Join us as we talk with Pat Bourque, a professional baseball player navigating the MLB just as the player's union was getting started then left baseball to start a successful career in business. Hear how he worked his way up from little league to the big leagues, the accident that led to opportunity and the coaches and leaders who pushed him, sometimes without his best interest in mind. But he learned a lot along the way and continues to learn and grow, even in retirement and on the golf course.

Join us as we interview Maura, a cybersecurity project manager in the pharmaceutical industry. Maura discovered at a young age how important relating to people was and has been harnessing her relationship-building skills throughout her career. She studied psychology and organizational behavior and used that knowledge to transition into project management. Maura discusses the importance of building a strong network of advocates in one's career.

Dr. Elizabeth Walton shares her story of finding her way in the healthcare industry and how her mom inspired her to look to the future and seek a career that would be fulfilling and lucrative.  From aspiring nurse to general dentist to treating the most vulnerable of populations, children with advanced dental conditions.  With a cape and a smile she helps children and families survive the dental office!  

Join us as we gain insight from Shelly Trujillo, the Director of Client Relations at FIS. She started her career in the restaurant industry where she moved up the ranks and eventually found herself supporting the IT side of restaurants. After that she moved into IT full force and continued to grow her leadership skills. And that's just her day job! At night and on the weekends, she spends her time performing in musical theater.  Hear her advice about how to be happy and thrive in your career!

Show Notes:

• Shelly's Instagram Account
• We talk about our choir teacher, Darin Shryock. Here is his profile!
• Here is the theater Shelly performs with and her show, Curiouser and Curiouser - The website is rad!
• Shelly mentions The Try Guys. Here is their YouTube channel and here is their book, The Hidden Power of F*cking Up

Join us as we talk with Mindy Vermilion. Mindy began acting and modeling at 5 and moved to LA to continue her acting career. After retiring, she moved to a mountain town, built a house with her own two hands and became a property manager. Now, after some deep soul searching, she is training with the Chopra foundation to become a wellness, health and meditation coach. This episode will have you laughing and nodding your head and, hopefully, brighten your outlook on life.

Show Notes:

• Chopra Foundation - Health Certification
• Chopra Foundation - Meditation Certification
• Chopra Foundation - Coaching Certification

Join Mindy and Michelle as they interview Sarah Hock, the Executive Director of Joint Animal Services, a municipal animal shelter. Hear what she loves about working at animal shelters, how she's changed her view of pet owners and the role of shelters in a community and her plans for the homestead she just purchased (hint: it has something to do with livestock and chickens!).

Show Notes:
I asked Sarah to share some links to more information. Here are some organizations that are doing amazing things with animals!

• Home | The Arizona Pet Project
• https://www.humananimalsupportservices.org/
• https://www.humanesociety.org/issues/keeping-pets-life

Here is a great nonprofit blog 

• https://nonprofitaf.com/

Join us as we talk with Mary Upchurch about her corporate sales training career and how she made her way to stand up comedy and podcasting! Learn what it's like to balance a comedy career and a day job at the same time, the big difference between working for a corporation and a limited partnership and Mary's best advice for your career and life in general.  Find Mary at maryupchurchcomedy.com!

Join us as we talk with Kelly, a detention officer who works at a county jail. She will share with us why she chose the position, how she gets to help the people she serves and the biggest difference between the female and male inmates.

 Meet Mary-Rose O'Neill as she shares what it was like to grow up a twin in a large Irish-immigrant family. They went to college and studied hard together to earn degrees in Chemistry which she only used for a while until she started a family. 

When it was time to go back into the workforce, she found a place as a recruiter then, later, as a career guru at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business. Find out her best advice for networking and nailing an interview. 

Meet Mindy and Michelle, the hosts of the new podcast American Career Stories. In this episode we share a little about ourselves and what we hope the audience will get from our podcast. 

We hope you join us and our guests each week to learn about something new. You never know what you might discover about yourself and the world! Maybe it will lead you to the next step in your career with purpose and excitement.

And we'll have some fun along the way!