I’ve just started a brand new offering, a 90-minute Career Clarity Deep-Dive, and I am loving getting to work with people in a one-off capacity. This post is going to share some of the insights I’ve found so far and how much you can achieve in a 90-minute coaching session.
The clarity starts immediately
With everyone I talk to, here are 3 common experiences that are creating lots of stress:
“If I say this is what I want in a job, and then I get it, will I actually be satisfied?”
This shows a huge loss of confidence, trust in your own decisions, and knowing what is right for you. You’ve spent so much of your time listening to external pressures, going after shiny things, wanting to look good to others, and measuring yourself on external definitions of success. This also happens after you’ve been burned by past decisions, landed in poor fit environments a few times, been let go, job-hopped, etc. It creates a serious lack of confidence that you actually know what’s right for you.
“I’m saying what I think I should say/what people want to hear and looking for the logical next step.”
When you’re following the assembly line there’s no agency, power, intention, or opportunity to listen to what you want. You can only do what everyone else seems to be doing and more often than not, it’s not going to be the right thing for you.“I have no idea where to start.”
No one teaches us how to do this, it took me years to figure it out for myself before I started teaching it to others. That’s why it can be so helpful to invest in outside help. Instead of spending any more of your precious time and mental energy wondering how to get started, let me guide you through my frameworks and I promise you’ll be feeling more clear in no time.
One of the most fun realizations is getting to see how much can happen even before someone works with me. Just from that first chat to see if it’s the right thing or just from the pre-work exercises! You’ve most likely been having the same conversations in the echo chamber of your head for a while so any new input/reframes can make ALL the difference.
Clients had this to say after a 20-minute phone call with me to see if the program would be a good fit:
“I loved our chat yesterday. Even in the little bit we talked, I started to notice a little more clarity from the haze. I know you'll be able to help me as I navigate this job search process.”
“I’m already feeling better! You should tell people that you make this process feel fun.”
Fun may feel like the farthest thing from what you’re feeling about your job right now but this is feedback that I get over and over again.
And now for my favorite part of what a client has accomplished, again, before we even had our session:
“I actually started [the pre-work] this morning and got to my values tier list. So, here's what happened. I had an interview earlier today and the CEO and I started talking about fit and values. Well, since I had an idea, I shared my values! What came afterwards was he was glad I knew and the rest of our conversation was about how the company's values matched 2 of my top 3 values. Isn't that fun? Alright found usage for your work.”
YES!!! This is what it’s all about. You get clear, you communicate it effectively, and it creates completely different conversations and opportunities. This happens with clients over and over and over again and I can’t get enough of it. It’s so simple yet so incredibly effective, and honestly kinda feels like magic.
(If you think you could benefit from this kind of clarity, I would love to hear from you. Grab a session here and reclaim some clarity and fun around your career.)
“How much can you really achieve in 90 minutes?!?”
When I first talked to a client about what outcomes she could expect from the 90-minute deep-dive, her first question was, “how the heck does this all fit in 90 minutes?!?”
We do achieve a lot and there are three reasons why it’s possible to do so much in such a short period of time:
Pre-work. I have you complete a few exercises before we meet so that we can hit the ground running. You get to spend as much time on the exercises as you’d like and you share them with me before our session.
Mindsets can change in the blink of an eye. You’ve been stuck in one way of thinking for months or years and a reframe can create a whole new world of possibility. I help you see any way of thinking that is limiting your possibilities or adding additional pressure and can help you shift it immediately.
Structure. There’s a process to my work and the exercises build on each other to get you feeling clear and confident. I’ve been using this process for years so I’m able to move someone through the insights swiftly.
So that’s how it works, let me share the magic it creates.
For my most recent client, here are a few highlights of what she discovered during our 90-minute session:
She expects her job to be EVERYTHING to her. She saw the HUGE expectations she was placing on her job (it has to be everything! It has to be sexy and make me look good to others! It has to provide all of my fulfillment!) and how it’s been creating tunnel vision around her. She saw that she’s experiencing a job search dominated by external pressure and lack of agency, power, fun, etc. Now you get to create the job search from clarity, values, choice, and cultivating opportunities. You've been in tunnel vision expecting your job to be everything to you
She’s been passing up opportunities because she’s labeled them “boring” based on other peoples’ expectations. She saw that she’s really been limiting herself and with new clarity, she immediately saw new options opening up.
Finding new language to articulate why her job wasn’t a good fit allowed her release her shame around being let go. This is such a common experience. You may be carrying around shame or embarrassment from being let go, being put on a personal improvement plan, job-hopping, etc and making yourself all kinds of bad and wrong for it. My experience is that there is always a reason why something wasn’t a good fit and the more you’re able to articulate it, the less you beat yourself about it as a personal failing. For this particular client, all 3 of her top deal-breaker, non-negotiable values were out of alignment in that role, so there was no way that she was going to be able to show up how she wanted to.
There’s new space to allow her purpose to be discovered over time instead of having to have it “figured out” by now. How’s that going with all the shoulds around where you should be and what you should have “figured out” at this point in your life?
She got excited about creating her own motivation at work. My favorite way is to ask these three questions every day (from the book Designing Your Work Life) What did I learn? Who did I help? What did I initiate? And she got extra excited by creating similar questions based on her top 3 values - How can I grow? How can I have fun today? How can I contribute today?
The magical “Good Enough Job” framework created relief as it often does. No one tells us we can choose a “Good Enough Job” if it works for us. I try to share it as often as I can.
And those are just the highlights! All in 90 minutes.
I honestly get to set people free.
I hope that these insights give you some freedom from anything you’re challenged by in your job right now. And if you’re ready for your 90 minutes of clarity, sign up here.
The question should be "Can you afford not to do it?"
I’ve been sharing about my new 90-min session from my perspective, but in a very LeVar Burton “but you don’t have to take my word for it” way, I want to share the latest feedback from another deep-dive client so you can understand what it feels like to have the experience.
"Before the deep-dive, I was feeling a general sense of unrest and apprehension about taking any next steps towards change. We honed in on my core values and gave new language to my narrative and story that I didn't have the ability to previously. Your very analytical approach to zeroing in on my unique values was wonderfully efficient and eye-opening. If someone is thinking about working with you but isn't sure, the question should be "Can you afford not to do it?" I am so grateful to have had the opportunity, thank you again. You have a gift and you know how to use it!"
So, can you afford not to do it?
What is your lack of clarity costing your earning potential, your mental health, your relationships, your sense of self?
Give the gift of freedom
I often get referrals that say something along the lines of “I guess I complained to my friend about my job too much and she sent me in your direction” and I see that as such an act of love. Thank you to all of the wonderful friends in this world that call us on our complaining and want to see us feeling clear and confident about our work and our lives.
I’d love to ask you to consider people in your life, is there anyone that might think:
“I’ve been hearing myself complain a lot for years, I’m over it myself and I’m tired of complaining to others”
“I would pay a lot of money to have my husband no longer feel stressed out” (I heard this one just recently!)
“My friends are tired of hearing me complain about my job.
I’ve been the complaining friend. My version was “why can't I just be happy not really enjoying my job? Why do I care so much, can't I just care less?"
And I was so grateful for a friend who helped me get out of that mindset because I would have struggled there for a long time by myself.
That’s why I want you to be able to gift someone a career clarity deep-dive if you’re feeling financially secure right now, as a deep gift of love and appreciation for someone who may be struggling. No one wants to be the complaining friend or spouse and please know that you can make a world of difference.
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