Thoughts from Limbo

We’re joined by the wonderful Pin Cher, who is on a mission to help millennial professionals who are feeling lost and stuck in their career, by empowering them to create a meaningful career that’s more aligned to their purpose and values.

She shares her own story about how, for years she pursued a corporate career and her ambition to climb up the corporate ladder – until one particular event made her question whether she was on the right track.

True to brand, in this episode we dive into the messiness of careers and discuss why we’re sometimes so afraid to consider alternative options that deviate from what we’ve been taught is “the right thing to do”, either by our parents or society and how these things shape the expectations we impose on ourselves over the years.

Enjoy!

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Article: How to become more patient by definition - https://thoughtsfromlimbo.com/how-to-become-more-patient-by-definition/

In today’s episode, we speak to investing reporter for Business Insider, Laila Maidan. She tells us how it was her career in foreign policy and international relations, during which time she worked for the United Nations, that she became motivated to share global developments with the general public, and hence switched to a career in journalism.

Laila is now a reporter in Business Insider’s markets division and her coverage predominantly focuses on cryptocurrencies, the stock market, and trading strategies. She is particularly passionate about sharing the stories of people who have overcome struggles and attained ‘financial freedom’ by growing their personal wealth. It is actually through one of these stories that we came across Laila; we discuss this and others during the episode, as well as recent trends in the world of blockchain.

You can find links to the articles we mention below, as well Laila’s profile.

Please note, this episode is not financial advice.

Laila Maidan’s Profile | 

Laila Maidan - Insider

Laila Maidan’s Twitter | 

lailamaidan

Kiana Danial Article | 

2 investing lessons that helped a 37-year-old multimillionaire build her fortune

Sharon Tseung Article | 

A 30 year old with a $1 million net worth explains the 4 steps that got her there

Mari Adam, Josephine Lee, and Lakisha Simmons Article | 

3 women who never built wealth until after divorce share the mistakes that held them back

 In this week’s episode we speak with Dr. Nicole Tschierske from Germany! She helps women in STEM build expert credibility, progress in their career and find fulfilment in their work – which, we learned, doesn’t always mean career advancement in the traditional sense. 
 
 Nicole spoke to us about the value in horizontal career progression and the importance of defining our personal values and priorities before we take the “next step”. Because quitting your job and simply switching companies, isn’t your only option. 

 We cover topics like self-promotion, the gender imbalance in STEM, and the world of work. So, if you’ve ever felt like you’re in a bit of a rut in your career, or you’re considering switching jobs – this one’s for you. 

In today’s episode, we speak with Claire Stapley, freelance writer from London who candidly shares what it’s really like to be a freelance writer – we talk about the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Claire talks to us about everything from managing clients, to pricing, to building your personal brand, and social media. 

She began to freelance before it became cool – at a young age of just 15, Claire began to contribute to an online publication as a fashion journalist, before pursuing a BA Hons in Journalism at university. She then landed a marketing role and gained experience in recruitment, before deciding to become her own boss and pursue her love of writing. 

To find out what she’s up to, visit her website, at: https://clairestapley.com/  

In this week's episode, we were honored to be joined by the truly inspirational - Emilie Bellet. She is the founder of Vestpod, a company with a massively important mission: to financially empower women by changing the conversation about money, through its hugely popular weekly newsletter, personal finance workshops and networking events, and their excellent podcast “The Wallet”, which has received over 64k downloads. Emilie has also been featured in The Financial Times, Forbes, and Stylist Magazine.

She is the author of “You’re not broke, you’re pre-rich," a book that is densely packed with useful resources, and interesting insights; a description similarly fitting for Emilie herself: packed with useful resources and interesting insights.

Emilie's passion for empowering women to be financially secure truly shows. She’s a great role model, we could have listened to her all night.

Why don't you find out for yourself?!

Please note, this is for educational purposes only – it is not financial advice!

In addition, here are a few useful links that will take you straight to some of Emilie’s super helpful resources, including a link where you can sign up to her investing workshop on the 28th of July! You do not want to miss it!

Enjoy!

Website | Vestpod: 

Vestpod - Women & Money

Podcast | The Wallet: 

Podcast — Vestpod - Women & Money

Book | You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-rich: 

Book You're Not Broke You're Pre-Rich — Vestpod - Women & Money

Workshops & Events | 

Events — Vestpod - Women & Money

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/vestpod/

This week we were joined by two very courageous startup founders – Mikaela Larsell Ayesa from Sweden, and Lisa Gautier from France – who have taken on the second most polluting industry in the world that is the clothing industry with their startup ‘Hack Your Closet’, launched in 2019.

Customers can subscribe via the app to gain access to over 30,000 items of second-hand clothing available to rent. Like a dating app, but for clothes, customers simply swipe left or right on each item to allow the algorithm to become familiar with their taste and size – et voila! They’ll receive a personalized box containing four items of clothing that have been hand picked by the company’s own stylists.

The pair have been so successful that in just two years they’ve grown their team from 2 to over 30 employees, and they recently raised 20 million Swedish Krona to ease their recent expansion to France. It was a super interesting talk, we hope you enjoy it – let us know what you think!

Website | Hack Your Closet: 

Hackyourcloset.com - Discover a greener way to update your closet.

Blog | 

The News Closet - Hack your closet

In this week’s episode we spoke to Nataya Walker, the Founder and Executive Director of Seeds of Fortune – a non-profit that began with Nitiya’s own quest to finish school without any student loan debt. In addition to her day-day job Nitiya helps high school women of color in the US navigate the college scholarship and application process and learn financial literacy. 

She made it on Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2020 and she has helped college applicants earn over $8 million dollars towards scholarships and grants since she started Seeds of Fortune during her senior year at Babson College in 2014. Her team of 15 recruits a cohort of 30 students every year and serves nearly 500 teens free resources online.

We talk about higher education system in the US, the lack of financial literacy and we question whether greater transparency when it comes to disclosing our salaries is welcome. This episode is all things money. 

In this week’s episode Nerea and I sat down with Amardeep Parmar, who I’ve become acquainted with over the past few months on an online writing platform called Medium. In around a year and a half, Amar has grown his following to over 34,000 people, his articles have received over 1 million views and he has become an editor of one of Medium’s largest publications – Entrepreneur’s Handbook.

After seven years working as a Tech Consultant in London, Amar recently decided to hand in his notice and branch off on his own, to pursue his online ventures. In this episode we talk not only about his experience with blogging and the success he’s seen, but we dig a little deeper into a range of issues including “the pressure of living up to expectations”, “the fear of failure”, “financial freedom”, “life goals”, and even “family”. We hope you enjoy, Amardeep Parmar! 

Learn more about Amar: 

On his website: https://www.amardeepsparmar.com/

Follow him on Medium: https://amardeep.medium.com/ 

Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amardeep.s.parmar/ 

Or, to learn from Amar himself, you can sign up to his course, here: 

https://mindfuldriven.teachable.com/p/intentional-medium-virality 

In today’s episode we spoke with the wonderful Yasmin Gagne! Yasmin is an Associate Editor at Fast Company in NY, and the co-host of the magazine’s own “Start the Ground Running” Podcast, all about how to navigate the unwritten rules of work and life. Her work focuses on Fast Company’s print magazine, although Yasmin has also written some great articles online, including an excellent piece about how “Sephora committed to devoting 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned brands.” You can find more articles from Yasmin by following the link below.

During our talk we bonded over our shared love for Brussels and our experiences as kids who grew up living across different countries. Yasmin told us the story about how she first got into writing and gave us a glimpse into the world of journalism and what it’s like working for one of the world’s top magazines. We also spoke about the impostor syndrome, the importance of cultivating a collaborative and collegiate atmosphere at work, and generally just enjoyed a really interesting chat that we hope you’ll all enjoy.

Pieces by Yasmin: https://www.fastcompany.com/user/yazgagne

Yasmin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/yasmingagne?lang=en

Sephora Article: https://www.fastcompany.com/90584133/how-sephora-is-working-to-showcase-more-bipoc-owned-brands

Mark Herschberg received multiple degrees from MIT, before moving on to track criminals and terrorists on the internet, and develop numerous new ventures  at startups and Fortune 500s. He’s also done work for Harvard Business School, he started MIT’s very own “career success accelerator” program, and he’s the author of “The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You.”

Mark explained why when it comes to developing and strengthening your soft skills, it really is a case of sooner rather than later. We talk about robots “taking over our jobs”, harnessing teamwork in an increasingly competitive world, the future of working from home, career planning, networking, and the wide range of soft skills we all need to focus on to build our desired careers. 

About Mark: https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/author 

The Career Toolkit Book: https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/ 

The Career Toolkit App: https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/app