Real Happy Mom

Practical tips and encouragement for moms

Is it time for a Career Change? Tips for Transitioning Into Something New

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Have you been feeling like you aren’t valued at work? Or maybe your values aren’t in line with your career?

Maybe it’s time to do something new. Set off for a career change can be overwhelming and intimidating. But no worries. I’ve got an expert that will help you with transitioning into a new career.

In this episode, my guest Heather shares:

  • How she helps professional women identify their vision, values, and transferable skills
  • Challenges that women face when seeking a career change, and how can they overcome them
  • Questions that you can ask yourself if you’re thinking about a career change

No more sitting on the sidelines or wishing that you could do something different. Check out this episode to learn how to transition into a career that fits your values and your skills.

About Heather

Leveraging 15 years of professional experience, Heather Burright, founder, and CEO of Skill Masters Market, specializes in creating dynamic, people-centric solutions that drive business goals and accelerate career development. As a coach, Heather focuses intentionally on her client’s needs for a dedicated period of time so that the client has the time and resources to explore their options and invest in their future. Heather’s process focuses on uncovering her clients’ life vision, core values, and transferable skills so they gain clarity about the career paths that will work for them. She also leads them through an idea testing and goal setting phase so they are confident their chosen path will work for them.

Connect with Heather

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Transcript of this episode

Real Happy Mom 0:02
Hey there, and welcome to another episode of the Real Happy Mom podcast, the weekly podcast for busy working moms to get inspiration, encouragement and practical tips for this journey called motherhood. My name is Tony in and you are listening to Episode 136. How you have you ever thought about changing your career or even thought about doing something completely different from what you’re doing now? Well, that is what I’m going to be talking to. Today with my guest, Heather, she’s going to be sharing with us some other ways that women can identify their vision and values and skills that can be transferred into a new career. Then also we talk about some of the challenges that working moms face when it comes to seeking a career change and how we can overcome them. Because one thing I don’t want to do is leave you hanging, but also give you some solutions to those challenges. Now if you haven’t already, make sure you head over to Real Happy Mom comm slash hacks to get the ultimate WORKING MOM hacks guide. This guide includes six of my favorite moms who answer the question, what is the number one hack that you have that helps to make my life easier. So if it is anything from productivity, time management, even just some aroma therapy, or just giving yourself grace, these are the hacks that you need to help with making my life easier. So go ahead and get your guide, just completely free. And I want you to have it today’s Gov Real Happy mom.com slash hex and get it. Now let’s go ahead and jump on into this week’s episode.

Real Happy Mom 1:47
All right, Heather, welcome to the podcast.

Heather 1:49
Thank you for having me.

Real Happy Mom 1:51
No problem. I’m excited to have you. With this mompreneurs series that we’re doing. I feel like you definitely bring a message that we need to hear when it comes to making that change or transition with our careers. But before we get started with our topic, I just wanted you to share a little bit about you and what you do. Yeah,

Heather 2:10
thank you. So I currently am a nonprofit consultant and a career coach. And I’ll share a little bit about what those things mean. But I have 15 years of experience and the Learning and Leadership Development space. And I’ve been able to transition within the last year or so from a national nonprofit where I identified the competencies, which is basically a fancy word for leadership skills that people would need to be successful throughout their career. So whether they were you know, a part time frontline staff person providing a direct service or a senior leader within the organization, I helped to identify what skills they would need to be successful. And then I helped HR leaders around the country hire onboard and develop their staff with those competencies in mind. One of the things that I did there was I led their coaching at some of their coaching initiatives. And I just kind of fell in love with that whole concept and skill set of coaching. And so when I started my own consulting business in May of last year, I knew that I had to have coaching as as part of it. And I love working with women who are seeking a career change, but don’t necessarily know what that change would look like how it would feel. And often, you know, they’re struggling with the clarity around that. But also the fear that comes with making a career change. And I just love working with them as they go through that process to uncover what’s out there, what will really work for them, and then dive in with confidence to make that change happen. I just I think people are happiest when their careers align with their values and their capabilities or their skill sets. And so that’s just something that I enjoy doing. And that’s how I

Real Happy Mom 3:57
started. You’re awesome. And I love how you said that, that their careers align with their values, because that’s not something that I always thought about. But now that you say it, I’m like, Yeah, yeah, I would go. If I’m in a position where that is happening. So I’m just thinking about the mom that’s listening, who is, you know, in a place that they’re not necessarily happy with or feeling like their values aren’t connected with the career that they’re actually in right now. So I was just wondering how you help women with identifying the vision, the values and those skills so that they can begin to transition into something that is better fitting with their values?

Unknown Speaker 4:39
Yeah,

Heather 4:40
I always start with the life vision because I think your career should fit into your life. It’s part of your life. And so your life vision, it comes first. And so I always start there and I say, you know, imagine your life six to 12 months from now and something happened. You’re happy and you’re fulfilled. What are you Doing

Unknown Speaker 5:00
Who are you with?

Heather 5:01
And and really, it’s you know, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, no detail is too small. What does it look like? Think relationships, parenting finances? Again, not just your career, I often say, you know, you wake up, is the alarm going off? Or are you waking up on your own? Is it before the sunrises? Are you asleep in an endless go from there and every detail kind of hammer that out so that we can see it? We can picture it? Because then we can start to narrow in on the career and what that actually looks like, what are you doing? Are you sitting in front of a computer? Are you in a lot of meetings or leading meetings? Are you standing in front of a group speaking? What does it look like? What does it feel like so that you can start to identify the life vision and then narrow in on the career. You know, there’s nothing wrong with working for a steady paycheck If you value stability. But again, getting into what you value, it’s important to know what those things are. If you value creativity, and you work with spreadsheets all day, you likely won’t ever be happy and fulfilled at work. And, you know, I often say if you value stability, and you end up in a startup, where everything is constantly changing, and you’re taking on new roles, and you’re jumping in, and that can be really exciting. But if you value stability, you might not be happy. So I think it’s both your career has to align with both your life vision and your core values. Otherwise, you start to feel that inner conflict. And, you know, as a as an example, for me, I, as a consultant, I get a lot of the things that I want out of life and a lot of the things that I value, I’m able to have more flexibility in my schedule, I have autonomy in my work, I feel real ownership over what I’m doing, I have the chance to solve problems and be creative. And all of these things are important to me. And I really play into my vision and my values as well as my skills, which is which is also important. So, you know, I think it’s just taking the time. And we don’t always take that time when we’re in our career, we start to feel unhappy. We don’t necessarily take the time to figure out what would make it better. And I think going through this process of identifying your vision, identifying your values, is a really good first step in that process.

Real Happy Mom 7:25
Yes, definitely. Because while you’re talking, I was just thinking and answering those questions that you put out, as far as you know, what do you want things to look like? And once you become clear, I guess on what you want those things to be, it makes it a lot easier to actually, you know, pursue what it is that you actually want. So I’m just wondering, okay, now that we are a little bit more clear on what we’re wanting from our career, how can we actually move forward, especially when we haven’t a lot of challenges? Because, in particular, I feel like women face a lot of sincerly, you know, very unique challenges, but we do have some, especially as moms. So I just wanted to know, What challenges do women face when they’re three seeking career changes? And how can they best overcome them?

Heather 8:19
Yeah, I think what I see most often is a couple of couple of different things. One is just a lack of clarity in general, right, you know, you’re not happy in your current role, but you’re not really sure what to do next. And it could be a lack of clarity, because of all of the options that are out there and feeling kind of overwhelmed by that. It could be a lack of clarity, because you’re just not sure what would work for you. I think without clarity, it’s hard to make any further steps into a career transition. So that I think is the first hurdle that women have to overcome to make a successful career change. The second I think, is really fear of failure, and doubt. So, oftentimes, you know, we’re not happy in our current career, but we feel comfortable in our current career and making a change makes us uncomfortable. And I think it’s a matter of, you know, once you have that clarity, which comes through the questioning process and discovering the themes and researching careers, narrowing based on what you’ve learned about yourself, once you have that clarity, you can start to work on the competence piece. Because with clarity comes confidence. And you can reinforce that competence as you begin to research those careers. Talk to people who are in the career fields that you feel like will be a good fit for you based on your life, vision and values and skills. And then you can ask specific questions. I’m a big fan of informational interviews, ask the specific questions that reveal whether that career actually aligns with your vision values and skills, so that things that don’t come on a job description will See if there you won’t actually know what the day to day is like. But you can talk to people who do know what the day to day is like. And if you’re customizing those questions that you’re asking, based on what you’ve discovered about yourself, you’re more likely to feel confident moving into that career path, to know that it really will work for you. And I think the courage to make the change happens, or happen comes when you begin to set goals and that excitement starts to set in.

Real Happy Mom 10:28
Yes, definitely. And I just wanted to recap what you said, because it was so so good, was that the biggest challenges were a lack of clarity, fear of failure and doubt. And those two, I it’s funny, because when I really sit down and think about, you know, a lot of things that I’m actually afraid of, yes, it is fear of failure. And I didn’t really think about asking people who are in that position those questions, but I’m just wondering if, you know, there’s a mom listening, and they are have a particular career in mind, but they’re not able to speak with someone directly. In that position, I didn’t know if there was some other individuals that you would suggest talking to, whether it be someone in the HR department, but in particular, for the mompreneurs, who are wanting to start, let’s just say, a service based business or a product, business, you know, who would you suggest I’m starting to talk to, so that you can get the information that you need to make sure that this is for sure, something that you want to do, so that you don’t end up back in the same position, again, where you’re unhappy with a career veteran?

Heather 11:38
Yeah, absolutely. I think you can apply the same principles, whether you’re moving from, you know, one, one job to another, or one career path to another, one industry to another. And I think definitely, as you think about transitioning to sort of business ownership. And I think why I think we, we have limiting beliefs often about the size of our network. So I would, I would first challenge your listeners if they are thinking that they don’t know anybody to ask, because there is a good chance that someone in their network owns a business. And if not someone in their network does. So think beyond your your direct network there. If you you know, post on social media, that you’re looking for information, and we’d like to interview a business owner, somebody will come through, I feel I feel pretty confident about that. But if not, there are so many business groups on on Facebook as an example, where you can join other women entrepreneurs, if that’s the route that you are wanting support from. And you can join those groups, you can ask the questions, so many people are willing to jump on a phone call and share what they know or what they’ve learned in the process. I feel like especially in the women, entrepreneur, group, and mom entrepreneur group, there is or the community there’s, there is that sense of community. And so people want other people to succeed. And they’re willing to share what they learn in their process. And so I do think there’s still opportunity to have these conversations and make sure that owning a business is right for you and works with your life vision and values and skills.

Real Happy Mom 13:20
Awesome. Yes. And I didn’t not even think about the Facebook groups. But that is a big, big wealth of resources just right there. Because I know when I was getting started, that is definitely where I got a lot of really great advice. So thank you for reminding me about the Facebook groups. Now, one of the things that I wanted to ask you about in particular was, you know, the the moms that are looking for a career change, in particular trying to transition into entrepreneurship. I know that you worked with a lot of people in the past, and especially with helping them to identify their skills in particular. I am just thinking about, you know, a lot of times we go into things thinking like, Oh, yeah, I can do it all myself, I got it, you know, what are some tools or resources that we can use to help us with identifying what our, our true strong points are so that we know when we need to either hire out or to get help, when we’re actually starting a business?

Heather 14:22
Yeah, so there are formal assessments that you can take to you know, understand what your your strengths are, your skills are, but I always start with a few simple questions that obviously doesn’t doesn’t cost money like formulas, definite would. So think about, think about the times that you feel smart, and think about the times that you feel strong. Think about the things that the times, I’m sorry, the questions that people ask you a lot if there are recurring questions like people always ask me this or they always ask me to do that. There’s a good chance But other people are recognizing those strengths. And you, if you’re currently in a corporate role, think about past performance reviews that you’ve had, and what skills have been, you know, highlighted a strengths for you think about what your peers look to you for, think about what tasks your supervisor always goes to you and asks you to complete versus someone else on the team, there’s a lot of different ways to figure out what your skills are. And once you know that, you can start to figure out what you might want to delegate. I think, ultimately, you want to delegate things that you’re not good at, and or have no desire to learn. So again, skills or skills can be developed. So if there if you find that you’re lacking a particular skill, you can then decide it’s just information, right? You can then decide, do I want to invest the time or money, the resources to develop that skill? Or do I want to delegate that to someone else, I think the reverse also applies. And sometimes we forget that too. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you enjoy it. And so if you have a skill, but you don’t enjoy it, and it’s it’s sucking the life out of you, so to speak, and you’re not enjoying your business anymore because of it. That’s okay to delegate that to you. So I think being really clear on your skills, but also the things that you enjoy the things that you’re willing to learn and don’t want to learn are also key key parts of making decisions about what to delegate?

Real Happy Mom 16:30
Yes, definitely. I’m totally with you on yes, you can be good at something, not like it. So, yes, for sure. on that one. Now, Heather, I’m just thinking about the moms that are actually, you know, in the process probably been in the trenches doing this for a while. And they’re just questioning like, Am I going in the right direction? Like do? Should I really continue with this? And I know that that comes up a lot. And you probably have heard that question, maybe not exactly like that. But, you know, when pretty much how do we know when we’re heading the right direction? Or if you know, this is not where we need to be, and we need to consider doing a transition or career change? Yeah, I

Heather 17:17
think, you know, ultimately, that’s a decision that the individual has to make on their own. I always say I provide the roadmap, but you have to drive. And everything we discover in the career discovery process is information. It’s up to you what you do with that information. So I think, you know, taking the time to reflect and identifying the source of perhaps the burnout, or the frustration can be helpful. And then once you have that identified, you can you can decide you can think and decide. Is it a deal breaker for me? Is it something that I’m willing to overcome? Or is it something that I would rather not deal with work with overcome in some way? And it’s okay, either way, it’s okay to start something and decide it’s not right for you. Or it’s okay to stay, you know, continue doing something that you’re doing and know that one day it might change, but now’s not the right time. So I think at the end of the day, my role is really to help you have all of the information so that you can make a better decision. But the ball is always still in your court, you always have the ability to decide if you want to start stop or continue something.

Real Happy Mom 18:41
Awesome. Awesome. Now, Heather, I am just wondering if you had any encouragement or motivational quote, first real happy moms before we signed off.

Unknown Speaker 18:53
I have a quote in my

Heather 18:55
office that says we rise by lifting others. And I just think that resonates with me every day, I tried to make a difference in someone’s life in someone’s experience, you know, whether it’s my family, or someone I’m working with, if it’s getting on a phone call or sending an email. Today, someone bought my coffee at Starbucks, and I’m looking forward to paying that forward in the future. I think there are so many opportunities to lift others. And that’s just such an important thing to remember.

Real Happy Mom 19:26
Yes, for sure. Now, Heather, you given us a lot to think about, especially when it comes to making a career change. Now, if there is someone listening that it’s like, oh, I really want to connect with her or learn more about you. Where can we find you online? Yeah, I

Heather 19:42
am under it’s her beautiful story. I’m on Facebook and Instagram, but I have a private Facebook community for professional know women, and that’s probably the best place to get connected and to get to know me better. And I would love to get to know you as well if you’re interested. So it’s her beautiful story of community for career women.

Real Happy Mom 19:59
So And I’ll be sure to include that link in or all those links rather in the show notes. So, Heather, thank you so much for coming on. This has really been helpful. I really appreciate you.

Unknown Speaker 20:09
Thank you for having me.

Real Happy Mom 20:11
Now that does it for this episode of the Real Happy Mom podcast to find the links in the show notes that were mentioned here today. Head over to Real Happy Mom calm slash 136 if you haven’t already get the ultimate WORKING MOM hacks by going to grow Happy Mom comm slash hacks, which is a tune for next week for another full episode. Take care and with lots of love

 

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