategies I could start implementing immediately. So the classroom to real life transition was incredibly faster than I could have thought or hoped it would be in the best of ways.

Erin Allett, Career Coach

I convinced myself for many years, that I was very lucky to have that job, and I would be crazy to leave it. I convinced myself that the team needed me even though I was miserable. And ultimately, it took me getting physically sick to realize I needed to leave! One of the biggest things that I learned out of the signature coaching was on designing my life. And this is another thing that I had really never, it had, I don't know, if it had never occurred to me. I just never believed it was possible until now.

Michael Fagone, Mortgage Loan Officer and Finance Executive, United States/Canada

Haley Stomp 00:01

Now it's about what works for me in this part of my life, and I only have eight more years till my kids go to college. What do I want the next eight years to look like?

Introduction 00:16

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does, and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:40

A few years back, my wife had a health scare that became a serious wake-up call for me. I realized I'd been telling myself over and over that my family was my biggest priority, but I wasn't building a life that truly put them first. I thought I was showing up for them, but when it came down to it, I was constantly pulled away by work, deadlines, and the endless to-do list that seemed to grow every single day. But in that moment with my wife, I understood something absolutely had to change. I had lost sight on why I started this journey in the first place, to create a life where my family could come first. Maybe you're feeling like your career is driving everything else, leaving little room for what truly matters to you right now. What if, instead of trying to fit your life around your work, you could flip the script and design your career to fit around your life?

Haley Stomp 01:30

You're not just gonna put the gas down 100% until you die. I mean, it's okay to kind of work everything together. And maybe that was the realization that this phase of my life needs to all fit together or stack together. It doesn't have to be my career is driving everything, and I'll try to fit everything in there. It's more like, how do I make this phase of my life ideal with all of the factors that are in it?

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:55

That's Haley Stomp. Haley received her degree in engineering, but later pivoted to marketing, where she worked for well over a decade. And when she reached out to us, she was a senior vice president in Worldwide Marketing, and she is also a mom. Haley realized it was time for another career pivot when her priorities began shifting and her home life and work life were no longer meshing. I want you to take a listen in the conversation that I have with her because you're going to hear how Haley came to terms with leaving the company that she'd been with for quite a long time, over a decade. And we're going to dive into her journey of intentional change, uncovering how she designed her career around the life that she wants for herself and her family, not the other way around. Here she is talking about where her career started.

Haley Stomp 02:43

Yeah, I had a couple big pivots during my career. So I graduated with a chemical engineering degree, and I went into engineering in a food production company. So I know how to make a lot of different thingsā€“ breakfast, cereal, fruit snacks, and cake, and all kinds of stuff. So that was exciting. I did that for several years, and then I made a transition from that company to a different company. And when I switched to that job, I started my master's to get my MBA. And when I was getting my degree, at night, I started shifting from manufacturing into R&D and project management, and that gave me a whole view of all the different functions in a business. And I realized that marketing was having a lot of fun. They were getting to go do stuff and get out of the manufacturing plant. And so as I was finishing my degree, I tailored my classes to the marketing end. So by the time I got done with my master's, I had been eyeing a marketing job within the same company. I moved into that role. It was a big change for me to go from being an engineer to being in charge of marketing.

Scott Anthony Barlow 03:55

Okay, hold on. Let me ask you about that then. So was that really a case of where you're looking at other people in marketing and be like, "That looks like they get to have all the fun." Or were there other elements there that caused you to say, "Hey, I think I want to lean more towards marketing." Tell me about that.

Haley Stomp 04:12

Yeah. I mean, it was both. I was working on really important projects, but I literally bought a manure-spreading truck for a project I was working on. I was working with sulfuric acid, which was dangerous. I was getting called in the middle of the night because pumps weren't running. From doing all of these things that were interesting and exciting, I love the science and I love that I was doing it, but I was seeing the business side, and people were getting to make big strategic decisions, and get outside of those walls of the plant and go places and see people and do things, and I really wanted to be a part of that action.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:47

Is that part of the... I've gotten to know you a little bit over the last year and a half, and one thing that has become very evident to me is those strategic decisions are something that you are very good at. I'm curious, though, where you started to realize and recognize that, one, that was fun for you because it sounds like that's part of what you were alluding to. And then two, that that was something that you were or had the potential to be great at.

Haley Stomp 05:17

You know, I took a bridge role in between engineering and marketing. It was a project manager role. And in that project manager role, I could take my project manager skills as an engineer and see all the potential problems, and I got to understand all the functions. And the thing I really liked doing, I got to report to the leadership team on how our project was doing. I get to tell them, "Here's where the problems are. Here's where we need money. Here's what's going well." And I loved that part of it, trying to direct the decisions and figure out and basically negotiate on the things that I think needed to happen so we could hit the goal. But that role was really, I think, where I discovered my love of being in that position.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:58

So how did that influence then some of the changes that you made after that?

Haley Stomp 06:02

Yeah, so I applied for a marketing role when I graduated and moved out of the project manager role. Got the marketing role. And a couple months into this role, I had a presentation in Belgium. I got to fly to Belgium and give this presentation, and one of the leaders in the company approached me, and she said, "Hey, we want to go work with this company in China, and we need somebody to launch this product for us globally. Would you be interested?" I was like, "I know nothing about the product. I've never been to China, but yes."

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:32

Sure, that sounds great. Let's do it.

Haley Stomp 06:35

Yeah. And I mean, it was one of those exciting door moments for me where I just took a leap and just did it. It was probably the biggest pivot of my career to go do that because it pushed me out of my comfort zone, and it just sent me down this track that was really eye-opening and developing and changing on what I was going to be doing.

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:56

What were some of the biggest learnings out of that experience living outside your comfort zone?

Haley Stomp 07:04

I learned I couldn't be afraid to fly when you have to get on a 13-hour flight. You have to get over that in a hurry. I think the main thing I learned is that I could do so much more than I gave myself credit for. I mean, I went to Asia by myself for a whole month, and I was also pretty scrappy. And, you know, the big learning, I think, when you leave your culture and start working within other cultures, it's just how similar you are. And it was about building those relationships and understanding where people are coming from and building that team. And you know, they're my teammates, like, the person that sits in the same town as me, they're the same as that in terms of our relationship and what we needed to do together.

Scott Anthony Barlow 07:44

I'm also curious then, what caused you, after you started making these changes, recognizing what you enjoyed more and then moving up the ladder with this organization, what were the pieces that caused you to recognize that you no longer wanted to move in the same path?

Haley Stomp 08:02

Yeah, I mean, I think my priorities shifted a little bit. I went through... When I didn't have kids, I was doing a lot of this exciting climbing and traveling and all of that. And then when you start to have to balance, you know, a marriage and kids and all of this stuff, you just have to reprioritize a little bit. So I think it was that balancing act was definitely a reason to shift and think about, how am I going to do all of this. And I think, too, I've always had a project mindset. So as an engineer, you could be a process engineer, project engineer, I tended to be a project engineer. I wanted to start on an end date, and I wanted to see that, and then I wanted to move on to the next thing. And so I think there were a couple points where I was like, "All right, I feel like I've gotten this to a good point. I need the next thing."

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:50

I need to get this project to be over and move on to a different.

Haley Stomp 08:53

I'm ready for the next one. Because this is more about maintaining and more incremental growth where I was looking maybe for some of those opportunities to make those big shifts.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:03

So that's really fascinating. I think even that mindset of having a project outlook, and I found that that can be really helpful for people because when we're in a, what was the name of the last role you're in?

Haley Stomp 09:17

Senior Vice President of Global Marketing.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:19

Yeah, when you're in, you know, that type of role where you're Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, it just goes on. It is not necessarily something that unless you are treating it as a project with an open and closed and maybe even experimental type mindset, then it is perpetual. And I think that in itself, creates a lot of challenges when other things start to change in your life, like, you described, hey, was married and had kids, and there became other different priorities that started to become very important as well. And when something's perpetual or non-project, then it's harder I found to even think about stepping away or changing the landscape or moving on to the next project, or whatever. So I'm curious what that was like for you, and whether you found the same experience, or what advice you might give to someone who's in that situation.

Haley Stomp 10:15

You know, I think one of the big learnings I've had in the last couple of years is that there are phases in life. You know, you go to college and your eye is on the prizeā€“ I'm going to get my degree, I'm going to get this job, I'm focused on my career, and oh by the way, I want to get married and have kids, but I'm focused on my career, and you're kind of going through your 20s. And even for me, I would say my early 30s, like this is all just going to work out. And I think the last couple of years, I really realized that look, I'm in a different phase now. I read there was an article recently that I ran across where it talked about the three phases of a woman's career. And it was so helpful to say, "Oh, wait, this is normal. There are phases in a career." And as I'm getting older, as the things in my life, priorities are changing, it's okay. It's normal that your career is going to look different along these phases, and that you're not just going to put the gas down 100% until you die. I mean, it's okay to kind of work everything together. And maybe that was the realization that this phase of my life needs to all fit together or stack together. It doesn't have to be my career is driving everything, and I'll try to fit everything in there. It's more like, how do I make this phase of my life ideal with all of the factors that are in it? So, you know, on your project versus perpetual I think it was about giving myself permission to say, "I get to design this space how it works for me, instead of just following along the career trajectory and hoping everything else fits in."

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:48

That makes a lot of sense. What made you finally decide that "I'm going to make a career change from that role, that situation, that organization." What took place that caused you to decide?

Haley Stomp 12:02

Yeah. So two years before I left, I had been in a role for about 10 years, and we had done amazing things. I had built a team, we had grown the business, so much success, so much fun. But I was at that point like I was talking about the project versus perpetual, where it was more about maintaining an incremental growth, and I was hungry for that next thing to challenge me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 12:24

That other project. Yeah.

Haley Stomp 12:25

I was ready. And so I was at a decision point internally in the company too, do I look outside, or do I look for something internal? And timing worked out really well for me to try this global rule, to go back to the global rule, and putting my Superwoman cape on, I was going to spend half the time out of the country and do this amazing job. At the same time, my kids were starting to need more from me in terms of activities and eating and whatever it was, you know. So I think it was a little bit of a perfect storm in terms of it was the ultimate challenge. I tried to, I think about watching the Olympics and different drives have different difficulty ratings. I feel like I stepped into like, okay, the highest difficulty rating. So if I perform it here, I should get a really good score because the difficulty rating of everything I'm trying to do at once is pretty high.

Scott Anthony Barlow 13:17

What was the final thing? If you remember, if there was one thing that caused you to say, "Okay, this is it. I'm making the change."

Haley Stomp 13:26

I remember the day that I was like, "All right, something's got to change." I was on a conference call, and I'd been on several conference calls, and I'd been really trying to keep it all going. And I just dropped off the call, and I got in my car, I left work, I got in my car, and I drove to my parents' house, and I just said, "Look, I don't know if I can go back to work tomorrow. Like, how am I going to get up tomorrow? I have all these things that need to be done. I need to talk about this." And so, in the bucolic small town, Iowa way, we went to an apple orchard and bought some apples. We had a nice dinner, we talked about it, and the next morning I got up, I called into the next conference call and drove home while I was on the call, and was like, "All right, I'm gonna get through this, but I've made a decision that I need to make a change, and I need to figure out how to do that." So a project manager that was going to go back on and say, "What's my action that I need to take to get out of this place?" And I didn't mention this before, but earlier in my career, I'd had another moment where I was like things were not going well. I need to leave. And I gave myself, at that point, I gave myself three months. I said, "I am doing this for three months, and I'm going to make it work. And if in three months I haven't fixed it, then I will make a decision." And luckily, at that point, three months later, it was all going great. But in that pivot point, in 2020, I could feel that I needed to upset the apple cart in an even bigger way to make it better.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:01

After you made that decision, do you remember what it felt like at that point in time? What did that feel like?

Haley Stomp 15:07

Honestly, relief. I had a sense of relief like, okay, I made a decision. And I think I've noticed that a lot along the way. And making a decision, one way or another, is such a relief. And it may not be the right decision, but, man, just making that decision feels good. And it's like, "All right, I made this decision. Now I can start moving on whatever plan is following that decision."

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:30

That is amazing. I also have felt that. And now, actually, strangely, I use that as an indicator for whether or not I felt like making the right decision for me. If I'm getting some of those same senses and feelings after I've made that decision, that helps validate it. That said, though, I'm curious, what advice would you give to people who are in those same sort of situations who are trying to make those types of decisions for themselves? Because it's hard.

Haley Stomp 16:00

You know, it's really hard. And I think so much about this, and I think from some of my other friends and contacts too, I wish that I had a coach while I was still at my last job. I wish I had hired a career coach while I'm just within my company trying to make decisions. And it's lonely at the top. And the farther you move up in a company, especially when you've been there for a while, people have seen you at different levels, and so when you get to the top, it's hard to find the right people to admit that you're not sure what to do or you need help. And so you have to build that network. And yes, you build it within, but I absolutely think building it outside of where you're at is so helpful. And when I left, I made a huge effort to build my personal board of advisors. And I had, I mean, I joined a women's networking group. I had Happen To Your Career, we had the Happen To Your Career group outside of that. I had my therapist. I had my friend who wanted help marketing. She started her life coaching business, so we were trading hour for hour. And then I had some other people that I just made a list like, these are the people that are going to support me. But if I look back, I wish I'm like, man, I would have enjoyed work more before if I would have done some of those things earlier, if I had worked harder to put that together. I just want to tell any HR person out there, any manager out there, help your people get that network because it would be so beneficial.

Scott Anthony Barlow 17:27

It creates a much healthier place to operate from, is how I've always thought about it, as opposed to not having that network and having all those questions like, "Should I be doing this? Should I not be doing this? Is this right for my career? Is this...?" Like all the million things that go through. And I've experienced the same thing, the further up you go in any organization, no matter what size it is, small or large, it definitely becomes far more challenging to find people to where you can talk through things like that, and it's still appropriate and productive and useful for the other people as well, and yourself.

Haley Stomp 18:06

Yeah, and you know, we put a lot of pressure on people's managers, but I think finding a mentor is helpful. But the thing I liked about having a coach is that person is dedicated to helping me. And, you know, in my case, Mo was seeing all kinds of other people in similar positions. And so it was really helpful to hear, "Oh, you know, luckily, there are a lot of other case studies and other people where we can draw information and draw experience from." And that was very helpful for me too.

Scott Anthony Barlow 18:34

"You're the third person I've talked to today, that is..." No, but seriously, though, like all joking aside, I can completely appreciate where that is very helpful. Because if it's normalized, whatever it is, whatever we're talking about, whatever type of challenge, if it's normalized, that alleviates some of the feelings of craziness or whatever else other people might feel. I'm not even sure what to call that feeling, honestly,

Haley Stomp 19:02

Well, I think there's so much responsibility. As a leader, you're trying to be there for your people, and you're showing strength, and you're showing resilience and all of those things. But it doesn't mean you wouldn't benefit from some help or somebody to talk through these things with. And from the female perspective, when you work with a lot of males, sometimes it can be intimidating or hard to say, "Hey, I don't know what to do here, because you're already trying to look like you know what you're doing." So that was another factor sometimes too, is, man, can I find another female who's 10 years older than me to just kind of tell me how it's going? What do I need to do? You know?

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:38

Yeah, when you look back after you made that decision to make a change, and then as you started exploring what your next steps would look like, what was most challenging or what surprised you along the way?

Haley Stomp 19:55

I had to, I mean, my job was my identity. So I had to figure out who was I without this job, and what did I want to do. And there was some work for me to understand that just because I left that role, I didn't leave all of my strengths behind, and I didn't leave who I was behind, all of that was still me. I could take that with me, and then I just needed to look for the next place to apply it. So I think it was unraveling that idea of, you know, am I a failure for leaving this role? Was it because I couldn't handle it? Was there something wrong with me that I couldn't do this? And kind of getting to the point where, no, that's absolutely not the case. And I think there was also a really positive feeling the day that I posted on LinkedIn, that I had left that role, so many industry contacts had complimented the work I had done to that point. And I think that was a learning to say, "All right, I did this for a really long time. I've banked all this. This is my experience, and no one can take it from me, and I don't need to feel bad about making this decision for myself." It's okay, it's good. And again, life has phases. You make these changes, you don't have to stay at the same place your whole career. And sometimes it's okay to do that for yourself.

Scott Anthony Barlow 21:16

Why do you think that's so hard for so many of us?

Haley Stomp 21:19

Well, I mean, it's safe and comfortable, and you know what you're doing, you've got that structure, you know the bad and the good already, you don't have to learn that. And you have your network, and you have all of that. I think it's scary to let it all go and just kind of be out there by yourself. And I think that's really hard. And the other thing, you know, when you're a manager, you don't want to leave your people. You feel bad about, "Oh, I don't want a..."

Scott Anthony Barlow 21:44

That sense of responsibility. That's pervasive.

Haley Stomp 21:47

Yes, and then you have to remind yourself that, "Look, any of these people could leave tomorrow." You have to be kind of selfish. And it can be hard to be selfish about those things when you've been trained to be in a leadership role where your main job is to help develop people and to help your team. You know, to say, "All right, I need to be selfish about what I need." It can be really hard to just say, "All right, I gotta do this for me."

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:11

Yeah. So let's talk about that for just a second. I think that's really fascinating that you use the word selfish there because I would argue that changing pieces so that you can make sure that you're taken care of as well as taking care of your kids, you know, your family. It's probably not actually that selfish, but it definitely feels selfish. I jokingly and seriously use that word a lot, like, I'm like, "Go ahead and be selfish", like, for a minute, like, what? But what do you think for you that feels selfish to where we need to use that word? Because you're not a selfish person. You're the furthest thing from a selfish person that I can think of. Still, though it feels that way.

Haley Stomp 22:53

I will tell you it doesn't feel that way anymore.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:56

That's great.

Haley Stomp 22:56

Yes. I just, I think, at the time, because you spend so much time building these things, and you're so committed, maybe we take so much out of the success and the things that we're able to do. It's really tangible. The rewards of working and doing that are very tangible. You get paid, you get praised, you see the results on a budget, on a sales sheet. You can really touch and feel the success of what you're doing, and so it's a very tangible way to see that what you're doing matters. It's not always tangible to see that I made chicken for my kids and they're super happy. That's not...

Scott Anthony Barlow 23:34

Sometimes they're not super happy.

Haley Stomp 23:36

Yeah, actually, I guess they don't really like my cooking. But I think we tie so much of our worth into that, and who we are into that. And, you know, and especially me, being a female in a more male-dominated area for so long, being a first-generation college student, I mean, I remember thinking at some point, I'm done. I don't have to prove anything to anybody else anymore, like, I'm done. I can be done with that. And now it's about what works for me in this part of my life. And I only have eight more years till my kids go to college. What do I want the next eight years to look like?

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:10

Yeah, we've definitely had that conversation many times over. Or it's like there's only this much time for this, for the kids, and that is definitely a driving force for me as well. I am also really curious, you said, "Hey, I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel like it is selfish in the same way that I did at the time." What changed for you and what did you have to do for yourself in order to get to that point to be able to look at it differently?

Haley Stomp 24:43

Well, I started writing, and I think that was helpful. I also think when I finally started talking to other people about other jobs and explaining my experience, the reaction I would get was sometimes surprising. You know, when you're at the same place for so long and you're always pushing and being pushed and doing things, you don't actually realize maybe, you don't appreciate everything you've done. Not everybody's been to all the countries I've been to, not everybody's done the things I've done. But it's hard to realize that when you're in it. And so I think, when I started looking at other opportunities and talking to other people, it was nice to see their reaction to, oh, you know, and just realize that all right, there is value without this company, there's value without my title, my experiences here, I'm very comfortable and confident in what I have done. And so I think it was just starting to reach out and look at other positions and realize and be able to compare all those years and what all that experience looks like compared to other potential roles. And also, just honestly, just talking to other people who have done it, listening to the podcast, I mean, you have so many good examples of nothing fell apart when they quit and found the next thing, every one of those is...

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:55

Life still went on. Crazy, isn't it? Like, life still went on.

Haley Stomp 25:59

That was a huge thing for me. Like, oh, it's cool. If I don't leave the country for a month, guess what? I still have cool things to do. There's people to meet. Life is going on all around me, outside of where I was at. And I just... I needed to actually see it to believe it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:16

Okay, let's go all the way back to when you made that decision, and you were maybe even just before that decision, maybe the month prior to that. Because we have a lot of people that are listening to the podcast that are in that place right now, and they are considering, "Hey, do I stay? Do I go? If I went, what would that look like? What does the world...? All the things that you know having been there run through all these crazy things that run through your mind, and also some of the not-so-crazy ones too, and you don't necessarily know which ones are which. But what advice would you give to that person who's in that place, who's trying to decide, should I make a career change? If so, what does that look like? What does a better life or better career look like for me? What does extraordinary look like?

Haley Stomp 27:04

Yeah, I mean, well, if they're listening to the podcast, that's a great start because for me, it was just so helpful to hear other people make that decision and come out okay on the other side, that was really helpful. And I still have it up in front of me on my board, the ideal career profile. Like, writing down here is what I want it to look like. And you could even, you know, what I ended up doing was I made a spreadsheet with, here are all the things I want, here are the opportunities, and I would score it, and it would give me a really quantitative objective look at this. I mean, people could do that where they're currently at too, to see what's missing. You know, when I used to coach my team members, I'd be like, "All right, you're not happy where you're at. But can we design something internally first? Can we look at that first?" But I mean, honestly, I hate to be a broken record but hire a coach. Go get yourself a career coach.

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:57

So much easier. I very much have been in the camp over and over again, and my identity used to be built on, "I can figure this out myself." Like, very, very much so strong. Like, my dad is a wonderful, really wonderful role model, and also he's the type of guy who would just figure it out, like, never pay for anything. So that was what I grew up with. And, well, in some cases, I'm still releasing that, and there are many things in life it's just harder or impossible to do on your own. So I really appreciate that advice, not just because we have a team of coaches working with people all over the world.

Haley Stomp 28:35

Well, and I think it's, I mean, it's really daunting when you haven't updated your resume or really been on LinkedIn because you've been happy for a long time, or when you haven't done any of those things, it's so overwhelming to think about, "I don't even know where to find a person to help me or how to do this." And so a couple years ago, I found somebody to help me rewrite my LinkedIn and my resume, just in case. And I found Happen To Your Career by Googling, you know? And I was like, and I compared it with a few other things, and was like, "This one feels good, but I just kind of had to take some leaps of faith to find some of those resources." Because when you have to start, you have to start somewhere. I think that's the thing.

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:15

One last fun fact before we go. I feel really fortunate that I get to interact with a lot of our clients, not all of our clients, but you and I got to meet along the way. And that doesn't necessarily happen for everyone, but then later on, we actually talked about a role here at Happen To Your Career, which is something that doesn't happen all the time at all. And what was really cool, you mentioned your ideal career profile, which you said, "Hey, I still have up." And your ideal career profile helped us realize that what we were talking about at the time just honestly was not the right opportunity for you. And I think that that is so cool, and evidence of like, "Hey, that working, and you staying in line with what is true for you."

Haley Stomp 29:58

Yeah, I think that was so helpful. And there were a lot of times along the journey where I was like, "I should take this job, or I should take these jobs because I should get a job." And it was, it took a lot of patience and willpower, and practice. They know the things that weren't right.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:13

That's so hard.

Haley Stomp 30:14

Yeah. But as I went along, it got a little easier. But there were definitely points where I was like, "I should probably just take this job", and I'm glad I didn't do that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:30

Most of the episodes you've heard on Happen To Your Career showcase stories of people that have taken the steps to identify and land careers that they are absolutely enamored with, that match their strengths and are really what they want in their lives. If that's something that you're ready to begin taking steps towards, that's awesome. And we want to figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest. Take the next five seconds to open up your email app and email me directly. I'm gonna give you my personal email address, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to someone on our team who can have a super informal conversation with and we'll figure out the very best type of help for you, whatever that looks like. And the very best way that we can support you to make it happen. So send me an email right now with 'Conversation' in the subject line.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:22

Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Speaker 3 31:28

I was like, it just... I felt like I had no place to go. I think I had, like, some sunken cost fallacy in there where I was like, I'm just here, and I've spent so much time doing this that what else am I going to do?

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:42

There are countless stories we tell ourselves to stay stuck in a job that's no longer serving us. Maybe you're convinced you've invested too much time at an organization to just walk away, or that you'd be heartless to abandon your team and that they'd never forgive you because they need you there. It can be really tough to challenge your own logic. But what if staying is costing you much more than what you realize?

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:10

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep and you get it automatically. Even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week, adios. I'm out.

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