Her Career Unplugged | Career Advice for Women, Leadership & Real Stories

Dr. Gabrielle Pelicci spent 25 years in wellness, hospitality, and higher ed before becoming a TEDx speaker, 3x author, and book coach. She's here to demystify what every woman in tech (and beyond) is avoiding: telling your real story.

In this conversation, Gabby walks us through why a book isn't about perfect prose. It's about visibility, voice, and courage. We talk about the 90-day sprint, why AI is a tool not a threat, how to use voice memos when English isn't your first language, and the concrete playbook that turns a manuscript into TED Talks and paid keynotes.

Plus: Joanne realizes her next career move in real time.

No fluff. Just honest talk about getting your ideas out of your head and into the world.

What happens when you do everything right and the career you built still stops feeling like yours?

Joanne and Vimala talk with career coach Erica Rivera, who spent years reading resumes inside Indeed and Google until a November 2023 layoff email changed everything. Erica explains why women so often treat a layoff as a personal failure, and shares the "career story walkthrough" she uses to separate what actually happened from the story you're telling yourself.

In this episode:• The moment the playbook broke, and handing the layoff email to her husband to read• Why "I'm the problem" is the wrong story• Taking inventory of your skills in a job market reshaped by AI• How rejection pushed Erica to go all in on coaching and move her family abroad• A laid-off tech professional whose hand-drawn vegetable cards are now sold in eight Colorado stores• Fear of rejection, and the interviews Joanne and Vimala once skipped• Getting comfortable being seen on LinkedIn, at your own pace• Rapid fire: the worst career advice, "burn down the lane," and the resume myths that need to die

A layoff is an event, not an identity.

Connect with Erica: https://ericariveracoaching.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-rivera-recruiter/

Show notes: https://hercareerunplugged.com/episodes/ep-014Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hercareerunpluggedInstagram: @hercareerunplugged

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Success shouldn't cost you your health. Dr. Judy Wright, physician, TEDx speaker, and sustainable success strategist, joins Joanne and Vimala to unpack her P.A.C.E. method: Pause, Audit, Calibrate, Elevate. After burning out multiple times and facing a cancer diagnosis, Dr. Judy stopped asking "why is this job so hard" and started asking "how did I get here again." This episode digs into self-leadership vs. self-care, why saying no more makes your yeses count, and how high-achieving women can build success that's actually built to last. Rapid-fire round included.

Stay Unplugged.

Ever feel like your work should speak for itself, but somehow no one's listening? Bry Bird used to feel invisible in her industry too, until she stopped trying to blend in and started treating her personal brand like the business it actually is. Now she's an award-winning creative strategist based in Essex, England, with press features and a client roster to match; and she did it in a matter of months, not years.

If you've ever wondered whether visibility is worth the effort, or you've been quietly building without seeing results, this episode is your playbook.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Bry stopped hiding her neurodivergence and how it became her competitive advantage
• The three-part ecosystem (brand, website, social) that judges and clients actually notice
• What award judges are really evaluating when they choose who to invest in
• How to tell if your content is working even when engagement looks quiet
• Why rest and mental health days are a business investment, not a luxury

Connect with Bry: hithisisbry.com | @hithisisbry on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Substack

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Lynne Ghelfi built a career in one of the most male-dominated industries out there, the automotive world, going from stay-at-home mom to top-three car salesperson to marketing director in under two years. Now a John Maxwell certified coach, she's writing "No Talent Required: The Twelve Leadership Practices That Drive Culture, Trust, and Productivity."

In this episode, Lynne breaks down why leadership isn't a title, it's a mindset. We talk personality styles (the Maxwell DISC method), the "face the mirror" practice for resetting your attitude, and the story about her mom that taught her real courage in leadership. Plus: her biggest career risk, her leadership superpower, and the one sentence she'd put on a billboard for every woman in automotive.

If you've ever doubted whether you're "leader material," this one's for you.

You've stayed in a job way past its expiration date. You've told yourself "this is just how it is." This episode is for you.

Joanne and Vimala sit down with Allison Hemmings, the Career Glow-Up Coach and founder of Newo Executive Solutions. Allison built a community of over 22,000 executive women, coached thousands into six-figure negotiations, and then sold her house, her car, and her comfort zone to move to Costa Rica. She talks about losing both her parents within a year, her mom's last words to "live your life," and why she couldn't bring her old business with her when she started over.

If you've ever stayed somewhere because it felt safer than starting over, this conversation will hit close to home.

In this episode:

• Why comfort zones are the biggest thing holding women back mid-career
• The "career as real estate" framework for negotiating what you're actually worth
• Why loyalty to a company rarely gets returned
• Grief, reinvention, and deciding to live without limitations
• Getting off the struggle bus for good

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You've been ghosted by recruiters. You've sent fifty applications into a black hole. You've wondered if the job market is broken or if it's just you.

This week we sit down with Jodi Gorenstein, a 20+ year HR leader who spent over a decade at American Express before launching HR Super Connector, a job search consultancy she calls her passion project. Jodi has helped clients at every level, from recent grads to C-suite executives, get seen, get interviews, and get better offers than the ones they started with.

Jodi walks us through the real mechanics of a modern job search: why a role posted on LinkedIn might already be filled, how to reach out to a stranger without sounding desperate, and why the second follow-up matters more than the first. She also gets personal about being let go from a job she loved and realizing it was the best thing that ever happened to her career.

If you've ever felt invisible in a stack of applicants, or wondered whether networking is really worth the discomfort, this conversation is your playbook.

In this episode:

• How Jodi found her way into HR after a "circuitous," self-doubting start
• Why being laid off from American Express opened her biggest opportunity
• The three phases of a job search: get ready, get seen, land the job
• Why vague networking asks fail, and what to say instead
• How to write your own LinkedIn testimonial request (and why it works better)
• The follow-up rule that gets resumes off the pile and into the right hands
• Best and worst career advice, rapid-fire style

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She left Tanzania at 15 with no safety net and no plan B. Today she's one of the highest-ranking women of color to serve as VP at IBM.

Shelmina Abji, author of Show Your Worth and founder of ShowYourWorth.ai, joins us to break down how she built her career strategy from the ground up, and how you can too.

If you've ever kept your head down instead of speaking up, or wondered if you need a mentor or a sponsor, this conversation will shift how you think about your own path.

We get into:

• Defining success on your own terms
• Mentor vs. sponsor, and when you need each
• Why leadership branding isn't self-promotion
• The voice of fear vs. the voice of courage
• The "power quotient" concept

Follow Her Career Unplugged wherever you listen for more real talk on the gap between the polished narrative and the actual career.

You've been in your role for two years. You know the job, people respect you, nothing is on fire. But every few months, that little voice shows up and asks if you should be doing more by now. Is it right? Maybe. Or maybe it's just noise.

This week, we (Joanne and Vimala) get into one of the most misunderstood moments in any career journey: the pause. Not every stall is a failure. Not every plateau means you've given up. But there's a real difference between a strategic pause and quietly coasting, and knowing which one you're in changes everything.

Joanne shares the story of taking a horizontal move right after her second son was born, when everyone, including herself, expected her to push for a VP title. Vimala talks about the season she stopped chasing promotions and chose to flex instead of hustle. And together they make the case that pausing on purpose, with intention and a timeline, is not the same as getting stuck.

If you've ever felt behind on someone else's timeline, turned down an opportunity because the timing was wrong, or wondered whether your LinkedIn silence is a red flag, this episode is for you.

Topics covered include:

• What a career stall actually means (and how it changes at different life stages)
• The difference between a strategic pause and coasting
• Joanne's PhD pivot, 50% pay cut, and what happened when she came back to industry
• How to stay relevant while you're in your pause
• Rapid fire: stuck or strategic? Eight career scenarios, one honest answer each

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There is no roadmap for when you decide to build something from scratch. But there are lessons that actually shape you as a founder, and they show up long before you ever write a business plan.

In this episode of Her Career Unplugged, we sit down with Natesha Mortimer, Georgia Tech grad student, data entrepreneur, and founder of Data Swale, for a conversation about what building a company in your 20s actually looks like when you strip away the Instagram version. We talk about the moment you realize a need keeps finding you, why the "be your own boss" dream glosses over the part where you are also your own accountant, marketer, and calendar manager, and how showing up before you feel ready is often the only move that works.

Natesha shares why she refuses to give energy to imposter syndrome, how she built a support system that followed her out of corporate into entrepreneurship, and the flywheel framework she uses to turn community into opportunity over time. She also gets real about burnout, and the triangle she draws in her planner to make sure career ambition does not quietly swallow everything else.

If you have ever talked yourself out of starting something because the timing was not right, wondered how young founders actually build their networks, or felt like the only person in the room who had not figured it out yet, this one is for you.

In this episode:

• Why starting before you feel ready is not reckless, it is the whole strategy
• What entrepreneurship actually looks like when the social media filter comes off
• How to build genuine community that opens doors without feeling transactional
• The triangle method for staying grounded when you are chasing big goals
• Why refusing to give energy to imposter syndrome is itself a practice

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