What kind of people do you imagine when you think of government employees? Can you imagine working alongside such people?

In this interview government recruiter Jody Smith debunks numerous myths about working in government. It turns out that you don't need experience in government to work in government. And you'll be working alongside as diverse and dynamic a group of people as you'd find in the private sector.

Jody is a government recruiter with experience across a range of areas including justice and infrastructure. She shares some invaluable insights & tips for anyone considering applying for a role in government.

Here are a few key points & timing:

2:40 Myth#1: that you need to have worked in government

4:45 Stages of recruitment & tips re: how to get noticed

7:20 Don't not apply for a role because you don't have one of the requirements. Look at your transferrable skills and experience and how they are relevant.

A lot of people, even high achievers, get stuck with this element - message me if you want help with this.

7:55 What to do if you don't have one of the stated requirements.

10:15 Don't be afraid to ask questions: Who to ask and what to ask them.

11:09 What research to do before you apply.

11:40 Tips re: the application process.

13:06 Top 3 mistakes people make in their applications and what to do instead.

25:50 The impact of elections on government hiring?

So, if you're interested in working in government, don't worry about piercings, tattoos, whether your experience is too private sector or that you don't have any public sector experience. Just start the process and be sure you're clear on your strengths - you have nothing to lose.

If you'd like to contact Jodie, she'd love to hear from you. You can do so here.

Speak soon,

Nikki

Strengths guide free bundle

Discover your strengths and start to talk about yourself and your abilities confidently and with ease

Your strengths guide, which includes the Strengthsfinder 2.0 link

Your strengths webinar & worksheet, which is the equivalent of a 1-on-1 strengths coaching session.

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Free webinars / masterclasses

 Dream Role Masterclass

Get clear on your best fit role and how to make it a reality

you're at a career crossroads, but feeling stuck

you want to figure out what to do next, but have too many ideas or none

you're ready to find your dream, best-fit role: one that is energising and fulfilling?

I'll help you to figure out your next dream career move

Identify 1-3 inspiring ideas as to what to do next

Figure out which idea is a best-fit

Learn how to make the change safely in 3 steps.

Find out more

Subscribe to my podcast

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Elite athletes and global leaders have a coach. Someone who helps them to be the best and most effective version of themselves. We want to believe that we can do anything simply through hard work, but if that were the case, we’d all be either an elite athlete or global leader. The fact is, we have strengths and weaknesses and gaps. Working with a coach enables you to balance and address these elements.

Many of my clients come to me with stories of poor management experiences. Whether it’s change management, performance management or internal recruitment. It’s so frustrating to hear about the same issues across all sectors.

There is a key factor that contributes to these bad experiences. That is, when people are promoted they aren’t necessarily given the support or training they require to succeed in the myriad of management and leadership capabilities.

This is why we need more people like Cam Shepherd!

Cam is an HR consultant, business coach and facilitator with over 10 years’ experience in delivering HR programs across Australia, Europe and the UK. He has worked with companies of all shapes and sizes across industries including manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, higher education and public services. He is passionate about people development and leadership that provides employees with the best possible work environment.

Cameron Shepherd

ShapeHR

In this interview, Cam shares tips about:

What you can do to optimise working remotely

What managers and leaders can do to better support employees; to treat their people like adults and bring out the best in them

What organisations can do to mitigate the impact of COVID19.

Here are some of the key ideas we cover:

2.11 Cam’s career path: From Journalism to HR, not your standard career path.

3.57 The challenges Cam enjoys helping people / organisations to address

7.44 Cam’s tips for orgs & individuals to be their best versions during the pandemic and beyond

8.02 What orgs can do to mitigate the impact of COVID19

8.11 How to support remote working & still be a great place to work.

How can the human factor be brought into remote working?

11.33 Opportunities COVID19 represents for individuals leverage strengths

13.51 The future of remote work – flexible working

18.15 The most important leadership trait at the moment.

20.23 Cam’s strengths & how he applies them at work

22.03 Cam’s weakness

23.15 Cam’s challenge for you: Look at a hobby or a course that you’ve always wanted to do that you’ve never done and research and start. Remember a mini-challenge or experiment can be 15 mins a week. If you have more time great, but you can started with a small amount of time.

Join my free Facebook group

Career Support Hub

Access resources & feel supported

Join

Next steps

If your manager needs development, send them to Cam.

If you’re a manager and you want to optimise how you’re leading, send yourself to Cam.

Contact Cam

www.shapehr.com.au

LinkedIn

Speak soon,

Nikki

Free webinars

Your Next Role Advantage

How to find your next role in the current job climate

This webinar is for you if:

you’re a corporate worker who has been made redundant or is facing redundancy

you want to learn how to find your next role in the current job market.

I will show you how you can:

Uncover your unique strengths and the problems you can solve

Be clear and confident and stand out from other candidates.

Use a combination of traditional & alternative approaches to increase your chances of finding a role.

Tuesday, July 14th, @8pm

Your Next Dream Career Move

Discover your dream life best fit role

This webinar is for you if:

you’re fed‑up and stressed in your current role

you want to figure out what to do next

you feel stuck and have either no idea or too many ideas.

I’ll help you to figure out your next dream career move

Identify 1-3 realistic & inspiring ideas as to what to do next

Figure out which idea is a best-fit

Sam Sutherland is a talented workshop facilitator and podcaster. She wants to make the workplace more human: to empower women and equality in the workplace through a variety of projects, which we cover in our chat.

Sam's podcast is relatively new and has taken off! But when we initially discussed it during her 7 Step Career Program with me, Sam's initial response was, "Yes, great idea but what would I talk about and who would I interview?"

It is a common human response to wonder, "Who I am to do this?"

Join my free Facebook group

Career Transformation Hub

Access resources & feel supported

Join

In this 30 minute interview we discuss:

The radical idea and the imposter syndrome: Who am I to do this?

How Sam's strengths were fuelled by the mini-experiments

How her podcast went from a mini-experiment at a dining table to 70,000 downloads

How it has led to insights and multiple paid work opportunities.

This is a great example of how we have so much more potential then we realise, and how mini-experiments enable you to overcome self‑doubt and test an idea.

The podcast was just one of Sam's ideas. I typically help my clients to uncover 10+ ideas.

So, what's your next step?

Download my Strengths Mini-masterclass bundle

Book into my next free masterclass.

Speak soon,

Nikki

Free webinars / masterclasses

 Dream Role Masterclass

Get clear on your best fit role and how to make it a reality

This webinar is for you if:

you're at a career crossroads, but feeling stuck

you want to figure out what to do next, but have too many ideas or none

you're ready to find your dream, best-fit role: one that is energising and fulfilling?

I'll help you to figure out your next dream career move

Identify 1-3 inspiring ideas as to what to do next

Figure out which idea is a best-fit

Learn how to make the change safely in 3 steps.

Find out more

Get to know your strengths

Understand how to talk about your unique abilities

Learn how to get noticed & hired without relying on job search websites

Find out more

Subscribe to my podcast

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Olivia Downing, founder and CEO of Liv Mindfully, is a psychologist, meditation teacher and mindfulness coach and educator. She helps corporates, schools and individuals to live and work to their full potential.

I recorded this interview with Liv in 2017. It's one of my favourites because it contains tips that you can apply every day. Liv and I go way back, and I love her refreshing take on mindfulness. She combines the science with self-deprecating humour and bite‑sized morsels that are easy to implement.

Liv partnered with Smiling Mind and IBM to design the Smiling Mind Workplace program. She has run mindfulness workshops solutions for Twitter ASIA, Google, Nike and Stockland, among many others.

She partnered with beyond blue to develop the Mind the bump app, and was part of the team that established Happy Melon: an integrated wellbeing studio in Melbourne.

Liv is also a mum to two boys (8 and 4) and lives in Melbourne.

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.

Book now

Walk the Camino in Spain with me in 2020

Optimise your work life or uncover your dream role – one step at a time.

Find out more

I recommend you listen to the whole interview, but if you’re short on time just dive into the bits that appeal to you:

7.34 - Liv's mindfulness business and work pathway

13.44 - The one realisation that changed everything and converted Liv to mindfulness

14.48 - Liv got to the USA and discovered she couldn’t practice as a psychologist. Find out how Liv re-created herself and why now she is so thankful that that initial disappointment happened.

16.08 - How she managed the transition back to Australia whilst pregnant but wanting to connect with the mindfulness community here.

And why the Mind the bump app developed with beyond blue is what she’s most proud of.

20.33 - How Liv got burnt out 6 months in a new venture, whilst teaching mindfulness, and her biggest insight during that vulnerable phase. It’s a BIG ONE!

27.00 - (1) The simple and effective way she has overcome the tendency to say “Yes.”

- (2) As an ideas person her insights on the best environment/business model

- (3) How she re-discovered her definition of success post kids and how that has helped her to shape her future work.

31.59 - Liv’s top 3 hints to live and work to your full potential to live more mindfully

41.00 - Meditation: We meditate to become better at life, not to become better at meditation.

What Liv says to people who say, "I’ve tried it and it didn’t work and I’m no good at it." Don’t worry mindfulness and meditation is about changing our relationships to our thoughts; it’s not about silencing our brain.

44.52 - The train metaphor which is genius and will motivate you BIG time to take the next step.

 

Speak soon,

Nikki

Resources

Mind the bump app

Smiling mind app

Headspace app

Train metaphor – 44.52 – this is genius!

Free webinar

You spend @ 1/3 of you life at work.

How happy are you?

Why not find out what's really possible for you?

Join me on my next free webinar & start to plan

Your next career move!

Thursday, Jan 30th, 2020 @ 8pm

Subscribe to my podcast

Are you feeling stuck in your industry?

This podcast provides an inspiring example of how you can make dramatic change in your career and find genuine fulfilment. That’s what Fred did.

When I met Fred he was a senior manufacturing engineer in the sugar industry, who often worked on continuous improvement projects. He was ready to make a change but could not see a clear path out of manufacturing. He received job and interview offers and mentoring advice, but these were all for another manufacturing role. And Fred knew that wasn’t the right direction for him to continue in.

Are you like Fred?

Do you look at job search websites, like the look of roles but are unsure on how to bridge the skills/experience gap and submit an application that will hit the mark?

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.

Book now

Walk the Camino in Spain with me in 2020

Optimise your work life or uncover your dream role – one step at a time.

Find out more

Do you look at job search websites, like the look of roles but are unsure on how to bridge the skills/experience gap and submit an application that will hit the mark?

This interview with Fred will inspire you and show you what really is possible. I encourage you to listen to the whole discussion.

However, if you want to jump straight to the bits that particularly interest you, I’ve listed some topics and times below.

5:30 Discover Fred’s secret weapon for job success

7:00 Find out whether Fred had loads of ideas or NO idea about his next dream life best fit role

9:00 Hear Fred’s 'why' and top‑5 strengths that helped him to transition from manufacturing to community/international development

9:40 Mini-experiment #1: How Fred went from dreading networking to (3 months later) really enjoying it, and what changed his mindset

15:25 Discover how Fred came to speak to the director of an agency he wanted to work for

19:00 How networking gets you in front of people before the emerging roles have been decided

22:30 Mini‑experiment #2: a 4‑day intensive international aid immersion

27:58 Mini‑experiment #3: Masters in International Development

28:30 The immersion: the Masters’ experience as a mature aged student

33:20 Mini‑experiment #4: Volunteer experience in Nepal

38:00 My simple 3‑step mini-experiment framework to help you gain clarity and momentum

39:00 Fred’s biggest worry with his career change and how he overcame it

44:00 How Fred’s colleagues reacted to his significant career change

45:22 Benefits of looking at career change sooner rather than later, and how giving yourself 12 months to make the transition can take some of the pressure off

48:38 Fred’s top tips for career change

49:30 Fred’s top life tip

51:00 How and why fortnightly accountability during the change process served Fred well.

If you're inspired by Fred's story and are ready to find your best fit role, book in for a free 15 min chat. I'll let you know if I can help you and you'll start to feel the relief of having someone in your corner as you discover your best fit role.

Speak soon,

Nikki

Free webinar

You spend @ 1/3 of you life at work.

How happy are you?

Why not find out what's really possible for you?

Join me on my next free webinar & start to plan

Your next career move!

Thursday, Jan 30th, 2020 @ 8pm

Subscribe to my podcast

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Have you taken time off from your career, perhaps to raise a family, only to struggle to return to work a few years later in a similar role? You’re not alone.

And if you think it’s hard, that’s not just you – it really is.

When seeking to re‑enter the workforce, there are systemic and organisational barriers that get in the way at every turn. Too many people experience being considered overqualified for entry roles and overlooked for roles that match their skills and experience. If only there was an organisation that could help!

Well, there is. Meet Andrea Collins, co‑founder of Zipwire.

Andrea works to break down the barriers ‘returners’ face when they try to re-enter the workforce after a break. And she knows what these barriers are from firsthand experience.

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.TM

Book now

In this interview, we discuss how returners represent an amazing opportunity for organisations. They bring a wealth of professional and life experience, and are highly motivated. In a tight talent market, including a returner framework into a talent acquisition strategy can be a key differentiator for a business.

She also provides her top 3 tips for returners seeking to re‑enter the workforce.

I recommend listening to the whole interview, but if you don’t have time here are so key topics you can jump straight to.

2.23 Zipwire’s mission

3.55 Andrea’s career path

5.30 The catalyst to start Zipwire: highly capable woman, taking a break from work to have kids and study, applying for jobs & not receiving any communication from recruiters, let alone interviews.

9.43 Conversations that gave rise to the idea for Zipwire

12.50 Andrea’s mini-experiment: connecting with high profile influencers on LinkedIN

14.36 “How can we mobilise more ‘returners’ back into the market?”

17.24 Top 3 tips for returners seeking to re‑enter the workforce

23.55 Opportunities for organisations to improve their approach to ‘returners’

25.04 How returners are seen as high risk

25.57 Benefit of a returner framework as part of a talent acquisition strategy

27.00 Why enabling & supporting returners to re‑enter the workforce is key to achieving greater gender balance in leadership roles

31.30 Andrea’s mini-experiment challenge for you.

Are you a 'returner'?

I'd love to hear about your experience, so please leave a comment below.

Speak soon,

Nikki

Free webinar: Your Next Role Advantage

How to find your next role in the current job climate

Are you a corporate worker who is facing or has been made redundant?

Are you asking:

“What do I do now?”

“How do I talk about the unique value I offer an organisation?”

“How do I find a job in this climate?”

 

I will show you how you can:

Uncover your unique strengths and the problems you can solve

Be clear and confident and stand out from other candidates.

Use a combination of traditional & alternative approaches to increase your chances of finding a role.

Tuesday, May 26th @8pm

Tuesday, June 16th, @8pm

Subscribe to my podcast

Discover your strengths with my free strengths bundle.

Your strengths guide, which includes the Strengthsfinder 2.0 link

Your strengths webinar & worksheet, which is the equivalent of a 1-on-1 strengths coaching session.

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Do you crave more time? Perhaps more income so you can travel or do more of the fun stuff you love?

One way to leverage our time and money in our lives is to create / sell / teach something online. You could also go out on your own as a consultant or coach.

Is there something that you know or use and want to share with more people?

Imagine if there was someone who could help you to get your expertise out of your head, online and generating an income for you. Well, there is! I’m delighted to introduce you to Maria Doyle. She is a curriculum development and teacher training expert. She’s also wise and fun!

Maria can pull information out of people’s heads at a rate of knots. She makes learning environments fun, engaging, inspiring, and safe. And, she is a joy to work with - Maria helped me to optimise my 7‑Step Career Change online program and the user experience. Such a relief to know that participants will get a lot out of it and to not worry like I was!

About a year ago I was a tad frustrated. I was meeting return to work parents and students who wanted to work with me but couldn’t afford a 1‑to‑1 coaching program. So, I took a deep breath and decided to create the online program version of my 7 Step Career Change Program. I wanted to create an alternative at a lower price point to meet the needs of return to work parents and students.

 

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.

Book now

I wanted to solve a real problem out there.

Now, I was nervous as I knew I would be working more in my areas of weakness rather than my areas of strengths. So I looked for who was going to join my team on this project. The divine Kate Riordan (process specialist - listen to her podcast interview) helped me to get ideas out of my head and develop the broad structure of the program. This helped me to say “Yes!” fully to the project.

But then I felt stuck and started to procrastinate. How do you translate a coaching model to a teaching model? Thankfully I found Maria and I learnt how to take a broad structure of a program and fill it in and deliver it in an optimised and engaging way.

There is an art to teaching. I’ve learnt in the last year that as a psychologist/coach I’m not a teacher. I needed help.

Discover your strengths with my free strengths bundle.

Your strengths guide, which includes the Strengthsfinder 2.0 link

Your strengths webinar & worksheet, which is the equivalent of a 1-on-1 strengths coaching session.

I recommend you listen to the whole interview if you have time. But if not, you can jump to the bits that interest you:

2.00: Maria’s unconventional career pathway from studying languages at university, having no idea what to do next and how she discovered her superpower

4.37: Lessons from having multiple organ failure and feeling like a number

7.55: What Maria said when people asked her, “When are you going to get a real job?”, as she was being paid to fly and live in other countries and learn languages/cultures

10.13: Maria’s superpower system for pulling information out of people’s heads, putting it into a framework that will work time and time again, and how she leads her clients

14.39: Maria’s top 3 tips on what to consider when creating an online product or sharing your knowledge in a program online plus the difference between a passive income and leveraged income model

19.00: How Maria uses her online library to optimise her 1‑to‑1 sessions with clients

21.11: Maria’s brilliant mini-experiments to streamline her business to play to her strengths plus the shortcut she used to walk every day for a month.

For your one new habit a month use my guilt free living planner & habit change tracker to ensure success.

Are you a consultant or coach and wondering about teaching people what you know? Or do you want to find out more about you and creating something online? You can download Maria’s free checklist.

The stories we tend to hear about people who have left the police force (and the military and emergency services) tend be about struggles with PTSD. But that is not the case for many, and certainly not for Richard James.

Richard’s career path has taken him from being a sprinter, to a rugby player, to a police officer. He specialised in covert operations, then moved to the development of operational strategies, training surveillance teams, managing evidence, and headed a police station.

Richard got ahead of things and navigated a career change to ensure less travel and more time with family before the job got to him. Richard founded Rivica Investigations and Covert Solutions.

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.

Book now

In this interview Richard talks about his work in the police force, the strengths that set him up to succeed in that role, and his transition to now provide investigative and covert solutions in the private sector.

He is succeeding in his mission to raise the bar of covert surveillance services within the private and corporate investigations and give individuals and organisations the services and superior outcomes usually only afforded to the government sector.

Here are some key points to jump to if you don't have time to listen to the whole interview:

1:37 Richard’s career path to date

15:35 Richard’s attitude that has enabled him to embrace mini-experiments and change

17:12 Police force career highlights

20:49 Private sector career highlights

24:05 How a private investigator can help individuals and organisations

27:47 Richard’s strengths that have enabled him to excel

31:41 Richard’s investigative challenge for you!

 

Speak soon,

Nikki

You spend @ 1/3 of you life at work.

How happy are you?

Why not find out what's really possible for you?

Join me on my next free webinar & start to plan

Your next career move!

Tuesday, August 13th, 2019 @ 8pm

Discover your strengths with my free strengths bundle.

Your strengths guide, which includes the Strengthsfinder 2.0 link

Your strengths webinar & worksheet, which is the equivalent of a 1-on-1 strengths coaching session.

Subscribe to my podcast

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Sally Wilson is a multi‑passionate. She's a hypnotherapist, singing teacher, performer, runner and writer.

But before she was all of those things, she had a successful 20 year international career as an opera singer.

In this interview, Sally talks about the shift from an all-consuming singular focus, to discovering what she wanted to do next and getting the balance right in her portfolio career.

How does she fit so many things in? She shapes her work week to play to her strengths, so with all this activity Sally still feels energised. And she's flexible with the frequency of some of her activities.

Strengths guide free bundle

Discover your strengths and start to talk about yourself and your abilities confidently and with ease

Your strengths guide, which includes the Strengthsfinder 2.0 link

Your strengths webinar & worksheet, which is the equivalent of a 1-on-1 strengths coaching session.

If you have time, I highly recommend listening to the whole interview. If not, here are some key moments you can jump to:

3.30 What life was like for Sally at her career crossroad

4.55 The challenge of being a multi-passionate. So many ideas - where to focus?

6.40 How Sally had explored career options before working with Nikki

9.30 How mini-experiments took the pressure off Sally having to 'solve' her career direction

10.30 The benefits of learning about her strengths

13:39 The mini-experiments that helped Sally to get clarity on her direction

15.40 How accepting a different frequency for an activity (writing books) allowed it to be part of Sally's portfolio

17.48 Sally's work as a hypnotherapist with a focus on resolving trauma, anxiety & depression

26.08 Sally discusses all the activities she currently fits into her life: her portfolio career

29.07 Why Sally wishes she'd had career coaching when she was at uni

29.54 Sally's challenge for you

Connect with Sally @ www.sallywilsonholistics.com

Are you a multi-passionate? How do you balance the elements in your life so that you are energised and fulfilled? Let me know in the comments below.

Speak soon,

Nikki

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.TM

Book now

Join my free Facebook group

Career Support Hub

Access resources & feel supported

Join

Free webinars

Your Next Role Advantage

How to find your next role in the current job climate

you're a corporate worker who has been made redundant or is facing redundancy

you want to learn how to find your next role in the current job market.

I will show you how you can:

Uncover your unique strengths and the problems you can solve

Be clear and confident and stand out from other candidates.

Use a combination of traditional & alternative approaches to increase your chances of finding a role.

Tuesday, Feb 2nd, @8pm AEDT

Your Next Dream Career Move

Discover your dream life best fit role

you're fed‑up and stressed in your current role

you want to figure out what to do next

you feel stuck and have either no idea or too many ideas.

I'll help you to figure out your next dream career move

Identify 1-3 realistic & inspiring ideas as to what to do next

Figure out which idea is a best-fit

Learn how to make the change safely in 3 steps.

Tuesday, Jan 19th, @8pm AEDT

Subscribe to my podcast

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Karly is a multi-passionate who wears many different hats: she’s a communicator, connector and creator.

She has had successes and failures and shares both in this interview.

She is a voice over artist and runs a voice agency called KillerKopy.

Karly believes that everyone has a message inside of them and it’s her job to help them to be heard. She has 2 podcasts, Karlosophies & Keeping Good Company. She also runs a podcasting school that was instrumental in helping me go from concept to publishing my podcast.

I love Karly’s tips on overcoming fear so you can take the first step towards your goal.

Here are some points you can jump to if you don’t have time to listen to the whole podcast.

1.30 Karly’s career pathway from radio till today

5.40 Karly’s $100k failure with her co-working space and the big lessons

11.30 Her mastermind mini-experiment

17.40 Hear how Karly’s strengths match up to her mini-experiments: Communication, Empathy, Activator, Strategic and Developer

28.03 Karly’s tips on overcoming fear.

 

Connect with Karly @ karlynimmo.com

 

Speak soon,

Nikki

Join me for a free webinar and start planning

Your next career move

Learn how to:

Identify 1-3 ideas as to what to do next

Figure out which idea is a best-fit

Make the change safely in 3 steps.

Reserve your spot now!

Book your free 15 min discovery session.

Find out what's possible for your dream life, best fit role.

Book now

Subscribe to my podcast

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