The Career Butterfly

Caroline Mason spent her early career in high-tech and never expected to run for office, but her days as a volunteer in her kids' classrooms eventually led to that path. Now she views this as an entirely new - and rewarding - career.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why she moved to Sun Valley right after graduation
• How she found her first freelance job
• How she landed her first board position
• How her marketing business succeeded - without a website or any marketing!
• How the economic recession impacted her business
• Why she turned down running for office the first time
• What was different the second time around
• What a school board member actually does
• What's involved in actually running an election campaign
• How she gets to impact 20,000+ students in her community

Sure, the kids are back in school, but what about you? What are you going to learn this season?

I have some ideas for you!

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LeighAnn Heil was comfortable on stage with all the work she'd done early in her career as a Stage Director, but it wasn't until after her career pause that she regularly found herself front and center as a singer/songwriter.

She started her first band with the parents from her son's playgroup. Although the folk band was "just a hobby," it also taught her everything she needed to know when she decided to get serious several years later. Freshly settled in Austin, the music capital of the world, she was 42 years old when she launched Good as Gone, an Americana country band that graced the Billboard charts and licensed songs internationally.

Today, she is a media and mindset coach that helps others get on stage and access the untapped power within each of them. In this interview, LeighAnn also talks about how her power of belief is rooted in the hard lessons and success she experienced while parenting her son with Asperger's.

Mentioned in this episode:

Onstage Power Entrepreneurs Facebook group

LeighAnn Heil Website

What's holding you back? Join me for an honest discussion of what's holding ME back and what I plan to do about it. Then, we'll dive into what's holding YOU back and what YOU plan to do about it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Get on the waitlist for the Ready Pause Go online course.

As a successful CEO, Claire Booth was understandably focused on her achievements. The problem was that she had tied her entire identity to achieving. She was also struggling with depression, anxiety, and crippling insomnia. Eventually realizing the connection, she embarked on a year-long "mesearch" project that led her to recognizing Achiever Fever and finding its cure. The book, The Achiever Fever Cure: How I Learned to Stop Striving Myself Crazy, is the summary of her journey and roadmap for others.

Wondering if you suffer? You might if you identify with 3+ of the following:

1. A strong need to prove yourself
2. Measuring your worth by your accomplishments
3. Needing to feel like you have everything under control
4. Persistent self criticism
5. Needing to feel productive and terrified of wasting time
6. Being future focused with an inability to be present
7. Fearing you won't live up to your potential
8. Habitual worry
9. Frequent comparison with others
10. Using food, alcohol, work, workouts, etc. to make yourself feel better

Claire also found her way to a cure which she shares briefly in today's show and extensively in her book.

1. Admit it to yourself
2. Tell someone else
3. Do the work – Claire consulted countless books, podcast, retreats, coaches

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Byron Katie and "The Work"

Annabelle and Annie became fast friends from the first day they started at the same law firm. They'd done well in law school and landed great jobs at the firm of their dreams, but it turns out neither of them found the career to be a good fit.

Although she loved the people and even the hours, Annie found she didn't enjoy the work itself, which surprised her more than anyone else. Around the same time, Annabelle was feeling the pull towards the entrepreneurial life.

A frustrating experience in their own corporate gift-giving experience led them to the idea of Taja Collection. In a matter of months, they went from "there should be a better customizable candle out there" to making candles in their own kitchen.

Today, they are growing both the business and their own families with each of them having babies under the age of 1. In this episode, they talk honestly about the flexibility and demands of entrepreneurial life.

Taja Collection

What if you never had to look for a job? What if they just came to you? Is that even possible?

That is exactly how it worked out for this week's guest Beth Bazley who is a Director for Save the Children. But that didn't happen by accident. While raising her children, she was also busy cultivating a community, volunteering for organizations that mattered to her, and doing the work that no one else wanted.

Her family life evolved in a way she never expected when tragedy struck and her husband died when their girls were still young. Her community embraced her and, when the time was right, she went right back to volunteering.

A few years - and several international trips later - she knew she was ready for something new. She cleaned her closet (literally) and went out shopping for her life ahead. And that's when the phone rang with her next opportunity.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why Beth chose the hardest jobs as a volunteer
• What Beth found most rewarding about volunteering
• Who rescued them when they experienced great tragedy
• How Beth moved forward after her husband's death with their Family Playbook
• Why Beth kept volunteering even after her family changed
• Why Beth believes in karma
• How Beth showed her kids a real work/life balance
• Why Beth recommends a different work/life path for her daughters
• Why "No is a perfectly good answer" is frequently Beth's opening line when she is asking for time or money

Julia Goldstein invested many years in her education to earn a BS, MS and PhD in Engineering and Material Science. When she had her first child, she assumed she'd go back to work full-time. She never thought she'd panic as her maternity leave was coming to an end. Fortunately, she successfully negotiated a part-time return and even found a way to stay in her local mom's group.

When it was time to go back after her second child, she thought she would follow the same path. That's when she realized just how unique each child was - she would later discover he was on the autism spectrum - and how this would impact her journey.

Julia shares honestly about the challenges she faced and how she overcame them. Along the way she evolved from an engineer who writes to a freelance technical writer. Over the years, she kept her connections and said yes to opportunities that came her way. Today, she fills her schedule with a few select corporate clients and has recently published a book in her field.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How she managed to negotiate a part-time return from maternity leave
• What she did when her daycare suddenly closed
• Why she decided to delay her passion project
• How her writing skills emerged even when she was an engineer
• About the alumni research project she created to keep her mind active as a new mom
• How she represents part-time work on her resume/LinkedIn
• Why she went back to school to study Business Leadership
• Why she still needed flexibility even when her kids were beyond the daycare stage
• Where she gets her clients for her freelance work
• Her suggestions for new writers

Mentioned in this episode:

Material Value: More Sustainable, Less Wasteful Manufacturing of Everything from Cell Phones to Cleaning Products

Julia's author website

Julia's business website

NonFiction Authors Association

Terri never knew she was supposed to be teacher. She majored in Political Science and always thought she'd grow up to be a lawyer. She didn't take that path, but along the way, she did develop her truest priority, which was to be there for her kids. She achieved that - and found her true calling along the way.

Today, Terri gets to impact 180 impressionable minds each day. She'll never tell you that teaching middle school is easy, but she found it compatible with family life and personally fulfilling.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why Terri tells her own kids it's okay not to know who you are - even when you graduate from college
• Why Terri pivoted to a family-friendly job before she even had kids
• Who first suggested to Terri that she might be a natural teacher
• How long it took to get the degree that qualified her to teach
• How she thinks Smartphones are impacting our kids as young as kindergarten age
• Her top 2 rules for parenting middle schoolers: Make them Read and Hold them Accountable.

Mentioned in this episode:

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Recent studies show the economic value of a stay-at-home-mom in America is in the $$ six-figure range, but the way we treat mothers doesn't always take that into account. Have you ever wondered why?

This week's interview looks at it through the lens of American history. Guest Erin Papworth traces the history all the way back to our revolutionary days. Although we may have been rebelling against the British, we definitely brought their deep-rooted patriarchy into our new country. Coming closer to modern day, Erin walks us through women's access to credit and access to birth control in the 1970s and the enormous impact this has on our future. It's hard to believe that those two advances happened within the last generation.

But what about the rest of the world? As is the case in many areas related to women's health and women's rights, America can definitely learn from its peers. Erin spent 13 years in Africa working on women's health and development and her insights might surprise you!

Today, she's all about helping women navigate, or nav, their way through this modern world with an emphasis on financial empowerment. She created the Nav.It app to make your life easier by aggregating your view of your accounts and walking through all the financial building blocks from emergency funds to debt management all the way to investing.