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Hi Amber!
It’s amazing to see how much insight you’ve gotten into yourself and why your previous jobs always seemed to leave you feeling burnt out or unfulfilled. As a fellow “Fire-Thriver” (as Rachel and I like to call them), it makes perfect sense why having your own lifestyle business — something that’s YOUR mission and YOUR product/service, that allows you to build your schedule around your lifestyle and have no cap on your earning potential — is so appealing to you.
To answer your questions…
— I wrote a blog post recently about the value of bridge jobs (temporary jobs that are a “bridge” between where you are now and your bigger career goals) that describes some great criteria for choosing the right bridge job for you. Check it out here and see if that helps answer your question about an in-between job.
— As for how Rachel and I decided on our focus for coaching … well, I have LOTS to say about how we went about becoming coaches, choosing our focus area, and building a virtual coaching business — way more than I can share in this forum comment! If you’d like, I’d be happy to chat with you personally about the process of becoming a coach and how to choose a coaching specialty. You can use me as an “informational interview” about the profession of coaching, if you’d like. Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] and we can chat about it.
Hi Mary,
First of all, I’m so glad you realized that you have a big deal-breaker around contract work. That makes perfect sense, given that the Thriver in you loves stability and predictability! And now that you’re looking for a new job while still working full-time, you won’t have to accept a contract job just to get you out of unemployment. You’re in a much more empowered position now.
You asked some great questions! Before I answer them, I want to throw a question back at you. Since it sounds like you were so much happier with your job before you got “promoted” (how silly that your promotion came with a pay cut!), how possible would it be to ask for your old job back? Or to make your current job more like your old job? If you share with your manager how much more you enjoyed and felt engaged by your last position, they might be willing to work with you to make that happen. Most (quality) companies and managers would rather find ways to keep you engaged and happy than have to replace you, so it’s in their best interest to support you.
Now, to answer your questions:
Resources for working remotely — Here are a few sites where you can search for some work-from-home jobs (I’m sure there are lots more, plus you can always find them on big sites like Indeed as well, but here are just a few to get you started):
How to ask for more compensation — I have lots to say on the subject, but a lot of it depends on your current situation. This article on The Muse sums up some of the points I often make to clients about asking for a raise and might be helpful for you.
Hope that helps!
Welcome Mary!
I’m glad you came back to complete the course, and that it was so helpful and eye-opening for you! That’s amazing that this course has been more beneficial than the job coaching you experienced. Very few people (even many career coaches/counselors!) understand and are talking about this aspect of HOW you’re meant to work and how it aligns with your values. So I’m happy to hear that this approach is resonating for you.
If you’re a Thriver who’s been living the Side Hustler life just to get by, I can imagine you’re probably exhausted! Now that you’re looking for a new job, you’ll be able to try this new approach to job searching (you’ll definitely want to do the Job Searching According to Your Values exercise in the workbook!) and search for jobs based on your Thriver values. I think that could make all the difference!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience here. I know other people can relate!
Hi Amber! So glad you found us and that your Firestarter profile resonated so accurately for you. If you’re a Firestarter who’s been acting like a Side Hustler for a while, then yeah, it totally makes sense that you’d be burnt out! That approach might work for some true Side Hustlers that you know, but for you, it’s not aligned with how you’re meant to work. Hopefully it felt like a relief to realize that there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling drained by doing things the Side Hustler way … you’ve just got to get back to your Firestarter values. Can’t wait to hear more as you go through the course!
Welcome Jen!
It makes sense that you might be a combo of Firestarter and Tribe Member — they have a few big overlapping qualities, especially in how they want to combine work & passion. I have a feeling that, as you start to get clearer on your top values in this course, you’ll get a lot more clarity about WHY your current and previous jobs lack the fulfillment you’re looking for … which will make it MUCH easier for you to discern what would be a better fit for you. I’d love to hear how you’re feeling once you’ve fully worked through the course!
Hi Sarah! Really glad you’re here. 🙂
You’re SO not the only one who feels the way you do about your job. Hopefully going through this course and reading the other comments in this forum will validate that even more. As a (mostly) Thriver, you just have a different relationship to your job than other people might think you “should” have — and that’s 100% OK! You’ll get a much better sense of how you can either start shifting your current job to line up better with your Thriver-ness OR, if that’s not possible, how to find a job that’s a better fit all around as you work through the PPSC.
Can’t wait to hear how this goes for you!
Welcome, Jill!
As you go through this course, I think it’ll become increasingly obvious why you’re feeling so frustrated by your Real Estate job and why you miss so many parts of your old job.
Tribe Members place a huge value on purpose and people when it comes to their work, so if you don’t feel like what you’re doing is making a big difference or if you’re not working with a great team or community … your job is likely going to feel flat.
Then, once you get to the “Making it Real” video toward the end of the course, you’ll get LOTS of tools for clarifying what would be a much better fit for you.
I hope you’ll come back and share some of your “a-ha moments” here as you work through the course! 🙂
Hi Gillian!
Thanks for so candidly sharing your struggle here, and I’m happy to hear that you’re planning to retake this course now that you’re in a different job. I think it might really help to hear this updated content with fresh eyes!
It makes perfect sense that you’re feeling discouraged and frustrated by your current job. You never truly wanted to get into finance in the first place, plus you clearly told your current company that you didn’t want to be in a customer service role from be beginning … and yet that seems to be a lot of what you’re now doing. Anyone would feel overwhelmed in that situation!
It also sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you’d like to be doing next. (And don’t worry about not having a set career title that you want — in my experience coaching hundreds of people, that’s the LEAST important part.) You’ve seen people in jobs that are attractive to you, which is incredibly helpful in clarifying your own path. Keep in mind, though, that even though you’re seeing many of those people in freelance jobs doesn’t mean that’s all that’s available in those fields. There are full-time remote jobs, long-term contract jobs, and all kinds of other options in both the social media and entertainment world. As you’re going back through this course, I want you to question the belief that “all of the jobs I’m interested in are freelance jobs,” and do some research to try and disprove that belief. I think seeing other, more stable options may bring you more hope that what you want really exists.
Enjoy the updated content in this course! 🙂
You’re welcome, Kate! Hope it was helpful.
We created our quiz using a WordPress plugin called Viral Quiz Builder. I just looked it up to find the link for you, and apparently they’ve now changed the name to Thrive Quiz Builder. It’s a great, easy-to-use plugin if you want to add a quiz to your website.
Hi Kate! So happy you’re here! 🙂
First of all, can I just say how impressed I am that you’ve launched your own chiropractic practice, created an ergonomic yoga block, and published a book?!! That’s seriously amazing. And you still have bigger, bolder dreams — loving your pure Firestarter energy!
It’s really powerful that you’ve come to the huge realization that you feel much more passionate about teaching your patients vs. treating them. I’m sure that wasn’t easy to acknowledge, because it means big change is in order! Although I sense that you’re more that willing to make big changes if it means big impact and big payoff.
There are MANY ways I could answer your question about how to get your virtual products (and possibly physical products, too) out into the world in a big way because there are tons of theories and strategies behind online marketing and getting your voice out there. But the best way I know how to answer your question is by sharing what’s worked for us.
If I had to break down the biggest components of what’s helped to get us the exposure we’ve received, I’d probably lump them into these categories:
— Know your audience and speak directly to them. We got super clear years ago about our ideal audience/client, and everything we write & create is meant specifically for that person. That means our message doesn’t get diluted by trying to appeal to anyone & everyone. Although, the great part is, plenty of people who don’t necessarily align with our ideal client still find us and get real value from what we offer.
— Create consistent content. We write a blog post every single week, and we have for years. We’re extremely consistent with our writing, which means we’ve got TONS of searchable content on our site (which means lots of people now find us through Google searches) and our audience can always expect to reliably hear from us every Tuesday. This is the backbone of our business and our marketing.
— Get exposure through relevant outlets. We’ve slowed down on this in recent years, but we started out building our business and our community by getting published on relevant websites. We found a few sites that were geared toward young professionals or women in the workplace or Millennials, and we wrote articles for the semi-regularly. That got us a ton of exposure in front of the right kinds of people.
— Create an appealing, shareable freebie. Our Passion Profile Quiz is one of the MOST important parts of our business. It grabs people’s attention when they first find us, it captures their email address so they can become part of our community, and it instantly builds trust and intrigue. I attribute a LOT of our business success to our quiz. So having something compelling and shareable as a freebie really gets people engaged from the start!I could probably write an extensive essay on each of those things, and those are just the first things that come to mind. There’s obviously so much more that goes into this that I simply can’t get into in a short forum comment. But it’s a start, at least! 🙂 Hope it helps!
Hi Keisha,
I love that the Firestarter profile felt so “you” and deeply resonated with your values.
It sounds like you’re pretty clear about HOW you want to be working in the next phase of your career (which is what your Passion Profile is all about), which is awesome. That was the main point of this Short Course, to help you get clear on HOW you should be working, based on your values & strengths. And now, naturally, you want to get clear on specifically WHAT you’d like to be doing. I have SO much to say on this topic that I have no idea how to condense it into a forum comment! In fact, our other virtual course (The Passion Plan Virtual Experience) is meant to be the “next level” course beyond this one, and it’s main purpose is to help you figure out WHAT you’re passionate about. (The Short Course is about HOW you should be working, and the Virtual Experience is WHAT you’re passionate about.) That entire course is really meant to help you answer the question you just asked! Unfortunately, The Passion Plan Virtual Experience is not currently open for enrollment — we only run that course twice per year, and we won’t be doing it again until September/October. If you don’t want to wait that long, you may want to consider some 1-on-1 coaching, where we can get super personalized and in-depth about WHAT you’re passionate about and how to turn it into a career that your Firestarter self will love.
In the meantime, you may want to check out a video that Rachel and I made last year. It’s called “How to Find Your Passion,” and it has some mindset shifts and first steps about figuring out out what you’re passionate about. We have SO much more to share on the topic, of course, but we packed as much as we could in a one-hour video. It might be a good starting point for you, if nothing else!
Hope that helps. 🙂
Jessica — I’m so happy this course was so clarifying for you! I believe that things tend to show up at the perfect time, so even though you signed up for this course months ago, it sounds like the timing was finally right for you to really get the most out of it.
It’s really cool to hear that our take on “finding your passion” is so unique from anything you’ve read about it (and it sounds like you’ve read a lot!). Realizing that your passion isn’t a “what” is one of those things that feels so obvious once you hear it, but most of us have never thought that way before because it’s pretty counter-culture. I’m glad that majorly changed your perspective, and I hope it brought you some relief, too! Thanks for that feedback. 🙂
I hope you’ll come back and update us as your journey progresses! Enjoy every moment of your 6-month sabbatical (sounds amazing!!).
Hi Jasmine! I’m so impressed that you’re pursuing this kind of self-awareness at age 17! I can tell you’re a wise soul in a young body. 🙂
Your question is very similar to another comment that was posted in this forum about a week ago (in a different thread) by an 18-year-old girl who’s feeling the same pressure that you’re feeling to figure this all out ASAP. I want to share with you my response to her (at least part of it), which I hope resonates with you and helps relieve some of the overwhelm you’re feeling.
“Because you’re already so committed to finding a career path that will allow you to have the kind of lifestyle you want after college, I have total faith that you’ll be able to make that happen. The key is to use this last year in high school and the next few years in college to understand yourself in a deeper way than you ever have before.
The beauty of being in school and not having to make a career decision right this very minute is that you have space to experiment, try things, and change your mind. That’s what I would have you really focus on over the next few years. Don’t feel like you need to make every decision perfectly right now — it’s perfectly OK to try things, realize you don’t like them (or don’t want to pursue them as a career, at least), and change course. If you view high school & college as a space where you have freedom to explore and discover who you are and what you love, you’ll feel SO much less pressure to “get it all right” immediately.”
I also want to add that, while your parents, friends, teachers, etc., have the very best intentions for you and want to give helpful advice, recognize that what works for them might not work for you, and that’s OK. For example, if your parents want you to choose a college major that will give you financial stability later in life, you can certainly consider that advice and see how it feels to you, but if you disagree, you don’t have to take that path. Ultimately, this is your life, and you want it to feel good to you. And you don’t have to make any decisions right this very minute! Explore, learn, try things, and then check back in with what feels right to you.
Hi Liz! So glad you’re here, and I love that you get so much out of our weekly emails. 🙂
I can definitely see how the transition you’re in right now feels murky and overwhelming. It sounds like you know what you’d really LOVE to do (what an awesome idea to open a chain of thrift stores!), but in the meantime, you need/want to find the right kind of job to bridge the gap to your ultimate goal. I hope this course helps you better define what type of bridge job would suit you in the short-term, as well as how you can structure you future business(es) to best align with your Passion Profile and the kind of lifestyle you want.
Enjoy!
