1. 90 Days to Find a Job or Start a Business? 5 Lessons from Crisis

Jette Stubbs: I learned five career changing secrets,  I'm going to give all the secrets to you at once to fast-track how you get started.

[00:00:07] You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:00:09] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:00:10] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms 

[00:00:22] So you may feel stuck right now, or if your circumstances are harder, you may think your situation is screwed or I'm not going to curse here, but you know what that word would be.  I don't use the curse word to jar or offend, but because when things are going  really wrong, saying you're stuck is like watching your house go up in flames while you try to save it by throwing a single cup of water.

[00:00:47] It's just not enough. You can break free from your situation to create something new. 

[00:00:53]So today, even if you have no clue where to start, you'll learn how to break free from a nine to five, the job you hate, the fear of not having money, the toxic environment, or people that make you want to escape.

[00:01:08]We're going to talk about the five secrets about making money you wish you knew, like in primary school, like I wish I had these things when I was planning while I was in high school, planning my career, thinking about what subjects I would study.

[00:01:21] The one thing you need to know in order to overcome any roadblock in your personal and professional life.

[00:01:26]So I'm going to do this by telling you a story. And hopefully through the story, you will see that you're not limited to the situation you are dealing with right now. Even if you are dealing with real challenges in your life, even if you feel stuck right now, you can build a career and customize your life.

[00:01:46] Even if the voices in your head are whispering,  I've never seen anyone. I know, build a career or business and have a happy life.

[00:01:54]I'm afraid I'm too young or too old, or it's too late for me. I've seen people fail when they tried to build a career, they love follow their passion or break free from the nine to five. And I don't want to fail too. I'm afraid because I don't want to end up struggling financially. It's too complicated, or I won't be able to figure it out.

[00:02:16] If you're here, you are ready, you are ready to build a new career, business and life on your own terms.   It is possible, but we need to break it down into steps.  Throughout this whole process throughout  anything that I teach you, please remember you are not limited to your current situation, and I'm trying to give you tools so that you can  start to develop something new.

[00:02:36]And when we are trying to build something new, it always starts with this feeling. I've heard it over and over again, that infamous nagging feeling that there has to be more, more to a career, more to a life more than what I'm dealing with right now. I wish someone sat me down a long time ago and lovingly gave me a wild wake up call saying there are.

[00:03:00] No friggin career rules or business rules, and you won't get anywhere by playing it safe. Sometimes does it feel as if family members, friends, and society tell you to play it safe, they even tell you the way you are suppose quote, unquote, supposed to earn money. They suggest the same type of career that you were supposed to have during the timeline for success and building a family that you are supposed to follow.

[00:03:26]Honestly, a lot of that advice can be holding you back. There's good advice and  bad advice, but I guarantee you, there are no Lake fast and true rules. For the most part. There are some guiding principles. The feeling of there has to be more tends to be sprinkled in with this inner crisis of, I am totally lost and I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:03:48]Sometimes life knocks you down and suddenly you face the choice of giving up or finding your way out of a big mess. I remember sitting at the edge of my bed one morning, trying to figure out what to do with my life. My mind racing was so many thoughts, all mapping out ways to change my circumstances. It took me four years to figure out what I wanted to do.

[00:04:06] And another five years to actually do it.   It is hard to trudge down, creating your own path when you feel alone or don't know how to find the quote unquote right path for you. Chances are you're afraid of what your friends and family will say. Are you sure that's a good idea? For most of us, we live in fear of someone saying, "see, I told you so". You dread hearing.

[00:04:29] "I told you so", one day as you stare at an empty bank account, signaling that it didn't work a failed attempt to pursue a career. You love to live life differently because it's not turning into the money or growth that you wanted. We all fear it.   This fear of the, I told you, so kept me from pursuing my dream sooner, but it also kept me working through the long nights on my journey towards building the happy career.

[00:04:55] I love. So now that I've done it for myself, I'm sharing with you five secrets that both myself and my clients have learned throughout the process. 

[00:05:04] In my first five years, I learned five career changing secrets, 

[00:05:08] and 

[00:05:09] Jette Stubbs: I'm going to give all the secrets to you at once to fast-track how you get started.

[00:05:13] It will help you see how to reach certain career decisions and identify which stage of the process you are at currently. So we're going to start from 2011, and that is your one for me. So year one, in my five secrets from career crisis, I was going through what I call no response. And it was really, and truly no response.

[00:05:36]  Can you imagine living in a foreign country with no career connections, no family, and not enough money to survive. I just graduated from university and apply to over 100 positions in two months. The result, no responses, not one.

[00:05:51]Can you imagine how gut-wrenching it was to not afford food? I was 21 and I decided to live on my own in a foreign country with no connections and no financial support. I was scared. I didn't know what I wanted to do for a job, but I knew I needed money. So I would take anything that legally paid a living wage.

[00:06:09]I made 80% below the poverty line and I was about to graduate without outstanding tuition debt. I couldn't afford a bus pass to get to my underpaying part-time job. So I walked 45 minutes to work just to make 80% below the poverty line. I had 90 days until I would run out of money and end up homeless with the potential of being kicked out of the country.

[00:06:32]One day, my dad called long distance and said that his business went belly up in the recession. My heart raced. I was so desperate to make money to survive that I would settle for a dead end job. Hate it, and get stuck. Cue the horror music for life stuck, paying off debt stuck, never getting called for a job opportunity, stuck having an expensive degree, but never actually getting the "good job" it promises.

[00:06:56]So when I graduated from university and was looking for work, I fired out as many resumes as I could to companies. What came back was a 0% response rate and over 100 job applications sitting in the inboxes of potential employers. And it was a jaw drop moment. I was officially broke and I needed money.

[00:07:16]Like you, I needed a way to make money. I needed to break free from a stressful situation, but how do you break free? This story isn't to grasp at your sympathy. It's truly a story that most of us can relate to. No matter if their circumstance, I developed a way to go from 100 plus rejected applications to sending out only 10 applications and receiving seven callbacks for interviews all by myself, no connections. From there, I defined and landed my dream job.

[00:07:45] After a while I was turning down interviews left and right, which is pretty awesome. So I'm sharing the tools I use to transform a 0% response rate to a 70% response rate and eventually start my own business. So how did I do that? I started by doing a ton of research. I did informational interviews. I attended workshops, I read books.

[00:08:06] I purchased courses soon. I developed a process for myself and I called a process, the happy career, because it was the simplest thing I could think of at the time. And it's really what my goal was. The happy career was based on two processes that I would use a process for narrowing down what I wanted to do that would support my lifestyle or my life goals and a process for building out a toolkit, a way to sell myself that felt authentic  to create excitement and employers and attract clients, work with me and pay me while being authentic and genuine.

[00:08:39]And the goal was just one result, a reliable way to make money that I was excited about. A career that aligns with who I am as a person, whether that was a business. I just wanted something stable where I knew it would work.

[00:08:52]  So whether you are ready to look for your next dream gig create a successful freelance or consultancy career work on your own terms or start a full-fledged business. A lot of these principles I'm going to be sharing with you apply. So let's break that down.

[00:09:05] Exactly what I did. So you can replicate the process. So how did I go from a 0% response rate to a 70% response rate? What did I do differently? Before I sent out the new round of 10 job applications, I wrote down the ideal job I wanted after a hundred rejected applications, I was being chosen as one out of 132 online applicants for the job I finally secured. 

[00:09:29]Six months after I was hired, my hiring manager quoted the opening paragraph for my cover letter off the top of her head. She said, I wanted to meet you after reading it. And I haven't forgotten it. I was so excited. The opening paragraph for reference said: 

[00:09:45] " do you need a professional self starter with over three years of experience in advising clients andsupporting programs who has knowledge and of the best practices of [insert the the field. ]?"

[00:09:58]I'm going to try and keep it a bit vague here. Then I said, 

[00:10:01] "if you prefer someone with hands-on experience in the field and I inserted the actual field name, a strong appreciation for diversity and a passion for enhancing [this particular type of clients] experience, you will find the attached resume intriguing."

[00:10:17]So when I was finally hired at this role, and I was speaking with my manager and I  went to the HR office. The HR rep said, I have never seen this age or this year birth past my table yet. And I've been working at this company for a while.  I was a youngest full-time employee at the company, or at least one of the youngest to be hired for a position at that level.

[00:10:38]I was being paid more than I expected, and I was able to get salary increases within my first few years. I actually, I got my first salary increase within my first 18 months. So advice alert, this is what I learned at this stage. So the first thing I did lesson one is instead of begging for any job or waiting for the perfect job to cross your path, figure out what you want to do.

[00:11:00]Then find a specific way of helping others and be able to explain why you Excel in this area and how much you should be compensated. So you need to identify a particular problem that you like to solve for clients or companies. And then you need to put yourself out there to solve that problem. A lot of people go out into the world and they write a resume.

[00:11:20] That is a history of the tasks that they've done in the past. And. It's really like a general resume. It doesn't say I solve this particular problem, or I will help you achieve this particular goal. It's way too big. Instead, you need to say, I help solve this problems. A resume is a history of solving problems.

[00:11:38] So I went from this task based approach to a very results driven approach, where I was talking about the skills, qualifications, and experience I have to solve a particular problem for a client. 

[00:11:49]Lesson number two, you have to know how to sell your skills. And this ties into lesson number one as well.

[00:11:55] But lesson number two, you can have all of the skills in the world, but if you cannot explain how you can help people or companies, you won't go anywhere quickly. So self marketing or selling yourself is a separately learned skill that increases your ability to honestly sell people on your value. So you can increase your income potential, but also increase the number of people who are reaching out to you who want to work with you.

[00:12:19]Higher value problems should lead to higher income. So the more valuable the problem is, the more people should be willing to compensate you. So for example, if you were doing nutrition counseling, right. Should you offer nutrition counseling to a healthy 25 year old or a 50 year old with diabetes where you can help them live 10 years longer, you should offer it to the people who would benefit more from what you were doing.

[00:12:42]Higher value problems should lead to higher income that is in line with what your clients are targeted companies can afford. So you should be working with clients and companies who have the disposable income who have the resources to compensate you. So if you want to make $200,000 a year, it, you shouldn't go to a new startup whose entire revenue is $200,000 a year.

[00:13:04] You need to go to a larger company that  is making enough money to be able to compensate you for that. 

[00:13:09]So year two, I called this year, make it work for you. So don't walk into the room thinking I hope they like me. Walk into the room, thinking I hope I like them, and I hope I can solve their problems.

[00:13:22] We need to like each other for this to work. After 18 months at my new job, I hit a plateau.  I was given access to her role while she was on sick leave. And I was in charge of leader direction for my entire office, but I couldn't see the next career step that I could get excited about.

[00:13:39]I needed to make a major shift.   However two months after I took my supervisor's role, I received a call from home saying mom was stabbed 17 times during a robbery. It was devastating and she lived, but she was forever changed and things changed for me as well.

[00:13:57]Sometimes things happen in your personal life that can affect your professional life and vice versa. It goes both ways.   It is impossible to completely separate the two to turn into a professional robot and still be happy. I tried to act professionally at work, but people could see it all over my face.

[00:14:16]I was stressed, vomiting in bathrooms, something I had never, ever done before. I tried to act as if nothing happened as if life was normal. I acted as if the results I was delivering for my department and my team was a reflection of what was going on inside. I said, everything was fine. I lied to myself and I lied to others. 

[00:14:35] And I said, everything was fine. I continue to work at the job, but I couldn't be myself at work. I had this unique life story and situation and this complex, like family dynamic thing going on. So I was always afraid of talking about myself to others at work. I was afraid people would look at me differently and if they did find out, sometimes they often did look at me differently.

[00:14:59]When I provide coaching services, now when I help people, I share the fact that I have been through difficult life experiences. It isn't something that I hide or that I'm afraid to talk about. Now, these are the stories that I used to remind people, to hold onto hope and to push through difficult circumstances.

[00:15:15]Let's take a moment to recognize that real people go through real stuff. And sometimes these struggles happen while you are in the process of reaching your goals. Close your eyes if it's safe to do right now for a few seconds and send good vibes and love to the real people struggling right now, including sending good vibes and love to yourself.

[00:15:36] we've all had hard times and every circumstance is different. Whether you are managing a full-time career while being a single parent  or are a caregiver for an elderly family member or a friend who is sick. Maybe you are trying to muster the energy to start a career you love or make a big change while you were in a job that you hate.

[00:15:56] Maybe you are struggling with isolation during the pandemic.  This is what I learned at this stage   after difficult situations, stress, vomiting, and bathrooms, failing at faking happiness and life. Making me feel horrible. I finally learned lesson number three, aim for a career or business that is in sync with who you are as a person.

[00:16:18] So what you should do should be aligned with who you are as a person, your personality values, life goals, skills, experiences, and interests can all influence your career choices and how you add value to other people and the world.   Your career can be as diverse as you are, and it is normal to start with one career focus and then grow.

[00:16:37] You don't have to be doing everything or incorporate everything into your career at once. And I have a podcast out where I talk about how to narrow down your job search strategy and think about how you narrow down your career choices. And it's the tools that I use when I was going through this process.

[00:16:53] When I talk about my story, my story isn't like marketable in a job interview. The things that were going on in my life were really hard to talk about, especially at the time, but it is the very thing that often makes clients relate to me and feel inspired because it is real and I'm being vulnerable and putting myself out there  and telling the stories that we often hide.

[00:17:17]You can use who you are to build out or choose the direction for your career, where you can be true to yourself and share your story. You don't have to feel like you're hiding behind a mask or hiding behind a suit or whatever facade you feel like you have to put on to present in the world every day.

[00:17:36]Sometimes life really has to kick you in the butt for you to learn how to be true to yourself. So I want to give you tools that you can use to avoid things, getting this bad. I don't want you to have it as bad or as difficult of an experience as I had. And if it ever gets that bad, breathe, a sigh of relief and take a deep breath.

[00:18:00]Remember that we've all been there. You are not alone. The biggest lie you can tell yourself is that you are alone in your journey. And that people won't understand, or won't be able to relate.  With the internet, you have access to a whole breadth of people. And there are so many people who can relate to your experiences.

[00:18:19] If you open up and are willing to share your story. We'll hopefully through the tools that I'm giving you, you will have access to tools to help you find your way out of bad situations. That's one of the things that I want to achieve through this podcast to help, to give you tools, because these are the things that I wished I could listen to when I felt isolated and alone.

[00:18:41] When I was trying to navigate. I'm moving to a new country or living in a country by myself when I didn't have any friends in my city and I was starting from scratch and I had obstacles and barriers that were happening. 

[00:18:53]So let's go on to year three. Year three, I call it, keep the  secure a job with a pension.

[00:18:59] That was the advice I was getting. So when life is a tornado, all you want is something stable to grab onto. I was being offered, promotion, salary increases and bonuses, but I was unhappy and felt really disconnected my personal problems snowballed. I was supporting a depressed unemployed, close friend as a roommate for nine months.

[00:19:18] I filed an HR complaint against my first supervisor who made racist comments. I was still stressed vomiting, and my mom was calling me to talk about the stabbing. While I understood, it was painful to hear. And I was trying to develop my own coping mechanisms with having isolation and having no one to talk to.

[00:19:37]I wanted to change my life to make anything better. So I found a new job in a new department in the same company. I need a major career change with a whole lot of stability. Hopefully. I thought it would be a positive change. The job included less human interaction and more of an accounting and finance specialization.

[00:19:58] This meant it was slower pace, quieter environment where I could slow down a bit. I thought it would be a nice change and I could build some finance skills at the same time. So finance skills are one of those commonly advertised pathways to a safe and secure a job with a pension. But here was the issue.

[00:20:14] My dream involved, helping other people. Deep down. I knew this, but how could I help people personally and professionally if I was struggling or if I sat behind a desk and spreadsheet and was never interacting with anyone. It was clear I wasn't making the rules right change for myself. I was moving further and further away from my idea of what happiness looked like for me, because I was trying to listen to everything society was saying, or my  friends were saying, or family was saying  or my coworkers, we're all playing it safe and who didn't want to make a big change.

[00:20:46]I quickly began to dislike my new position, even though I really liked the coworkers and the people, but  I tried to convince myself that I liked it. I asked for advice. And every single person told me to, to stay where I was, because it was safe. They often reminded me that I had job security, a starting offer with five weeks vacation.

[00:21:05] It was unionized. Plus I had personal and sick days. I told myself  that it was a stepping stone to what I really wanted to do. And it was a bonus that the stepping stone had a great pay and a pension. I told myself I was happy enough. But it wasn't the career of the century. I thought it was normal.

[00:21:23]I thought I was like everyone else. I thought it was just life. I started daydreaming about starting my own online business, building multiple businesses and helping others build them too. I wanted the flexibility to work remotely and travel, but then reality would set in. I lived on my own with no family in the country.

[00:21:39] Security. I need job security. I sat in my office and didn't want to type or move. I started staring out the window, daydreaming. I really wanted to quit, but at the same time, the new co coworkers and boss  were better. What if I landed in something that was toxic again? What if I started securing interviews  for jobs that seemed more appealing, but  they weren't an end. 

[00:22:03]I had a family situation back home that was becoming worse. And I asked the questions that you've probably asked yourself, when should I quit? What should I do next? How will I survive? I didn't want to start a new job just to quit in case I had to leave the country to help my family.

[00:22:19] I felt stuck despite having opportunities because they weren't the right opportunities. I would have felt even more stuck if I didn't have opportunities at all. Here's the thing. You can find any job, but if the career is not what you want to do, even if you have job security, it won't make you happy. You won't feel satisfied.

[00:22:39]Often we stay at jobs that we hate for money and stability. As a result, we hate our work and our lives a little more each day until we are brave enough to become honest with ourselves.

[00:22:50]So this is what I learned in lesson four.  Sometimes jobs that you stay with for security, leave you feeling less secure and more unhappy. I'm not saying that you should quit your job today. I'm not saying you should quit your job at all necessarily,   but let's explore real possibilities that bring more happiness to your life.

[00:23:10]So Year four. I feared the call. I tried to convince myself I could be happy. . Maybe I can find happiness and create challenges outside of work. So I enrolled in courses, applied for side jobs, volunteered after work, to find happiness outside of work. I'd love the courses side jobs and volunteer so much that I wanted to stop working at my real job.

[00:23:32]But let's be real. It's hard to figure out your life while working at a demanding job. It's hard to figure out your life. Also, if you were going through like multiple stressors in your life, or if you have different things going on, or you're trying to navigate things in a pandemic, especially if you're  a parent and you have kids at home.

[00:23:48]I under estimated the entire process and overestimated how much effort I could put in at the end of the Workday. I had to get my bearings right on the realities of the process, time, resources, and energy. By exploring the things I love to do. I thought, what if I look for a job similar to my side jobs and volunteer work, a job I'd love.

[00:24:10]So I went back to my roots. I revisited the same process to help me turn my 0% response rate into a 70% response rate. I went back to the strategies I developed for myself and built the foundation of a successful way to make money. Again, it led me to another positive result, a job that I loved. The work made me be the work made me excited about career planning and strategizing instead of just showing up and dragging myself through the nine to five, I wanted to help people.

[00:24:37] I wanted to help people like you be more comfortable with yourself and your skills and feel alignment and work at home. I also wanted to help the people who needed to move away from the nine to five and start their own business, but didn't know how - maybe that's you too.

[00:24:51]I wanted to teach how it could all be done, both with less stress and ideally more success.  I grew up in a family business. I studied business. I consulted for businesses and nonprofits as a side gig. And finally here it was my ideal happy career. I began offering career coaching to anyone who was struggling to find a happy career.

[00:25:11] The more people I helped, the more referrals started to come in. I love the work, but still kept my nine to five. I was enjoying helping people outside of work, but I still felt out of sync and I was miserable at my job, even though I liked my supervisor and I liked my coworkers. I liked all these other factors, but I.

[00:25:30] It just wasn't working for me. I wanted to quit, but this time I knew I didn't want another job. I wanted my own business, but the issue in my personal life were making me feel hesitant to get started. So I stayed for, you know, the job stability, the income stability. So lesson five fear grows stronger with inaction.

[00:25:52]Doing nothing is a decision. Doing nothing is in itself a decision. And action cures fear. I thought I was being safe in a djob where I was unhappy, but I was really failing at attaining my own happiness. I thought I was taking fewer risks by not making a career change, but I was actually taking a greater risk by not changing the trajectory of my career to one where I would excel.

[00:26:17]The fear of failure kept me from making a change for a long time. Doing nothing was a bad decision. I felt as if I was just waiting to make a career change. Every time the phone rang, I was expecting a call from family members saying, things are getting worse. Please come home. We need your help for awhile.

[00:26:37]I kept picturing myself finally getting my dream job. Only get to get the call to leave the country. So I continue to do the work that I loved on the side. While I worked at my nine to five. After a while I was feeling burnt out and getting to a point where I actually wanted to be fired. So people couldn't say she left a good job.

[00:26:57]I refuse to hear the words I told you. Or maybe refused isn't the right word. Maybe I just feared it. I know how difficult it can be when life is falling apart around you, you still need to make money and you still need to survive. You can't stop making money when life isn't working. You'll starve. My heart raced during panic attacks on my way to work.

[00:27:18]Why was dreading my job on the one hour commute to get there? I started to realize I was not the only one. My coworkers and classmates complained about their careers too. I knew why I was unhappy and felt stuck in my career, but now I wanted to know why they felt unhappy too. What could they do differently?

[00:27:36]I opened up a workbook that I made right after I graduated and I started advising any, and everyone that complained about their careers, if they wanted the help, people loved it and started to offer and often insisted on paying for my services  before I was even comfortable with asking for money - I just wanted to help my friends.

[00:27:55] I didn't feel comfortable accepting money initially. And that was something I had to work through. And initially incepted, like gift cards for stuff and all of these things, because I felt like, Oh, I'm just helping a friend. I didn't see the value that I was offering or what I was doing or that I was actually helping other people make money.

[00:28:11]And I had to shift my way that I thought about that. So when I was working with people, I told them how I asked myself three main questions. Why am I not getting responses to my applications? What type of work do I really want? And how do people end up in happy careers? And I realized four game changing things.

[00:28:31] One is important to know your own skills, experience and potential in order to sell yourself to potential clients and employers, you need to be able to explain how your skills can help people or businesses, because it's all about meeting their needs in order to help and deliver great results. In return, they'll meet your needs by referring your services, hiring you from our projects and paying you the money that you deserve for your work.

[00:28:56] Two. You need to know three things to choose a happy career for yourself. 

[00:29:01]A) what do you want out of life? Your desire. 

[00:29:04]B) your skills experience and potential. I call this your skills and then 

[00:29:09] C) demand, which is what people, what people in companies wants and needs are.

[00:29:15] These are the things that they're willing to pay for. The problems are looking to solve and the goals they're trying to achieve. So I use this formula. It's like a Venn diagram. It's called desire skills in demand.  

[00:29:25] Number three out of these four game-changing things that I learned. You need to know what you want out of a career and what you want out of life or closely at your time are closely intertwined, recognize that and respect it. Have you ever thought of your happy career? What is the first thing that comes to mind?

[00:29:43] What are some of the things that you do when you're not working? Think about the home, the lifestyle, the activities that you want to be able to afford as a result of  a profitable career. Your ideal career, isn't so much just about the career. It's about you being able to afford your lifestyle or your dream life goals. It's about you being able to enjoy your week and have the flexibility and the resources to do what you want in life. 

[00:30:07]And number four, the process for selling yourself for a career and the process for selling yourself or your skills, products, or service for a business is very similar. You just use a few different tools, the power of being able to change the way you make money from working for one company to having your own clients - it means having more control over your destiny and your lifestyle. Your happy career helps you to fund your life and your lifestyle. So knowing what you really want to like. So knowing what you really want out of life is an important step in tailoring ways of making money and helping you achieve it.

[00:30:43]That's the kind of career they'll make you happy. So year five, the best cure for the struggle. I got the call. My dad's dementia was progressing and my lovely mom was dealing some with some stuff of her own. So I quit my job moved countries, and finally decided to place a bet on myself. I made the commitment to use my savings to start a business.

[00:31:06] This was the moment I finally committed to the decision. When my brother called and said, I cannot handle this situation on my own. And if I do, I don't know where I'll be at mentally by the end of it. Right then and there, I decided that I would not fail as a sister. I would not miss the chance to ask my father so many unanswered questions.

[00:31:24] Suddenly I realized I didn't have a fear of sacrificing money insecurity. I was afraid of leaving the promise of a different future. A future in a new place. A new country often offered a clean slate. After the call, I continued to go to work. As everything was falling apart, I sat across coworkers at the lunch table.

[00:31:43] At this point I had already become pretty skilled at not bursting into tears, but suddenly the words came bubbling up and seeped out. Is it just me? The whisper of anxiety caught the attention of the table. My eyes started to water. Then finally, after a few tears, the flood Gates were opened. I clenched my eyelids and massage them with the palms of my hands to hide the tears with so many bottle up emotions sitting heavy in my stomach.

[00:32:08] I tried to force a smile and preserve my persona of a professional. Does anyone else feel like there has to be more? I said. Just a little more, a little more people. We actually enjoy being around a little more creative challenge at work. A little bit more happiness. Is it really just me? It was like a word vomit.

[00:32:30]  I wished I could swallow and retract each word. I waited. I slouched in my chair at the end of the table, slouching because I was trying to sink down and find some. Hole to slip into and crawl under the table. I waited for someone to tell me I was inappropriate. I waited for the awkward expression that would read to me.

[00:32:48] That girl is trouble. I waited for someone to say, shut up. You are entitled. You are supposed to hate your job. That's how life works. I waited for someone to whisper about me so I could dread imagining what they may have said later on. Instead I looked up at nodding faces. I tried to hold back the tears, but I just cried in front of the entire lunch table.

[00:33:08]Dammit. I got up, did a power walk to the bathroom and vomited again, in my doctor's word. She said that I had psychosomatic symptoms of stress. As the tears flooded down my face. I promise myself that I would make it through this and that I would build a life that I loved. I knew that my pain was only temporary, and once I put my pieces back together, I would turn my pain into purpose.

[00:33:31]Reality check at the time. I hated the word purpose and passion because the truth is  if you follow the advice, do what you love. There is still a chance that you can still struggle to find a way to make money from it. That's why I do the podcast. That's why I do the courses.

[00:33:46] That's why I do everything that I do to remind you that it is possible to do what you love. All you need are the tools to get there. I went home and stared at the ceiling of my auntie living room. I told myself tomorrow will come. And as long as I keep taking steps forward to find a way out, eventually tomorrow will be better.

[00:34:03]It's the only thing I felt I had to hold onto the idea of a better future. I would continue to take steps, however, small to a better future. I knew that tomorrow would come as long as my body carried me. I knew that I would help others by not only sharing my story, but also giving practical advice.

[00:34:21] That's so important. I hate when people share fluff or fluff may not be fluff, may sound harsh, but I, you want not just motivation, but you want practical and advice and steps that you can take to get there. You are not alone. Even if you have difficult circumstances, other people out there can relate to you.

[00:34:39]We can all build lives, careers and businesses. We love and find amazing ways to fund these lifestyles and achieve our goals. And it's about building a practical strategy to get there. Most of us want a career, a business that aligns with who we are, our personality, lifestyle, and life goals. It makes a positive difference in the world.

[00:34:58] Meaningful work we are proud of and excited to share or talk about provides a work-life balance to have flexibility, to travel, explore interests, and spend time with loved ones, allows influence and control over income and benefits and gets people in companies. Excited to work with you without chasing a dollar, which means clients and companies come to you without you feeling sleazy or salesy or feeling awkward selling yourself.

[00:35:23]So that's why we're here. That's why, that's why we're doing this podcast. Because deep down, you know, there has to be more, you know, you are right and. You're looking for a way to make that a reality. So I'm so excited to build this out and answer your questions. I remember the first time I told this story or I told parts of the story.

[00:35:47] That was a different story in front of an audience. And people just didn't know what to say. I was talking, I was more trans, not transparent. I was more open. I was more Frank about the stories and the details of it, which can be triggering and traumatic. And I wasn't sure how much I should share. I'm sort of.

[00:36:06] Figuring out the whole podcasting thing and how much I should be sharing it one time or in a podcast episode. And this is actually pieces of an audio course that I've been working on about how to build out your career, right. Teach those practical steps. And it's everything that I wish I knew. 

[00:36:22] But I remember when I first started, I was so nervous. After I told that story and people just didn't know what to say. And I could tell they were people who wanted to speak to me and they just, they just didn't know what to say or how to approach me. So they just stared and it was a small room.

[00:36:38] So it, it left me in silence and.

[00:36:44]I eventually started helping other people share their stories. And one thing that I always ask is just to not leave people in silence. So as I am. Starting this podcast and growing it as I am sharing parts of my story and bring other people on to share their stories. One of the things that I'm going to do is just ask you to give feedback whether that's writing a review or a  SpeakPipe, where you can record yourself. And I'll get the recording. So you can say, Hey jet, and then give me your feedback or give me your thoughts and I'll be able to listen to it. I can hear from you and I can know what's happening. Cause it's so easy when you're listening to these things, you can think of them when you're listening to a podcast or you're reading a story or you're reading an autobiography.

[00:37:33] You can forget that it's not just a story. It's somebody's life and it's somebody sharing what they have with you. And I'm not going to be perfect. I'm not going to do everything right, but I am doing this because I want to help people who are struggling. And I know that as I'm releasing an assist is a very difficult time for a lot of people with the pandemic.

[00:37:52]And I want to share resources that are helpful, but also that are accessible and that are available.  So thank you so much for being here and for for listening. And please tell me what you think. Tell me what questions you have. Tell me what you're struggling with so I can share with you advise or bring experts on, but this is all about a really holistic approach to building out a reliable source of income to help you fund your life goals, because.

[00:38:24]You need to make money, even when life goes wrong. But it's really hard to think about how to do that when life is going wrong. And there's so much that could be going wrong right now. 

[00:38:35] So,  yeah, that's my, foray and starting to be vulnerable and I'll be sharing some of my stories. There'll be a mix of storytelling and   lessons throughout the podcast and I'll be bringing in people, clients that I've worked with, sharing their stories, sharing their tips. I'm so excited to be working with you.   And please tell me what you think. Give feedback whether that's writing a review or a   SpeakPipe, where you can record yourself.

[00:39:03]