The Career Butterfly

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) isn't just a new corporate buzzword or department. It's an important value that can impact you whether you are job searching, interviewing, onboarding, or finding your way to success in a new company.

In this podcast, I break down what each of the words means - as well as several more. If you've been away from the workforce for a few years or more, you'll find the vocabulary in this space has changed. And, since you may even find yourself in an interview responding to your views on DEI, I include a few real-world questions that candidates have recently been asked to respond to.

At first glance, Jessica Seiders is not what I would consider a good candidate for life as a digital nomad - someone who finds a way to work vitually from any country in the world.

Two years ago, she didn't have a passport, she'd never left the United States, and she didn't speak a foreign language. But when her daughter left for college and she found herself lost and depressed, she made a radical shift in her life.

She sold all her belongings, traveled to 17 countries, and, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was closing in, she settled in Bali. It turns out to be the perfect path and she's found an entirely new life there.

Today, you can find her helping fellow empty nesters on her Fearless Empty Nester website and in her Empty Nester Zoom Moms Facebook group.

Nancy McSharry Jensen and Sarah Duenwald founded The Swing Shift four years ago to help women navigate their return to work. Now, they've launched a book, Back to Business, to share all their wisdom on finding your confidence, embracing your skills, and landing your dream job after a career pause.

We chat about their take on what's changed in 2021, the value of a personal brand, and the importance of connections. Nancy and Sarah share 4 Back to Business strategies they outline in the book:

• Boomerang
• Try and Buy
• Lilypad
• From Pro Bono to Paid

Tune in to see which of those 4 strategies might work for you and to learn from these career pause experts.

Today, we're talking about failure as a good thing. Yes, a good thing! I truly believe that failure has helped me create who I am today and I want to take a deep dive on that with you. We're tackling your fear of failure, why we fail in advance, and how we can benefit from failing forward.

Laura Patterson never realized how much of her identity was wrapped up in her role as a Registered Nurse until she stepped away from the career to raise her 3 children.

As she brought the next generation of children into the world, she started to think about her role in the world. In particular, she was fascinated by the food that nourishes all of us and the way children have become so disconnected from the source.

Laura found that microgreens - essentially baby plants packed with nutrition and flavor - were the perfect entry point for young kids because they have short (

Post-pandemic she's shifted her business Hand-Grown Greens and found a new love in teaching others how to incorporate microgreens into their own families.

Stephanie Lentz was always a diligent recycler, but it wasn't until she became a parent that she started to become really uncomfortable with the amount of waste she was creating.

A former teacher, she never expected to find herself writing a business plan with a baby and a toddler in tow. But that's exactly where her passion led her.

Today, she is 3+ years into the venture with Scoop Marketplace, a zero-waste grocery store that has just opened it's new, expanded location in Kirkland, Washington. She's learned a lot about the entrepreneurial journey of a brick-and-mortar (and online!) business and shares generously how she's building this business in alignment with how she wants to raise her family.

If you're interested in my upcoming 8-week digital PathFinder Program, learn more here.

Katie Rose walked away from a successful, international career in yoga, but she didn't stay away forever. After some intense relief from no longer juggling the business and the babies (she now has 4 boys, aged 4 to 14), she found her way back, but in a completely new way.

Today, she runs a mostly digital business and finds the format incredibly parent-friendly. Her wisdom runs deep and she's here to help others not "get sucked into the vortex of duty." Katie gives fantastic, practical advice for those who can only commit micro amounts of time. It really can be enough to spark that passion we all need.

Radka Gimerova is a Health/Life Coach who helps women tap into their inner power and intuition. Not sure what that means? Come listen because she shares both deep wisdom and practical tips in this episode.

She's no stranger to the career pause either, having spent her early career in Corporate Human Resources. She left that job to care for her two young boys - and to focus on this new passion of coaching other women in a similar phase of life.

In today's podcast, I also announced my free workshop!

Back-to-Work Success Blueprint: My 6 Secrets to $6-Figure Success ~ After a 13 Year Career Pause

Sign up at the link above and choose your date - February 24th, 26th, or 28th.

Welcome to the second week of February and our theme of self-love here on Ready Pause Go! This month is all about soul searching, compassion, and self-discovery.

Life coach Karrie Mitten knows a lot about the career pause - she took a 17 year pause herself! She always knew she wanted to serve people, but never found the exact fit with the customer service and sales positions she tried. She even bought her own staffing agency with the thought that finding jobs for people had to be the ultimate way of serving people. But it still wasn't the right fit. Thankfully, she was able to walk away from that business and find the one that had been waiting for her all along.

Today, she has her own life coaching practice where she works with women in transition and helps them uplevel their lives by working on their confidence, passion/purpose, and abundant life they are born into.

When Sonia Lopez talks about transforming your life, she does it from a place of experience. Her own career pause took her from corporate HR to coaching, but it wasn't until many years later when she was suffering from several illnesses that she truly tapped in to her inner guidance and intuition.

We had a fascinating discussion where she shares her perspective on manifestation and how she teaches from the lens of neuroscience, psychology, energetics, and spirituality.