Career Crossroads

Today, we get vulnerable. In this short and final episode of the Chronicles series,  we discuss what new episode formats are on the horizon and how this series has driven Jonathan's public speaking work forward. 

Despite the good news we share, plenty of work remains to do. If you're invested in the Career Crossroads journey, this episode is a must-listen to.

Referenced in this episode:

• Chronicling Career Crossroads #1 - The Career Crossroads Crossroad
• New Podcast Episode Formats Explained

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

When products change, their marketing has to change: that's the core of the fourth episode of the Chronicling Career Crossroad series. But how to market something that is still in flux? It's not a question I can answer on my own so I need to bring in an expert.
 
Enter Ronak Patel. As a business owner, former guest of the show, and a friend, Ronak is the perfect person to bounce ideas off of.  Listen to our conversation about how marketing and promotion are changing in an ever-evolving social media landscape and how getting a 'rubber stamp' could be a game changer for Career Crossroads.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

Content is king.

You've probably heard or read that phrase over the last decade with the rise of online content creators, but the origins of the phrase can be traced to magazine editing in the 1970s.

What does that have to do with this episode? Well, content is the subject of Chronicling Career Crossroads #3. For a podcast, every episode is considered content, but in the context of the Chronicling Career Crossroads discussion, what content is really king? What is the best content available and how can it be utilized in a different way? Those are the questions I look to answer in this episode. 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

When this episode was first conceived it was titled “Research – or how to make sure what I’m doing isn’t a waste of time”.

As the episode title was….simplified, the core idea for the episode stayed the same: research. In order to determine if the planned Career Crossroads pivot is hitting the mark, I need to find out if the audience I intend to support (high school students, university/college students, and young grads) will actually benefit from this content.

To find the answers to these questions in this episode I speak to three people: 

• Denise, a retired high school Guidance Counsellor
• Wei, a Career Counsellor from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC),
• Tara, UTSC’s Director of Alumni Relations

Listen in to hear their takes on what young people know and need to know about their career trajectory, and how Career Crossroads can help them.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

How do you handle change? 

Sometimes it’s forced upon us, and sometimes we just know it’s time. Sometimes change is needed. 

That is where I’m at with Career Crossroads. It’s changing. It’s evolving into something better and I’m going to take you along on the journey through that evolution.

This is the first in a five-part series I’m calling Chronicling Career Crossroads. Without spoiling too much, it talks about where Career Crossroads and I have been, and where we’re going. Whether you’re a faithful listener or stumbling across the podcast for the first time, I think there’s something in this episode for everyone. 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#75 – Although he would never do it, Claudio Teixeira could probably pull a Frank Abagnale and fake his way through flying a jet aircraft. That’s because Claudio has over 5000 hours in the ‘sky’ on the Boeing 777 simulator that is the crown jewel of his company, uFly Simulator Inc, which exists to entertain, help people get over their fear of flying, and train soon-to-be pilots.

For years before he started the business, he would spend his evening playing Microsoft Flight Simulator flying between Toronto and New York, or setting the auto-pilot overnight so he could take off from Rio de Janeiro before going to bed, and land in Toronto when he woke up in the morning. 

With such a passion for flying, why did Claudio never become a pilot himself? Well, that’s a long story involving his father's gas station business in Brazil, multiple border crossings in the cover of darkness, and a window-washing empire in Toronto. 

Sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation with Claudio.

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Find uFly Simulator Inc. online at uflysimulator.ca or on Instagram @uflysimulator.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#74 – As the creator of the 40th podcast in the world way back in 2004, Evo Terra has had an impact on the world of podcasting for almost two decades and was recently honoured as a 2022 inductee into the Podcast Hall of Fame. You might imagine that someone given that honour makes a career in podcasting, and while that is true now, podcasting as a ‘career’ was not an option for Evo until the mid-2010s. 

On a recent episode of Evo’s own podcast, Podcast Pontification, he mentioned some of the jobs he has had in the past. Tire sales….advertising…travel blogging….I knew Evo must have an interesting story to tell so I invited him to share it on Career Crossroads. Luckily for me, he was willing to tell his story, so sit back, relax, and listen to Evo walk me through all the twists and turns of his career.  

Here’s where you can find Evo online:

• Evo’s Twitter 
• Podcast Pontifications
• Sounds Profitable
• Simpler Media

Also mentioned in this episode are previous Career Crossroads guests:

• James Cridland
• Lindsay Graham

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#73 – Have you ever wanted to collect data on wild jaguars or help rehabilitate a monkey with a broken arm? Well then let me introduce you to Hailee Hallas. Along with tree-planting in northern Ontario, studying these animals was some of the first employment opportunities she received in her young career after completing an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from Carleton University.

Despite how amazing these jobs may seem they were not without their drawbacks. Little pay and massive competition made that industry incredibly difficult to break into beyond short-term contract roles. Given that, Hailee decided that a more specific education would help her in the future, so she headed off to Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland to obtain her Master of Science. 

With her new degree in hand, Hailee obtained a job as a Field biologist studying bird and bat mortality on wind farms. As an outsider looking in, it would seem that her further education had paid off and her career in conservation was well underway. How then, did Hailee come to enter an entirely new career as a Police Officer just three years later? That is a long story and you’ll have to listen to the interview for the details.

Also discussed in our conversation is how Hailee has been able to balance employment opportunities with another passion of hers – travel. Having visited more than 30 countries by her 30th birthday, Hailee tells me about how the flexibility of her first career allowed her to enjoy her life, even if that career didn’t provide the financial stability she eventually sought. 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

Career Crossroads is back after an unplanned break! Before we get into some new interviews, I’ve got some updates about why there has been such a long break as well as some information about some other projects I’ve been working on.

After you've listened, check out my wife and I's new travel vlog on YouTube - Jon and Tash Travel 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#71 – In 2016, Jenn Harper founded Cheekbone Beauty despite having no previous experience in the cosmetics industry. This was a major career change as up until that point she had worked exclusively in hospitality and in wholesale foods, leveraging her strong relationships with chefs to succeed. 

So why cosmetics? What changed? Well, in 2015 as Jenn was learning about her Indigenous grandmother’s experience in residential schools she had a dream. In this dream she saw “native little girls covered in lip gloss” and as soon as she woke up, she grabbed her laptop and started making notes. She did not yet know what she would call her company, or what skills she might need to make it successful, but she knew she needed to make that lip-gloss and she knew she had to work ethic to achieve her goal.

In this episode, Jenn tells me about the jobs and experiences that led her to Cheekbone Beauty and all the things she’s had to learn over the last six years to make her company such a success. With Cheekbone’s sustainability efforts, support of Indigenous youth and women, and general success as a business, it’s clear Jenn made the right choice when confronted with her own career crossroad.

You can read more about Cheekbone Beauty and browse their online store at www.cheekbonebeauty.com.

Follow Cheekbone Beauty on Instagram at TikTok, @cheekbonebeauty

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton