Please welcome career strategy coach Lisa Lewis as February’s Expert-in-Residence in The Bullish Society. If you haven’t yet invested in a Society membership, here is one more fantastic (and career boosting!) reason!
Hi Lisa, welcome to Bullish Society as our February Expert-in-Residence! Tell us a little about yourself.
Hi Jen, and hello Bullicorns! I’m a career coach for multipassionate women ready to get “unstuck” from a job you’ve outgrown and find work that truly fits who you are. I come by my work not just from my coaching certification and study of the career change process, but through personal experience finding a path forward.
Prior to coaching, I had a ten-year corporate communications career that I was damn good at, but knew in my gut felt completely soul-less for me. When my bosses would ask me to work on Thanksgiving — or jump right back into work hours after finding out my grandfather died — I could feel a permanent rage blackout coming on, and something inside of me said, “there has got to be a better way”.
It wasn’t just me: it seemed like almost every one of my friends was going through a period of crisis wondering “is this all there is? I don’t want to become my boss.” So all of a sudden, I had a mission: figure out how to crack open this career and meaning question to keep people from experiencing so much anxiety, stress, and pain around work.
From my experience answering that question, as well as my research into others’ successful career transitions, I’m here to share the gospel: it’s not just possible, but imperative to be happy at work day-to-day. We all have unique gifts and skills that the economy can recognize and reward, and life is too short to settle for anything less than awesome in your work life.
Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to take leaps in our careers — because smart risks can lead to big rewards.
And, it is not too late to make a shift into doing work you actually want to do. Especially for a woman who is as resourceful, savvy and growth-minded as a Bullicorn.
We met in person at The Bullish Conference in Palm Springs! What was your take on the conference as a career coach?
First of all, conferencing with ridiculously smart and passionate women poolside at a sunny resort is always an A+ life decision. So there’s that.
But from a career perspective, my favorite thing about the conference was the amount of reflective moments we had. Centering your thoughts and actions around what you want in the coming year might feel selfish or uncomfortable, but that focus allows you to live your life in alignment with your values — which is what almost everyone truly wants.
Despite being an introvert (INTJ in the house!), being with the humans at the Bullish Conference was amazing. Meeting real life people who are kicking ass as businesswomen, aspiring entrepreneurs, social justice warriors and compassion advocates is the kind of thing I don’t get to do in my day-to-day life enough, so it was an infusion of goodness into my heart. I’ve spoken with three of the women I met in Palm Springs in the past two weeks alone, and we’re constantly coming up with collaborative business ideas for complete Bullicorn market domination.
I understand you’ll be running a 10-day career challenge for us in Society – a sort of career kick in the pants for everyone. Give us a sneak peek — what will we be challenged to do?
No matter whether you’re contemplating a huge life change or simply finding ways to squeeze a little more happy into your existing role, I wanted to design a challenge that works for you, so the two week challenge is centered around being confident and being visible in your career. Yes, the challenge includes some of the tactics you read in every “advance your career” article, but there’s a reason they’re in there: 70% of new jobs come from networking opportunities. (And for entrepreneurial ladies, I’m guessing that number is even higher for generating new business leads.)
If you do this challenge with us, you will walk away with: your Professional Lady Badass positioning statement, an upgraded resume and LinkedIn profile, a re-warmed network, and maybe even some Smash the Patriarchy pens for your desk.
Last question – you know we get a little contrary over here at Bullish. What’s the worst career advice going around? And what’s your take on it?
My favorite limiting belief to bust is that you need to be confident to take action. From everything I’ve seen, confidence is the result of taking un-confident actions over and over again to prove to yourself that you can do it — it’s the result, not the cause. If you never take that first leap of bravery and put yourself out there, you’ll never give yourself the opportunity to be confident in something new. Confidence at its essence is trust in yourself.
I find that in conversations with women, we talk significantly more about internal limits (pressure, fears, worries, and doubts about our capabilities) than external limits (money, time, or resource access). I want to flip the script on that. You are amazing, capable, resourceful and whole — and if you want to make a change in your life, you don’t need anybody’s permission other than your own.
Be gutsy and bold by taking a risk — and trusting yourself to figure it out — and the confidence will come.
