The Intentional Career Podcast

In light of the “Great Resignation,” interviewing is a skill that matters more than ever. Host Karen Styles discusses this recent trend of quitting and shares her 3 steps to Intentional Interviews.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

Interview Highlights:

[01:10]  The “Great Resignation” and how it relates to interviewing.

[05:20]  Step 1 - Know what you want.

[08:12]  Step 2 - Gather and prepare stories.

[13:10]  Step 3 - Say it out loud (ideally to another human).

[19:05]  Looking for interview help? I’d love to support you. Check out my Intentional Interview 1 Day, 1:1 Training. 

Resources:

• Intentional Interview :1 Day Training - Website
• “The Great Resignation: How Employers Drove Workers to Quit” - Article

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Transcription - 3 Steps to Intentional Interview

I’m Karen Styles and this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love. I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow +Fire coaching. If you’re ready to create your intentional career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me. There’s a link in the show notes or go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue “Schedule a Call” button. 

Karen (2): Hello and welcome to episode nine of the intentional career podcast. I'm so excited you are here with me because I wanted to chat about something that is really important. In my humble opinion, that is interviewing and in particular, making sure that when you interview, you have an intentional interview. So I wanted to share my three steps for an intentional interview, and I bring this up because I've been thinking a lot about and reading about and chatting with people about the great resignation.

And I'm not sure if you've heard this term. We've definitely been talking about it since the spring, in career development, HR, talent management circles. And it is this ongoing trend of folks choosing to leave their positions. And, at first glance, it might seem kind of strange.

Considering there have been mass layoffs around the world, during the pandemic, and whatnot. And now we're also seeing, for the folks who have kept their job. Are looking to leave. And I remember thinking, and even chatting with a couple of friends about it early on in the pandemic, maybe, you know, May of 2020, thinking, there must be a lot of people who are evaluating their work right now.

Right? Who are thinking, hmm, if I was putting off life or putting off things and saying, well, it's okay, I'm going to deal with it later. Looking at the results of a pandemic, the whole world shifted. Bunch of ways. And people are really thinking about what they want and maybe they don't want to put off their careers or maybe they've had enough. Right? Maybe they have had enough of having a job. That's good enough. That's good enough on paper. Or, you know, really evaluating, how was I treated during the pandemic? Did my employer, did they care about my safety? Was I supported if I had kids and needed to homeschool?

There are so many ways that this affected us and we realize how much our work affects us and how work and lives are intertwined. And so I think the folks who were maybe putting off a decision to leave are now potentially fed up and leaving. In April 2021 alone, the US labor department stated that 4 million people left their jobs.

That's only in the US and that's only in April. And there are many more stats out there. I believe that Microsoft did a global survey of their employees worldwide and found that 40, I believe it's 40% of employees were planning to leave their role in the next six months. So that's a lot.

So there are a lot of people leaving and there are a lot of people thinking about leaving and when you're looking to land a new role, the interview is a big part of that because let's be honest, people hire you or make an offer after they have met you. 

I have worked with many, many people. I have done interview training for the last six years. Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to do. And, over those years, I've worked with hundreds of people literally. And what I love about training for an interview is that I start to see people get more clear on who they are and what they're good at when they are forced to talk about it. Maybe forced is the wrong word, but kind of, you know, a lot of times you, maybe don't have to talk about your work or communicate what you're good at, or get into the details of how you do what you do, but when you're in an interview, you do. And the interesting thing is that it can be a real confidence builder, and it can really help you identify the work you're good at, the work you love. And really, I do think that interview training and going through the interview process can lead you to work you love. 

All that to say, coming back to my three steps for an intentional interview. So step number one is to know what you want.

This might go to before you're actually interviewed. It might even be before you start your job search, if you're going into a job search, but think about what it is you want from your next role from your next position? What do you want it to look like?

What do you want it to feel like? And this takes some time. And if you don't know right now, there are some things that you can think about or ask yourself things like, what size of a company might be great to work for? What kind of team dynamics do I want? Do you want to be on a large team or a smaller team?

Do you want to be more of a solo contributor? Do you want to lead other people? You know, the relationship aspect of it. What kind of elements of company culture are you looking for? What are the activities that you want to be doing in your day to day? So that might relate to your skills and the things that you enjoy doing.

It's worth reflecting on your past experiences, sometimes just take some time to, but it's so valuable to go back and think through the times in the past, or you felt really great at work, right? Where are the, what were the things that you were doing? What were the relationships that you had? What were the things that made you proud? So identify those pieces from the past to say, there are these elements that I would like to experience again. 

And on the other hand, there might be things that you don't want to experience again. You mi...

Teresa Wong is the author of the graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression. I’ve known her for over 20 years and was thrilled to interview her about her copywriting career, the process of creating her first book while working at her day job, why graphic narrative is her medium of choice, and why THIS was the story she wanted to tell.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

Teresa Wong is the author of the graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2020. Her comics have appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus and Event Magazine. She teaches memoir and comics at Gotham Writers Workshop.

Interview Highlights:

[01:30]  How Teresa’s day job in copywriting is different than creative writing.

[04:40]  Where did the idea for Dear Scarlet come from? How did having 3 kids impact / inspire the way it was written? How did that impact the writing of a graphic narrative?

[8:20] Teresa asks an illustrator to help her with this project, and his reasons for saying “No, you have to do this.” She Googles “how to make a graphic novel” which actually helps a lot. 

[14:00] Karen asks, why tell THIS story, even though you’ve experienced other intense life things (like a house that burnt down and your husband’s stroke) among other major life challenges you’ve had?

17:00 Karen shares how Dear Scarlet made her feel seen and understood, despite not being a mom or dealing with post-partum depression.

[18:11] How the support and belief of other people helped in the bumpy road to getting published, how long publishing takes, and how sharing a manuscript feels like exposing yourself.

[24:00] What encouragement Teresa would give her past self.

[27:20] Why graphic narrative is NOT easier to write than prose.

[30:28] What is Closet Dispatch? Why Teresa decided to write a Substack newsletter during the pandemic, why she wanted to talk about clothes and her relationship to clothes. Teresa & Karen share past and present thoughts about Celine Dion.

[41:43] Teresa’s career crushes.

[46:20] How becoming an author has (and hasn’t) changed Teresa’s career. Why she’s kept her day job and has more jobs than ever before. An upcoming job that will be a big change - Writer in Residence at the University of Calgary.

People and Resources Mentioned:

• Teresa Wong - Website | Instagram | Twitter
• Closet Dispatch (Teresa’s Substack Newsletter) - Website
• Raina Telgemeier - Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
• Kate Beaton “Hark a Vagrant” comic strip - Website | Instagram | Twitter
• Book Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton - Amazon | Goodreads
• Vivek Shreya - Website | Instagram | Twitter
• Roxanne Gay - Website | Facebook | Twitter
• Nicole Georges - Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
• Book - “Scratch” by Manjula Martin - Website

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Hope Mirlis started out in performing arts but now performs weddings. Her big career moves  coincided with big geographical moves, too. Originally from NYC, she moved to Atlanta to pursue performing arts, and then went to California to get a Master’s of Fine Arts. A friend asked Hope to officiate their wedding, and that changed everything. Hope and Karen discuss the path to an intentional career, and the many twists and turns that happen along the way.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

My guest is Hope Mirlis. She is a registered New York City Wedding Officiant, an Ordained Interfaith Minister,  and a Certified Yoga Instructor. She founded her business “A More Perfect Union” and created a premarital counseling program. She has been guiding couples around the world from the “Yes!” to the “I Do.” since 2009.

Interview Highlights:

[01:13]  Being an officiant wasn’t Hope’s original plan. She was a performer from childhood, and started her career in the performing arts.

[03:48] Hope and her friends created a theatre company.

[07:02] Hope realizes her place isn’t in Atlanta anymore.

[10:55] A classmate asks Hope to officiate her wedding. Hope says No.

[14:23] How the one-time wedding turned into her calling as a wedding officiant. 

[18:05] Hope asks herself, “What happens if I release performing arts?”

[23:33] What people in Hope’s life thought about her career change. 

[30:12] How releasing and letting go along the way helped Hope’s career.

[43:45] What advice Hope would give to her past self.

[47:38] Hope’s career crush, Jenny Levison.

Resources:

• Hope’s Website - A More Perfect Union - Website | Instagram | Facebook
• “Souper Jenny” Levison - Website | Instagram
• The Souper Jenny Kindness Tour - Website

Subscribe!

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• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website
   

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen. 

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Transcription - From Performing Arts to Performing Weddings with Hope Mirlis

Karen: I’m Karen Styles and this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love.

I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow + Fire coaching. If you’re ready to create your intentional career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me. There’s a link in the show notes or go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue “schedule a call” button.

Today my guest is Hope Mirlis. Hope is a registered New York City wedding officiant, an ordained interfaith minister and a certified yoga instructor. She founded her business A More Perfect Union and created a premarital counseling program. She's been guiding couples around the world from the "Yes" to the "I do" since 2009.

Welcome Hope, I'm so glad to have you here.

Hope: I'm super excited to be here and I'm super excited to know who that person is that you introduced!

Karen: She sounds pretty impressive, I must admit.

Hope: I know!

Karen: So you are a wedding officiant and apparently that was not always your plan, correct?

Hope: Oh, it was so never my plan!

Karen: It was so never your plan? So let's talk about how you ended up here. What was the plan or what were you doing when this  came up in your life?

Hope: So as a child, I was very outgoing. I was a little performer from the very, very beginning, so I always thought, and I think my family always thought that I would definitely go down that path. So I performed as a child. I danced as a child and then I started choreographing. I wound up going to college  eventually getting a performing  arts degree and that's really where I was headed. I founded a theater company out of college as well.

Karen: Oh, no big deal. Just founded a theater company.

Hope: Yeah, so I was definitely down that path and I was making inroads. The company was doing very, very well. I was very satisfied as an artist and as an administrator. so it really truly made sense to continue down that path.

Karen: And so what was the dream at that point? You were going to create a theater company or be an actress - did you have a big goal?

Hope: I mean, I think early on, I thought I was going to be a big, famous actor, but that never seemed to be where things went. I remember speaking to a casting director years ago or one of my managers or agents that I was working with and I was like, Hey, what's going on?

Like, what kind of work is happening? What are you submitting me for? And she's like, well, I'm looking at submitting you for Lebanese roles. And I was like, oh, that's great. [I’m] not Lebanese. Is there a lot of work that you see for Lebanese actors? If you think that I can be in that path? And she's like, no, not really. And I was just like, okay, I can see myself not working as much as I wanted to.

And was really the impetus for the theater company that I founded with a few colleagues of mine that we said, you know what? We're not getting the work that we want. So why don't we create it?

And at that time I was living in Atlanta and there wasn't really a theater company doing the work that we wanted to do. There was, some very, very small companies and there were large institutions. We said, you know what, there's gotta be a middle ground. So we basically said... it's like that Mickey Rooney movie that was like, we got a barn, like let's put on a show.

So we did that, and then the business side caught up.

Karen: Oh, what do you mean by that? Like you had this idea and people were interested in it?

Hope: I mean, I always had a business acumen, so that was kind of an easy thing for me, but I'd never run a theater company that was a not-for-profit arts organization. So, I mean, did we pay taxes? No. Did we know we were supposed to pay taxes? No. So eventually we realized, ah, great. By this time we did have a board of directors that were able to help us pay the taxes back to that. We owed the state and to the local municipality. But Yeah, it's like, Hey, let's do it. And then and then everything else will follow.

Karen: Right.

If your job was a car, what would it be? Would thinking of it as a car help you look at it in a different way? In this solo episode, Karen discusses using a metaphor to look at your jobs creatively. She uses the car metaphor to describe two past jobs, and gives questions to get you thinking about how to use this tool for yourself.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

Highlights:

[00:50]  Using a metaphor to think about your career. If your job was a car, what would it be?

[02:35] Why my executive recruiter job was like a fancy sports car.

[06:57] How volunteering helped me “test drive” a new job.

[09:20] The role that was like a Toyota Corolla.

[11:02] Questions for you to consider, using this metaphor.

[14:54] How can the car metaphor help you see your career in a different way?

[16:17] Do you want to discuss the vehicle you’re in or the one you’d like to be in? Set up a call with me to find out how I can help you get to where you want to go.

Subscribe!

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Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen.

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Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn

KDC joins Karen to discuss how kindness drives change in her career and in her life. KDC started out dreaming of becoming a teacher but discovered that the traditional classroom was not for her. However, she’s found other ways to be involved in education. She shares her story of getting sober, learning to treat herself with kindness and following the Universe’s breadcrumbs to her intentional career. 

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

My guest Kristina (aka KDC) has been a mindfulness mentor for over a decade teaching children and adults the power of our thoughts, feelings and actions. She is facilitating transformation for those looking for change in their lives and crews through mindful hacks, tips, techniques and habits. Kindness Drives Change and she is gonna show you how.

Interview Highlights:

[00:33]  Introducing KDC!

[01:15] How Karen & KDC bonded over carrot cake just before pandemic lockdown in 2020. KDC talks about the multiple roles she has, and the common threads in all the things she loves to do.

[05:00] KDC pursued a degree in education, but had a life crisis when she realized teaching wasn’t what she thought. So now what?

[08:15] How deciding to get sober affected KDC’s career by showing kindness to herself and how relying on mentors helped.

[13:30 ] KDC applies for a supervisor position that comes up. She eventually gets what she wants.

[20:15] How KDC decided she needed to make a change in her career in the bar and restaurant industry, getting sober, and starting by showing kindness to herself. 

[23:33] Karen & KDC discuss their shared love of Informational Interviews as a resource to learn about career paths.

[35:10] KDC’s career crush, Melanie Levenberg.

[42:28] The work KDC does in her business now at kdccoaching.com

Resources:

• KDC Coaching - Website | Instagram | Clubhouse
• KDC’s Podcast - Emotional Investigations - Website | Apple | Spotify
• Karen’s 2020 Interview on KDC’s Podcast - Website | Apple | Spotify
• The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
• Melanie Levenberg - Website | Instagram 
• YogaPl3y - Website | Instagram  

Subscribe!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
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• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

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D’ana Joi is a Multi-Passionate Creative entrepreneur who carved her own path to her intentional career through blogging and building communities for multi-passionates. We discuss how discovering her Human Design was instrumental in her career, and how multi-passionates can learn to fall in love with focus.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

My guest is D'Ana Joi. She goes by her middle name “Joi,”  and is a multi-passionate, educator, community builder, and content creator. She believes having many passions is a gift, not a burden and she’s on a mission to rewrite the narrative around “choosing one thing” being the only path to success. Through her content, live workshops, and online community, Joi teaches creatives how to make friends with focus, overcome overwhelm, and step into their Multi-Passionate Mastery. 

Interview Highlights:

[01:48] Joi begins entrepreneurship journey with her blog, Joi Knows How, to explore and allow herself the freedom to explore.

[03:15] Joi writes a blog that changes her world, “It’s Time to Start Celebrating Multi-Passionate Creatives.” This leads to a new mission to create someone else’s lightbulb moment. She also begins coaching.

[05:05] Joi decides, nope, 1:1 coaching is not for her. She prefers teaching groups because it is a more aligned use of her energy.

[11:17] How important is the desire of simply wanting to do something in your work?

[16:30] Learning her Human Design type (Manifestor) was instrumental for Joi. She shares her definition of Human Design and how it works, and why it’s different from other personality tests.

[23:50] Joi discusses why her 90-minute à la carte session may be as powerful as a coach’s three-month one-on-one package.

[27:53] The advice that Joi ignored - about coaching and quitting her day job.

[29:30] Why Joi called her day job, her “support job” and how it actually helped her be dedicated to her business.

[33:33] A favourite topic of Joi’s: focus for multi-passionate people, and her three-part focus framework.

[41:30]  Different types of focus can empower, help with burnout and shiny object syndrome and imposter syndrome; how Joi’s Falling in Love with Focus workshop helped Karen see focus as a tool and use it in different ways.

[43:07] - The multi-passionate experience and burnout.

[43:43] Joi’s definition of a multi-passionate creative, how it’s different than a hobbyist.

[49:45] The strengths of multi-passionates in traditional careers.

[51:17] Why Joi’s future self is her career crush, along with a few other folks.

[58:38] Where to find Joi (Psst - her multi-passionate community opens this summer!)

[59:43] Karen loves Joi’s newsletter, Joi shares the secret to newsletter success.

Resources:

• Joi Knows How -  website | Instagram
• Joi’s Article - “It’s time to start celebrating multi-passionate creatives”
• Joi’s e-book - Finally Focused (coming soon!)
• Joi’s workshop - Falling in Love with Focus
• Sarah Morgan - Website | Instagram

Subscribe!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

Follow Karen

Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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Transcription - Celebrating Multi-Passionate Creative Entrepreneurs with D'ana Joi

[00:00:00] Karen: I'm Karen Styles and this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love. I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow and Fire coaching. If you're ready to create your intentional career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me.

There's a link in the show notes, or you can go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue "Schedule a Call button".

Karen: Today on the show, my guest is D’Ana Joi. She goes by her middle name, Joi, and is a multi-passionate educator, community builder and content creator. She believes having many passions is a gift, not a burden. And she's on a mission to rewrite the narrative around choosing one thing, being the only path to success through her content, live workshops and online community, Joi teaches creatives, how to make friends with focus, overcome overwhelm and step into their multi-passionate mastery.

A quick heads up that in this episode is our very first pet appearance. You can listen for that little Easter egg when Joi's dog, Chai, comes in with a growl in support of a very important statement that Joi makes. It happens after the 20-minute mark.  And now. On with the show.  

Karen:[1:24]Welcome, Joi. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Joi: Thank you so much, Karen, I'm very excited to be here.

Karen: [00:54] All right. I'm excited to talk to you about multi-passionates and career paths, and, well, your career path obviously. And I know for myself as a multi-passionate, a lot of us tend to have a lot of different jobs, so, I'm curious, what that was like for you?

D’Ana Joi: [01:17] Yes. As a multi-passionate, what I realized pretty early on was that there probably was not going to be a career that I could just fall into that felt super aligned and that I would need to carve out my own path and create my own way of doing things and allow that to be correct for me.

So, I started figuring myself out [01:48] in the form of a blog. I started writing blog posts and I started my blog and I named it, Joi Knows How because I wanted to keep it very [02:00] open-ended. Joi Knows How actually came out of my desire to say, I know how to do plant care, I know how to do recipes, I know how to do home decor. And so, the name Joi Knows How was this open-ended sentence that then I could complete in any way that I wanted through any content that I wanted to create and put on my blog.

Where most people say, you know, choose one thing and choose one niche [02:22], I chose to choose one platform to focus on. And then, I allowed myself a lot of creative freedom on that platform. Then, naturally, what happened was I talked about a lot of different subjects and as I started to write about more kinds of self-development, I noticed that those blog posts were getting the most traction.

And then when I specifically wrote a blog post called, "It's Time to Start Celebrating M...

Michelle Ward was an actress who gave up her Broadway dreams to become a business coach. How did that happen? We discuss the many ups and downs, how she created her intentional career as the CEO of the 90 Day Business Launch and how she helps creative women launch businesses.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

My guest is Michelle Ward is CEO of the 90 Day Business Launch. She is a business coach who guides creative, multi-passionate women to become entrepreneurs. Since 2008, she’s helped hundreds of these women launch their dream businesses.

Interview Highlights:

[3:00] Michelle talks about a few of the 20 jobs she had in 7 years of being an actor in New York City.

[7:13] Michelle starts to realize she doesn’t want this kind of work anymore, and that she needs to be an entrepreneur.

[14:04] Michelle’s breaking point. An embarrassing moment on a busy subway platform that proved to her she really HAD to make a change in her career. 

[19:40] The problem with jobs that are good “on paper,” why you shouldn’t talk yourself into those jobs, and how to listen to that little voice that tells you you need something different. We discuss how we’re getting better at listening to intuition.

[34:07] The advice Michelle ignored - to her benefit - both as an actor and as a coach, and how she knew she was doing the right thing. Why it’s good to be a gatekeeper in your business.

[43:35]  Michelle discusses her business-launching clients, how making big shifts is equal parts scary and exciting, and how the emotional shit is holds people back.

[45:27] We discuss the mythology that successful people “Leap and the net will appear,” why baby steps actually work, and how to define your own safety net.

[48:52] Michelle’s Career Crushes:

• VP Wright - Website | Instagram
• Trudi Lebron - Website | Instagram
• Rebekah Boruki - Instagram
• RowHouse Publishing - Patreon | Instagram
• Austin Channing Brown - Website | Instagram
• Nicole Cordoza - Website | Instagram
• Anti-Racism Daily - Website | Instagram

Resources:

• Michelle’s 90 Day Business Launch - Website [affiliate link] | Instagram
• Follow Karen on Instagram
• Wayfinder Life Coach Training - Website
• Kristine Miguel of Caritas Company - Website | Instagram 

Subscribe Today!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

Follow

Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

---

Transcription - Broadway Dreams to Business Coach with Michelle Ward

[00:00:00] Karen: I'm Karen Styles and this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love. I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow and Fire coaching. If you're ready to create your intentional career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me.

There's a link in the show notes, or you can go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue "Schedule a Call button".

Today on the show, my guest is Michelle Ward, CEO of the 90 Day Business Launch. Michelle is a business coach who guides creative multi-passionate women to become entrepreneurs since 2008. She's helped hundreds of women to launch their dream businesses so they can get the freedom, authenticity, and fulfillment they're seeking in their day-to-day lives.

Michelle is also my first business coach and she [00:01:00] is one of the biggest, maybe main reasons that I even have a business today. So welcome Michelle. I'm so thrilled to have you here today.

Michelle: You know, right before we started, I was , where am I at tissues? I'm going to need them. I'm already gonna need them. Thank you, that was beautiful and I love that. I get the distinction of being your first coach. First business coach.

Karen: It's exciting. You're.. Were you my first coach? Probably. Probably my first.coach too. Um, yeah, it's funny to think back. And I'm , could I have done this without you? Maybe? But I don't know, you have the way to just , get it done, get the thing done.

Michelle: Yay!  Yes, totally, and there's definitely a way...  We all have capability of doing this, but it's this blessing and a curse of wanting to be a business owner in 2021 or  2019, when we worked together that , Oh my gosh, there's so many different [00:02:00] ways I could go about this. And there's so many free resources and whatever, and , yay! And also, Oh my God, because where do I start? And what do I do? And it's so overwhelming. What's actually going to get me there.

Karen:  Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I think, there are  all of these paths that we could take to get to our intentional career. And for me, a big part of it was working with you, um, to get to a place where I'm , Oh, I know I'm now in the right place, because for many, many years before that I was questioning things all the time.

And so I wanted to talk to you about, you know, how you create it, your intentional career. And then, and then of course, how you help creative women do that as well in the form of creating a business.

Michelle: Yes!

Karen: So I know that  you've mentioned in a number of places that you had a bunch of jobs before a bunch of different jobs before you became a business coach. Can you  off the top of your head , what are some of the different things that you've done kind of before you got [00:03:00] to where you are?

Michelle: Yeah. I mean, well, I counted Karen, right?  I counted at one point. Yeah and because I was pursuing acting as career, I was definitely a stereotypical actor of, let's have a million different day jobs to, you know, pay my New York City rent and, and try to have a life when I wa...

Kristine Miguel shares her story of trading a traditional accounting career for love - but not the way you think! I was curious about her transition from her linear CPA career path to starting her own business based on love, financial education, and empowerment. We discuss the challenges she faced and the lessons she learned while creating her intentional career; and some thoughts on spirituality and the coaching industry.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

My guest is Kristine Miguel, owner of Caritas Company. She’s a Chartered Professional Accountant, mom, small business owner and all-around financial hype woman. She offers startups, entrepreneurs and side-hustlers an approachable way to face their fear around money and combat overwhelm so they can build and grow a financially sustainable business. 

Interview Highlights:

[2:00] Kristine falls into an accounting career because of her love for math.

[3:30] Accounting as a linear path, and Karen’s wish for an “easy” path when experiencing career angst.

[8:11] 10 years into her career, Kristine starts to question if she wants to do something else, and gets frustrated with things like IFRS standards.

[14:00] Kristine gets jealous of (and inspired by) a CPA who carved her own path.

[15:46] What’s the meaning behind Caritas Company?

[17:00] Surrendering to a greater power, love as a number one value and, oh my goodness are we still talking about accounting careers right now?

[22:00] The people who inspired Kristine on her path.

[26:58] The advice Kristine ignored (to her benefit).

[30:00] The advice or support Kristine would give to her past self.

[35: 28] Why feelings about work matter, why we suppress those feelings - especially as women, and speculate on how it might be different for men. 

[37:27] When having a coach can help, why a coach was the first person Kristine hired. Kristine ponders coaching and we discuss whether coaching should be regulated.

[43:43] Karen goes on a tangent about the difference between coaching, consulting, and mentoring.

[48:32] Kristine’s talks about her career crush, Lisa Zamparo

[52:09] Kristine’s business offerings.

Resources:

• Kristine Miguel - Caritas Company : Website | Instagram
• Slay the Mic / Jam Gamble - Website | Instagram
• Trudi Lebron - Website | Instagram
• Trudi Lebron’s podcast - Business Remix - Should Coaching Require Certification?
• Rising Tide - Website
• Lisa Zamparo | Website | Instagram 

Subscribe!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website
   

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

Follow Karen

Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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Transcription - Trading Traditional Accounting for Love with Kristine Miguel

Karen: I'm Karen Styles. And this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love. I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow + Fire coaching. If you're ready to create your Intentional Career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me.

There's a link in the show notes, or you can go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue “Schedule a Call” button.

Today on the show. My guest is Kristine Miguel, owner of Carita's Company. She's a chartered professional accountant, mom, small business owner and all around financial hype woman. She offers startups, entrepreneurs, and side hustlers and approachable way to face their fear around money and combat overwhelm so they can build and grow a financially sustainable business.

Welcome, and thank you so much for being here, Kristine.

Kristine: Hello, hello!

Karen: So excited to have you here.

Kristine: I'm so pumped. Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Karen: Yeah. I wanna start with, “how it started, how it's going,” or that's the overview of what we're going to have today. So you're an accountant, a CPA. Take us back to how that started for you or what made you pursue accounting as a career path?

Kristine: Oooh.  I kind of fell into the accounting path, mostly due to my love for math. Okay. So growing up math was my favorite subject in school. I did so well in math. Like it's ridiculous when I think about it. And so I wanted a career. In math or something to do with numbers. Yeah. And I also being the oldest child of four kids, I was always like the leader, the leaders slash I was always, my parents left me to teach my siblings, whatever it is they wanted me to teach.

I was very comfortable teaching. And being bossy and I love math. And so I actually wanted to be a math teacher coming out of high school. I'm not sure if you remember that feeling where you're like, oh, okay. High school kids are. Or not the best. So I don't want to be around with people. Like I don't want to teach people like me, not me necessarily, because I was such a good kid.

I'm saying that was sarcasm obviously, but I was just like, I don't know if I want to work in a school, necessarily. So when I was applying for university, I exited out of the education portal and I was like, Ooh, people say you should get a business degree because it's so versatile.

So I went into the business degree portal instead, and I found I was like, what has something to do with math? And so it was like finance and accounting. And I was like, oh, I don't really want to do finance. Oh, let's just do accounting. So I just applied for it. I got accepted and yeah, that's where I started and how I fell into this.

Karen: That's interesting because... accounting wasn't obvious for you.

Kristine: No, I didn't even know what it was really.

Karen: Yeah. Yeah. And that kind of makes sense. Like when we're young, you're really only exposed to at least for me, I wasn't exposed to that many career paths. Like doctors and teachers and whoever's in your life, but, sometimes you don't know what's available to you. The thing about accounting is that it's pretty linear. Like when I think of linear, always talk about accountants and make broad generalizations. And, back when I was an executive recruiter,when I was recruiting accountants, I remember cause I was going through my own career angst and I remember being jealous of that linear pa...

Welcome to the first episode of the Intentional Career Podcast! I’m Karen Styles, host, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. So, what the heck is an intentional career anyway? I’ll share my thoughts on that question, what to expect from this podcast, and a few of my career theories.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with me.

Highlights:

[0:58] Why I’m the person talking about this and what to expect from the podcast.

[3:40] What is an intentional career anyway?

[4:35] You don't have to make a leap to have an intentional career and the pressure to “follow your passion.”

[5:06] When it feels like you’re stuck with only crappy choices; tiny little steps can make a big difference.

[7:00] I’m willing to be proven wrong in my theories.

[9:55] Work and life are not separate. Creating a life that works is important, and work is a big part of life.

[11:24] As a Career Coach, I don’t focus mainly on job search. We’ll be looking at the bigger, broader questions of how you can discover and do work that lights you up.

[13:20] The three other podcast episodes released today!

Resources:

• Martha Beck - Website | The Way of Integrity | IInstagram
• Check out the other episodes released today!
  • Ep. 2 - Trading Traditional Accounting for Love with Kristine Miguel
  • Ep. 3 - Broadway Dreams to Business Coach with Michelle Ward
  • Ep. 4 - Celebrating Multi-Passionate Entrepreneurs with D’ana Joi

Subscribe Today!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• For more episodes, check out The Intentional Career Podcast website
   

Schedule a Call

Ready to create your Intentional Career? Schedule a call with Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

Follow Karen

Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
 

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Transcription - What is an intentional career anyway?  with Karen Styles

[This transcript has been edited for clarity]

Karen: I'm Karen Styles and this is the Intentional Career Podcast. I talk to all kinds of people who take all kinds of paths to work they love. I'm a career and life coach and owner of Flow and Fire coaching. If you're ready to create your intentional career with the support of a coach, schedule a call with me.

There's a link in the show notes, or you can go to intentionalcareer.co and click the blue "Schedule a Call button".

[00:39] Karen: Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of The Intentional Career podcast. I'm so happy you're here. And we are here to talk about, well, I guess I'm here to talk about what is an intentional career anyway? But first, let's talk about why I'm the one talking about it and what you can expect from this podcast as a whole. I want to give you a little bit of an idea of what's going to be coming up. 

I've spent the last several years working in career development. And before that, I was a recruiter for a few years. I also went through my own angst and frustration in my career before creating my own intentional career as a career and life coach. I just used the word career a lot of times in those sentences, I realize. 

All that to say, I've learned some things, both personally, and from my clients, about finding your way to work, you love. And I also know that I don't know everything about it. 

[1:51] That's why the bulk of these episodes are going to be interviews with folks who created their intentional careers.  And just to ask them how they did that. Because I know that all kinds of people do it in lots of different ways and I want this podcast to be a really inclusive venue, to look at lots of different people and the lots of different paths they took, in particular paths that are not necessarily linear.

I know for myself and maybe for a lot of other people, we might think, oh, I wish I had known back in university. I wish I had, you know, maybe made different choices than I did and then it would have been easier. But, okay, there's a lot of beauty in the things that we learn along the way.

And I think, this is my hunch that, there's a lot of people that have found their way to meaningful work and they may not be all that different from you. My hope is that you will be sparked with ideas and inspiration hearing from stories of real people who have done it in lots of different ways.

I'm really looking forward to learning from these guests as well. I'm always gathering information and looking for patterns in the world around me. I'm going to be paying attention and seeing, you know, are there common themes that come up for these stories? And I might also test out some of my theories on them.

 So let me tell you about some of my theories. 

First of all, let's go into that question I started with, what is an intentional career anyway? For me, an intentional career is a career that you choose. That's the simplest way to put it. And maybe that's really simple or obvious, but I've talked to quite a few people and there are people, whether they're 10 years into their career or whether they're 20 plus years into their career, sometimes they say this just happened to me, I didn't make any of these choices or I didn't know what to do. So, here's where I ended up. 

I want you to know that, you know, if you've ever woken up and had that thought that, here I am, and feel like I didn't choose this, you can choose at any time. You can create your intentional career at any point. You can make the start. 

And that leads to my next theory. It is that you don't have to make a leap to have an intentional career, you can make small steps. And those can really make a difference too. 

[4:49]I bring this up because again, because I know I felt this pressure to do something big and bold and dramatic and, follow your passion or something like that.  First of all, I wasn't sure what my passion was, so I didn't exactly know how to follow it. Being bold and taking a leap, which at some points I knew might be quitting a job. [00:04:34] I didn't know what I was going to, so it felt impossible, that’s what it felt like for me. 

I've heard this echoed back from clients at times where it feels like you are stuck with two crappy choices, one being take the leap, make the big bold decision. Or the other choice is to stay in the crappy thing.  That's not quite working out for you. And those both feel like really lousy choices. 

I'm here to tell you those are not your only two choices. 

There might be other options in between there. And some of those other options might feel like really tiny, little steps and the tiny little steps can actually make a big difference for you. Small steps for a big change. <...

Coming May 27th: The Intentional Career Podcast shares how all kinds of people take all kinds of paths to do work they love. Get inspired to create your Intentional Career by hearing the stories of folks who have done just that. Hosted by Career and Life Coach Karen Styles of Flow + Fire Coaching. 

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Karen Styles - Flow + Fire Coaching: website | instagram - flow + fire | instagram - intentional career