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Episode 77: Taking Control of Your Career with Jessica Samuels

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you!

Today on the podcast we are talking about change, agility, making power moves, and how to take control over your own career. If you are at all interested in talking about stigma and taboo around changing jobs, intentionality, and test driving what could be next for you, you are going to get something fabulous out of today’s conversation. 

The delightful Jessica Samuels, founder and CEO of the Evolve Career Competence Coaching (ECCC) Network, joins us to give you this conversation about career transition pivots, twists and turns and doing things on your own terms.

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career. Hello, and welcome, clarity seekers. I’m your host, career change expert author and the creator of the Career Clarity Show method, Lisa Lewis Miller. And as per usual, I am delighted that you are with us today. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:42  

Today on the podcast, we are talking about change, agility, making power moves, and how to take control over your own career. And I am so so excited that you get to listen into this conversation. If you are at all interested in talking about stigma and taboo around changing jobs, intentionality and test driving what could be next for you getting more selective and intentional over time to optimize towards those things that are your Northstar values, how to recognize your own strengths and what you like what you want, what you don’t like, and how to make sure that you are focusing on performance and showing up powerfully throughout all of this, you are going to get something fabulous out of today’s conversation. I am delighted to give you this conversation about career transition pivots, twists and turns and doing things on your own terms. With the delightful Jessica Samuels. Jessica Samuels is the founder and CEO of the evolve career competence coaching network. With over 15 years of education and leadership experience, Jessica has been working with clients to reconstruct lives and organizations in the best version of themselves. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health education from George Mason University, and Master’s in education administration from McDaniel College and a master’s in instructional design from Coulson. She is also in the process of getting her PhD or EDD D which I’ll have her tell us a little bit more about in our conversation today. But suffice it to say, this is one badass, accomplished woman that you’re about to hear from. And I am so excited to get to share her story and her own personal pivots as well as what she brings to people to help them have guidance and have direction through their own pivots as well. So with that, Jessica, welcome to the Career Clarity Show today.

Jessica Samuels  2:28  

Thank you, you just had me cracking up who was that lady that you just described?

Lisa Lewis Miller  2:35  

Well, Jessica, you are legitimately a powerhouse in a lot of different ways. But one of them is in the fearlessness that you have brought to navigating through your career, trying things on seeing what fits seeing what doesn’t fit. And I feel like I want to tell people that story. And have you share a bit about all the things that you have gotten the opportunity to do. But I want to start with this question that I think can be really terrifying for people when they are on the precipice of considering a change for themselves, which is around the taboo, and the stigma of making a shift. Because there’s so many limiting stories and worries and beliefs that people come up with when they consider making a change. I’m going to look flighty, I am going to look unemployable. I want to look like I am disloyal. I’m gonna look like I don’t know what I want. Nobody will hire me if I haven’t been with my current organization for insert amount of time here one year, four years, 10 years, whatever. And despite the fact that I think we all know, on some conscious level, that the workforce is changing the economy and the demands from labor are shifting, and that we have a lot more agency and power than we used to. I think that there is still a lot of fears and nervousness about the judgment and the taboo that goes with it. So before we dive into your story, talk to me about the judgment, the limitations, the taboo, all of that stuff and how that impacted or didn’t impact your own journey.

Jessica Samuels  4:09  

Yes, I’m so glad we’re starting here. We said because there is this taboo, I work with clients all the time that are still struggling with letting go of that mindset. And how I’ve navigated it personally is I had my first career change at 17. And you all were saying 17. That doesn’t count it does count. I knew that I was wanting to be a pediatric cardiologist. When I graduated high school class president, my high school told everyone that’s what I’m going to do. Year One in the college I realized the life and the amount of education that was required for this type of career path. I changed careers instantly. I knew that I wanted to teach and be in the health space developing people and making sure people were living healthy lives. So I pivoted into the health education career path. very intentional. Did that for a few years. realize a lot of people around me in this industry don’t enjoy their jobs. I started to learn about instructional design as a teacher, not having any lesson plans and career change happens again three years later. And so I chose to say doesn’t matter whether or not you’re staying at an organization for an amount of time, it’s really about that brand that you establish and that you create during your time in that role. And the brand that I’m talking about is, what are you known for, like, I’m known for delivering on my promises, I’m, I’m known for consulting, helping people problem solve things that they don’t even know that they have issues around. I help people develop healthy teams just by having transparent conversations and building structure with the opportunity to be innovative as well. That’s my brand. And it doesn’t matter if I’m in a role for one year, nine months on a contracting job for years at a company, my brand has been established. And I now I have third party endorsement, telling people Oh, yeah, hire Jessica doesn’t, I don’t even know what you’re hiring her for, but hire her. Because I’ve focused on building a brand that allows me to transition into multiple industries and roles. And that was intentional, the more I found a new interest or realize this interest isn’t for me, I made the pivot with no qualms no thoughts about how this was going to negatively impact me, I just made the decision to change my career, because your career is really your life. And and I’ll be damned if I’m not listening to my gut around what my life is supposed to be. Because career is a part of your life. And if that aspect of my life isn’t working, I got to make a change. So I’ll pause there, I could go on forever on that question. But I think that sums up why I don’t really think there’s a tap is related to you shouldn’t have, you shouldn’t accept the mindset that there’s a taboo with change, if you’ve been intentional about building a brand, and you have had meaningful impact in that organization. So when you transition into your new role, you know, I changed that I did that I helped that person. And you can carry that into your new role as more that’s in your toolkit than what you had before. Huh?

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:18  

Well, one of the things I think I’m hearing from you loud and clear in this is that when you have been making moves throughout your career, you’ve been really intentional about creating a brand that isn’t necessarily tied to the exact tasks that you’re doing, or the exact industry that you’re in, but in it’s more tied to your strategy, your approach, and the kinds of things that anybody could expect for you, no matter whether you’re working in education, career development, health, whatever. So thinking about your career and your brand within your career in your life in that way. Feels way, way more empowering than thinking about yourself and your brand as being your job title.

Jessica Samuels  7:56  

Yeah. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:57  

I also I want to ask you this, because I’m curious if this was all true for 17 year old year, 17 year old you do. I’m wondering if making this statement out to the world and publicly declaring I’m going to be a pediatric cardiologist. And then, you know, pulling the emergency brake and make it hard, hard left her and so early, gave you a certain amount of resilience or a certain amount of competence about making pivots that you might not have had, had you stayed on one path for the first 10 years of your life? Well,

Jessica Samuels  8:31  

I think you’re absolutely right, I think making that change. I mean, I even did an internship my senior year in the hospital. So I knew and I’m a person that when I make a plan, I stick to that plan. But I knew my gut wasn’t aligned to that plan. And that’s, I think experiencing that earlier on allowed me to make career pivots in my adult young adult life and realize the change is what you make it if you if you attach negative mindset to that change, it will be negative. If you attach positivity and opportunities and you know, your network expanding to changing a career, well, then it’s going to be all things positive.

Lisa Lewis Miller  9:10  

And love that. Well, speaking of all things positive tell I was there’s a little bit about some of the different moves that happen in between that era of life, the instructional design era of life. And now because one of the things that I really admire about your story is how you were willing to try a lot of different things you are willing to put yourself out there you are willing to test drive many different things. So give listeners a sense of just all the different areas where you’ve gotten an opportunity to to leave your mark.

Jessica Samuels  9:41  

Absolutely. And I want to go back to a point you made earlier, which was around identifying yourself with the role or industry that you’re in. I knew when I got my master’s degree in education administration, I wanted to be a leader. Like I knew that I was a good leader and I would become a good leader and in I’m still becoming a good leader. And I knew I wanted to do that in the education space. Now when I say education space, helping people learn about themselves, learn new skills to become better. Like that’s so broad, right? so vague. So in every single role that I took from that point on, I asked myself, can I grow my leadership skills? Am I kind of teaching people or training people are helping them become better if that was my two requirements. If I can do that, in this role, boom, I’m going right, because my ultimate goal is to be a senior leader of some organization. And I left it really I think, that allowed me to pivot and from teaching to getting recruited to a nonprofit to do instructional design there. And then moving to an HR consulting company, when I was a training facilitator, and then getting poached over here, federal government working for the FDA. And then oh, getting poached to the FAA to do organizational development and talent planning and helping executives, mentor rising professionals. And oh, by the way, let’s go over here to this government contract to work with the army and the God and oh, let’s go to this government consulting firm at Booz Allen Hamilton, and build training for Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act. And oh, by the way, let’s go build this broken l&d team at a myth startup that’s turning into a midsize company, right? Every move was very intentional, and it was different. And I believe if you expose yourself to expose yourself to different organizations, to different departments that utilize your transferable skills and allow you to gain new ones, you will become this powerhouse in your space. Because you’re not just this, you know, one hit wonder if you will, you have been exposed to different teams and cultures and leadership styles and organizational philosophies. And that is just going to make you a more in depth employee, but also in a more in depth leader. And I believe every person is a leader, right? Without the title, I don’t care if you’re an entry level, HR assistant, or you are a chief executive officer in a company, you’re a leader, you’re leading something, you’re leading yourself, you’re leading people, you’re leading work, and if a company allows you to grow your leadership abilities, then go explore it and just see where it takes you. Okay, so

Lisa Lewis Miller  12:23  

I’m imagining people are listening to this, and they are thinking Jessica’s path sounds cool as hell, but how does she even know if an opportunity is going to allow her to expand her leadership capabilities? Can you talk people through the discernment process that you were using to go from one thing to the next to the next to make sure that it was optimizing you in the direction you wanted to go? Sure.

Jessica Samuels  12:44  

I mean, I have this advantage, right? I am a career coach. But what are you doing? I have always been an in corporate employee, I’ve never had my business without having a corporate position. Right. So I interview very well. And when I approached the interview, I am interviewing Matt company. They’re interviewing me, but I’m interviewing them right along, and I’m asking them the questions at the end of the interview, you know, what, to six months? What does what do i sorry? What are the points of success that you want to see in six months? When they tell me we’d like you to do this or achieve this result? or achieve that result? Okay. I’m now I’m hearing that answer. And I’m listening. Do I know how to do that already? Is this going to be a growth, opportunity and project? Am I going to have to research and figure out how to do this thing that I’ve never done before? Does that excite me? Is there opportunity for me to lead a project or a group of people that I either have never done before? Right? If that if I’m hearing all of that in the answers of what six months of success and a year down the line of success looks like that allows me to know, wow, I’m assessing? Can I do this? Or can I Is this a growth area for me, and that will intrigue me to take the job offer if that is presented?

Lisa Lewis Miller  13:59  

Well, so as a career coach, you I’m sure know the data around that’s often quoted around applying for jobs and differences by gender identity. And people who identify as male typically, we’ll apply for a role if they match 60 to 70% of the things that it says in the job description. And it women oftentimes will put a lot more pressure on themselves to match like 97 99% of the description of what’s in the the job posting. And one of the critical problems that that creates is that women are oftentimes accepting jobs and applying to jobs that they can already do 100% of and that don’t give them that space for growth. Exactly. So when you’re thinking about making moves, making power moves here, and picking what you want to move into next, how do you create that discernment between oh my gosh, I don’t think I match enough of this to even be considered as a candidate versus I match so much of this. This is actually probably not the right step. Because it’s more lateral than a leadership growth spot.

Jessica Samuels  15:02  

I mean, essentially what you just said, I look at the job description, and I rate myself against that job description. And I do an exercise where I’m asking myself, What am I good at? And I like doing what am I good at that I that I’m really bad at doing? What am I good at that I’m sorry, what am I bad at my hate doing? And what am I bad at that I’m good good at doing. And I have that already my four corners, so I can kind of look at that and pull. But if I then had this job description over here, and drag and drop, I’m like, Oh, yeah, that falls in the bad at the Hey, that category. Right? And I’m good at, I can assess that. Oh, wow, I’m 80% proficient in this role. And there’s a 20% opportunity that I’ve never done anything like this before. But then I assess. Okay, are there transferable skills that I can bring along here is Do I have a network and a connection that could possibly, you know, help me with a crash course in this area? Are there books? Are there topics out there in the world that can close the skill gap? If so I can learn? I’m right, I’m a lifelong learner. And that excites me, I probably have made moves where I’m 75% proficient in everything that they’re asking. And there’s usually a 25% skill gap that allows me to make the jump with more confidence versus Honestly, I don’t, I don’t think you should, you should take a role where you get the reverse, right, where you’re 25%, you know, in 75%, is a new area for you, unless there’s just a lot of grace from the employer that they’re going to give you that lead up time to really become an expert in that area. Personally,

Lisa Lewis Miller  16:36  

That makes a ton of sense. I love the way that you’re visualizing it. I’m imagining that listeners who are very visual aren’t just seeing this matrix of good at that, on one axis, I can dislike on the other axis and having these four boxes and trying to figure out well, where do I plug in my capabilities and my skills. And one of the big things that we talked about here at Career Clarity Show is, you know, our four pillars of career fulfillment, and we talked about strengths a ton. And we talked about that your strengths are not just the crap that you’re good at. It’s the stuff that you enjoy doing. And that energizes you. And when you don’t put that extra layer on top, and you’re purely looking at a job description in terms of Can I do it, and can I not do it, you brilliantly outline that you can put yourself in a position where you’re doing a lot of stuff that you hate, that is not giving you opportunities to grow, that’s not giving you energy that’s not giving you a sense of motivation and sustainability in the job. So I love how strategic and how analytical and also how intuitive that process is. But let me ask you this. When when people look at job postings, and they notice that there’s that gap between what they have done, and what the job is asking for them, asking of them. Oftentimes, folks have this nervousness and self doubt bubble up of, well, I don’t know if I want that. Do I want that? What do I want? And having all of these swirls and nervous as questions come to the forefront? So knowing you’ve been in this discernment process so many times, how do you help yourself, put your finger on exactly what you want and what you’re leaning into, versus things that you might not know how to do? And that might be as part of that 25% of growth? That actually might not feel good?

Jessica Samuels  18:21  

Yeah. Oh, Lisa, I’ve really liked this question. Because you have to really be honest with your personality. Are you a person that once you want to know you want to know every detail, and you want to know everything laid out and no surprises here? Nothing unknown? Do you want to go into a company where you’re the expert right away, and there are there are no, you know, no projects that will be handed over to you that you can’t do with your eyes closed. If that is your personality, then your career move your career transition into another role will more than likely look very lateral. But if you have the mindset that you want to career jump and you want to elevate and you want to pivot into something either more senior or a completely different industry, got to get really comfortable with not being the smartest person in the room, and you’re not going to be expert. And being comfortable with that doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in that place forever. You are going to now say all right, I’m going back to school, lifelong school, Google YouTube, LinkedIn learning is going to be your very best friend over the next three months to a year because you’re going to have skill gaps. And to me, that’s, that’s exciting to me, because I have the opportunity to now learn about some brand new area or new niche area within the field that I’ve been in. And who wants to who wants to be doing the same thing for years on end, it introduces new opportunities to learn. So again, I think it’s around that lifelong mindset. Now I am in the education space. So that’s just kind of how we roll but if you are in another industry where you’ve not really adopted In the appreciation for lifelong mindset, lifelong learning mindset, I would encourage you to do some expert self exploration around that. How can you get excited about the opportunity to learn new things, because the moment that you associate, lifelong learning to your career goals, you know, Mic drop moment Mind blown, right? That that’s it. I mean, that’s really the career transition fundamentals around if you want to grow in your career, you’re, you’re you’re going to continue learning about yourself and about organizations and about your industry. And you’re not going to be the smartest person in the room or an expert at all topics. If that’s your jam, no shade to you go ahead, but expect lateral moves and expect you to kind of not enhance and increase your brand over the course of your career. And that makes a What was I gonna say that makes a industry job harder, because people can only see you in this one lane. And being intentional about that your career moves by saying I’m purposely moving myself into roles and industries and organizations that don’t look and feel like my pass, to expose myself to what could be.

Lisa Lewis Miller  21:17  

So Jessica, one of the things I loved that you just said, and that I want to highlight for folks who may not have heard it in this way, is when you associate lifelong learning with your career path, you’re opening up a lot of doors for yourself and making yourself very marketable, you’re making yourself very interesting to a lot of potential new opportunities. But there’s also a risk management piece to this too. Because if you do not associate learning with your career path and where you want to go and what you’re doing, you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position. Because in this day and age, I mean, I think that the coronavirus pandemic has shown us that industries can disappear in the blink of an eye, because of public health issues because of government issues, because of changes in the marketplace. And things that used to seem stable, predictable, places that you would be safe, you know, to just land and you know, kick up your feet for a while. There’s there’s no such thing anymore as something that’s going to be safe for the next 40 years. So thinking about ways to set yourself up, to have some ability to have control over your pivots, right so that you can pivot instead of getting pivoted as something that sets you up for the rest of your career and for the rest of your life. Because the pace of change, and technological innovation and what’s happening and how the global economy affects each one of us, is only going to get more intense, right, we’re only going to be more affected by what’s going on in other cities, other countries, you know, other industries. So, yes, lifelong learning can be a great thing to associate with your career purely because of the fun and fabulous. But also, if you are not leaning into this fun, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable and unprotected. I cannot tell you the number of educators who I spoke with at the beginning of the 2000 22,021 school year, who said, my my school or my district is not providing sufficient protection for my safety for the student safety for their family’s safety. I have a pre existing condition, I feel like I’m too scared to go back into the classroom because of the risks that’s associated with going back into the classroom life.

Lisa Lewis Miller  23:41  

And I have never thought about what I want to do outside of teaching. And that my friends, listening is such a painful and scary position to be in that thinking about where else you could go, who else could find your skills and capabilities valuable what other sectors could use you what other kinds of roles could be fun for you is not just an exercise, it is a really important risk management strategy. So Jessica, I love that you are bringing this up and underlining this as an important piece of anybody’s career strategy.

Jessica Samuels  24:17  

And I’ll add to what you mean. Yes, yes, yes, to what you just said. But the other pieces, you could be a stellar employee and the organizational politics and the dynamics and all of that could be at play and you still find yourself in a place where you are unemployed or you are let go or you are fired or whatever types of trends are demoted, right, and you’re Are you going to be demoted and stay in a role where you feel like no, that should not have happened because of the organizational politics, or are you going to say, my brand strong, I can pivot that my time here has transitioned and I’m grateful for all the experiences, but I’m going to manage my career. And I’m not going to let my career just happen to me. So it’s industries evaporating out of a blink of an eye, like you just said. But it’s also you’re not in control, the moment that you release that you’re not really in control of your career on that on the organization side and the world side, you almost should adopt the mindset that I am going to pivot my career several times, and it’s, I should expect it to happen. And maybe I’m planning it and maybe it happens when I didn’t plan it right. But get really comfortable with career pivots, because they are a way of life. And again, if you associate that positivity around through your mind, through your pivots, you’re actually going to enjoy the process and say, Well, look that happened. But you know what my brand strong let me go and connect with people that are in my network and this that any other What have I been wanting to do that I’ve been putting on the back burner, and you see all this opportunity, when something comes out of nowhere, that you don’t have a job that you have had for some time, or that you plan to be in for longer than the reality?

Lisa Lewis Miller  26:08  

Absolutely, I was listening to another career podcast earlier today. And the person who is referred to this as the the chaos theory, or describing careers, and how there’s so much that’s out of our control, and so much that’s unpredictable. And I feel like we were doing a disservice to listeners, we don’t underline that, biases can come into play with affecting the trajectory you thought you’re going to be on. And there are there systems of oppression that are in place, that can be very tricky to dismantle. And that can sabotage what looks like on its face, a fairly straightforward career move, you know, if you are part of an underrepresented identity or group, thinking about the risk management piece of this and continuing to invest in creating a brand that’s resilient, and creating a network that is warm, where people know, you know, what’s going on with you and are willing to help you out, are two of the most important things that you can do to prepare yourself for anything that might be coming.

Jessica Samuels  27:14  

Yes, because at the end of the day, you know, listen, I’m a black female. And you have to do what you just suggested, just if you’re a working professional, but your brand has to be even more than ish, if you are a person of diverse background. Don’t get it twisted. It’s a different playing field in the workplace. And the moment you accept this people of diverse backgrounds, wherever that those race, sexual identity, identification, orientation, religion, you have to have a solid brand. Because those biases may peak out where you, you didn’t even expect and it may feel like a blow to the gut when something transitions in your career that that you didn’t plan. But I tell you, you will be able to navigate a career transition so much easier if you are confident about your professional brand that you were intentional about building Who do you want people to see? Who do you how do you want them to describe you? How have people interacted with you and benefited and grown? And how have you added value to these people’s lives? If you have many endorsements from people that you’ve worked with? It’s okay, career transition is okay. And you can get excited about what is my next opportunity instead of gates, I don’t really know what’s next for me.

Lisa Lewis Miller  28:34  

I love that I love that thinking about making sure that you’ve got proof. You know, you’re getting endorsements that you’re getting other people to validate what you can do. And Jessica, one of the reasons that I was so excited to have you on the podcast is because I’ve talked to a lot of people on the podcast. And one of the interesting things is that typically, it’s only the folks who identify as male who talk about the concept of performance work. But you are a big believer in making sure that you are performing that you are in integrity that you are getting stuff done. And it feels like it kind of ties into what you’re just talking about around making sure that you are measuring the value, making sure that you are delivering value, making sure that other people can attest for the value of what you do. But can you refine that a little bit for folks who might not be as fluid whether as familiar with this idea of how to prove performance?

Jessica Samuels  29:31  

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve worked for over seven, probably even I’ll say 10 organizations, right, and I’m not that old, but I’m older. And so that’s a lot of career changes, right. And in that I have pretty much hope to gain some type of experience with leadership, right going back to my goal of being a leader. But after I complete work, I want to know that I delivered something of value to the company and be my own. goal is to make that company better. That’s the agreement when you get hired. So, if I don’t, personally, if I don’t feel like I’ve added value to that company, I’m unfulfilled as a professional. And how I measure that is measuring performance and metrics and realizing, you know, I set out to do this goal. How did my clients had in mind when I’m your clients know your peers, like your boss, your PV, lateral folks and people beneath you? Are you getting feedback from all three levels, to assess if you are performing at the level that people expect you to, and that has to be something that you are keeping track of, and that is going to be helpful when you’re updating your resume. That’s a that’s great when you’re updating your LinkedIn profile. That’s great for you to have sound bites when you’re interviewing if you don’t know what results you’ve delivered. How Will any recruiter or interviewer understand what it is that you can bring to that company, so get really get excited about performance? Like metrics, talk about the numbers talk about Okay, when we can’t like and perfect example, every time I start a job, I assess where we are today. How many curriculum like I’m an education person, how many curriculums Do we have built, Okay, one, by the time I leave, are there five, like huge blended learning curriculums boom, then I’ve increased that by 80%, right? Like I do those numbers so that I can always make metrics out of something that it’s not in the spreadsheet, I’m just looking at what I came into, what I left it as and how I made impact and making those types of changes. And that increases your confidence as a professional before you make that career transition. Because I think what we haven’t talked about yet, Lisa is, are people nervous about career pivots, because they don’t really understand the value that they’ve given to accompany. I think they’re under estimating what they’ve done. And they don’t see the metric list, they don’t see the five years or 10 years at this company, how they’ve lowered costs or increased, you know, revenue or reduced budgets, whatever it is, they don’t see the impact that they’ve made. And that hinders them from being confident that they are a badass, to walk into any company to say, I’m here to save the day and add value to this to the same level that I’ve done that previous companies.

Lisa Lewis Miller  32:21  

Yes, well, and I, I am a huge fan of metrics and measuring what you’re doing. And if you’re listening to this right now, the first thing you need to know about measurements and metrics is that you are responsible for them. Nobody else in your business unit, nobody else in your organization cares as much about the impact that you are making, as you do. And if you don’t measure it, it’s gonna be real hard to get the kinds of promotions, the kind of raises the kind of opportunities and the kind of opportunities to go externally that you might be wanting.

Jessica Samuels  32:50  

On that, because from a female perspective, you just said something that that I forgot to mention in the earlier comment was, most females think I’m doing a good job, I’m doing my job, I’m doing it well. Why aren’t I getting promoted? And you have to realize that just doing the job well is not going to land you the promotion, you need to talk metrics, numbers, performance value, add the way that that many men do. And that is what sometimes gets them the promotion before a female. I’m not trying to riff on my guys here. But I just want to make that really plain that if you’re an employee sitting back saying, Well, why haven’t I received a promotion? And why haven’t I gotten that raise? And because I’m doing a good job? I know, I’m a good employee, evaluate, have you been tracking your metrics and performance? And have you been communicating those to people? If you’re not doing those two things, nobody knows what you’re doing. You’re just you just look like a person that’s doing a good job at the workplace. And guess what that’s contractually what you’re supposed to do as an employee, whoop dee doo, you need to go there and say, I’m adding value and I’m helping this company grow and increase in the 70 other with specific metrics that you can show to get anyone to understand, wow, this is an asset that I don’t want to lose, I need to retain them. And that is how you pivot from the expectation of a promotion. And you work that promotion.

Lisa Lewis Miller  34:25  

I love that. I love the mindset piece of that. I love the tactical execution piece of that. But for folks who are listening to this who are thinking okay, when I think about metrics, I think about numbers I think about dollars saved I think about being on timeline, I think about being on budget, I think about you know things that are a lot easier to put a numerical value to. I grew our social media audience to this. Our email open rates are this. We increase the number of subscribers or paying stakeholders or we had growth of income year over year. This, what about for folks who are listening to this whose jobs may not have as many of those hard numbers that they can point to because they’re a little bit further removed from, let’s say the profit drivers within the business, but they still know that they do important meaningful stuff. Like, say somebody in the HR team, what are some qualitative things that folks should also be taking a look for, in addition to just the quantitative and hard numbers to talk about their performance relative to expectations and relative to their peers?

Jessica Samuels  35:30  

Sure, when I work with clients that find themselves in this bucket of I don’t have any hardcore numbers to provide to you. I asked them, so what did you create? While you’re there? And going from zero to one is so awesome. So did you create a program? Did you write a policy? Did you create a process? Did you, you know, bring in? Did you help expand the team from six people to 10? Did you train for employees when they quit? Right? You can make numbers out of qualitative data. So start to think about what existed before or what didn’t exist before you joined? What did you have your hand and and creating new and then do a comparison between the before and after? I hope that makes sense.

Lisa Lewis Miller  36:18  

Absolutely, yeah, creation is a really important part of value generation within an organization. So be not afraid to look at what you have had a hand in helping to create single handedly driving, running anything like that. Because those can be fabulous places to find some good metrics, be they qualitative or quantitative, to help make the case about why you deserve more, why you deserve better, why you’ve got a lot of things you can bring to the table that are transferable, why you’ve got all kinds of opportunities ahead of you, for sure. Well, Jessica, I have been loving this conversation. And I imagine that other people have been feeling inspired and fired up and excited about themselves and their trajectory after listening to this. And for folks who want to hear more about you and your philosophy and how you support people, where are the best ways for them to find you and stay in touch?

Jessica Samuels  37:11  

Sure, sure. Obviously, LinkedIn, that’s my friend. But then outside of that, if you would like to drop by message, like just a quick message on evolve, career.com evolve career.com that is where my website is you can learn more about me and my story as a marylander, who loves crabs and my dad’s from Ghana, West Africa. And I wear that Gunny and African badge proudly, and just a little bit more about what I do. And really where I find myself and you’re a career coach, and I’m a career coach. But what what I like to do and helping professionals is evaluate, are you going to be a professional that has a job that they like, and they’re, they’re not passionate about it, and actually creating a small business is what they need to do in the interim, to get that passion out. I help people start that are corporate professionals start corporate or sorry, start small businesses that give them passion and fulfillment, even if that’s not in their nine to five job as they work to get a corporate professional job that they are equally as passionate about. So as an entrepreneur, senior corporate leader, that’s my secret sauce. And I enjoy I enjoy working with people that have debated about business that are really not sure. I’m a technology and automation queen. So I know how to set those things up that have an assistant that mark that manages a lot of the admin side of the business that then when I do work with clients, I’m present and I can work on the stuff that only I can do. So evolve career.com and we also have a group coaching program starting January 2, get your life right y’all 2020 was a crazy year, there is no need to have a job next year that you are not in love with so gone and sign up. It’s career pivot now.com. I want to see you in this program. I want to help you, I want you to get confidence around your next move. I want you to have understanding and a game plan. You mentioned Lisa, the strategic and tactical ways that I described things I’ll give you here’s why you should do it. And then here’s the steps. So if you’re one of those folks that need the breakdown, tell me what to do first, second, third, fourth, fifth, you’ll like that I have education background in addition to coaching, because I make it super simple for you to follow instructions and get to where you’re trying to go quickly. So January 2 through the 30th. Let’s get the year started off, right let’s get fulfilment. Let’s get passion around our careers. Let’s get paid. Let’s get caught, you know, feeling valued and from your employers and your team’s like, let’s do all of that in 2021 It’s time.

Lisa Lewis Miller  39:52  

Excellent. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for coming on the Career Clarity Show and sharing your brilliance. Oh,

Jessica Samuels  40:00  

Thank you so much. I can’t wait. Can’t wait to hear about your book coming out. And I cannot wait to come back to the show as well to hear more testimonials of people that you’re helping day in and day out. So thank you for what you do. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:13  

Oh, thanks, Jessica. 

Jessica Samuels  40:14  

Welcome.

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:16  

For those of you listening at home, we’d love to hear your feedback on today’s episode do whether it is a direct email to me at Lisa@GetCareerClarity.com or as a review on Apple podcasts. We here at Career Clarity Show trying to give you the tools and resources to build a happier, healthier, more meaningful relationships to your work. And any ideas you have about ways we can serve you even more powerfully are incredibly appreciated. So don’t forget to let us know. And if you want to get access to the links that Jessica was talking about, don’t forget to go get your tools goodies and other things at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that does not light you up. Talk to you next time.

About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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