I want to share some important news about my business and I hope my story will put this decision in context for you…
How it all started
I thought it would be good to share a little about my motivations for starting my business back in 2016. I make no bones about the fact that redundancy was actually the catalyst for my own leap into self-employment. It wasn’t particularly from a place of courage, inspiration or a deep desire for change that I made the decision!
Honestly, I was in the early stages of pregnancy with my second little girl, Tabby, and I felt I had very little choice in the matter. In fact, I remember thinking. “Who will employ a pregnant mother of one, on a part-time basis for just a few months before she is due to give birth?”😔
Time was of the essence. I had less than 8 months to save a nest egg that would see me through my maternity leave..(and beyond?). I missed out on maternity pay from my then employer by a matter of days. 🤦♀️
Panic stations
Never being one to rest on my laurels, I secured a freelance employee engagement consultancy contract shortly after I was made redundant which took me up to the month before I gave birth in November of 2016.
I tried to switch off and not worry too much about what I was going to do with my career once my mat leave was over, but this was easier said than done! My redundancy process had been difficult for various reasons, aside from the obvious, and my confidence and self-belief were in tatters.
What next?
The one thing I was certain of was that going back to my corporate 9-5 (or even another contract role – lovely as my experience had been) was simply never going to cut it. I wanted more.
More meaning. More freedom. More time to spend with my young family. More time in nature. More time to create and learn. More autonomy. More happiness. More of what lit me up.
I wanted to do work that made a dent in the world. I also wanted less pressure, less conflict, less responsibility, less capitalist, alpha-male, corporate BS and far less political game-playing.
My wake-up call
Becoming a mum the first time round in 2014 – like for so many of the women I work with – gave me a huge dose of perspective about what was really important to me; and what was actually important in life generally.
Of course, motherhood isn’t the only life event that forces people to take stock. COVID, for example, has rocked the world to its core and there’s a palpable shift in people’s definition of work happiness. Check out any of the numerous articles on The Great Resignation to see the stats for yourself.
All I knew was that pursuing a career that looked ‘good on paper’, that quite often made me unhappy, took me away from my young family and lined someone else’s pockets was most definitely not my definition of ‘work happiness.’
I did it my way
So doing ‘my own thing’ felt like the obvious next step for me. This way I could do things my way, on my terms. I could choose who I worked with, the kind of work I did, when I worked and with whom I did that work. For someone like me with very clear values around autonomy and freedom, the prospect of working this way blew my mind.
So I proceeded to offer corporate culture consultancy and leadership coaching, along side my first love, coaching; working with individuals to shape happier more impactful work lives.
My business evolution
The first incarnation of my coaching business in 2018, was as a career and confidence coach for mums who were returning from or on maternity leave. Perhaps you even followed me as @shinebrightermums on social media?
Over the next couple of years, my business evolved and I started to work with a few founders who had lost their way and female leaders who wanted to change sectors or leave the corporate world to do their own thing. It became about helping people define their own Work Happiness Blueprint so they could then take aligned action to shape either their corporate careers or businesses.
It’s time to speak my truth
Over the last few months, there has been yet another evolution of my professional and business purpose, as my own interests and passions have evolved and my own why has become clearer. And I feel it’s finally time to speak my truth!
N.B It may not be your truth though so, if what I’m about to say does not resonate with you, I won’t be at all offended if you decide this is where we part company because my new direction doesn’t align with your own work happiness vision.
Here goes…
I honestly believe that the only way to find true work happiness and to create a work life on your terms; completely aligned with your core values, innate talents, work and life experiences, personality and purpose is to design your own YOU-shaped business.
Are we still a good fit?
There I said it. Eek. And as a career coach, who has historically helped a wide range of people with all sorts of career-change conundrums, this is a big deal for me to say out loud.
I also appreciate that this news may not make me ‘the career coach for you’ after all. And I completely respect that. I can’t be, and would never expect to be, for everyone.
I still wholeheartedly believe that you can definitely find more ‘work happiness’ by changing industry sectors, tweaking your role, playing to your strengths, adjusting your work patterns and working on your mindset. And for many people that is more than enough.
But this would never have been enough for me. I wanted more. I wanted to work on my terms, just as I described above. Call me selfish, call me idealistic, call me demanding.
Ain’t no going back!
But now I’ve tasted ‘true work happiness’, I’m not sure I could ever go back to the full time corporate 9-5. (Never say never though, right!?) All I know is that since I started my business, work (and life, for I feel they are one) just keep getting better and better. (She says, touching wood furiously!)
I totally get that the path to entrepreneurship is not for everyone and it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted. But if you want it enough, I promise you it will be the best career move you ever make. I speak from personal experience!
The upshot
From January 2022, alongside my corporate culture consultancy and leadership coaching, where I help organisations and leaders shape purpose-driven and people-centric businesses and teams – I’ll be focusing on serving anyone keen to explore starting (or growing) their own service-based business.
I’ll continue to apply my work happiness philosophy, blueprint, science plus intuition-backed approach and signature SHINE coaching framework but with a view to helping brilliant women like you design and grow a YOU-shaped business, not just a corporate career.
I will, however, continue to support the wonderful women in my affordable career coaching membership, The Shine Collective, but this will be the only way to access pure career coaching support with me moving forward.
Because I honestly believe that entrepreneurship and self-employment is the path to true work happiness – at least until the world of work has been through a massive transformation! (which I’m working hard on in the consultancy side of my business!)
I have over 15 years’ experience of helping shape purpose-led businesses and cultures and nearly 5 years of growing my own successful coaching business, so I’m really excited to be able to share this expertise (and learnings!) with other (aspiring) female founders in 2022.
Is this goodbye?
If you know categorically that working for yourself in some capacity will never feature in your own work happiness vision, then feel free to join my Shine Collective affordable career coaching membership or please don’t hesitate to get in touch, and I’ll refer you to some brilliant career coaches who can help you grow a happier corporate career. If this is you, goodbye and I wish you all the work happiness in the world!
But if you’re still here – and made it to the end of this mammoth article! – and want to stick around to see what I have in store for you in 2022, hurray! and I’m truly honoured to have you in my world.
Drop me a line if you’d like to be first to hear about my new future founder coaching programmes, launching early next year. Or you can book a free no strings call here to see if we’d be a good fit. You can follow me on instagram and facebook as @theworkhappinesscoach. Thanks for your patience as I update my website and social media to reflect this new direction!
It’s very common to get stuck in your work life from time to time. Sometimes it’s a life event such as motherhood, bereavement, illness, redundancy, divorce, a global pandemic (?) that causes you to stop and take stock of the direction your life (and work) is taking. There’s nothing like a dose of perspective to make you think differently about what you want and what would make you happy.
Sometimes, the sensation of ‘feeling stuck’ can slowly creep up on you. And what started out as a dull nagging feeling at the bottom of your stomach becomes a general sense of apathy or discontent months – or even years – down the line. Before you know it, you’ve been working on ‘autopilot’ for a good chunk of your career. “How do I ‘get unstuck?” is the million dollar question so many of my amazing clients come to me with.
And because I have been incredibly stuck in my own work life, I can empathise completely. It’s a rubbish place to be. But perhaps more importantly, I have the tools and techniques to help you get unstuck and working happy again. This is my own story of how I got unstuck and reset my own work life back in 2016.
My own reset story
You can’t go back & change the beginning, but you can start where you are & change the ending.
-C.S Lewis
Once upon a time…
…I suffered horribly from a nasty case of ‘shiny-object syndrome’. I was lured into a sparkly new role with a fancy job title and a pretty decent pay cheque – a ‘dream job’, on paper. But even as I signed my contract, my stomach lurched. Not long after, when things started to get really bad, my intuition piped up, “I told you so.”
The role was completely out of alignment with who I was, what I was great at and the dent I really wanted to make in the world.
I berated myself for not having trusted my gut, as I ignored those red flags my intuition had been furiously waving at me from the very beginning. (I hadn’t really ever been taught how to tune into those rumblings of my inner voice.) I longed to go back and do things differently, stand up for what I believed in. Stand up for who I was and what I wanted. But the truth is, I don’t think I really even knew who I was or what I wanted out of my work life back then.
Of course I knew I couldn’t go back and change the choices I’d made, but I made damn sure that I changed my ending and I embarked upon a total work-life reset. Oh, and I haven’t ignored my intuition since!
Self-knowledge brings confidence & clarity
The only way to change your ending and perform a total work-life reset, is to get super-clear on your truest, most authentic self.
Your best professional (and personal) identity.
In other words, you’ll need to explore the following:
⭐️ Who are you?
⭐️ What are you really great at?
⭐️ What are you known for?
⭐️ How do you add value, professionally?
⭐️ What makes you tick?
⭐️ What drives and motivates you?
⭐️ What’s important to you about the work you do & the people you do it with?
⭐️ What makes you feel happy and fulfilled?
⭐️ What do you actually want out of your work (and personal) life?
After all, knowledge is power.⚡️ And self-knowledge is self-power.
Significant life events – hello Covid, motherhood, redundancy, burnout, illness, divorce, loss etc – can cause a shift in your identity. And all of the above therefore have to be re-calibrated and redefined.
As things around you change, so you change.
Working through the answers to all these questions, without societal noise and pressures throwing you off track is really bloody hard. But, I promise you, getting clarity on this stuff is the absolute pre-requisite to finding happiness at work.
Which is why 90% of the work I do with my 1:1 clients is about self-discovery.
Discovery of your best authentic self.
And then we design and align your work life around this precise version of you.
You don't have to do it alone
Of course, you absolutely CAN work out what would make you happier and more successful in your work life on your own…(there’s always google, YouTube, free downloads, self-help books, journaling, trial and error, well-meaning friends and family, the cat…?)
But all I’m saying is that you don’t have to, if you don’t want to.
So if you’re looking for some gentle accountability, friendly support, a little bit of neuroscience, positive psychology and personality profiling ‘magic’ blended with some down-to-earth and serious self-reflection to help you work out your best next steps, I’d love to help.
I have a tried and tested coaching programme that has now helped 100’s of brilliant women (and a few men!) over the last 4 years. And it works.
S.H.I.N.E is my signature coaching framework for career clarity, confidence and contentment, and if you’d like to experience its power for yourself, you can find out more about my 1:1 career coaching programmes here.
Go it alone or get wings & fly?
So if you want:
- To find more meaning, purpose and fulfilment
- Crystal clarity on your next steps
- A self-belief and confidence-boost
- To reignite your motivation levels
- To unlock your professional potential
- To get ‘unstuck’ & make a plan
- Take action to create a work life you love
- To reconnect with what you’re great at
- To take back control of your career
- To sense-check a new business idea you’ve had
- To do something for YOU for a change…
…or you’re just intrigued to find that elusive ‘sweet spot’ where your passions, talents and experience collide with a need in the world; all whilst allowing you to enjoy life…then my 1:1 coaching programmes will help.
Or you can sign up for my affordable career and personal development membership –The Shine Collective – today if you prefer some self-directed coaching and you’re happy ‘DIY’ your work happiness journey.
You can book a free ‘no strings’ call using the button below if you’d like to see how I can help you create more happiness in your work life. Or drop me a line on [email protected] and let’s chat.