Career Change Archives

Scott Barlow: Today we have a bit of a different episode. I don’t have a guest today because I have something incredibly important to talk about. It is by far one of the most requested pieces of information that we get emailed about all the time. I wanted to put together a “how to” guide for what you can do to actually go step-by-step to find a job, and particularly a career that you love and are excited about. So that at least most days you can’t wait to get up in the morning to go do that thing. It happens differently than most everyone thinks.

We have produced close to 200 episodes, in around 4 years, which blows me away. We wanted to be able to put this episode together that takes you through the overview of the process. We also dive in with examples and how to do each piece.
Here’s what I mean and what we will cover:

Step 1: Identifying your ideal career and giving you a ton of resources on how to do that. We have devoted separate podcasts and training for this piece to really identify what fits you. We will start with that.

Step 2: How to use that to identify organizations that you think might fit what you want for a career.

Step 3: How to reach out to companies that would be a good fit based on what you learned in steps 1 and 2.

That is what we are covering today. It is the single biggest thing we have requests about as people learn more about how to make these incredibly difficult career changes. Often when people come to us they don’t say, “I am an HR generalist and I want to be a manager.” We don’t get that request. Mostly it’s more like an accountant saying “I’m trying to figure out what I really want to do. I think maybe it’s a museum curator but I’m not really sure. I want to learn what I should be doing and then how to do it.” Those are the types of incredibly difficult requests we get.

The first biggest part is identifying what they want to do.

To start let’s begin with why people should do this differently. That is our theme. There are many studies to support that the average person isn’t excited about their current role or situation. You can make a case that most of us don’t know how to enjoy the journey and that is the cause of unhappiness, but I think it is a lot bigger than a lack of mindfulness skills. Instead, it is often a misalignment with what you value, what is important to you, and what you are great at or can be great at - Your signature strengths. There are also a few other pieces.

That is where we start. To get rid of the misalignment you have to do things differently than the average person to be able to make a change. I know that is obvious.

Let’s talk about what that is and what it can look like.

Step one is identifying your ideal career. People first come to us asking “how do I identify my ideal job or career path?” That is the wrong question. We have entire podcasts on this. We put together a training, 8 or 9 episodes, on this topic. Go to figureitout.co and we have a mini course there. Another more extensive place for information is in iTunes or anywhere you can search podcasts. Search “what fits you.” You will find a podcast intended to be listened to from the beginning straight through. It’s an audio course format. Use that as a resource. It is an entire training on how to identify the ideal career. It isn’t how you think about it. When identifying the ideal career we perceive it to be finding an ideal situation for you and identifying that situation, not an ideal job or title. Not I want to be an HR manager or in medical, or whatever else, because when you identify it that way it is incomplete and missing important variables that make you happy within your career and the time you spend at work. We spend so much time there and we fail to see the other pieces and try to assign it to one thing. The reality is it isn’t just one thing.

Let’s discuss what it actually is. There are some basics for everyone to have an ideal view of your career or picture of what your next career step could and should look like to have a higher chance to make sure it is fulfilling. Here are basics that have a number of studies to support them:

Is the work something that goes against your strengths or does it work with your strengths? These are things you are good at and have a tendency to gravitate to. Not really your passions, like enjoying eating spaghetti. A passion doesn’t mean it is something that should be a career, but is it something that works with your strengths versus against them?

We’ve got an entire podcast to help you understand that. We have tools on our site like Strengthsfinder 2.0. Go to happentoyourcareer.com/strengthsfinder. That will help you quantify and identify your strengths. That is just the start, then you get into your signature strengths - those things that you are both great at and have a tendency to enjoy. It’s not necessarily activities, but a mix of personality and the way you are wired. Things you happen to be good at, predispositions, etc. The important part is thing one.

Is the work engaging for you? This is a variable that differs slightly for everybody. Some of the most important things are whether you have clarity on what the work is.
1. Is there a defined start and end? I’ve heard that over and over as an HR manager. People don’t understand where work starts and ends. It was ambiguous and they couldn’t relate and it wasn’t engaging.
2. Is there variety in the task? If there isn’t you aren’t stimulated and you get bored.
3. Do you have the ability or freedom to make the decision on how you are doing the work? That is the opposite of micro-management.
4. The other piece is are you getting some type of feedback so you know how well you are doing. If you don’t have those things it is highly likely the work won’t be engaging.

Another piece is do you work with people like your boss that you feel are good, supportive, and there for you? The same is true for the other people you work with. A number of studies show that your boss is one of the most important pieces that shows up pretty high as being a big deal about whether you are excited about your job. Your colleagues play into this as well. Are they creating a supportive environment?

The other piece that is a big deal is if you are working incredibly long hours. If you don’t feel like you are getting paid fairly or treated fairly that is also a big deal or if you feel like there is a ton of time that is a waste. For example, I used to commute for two hours and I felt like that was time that was a waste in my life. It made the job, regardless of the actual job, a bad deal for me.

The last, but possibly most important, is does that job/role fit with what you value in the rest of your life? Both if the job isn’t going against your values and if it allows you to do other things important in your life.

Those are the five biggest things that we see again and again. They are all part of whether or not a career actually fits you. If you are only looking at any one of these pieces or just asking a question like “is HR right for me or operations management, or research” you are missing the point. Instead we want you to look at the larger picture. That is why when we sit down and help people put together an ideal career profile we incorporate all of these pieces. Without them you are shooting in the dark sometimes.

You want to have all of those pieces. Let’s say you’ve gone to the trouble to take what you know about yourself, what is important to you, what environment is great with you, what you value, etc. You know your needs and strengths. (We are skipping over a whole bunch of work.) After you have all of that we create an ideal career profile and what it could look like minus the job title, because job titles are different in different organizations, and it’s missing the point.

We take that ideal career profile and we go to step 2, identifying organizations that might fit this. Think of this like when you were in fourth grade science learning about a hypothesis and testing it. In the next steps you are going to create a hypothesis for yourself and test your theory. Step 2 is all about identifying organizations. People get caught up in this and how to do it.

“How do I begin identifying? I want to cut right to the correct one.”

It doesn’t work like that. Here is how to do it using the common steps. It is not a straight line path which can make it difficult. People want an instant result and you need to refrain from that. Instant results lead you to nowhere. Here’s the how.

Start with what you know. For example, if you know that within your ideal career profile that you want to travel while working and have people that value you to get the work done, then that means - and you have to think critically - you know you can’t always be at the office and the organization needs to run in a way that empowers its people.

You might start by researching organizations that offer remote work. Those types will have higher tolerance for you traveling while working and not require you sitting at a desk in a cubical for a particular time at a particular computer. They often have a higher degree of trust because of the distributive workforce, meaning the people are spread throughout, the globe, different cities, and areas. They are not all in the same office.

If that is the case, this means that I can google remote work job sites or flexible work job sites. I can take what I know and put it into google and it becomes another place to start. Then it pops up flexjobs.com or the muse.com and I can search remote work. I can get an idea of the companies that allow for that, condone that, or find it valuable. That is a really basic example. That is the process: starting with what you know, taking a section of your ideal career profile and drawing a conclusion for what you know, going piece by piece, and converting it over using critical thinking to find what organization will support it. Once I know that I can begin applying it and finding the organizations.

Let’s say I am interested in remote work and traveling. It’s very important to me, but it’s not to everyone. But if it is, then on flexjobs.com I can begin making a list of companies that align with other pieces of my ideal career profile. Those are my hypotheses. I don’t know for a fact that these companies are actually perfectly aligned with my ideal career profile. It’s not only okay, but part of the process, but people really struggle with this. We help people know where to search and translate it into organizations that may offer it. It comes up again and again. It’s not easy but we do it every day. Most people aren’t doing it frequently. The good news is once you get the hang of it it applies to other areas. Once you can think critically it translates into other areas of your life. Not just your career, but understanding and devising ways to go after what is important to you that is feasible.

Once you identify this initial list of companies you can begin testing your theory. One of my favorite ways to do this, because it works a lot, is reaching out to companies you think might fit. We call this the test drive method. You’ve heard of informational interviews, where you schedule an interview with the company, and often have coffee, you bring your resume and you ask a lot of questions. That is great and informational interviews are good, and I know a ton of people who have gotten jobs this way but I prefer a different method.

The test drive method is one of those. The biggest difference in the test drive method versus informational interviews is you aren’t there to get a job. You aren’t there to get a job. I say it a third time, because it’s shocking. You aren’t there to get a job.

For a variety of different reasons, mainly because you don’t know if you want to work for this organization you only have a hypothesis but you haven’t validated it yet. So why would you be there to get a job before you know whether it fits you, it’s what you want, and all the things we talked about, and if it fits the pieces of your ideal career profile. We aren’t looking for one hundred percent but at least eighty percent to see if we should continue.

You are instead there to find out more and learn about the people in the organization that can help you understand different roles. Your sole goal is to learn about them. As soon as they perceive that you are there to get a job then very often they have places for that. They send you to HR. They will say I can’t help you we aren’t hiring. If you are there for a job they will do what they already know how to do. They already have ways to handle that. Instead I want you there asking for their opinions. That is a different thing.

Their opinions, advice, stories, and information about the organization is something that can be provided. They may not have a way to handle that and it’s outside the social norms. That is one of many reasons it can be a more effective way to learn. If you are asking for a job it’s like asking for marriage on the first date. Let’s say you are on a first date, at the table and you put down your fork and say I’m feeling pretty good about this, what do you say we get married? How about that? At that point the date is probably over. If it’s not over, there won’t be a second. It would rarely ever lead to immediate marriage because you don’t know the person and they don’t know you. For the same reasons why would you do that if you are just getting to know an organization. If by some miracle you get an immediate job, which has happened, then it’s not going to be a good fit. Or at least you don’t know it will be.

Let me give an example of a different place where this same philosophy works. You may know this if you listen to our show. My coaches do help calls. We get on the phone and we try to figure out how we can help you. This is different than selling you something. Everyone has had a bad sales experience. Bad sales experiences make you feel pushed. They are inorganic, they don’t flow, and your alerts go off. It doesn’t feel right. Instead when we get on the phone with the intention to help people very often those people turn into customers of ours, but we aren’t there to sell them something. That is not our job, it is to help them. We know, and have the numbers to support it, that when we legitimately try to help people, often those people come back around and ask about other services. A huge percentage of people turn into customers and we see it again and again. It is the same way for when you contact organizations and test your hypothesis. The second you are there for a job, it feels like bad sales. It feels like you are asking for something that is misaligned, being pushy, etc. Instead if you are there to ask for their advice, learn more about them, and are genuinely curious you will learn more. And it’s hard to fake genuine curiosity. That is where it often turns into opportunities that other people won’t get. Very often when my coaches jump on the phone and we try to help people those people often end up buying from us. It’s the same thing. They end up buying from you because you are there showing genuine interest. People know this. You know genuine interest when you see it. You have a BS indicator. We all have that.

These are some of the biggest reasons why something like this is much more effective and the secret behind the secret is that you have to be genuine about it. You have to be going to learn. Legitimately going to them to test your theory. There are a variety of ways this can happen. You can go in and call someone there that has a job you think is interesting and say “I’m going to make a career change in the future and I am interested in your organization, then I found you on linked in and I’m interested in what you do. I’m wondering if you and I can schedule fifteen minutes where I can ask you questions about your job and company.” It can be that easy. That is just one method. We teach other scripts. That is one example to learn more about the person and organization.

Another reason it works, and an example of it, is Felix Oberholzer-Gee who did research at Harvard and was starting to think about a problem of waiting in line. He came up with this while waiting in line at the airport and decided to conduct an experiment on waiting in line, particularly to see if he approached people in line, offering, a cash payment would those people allow him to cut or take their place. He was curious if it would be accepted and how much it would cost. I was interested in this because I wanted to know how much social norms, and a sense of fairness, and people wanting to help would play into this. For them to take the abnormal action.

As you might expect, the more that they were offered the more likely people allowed it. The really surprising piece was that line holders allowed you to cut in line but most would not accept the cash. They would refuse it. They derived that people would allow cuts if they perceived the person needing to cut had a real need to save the time and a lot of people felt they couldn’t exploit that situation. They legitimately wanted to help.

This is the same reason that when you ask for help genuinely and they perceive it to be genuine and that it will help you, most people are willing to say yes. Part of that is a social norm. Part is that people feel good about helping others and also when you take a genuine interest in another person that is a gift. There are a variety of reasons why it works. That is all you are doing at the end of the day, asking for help and taking a genuine interest in someone else. As long as they perceive that, most people, over half between 50 and 70 percent, will say yes to helping you in some way. By either spending time or giving information, or offering to connect you, etc.

Once you get on the phone with someone and you have this conversation, have a list of questions you made in advance and you can ask those and have a conversation. It doesn’t have to be rapid fire, but just a conversation while they share about the organization or role or anything else you want to learn. After you do that the weird thing is you have begun a relationship with them. At that point you can do a lot of different things. Continue that relationship. I’ve had people turn into mentors. They can be an asset in understanding how to break into the organization or give you advice, or career help. Also, once you have the relationship you then have the ability to ask for introductions to other people to continue exploring. Maybe in other companies or you can ask for introductions on how to get employed in their company if you later find it is a company you want to continue to learn about and whether you want to work there. Those are several different ways and it only happens once you establish the relationship.

That is how a lot of this builds on each other. This doesn’t just apply to getting a job. The same types of psychology and approaches work in a lot of ways. We’ve shown a scientific study and our experiences. I’ve had a lot of experiences where I’ve found it to be true.

That is how this can work. It is kind of a different way than most people are thinking about it. This is something we’ve embedded in our programs, such as Career Change Boot Camp, and we teach our coaching clients, but I wanted you to understand how it can work. We have a variety of other scripts, tactics, and approaches and ways to do this in different situations.

Ultimately the biggest thing I want you to take away is I want you to go on the shortest path for your particular career change and what you want, which means you have to follow these three steps to some degree:

Identify what you want and what is good for you, your ideal career profile;
Figuring a hypothesis for what it can look like and the best way to get there (building relationships, identifying other ways in that are more effective)
Go and test the hypothesis.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of how this can look. If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know. This is what we love to do and we would be thrilled to help you in any way. We can get on the phone and offer help or you can send us an email and we will respond and connect you with our free stuff and programs. Do not hesitate. One of the saddest things is when people don’t take advantage of help that is right in front of them and experience a ton of pain because they don’t either want to ask or take the time, or perceive the help isn’t there. We are here to help in any way that makes sense.

This was a completely different episode, so let me know what you think. I’d be interested to hear and if you enjoyed the “how to” content we can do more like this. For anything we mentioned, the studies, links, or resources go to happentoyourcareer.com/168 and find all of those things including being able to subscribe to the podcast.

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ABOUT GIA GANESH

Gia Ganesh is part of the HTYC career coaching team and a member of Forbes Coaches Council, an invitation-only association of the top business and career coaches. Gia is passionate about helping people eliminate career burnout and make career choices that fulfill their life goals.

Gia, herself, finds satisfaction from seeing her clients break through their own self-limiting barriers to cross boundaries that they never imagined was possible.

EPISODE LINKS AND RESOURCES

Guest: GIA GANESH

Relevant Links

giaganesh.com

Relevant Resources

Email: gia@happentoyourcareer.com
Twitter: @KicStarturLife
Facebook: @KickStartUrCareer
Linkedin: Gia Ganesh

Transcript

Episode 167 with Gia Ganesh

Scott Barlow: Welcome back to happen to your career. I am excited today because we have a special guest. We haven’t done this very often, but I have someone today that has an interesting story and a really unique background, skill set, and experiences and I’m excited to dig into those. In addition she is a member of the Happen to Your Career team. How are you Gia?

Gia: I’m good. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Scott Barlow: I’m excited to have you. We were talking before we recorded and we are obviously going to dig into your story and also have you hang around and answer some of the common questions we get and try to answer a few of those. Are you game for that?

Gia: Absolutely. Let’s do it.

Scott Barlow: I’m curious where this starts for you. I know some of your background just from working with you and when we were looking to bring you on to the team. You have a lot of experience in a lot of areas, which was appealing for having you on our team, and I find those make the most interesting stories. Where does your career start?

Gia: I’m going to take you back a bit. I grew up in India. For people who are familiar with the Southeast Asian culture you know we are academically focused; At least my generation. We were focused on academics and the word passion never existed. You went to college and either became an attorney, engineer, or a doctor. Those were your three paths by default. You pick and choose from those. I went to college to be an engineer. I got my degree, but I’ve never, ever, called myself an engineer. I never related to it. I am an electronic and communications engineer by degree but never resonated with it. I never did anything with it.

Scott Barlow: You never referred to yourself as an engineer?

Gia: No. And I couldn’t do what that person truly does.

Moving on I got a job through campus counseling and got placed in network engineering. I despised it. It was hardcore technology stuff. It was about hardware- cables, and routers, and modems. I lasted about four to five months and transitioned to software. That is where I think my journey begins.

I started with a multinational company as a software engineer and got an opportunity to move to United States because my husband lived here. At that point I was at a fork in the road, the first I’ve faced out of many. I had to decide, do I go back to software or do something else? Given this terrible, well not terrible, background that I come from I thought I should get a masters in information systems. That is all I had done at that point. I decided to do that and started working as well first as an intern then to a full-time position. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia so I went to get my masters there at Kennesaw State. I was also working and moved up the ladder in the information system industry. I managed bigger projects. Truthfully, I always felt like an imposter because I never connected with it.

So, I’m just climbing the ladder and feeling like an imposter. I decided it was time for me to move out of information systems. I thought I would do the business side of IT. I decided to get my next master’s degree. I quit my job and got my MBA from Georgia Tech. I got a job right away. That was another fork in the road situation. It gave me the opportunity to consult or do something different. I said I would do technology consulting but there were no jobs, so I got different experience in other consulting. I helped with different teams and began to feel the desire and started resonating with other things. I got a great opportunity but it was a stretch.

I don’t have a human resource background but I was handed an opportunity on a silver platter where I would be responsible for doubling the leadership program for the management consulting firm I worked for. I would report right to the CEO and implement the program. Everything fell into place and I found my spot. I had been working toward this all my life and I just didn’t know it.

Scott Barlow: You came from a spot where you didn’t even feel like you could call yourself an engineer at any point. You had cables, routers, but none of that was working for you. It seemed like you were always trying to veer out of it and you kept making small turns and changes to find the right thing. You can see that looking back, but I’m curious, at what point did you start thinking about it - was it when you got to do leadership development and those activities?

When did you see it as passion or enjoyment? When did the switch flip and you realize that there was more than just academics? You go into the job space and you do it well. Was there a point?

Gia: I think it existed all along. It wasn’t at one point but existed through my whole career. When I was at work, specifically when it didn’t resonate with me I knew that there was something else I should be doing. I wasn’t happy with my choice to be an engineer but I didn’t know any better because that was my society and what people did. I should have stood up and done what I wanted, but at that point it is what everyone did, so I just followed the traditional route. I knew I was never supposed to be an engineer. I never felt the connection. I know it’s cliché but, you wake up every morning and you have to look forward to the day. You look forward to waking up and going to work. I never had that, but I have it now. Before it was all about the paycheck but that wasn’t enough. Personally, I wanted to always get better as a person.

I’m going to tie it together. All my life it is about becoming a better version of myself than yesterday, whether it’s relationships or work. It’s a huge factor. Am I better than I was yesterday? I want to be the best I can be, not better than anyone else or xyz. Am I realizing my full potential and doing the best I can? With that mindset it was difficult to stay in a job that didn’t resonate. You can’t be the best version of yourself if the core essence doesn’t feel right to you.

Back to when I did the leadership doubling up program and high potential identification- the essence tied to what I strived for as a person; helping upcoming leaders realize their potential by giving them the right opportunities, mentorship, and guidance to be better leaders. That essence resonated with me so deeply because that’s what I felt personally. That is where it started for me. The talent double-up opened up for me. I love doing it for me, and to see someone else unleash their full potential. That has led to career coaching.

Scott Barlow: That makes a ton of sense to me knowing you and what you stand for. Where it all started feeling aligned. I’m curious because you said it was handed to you on a silver platter, I’d beg to differ, and say everything led to that point. You took these small twists and turns, that I’d say were bigger than I initially thought, especially coming from your societal background. Why did you say it was delivered on a silver platter? What led to that?

Gia: You are right in that I took small steps and turns. I mentioned it was handed to me on a silver platter because with traditional consulting work you are either on a project or on the bench waiting. There were other qualified people on the bench that would have been better suited for the project with organizational psychology backgrounds and yet they decided to go with me even though I didn’t have the background. The flexibility and availability I offered helped me clench the deal. I was going to be available at all times and could talk to anyone, because otherwise I was on the bench waiting for a project. That is why I mention that it was on a silver platter. But I did all the steps I needed to do when I interviewed for that position. I did background research and prepared. You still have to put in the hard work. It doesn’t come without that. Things get handed to you on a silver platter but you still have to do the hard work. You have to do the hard work and can’t supplement that.

Scott Barlow: So you have to get to the point where the silver platter is in front of you and then you have to lock it down. That’s interesting. I feel like that could be a bigger analogy. I know a little of this story, but how did that transpire for you that you are getting a taste of something aligned with who you are and what you stand for in developing this leadership development program? How did you get from there to career coaching? What happened in-between?

Gia: We implemented the leadership program, it takes a few years to work out the kinks. The future for the program was that it would be handed out to the individual markets. My involvement was going to significantly reduce which meant I had to take on other stuff like evaluating the performance of the coaching process and revamp of the career paths and competency models. There were no other bigger projects to get involved in.

The chief officer of the organization said that we would be implementing a coaching program. By then I had started taking coaching classes because I saw it as a way to help myself get better. I was always reading self-help books and passionate about improvement. When I came upon coaching I took it up as something I would like to understand more. I thought coaching was a skill I should have to be a better manager as I worked with emerging leaders. I started taking the course on the side but then we started talking about coaching for the organization and I was the first to jump. I had to be part of it. Everyone was on board. Due to the budget and acquisitions and mergers it didn’t happen for two to three years.

The more I started getting into coaching through courses and certifications I wanted to start seeing the impact I could have on people through coaching. As part of the corporate world, you don’t always see the impact your work has and that is the scenario for most people. They say they are just an accountant or just an analyst -that is all I do. They don’t necessarily have the view into the impact they have on another person’s life or career or impact on the organization as a whole. It is easy to disregard the full impact you can have. That desire started to creep in me. I wanted to see the impact I was having. It wasn’t necessarily something you could see right away because the consultants were in the field and you didn’t get to meet them for long periods of time. As I started to talk to my supervisor about when the program would happen the timeline kept expanding.

As part of the coaching certifications you have to start coaching people so I was already doing in on the side. Since I was already doing it and enjoying it and the work opportunity wasn’t happening I decided to take the plunge. It was something I had on the side so why not take the plunge. It was a long time period, it took a lot of thinking to take the courage to quit. I finally did and branched into my own career coaching business.

Scott Barlow: What do you think some of the hardest parts were to go from that point? It’s a long journey, you were developing skills all the way to getting immersed and finding you enjoyed that type of development, and then you make the big jump and are now doing it as a business. What were some of the hardest parts for you along the way to transition?

Gia: I think the biggest challenge was giving up the paycheck. I believed the job gave me all that I thought I needed: flexibility, stability, career progression, you name it. Flexibility was a huge thing, I have children and need my own timing. I thought it was something not easily available in a corporate job and I had it. You won’t believe if I say it but it was the primary thing that held me back. I was scared if I quit the job and branched out and it didn’t work out and I had to go back to a job I wouldn’t be able to find another job again.

Scott Barlow: That is so funny because you are so good at getting other people jobs.

Gia: And I have two masters’ degrees.

Scott Barlow: You look great on paper. I understand. I do believe you because we work with people with the same fears around any type of change. I get the irony.

Gia: I believed I would never get a job. It took me a few months to work out the fear and all I did was tell myself “I have two masters’ degrees. I may not get the same job but will get a job.” It helped me to change that mindset. It started to help me build confidence in myself that I can get a job and can get another one if it doesn’t work. Having all the back up plans helped me convince myself. Even in my own coaching business I had a back-up plan. I don’t always recommend it because you don’t put all of your effort in to your current job. My back-up was if I don’t meet all these certain metrics in a year then I’m going back to corporate. That was the only way I convinced myself to take the final leap. It helped me. I’ll give it a shot for one year and if it doesn’t work I’ll get some job. It helped me give up my job.

I don’t recommend the plan B situation for everyone, it depends. I’ve noticed if people have a plan B they aren’t putting in their best effort for plan A. They know they have a fall back. It’s not a blanket situation. Take it with a grain of salt, in some cases have a plan B and not in others.

Scott Barlow: That’s so interesting, because I’ve seen the same thing especially for those that are making big departures going from one career to another, or those going from a job working with a company to their own thing. I’ve seen that same thing with different fears. It’s always a fear that pops up. It really does depend on the person because for me it was almost the opposite. I had to tell myself I was one hundred percent in. There can be no other plan. My wife is the opposite. Alyssa wants the back-up plan. We had to go through the worst case scenario and develop a secondary plan to suit us both. It does depend on the person. I’m glad you distinguished that. There are many things thrown around as tactics. In this case it does depend on the person.

I know more from there because it has been about 9 months or a year since you and I first met.

Gia: Yes, that’s right.

Scott Barlow: I don’t know how it’s happened. It feels like yesterday we had met and then we started contact and eventually we were able to convince you to come on board and join us and you so kindly have. I’m super excited to have you here because I really appreciate the way you look at this. You don’t look at career coaching just as getting from point A to B. I know that is why some people come to us, but you approach it from a whole human development standpoint which I think is more valuable instead of a transaction. I appreciate that and I’m excited to work with you.

I’m curious, if we jump back a little and think about all these tweaks and changes that led to this, what advice would you give someone else who is in that situation where they are back at software engineer Gia and know it’s not aligned and are trying to figure out what they can or should do. What advice would you give?

Gia: I’ll try to keep this generic. The first thing to uncover, which I probably didn’t do well at, is what aspects of software development did I not like? Understand first what about the job situation you are in you don’t like. Is it the kind of work, the environment, culture, or boss? Identify what it is you don’t like so you don’t actually throw the baby out with the bath water. When you aren’t clear about what you don’t like it’s difficult to make a change because you try to make a change all over instead of in layers.

For example, when we work with our clients and help them uncover this some people just don’t like the supervisor or team. It’s not about the work but the people or supervisor. It constrains the person to do well. If that is the case, all the person needs to do is find a similar job in a different company where the culture is better or supervisor is better. It just depends on what really frustrates you. Identify that first.

The second step is to understand what you truly want to do. That is a difficult question for many people to answer. They want us to tell them.

Scott Barlow: Yes, “why don’t you have the answer to what I want to do?”

Gia: Many people think they don’t know the answers but they do. We step in and give guidance about the messages to look for. Some of our clients go back to the basics of what they liked as kids. They still hold interest there. We help them uncover that. What did you enjoy doing? What are you interested in today? We do an exhaustive exploration with our clients, but for right now, I will say we explore skills, passion, and we combine everything to help them understand what makes sense to pursue as a career and as a hobby.

For example, I love Zumba. I could do it every day. But would I want to make a living teaching Zumba? No. It takes the fun of it for me. I could not teach it but would love to go every day. That is the distinction we help people make. Just because you love doing something does not mean you can make a career of it. I do not want to be a Zumba teacher ever. I just want to go to class.

There are subtle differences that we can’t cover today but they are the kind of things we help our clients with. We help them see what they bring to the table and package it the right way to be presented to organizations, or if they are starting their own business to their clients. Hopefully I answered that. If not ask more.

Scott Barlow: Here’s what I love about what you said. Though I think you acknowledged and I made fun of it. The question “what do I want” is a huge question and can’t be answered all at once. It is too big of a problem. You have to go one bite at a time.

I liked what you said at the beginning, start with what is easier, what you don’t like. Once you get that then you can break it down one bite at a time. That becomes more manageable because it’s easier to see what we don’t like. Most people can speak to that easily but they may not have thought about it in that way – “well I guess the only thing I really don’t like is just my boss. The rest is fine. How do I solve that problem?” Everything else is great. It may be causing so much havoc and pain because your boss is a big part of the job that you are looking at it instead as do I need to change careers? What should I do? They get lost. I really like that point.

The other thing that I enjoyed about what you said is separating out what I do that is giving value back or adding value to the world and what am I doing for fun? A lot of people feel like they love ducks, dogs, and fashion, sunglasses, and eating pancakes and want to know how do I take that and put it into a career. I don’t think you have to or should. You may want all those things in your life but you don’t have to go be the Zumba teacher. Maybe that doesn’t even make sense. Alyssa is a fitness instructor and she doesn’t make a lot of money through it but does it primarily because it is fun for her. Not because she is bringing in massive amounts of money. Even though she is being paid it’s really a hobby for her.

Gia: I just want to add one thing. The fact is it is easy to glamorize someone by just standing on the outside looking at them. We all do it.

Look at her, she is a massage therapist. She must make a lot of money it looks like fun. She has different schedules and meets different people. Or like Alyssa she gets to work out and have fun. We can easily glamorize other people especially if we think we may be interested in it.

It is important to gather data points. Do more research. I challenge my clients to go talk to five to ten instructors. I help them with a set of questions. If they want to be a massage therapist we come up with questions to ask massage therapists. It’s easy to stand on the outside and think you would like it. But can you do it day in and day out for the next five years? I help them assess that because even with the work we do it is easy for people to say I could easily do that, they have so much fun doing it. It’s easy to say that but you’ve got to talk to the people doing the work to see if it fits your values. It has to align to much more than the outward view.

Scott Barlow: That is ridiculously true. I was thinking about it through my view and believe it or not that is how we got into bringing other coaches on our team. I found that even though I love coaching, I have the most fun doing it, but when I have ten or fifteen clients it becomes less fun and I find I’m not as good for the people that I’m helping. At that time our business was growing and I wanted to spend more of the time adding value to the world and to me it made sense to bring on other people to support the people that need help. At that point in time we were turning people away. It limited me to a couple of clients. I wanted to focus on growing the business and help more people. Everything you said made me think about that.

Let’s answer a few specific questions we have from listeners and HTYC-ers and email list people. We have a whole bunch of questions but we’ve picked a few because they are typical questions we get. You game?

Gia: Absolutely

Scott Barlow: Here’s the first one. I’m going the read part of the email. When you are trying to figure out what you are trying to do and what makes sense it can be confusing and people don’t know how to ask the question.

This one is from Emily. I recently just lost my job due to company-wide cuts so I’m literally back to square one and I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with the added pressure of needing a paycheck. I’m struggling to find a career that fits and is fulfilling where I can give back to others. She says later that she is currently about half way done with a second semester of the MBA program at George Washington University because it teaches its business courses from an ethical business/social responsibility perspective. I’m skipping a few but she says she doesn’t know what a role in this field looks like for her.

She is in a place where she is trying to figure out what she wants to do and feels a massive pressure that it has to be figured out now because she needs the paycheck. What do you think about her situation? She is looking for thoughts? What should she be doing?

Gia: For Emily I would suggest there is some reason you took the MBA program. It’s like dating because something about them appealed to you. You had an idea about the program that initially appealed. I want you to go back and identify what you were thinking when you enrolled. What idea did she have and what did she want to get out of it. Get clear on that first. Second, she mentions something about social enterprise and says she doesn’t have a clear understanding.

We tell you to go gather data points and talk to people and get a further understanding about what they do and what their job looks like. Not many people actually do that. They don’t have all the right data points to make an informed decision. You need enough and good data points. We have to talk to people. It’s a blessing for her because she is in a university setting where she can talk to other students in the same boat and alumni. She can reach out to alumni and see what jobs and careers they are in. That is a starting point because she can understand the careers that alumni are in that she may not have awareness of. She can leverage that.

Scott Barlow: She has the one-two approach that she got laid off and is struggling to find a career that fits. I get the impression that she feels like she has to do everything now because she is also needing the paycheck. She has a time expiration.

Gia: I don’t know if she is full-time or working with her MBA, but I’ll approach it that she is trying to work at the same time. There seems to a whole world of thought of giving back to others. People glamorize giving back. Giving back can come in many forms. It doesn’t need to mean you are sacrificing your career or paycheck to give back. Emily can still leverage her skills. Let’s assume she has been in technology. She can use those same skills to find a job that is more fulfilling. Talking to or working with a career coach would be helpful because we can brainstorm ways to package the skills to fit her needs now. I always say the skills that we learned in one career or role are not necessarily constrained to that career or job. You can use them to suit other careers. Working with a coach would help her package the skills and identify the skills to find suitable jobs now.

Scott Barlow: You know what cracks me up, and I’m bias, but so many people think about when they get into a situation where they are laid off or lost their job or think they will lose their job that it isn’t time to invest in themselves. I have the opposite view and have been through it myself. I’ve done it both ways. The fear based mentality that “if I spend any money it will take away from my savings” versus “going into a situation where it doesn’t have a determinative outcome and know I need to set myself up for success.” Now having done it both ways I’m biased in that I feel like it is almost always the right decision to double down on yourself and set yourself up for success versus leaving it to chance. That isn’t how most people are thinking about it.

The other thing I like about what you said is she is in this place where she has a lot of resources because she is pursuing her masters. I wouldn’t recommend pursuing a masters without knowing why. But since you are already there you have a ton of resources: students and alumni. I would say spend the time to get clearer on whether it is a good thing and leads you were you want to go before continuing to go deeper, assuming there may be student loans, you’re paying a pretty penny, especially at George Washington. Make sure it’s leading you to something rather than just hoping it will. I think education is great when it leads to something rather than just entertainment. You have resources.

Anything else?

Gia: She should reach out to her professors. They have information and connections with organizations. They may have internship opportunities. She should leverage her network.

Scott Barlow: Emily, think about it as a couple step process. You need a paycheck now which is fine, but focus on improving your current situation to a job that is much closer aligned. Kind of like Gia’s background, she took side steps. If you take a sidestep you will learn more about yourself and improve your situation. That doesn’t mean that you have to stay there forever, it’s just another step closer to discovering what you really want and focusing your effort. That will allow you the flexibility to continue down the path to figuring out where your strengths and wants are. It depends on your time. That is another way to think about it.

Should we do one more?

Gia: Sure

Scott Barlow: This is from Stephanie. She is looking for thoughts. She graduated from OU, not sure which one, with a master’s in education. She currently works in international education and it sounds like she spends most of her time in front of the computer coordinating international programs. It’s lacking interaction with people. She said she started in the private sector and thinks it might be a better fit, maybe in HR, leadership development, etc. She thrives when she can help other people to cultivate their potential. She loves helping them identify a goal and giving them the tools to meet it. She likes to find better approaches for processes. She likes helping people acclimate to a new culture and she’s done this working with U.S. students in Japan. She wants to know how to get back in the private sector and find a good company that offers advancement. What are your thoughts?

Gia: I don’t know where to start. Love her profile and that she seems to be a self-aware person at least from that information. She knows this is what she loves doing and identified what she doesn’t like about her current job; she doesn’t get to interact with people.

Scott Barlow: It sounds like part of her enjoyment interacting with others is from development type of interaction. It’s almost a type of interaction. I don’t know if she has realized that. That particular type of interaction.

Gia: Again without knowing more about her background we can go with the assumption she is working at the university for a while. Again I want to see if we can leverage where she is at. I don’t want her to have to throw away the baby with the bathwater. She should look for opportunities in the university. The first challenge to her would be to see if she would be open to identifying opportunities where she is. I say this because she says she wants to move into the private sector but why not doing it in an academic setting. There are students she can help there. If she knows she likes that why does she want to go into private sector? I have a lot of questions.

Scott Barlow: I believe, and I’m making assumptions, she is perceiving the university and education sector as bogged down by bureaucracy and no innovation and isn’t enjoying it now, but that she liked the private sector. She wants to go back to things she perceived she enjoyed before. I may be wrong.

Gia: That makes sense. I’d ask Stephanie to take a step back and find what aspects she liked in the private sector. Did she work at multiple organizations or was it just one that worked well? There are a bunch of things she needs to identify. What aspects appealed to her? In her current environment she doesn’t like bureaucracy but it exists in the private sector too. What bothers her in her current environment? She has identified what she likes. Those opportunities exist in multiple organizations and forms. I want to understand who she would like to work with.

For example, we are career coaches. I like working with mid to senior level career professionals and navigating transitions and advancements. I’m specific about the people I want to work with. Do the same thing. You want to help people double up. You mention students. Your playground is right where you are. I want you to be clear on who you want to work with and get deeper into what you want to do. What do you mean by double-upping people? Do you want to be a school counselor? Dig deeper and identify jobs that could fit your interests.

Scott Barlow: This is awesome because I believe you are right. I think what you said is really taking and developing the context. She might be missing opportunities that are around her. Start with what is easy and build out from there. She mentioned she enjoys helping students and development. Who are those people that you most enjoy. It cracks me up a little because we as humans don’t want to choose. We want to help everyone. But really there are people you can help better than others and enjoy helping most. Those are the people that you should spend your time around because you can make a larger impact in their lives. I love what you said. It is so true. A lot of those clues are in the context.

Gia: Absolutely. I love how you rephrased it. Hopefully we are giving her thoughts to progress.

Scott Barlow: I think this is great. We answered your question in a really indirect way Stephanie. We encourage you to do what Gia says. Before you go running to the private sector identify where you want to spend time and with who. That will give you the clue of how and where to look. If it’s in the private sector it will help identity organizations. You can start reaching out to them.

I feel like we could keep going for hours but I know we need to end today. I appreciate you taking the time. This has been awesome and we’ll have to bring you back on for more questions. I appreciate it.

Gia: Thanks I will try to be more concise next time.

Scott Barlow: No, this is fantastic. If you are interested in more about Gia then you can reach out to her at gia@happentoyourcareer.com and go over and learn more at happentoyourcareer.com/167. That will get you to this episode, notes, and links and story behind Gia. Do that. Thank you Gia for taking the time and official public welcome to the team.

Gia: Thank you Scott, my pleasure.

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April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

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Building on Business with Ace Chapman

February 20, 2017 by eli

It’s really easy to get caught up in the corporate trap.

Some folks may feel stuck during that process of climbing the corporate ladder, before they realize that they are built to be more of an entrepreneur than someone that is trying to make it in the corporate world.

Many entrepreneurs (actually even those that don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in their body) want to be able to use what they’re good at with whatever they decide to do with their businesses/careers.

If you’re anything like Ace Chapman, our guest today, and you have an eye for opportunity and the understanding of what is right for you and your lifestyle, listen to the episode and learn from Ace on how you can build out your vision and straight-line to your goals.

If you’re interested in learning more about buying a business and selling them as a means to replace your income-earning job, Ace has provided some recommendations to how you can start flipping business below. Check it out!

If you’re just getting into the game of buying a business to replace your income, here’s what you should do:

Look into finding businesses where you can work directly with the owner (best situation)
Try and get a sense of whether the business owners are being realistic about the price
Ideally, the asking price should be 2 or 3x the earnings that their business is bringing in
Some questions to ask the business owner:
- What are their net earnings per year…what are they pulling in?
- What do they expect to make off of the business deal?
- How long has the business been around?
- How long has the business been profitable?
- What is the turnover of employees?
- How much time does the owner spend putting into the business?
- What are some of the owners concerns about the business?
Check to see if the business has any SOP of value. It’s a great sign if businesses have operating systems that are running smoothly

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t have that entrepreneurial vision, but you know you want to own a business, here are the first things to consider:

Look at businesses bizbuysale.com– list sites, internet businesses/off-line deals
Learn about different types of businesses for sale
Look at every deal and learn something about business
Check out business’ prospectuses
- Talks about the business…business plan based on factual past – history of business, summary of income and how business model works, financials that go back at least 3 years, marketing strategies, projections and then the future of business
Learn more from business owners that have longstanding businesses as they are the businesses that have made it through the “entrepreneurial gauntlet”
- Valuable to learn from all entrepreneurs and download their knowledge to be able to apply tactics and strategies that worked for them and avoid those that didn’t prove successful

ABOUT ACE CHAPMAN

Ace Chapman was a born entrepreneur, at the age of 5 he sold his school pictures to make back the $20 it cost for him to take them, by the age of 19 he had bought his first business, and by the age of 21 he had made his first million.

A college dropout with an eye for opportunity, Ace Chapman found a calling in buying and selling businesses. It was with the motivation to continue enjoying his life and having the luxury of freedom to do what he wanted that he invested in this business of buying businesses.

In the past 16 years, Ace has purchased over 40 businesses and discovered unique strategies to finance businesses and continues to help other people leverage those same strategies.

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Ace’s work at his website.

Follow Ace on Facebook

Connect with Ace on Linkedin

Follow Ace on Twitter: @acechapman

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

What career stage are you in? Are you in Discovery? Choice? The Desert? No matter which one it is, we can help… check out our FREE 8-day course to “Figure Out What you Really Want for Your Career!”

Transcript

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

View all episodes

April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

Listen Now

January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

Listen Now

Building A Business with Olivia Gamber – Revisited!

February 13, 2017 by eli

Have you ever thought about building a business, but don’t know where to begin because you don’t have the time between your full-time job and your other personal obligations, like spending time with your family?

Today, we revisit a past episode that features a former client and now great friend of HTYC, Olivia Gamber. Olivia shares her story of how she took her side business and grew it into a full-time business career.

Also in the podcast, Olivia and Scott discuss some of the biggest takeaways they have encountered when they decided to grow each of their businesses. The discussion gets into everything from how to make the time to focus on building your side business, to becoming a business owner, and to how to validate your business as a real way to replace the income you bring in from your current job.

If you want to learn what first-time business mistakes to avoid when you start up, listen here!

BUILDING A BUSINESS: ABOUT OLIVIA GAMBER

Olivia is a return guest to the HTYC podcast. When she first came on the show, she had climbed the corporate ladder quickly and was the Manager of Talent and Organizational Development at Taylor Morrison. There she specialized in everything from strategy development and project management to process improvement and data analytics, she was also in charge of her company’s talent acquisition process from end-to-end! AND…at the time, she had used all of the knowledge and experience she’s gained in her journey to help other young professionals develop and advance their careers with OccupationalOlivia.com, a site all about “Next Level Career Success”!

Fast-forward to today and you’ll find that Olivia has grown what was once a side business to her full-time career. She took Occupational Olivia and partnered up to launch CareerAttraction, a space where high achievers are shown how to take their careers to the next level. At CareerAttraction, they have learned what it takes for you to stand out in this competitive market and get the respect, pay, and fulfillment you deserve.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Lessons about the “unmarketed” side of starting your own business – what works and what doesn’t
Steps to take to regain control of your own time and invest in your future as a business owner
How to measure success of your new business
Helpful tips on how to evolve with your new business
Best ways to gain knowledge on how to build a business

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Olivia’s work at her website: Career Attraction

Follow Olivia on Facebook

Connect with Olivia on Linkedin

Follow Olivia on Twitter: @TheOliviaGamber

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

Are you at a point in your career where you find yourself asking, “Okay, now what?” Click on the link below to check out our FREE 8-day course to “Figure Out What you Really Want for Your Career!”

Transcript

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

View all episodes

April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

Listen Now

January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

Listen Now

Working Abroad with Scott and Alyssa Barlow

February 6, 2017 by eli

There are so many people that dream of working and living abroad. And if it’s not the dream of living and working abroad, it’s the dream of having the freedom to do such a thing.

It’s an unconventional life, but when has HTYC ever been about following the unspoken “norm” of society?

Here at HTYC, we thrive on new ideas and breaking out of the mold of what we like to refer to as “the traditional path of success.”

Scott and Alyssa, have just recently returned home (to Washington state) from a 6-week stint of living abroad.

Today’s show features their experience of bringing their family to Europe to live and work abroad.

Scott and Alyssa share the challenges they encountered with not only trying to take in as much of the European experience as possible, but as business owners, they had to do their fair share of work, while trying to balance their family life.

In the podcast, they chat about their biggest takeaways of their work experience abroad and share their thoughts on why you may want to consider working abroad.

Listen here!

WORKING AND LIVING ABROAD: WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

It is entirely possible to travel and work at the same time
How to get the most important work done (to experience the culture around you)
How to re-evaluate not only your work priorities, but also your belongings and life in general
Routine is the enemy of appreciation
Experience as a means of bringing you closer to your everyday relationships

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

Transcript

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

View all episodes

April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

Listen Now

January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

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Creating Passive Income with Kathy Fettke

January 30, 2017 by eli

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO ACHIEVE AND WHAT IS THE STRATEGY THAT IS GOING TO GET YOU THERE THE FASTEST.

Have you found yourself asking the same question about how in the world you can not only make money doing what you love, but also how you can find the time to do all of that while having a life outside of the work you love?

Kathy Fettke has the answer and the experience to share how you can start taking the first steps into the direction that will achieve those goals.

In this episode, she also wants to simplify the process, so you don’t make the same mistakes that she has made while learning to make passive income herself.

Some of her tips include:

Don’t jump into anything that you know anytnothing about
Understand the basics
Learn everything you can – especially the fundamentals
Get your advice from someone that is doing what you want to do

Listen as she shares ways people can create a space for themselves to make it possible to live life the way they want to with the the people that love the most!

ABOUT KATHY FETTKE

Kathy Fettke is the author of the #1 best seller, Retire Rich with Rentals and is the host of The Real Wealth Show. After interviewing real estate millionaires, Kathy uncovered some of the best strategies for creating passive income streams.

Currently Kathy helps people build passive income through cash flowing assets, with the main asset being real estate. She encourages people to create a space for themselves to make it possible to live life the way they want to with the the people that love the most.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

How to become a money maker to become “job-optional”
Gain insight on the whole new (secret) world of real estate investing and its benefits
Learn ways to simplify the process of rentals to keep you from making the same mistakes Kathy has made
Why it’s important to NOT jump into anything you don’t understand
What resources are available and how to use these resources to your benefit in investing in real estate

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Kathy’s work at her website: Real Wealth Network

Follow Kathy on Facebook

Connect with Kathy on Linkedin

Follow Kathy on Twitter: @kathyfettke

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

If the thought of creating passive income has been on your mind but you aren’t quite sure what you want to target, check out our FREE 8-day course to “Figure Out What Fits” to make you “job-optional”!

Transcript

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

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April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

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January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

Listen Now

Fight Burn Out and Get Intentional in Your Career with Emilie Aries

January 23, 2017 by eli

Have you ever experienced career burn out?

It seems like now more than ever, we are living in this “burn out culture” where we are working more hours while our productivity has become stagnant.

According to today’s guest, Emilie Aries, many of us are experiencing more career burn out because we are “not prioritizing efficiency for hours in and hours out” and we have begun “operating in a timid workplace environment where our self-worth is intrinsically connected to our product.”

Becoming more intentional in how you spend your time and who you spend it with is key in the maintenance in self-care.

“Happier, healthier people are more focused and more productive.”

When you stop ignoring what is going on outside of you and begin to focus on what your need is as an individual to succeed, that is when all of the good things tend to happen.

When you prioritize your well-being and put yourself first, you are able to create the space and time to explore and follow the threads that interest you. You are then able to invest in your sustainable success.

By getting more intentional about your personal calendar and managing your time, you are taking control of your life and just like a budget, you are able to look back, reflect, reallocate your time and re-calibrate your priorities in any way you see fit for yourself.

In today’s episode, Emilie shares her thoughts on how your personal decisions and choices amount to your collective decisions and choices. She also goes into the core values that helped her transform her career and life from a place of burn out to the much more happy and much more productive place in her career and life that she is at now.

Listen here!

ABOUT EMILIE ARIES

Emilie Aries is the Founder and CEO of Bossed Up, an organization that promotes a program that helps thousands of women step into their own power as the boss of their lives and careers.

After having fought career burnout herself, Emilie made it her mission to share her experience and continue to educate women on how to craft happy, healthy, and sustainable career paths that focus on preventing burnout by providing support to help women navigate pivot points in their careers and lives.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

You’ll learn the 3 core variables to help fight burn out
We discuss how breaking away from “the norm” and changing your mindset will help you see and value your self-worth
Why we should all stop chasing those “merit badges” if we want to truly thrive in our careers and prevent burn out
Investing in yourself and why you should ALWAYS put your oxygen mask on first!
- The power of saying, “No.”

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Emilie’s work at her website: Bossed Up

Follow Bossed Up on Facebook

Connect with Emilie on Linkedin

Follow Emilie’s work on Twitter: @BossedUpOrg

Transcript

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

View all episodes

April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

Listen Now

January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

Listen Now

Stop Chasing the Job Title with Lindsay Moroney

January 3, 2017 by eli

ABOUT LINDSAY MORONEY

Lindsay Moroney is currently the VP of Strategy and Operations at The Muse. It’s a big title that requires Lindsay to wear many hats to not only scale the growth of The Muse, but she’s also tasked to keep each department of The Muse running smoothly.

But, let’s backtrack for a second because Lindsay has got a great story that doesn’t start with a business degree. She actually initially went to college to study Pre-Med and graduated with an Art History degree, then later got a Masters in Art History.

So, how did she end up as the VP of Strategy and Operations at The Muse?

She remained authentic to herself and forged her own career path by following the motto of: “If I just say yes, or if I just try this next step, where will that next step get me?” By doing that, she was able to continue creating roles for herself in the fine arts world over a span of 10 years, which got her to Vice President of Operations at Artnet before branching out to The Muse.

Many people are often conditioned to follow a traditional path of success.

They become a doctor.

They become a lawyer.

They become an accountant.

Those are typically one of the clearest paths to success after college. After college, you get an internship. That internship turns into a job. Then you work your way to the top of your firm or gain success in a specialty.

You do all of the work that lines up with that job title that you’ve been aiming for since your freshman year of college.

That was the plan for Lindsay. She “planned” to go to college for Pre-Med, until she took an art history class that derailed her from that clear path to success. It was in that decision to ditch Pre-Med and follow her passion for Art History that led her to her current position as the Vice President of Strategy and Operations for The Muse.

By following her passion, Lindsay was led down a new life and career path of finding work that she could sink into, work that she enjoyed.

Listen as Lindsay shares how to redefine your own path to success and how being authentic with herself and following her what made her happy has led her to this particular point in her life and career where she is thriving.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: HOW TO FIND A JOB YOU LOVE

Careers are no longer linear these days so, it’s okay to not have a clear path to success drawn up, it’s terrifying, but it’s OKAY!
Being authentic with yourself and following your passion will lead you to opportunities that you’ll be excited to pursue
Continuing to follow what makes you happy, the jobs that make you thrive (regardless of job title), will ultimately lead to your success…but you won’t see it until you get there!

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Lindsay’s work at The Muse

Connect with Lindsay on Linkedin

Follow Lindsay on Twitter: @lindsaymoroney

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

If you’re ready to find work that you can be passionate about…something you can sink into and enjoy, check out our FREE 8-day course to “Figure Out What you Really Want for Your Career!”

Transcript

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!

Featured Episodes

View all episodes

April 17, 2017

174: Add Value, Grow Your Career with Michael Bigelow

Listen Now

January 21, 2019

267: 3 Creative and Strategic Ways to Show Your Strengths to Interviewers

Listen Now

Become Indispensable with Enrico Torres

December 26, 2016 by eli

There are milestones in your life that make you re-evaluate your career path – you decide to move to a new city, you get married, you start a family, or you have to take care of your parents when they grow old.

No matter what type of change prompts you to rework your career journey, there are always ways to improve your situation and stay ahead of the career change game.

Today’s show features Enrico Torres, an unassuming entrepreneur with a work ethic that perseveres through constant improvement. He spent over two decades working as a restaurant kitchen manager and a roofer before deciding that he needed a change (for the better) to accommodate his new life as a father.

His motto of making yourself indispensable continues to carry him through his ever-evolving career changes as he believes in focusing on working harder to improve yourself – skills and overall knowledge, to be better than the last guy that had your job.

Listen as Enrico shares his biggest takeaways from starting his business from scratch, while working his day job. He talks openly about his experience of making his dream happen and how the hustle never stops, especially when you become an entrepreneur!

ABOUT ENRICO TORRES

Enrico Torres, founder and CEO of AppendMe®, a new social Ecommerce app. AppendMe simplifies social, letting you share pictures and videos to other social networks with one tap, and text and chat with friends. It’s with an innovative and entrepreneurial mentality that brought him to create this new app. He saw the void in the social media and Ecommerce market and set out to build an app that would serve the people. Being able to have a space to share his innovative visions while working as a roofer during the day has helped him fill the creative voids he had in his day-time career.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Continuing to learn and grow your skill sets (in any industry) will help you flourish and become indispensable
Stepping-up your career and committing to your career change is a big risk, but the benefits you’ll reap in the end are worth all the hard work you put in
Go for it…Take a chance..you can even slowly start building towards your goals because you don’t want to regret not taking that chance at the end

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Enrico’s work and new ventures here: EntrepreneurX

Connect with Enrico on Linkedin

Follow AppendMe on Facebook

Get the latest happenings of AppendMe on Twitter: @AppendMeApp

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

Come join us over on Facebook in our Work You Love OneStop group!

Twitter: @htycbiz and @scottabarlow

LOVE THE SHOW? SUBSCRIBE TO THE HAPPEN TO YOUR CAREER PODCAST:

For helping finding YOUR signature strengths, enroll in our FREE 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

LEAVE US A REVIEW AND HELP US TO REACH MORE FOLKS JUST LIKE YOU AND HELP THEM “HAPPEN” TO THEIR CAREERS!

WANT HELP FINDING THE WORK THAT FITS YOU?

If you’re just starting your journey in making a switch from a job that no longer aligns with your goals, check out our FREE 8-day course to “Figure Out What you Really Want for Your Career!”

Transcript

Introduction 00:00
This is the Happen To Your Career podcast, Episode 158.

Enrrico Torres 00:04
I worked in the restaurant business for over 12 years, you know, but then it was time to change, so then I jumped into the construction business. I really like, I like working with my hands, you know, I'm one of those guys that just wants to keep working with his hands. As I started getting older, I realized, you know what, I'm not gonna be able to do this, always, you know. So I either have to either build a crew, so that I can manage them and do that, or find something better to do. So about four and a half years ago, that's when I ran the idea by my wife and I told her "Honey, what do you think about us starting our own social platform?" and she's like, "honey, you don't even know how to send an email."

Introduction 00:42
Hey HTYCers, if you've been struggling to figure out work that fits you then join our eight-day free mini course, all you have to do is text HTYC to 38470. That's HTYC to 38470 or simply visit, figureitout.co that's figureitout.co. See you there.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:13
This is Happen To Your Career, we help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and then make it happen. Whether you're looking to do your own thing, or find your dream job, you've come to the right place. I'm Scott Barlow.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:31
This is Scott Anthony Barlow, and you are listening to Happen To Your Career. This is the show that helps you figure out what work fits you by exploring other stories, we get to bring on experts like Bozi Dar who helps people leverage their strengths to advance their careers, or people that have pretty amazing stories like Kirby Verceles who ended up making the dream job transition not once, but twice. And these are all people that are just like you, because they have gone from where they are, to what they really want to be doing. There's people that are just like our next guest, Enrico Torres. And I got to tell you a little bit about this conversation with Enrico because when you listen, you're going to be able to continue to learn and grow your skill sets in any industry. And it's gonna help you understand how you can flourish and become indispensable. Pretty cool, right. So also, we're going to talk about how stepping up your career and committing your career change is actually a huge risk, or it feels like a huge risk, at least, but the benefits you'll reap in the end are absolutely worth it for all of this hard work that you put in. So also, we're gonna encourage you to go for it, whatever it is, take the chance, you can even start building towards your goals today because you don't want to regret not taking the chance in the end. So we've got 2017 coming up here. And I'm really excited for that. And I'm excited for all the people that we're going to be able to help and have an impact on and that gets me excited for you to listen to this conversation because this is somebody who's actually in the middle of it. A lot of times we've brought people that have "made the transition." But this is a little bit different. Enrico story is a ton of fun, first of all, he's just a really, really, really super nice guy. But at the same time, he is in the midst of making a transition. And he is working his tail off to make this happen. And a lot of times people don't get to see what happens in the middle of it. And even on this show, although we've brought a few people on that are in the midst, usually it's... "Hey look, we've made it. Here's after the fact looking back." So I want you to take a listen to this, it's going to be super cool. He's the founder and CEO of AppendMe which is new social ecommerce app and he's created this from the ground up to really fit both his life and what he believes he can put into the world that is valuable for other people very, very cool. So he's taken the risk on this and put a lot of his own money and hard work into this. And he spent over two decades prior to this working as a restaurant kitchen manager, a refer his work ethic and his motto is to constantly work harder to improve yourself both your skills and your overall knowledge to be better than the last guy in the job. And I think you're absolutely going to love it. So take a listen, right here, right now to my conversation with Enrico Torres.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:38
Hey, and we are back for another week have Happen To Your Career. I am so excited today because I've got a guest where I think this is gonna be really fun. Plus, he's got an amazing story. I want to dive into that like always, but I want to welcome to the show, Enrico Torres. How are you?

Enrrico Torres 04:57
I'm doing well. How about yourself?

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:59
I am absolutely fantastic. I can't complain at all, and I am having better weather than you are. So I can't... you know, you're on the East Coast, I'm on the West Coast. And I love that we can have this type of conversation in the first place. But I'm really interested in how do you describe what it is that you do right now, you know, if we hadn't already had a chat before this and everything like that, and we met, not on the internet. And we're, you know, we are meeting in real life or whatever and, you know, ask you, what do you do? Well, how do you describe that to people right now?

Enrrico Torres 05:38
Okay, well, what I do is right now, I'm working in construction, installing roofs here on the East Coast. And then I'm also developing my software application, you know, a mobile application, which actually, we're also working on the web version of the application. So I guess you can say, I'm multitasking right now, you know, between both worlds, the grunt work and the actual techie world.

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:04
So I love that. And it's actually, to be quite honest, part of the reason why we're interested in talking to you on the show, because you're kind of in the thick of it right now. So many of our listeners are contemplating career changes, or in the beginning steps of making career changes. And you are kind of in the thick of it. And I think that for everybody, it's kind of a lifelong journey. But I was really hoping to be able to dive in and have a little bit more conversation about what is going on right now. But even before that, I'm curious, how did you even get to here? Where did this start for you? Where did the interest in this? You know, how did you get into roofing in the first place? How did all this, where did it begin?

Enrrico Torres 06:47
Okay, well, to make it, you know, as compact as possible here, I came here in '91 from South America. So I started working, I was 14, so I was going to school and then working in the restaurant business, I worked in the restaurant business for over 12 years, you know, but then it was time to change. So then I jumped into the construction business. So I was in my 20s, you know, mid 20s, or something like that, when I jumped into construction. I started working in construction, I really like, I like working with my hands. You know, I'm one of those guys that just wants to keep working with his hands. And then as I start getting older, I realized, you know what, I'm not gonna be able to do this always, you know, so I either have to either make, build a crew to something I can manage them and do that, or find something better to do. So about four and a half years ago, my daughter was born, and it really hit me, I'm like, I really need to come up with a better plan to make my life and the future of my kid, you know, better. So that's when I ran the idea by my wife and I told her, "Honey, what do you think about us starting our own social platform?" And she's like, "But honey, you don't even know how to send an email." So believe it or not, I didn't even know how to send an email. I didn't even have a smartphone. So I was gonna like, "Yeah, but there's Google, I guess I can try to google." She's like, "okay go ahead, you know, try it." So I did and that's how pretty much is being you know, as being a transition from washing dishes, cooking, executive chef to, you know, starting from the ground up, cleaning shingles, and then moving to sheet metal mechanics. So now I installed meta rules. And then about four and a half years ago, now we're talking software. So I'm still doing both because obviously, I have to pay for my dream, you know, because it's not free. So...

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:39
Wait, I got a hold on, it's not a free as it turns out?

Enrrico Torres 08:43
No, it's not. If anybody says is free, they're full of baloney. Yeah, nothing is free. You got to keep... you got to hustle. You know what I mean?

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:50
Yeah, nothing is free. At a minimum, it costs time, at a minimum.

Enrrico Torres 08:53
Exactly. And time is, you know, how it is. It's very valuable, especially when you have a kid if you know, you spend time building your dream, and it's like...

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:03
Yeah, absolutely. We've got three little kids.

Enrrico Torres 09:06
Wow.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:06
It's so nine through, I should know how old the last one is, he's gonna turn six. Well, they keep changing, I mean, if they said the same age, it'd be easier. But yeah.

Enrrico Torres 09:16
Yeah, right. I know right. Like, it's always like, I'm like, "honey, How old is she?" She's like, "Oh, my gosh." And I'm like, "I'm kidding."

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:26
I had to think about itt, I wasn't kidding for a few seconds but now I know. I'm super curious, though, about a couple of things, you know, just as you're kind of talking through that piece. What... as you were thinking about this type of, you know, social media platform and everything else. And you're like, "honey, I'll just, you know, there's Google. I'll just, you know, figure it out." Like, where do you think that type of approach or attitude or mentality or whatever you want to call that, where do you think that comes from for you? Because a lot of people wouldn't say that. They would say, "geez, I don't know how to do that. So why don't I find something else I, you know, think I can run easier or whatever else. Where does that come from?"

Enrrico Torres 10:07
Oh, yeah, believe me, yeah, exactly. That's... well, for me is I've always been, I don't know, I've always been a risk taker, you know, I'm always like, okay, let's do this. Let's just go for it. Like, I don't want to think about it, I just want to go for it. And then figure it out as we go on, you know, as we move along. So I've always had a little chip inside my head off, just taking chances, you know, I know, believe me, because when I started, I was kind of like, it was overwhelming at first. I mean, I didn't even know how to send an email for the love of God, every time I had to do something to my accountant, I'll be like, "honey, how do you send an email?" And she'd be like, "okay, here" and then she will show me and I will type it. So then I'm like, so now she's like, click send, you know, which is crazy, because now look at the platform I build. I mean, obviously, I didn't build I have my team, which without my team, I wouldn't have made you know, I tried it. But it was too much and not enough time during the day to try to code. My respect to all the coders out there. They're amazing. I mean, they can truly bring your vision to reality, it's truly amazing. I love my guys and girls, you know, because we have both, but yeah, it was just the feeling of I have to do this. I know I can do this. And not only that, I have a very busy mind. I mean, like crazy busy, like, I don't sleep, like normal people, like, you know, I sleep very little. So my wife is like this, "why should it keep your mind occupied? Because you're always, you know, thinking, you're always up, you can't sleep, you're always trying to figure out how to fix things, how to do things." So it worked out for me. Now, you know, I'm not saying it might work for everyone, but it definitely worked out for me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:49
Yeah, absolutely. So why this? Because I mean, from your story, it sounds like, well, hey, you know, social media, okay, let's do that. Why not? But I mean, why this? Why was this the thing that for you really resonated?

Enrrico Torres 12:05
For me, it was because I remember trying when I first started using the computers, right, and I remember looking at a couch, and I was looking at a couch on another platform. And then I went to another platform and that couch was there. So then I didn't understand. I was like, "wait a minute, how did these people know that I was looking at this couch." You know, to me, the concept was new. I didn't use computers. I didn't know anything. So I was kind of like, shit. There's somebody spying on me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 12:34
Just following me around.

Enrrico Torres 12:36
Exactly. So it really freaked me out literally, like it really genuinely freaked me out. And I was like, What the heck is going on? Why are they doing that? Like, you know, so then I was really scared, like, looking stuff. And I'm like, what are they doing and then I started looking at Google and then seeing more and more people concern and stuff. And I'm like, well, I'm really concerned too. Like, how hard can it be? You know, so it was kind of like, how hard can it actually be to do it, right? So then I was kind of like, okay, you know what, there's so many possibilities here, you can do so many things. This is perfect. I gotta dive into this. One is not really physical work is more mental, you know, so, I was like this will be perfect. I've been doing physical work for a long time. So this will be a good career change for me, you know, as I get older. So that's pretty much why you know, it's gonna like, I'm pretty sure I can do this in the creative part of it. I like to think of myself as somewhat creative.

Scott Anthony Barlow 13:38
So let's talk about that for just a minute because I think that a lot of HTYCers, that are listening right now, as I talked to people and have conversations and email back and forth with a lot of our listeners, they are creative, I don't think that all of them consider themselves to be creative. So I'm curious what you mean when you say a creative and then what you're kind of looking at that as?

Enrrico Torres 14:10
Right. Okay, well, you know, creative, when I'm saying creative I mean, "of being able to build something, visualize something" and like what you're saying right now about people being creative and then they don't think, I bet you a lot of times what happens is people express their ideas right to friends, family, people always shut you down. They're always like, "Oh, no, that's not gonna work. Somebody have already did and this and that." They don't really get us, we're kind of like suppresses your creativity. It's kind of like "Oh, man, I'm only supposed to do this one thing and one thing only" even though you're very alive inside but you know, because of all the negativity is gonna like you can really flourish you know, like, I'm a peacock let me fly but you can if you know, I know that's a line from Mark Wahlberg and I love that movie with Will Ferrell. I'm sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. But anyway, but yeah, so you know, it's kind of like creativity, like, I love being able to see something. And I'm like, okay, you know what, if you can do it this way, if we were to move something here, there, I'm like, that will be better. But you can't do that, like, when you look at existing platforms, you can... all you can do is send suggestions. And maybe they'll listen, maybe they won't, most of the time, they don't listen. And you know, you're kind of like, stuck with what they gave you. In my case, I was like, you know, what, if I build it, like, you know, the way I see it, like, if we can move this here, based on user's feedback, and everything I'm like, that's even better, you know, because it's enforcing my creative power. Okay, if we do this here, we put it there. So that's the part that I've really liked about what I'm doing now, on top of, obviously, my construction, because in construction, believe it or not, you can do the same thing. When people look at roofs, you know, we go up to the roof, and we're like, we look at a crazy detail, right? Most people get scared. And I'm like, "Oh, no, man, look, if we do it this way, we move to the right. How about if we put the metal here, we do this." And everybody's?, "I don't know if it's gonna work." And I can see it in my head working. So then when we execute it, then all of a sudden, everybody's like, wow, you were right. And I'm like, yeah, I love it. So I love... that's the drive, you know, that's what drives me just being able to create something. And in execution, obviously.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:26
That's interesting. I think that most people at our cores, we enjoy some type of creation, I think, the 'how' it happens. And the 'what' you enjoy about creation is different for each person, and kind of personality strengths, whatever, but it really kind of seems that, I don't have any like scientific evidence on this, there's probably studies I could pull up or whatever they find out, but it really seems like kind of, at our core, we we're all... if you consider creative to be just, you know, the act of creating things, whether it be like solutions, or, you know, solving problems, or the opposite side where, I don't know, before we hit the record button, we're talking about how you stone a painting business, you know, you've been in roofing and in construction and everything like that. And that's something that I really enjoyed out of it, too. Like I enjoyed being able to as weird as it sounds, like I enjoyed being able to like look at a house and then talk to the type of the homeowner and say, "Oh, yeah, we can do this thing over here. And that's gonna make it have a completely different... arrange this color and put that over here and move that." And then all the things like that's a creative process.

Enrrico Torres 17:37
Correct. Yes. And then the homeowner at the end is happy because the homeowner cannot envision that than you could, you know, so yes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 17:44
Yeah. Interesting. You're making me think about some stuff a little bit differently. I like it. So why... I'm just curious, you know, when you made the first transition, like you're in the restaurant industry, and you decided, hey, look, I'm gonna go into construction. Like, what was that initial prompt? Or how did that happen? Or was there any thought process around that? Or did it just sort of...

Enrrico Torres 18:10
No, well, they're kind of was, because I wanted to do something better. I wanted to kind of step up in the world and make, you know, make a little bit more money as I was getting more there. I'm like, well, restaurants are limited, they can only pay you so much. And I figure we're looking construction. I know, I work pretty hard. So I'm like, I know, I can work my way up and see what happens where it takes me, you know, and that's pretty much how I jumped from the restaurant business to the construction business. Although it was hard at first because I didn't know anything about construction. I didn't know how to read the tape measure. I didn't know what tools were core. So it was very hard for me to get adapted at first. But in the back of my head, I was like, I know, I'm gonna kick, you know, serious but here, I know, I can move up. This is easy. This comes really easy to me. I know, I can do this. The hard part was learning the new words, you know, because obviously, Spanish is my main language. So it was kind of it was difficult, but I made it happen. And here we are now. It's pretty much the same transition with that in as in, you know, with technology, although I'm doing both now, but it's pretty much the same.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:23
Yes, I'm really interested in that. And I'm gonna push you on a couple of these areas, because I think this can really be beneficial to a lot of our listeners, because one of the things I hear over and over again with each of the transitions that you're talking about, and you kind of call that out just a second ago, is that hey, look what was stopping you was not that you couldn't do it or anything like that. What was stopping you was just simply learning enough about it in order to make it work, if you will.

Enrrico Torres 19:53
Yes, yes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:54
And I heard you say that, you've kind of always been that way to somebody?

Enrrico Torres 20:01
Yes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:02
Why do you think you've always been that way? Do you think it's a wiring type thing? Or do you think it's like the way that you were raised? Or do you think that along the way, you picked up different experiences where you got confidence around, being able to learn different things or what...?

Enrrico Torres 20:17
I think, well, part of it is I've been wired differently. I mean, my father owns, he's a businessman. So he has, you know, different businesses. But I think that the reason is, what do you call that, I really like, I want to succeed, I want you know, I want more than just a nine to five, I want to make a name for myself, you know, I really want to represent. That's pretty much... I've always been like that, when I worked at a restaurant, I was washed dishes, I had to wash dishes faster than the guy before me, if I was doing the cold table, I had to dress the food faster, grill everything. So that's how I get moving up, up. Because I had to be, you know, in the back of my head, I'm like, I have to be better than the last guy before me. So same, I apply the same thing in construction. You know, it was like, I have to be fast, fast, fast, fast. Not only that, I just because I wanted to make myself indispensable, one of the problems I think, is a lot of people, you know, they feel scared, you know, being scared is genuine. I mean, I was scared. But at the same time, I'm like, I know, I can do it. I know, I can do it. If you know, if I commit, I know I can make this happen. But at the same time, it's kind of like you have that in the back of your head, like you say, I mean, I'm almost 40. I'll be 40 in November. So taking on a risk like this is, you know, this career change is, it's pretty crazy to do that. In the mix of while I'm still doing roofing, but I am like, I know I can make it happen. I'm almost 40, I want something better for myself, and that's the end of it. I just got to do it, you know?

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:03
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I'm just thinking in the back of my head a little bit about this. And I'm actually very, very much the same way. It sounds like we have somewhat similar personalities. And I am thinking about these, I used to have my crews do like painting races, like we used to set them up on one wall versus another wall or something like that. And...

Enrrico Torres 22:31
Yeah, we did the same with chandeliers. I'd be like, "okay, you guys go over there. You go over here. Let's see who gets it done the fastest."

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:36
It's like, no, guys, hold on. Come on. I can do it this way faster than...

Enrrico Torres 22:40
Yeah, right. Exactly.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:41
Yeah. So this is interesting and that, like, how some of this stuff kind of manifests in different areas. But I think that you say, you know, I heard you say that you're a risk taker, and you know, at 40 and everything like that, but I don't think you're actually taking that much of a risk, right? I'm gonna... because here's what I mean by that. Not meant in an insulting way or anything like that.

Enrrico Torres 23:05
Oh, no, no.

Scott Anthony Barlow 23:06
But the way that you're doing it, I think is very, very smart. Because you are, you didn't like, sell off or ditch the roofing company or something like that, and say, I am all in, okay, developers make this happen. Instead, you're going about it, where you're building it maybe a little bit more slowly, but you're keeping the income coming in, you are not having to deal with the stress of making everything work and having be 100% all in on this, and you can allow it to flourish over time. So I actually think that's really, really smart. But I would almost challenge you a little bit and say, that's a smarter way and a less riskier way.

Enrrico Torres 23:54
Right. Yeah, this is pretty crazy. I mean, this application, believe it or not, when I started this project, I thought it was gonna take us six months. Okay. We started this project in 2012. And we were using different solutions. Okay, because at the beginning, we didn't start developing from the ground up, it was only to about 24 months ago, when I just got really tired of using other people's solutions. And just, we were limited everywhere. And, you know, we go back to the creative part, I have so many ideas. I have so many things we wanted to do that because of using other people's solutions, we were limited. And they just came to like, you know what, that's it. We're done with them. I'm putting on my own team. And we're building it from the ground up. So we started about two years ago, I thought it was gonna be six months and here we are, we're still developing, you know, so it's definitely quite a learning curve.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:52
So what would you advise people in a similar situation where they want to make something happen? They want to you know, I heard you say, there's a lot that goes into it in order to make my dream happen. If they want to make their dream happen, and they're thinking about getting started, they're kind of at back at that place where it's like, you know, I think I could do that. I totally think I could make that happen. And they're still either think about it or just getting into it. What advice would you give them?

Enrrico Torres 25:19
I will say, very to make sure they do the research, because you don't want to take a risk, you know, if it's not really gonna pan out, but you want to do your research and do it. Like, take the chance, I mean, take a careful chance and slowly start building it. Because at the end of the day, like what you don't want is regret. That's the one thing I don't want, I don't want to be 80 years old, and then think, darn it, I should have done it, I knew I could do it, I should have done it. Regret is the worst thing, you know. And if you're especially, if you're in a job, like you said, 35... 30, 35 you're going through that transition, I mean, the jobs, you know, sometimes they're not as good as they could be and it's like, you have to look for another job, but you're scared, you're like, I don't know, if I want to take the job, I don't really know everything about it, you can learn I mean, you're always going to be learning. So if that job is not making you happy, why stay in a job that you're not happy every day, you know. At the end of the day, it's not just you that is not happy, is your family, they can see that you're not happy, your kid, everybody can see, your weighing down. So you just gotta go for it, take a chance. See where it goes. And, you know, I mean, you're still young. I'm still young, I'm almost 40.

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:43
Approaching.

Enrrico Torres 26:45
You're approaching 40.

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:46
Getting closer and closer than I would like.

Enrrico Torres 26:49
Yeah, I know. Right?

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:51
Yeah. But ultimately, I don't know if that matters that much. I mean, eventually, the expiration will be up and everything along those lines, but I don't know, I feel pretty pretty darn young too, how old am I? I can't remember. Okay, so it's not just I can't remember my kids ages, I can't remember my own age. Not sure what that says about me but it's probably accurate. Anyhow, I really appreciate you sharing a whole bunch of this. And you've just got a really interesting and inspiring story. And I so appreciate you making the time. And I'm curious for people that want to learn more about and we didn't even get into it that much, it's called AppendMe, right? Tell us a little bit about that. And then I want you to tell us where we can find out more about you or more about your platform.

Enrrico Torres 27:39
Okay, yes, AppendMe right now, we have the social part out there. On the social part, you can do everything from sharing pictures, links, anything, you also have the ability to like this, like sympathize. And we added that because we wanted to give the user control over their posts, you know, if your pet dies or something like that, you don't want somebody liking your posts, you know, you put sympathy. So we added these buttons in accordance to the users. We also have filters, chat, group chat, everything within one application. And we're working on the e-commerce part where so you're going to be able to buy and sell anything using the application too. So that's pretty much what a AppendMe is right now. And you can reach me, you can either... when you sign up on the application, you can find me there, look me up as Enrrico. And that's how you can connect with me. I also have a profound LinkedIn, we have a page on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, just type AppendMe and you'll see us pop up. So that's pretty much how you can get a hold of me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:47
Very cool. Hey, I very much appreciate it. And thank you so much for taking the time and making the time.

Enrrico Torres 28:54
Thank you so much. And thank you to your audience for listening.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:57
I hope you absolutely love that conversation. I just want you to know that as we're going into this next year, we can absolutely help no matter where you're at. And one of the biggest things that we teach people that we work with either one on one or in our programs or classes or courses is that, when you're just consuming information, that's fine if you're doing it for the purposes of entertainment. However, if you're doing it to actually help, then that means that you have to apply the information that you've learned. So we absolutely love you taking the time and making the time to listen to the podcast. Absolutely love it. This wouldn't happen without it, wouldn't happen without it at all. So really, really appreciate that. And I want to be able to give back to you and that means that we want to be able to teach you to apply all the stuff that you've learned by listening to our episodes and everything else. So the best way that we can do that is for you to be able to reach out to us and tell us a little bit about your situation. And then we can line you up with the best way that we can be of help to you. And I have no idea what that looks like, it might be having you work with one of our coaches, one of our career coaches like Lisa who's been on the podcast multiple times, or Gia or, you know, somebody else on our team, it might be, we don't have the right type of help for you. And we need to point you in another direction. And we know somebody who can take care of you. It might be that it's you know, through career change bootcamp or side biz MBA or our coaching client tech career to action, if you're starting a coaching business, but whatever it is, you know, we can't help unless you take action, and are ready to actually apply the stuff that you've been learning. So in 2017, that's what I want you to do, to be able to kick this off, right. So don't hesitate to reach out. And there's a number of ways that you can do that. But the very easiest way is just go to happentoyourcareer.com/help. That's happentoyourcareer.com/help and fill out the form there. It'll ask you a few questions about your situation. And we'll be able to help you make it happen. All right. Hey, thanks so much for making the time, taking the time. I really, really appreciate it. Take a listen to what we've got coming up next week on Happen To Your Career

31:36
I've always enjoyed writing even as a kid, I knew it was sort of something that was in me. And I've been working in communications since college for about 10 years now in different capacities. Doing I was a TV news reporter, and I worked as a TV news consultant. And now I work in public relations. But I always stayed true to what I enjoyed, which was writing skills and communications.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:02
All right, all that and more. Go on over, get this stuff actually applied, go to the happentoyourcareer.com/helpform and happentoyourcareer.com/help. And we will be able to help you get aligned with the best way that you can get moving forward in 2017 to make a massive change to your career in your life. See, all the. All right, I'm out. Adios.

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Regaining Perspective with Tracy Timm

December 19, 2016 by eli

Graduate from high school in the Top 10 of your class. Check.

Get your bachelor’s degree. Check.

Land a job applicable to your degree. Check.

Work 60-hour work weeks to get that promotion. Check.

Sleep. Eat. Work. Sleep. Eat. Work…

Check. Check. Check…

Have you been living a calculated, box-checking life?

Are you tired? Bored? Wondering if there is more to life than just sleeping, eating, and working…just to repeat it the next day?

Are you looking for a change of pace, lifestyle, or career?

That is exactly how our guest, Tracy Timm, felt after checking off the boxes of graduating from Yale and getting a job on Wall Street out of college. Tracy began to feel the effects of the classic “high-achiever” looking for more from life than just her job- which began to make her miserable.

After deciding that picking misery and safety over an actual fulfilling life was not how she wanted to continue, she laid her cards on the table for her employers and ultimately left Wall Street to begin her entrepreneurial journey (after her trip around the world to regain a new perspective on life, of course).

Listen as Tracy shares how she got her perspective back to make the switch from the corporate life to a life defined on her own terms.

ABOUT TRACY TIMM

Tracy Timm is a self-described “risk-averse over-achiever.”

Tracy’s passion for learning about people and why they do the things they do led her to start her own business focusing on helping organizations find, retain, manage, and develop their best people to give maximum impact back to the business through behavioral psychology practices as well as providing support to young professionals that hate the fact that they hate their job and want to do something more meaningful in their lives.

In her own words, Tracy is an “unassuming entrepreneur” that went into business as a “quarter-life career coach and behavioral psychologist and human capital adviser.”

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Why it’s important to be authentically you in all you do, especially when it comes to your career
How knowing and ASKING for what you want is the magic combination in getting what you want
Knowing the difference between having a bad day at work and absolutely DREADING going to work…
Rapid prototyping…designing experiments…(taking on a side gig…volunteering…shadowing..)

RELEVANT LINKS AND RESOURCES

Check out Tracy’s work at her website: TracyTimm.com

Text “EZTracy with your name and your email” to 313131 for her free ebook: 7 Fast Start Strategies for Starting Something New + a surprise goody!

Email Tracy at tracy@tracytimm.com

Follow Tracy on Facebook

Connect with Tracy on Linkedin

Follow Tracy on Twitter: @thetracytimm

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