138: Intentionality In Your Career Move with Angee Linsey

On our first new episode of the Career Clarity Show for 2022, we are talking about intentionality in your career and your choices. This can be a tricky topic for folks who are in the midst of navigating uncertainty, change, wonders and worries. If you’re listening to this podcast as someone who’s contemplating a career change, you might be thinking to yourself that the only thing you are certain and intentional about is leaving and making a move. 

I am delighted to bring on a dear friend of mine, recruiter and coach Angee Linsey. Angee has dedicated the last two decades of her career to helping companies build great teams through exceptional recruitment strategies, as well as helping individuals achieve their career goals. Angee and I are going to explore the concept of intentionality. What is it? What does it mean? How can it show up in your life when you are uncertain? How does it create more certainty? And how can you use it as a guiding principle to think about what might be next for you in a way that feels aligned with your values and your needs and your life?

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

Show Notes:

• Linsey Careers
• Twitter: @LinseyCareers
• LinkedIn: Angee Linsey
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

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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. Welcome back to the Career Clarity Show. I’m your host, Lisa Miller. And I’m delighted that you are with us again today. On today’s episode of the podcast, we are talking about intentionality in your career and your choices. And this is a tricky topic for folks who are in the midst of navigating uncertainty and change and wonders and worries. Because if you’re listening to this podcast as someone who’s contemplating a career change, you might be thinking to yourself, cool, cool, Lisa, I would love to talk about intentionality. But the only thing that I know I’m an intentional about is leaving and making a move. So on today’s episode of the podcast, we’re gonna explore the concept of intentionality. What is it? What does it mean? How can it show up in your life when you are uncertain? How does it create more certainty? And how can you use it as a guiding principle to think about what might be next for you in a way that feels aligned with your values and your needs and your life? For today’s guest to talk about intentionality. I am delighted to bring on a dear friend of mine, recruiter and coach Angee Lindsey. Angee has dedicated the last two decades of her career to helping companies build great teams through exceptional recruitment strategies, as well as helping individuals achieve their career goals. Currently, she leads Lindsay careers, a national executive search firm that specializes in marketing and communications recruitment and career coaching. She’s successfully filled communications leadership roles for companies including Logitech fossile, circa Nordstrom, Jackson Family Wines, so many more. Andy has been a featured presenter and keynote speaker at international and regional conferences, as well as academic institutions from Columbia to the University of Washington. She authored the book, dare to be deliberate, level up your communications career a guide for communications professionals who want to be more intentional and how they manage their careers. So you can see why Angee is our guest on the episode today. So Angee, tell me, what is it that made you care about being deliberate and intentional? In careers?

Angee Linsey  2:43  

That’s a great question. I don’t know if I consciously came to it. Like, oh, I think I’m gonna be intentional about being intentional. I don’t think I did that. But what was interesting is, as a recruiter, I talked to hundreds of candidates, I mean, constantly, all day long left, all I do is talk to candidates, who are people, I’m either trying to make them interested in a career opportunity, or they are contacting me because they want to make a career change. And I kept noticing a pattern. And the pattern was people are, they only think about their career when they’re miserable, or unemployed. And so I’ve wanted to kind of take all these things that I kept hearing and, and start putting it out into the world to say, hey, you know what, you have more control than you think you do. And that’s, that’s why I ended up writing the book, dare to be deliberate. I think it’s a perfect title. Because I think we got to have the courage to not let our careers happen to us. But to kind of have a little bit of intention so that you can control the direction of your career.

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:48  

Well, let’s dig into that a little bit more the idea of being deliberate. Requiring courage is a really interesting one. Can you say more about that?

Angee Linsey  3:59  

Well, how many people do you know, are so busy head down, just trying to get through managing their job day to day and then one day, they look up and they say, oops, I forgot to manage my career. So then they feel like they’re scrambling. I think it takes courage to understand yourself and be brave enough to get others to help you get where you’re trying to go. I think what’s hot as as like, right out of college, it’s like, Oh, I’m gonna work really hard. And I’ll get promoted, because people will notice me. Maybe maybe you’ll get noticed but but you really have to get you have to help them notice you. And that takes courage.

Lisa Lewis Miller  4:43  

Well, there’s a helping people notice you exactly as you are in the present moment element to this and I think there’s also an element to this around having a sense of who you want to be and where you want to be going to be intentional about creating The pathway is to make that future a possible reality for you. I agree. When you think about when you think about the people that you’ve spoken to over the course of your work. And you think about what you notice as the differences between the folks who are deliberate about either managing their day to day, current career in life, or their future career and life, versus those who are less deliberate? What are some of the behaviors or the hallmarks that you notice?

Angee Linsey  5:33  

I think the first thing that just came to mind, as you’re asking the question, the people who are more intentional, are curious. It’s my favorite trait. But when you’re curious, you’re always interested in things anything, right? Like, like art, I am interested in how people get their job. And I don’t care what job it is, I mean, I’ll never forget this. I was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And the woman that was talking about the otters, and it was such an interesting talk, and I was dating this guy at the time. And I said, I want to, I want to, I want to talk to her, I want to find out how she got the job to be the otter person. And he just shook his head. And he said, Oh, my gosh, you are in such the right career field. Because I’m so interested in how people got their jobs. And why did you choose? Being an otter expert? Like, what? What are you? Are you a bad? Are you whatever you like? I don’t know. So people who are really curious, tend to learn about job jobs. We there’s not one career path for any career field. And if you’re curious, you’re always talking to people about what they’re doing. You’re interested in what companies what you know, what trends are happening, you’re just curious. By having curiosity, you see pathways that may not have been visible without that curiosity. So that’s the number one trade to me.

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:01  

And you know, what’s so interesting about hearing you share it in that way is that there’s a sense of ease in the curiosity and a sense of play and experimentation and almost a, it comes across as a dis attachment, on Attachment, this attachment to outcomes, like you don’t need the curiosity to lead to something. And I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this. But I’ve noticed that when folks are not intentional about exploration and curiosity, and cultivating those as just daily habits or traits, what ends up resulting is this internal pressure cooker of stress. And this has to be right and perfectionism comes in of I need to make the one true, perfect move for me like finding Cinderella’s glass slipper. And energetically, intentionality sounds like it creates ease and openness, where a lack of intentionality creates pressure and stress and anxiety.

Angee Linsey  8:18  

You totally nailed it, you know, when you use that results word, what I noticed when I’m working with people who are in career transition, if they are focused on the result, I need a job get job need job, they’re focused on the result, then every single conversation they have is about pitching themselves for that result. And the conversations go poorly. So I I’ve never put it that way. I’m going to totally steal that. But with intentionality comes ease. I definitely agree with that. And, you know, you asked me what other things another piece of intentionality that goes totally with curiosity is maintaining a really robust network, you know, and having conversations with people, your professional peers, mentors, people more junior than you, people cross functionally. But it if you see that as an opportunity to be curious about them, and and go into every conversation, where you’re thinking, gosh, I just, I just want to connect, and I want to learn whatever, what are you working on, and maybe I can be helpful, and then I’ll share what I’m working on. And maybe you can be helpful. And no matter what happens at the end of the conversation. We’re just happy that we connected and the people who are curious and go into conversations with others in their network from a place of curiosity rather than pitching themselves. They tend to have doors open for them that may not have ever opened

Lisa Lewis Miller  9:49  

that side such a helpful reflection and a helpful insight. And as I’m hearing you talk about intentionality also creating ease in connection and He is in conversation. What what’s coming forward for me is that there’s a certain amount of humility, that ends up being a part of that to of not wanting a relationship to be extractive or transactional, like, well, what can you do for me? Or can you open the one door you high enough in the org chart to make a difference. And there’s something about the humility and the willingness to make the time for anybody at any level and to share what you’re working on and take a genuine interest in someone else that I feel like pays, cosmic or karmic dividends over time, even though it doesn’t feel transactional, or like it is leading to a specific end in the moment.

Angee Linsey  10:46  

Yes, 100%. Now, I know there’s going to be people listening that are saying, I don’t have time to take every call from every person who wants to have a conversation with me, I get it, I totally, I totally get that. And you do have to have some boundaries, of course. But there is a way to intentionally say, You know what, I’m going to give three hours or I’m going to do an hour a week of connecting with people in my network that I care about, and an hour a week of pro bono connecting with new people who might need me. Because you never know what, what could come from those conversations. And it’s, it’s always interesting to me, you know, a lot of people want to spend time with me, because their job search, they want to call a recruiter help me get a job. That’s not what recruiters do, by the way, but they do want to get on my radar. And I get that and, but but there are people who I just want to catch up with. And it’s an I have like this, I have a lot of people I just want to catch up with, but I just reach out periodically once a quarter once or twice a year or something and say, hey, it’s been a long time, let’s just connect, let’s do a catch up call. And I do like a 15 minute call. So you know, Hey, how’s it going? Last time I talk to you, you were about to go on vacation, how was the vacation, something like that. And, and that builds relationships, and it keeps you top of mind?

Lisa Lewis Miller  12:19  

Well, and you know, what’s interesting about the way that you just shared that is that there’s a certain amount of openness and freedom that you’re creating, of just creating this space and putting the intentionality of creating connections into into your set of priorities for a week. But what I also think I’m hearing in that is creating structures in the way that you think about your time to enable that to happen. Because the way you just articulated I put a week towards new connections and a week towards, you know, generating possible business opportunities, or however you just phrase it a moment ago, it’s so easy to wrap your head around the idea of how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Right. And if you want to get a sense of somebody’s values, take a look at their calendar, right? Take a look at their bank statement or their credit card statement of their calendar, you get a really good sense of their values. And so Angee, I just love that that’s so simple for somebody to maybe put a calendar hold on like 9am on Wednesdays of I will have one hour that is designated as connect or reconnect time every week. Oh, I can I can defend make that a non negotiable time. But it’s only an hour. Yeah. And creating both the spaciousness for that while also not letting it become huge or a burden in your life.

Angee Linsey  13:45  

Yeah, that’s one of the tools that I give to the people I’m coaching and I’m happy to share. Because I call it a Career Action Plan. Because I, I am one that’s like to be intentional, you have to take action, you can’t just think about it all the time. And we’re all really good at thinking about what we should do. The Career Action Plan kind of makes you think, what can I do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. That just helps me move in the direction I’m trying to go. In my career. When you’re talking about a daily activity. I’m not talking about oh my gosh, I have to like spend two hours a day on this. No, it can be I’m gonna turn on my computer. And for 10 minutes, I’m going to scroll through LinkedIn and I’m going to comment on to people’s post. That’s it. That’s one of my things I do to keep my network fresh. Or maybe quarterly I’m going to go to lunch with a mentor or a mentee. Boom, right. So what are things you could do that are just incremental steps that keep you thinking about, are you on track? Are you going in the direction you want to go? You know, it might be once a year I’m going to go to a conference for my function. Something easy.

Lisa Lewis Miller  15:04  

And you know what, what it sounds like you’re describing is almost a, how to feed your curiosity plan, like how to make curiosity intentional of don’t look at thinking about things to do on a weekly or a quarterly basis as the shoulds. Right, right, like, oh, well, in my field, I should get my project management certifications, I guess I should sign up for that PMI course, like, gross don’t do that, like make these kinds of things, things that are joyful, and that are going to be easy promises to hold yourself won’t, even if that feels off off of the clear path that how it advances you professionally. Because there are so many things like taking an improv class, or learning graphic design or painting skills that can ultimately come back to feed you and in a holistic way, someway, somehow. But if you don’t create the time for them, or you write them off, because they’re not going to have ROI to them or whatever, you kind of fall back into that pressurised transactional mode of thinking, rather than using your intentionality as a tool to play more in your life.

Angee Linsey  16:25  

Well, I think by writing it down, or, you know, using my action plan, or whatever, whatever tool or your calendar, whatever you want, it’s kind of like saying, I’m gonna give my permission myself permission to take the time to do this, it’s only 10 minutes, or it’s only an hour, or it’s, it’s, it’s one course a year, I’m gonna, you know, it might be watercolor, it might be a professional development course, whatever it is, but give yourself permission to do those things that feed your soul.

Lisa Lewis Miller  16:55  

Well, let’s talk about that giving yourself permission situation, though that’s such an important concept. When you’re speaking with people, what do you notice is the differentiating factor between people who give themselves permission to play, and to be intentional and to be creative and exploratory and curious, versus the ones who have some qualms or some hang ups about that?

Angee Linsey  17:20  

Well, without becoming a therapist, I think that there’s there we are so ingrained in what you should want. And you know, your career should be x, right? Like, you should start as an associate, and then you get promoted, and then you get promoted, and then you become a manager, and then a director, and then a vice president. And if you deviate from that path that you are failing. And when that happens, I think and I know for me, it, you just if that’s not really who you are, what really drives you, then you’re going to be miserable most the time. So I’m a big believer in really understanding what what your values are, and what your motivators are, and what prep what are your priorities and preferences. And then and then figure it out, and give yourself permission to not be on the path of everybody else. When you can let go of what you should do. And and start doing the things that feed your soul and bring value to you and to the universe and to your organization and to everything else, then it’s kind of the perfect situation.

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:35  

Angee, you say that, like it’s so easy.

Angee Linsey  18:39  

I wish it were but I don’t know, I think I’ve come a long way. You know, I think the beautiful thing about getting older is you care less what others think. Love and

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:52  

I you see that to be true. Do

Angee Linsey  18:54  

Yes, it’s true. It’s true. But But I I really I know for myself, you know, if you would have asked my 24 year old self, what are you going to do with your career? I was a you know hotshot PR person working for a big company. And I know that out loud. I said, I’m going to be the vice president communications for a company like this, right? Well, I’m not even in communications anymore. When when I started letting go of those things, those jobs that would look great on my resume and and started doing the things that I was naturally talented out and good at and enjoyed and loved learning how to do even better and, you know, all the things, I was happier. And so when I when I find myself looking at someone who’s like, oh my gosh, we’re the same age and we started in the same place and look at that. They’re like, their chief communications officer and, and, and look at me and I’m thinking, yeah, look at me. I’m okay, I’m good. I’m doing what I should be doing. And that’s hard, I think It’s hard to accept what everybody else is doing. When you compare yourself to others, if you feel like that’s what the path you should have taken, because it’s what you should do. So it’s not easy. But man, it’s liberating when you get there,

Lisa Lewis Miller  20:12  

I think you just hit a huge truth bomb in the way that you articulated that of that there’s this tension between the shoulds, right, the prescribed path, the thing that looks good on paper that’s easy to explain to other people that other people might be envious of, or proud of you for or whatever. And your own joy, and your own satisfaction and your own values and your own sense of fulfillment. And that peeling apart or parsing through what belongs to you, versus what belongs to other people that have been trying to project that on to you, is kind of the crux of giving yourself that permission, of making untraditional career moves of allowing yourself to be creative and exploratory, of allowing your intentionality not just to look like the path that is prescribed for people who went to your university or who have spent the same 20 years in the same industry that you’ve been in. Mm hmm.

Angee Linsey  21:17  

You know, it just made me think of a story, I hope you don’t mind me throwing out this one. Recently, a big, big, big brand name company contacted me and about one me coming in house to do a senior recruiting role. And, and it was a huge opportunity. And it was so fascinating. Because I always, I believe you should always take the recruiter call to all listeners, if the recruiter calls you, you should take the call. Doesn’t matter if you want to take the call, just to learn and maybe you can refer somebody or maybe it’s great, and you didn’t expect it to be so it could be anything but I took the call. And I’m listening and I’m just like, Hmm, you know, I’m not unhappy. I’m good. I love having my own business. I’ve had, this will be my 13th year in October. And so I feel like I don’t really want to take the job. But I told a couple friends about it. And they were like, Oh, that’s so great. Julie to do it. Right. And, and I was like, no, no, I’m not. And it really made me realize that even though I’ve had a successful business for more than 12 years, there are people who believe that I’m just sort of doing this until I get that really great job in a big company. And even if a good friend of mine sent me a text the next morning because I said no, I’m not going to do this. And she sent me a text the next morning, she goes, Okay, I’ve slept on it, you’re right, you should stay where you was like, That’s adorable. But it just is interesting to me because we get a lot of pressure from the outside to conform to what we should do.

Lisa Lewis Miller  23:07  

And there’s an element of that to where and I don’t mean to to say anything ill about your your friends or your community. But there’s a certain amount of this probably happens for all of us where we’re sharing who we are and what we value with the people who know us friends, family. And sometimes they don’t hear us. They hear their own kind of echo chamber of their own values and life. Kind of like with our face painted on it. But they oftentimes will respond in a way that’s just projecting their own values or their own belief systems on to us, rather than having us feel truly heard and seen and understood in who we are in what we value. And in God, I’d go so far as to say, I think it happens more once you’re willing to take that step off the prescribed pads, because that can be really difficult for folks to wrap their brains around. Oh, 100%

Angee Linsey  24:08  

I even my sister and I were having a conversation a while back. And, you know, I always tell stories of, you know, when I started my business, you know, for the first year I was checking job postings, you know, every week, like, if this doesn’t work, where can I get a job? And then by the second year, I was only checking them about every other month. And by the third year, I was like, oh, gosh, you know, I’m having a slow month, I better get a new client instead of checking for you know how to get a job, right. So that, you know, there’s this whole fear factor. And my sister’s like, oh, yeah, it took me five or six years to believe that you actually were going to pull this off. And I’m thinking five or six years I was successful the whole time. And because she’s a person who needs a job, she wants a job. She wants security. She stays in the company, you know, and that’s great for her And I support whatever she wants, but we’re all different. And all paths are okay. Just figure out what your path is.

Lisa Lewis Miller  25:10  

It’s such a wonderful point and a wonderful way to phrase it. And I, I find that sometimes there’s a certain amount of I feel kind of icky using this word, but I’m going to use it as like a beginning of a conversation, there can sometimes be some, what I perceive as classism that can come out around what is an okay path or not, like, Oh, you’re just going to be a manager at Starbucks, or, Oh, you’re just going to be an independent contractor, oh, you’re going to be a stay at home mom. For and sometimes it can even come out and the opposite way of, oh, you’re really going to go over that C suite job when you and your partner have two kids? Or, Oh, you’re really going to be taking that position that has you traveling to those countries or to those places. And it’s, it’s incredible to see how our choices in our own lives can surface other people’s values and potentially biases when they think about what is good, or what’s okay, or what’s an appropriate career. What does it mean to be a professional in the world? Yeah, and

Angee Linsey  26:29  

I think and I think we could all use a little check yourself as you’re being the judging person, right? Well, we’re all judging. We all have judging moments. But you know, it can be anything from like, every job is valuable, right? Like, that’s why there’s, we all bring value in our way, right? And even if you’re in a J, ob versus a career that you love and adore, like if you can, if you can be like yeah, I’m doing this thing, right? Like, I’m an ultrasound technician. And this is cool. And somebody else might be like, Oh, well, how come? You’re not a doctor? Well, that’s judgy. Right? So why be that way. But other day, I was visiting some family in Iowa. And the neighbor said, Oh, you’re the sister. Oh, oh, well, what is it that you do? And I said, I have my own business. I’m a recruiter, a career coach, I have an author. I speak I don’t know, like, I was just sort of like that. Like, I don’t even know what to say, I don’t know why I didn’t know what to say I answer this question all the time. Is she goes, Wow, you’re ambitious. Cuz she kind of said that, like, it was a bad thing. But again, it’s, she’s a stay at home mom with four kids. And that’s not the perception of what she would ever do. So okay. So I say, you know, this goes all the way back to give yourself permission. Give yourself permission to like what you do no matter what it is, and let the judging people move on. Right, like, Okay.

Lisa Lewis Miller  28:01  

Well, since we’re going back to give yourself permission, let me ask you this. Let’s say that someone is listening to our conversation, and they’re thinking yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Lisa. All right, Angee, I’m supposed to give myself permission. But I can’t. I can’t see how curiosity is going to serve me. I’m too busy. I feel like I’m so burned out, or I’m lacking motivation. I don’t know how to do that. What would you say to somebody who feels like the idea of giving themselves permission or then even taking action on that permission? Feels like it is it’s just too far out of reach. It’s impossible for them.

Angee Linsey  28:47  

I guess I would, I would say baby steps. Pick something small, get, you know, have some early wins, you know, the small little wins. What I noticed for me is when I started, I gave myself permission to try and figure out what I wanted to do instead of what I was doing at the time. And my way of doing that was to talk to people who were doing things I thought were cool. And I’m an extrovert. I get it not everybody’s an extrovert. I like talking to people. I will literally start a conversation with the person in the grocery store line. Yes, I’m that annoying person. And I always meet interesting people, but I genuinely think everybody’s interesting. I think there’s a story and everybody and I hope I can find the story. Journalist in me, right? I always like the story. So I’d say give yourself permission to take a little tiny step find out where you get energy. For me having conversations with people about what they do gives me a ton of energy because I am naturally curious. And I’m always trying to satiate that curiosity was never associated I want more. But that brings me energy. So what brings you energy and and then do one little thing that maybe you didn’t make? Time for that will help bring you that energy. And then do one more little thing. So if it’s around being intentional in your career, and let’s say you’re not an extrovert, you’re an introvert. Pick somebody who you know, and like, and just say, Hey, I just want to grab coffee with you, or just have a, have a phone conversation with you. And I want to talk about my job or your job or a job or something. Because you want to use your curiosity to learn about something you didn’t already know. Maybe it’s about a job you wish you could have. Maybe it’s about a promotion, but you don’t know if you’re capable yet. All of those things.

Lisa Lewis Miller  30:37  

I love that. And I want to add two layers to that. One being I loved your point about noticing your energy, and what energizes you and where you’re feeling high energy versus low energy. And if if you’re listening to this, and you’re thinking, Well, that sounds neat. But I have no idea how to do that. There is a tool that I’m going to try to put into the show notes. And it is by this guy named Charlie Gilkey. And he has a company called productive flourishing, if I’m remembering correctly, and I can find the link that I’ll put in the show notes. He has a tool called I think it’s the energy wheel. Oh, I love this. And it’s like a, like a coloring book page. It’s got a little wedge of time for every hour of your day. And he suggest that you use it by coloring in the level of energy you felt during that slice of your day. And that can be a great reflective jumping in point, just to even start to learn the practice. And to create the feedback loop of like, it’s the top of the hour. Let me look at my energy wheel. How do I feel this last hour? I felt really good. I felt high energy. Okay, what was I doing this last hour? Where did that energy come from? did I gain more energy over the last hour did I just have a you know, plateau in a neutral zone did I lose energy. And by having little tools like that, to help facilitate some of that self awareness and self knowledge, it then becomes so much easier to notice. Okay, these types of things tend to give me energy pretty consistently, maybe I can lean into finding opportunities to add more of this to my life. So that was thing number one I wanted to add. But let me add thing number two, which is that you talk about these baby steps and extroverted and connecting to people. And I identify as an introvert, I’m an INTJ, for people listening, for whom that that matters. And one of my Hacks is to find energy outside of work to ride the energy into work if I’m feeling low energy and burned out. So my best friend Sara and I have had a tradition of getting breakfast together before work one day a week for the last 10 years of our lives. And we hardly ever talk about work. We met each other at work. So sometimes we would talk about work things, but it would often just be a check in on. How’s your life going? How is your week? What’s going on? What are you doing this weekend, and spinning up and generating energy into those hour long breakfasts that Panera Bread, or Jamba Juice or whatever the coffee shop was, was enough of a spark for me to change the tenor of a day. That can be a great tip or a trick for somebody to use to if you feel like, I don’t want to go network with anybody and talk to anybody about work right now. Because I am not feeling happy or excited or enthused about my work at all.

Angee Linsey  33:47  

I love that. And I think that for the introvert. Again, I this is I’m not speaking from experience, but but introverts get energy from themselves versus from people but but connecting one on one with people, you know, in light helps. And so that’s why I say pick someone you know, in like, you don’t have to go out and meet new people every day. That can be exhausting. You don’t even want to do that. Can’t do that. The other thing I was thinking about, you know, when I had a job where I was all about process and policy and spreadsheets and rules, and that was my everyday job in and I was miserable. And I couldn’t figure out why I dragged myself into work every day. I couldn’t figure it out. And I had a boss who said, Oh, you know, the rest of the team did StrengthsFinder and why don’t we have you take it they did the strengths finder. Are you familiar with that one? Yeah, so So I did the strengths finder and my boss is looking at my results. She sort of raises one eyebrow and says No wonder you’re miserable. And my top strength is Woo. and my Number two is communicator and then Maximizer and So I have all these strengths that are very front of the house, you know, people oriented strengths. And I was in a job that was a very back of the house process functionality type of job. And that’s where, when I went, it was like this giant light bulb was flashing neon sign in front of me, saying, Hello, this is why you feel terrible every day, and you have no energy because you’re doing work that is soul sucking. For you. It’s a great job for someone who loves process and policy in spreadsheets. And there are lots of people that love that. I’m not one. So when you’re thinking about, are you doing work that you love, or, or trying to move into something that you can, if you’re trying to shift into something, pay attention to your strengths, because when you’re working in your strengths, rather than trying to get better at your weaknesses, you have more energy, you’re happier.

Lisa Lewis Miller  35:57  

Love that. And I’ll also put in as a plug for anybody listening, we do a miniature program here at Career Clarity Show called energize me. And it is taking a Strengths Assessment and then doing a debrief on it to figure out am I doing the kinds of activities that fall into my zones and strengthen my zones of genius? am I setting myself up for success and my energy level in my day or not? And if you figure out, it’s the OR NOT part, we help you think through, okay, where do we go from here? How do you start mapping out the landscape of getting back into alignment? So you are not alone in your story, and God not by a longshot.

Angee Linsey  36:36  

I love that you offer that tool. I hope all of your listeners take advantage of that. That’s amazing.

Lisa Lewis Miller  36:42  

Well, speaking of things for listeners to take advantage of, I am so grateful that you’ve come on the show today and have shared about giving yourself permission, being intentional and deliberate, following your curiosity, leaning into humble networking and developing relationships without worrying about the ROI or having a transactional nature to them. And I’m guessing people listening are also loving the perspective and the expertise that you’re sharing. So I’m curious if folks want to stay in touch with you or learn more about you and the business and the work that you do and how to engage with you. What would you recommend?

Angee Linsey  37:23  

Well, the probably the easiest thing to do is go to my website, Lindsay careers.com. I spell my last name a little different. There’s no D in it. So li n s EY careers. And also I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. So if you’re on LinkedIn, I’m you’re welcome to follow me and I try to offer career tips. And I talk a lot about daring to be deliberate because I have a book called the same and I to have a podcast called the same.

Lisa Lewis Miller  37:53  

Excellent. And if somebody wants to reach out to you from a recruiting perspective, what are some of the things that they should keep in mind,

Angee Linsey  38:01  

if they’re a candidate, they would need to be a marketing or communications professional, because that’s really all I recruit. And remember that recruiters are hired by companies to go out and find that needle in a haystack person. If you’re that needle in a haystack person, I’m, I’m super excited. But know that if you’re not that needle in the haystack person, and you want to get on my radar, you can still send me a resume. And I’ll I’ll you know try and stay connected to you so that as I have opportunities, we already have a little bit of a connection, I may or may not be able to have a full conversation with you. But if I’m working on something that’s interesting, I’d be thrilled to be connected to you never know when that interesting thing will happen. So it’s good to connect.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:41  

another selling point for humble, curious conversations and relationship building because you never know where it’s gonna lead. That’s right. That’s right. I love it. Well, Andy, thank you again for coming on the Career Clarity Show and sharing your brilliance and your point of view on why intentionality is the only way to go about a happy, healthy career.

Angee Linsey  39:03  

Thank you so much. It was great to be here.

Lisa Lewis Miller  39:12  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Because not only can your stars and words help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity Show finally find the work that fits your values and lifestyle for the link to order it go to get Career Clarity show.com/book And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at get Career Clarity Show comm slash podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short. To be doing work that doesn’t light you up talk to you next time