The Intentional Career Podcast

This episode is an excerpt from a coaching session with Briana, a freelance writer who recently accepted temporary employment. But even though she’s uncovered some new skills, she’s struggling with it. Does she like this work? Does it mean she’s a failure if she goes back to work for someone else? What about the financial uncertainty of being self-employed?

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching. I offered a few of these coaching sessions in fall of 2021, with the intent of sharing them on the podcast. Briana agreed to have this session recorded and we’ve kept her work details purposely vague.

Highlights:

• Why Briana went to work for an employer
• The struggle with uncertainty of temp work
• Discovering skills and working with a team again
• What shifted in Briana’s thinking

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Interview with Chelsea Jay, Leadership Coach. I absolutely loved our conversation on job hopping, red flags at work, having courage in your career, and how to know when it’s time to quit your job.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

My guest is Chelsea Jay. Chelsea is the owner and founder of Seasoned and Growing where she helps professionals across the globe build careers they love! She is a Nationally Certified Resume Writer (1 of only 60), Online Branding Expert, and podcast host of “The Chelsea Jay Experience.” She also holds certifications in career and life coaching.

Chelsea is known throughout the career development industry for her bold, unapologetic, and straight shooter methods when it comes to tackling the job search, building professional brands, and climbing the ladder quickly (with less stress). She helps professionals across the globe rebuild their confidence, improve their mindsets, develop (and execute!) goals, and most importantly, break free from toxic environments in order to build a thriving career.

Interview Highlights:

• Why job hoppers have more interesting resumes and careers
• The benefits of job hopping
• Red flags and intuition in the workplace
• Chelsea’s experience with job hopping and dealing with the reactions of people in her life
• How Chelsea has built her career courage

More about Chelsea:

• Connect with Chelsea Jay - Website | LinkedIn
• The Chelsea Jay Experience podcast - YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Subscribe to the Intentional Career Podcast

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

Connect with Karen

Check out my website at flowandfire.com to schedule a consult, join my email list, or hire me as your coach.

Follow on my socials too! Instagram or LinkedIn

Tarzan Kay came to a pivotal moment in 2022 when she had to drastically change her email marketing business. I talked to her when she was fresh off those changes, curious about how she had the courage to get through it. We talk about unethical sales methods, my shocking discovery that we both grew up in the same cult, and how this has affected our businesses.

I’m your host, Karen Styles, Career + Life Coach and owner of Flow + Fire Coaching.

My guest is Tarzan Kay. Tarzan is an email marketing expert who teaches how to sell big with truth-infused, story-based emails. She is a former copywriter-for-hire who specializes in emails that are fun to read, and more addictive than Netflix.

Her online courses teach how to write story-based copy and make consistent sales from a small email list, without using fear or FOMO. Her company’s mission is to make high-integrity marketing the new status quo for online business.

Interview Highlights:

• Tarzan’s work in email marketing
• When I realized I grew up in the same cult as Tarzan
• How growing up in a coercive control group affects work
• The changes Tarzan has made in her work, after being called in
• The drastic changes she recently made to her business
• Why anti-racism and anti-oppression work is important for the coaching industry

More about Tarzan:

• Tarzan Kay - Website | Instagram

Subscribe!

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

Connect with Karen

Check out my website at flowandfire.com to schedule a consult, join my email list or hire me as your coach. Or, follow on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Wanda Deschamps’s career was successful from the outside, but her mid-life autism diagnosis was the missing piece that helped her make sense of her work and life. In this conversation, we discuss the years leading up to her diagnosis, and how Wanda has become an advocate for the inclusion of disabled peoples in her speaking, writing and consulting work.

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 Wanda Deschamps. She is the founder and principal of Liberty Co – a consultancy focused on increasing the participation level of the neurodiverse population in the workforce with a special emphasis on autism due to Wanda’s own diagnosis at midlife.

A champion for inclusion, she enjoys writing and speaking under the banner of the #InclusionRevolution, a worldwide movement launched in 2018 to spearhead broader thinking about disability – especially disability employment. Wanda is also the catalyst behind the #Women4Women collective focused on gender equality through supporting other women. Combining these two goals provides an avenue for Wanda to be an advocate for women with autism, including as a participant in research into autistic women’s experiences in the workplace.

Interview Highlights:

[01:30] Wanda’s life and career before her autism diagnosis.

[05:00] Fall 2016, Wanda’s mental health hits a crisis point and it becomes a pivotal moment.

[09:16] Wanda realizes not many autistic women in Canada are sharing their stories, and decides to share hers.

[12:10] Wanda’s diagnosis leads to clarity, wholeness and self knowledge.

[15:24] What is different for Wanda now.

[18:34] How Wanda is managing all the changes that have happened in the last few years.

[23:55] What Wanda would tell the past version of herself.

[28:32] How the Covid-19 pandemic put a spotlight on ableism in the workplace, and why Wanda still has a positive outlook about the future.

[35:00] Wanda’s company is called Liberty Co because confronting the facts brings freedom.

[37:54] Wanda’s shares her career crushes.

Resources

• Wanda’s Consultancy, Liberty Co - Website | Instagram
• “I Was 46 When I Discovered I Was Autistic. Suddenly My Life Made Sense” by Wanda Deschamps - Reader’s Digest Canada
• Autism in Heels by Jennifer Cook O’Toole - Amazon | Indigo
• Caroline Casey and Paul Polman, The Valueable 500 - Website | Instagram
• “I learned I had autism at 46. I now understand myself.” by Wanda Deschamp - Broadview
• #WeThe15 - Website | Instagram | Twitter
• The Honourable Carla Qualtrough - Website | Instagram
• Anita Hill - Wikipedia | Book | Twitter
• The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin - Wikipedia | Book (Amazon) | Book (Indigo)
• Dr. Wendy Cukier, Founder Ryerson University Diversity Institute - Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

Subscribe!

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

Schedule a Ca...

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

Subscribe!

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

Schedule a Call

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

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Follow Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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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...