You may remember, in the new year I announced my word for 2022 was RECONNECT. While that seemed ridiculous in the height of dark Omicron January, I stuck with it.

Rewind to 2021, I focused on my own programs and groups. I launched Career Command and continued to put new four-week group options into the world. The work was energizing and my clients were seeing tremendous growth. Yet, towards the end of the year, I was hungry for partnerships, collaborations and most importantly…community.

The 2022 theme of RECONNECT prompted a shift into a new phase for my business and my life. I began my reintegration into the world with the pandemic moving toward the background.

I’ve been calling it, The 2022 Expansion Plan.

I keep asking myself…

What can I do within my business and with collaborations to expand my impact?

How can I expand my own professional growth?

How can I expand my relationships with talented women who are creating the change I want to see in organizations and in the world?

And the answers, the changes, keep showing up.

One of the most exciting of these shifts has been partnering with Chief, a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there.

I’m thrilled to share that I’m now a Chief Core Guide, facilitating groups that enable Chief members to build powerful connections that serve as their own personal and professional board of advisors. The groups are specifically designed for senior women leaders to strengthen their leadership journey, cross-pollinate ideas across industries, and affect change from the top-down.

Yes, I know. This is my wheelhouse, my mission and I’m so energized to be part of this movement.

In addition to my work with Chief and stepping back into delivering in-person leadership workshops and programs, I will continue to see clients 1:1 and move forward with this newest cohort of Career Command Four-Month Shift.

With all this expansion going on, I’ve decided this will be my last cohort of Career Command for 2022. I’ve spoken to some women who were interested in a fall group so I want to give you a heads up that I won’t be running that group given all the exciting activities of The 2022 Expansion Plan.

For this reason, I have kept registration for Career Command: Four-Month Shift open through the end of today, so if this changes your plans at all and you decide you’d like to join us, there’s still time!

You can either sign up HERE by 10pm ET this evening or feel free to reach out to me with any questions

Last week, my ten year old daughter, Roxanne, came home from school with an assignment that honored the 100th Day of School. I know, how did we get here so fast?

The assignment: Make a list of 100 things that bring you joy.

While we’re usually pretty hands-off when it comes to homework, the whole family jumped in and made this our evening activity.

Especially our older daughter, Jane, who has always been driven by her sense of wonder.

This exercise lit a fire in her that tapped into her innate joie de vivre.

For the next hour, she shared a steady stream of hundreds of things, moments, and ideas that brought her joy.

“Taking long walks in the park.

Jasmine rice

Getting presents.

Giving presents!

Using your parents’ logic against them.

When someone has the reaction you were hoping for.

Boggle! And not just because I always win.

When someone smiles at you.”

Then, with perfect comedic timing, Roxanne added: “Making a list of 100 things that bring you joy!”

It made our evening and our week.

It reminded us how much joy we can find in our lives in the smallest of moments. If we’re present. If we’re open. If we allow ourselves to savor life’s Boggle-sized gems.

I encourage you to make this list. With a partner, your family, with friends, or on your own.

Keep it handy. Read it when you remember. Add things to it often. And feel the joy again.

I hope you added a little extra joy or sweetness to your day yesterday. While I don’t go for grand gestures on gifts for my people, I do spend my time and creative energy on writing just the right words for each of their unique love notes. 

And as many of you know, that’s exactly how I honor my own desires for my business and my career. I write a love letter. I let those desires live outside of my head and my heart. 

I know many of you feel stuck. Like you want something new, but you don’t know what it is. Like you don’t even know where to start to figure it out. 

Well, here’s where you can begin. 

Honor what you want by sending your career desires some love. 

Talk to that part of you that is hungry for more meaning in your work. 

Talk to the part that wants to learn. 

Talk to the part of you who wants time and space to talk to this part of you. 

She is waiting for you. She has more to say than you are expecting she will. 

Sending career love and mojo your way,

Rachel

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I’m excited to share that I’ve brought two of my most powerful career transition offerings together into one transformational private coaching program.

My 1:1 Career Transition Private Coaching now includes access to my Career Command Process Online Framework. 

The Career Command Process Online Framework offers anytime access to my career pathing and job search method with videos, worksheets and resources. These tools will help you find clarity in what you want next, powerfully position yourself with the right words and then give you a strategy to go out and get the role you want that’s on your terms. 

This private 1:1 career coaching package includes:

✅ Six 60-minute virtual sessions with me - your coach, motivator, and biggest fan

✅ Access to The Career Command Process - 10+ Modules of my signature career pathing process, supported by videos, worksheets, and resources

✅ Feedback on your narrative, positioning and elevator pitch

✅ Email accountability and support

✅ Resume and LinkedIn Audit

Here’s a way to learn more and sign up. I can’t wait to work with you! 

https://www.rachelbgarrett.com/coaching

Every January and February, I work with clients to assess their current situation.
I ask the question, “How’s work working for you?”

The gut response is often…”I’m not sure...”

So we get more specific by answering the following questions - allowing my clients to get honest with themselves about what’s working, what’s not, and what actions they need to take next.

Growth:

1. Have you identified what you’d like to learn in your role?

2. And/or what would you like to learn in your career in general in the next year?

3. Are you on track to take on projects, attend workshops or participate in programs to help you get there?

4. What are your biggest obstacles to going after the growth you want?

5. What are you doing about those obstacles?

Energy:

1. What percentage of the time in your role are you feeling sparky, fully alive, in flow?

2. What are those things that make you feel sparky in your role?

3. Is there a way to do more of them or spend more time on them?

4. What are the things that are currently draining you in your role?

5. Is there a way to do less of them?

6. What would your work feel like if you could do more of the sparky things and less of draining tasks?

Life Fit:

1. Is your work aligned with your values?

2. What are your top life priorities right now? (Money you need to make, flexibility you need, etc.)?

3. Is your work in sync with your priorities?

4. Are you able to spend time with family and friends?

5. Do you have time for creative projects or the things that bring you joy?

Set aside some uninterrupted time to reflect on your own answers. And then, without judging any past decisions or current desires, ask yourself - how’s it really going? What grade would you give your current work situation? And if it’s a C or below…what do you want to do next?

Reach out to me at rachel@rachelbgarrett.com let me know what showed up for you and where you want to go from here!

Goodbye, January 2022!

I haven’t been this happy to release a month since March of 2020. 

Emotions ran high. PTSD from early pandemic days loomed large. Decisions became impossible to make, to get right and to stand by. 

I drew my energy and my peace from my new daily writing practice (I passed my one month anniversary!), my work helping more women identify and claim their career desires (we just wrapped an exciting 4-week group program), our family Wordle competition (That somehow my 10-year old is winning. I want 10-year old neural pathways!) and of course, you know me…my podcast addiction. 

Here’s a round up of podcast episodes that are giving me the tools and the inspiration to keep moving forward and doing my best despite the big expectations I had for 2022. 

The Happiness Lab: Stepping Off the Path of Anxiety
https://www.happinesslab.fm/2022-new-year-mini-season/stepping-off-the-path-of-anxiety

First of all, I recommend the entire 2022 mini season that dives into the tougher emotions we don’t like to recognize or talk about like anger, anxiety, grief. In this episode, Dr. Laurie Santos talks with Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Andrea Wachter about tools to acknowledge and quiet anxiety. Have a notebook handy for this one. I listened to it twice! 

On Being: Pico Iyer and Elizabeth Gilbert - The Future of Hope 3
https://onbeing.org/programs/pico-iyer-and-elizabeth-gilbert-the-future-of-hope-3/
This is part of a 4-part series of conversations around hope and I’ve enjoyed all of them. Having experienced the loss of her partner, Raya Elias, in 2018 Liz Gilbert connects lessons of surrender she learned from this loss to similar insights during the pandemic. I always find wisdom in Liz’s vulnerable observations and clear words that capture our humanity. 

Dare to Lead: The Great Awkward
https://brenebrown.com/podcast/the-great-awkward/

Brené always knows how to name the things none of us want to say. She and her sister Barrett discuss what “going back to the office” will look like and how inevitably it will be different than it ever was and we should expect it to be awkward AF. 

PS. This was the last episode Brené released before announcing she would hold off on releasing episodes until further notice. While she didn’t say it, this is clearly in response to Spotify continuing to give a platform to Joe Rogan and others who are spreading misinformation. Way to use your expertise and power to make change and stand in your values, Brené! 

CYG: Grief Companionship

https://www.callyourgirlfriend.com/episodes/2021/10/29/grief-companionship

This conversation is from the fall of 2021, but I thought it was so relevant as so many people are grieving both the people they lost in the past two years and also all of the things we’ve missed out on because of this damn pandemic. We have so little language and conversation around grief and this episode provides really practical things you can do for your people who are suffering alone right now. 

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Wordle is a daily dose of delight, despair, and sometimes smugness

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1075352735/wordle-is-a-daily-dose-of-delight-despair-and-sometimes-smugness

For those of you who didn’t think you could create a new daily habit…you were wrong! If you’re like me and you haven’t missed a day since you started playing…I see you. This is some Worldle Nerdery that will make you smile all the way through. 

Enjoy this list and let me know some other favorites of yours that are getting you through! 

Quietly listening and wordling,

Rachel

While this moment in the pandemic feels different everywhere in the country and in the world, right now, in New York City we’re beginning to breathe out again.The number of covid cases in schools is coming down. The hospitals in the city are not reporting overwhelm. We’re not hearing about new cases every day. Or at least not multiple cases per day!

There’s a lightness that’s creeping into our tightly wound bodies.

The people in my circles and the women I coach are lifting their heads up with the question…

What’s that you were saying about starting 2022?

Oh yeah, it’s a new year. I had plans. I had goals.

Then my priorities changed in an instant. I focused on what was in front of me.

And now I’m ready to say all those things I want out loud again.

I want to think about what’s next in my career.

I want something that’s “for me” in my life. Not for my partner or my kids or my parents.

One of the best ways I know to get momentum with these changes you want to make in the new year is to….

Talk to other humans.

Start with your close-in people. Branch out to your wider network. Be clear about who you are, what you want and where you need help.

Now if this first step is feeling hard. If you feel like you have no idea what to say. Or if you’re dreading those four words, “Tell me about yourself.”

I got you.

I hear this All. The. Time. That’s why I created the Nail Your Elevator Pitch Mini Course.

With the Mini Course, you will create a memorable and authentic pitch that sounds like you, feels energizing and activates your network so they can help you with your next career move.

The course includes:

⚡️ Five short videos that walk you through:

...A welcome and setting you up for success

...Identifying your strengths

...The strategy and approach to writing your pitch

...The formula for 3 different types of pitches based on YOUR situation

...Getting into action with your pitch (How to start using it in networking)

⚡️ A workbook where I provide my specific formulas and provide examples so you can write the first drafts of your pitch!

ALL FOR $60!

Add a 45-minute 1:1 pitch feedback session with me for $125 and you’ll have a powerful positioning relaunch for $185 all-in. 🔥

Here’s the link to go get that course so you can be fully guided and supported in moving through this critical career shift step: rachelbgarrett.com/pitch

I’ll see you in our feedback session!

In my groups and 1:1 coaching, one self-shaming statement comes up over and over again…

I’m [insert any age from 20 to 100] and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up! 

That’s typically followed by…

What’s wrong with me?

Why am I so behind?

What if I never figure it out? 

Here’s today’s truth bomb:

You may never figure out what you want to be when you grow up. 

Boom. I said that 🤷🏻‍♀️

That very statement implies there’s only one thing you’re meant to do! I call BS. 

You may not have a “calling” AND you can still enjoy your work. You can learn and you can feel good about your career and your life. 

So, if I told you, the lightning bolt may not hit you and that it feels more like a small spark that slowly grows and grows into a fiery, flickering flame anyway…

What would you do differently? 

What would you experiment with?

What would you leave behind? 

If you feel like you’re ready to figure out how to start paying attention to those itty bitty sparks already burning within you, reach out to schedule a 30-minute complimentary clarity call or CLICK HERE!

How’s week two of Dark Omicron January 2022?

I’m back to a "taking it day by day" place. No sudden movements. No big plans.

We’ll see what today brings. And, I’ll think about tomorrow…tomorrow.

I’m not much of a resolutions kind of person and yet there are a few things I want to commit to in the new year.

Instead of identifying an end goal that I can check off or a destination I can reach to meet these commitments, I’m experimenting with the James Clear, Atomic Habits, approach. Thinking about the kind of person I want to be and then making the kind of choices that kind of person would make.

Many of you have heard me say that I want to write a memoir or publish a collection of personal essays. Yet, while I write this weekly newsletter, there are no essays and there is no memoir.

Yet.

Putting this big goal out there. This destination of the big ass book of stories that are currently rolling around in my mind, for whatever human reason has not happened. I mean, I haven’t made it happen.

So, with this new experiment, I’m trying on being a writer instead of equating success as the (overwhelming) goal of the completed, published book that could potentially take years to write and edit.

I asked myself, "How would a writer approach this desire?" And I came up with an oh-so-complicated response.

She would write.

She would prioritize a writing practice and do it even when she didn’t want to write or didn’t have anything interesting to say.

So that’s what I’ve been doing since December 24th (but who’s counting). To get into my writing flow, I’ve started a Morning Pages practice every morning. For those unfamiliar with this simple tool from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, you write three full pages in the am…with no intention, with no goal or audience.

Miraculously, when I remove the pressure of the end goal, I allow myself the space to do the damn thing I’ve been wanting to do. I’m loving the quiet, the stillness, and the time to do this energizing thing. Where it will go, I’m not sure. But each day I build confidence, knowing I acknowledged I wanted something and amidst dodging the latest Covid variant…I’m making it a priority.

What kind of person do you want to be?

A learner. A helper. A changemaker.

What choices would you make and what habits would you build if you thought of yourself as that person?

If you’re ready to take the next step in making those shifts, set up some time in a 30-minute complimentary Clarity Call and we can help you get there together.