Hey there, welcome back to another episode of Sh*t I Just Quit My Job!

Today's chat is all about the age-old saying, "It's not personal, it's business." But let's be real, when did we all turn into emotionless robots?

In this episode, we're diving into why blending the personal with the professional is okay, and sometimes it’s actually just what you need. It's the genuine, heartfelt relationships that not only bring joy and fulfillment but also open new doors in our careers. Mixing the personal with the professional can, in fact, be a strategic move. And let’s be honest, have work and life actually been separated since the pandemic? Once you have stared into your colleague’s home through a Zoom window, all bets are off.

Joining me today is the incredible Deena Baikowitz. She's a networking coach, comedian, consultant, and a dancer with a personality that's larger than life. Deena lives by the mantra of having almost no boundaries, openly sharing her dating escapades as part of her brand. But it's not all just fun and games. What really makes Deena stand out is how genuine, authentic, and vulnerable she is.

I sit down with Deena to talk about her journey from being timid and shy to embracing her identity as an extrovert and a 'fireball'. We explore how understanding and owning your strengths can transform your career and personal life. She offers practical advice on personal branding and connecting with people, all wrapped up in her unique, vibrant energy.

Like this interview, and her life, Deena's career has crossed a lot of boundaries. 

Her jobs may seem as eclectic and diverse as the men she dates, but there is one constant theme throughout her work and her life: Empowering People and Creating Strategic Relationships.  (That's two themes, but math isn't Deena's thing.)

Deena's work focuses on and intersects three core areas: The Arts, Business, and Health Care.

From social worker to social butterfly, from pharmaceutical marketing to marketing Broadway shows; from launching health care conferences to launching corporate comedy programs; from coaching and training to comparing networking to dating and sex.

Deena is the director who says "Hey kids, let's get together in the backyard and put on a show!" Except the kids are professionals on business retreats, committee co-chairs,  association members, and her global network of friends and fireballs.

Deena has a gift for developing  and producing mission-driven projects that harness the unique talents of everyone involved. 

She creates experiences that build community, business and career opportunities, and deep friendships.

An extreme extrovert, she talks to strangers in 4.5 languages.

As a self-described power user of dating apps, an extrovert in exile, and diagnosed with ADHD at 52, Deena is not shy about sharing her personal and professional stories to inspire, empower, and entertain. She's not shy about much - and she's a dynamic, hilarious speaker.

In 'boring' business terms, Deena is an established networking coach, branding  and marketing consultant, and strategic partnerships expert. A testimonial from her favorite boss describes her best: "She is a little fireball of energy. Hire her!"

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deenabaikowitz/

Since the moment I left my job I’ve had different moments of high anxiety when I ask myself - how am I going to do this? 

Yes, I left my job knowing I had resources and a way to support myself for a while. I took an intentional break, but I am not naive. I know that at some point I need to get back to the grind. As the months pass, I keep getting more and more nervous. 

My guest today, Tirza Barnes, shook me when she asked me “who told you you need to work to make money?” How’s that for a question. 

Tirza is a a dynamic force in people development, employee training, and leadership development. After a long career in nonprofits,  she left the 9-5 to do her own thing full time. Since then she has found herself stepping out of the box in many aspects of her life - from relationships, to her approach to her health. 

I sit down with Tirza to talk about the importance of breaking free from limiting beliefs, making empowered decisions, and getting rid of the need to listen to others’ opinions. 

Tirza Barnes is the CEO of Tirza Motivates, LLC., a people development, employee training, and leadership consulting company that partners with individuals, corporations, and nonprofits across diverse industries to provide training, development programs, coaching, interactive workshops, and keynote speaking.

With over 28 years of experience, Tirza has trained, consulted, and coached thousands of for-profit and nonprofit professionals. She performs organizational change initiatives and develops strategies to strengthen program design and services. She also creates and conducts workshops on various topics that improve employee performance and increase engagement, including group dynamics, wellness in the workplace, DEI, unconscious racial bias, and its effects.

Before the launch of her business, Tirza served in a leadership capacity as the Director of Training at Workforce Professionals Training Institute (WPTI) and the Senior Professional Development Trainer at the Grace Institute. She also held the Director of Training and Employee Development position at the Goodwill of NY & NJ, where she oversaw training initiatives for over 10,000 employees across the organization.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared my journey and what’s going on in my head. The last few months have been pretty rich in introspection - lots of thinking and feeling and trying to get to know myself again. 

Listen to this minisode to hear where I’m at as we close out 2023 and my first six months after quitting my job. 

Wishing you all the best this holiday season and may 2024 be a much better year than this one!

Hugs,

M.

Sandra Iseman always felt like she didn’t belong. Realizing in her thirties that she had dyslexia and being diagnosed as an adult with ADHD she realized she wasn’t the problem, she was just not like everyone else and so many things started to click. Sandra spent 30 years working in IT until she decided that the pain in the job was not worth it. As someone who was in a constant search for something novel and exciting, she decided to do the thing she always knew in her heart was her calling. She left her career to go back to school and become a psychotherapist. I sit down with Sandra to talk about this massive career change, going back to school during a pandemic, unmasking, and growing through introspection. 

Sandra Iseman, a licensed psychotherapist based in Ontario, Canada, works with neurodivergent clients providing both individual and couples counseling. Her thriving practice is less than a year old however she brings a wealth of experience from 30 years in a diverse multinational corporate consulting career. Her journey spans engineering, finance and technology and has also incorporated entrepreneurship, education, and advocacy.

In pursuit of a passion for psychology, Sandra intentionally shifted gears, leaving behind her successful consultancy career to train in counseling psychology. Now, with a unique blend of professional maturity and fresh enthusiasm, she offers support and advocacy for neurodivergent individuals who are struggling to fit into traditional corporate and societal structures that weren’t designed with them in mind. Following her own diagnosis with ADHD, Sandra draws from her lived experiences to bring a positive, strengths-based approach to her work.

Sandra is an avid cyclist, kayaker, and explorer who finds her happy place seeking adventure all over the world with her husband and their daughter. 

A few years ago Arshiya Malik left her job at a non-profit, ended a relationship and moved to Goa to fulfill her dream of living at the beach. While there she began to work on a start-up, eventually becoming a co-founder of the company.

This year Arshiya went through another transition. She left her role at the company she co-founded and is undergoing another period of reevaluation and reinvention. I sit down with Arshiya to talk about her self-described never ending quest for stability, what it’s like to not know how to tell people what you do, and how to reframe ambition and success.

Arshiya Malik is an experienced tech operator and DEI leader with a passion for unlocking business potential and bringing strategic visions to fruition. She has spent her career in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors growing social enterprises from the ground up. Most recently she built out and led Customer Success for an HR tech platform, supporting global enterprises such as AstraZeneca, vmWare, FINRA, and the Boys & Girls Clubs to create more inclusive and equitable employee experiences while driving business performance. Arshiya is an exceptional problem-solver and communicator with a knack for building stakeholder alignment and scaling solutions from concept to delivery centering inclusion, equity, and operational excellence. 

Sometimes, the things we most struggle with are the keys to unlocking the next part of your journey. We hear it from founders: they find a problem, for many of them it’s one they are personally facing, and look for a way to build a solution. 

Similarly, some coaches start their business practice after they themselves have had lots of trouble with one specific area. Madeline Schwarz was shy, hated public speaking, and had seen first hand how many problems were created by communication breakdowns.

I sit down with Madeline to talk about how she got comfortable with public speaking, her journey from the client side at a big company to the vendor side at a small company, how she managed losing her job and even used that opportunity to build her new career.  

Madeline Schwarz teaches individuals and teams to develop the single most important skill in life and business: communication. She helps professionals tell compelling stories and clearly articulate their vision in presentations, meetings and difficult conversations. Her clients have called her a career therapist, lifesaver and secret weapon and include organizations such as Mastercard, Etsy, Blink Fitness, The Jewish Museum and Fancy LLC. Companies bring her in to facilitate workshops on storytelling, presentation skills, networking and collaborative team communication. When she’s not dreaming up ways to make communication more fun, you can find her roaming art museums, biking in Prospect Park and building pillow forts with her son.

There are so many types of jobs out there that we can’t even imagine. From panda cuddlers, to professional bridesmaids and professional mourners, you might be able to find the right thing for you if you look hard enough. What is it that limits us to think of the possibilities out there? 

My guest today is Laura Dillon. She was an accountant and had been at her company for 14 years. After a particularly long and hard project, and as her company was going through lots of changes, Laura felt like it was time to go.  She didn’t know what was going to be next but she knew she had a few non-negotiables: she wanted work-life balance, and whatever she did had to have a bigger purpose - she was done working only for the money.

In a turn of events, Laura was laid off. So, there she was, pushed by the universe to move towards something uncertain and to have faith. Laura trusted her intuition, reconnected with her roots, and without knowing this was even a thing, started learning about all the ways the body has to heal itself. Now, she runs her own holistic healing center. I sit down with Laura to talk about her journey, making decisions based on faith and not fear, and what happens when you sign the lease to your new venture and a pandemic hits. 

Laura Dillon is the founder of Holistic Life Community in Wakefield, MA.  After leaving the corporate world and working for prestigious companies like Converse (a subsidiary of Nike) and Deloitte & Touche, she started to experience mental and physical health issues that were significantly impacting her home life as a mother and wife.  She left in 2017 on a journey to find natural and holistic ways to address what she was struggling with.  Laura found solace when she dug deeper into her roots and heritage which is Mexican, Native American and Irish. She found tools, belief systems & lifestyle practices that addressed the mind, body and soul and she began to thrive.  She opened this center to be a resource for people to find natural and holistic ways to help with whatever they are struggling with: physical, mental, emotional & spiritual.  

In addition to running her holistic healing center, Laura is a Spiritual Business Coach for entrepreneurs that are struggling with stepping into their purpose due to fear, imposter syndrome, etc.  She uses her 22+ years in Finance and merges this experience with her energy healing practices to help entrepreneurs heal and clear blocks and limiting beliefs that are preventing them from fulfilling their passion and gifts.   

The dream: Find work that is meaningful, that makes you happy, that keeps you engaged. Find work you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. 

But what if you find that job, you spend years and years and years doing it, and then something happens that, without warning, makes you question everything? It maybe something big like a big reorg in your company, or it might be something small — maybe a comment from someone you know that makes you look at things differently. What if that little comment shakes you so much that you decide to take a hard look at yourself and realize, I’ve let my work be the thing that defines me. My job has taken over my identity. 

How do you take it back?

My guest today, Nyla Bahri, found a job she loved and spent 14 years of her life being excellent at it. The job didn’t even exist, but she was so good, it was created for her. That’s how much of herself went into the position. And then one day someone made her question what she’d do if this job didn’t exist? Who was she without it? After some soul searching and a long period of coming to terms with falling out of love with the one constant thing in her life, Nyla found what would come next for her. I sit down with Nayla to talk about some of the stories we’re told about what work means, the problem with letting your job define your identity, and how to come out on the other side after deciding to move away form what you know. 

Dr. Nayla Bahri is an executive coach, educator, facilitator, and co-host of The Inside Job Podcast. Her mission is to help everyone she collaborates with create their ideal relationship with work, one that lets them thrive, experience more satisfaction and flow, and deliver excellence.

Her clients include individual leaders and teams across organizations and levels. She works with not-for-profits, startups, and well-established organizations including Apple, American Express, The City of New York, Appian, The Nature Conservancy, Colgate University, Royal Bank of Canada, Stripe, and ABC/Disney.

If you could do anything in the world, what would you do? 

“What if” is a powerful question. What if I followed my dreams? What if things worked out? What if I make the wrong decision? There is a famous Lewis Carroll quote that says that, in the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take. Tina Pettigrew knew following her dreams was risky, but it was riskier for her to live a life that didn’t fulfill her. So, she took the chance. 

After finding martial arts when she was 27 — think, much older than the age most pros get into the sport — something inside Tina clicked. MMA became a huge part of her life. Her “big girl” job was doing marketing and communications at the company I worked at. In fact, she was one of my direct reports by the time she decided to leave to pursue becoming a professional fighter. I sit down with Tina to talk about her journey, her thought process and all the things she’s learned about herself through martial arts. 

Tina Pettigrew is a professional mixed martial artist and coach. At an age when many people hit their professional stride, Tina chose to leave her marketing and communications career to pursue one in professional sports. She has a BA in Health Science from the University of Florida and a Masters in Bioethics from NYU. Tina has fought for professional organizations including Combate Global, Fearless Woman MMA, and Invicta Fighting Championship — and she holds one professional and two amateur titles in the women’s 135 lb division. 

Tina currently lives in San Diego, CA and teaches all the martial arts disciplines, including wrestling, jiu jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, MMA and self defense to every age group, starting as early as 3 years old.

What’s your nature? It’s an incredibly deep question to ponder but one that can be the clue to finding out how to feel fulfilled. When faced with a turning point in his life, my guest today, Enrique Carral Trevino, spent some time trying to discover his nature and figure out what was next for him. 

Enrique was a consultant turned tech entrepreneur. After living abroad for many years, he decided to move back home to Mexico City and start a coding bootcamp that, he believed, was going to make a huge impact on the country by opening doors to new tech talent. Unfortunately, things rarely go as planned and after trying hard to make his company work out, Enrique decided to close up shop. This decision led him to question pretty much everything in his life — his attitudes, his chosen path, his passions. 

I sit down with Enrique to talk about his journey working in different countries, building a company and his year-long journey of self-discovery.

Enrique is a global and multilingual professional and entrepreneur who was born and raised in Mexico City, but has lived in four countries and speaks four languages. His professional journey comprises a mixture of management consulting, strategy, business development, and entrepreneurship. He is a naturally curious person and has a strong passion for nature, opera, cycling, and personal development. Enrique holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (cum laude) from Northwestern University and an MBA from London Business School.