Tag: #newcareer

The breath of fresh air

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Image by me (Fiona)
Words by me based on an interview with Valerie

Valerie finds that outside of her comfort zone is where you feel the wonder of new beginnings.

In early 2020 Valerie was at the pinnacle of her career in marketing and advertising – the chief marketing officer. This was a role achieved as part of 20 years in the industry, and something Valerie was very comfortable doing.

Then the pandemic hit and Valerie lost her job.

Shortly after that a friend contacted her “do you know a speaker or anybody who can help us understand Facebook, understand the digital space, understand this new world because we all were forced to go virtual?”

Valerie initially recommended a few people. But they were outside her friend’s budget.

So she volunteered her own services!

While this sort of training was new to Valerie, she had the mindset, the experience and her NLP training to call on.

Not that she didn’t have second thoughts. With 300 people to train she initially was not sure what she was going to say to them!

Valerie thinks her friend was actually hoping she would offer.

Fast forward a year and Valerie has trained over 3500 people from all over the world!

This was not the first or last time Valerie stepped outside her comfort zone – she was the first of her friends to work overseas, and she chose Cambodia instead of the more popular Singapore to do that. That was a year well out of her comfort zone with no knowledge of the language, and a very different lifestyle that included not even owning a mirror!

She also dated online well before it was commonplace. She married her partner in a private ceremony “we just we just exchanged vows and I gave our family and friends messages and poems to share with us and that was it. Of course I’m biased but it connected us to our family and it connected us to our friends.”

Valerie has advice for others thinking about stepping out of their comfort zone “Mel Robbins has this NLP technique when you count 54321. When you count backwards your brain shifts from being emotional (being afraid, feeling like you can’t do this) to the executive function, your cognitive brain. This makes you more logical.

“So 54321 you count and then you hit the button! You just start with your commit – you share with the world, you share on your facebook so that you’re on the hook and you just do it.”

Wonderful advice Valerie!

Valerie Fischer helps online business owners increase revenue growth with Brain Science Selling. You can find out more about her at her Facebook page or website www.valeriefischer.net.

My fight with lava

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Words by Karen Tisdell – my guest blogger today
Photo by Vadim Sadovski on Unsplash

Tell me about your LinkedIn journey from the start to where you are now.

I was an early adopter of LinkedIn, using it as a recruiter. In 2009, I went on maternity leave. I was considered an ‘old’ mum at 35 but was desperate for children. My husband and I didn’t have a plan for when I’d go back to work, and it was a shock to him when, after just a few months, I was ready.

My husband’s mother is house-proud. She keeps her home spotless – it was what he grew up with. My husband was disappointed that polishing his shoes and vacuuming wasn’t what I lived for and even more appalled at the thought of putting our tiny baby (a delicate little thing that struggled with weight gain) into care.

My frustration grew until one day, I told the truth. I shared my struggles with a friend, confessing that I wasn’t satisfied with staying home. Her suggestion was to combine my aptitude for writing with my knowledge of LinkedIn. I’ve been a champion of the platform since the old days, seeing it as a place where you could pull clients to you and build mutually beneficially relationships.

I took her advice and set about getting clients.

Of course, like every good story, it wasn’t easy. My husband was reluctant. It would be unfair to call him unsupportive – he once spent a whole weekend building me a website. I didn’t have any say in the design and refused to use it. I wanted to pay for a professional site, but he wouldn’t hear it.

Our family was going through it, too. My husband travelled a lot and wasn’t able to be the most hands-on father and I didn’t make that any easier for him by wanting everything my way. I became pregnant three more times, miscarrying at 11 weeks and losing another baby at six months. It was a very difficult time.

The challenges didn’t take me away from my side business. They drew me in deeper. I had something that was all mine, and that kept me strong.

Now in hindsight, I can see that not having financial backing was a positive thing. I invested hours and hours on LinkedIn, learning, building relationships with people that could refer clients to me, and anything else that didn’t cost a cent. You know, that’s what I really love about LinkedIn. It’s equitable – an even playing field. People like me have the same space as Richard Branson. There’s so much power in that. I’m proof of it.

Fast-forward to today, and I am now one of the few people who write LinkedIn profiles in Australia – even the world. The others are marketing people that dabble in LinkedIn or career coaches that think a profile is like a resume – which it absolutely isn’t!

I’ve earned an excellent reputation as a LinkedIn profile writer. It’s my specialty. I am also a sought-after LinkedIn trainer and speaker. I’m not turning over millions, but I’m doing well. I’ve held on to my family (my husband and I are happier than ever) and grown my business.

When did you realise your business had the potential to go full time?

I love being a mum, and I didn’t want a rigid nine-to-five. My work had to fit around my children – not the other way around. My business has never been full- or part-time, rather anytime and all the time!

Early on, I planned around those 20 minutes my daughters were napping. I’d work with razor-sharp focus, turning the whole world off. It’s a skill I’m grateful for today.

When my kids were toddlers, I’d take them to play cafes, the ones with ball pits and playgrounds. They’d wear themselves out, and I’d be pounding away on the keyboard. I’d even meet clients there, something that was perhaps a little weird for them. You can hardly hear yourself think in those places, but I learnt to tune it all out – except for the sound of my children crying.

I even gave up watching TV. I wanted to go to bed at the same time as my children so I could wake up at 4.30 am and work. You’ve got to give up some things – I touch on that more HERE. This was hard on my husband. He likes staying up late and sleeping in. We barely saw each other for years. Our lives have changed a lot since COVID, and while it has been so devastating for so many, I’ve loved having my husband home during the day.

My mother-in-law would also come and stay for about one week out of the year. I plan around this, cram my diary full, and meet as many clients as possible. I didn’t send my kids to daycare for years. It really taught me the value of time.

My hours have grown alongside my daughters’ independence, although I draw the line at meeting clients outside of school hours. I’ve done the math, and I clock about 45.5 hours per week: an hour in the morning while the girls are asleep, six while they are at school, an hour in the evening while supervising homework or in the car while they are at music lessons, and on the weekend, two hours while they are at golf, one while at swimming, one and a half while at tennis, and one precious hour before the house wakes up on Sunday.

It may sound like a busy schedule and I have a lot of time for friends. But I love what I do almost to a fault. And to contextualise, I don’t write profiles every hour of my working week. I’m also responding to questions, crafting content, sending invitations to connect, being a guest on podcasts, or writing for others’ publications. It’s all good stuff – except accounts.

There’s not a bone in my body passionate about the accounts. Money isn’t my main focus, though I am proud to bring in what I do. I’m motivated more by a compulsion to give, to help others, even those that can’t afford my services. It’s almost addictive, and maybe that’s not healthy. But aside from gardening with a podcast or camping beachside with my family (UNO, boogie boarding, long walks, campfires, marshmallows, and burnt sausages – bliss), there are few things I’d rather do.

What mistakes did you make in the early days of your entrepreneurial journey?

When I had a bit of money to spend, I spent it all wrong. I should have invested in a website, but instead, I paid for prettily designed brochures, with comp slips and branded Christmas cards. I wanted to be a high-touch business, so I went all out: expensive paper, raised fonts, the whole wedding invitation shebang. Now I know better. Paper is antiquated. How ridiculous for me to think I needed it. It was only recently I tossed them into the recycling bin.

Another big mistake: trying to be all things to all people. I’m a recovering people pleaser, and I did whatever I could to make my clients happy. I often suffered scope-creep as I gave away far more time than I got paid for.

Pricing was another big one. I researched what part-timers in the suburbs earned and tried to pay myself that amount. Tried. In truth, I was grateful for any money at all. $15/hour. For the first eight years or so, I was blinded by my genuine LOVE for writing profiles. Even as a kid, I wanted to write peoples’ life stories – not as a biographer but an autobiographer. I wanted to be them, live through them. I love the dramatic arts but am a terrible over-actor. Profiles allow me to step into people’s worlds, if only for a few hours.

Anyway, the short of it is, getting paid felt wrong. My husband showed me the value of my work and my time. He was resentful of my business. He thought I was spending too much time on something that contributed so little financially to our family. I finally listened to him, and it saved both my business and my marriage.

What are the key components to your success?

Number one: I am extremely resilient. Tenacious. I don’t give up.

I’m also serious about my habits and routines. Time is precious to me and I’m careful how I spend each and every hour.

Finally, I am willing to listen to others. I’ve learnt so much from my clients, who have shared business advice with me over the years. I do wish I’d listened to my husband earlier. It took too long for me to understand his perspective. I’m glad I didn’t lose him because of my myopic vision and love of what I do.

What are three top tips that you would share with someone starting out on their own entrepreneurial journey?

One: develop great habits. Work practices can reduce decision fatigue, making your life easier. Be sure to regularly assess if your routines are effective.

Two: be grateful – but not too grateful. I think what stopped me from valuing my time (and charging accordingly) was an excess of gratitude. I was so thankful to every client, for every dollar. Gratitude is, of course, essential – I believe it can save you from depression. But it can also mean you put up with things you maybe oughtn’t to.

Three: invest in a business coach and the app Blinkist, which allows you to listen or read a full book in 20 minutes. If you can, a business coach is ideal. I didn’t have one – I self-educated. But I did write profiles for many successful business owners and coaches, so I asked (and continue to ask) them about things I was struggling with, as I did with you Fiona. Sometimes you don’t know what to ask, and that’s why a business coach can be invaluable.

About Karen:

Struggling to capture your vast experience, skills and stories in your LinkedIn profile? It is hard to write about yourself, isn’t it? Call me on 📱 0404 083 678 and I can take away the pain, save you time, and guarantee your professional success with a done-for-you LinkedIn profile writing service that includes coaching on using LinkedIn.

I became a LinkedIn profile writer because I am fascinated with people’s stories. Always have been. In my former career as a recruiter I used to weave stories into resumes to ensure candidates were selected for interview. Foreseeing that being memorable online would become increasingly important, in 2009 I left recruitment to launch my own business. I have since helped countless senior leaders and business owners achieve their goals.

The results have been spectacular. I’ve witnessed my clients secure new roles because of their profile (in one instance with a 35% pay increase), attract new business, secure investors, and improve how their peers see them. All because of how they are perceived here…

When change is constant…

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Image by me (Fiona)
Story by me based on an interview with Olga

Olga’s story is one of a life lived well outside of most people’s comfort zones, which means she is rarely outside of her own. When change is a constant in your life, how do you get uncomfortable?

Becoming an entrepreneur might do it…

“Oh, I think it just happened gradually. And I wouldn’t call it stepping out of my comfort zone, I’ll say, extending my comfort zone. As lots of people did, I went through a lot of career transformation. And I lived in six different countries. I moved a lot. And my career kind of turned and twisted, because of that, as well. Everything contributed in a way.

“And I think that my major stepping out of the core of my comfort zone was transforming from a corporate worker to entrepreneur. To actually do my own business full time.

“I started my business six years ago, but it was a little bit of a love/hate relationship.”

Olga would work for herself, then be interested in what a corporation was doing and head back to that world.

“That’s what happened three times”

Once Olga made the choice to truly be an entrepreneur “It felt very liberating. And I think that’s one of the major contributing factors. Another aspect that really was appealing to me is the fact that I’m learning all the time. Before that I was well paid, but the job was extremely transactional. And it was very depressing to be honest. So, to get the opportunity to dive in and to learn all the time, and actually feel that I am growing as a professional, that was amazing. And it still is, you know, I’m still learning every day.”

And if someone was considering stepping out of their comfort zone?

“I think that my advice would be to think of actually applying the classical change management framework to the plan. Which means that you have to plan, you have to establish your success metrics, you need to be able to get the sponsor, get as much support as possible, and explain to family and friends how this changes might affect you. 

“It’s important to communicate and explain to people how the change would affect them, and how it can be a good thing.”

Olga sees benefits in stepping out of your comfort zone – learning a growth to start with – but also appreciates that not everyone wants to get uncomfortable “you might want to still think of how you can learn. And you might not change jobs or move countries, but it’s a good idea to track what you’re doing and to track your growth. Stagnation is not good.”

“I think it’s very important to ask for help, to allow yourself ask for help. I think at different stages of our lives we all need mentors. And maybe not just one mentor.  Two mentors who are different, of maybe different age groups, because I think that there are people who struggle, because they don’t see outside themselves. And that’s where I come, and I help and guide them through this journey. So I think it’s important to have someone who you trust who can help you to keep growing.”

Thank you Olga!

A little about Olga:
Having lived in 6 countries across Europe, Middle East and APAC and after working in senior HR and Recruitment role for the last 20 years, now Olga Barrett resides in Melbourne and helps people who go through their Career Transformation.

Olga helps people get the jobs they want and build the careers they deserve to have by creating actionable career transformation frameworks that make job search process transparent, manageable and even fun.

Writing for your tomorrow

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Story by Fiona based on an interview with Shilpa
Image by Fiona

Until 18 months ago Shilpa was very comfortable in her life. An amazing career spanning 16 years had been everything she wanted. Until she was made redundant.
This was a wake up call for Shilpa – that someone else had control over her career like that.

Shilpa decided to take the opportunity to take back that control and try something completely new – follow her passion into a coaching career!

After years of staying comfortable Shilpa now steps out of her comfort zone on a daily basis!

Today she speaks regularly at public events and live videos. “I was a very shy person. I used to be a loner, very comfortable in my world and with my thoughts. And then I said, ‘Okay, let me go out there and put myself in front of the public. How bad can it be?’

“Speaking from the stage has been a great part of my journey! And today when I’m teaching other people to do the same, I know each of them can do it because I have walked that path myself”

Shilpa took a non-traditional approach to her new career!
“So my initial feeling was okay, this is exciting. And then when I started, the biggest question I faced was ‘where do I get the credibility?’ I had a comfort zone for years; I was fully established there. People knew me, I had the relationships. And how do I create that credibility immediately in this new field when I am doing something totally different? It all came together somehow, but initially there was some, I wouldn’t say fear, but a hesitation whether it would work or not. But then I realised that I had built credibility all along, it was all that commitment, dedication, result orientation, everything that I had built in those 16 years. I just have to pull them along from my previous life and create some amazing results in the new industry and there you go- my credibility was there.“

Well done Shilpa!

There are good reasons why Shilpa regularly challenges herself “When you are sitting in your comfort zone, you get rusty. You’re just do what you know, over and over again. And you feel that you know it all. Whereas the fact is that you’ve not seen the world outside. And slowly you start getting this feeling that I’m comfortable here, but can I survive in the world outside, if required? Ultimately life does throw challenges. But if we can figure out a way to respond to it with whatever we have, that confidence and action orientation is the success mantra. Constantly getting out of your comfort zone, no matter how small the step is, gives you unlimited confidence, those juices which tell you that life is in control, no matter what “

Shilpa’s advice to anyone considering stepping out of their comfort zone is to just do it – don’t look for the 1000 reasons why not to do it, Reasons are for not doing things rather than for doing things.

I also asked Shilpa her favourite part of stepping out of her comfort zone “My favourite bit is the experience. Each of us have our own experiences. And if we go and we embrace more of such experiences, our life becomes richer. I’m not saying that everywhere there will be a win – there will be failures as well. But definitely there will be learnings.”

“So I would say, don’t overthink, JUST DO IT and whether it works or not, the learning you will get out of it, will go a long way in building that story that you’re writing for YOUR tomorrow.”

My favourite quote – “that story that you’re writing for YOUR tomorrow”. How powerful!

About Shilpa:

As a Career Strategist, Peak Performance Coach and #1 International bestselling author of the book “Play it Full”, Shilpa believe that you can attain incredible results in all three aspects of life- Achievements, Health and Relationships. You can have it all!

She is on a mission to impact 1 million people move from the role of a creation to a creator.

Her mentees are rocking their life today by performing at an elevated level, creating outstanding results for themselves.

Shilpa has mastered the magic formula and so is on a war against the average game.

The purpose of her life today is to share this formula, this awesome sauce with the world, so that each person gets an opportunity to fly high and through a ripple effect, it creates an exceptional world for all of us.

Linkedin Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/shilpa-kulshrestha

Push the boat out

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Words and image by me (Fiona)
Words based on an interview with Johnathan

Johnathan is a serial ‘step out of your comfort zoner’, but shared with me one of his 9 career transitions!

He was working as a recruiter: “I’d recently removed from New Zealand to Australia. So I was very fortunate enough to come over with a job when we moved here. I was working in in recruitment but my heart wasn’t really in it, I was getting frustrated with how recruitment worked. But one night I thought I know what a good CV and a good LinkedIn profile and I know what a bad one looks like. No one’s actually telling the candidates this we’re just rejecting, rejecting, rejecting. We’re not actually saying ‘hey, this is what you are doing wrong’, there was nobody providing sort of feedback. I felt that everyone was working for the client as a recruitment consultant, but no one was working for the candidate.

“And so I had a like an epiphany moment as I was sitting on the couch off to the shower and I thought, I’m going to try something tomorrow and I’m going to push this boat out as far as I can before it sinks.”

Johnathan ran with his epiphany immediately, talking ‘the mother of all epic sickies’ the very next day and calling a local school that taught Microsoft technical education. He was able to secure a meeting with the head of the school for that afternoon “I said, ‘hey, look, I’m a career coach. And I specialise in helping people build their technical careers. I’d love to come in and talk to your students, if I can, about how to set themselves up for success.’ “

“He said to me, ‘Well, this sounds like a really good idea. When can you come in and talk to one of my classes and share these tips?’ And I say, well, as luck would have it, I have some time available this afternoon!”

Once there Johnathan told the head of the school about his background and his idea – and found himself in front of the students that same visit!

“The guy said to me, ‘this sounds amazing. Tell you what, I’ve got a class running right now. Do you want to jump in right now and just have a bit of a chat to these students?’”

Despite having nothing prepared, Johnathan continued to push that boat out and spoke to the students for an hour and a half!

“I walked out of there really, really invigorated because I kind of reconnected with my passion. So the interesting thing is that he said to me, at the end of it, ‘look, that was fantastic. When can you come in again, we’d like you to develop a programme.’ And I thought to myself, ‘okay, look, I’ll come back to you on that one’ – because I knew I had to go back to work the next day.

“I was so far outside my comfort zone, but I was being kind of propelled by this energy in this interview. And this, this wow feeling. And at the same time I was also had that voice in the back of my head going, What the hell are you doing?”

This huge day led eventually to the business Jonathan now runs.

Johnathan has some great advice for people thinking about stepping out of their comfort zone “One thing that I teach people is reframing the comfort zone or reframing the tasks that you want to accomplish. We’ll call it an experiment, which means if you think about your career, and it’s on a long sort of line, why don’t we take a small part of where you’re sitting at right now, and let’s just extract it out. Let’s find something that you can do. That is not going to impact in your career. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try another approach. So this is not the be all and end all of your whole entire life. But most times we put in a good framework and we set the experiment up for success.”

Johnathan had other great techniques for stepping out of your comfort zone, but instead I am going to share with you his final words – you can always contact Johnathan to find out more!

“Sometimes getting outside your comfort zone means confronting yourself and your professional self in a mirror and going, what am I? Where do I want to go? How do I need to position myself to get there? How do I understand the full range of what who I am and what I do and the value that I bring to an organisation?

“So part of getting out of your comfort zone means going on a journey of figuring out and finding out who and what you are. And that can be an incredibly rewarding experience and one that can really build and foster a greater sense of self confidence in people. So getting outside of your comfort zone can produce an enormous amount of reward, career acceleration, and purpose and fulfilment.”

Thank you so much Johnathan!

About Johnathan:

Johnathan is a Career Consultant who specialises in Professional Identity and Personal Brand Management. Using a structured method, he enables his clients to de-clutter their heads so they can gain a greater understanding of who and what they are, their capabilities and most importantly what makes them valuable. He also helps them increase their professional self-awareness so that they can move their careers forward with greater confidence and clarity of direction. Johnathan typically works with professionals at mid-career phase (Gen-X), to define their professional identity and then build a powerful Personal Brand to help them re-energise their careers and attract exciting opportunities. You can read more at johnmaltby.com. au or connect with him on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathanmaltby/

Sliding into a new career

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Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash
Words by Fiona Whitehead

I have had a few career changes, but changing from the career you spent 4 years getting a degree in is a big step. Especially if you only qualified 3 years earlier! 

I loved Radiation Therapy. I really felt I was making a difference, and building a rapport with patients came naturally to me. Maybe too naturally. My ability to empathise was causing me to get quite upset about some patients’ situations or outcomes. The teenager who had just been accepted into the school of dance, who did not yet know that the treatment for her very curable brain tumour would mean she never danced at that elite level again. The young mum who held her teddy bear as we treated her for 3 weeks in the hope that she would respond and go back to her normal self. She didn’t. The nun who shared her story with a nervous patient suffering the same type of cancer. The children. Oh my, the children. Brave or scared, happy or upset. The children broke my heart. 

You may have realised from that little outpouring that I was not able to maintain the emotional distance that would give that career path longevity! 

But what next?  Psychology?  Or would I just get too involved with a different type of patient? IT maybe? But did I really want to go back and get another degree?  

Then fate stepped in. I moved to the UK and signed up with an agency that provided radiation therapists to London hospitals (I can’t recall the name of the agency – but my payslips had owls on them!). In my first meeting they were most apologetic – they had a job but it was not in a hospital. It was user acceptance testing radiation therapy software in a company outside of London. But it paid an extra 2 pounds per hour to cover the travel! I will be honest – I didn’t know software testing was even a thing people did. But I signed up. 16 pounds per hour was not to be sneezed at!

Turns out I loved software testing. The attention to detail, the fact that a dead computer did not cause me to cry, the people I worked with were great, and I worked in an office, without wearing a uniform! 

I stayed as a temp at this company for about 2 years. There was a brief stint in a London hospital between software releases, but working on the treatment machine that treated all the children just reinforced my need to change careers. I moved from UAT testing to system testing as my experience grew. And that is when the two developers I worked with started nagging. ‘Go contracting’ they’d say. ‘I have no qualifications’ I would argue. Back and forth for weeks. They upped the ante by leaving ‘IT contractor’ magazine open on my desk with testing jobs circled and the hourly rate highlighted. Often. And eventually I decided there was no harm in applying. The worst was they would not hire me and I would remain where I was.

So, I applied for 3 jobs. And had three job offers (thank you Y2K!). At double my temp hourly rate. 

In mid-1999 I began what ended up being a 15-year career as a contract tester/ test manager. 

Thank you, Toby and Greg!