Strategic Momentum

In this last episode of the Biz of You mini-series, we’re getting an inside look at Connie’s own career journey and the experiences that shaped her perspective on career success. Who is Connie Steele? What inspired her to write Building the Business of You? And what does she hope people ultimately take away from the book? Today, Connie answers these questions and more. 

This season on Strategic Momentum, we released a series of podcourses in tandem with the launch of Building the Business of You — a book about understanding what the future of work really means for us as individuals and, most importantly, how to create and execute a plan that establishes our own career mashup so that we can be our whole selves. And the guests we heard from shared their own stories of how they were able to do so by building their own dream careers and fluid businesses, gaining valuable perspectives on the future of work in the process.

Each episode corresponded with a theme from the book, including fluidity, career success, and the components of the Fluid Career System: Spotting the Trends, Creating Your Compass, Preparing for Change, Networking Your Way to Your Path, and Building Hard and Soft Skills. 

In this episode, we revisit key takeaways from the season and tie together the trends that emerged across the interviews and what they mean for the future of work in our new normal. Connie is joined by Strategic Momentum marketing manager Alexis Anthony and operations manager Alan Corcoran who have been integral to shaping the narrative arc of the season. In this recap, we explore our most surprising and inspiring moments from Season Five of Strategic Momentum all with the same focus: helping you answer, “What’s next?”

Learn more, and find the complete show notes, at https://www.strategicmomentum.co/episodes/95

Resources:

• Connect with Connie: Email | LinkedIn
• Connect with Alexis: Email | LinkedIn
• Connect with Alan: Email | LinkedIn 
• Share Your Feedback and Suggestions
• Visit BizOfYou.co
• Order the book on Amazon

Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast:

• On Apple Podcasts
• On the Google Play Store
• On Stitcher Radio
• On Spotify

Strategic Momentum is produced by Crate Media

In this episode, Connie Now, explains how companies can approach each of the five components in Building the Business of You to help employees reach their potential, as well as how the fluid system can help organizations stay ahead in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Because fluidity isn’t just about the future of careers, it's about the future of work.

We all know the importance of building necessary skills to grow in our career and often we emphasize building and optimizing hard skills - like coding, writing, or design. Yet in today’s new world of work, soft skills matter even more to create the strategic momentum we are looking for. Because at the end of the day, we are dealing with people not machines. 

Kyle Hunter AKA K. Sparks is an accomplished hip-hop musician, lyricist, and entrepreneurial businessman - that’s his career mashup. He’s written over 500 songs, with his music having over 6M streams on Spotify. 

Now as the CEO of Rhythm Couture he works globally with an eclectic mix of talented musicians  and producers and has favorably impacted and shifted the music product placement paradigm. 

Kyle’s career mashup has always entailed building new skills to grow his capabilities. And while developing his hard skills have been valuable, it’s been the soft skills like emotional intelligence that have been instrumental to helping him be the effective leader he is today.

Learn more, and find the complete show notes, at https://www.strategicmomentum.co/episodes/94

Resources:

• Follow Bryan’s Instagram | Rhythm Couture’s Instagram
• Visit Rhythm Couture
• Learn more about Building Skills in Building the Business of You

Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast:

• On Apple Podcasts
• On the Google Play Store
• On Stitcher Radio
• On Spotify

Strategic Momentum is produced by Crate Media

In this episode, Connie covers the fourth part of the five-part fluid career system, Networking. It’s all about creating that value exchange and building your village to help you reach your potential. She explains how it fits into the overall system and why it’s so critical to career success.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” 

In today’s work world, who you know is even more important to creating the momentum around what you may want to pursue.

That means networking needs to be a priority as you work towards your personal and professional goals, but unfortunately, many people see networking inevitably as a four letter word. They see it as being incredibly transactional and me-centered, especially in our digital world. So what are the keys to building relationships that are meaningful? How do you create that operational path to move you along your journey?

For Bryan Wish, entrepreneur and founder of a mission-driven brand agency, having a roadmap of where you want to go helps you identify those relationships worth investing time in.  Bryan the founder and CEO of BW Missions, an agency that helps transform experts into thought leaders. He’s helped mission-driven entrepreneurs and CEOs develop and execute digital strategies behind their book, product, and business launches. Bryan pursues life with a dedicated resiliency to discover, build, and grow missions that matter.

In this episode, Bryan shares his career journey and his approach to aligning passion and purpose to build the necessary network to help you get there, but doing it fundamentally in an authentic way. And that path started with this feeling that he didn’t fit the common mold, no matter how hard he worked. 

Learn more, and find the complete show notes, at https://www.strategicmomentum.co/episodes/93

Resources:

• Connect with Bryan on LinkedIn | Twitter
• Email Bryan at [email protected]
• Visit BW Missions
• Learn more about Networking in Building the Business of You

Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast:

• On Apple Podcasts
• On the Google Play Store
• On Stitcher Radio
• On Spotify

Strategic Momentum is produced by Crate Media

In this episode, Connie covers the fourth part of the five-part fluid career system, Networking. It’s all about creating that value exchange and building your village to help you reach your potential. She explains how it fits into the overall system and why it’s so critical to career success.

Being agile, adaptive and even fluid may have been a means of survival for the past year, but it is fast becoming a habit as uncertainty is the new certainty. Yet the thought of pivoting or forging a different path can still leave us stuck, inhibited by fear and frozen by indecision. 

So how do we prepare for career change in a positive way that helps us push past this inertia and turn fear into an empowering form of excitement? 

For Joe English, founder of LGBTQ+ non profit Hope In A Box, change has been and continues to be an ongoing component of his journey and these experiences helped build character, grit, and empathy.

In this episode we learn how Joe navigated the challenges of being perceived as different, embraced his sexual identity, and set career goals that saw him leaving his home town in order to create the change he wanted to see in the world, by providing inclusive literature and resources to schools. 

Resources:

• Connect with Joe on LinkedIn 
• Check out Hope in a Box
• Follow Hope in a Box on Twitter
• Connect with Connie on LinkedIn 
• Visit the website for “Building the Business of You: A System to Align Passion and Potential Through Your Own Career Mashup” or order the book on Amazon

Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast:

• On Apple Podcasts
• On Google Podcasts 
• On Stitcher Radio
• On Spotify

Strategic Momentum is produced by Crate Media

In this episode, Connie covers the third part of the five-part fluid career system, called Preparing for Change. It’s all about accepting change, managing fear then turning it into excitement, and pushing past the inertia we face. She explains how it fits into the overall system and why it’s so critical to career success.

There are times in life when things do go as planned. You realize that you want something more and life inevitably throws you curveballs where you have to adapt and adjust in order to get you to where  you need to go. 

For Sabrina Woodworth, there were personal and professional milestones along the way that forced her to reevaluate what she wanted to do. Sabrina is a Fortune 500 Project Manager, Career Strategy Coach, Bestselling Author and  Founder of WorkLessons101. Sabrina’s path to creating her career mashup was one where she recognized the importance of setting a goal and mapping a way to achieve it. She learned this skill early on because  early in her life, things weren’t so straightforward and it required trial and error to learn some fundamental skills. 

In this episode, we learn about Sabrina’s career journey to parallel-pathing what she does today. And this story started by overcoming a learning disability which resulted in helping her develop one of her greatest skills. 

Resources:

• Connect with Sabrina on LinkedIn | Instagram
• Check out WorkLessons101
• Get Sabrina’s book, Work Lessons 101: What they Don't Teach You in School 
• Connect with Connie on LinkedIn 
• Visit the website for “Building the Business of You: A System to Align Passion and Potential Through Your Own Career Mashup” or order the book on Amazon

Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast:

• On Apple Podcasts
• On Google Podcasts 
• On Stitcher Radio
• On Spotify

Strategic Momentum is produced by Crate Media