Career Transition’s Unexpected Treasures

A couple of weeks ago I was writing a birthday card for one of my close friends – and I realized we’ve been in each other's lives and inner circle for nearly a decade.

We met in coach training back when we were both in marketing roles, hungry for something new and on the edge of what we didn’t know would be a life-changing, identity-shifting moment in time.

On long runs in Prospect Park, we coached each other through the hard reality of having one foot in our full time roles and one tip toeing into a world we didn’t yet know how to navigate.

At brainstorming lunches, we laughed at ourselves and our respective mistakes. And when I say laughed, I mean projectile tears and lettuce from our takeout salads.

Of all the things I’d hoped for in my career transition – a new friend to walk beside me on the journey was not even on my radar.

And yet it’s the part I didn’t know how much I needed.

I wish I could go back to “ten years ago me”, a bundle of nerves and fear as I humbly asked myself…Wait, what the hell are you doing with your career while you have two young kids and a mortgage?

And I would say – you will not take this leap alone.

As you move closer to the work you love, you will meet your people who love it like you do.

Who will nerd out with you on the minutiae that would bore your partner and your old friends to tears.

Who will celebrate you, knowing both how hard it is to do what you’re doing and how far you’ve come from the very first idea of your business that lived only in your mind.

It’s hard to quantify the life and the growth I would have missed out on if I was too fearful to make the change, but when I think about the people I would have never met – the pang in my belly makes me grateful I don’t need to live with that regret.

Where are all the mentors at?

One major complaint I hear from clients and other women in my world is – I don’t have a mentor. Or sometimes it’s – I’ve NEVER had a mentor.

Someone who thinks about you and your career. Knows you well enough to guide you in your big career decisions. Helps you reframe some of the unhelpful thoughts that are holding you back in getting what you want – or being who you want to be in your career relationships.

While I do believe at my core that we are the drivers of our own careers – there’s a comfort in knowing that there’s someone out there who believes in us, who can talk us through how to navigate the landmines of working with an asshole boss or model the language we can use to set boundaries (if we’ve never heard it before!).

This person, these people – are hard to find. It’s not just you.

This is why I created Career Connections. It’s a group of thoughtful and supportive mentors.

Professionals who have persevered through the ups and downs of their work-lives and used their experience to grow into more human leaders.

Individuals who are getting to know each other deeply and coaching each other in the unique challenges of their respective careers.

I am committed to offering a space for these conversations and support so my goal is to make the investment accessible. When you join Career Connections for 3 months it is $285, less than the cost of a single 60-minute 1:1 session with me.

Our next session is July 11th at 4pm ET and we will be discussing Our Relationship Audits – the most impactful relationships we are nurturing in our careers – and those that we need to release.

If you sign up by July 10th, you will be able to join our group of mentors to get intentional about the most important part of our careers – the people.

You can learn more and sign up at rachelbgarrett.com/connections.

And I’m completely biased, but I still MUST say – I’m deeply grateful to spend 90 minutes a month in mind blowing conversations with the compassionate and smart AF humans in our group.

Your 2024 Career Relationships

In my 1:1 work with clients and in my Career Connections membership, we’ve been talking a lot about building community, networking and nurturing the most important relationships in a career.

Yet – one of the biggest challenges is…time.

I often hear – I’m so busy with work and family. I’m doing all the things to stay afloat in my life. I don’t have time to network, just for the sake of networking.

Or sometimes the reason sounds like – I know I “should” network, but I honestly don’t know why.

Let me pull this out of shouldsville for you.

In my work guiding the careers of hundreds of thoughtful and talented clients, I’ve learned there are 3 types of relationships that are the most important in building their confidence, expanding their view of what’s possible and creating new bridges to get them where they want to be.

So, because you don’t have all the time in the world, let’s focus your energy, attention and time on the connections that will bring you the most meaning and joy.

To get us organized (my love language), I’ve created - The Career Relationship Audit.

Write a list of people who fit into the following categories:
(Fillable worksheet here!!)

Reminder that you don’t need to nurture all relationships, all the time. Your first three categories will have longer lists – and then you can prioritize where you’re going to focus your energy.

What I’ve found is that once I’m intentional and proactive about setting up conversations, I’m reminded about how much they fill me up and I’m able to connect with many more of my favorite humans than I expected I would have time for.

I say this with the caveat of being an extrovert with relationship building being among my most energizing strengths – so no huge surprise.

That said, I do find that for many clients the momentum they feel in nurturing their relationships builds so they somehow create more time for it.

Plus, you’d be surprised how much time you can spin up when you’re able to turn down the volume on a couple of relationships you’re moving towards releasing.

I’d love to hear what you think about the The Career Relationship Audit. We’re going to be diving deep on how it’s helping us to be more thoughtful about our relationships in the next Career Connections session on July 11th at 4pm ET.

If you join by July 9, you’ll be able to join us and share wins in our online community on Circle.

Here’s to summer connecting!

When You Say No to the Big Job

Every so often within the messiness of life – I witness my clients fall into a steady, content state of being.

A confident and compassionate groove.

A flow of working parenthood that clearly is not perfect – yet (holy shit!) it’s actually working.

When this happens, they typically have a community surrounding them that’s meaningful and supportive.

A role where they’re respected and confident about the value they’re bringing to the organization.

And a family that’s emerging from what I call “the in it stage of parenting.” They’ve left toddlerhood and diapers behind and are beginning to see more bandwidth opening up on the horizon.

It’s in this stage of life in which you’ve managed to put the pieces together to become whole once more, that the universe may debut its latest joke at your expense.

Out of thin air, you get a seemingly once in a lifetime opportunity for a BIG and exciting job that requires you to move your family across the country.

As you might imagine, this is not hypothetical and it did happen to a former client of mine recently.

We jumped on a session to discuss it.

We reviewed her non-negotiables, her current values, her pro’s and cons for the role–and even the feelings she was having in her body.

It was clear. She’d built a life of her design. It was on her terms. She was loved and celebrated and supported.

Yet – this could be an adventure, a climb up the ladder, a unique leadership experience.

As I listened, my intuition flooded me with a message I needed to share.

“I don’t know what the right decision is for you, but I do know that if you decide to say no, it doesn’t mean you’re not ambitious.

You can still go after more. You can still hunger in your career – and prioritize the community, the relationships, the ease you’ve intentionally built into your life.”

This is not the binary "ambitious vs. not ambitious" that some may color in the lines of the decision.

You get to choose your version of success.

And there are seasons where flow and ease and community may be the right formula for you.

Sometimes the NO can be the big career win.

I still don’t know what my client has chosen to do – and will certainly support her in either direction.

Yet I can see that the release of the meaning she was placing on saying NO is helping her to make a decision that is on her terms.