151: Taking a Leap of Faith: How I Made A Career Change Helping Others Do The Same

Have you ever found yourself so deeply absorbed in a task, hobby, or passion that time seemed to slip away, leaving you pleasantly lost in the moment? Well, that very talent, skill, or passion that lights a fire within you might just hold the key to your ideal career or side business!

In Part 1 of this captivating two-part episode, co-hosts Nola Boea and Lori Vajda sit down with entrepreneur, leadership development consultant, and immersive career coach extraordinaire Gretchen Skalka. Hear her describe how she used her natural talent, insight, and experience to go from being a successful marketing director to becoming a full-time entrepreneur.

If you've ever wondered what it feels like to turn your passion into a livelihood, this two-part interview is a must-listen! Get ready to be inspired and discover the path to a business or career that truly inspires, excites, and fills you with happiness.

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By the end of this episode, you’ll learn 

• Why losing track of time while doing something you love or are good at is a sign that you're on the right career path
• The signs that it’s time to make a career pivot
• How to use your natural skill, interest or talent as a guiding force towards your ideal career or side business
• Both interviews are brimming with tips and insights on transforming your passion into a lucrative career

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(01:50:00) Steve Jobs quote on finding a career you love and why you shouldn’t settle until you do.

(06:51:20) It’s incredibly important for you to realize that what you have to contribute is so much more than your title, especially given the amount of time you spend doing that function.

(08:24:80) The frustration that comes when you either don't feel empowered to tap into that part of yourself (your talent, skill, or passion) or have never had the opportunity to even know that you can draw upon it

(10:54:10) Immersive career coaching and how it helps you identify what excites you so you can succeed in your interview or business

(20:29:51) Career coaching that expands to include the entire lifespan of your career, and that career could be in one place or many places. It also could be with your turning a passion into your profession

Resources

Connect with Grethen Skalka: Career Insights Consulting

The Plight Attendant: Show Link

Gretchen Skalka: LinkedIn

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Podcast Transcript

Transcript

[00:00:00] Lori: Steve Jobs once said, the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, don't settle. You know, when you're young, you put a lot of time into thinking about what you're going to be when you grow up and the path you'll take to get there. I know I did. And for many people, the journey ends with them happily doing that one thing for the remainder of their career. But for some of us, including myself. There comes a day when you realize you do not want to continue working in your chosen field, or maybe even in your career track. If that sounds like you listener, stay tuned for an exciting double episode. In part one, you'll meet a former marketing pro turned career and leadership coach. Hear her inspiring and transformational entrepreneurial journey to starting her own business.

Then in part two, our guest shares invaluable insights and reveals the strategic approach she uses to guide professionals on their path through career pivots or leadership development. Get ready to be inspired and motivated. 

[00:01:07] Nola: Welcome to Sticky Brand Lab, where we bridge the gap between knowledge and action by providing you with helpful info, tips, and tools from entrepreneurs and other experts, so you can quickly and easily jumpstart your side business. We're your hosts. I'm. Nola Boea and this is my co-host, Lori Vajda. Hey, Lori. 

[00:01:24] Lori: Hi, Nola. 

[00:01:25] Nola: Lori, I really like that Steve Jobs quote you stated at the beginning of the show. I think it's a perfect fit for this two-part episode.

[00:01:32] Lori: Oh, I totally agree. But just in case you didn't know, that quote is only part of the entire message. As a matter of fact, it comes from a commencement speech that Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. And this quote comes from an entire section. So I thought it'd be much more fun if we could hear that whole paragraph from Steve Jobs himself. 

[00:01:56] Nola: Cool. Let's listen. 

[00:01:58] Steve Jobs: Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking, don't settle. 

[00:02:36] Nola: I love that. As someone who has made a few career changes myself, I think the advice applies whether you're a jack of all trades or a focused subject matter expert in a particular field. Just don't settle until you're truly satisfied doing the work you love to do. 

Our guest today knows a lot about that topic and she's here to share her story. Meet Gretchen Skalka, known simply as Skalka to her friends, which we now consider ourselves to be. She is a former corporate marketing director turned entrepreneur. Skalka is the founder of Career Insights Consulting, a company specializing in career and personal leadership development. With over a decade of experience coaching private and corporate clients, she knows that change can be daunting. Using science backed strategies, including NLP, CBT, and her exclusive RAM Thinking Method, she equips her clients with the tools to turn any situation into an opportunity. Whether clients are at a career crossroads, or they want to hone leadership skills, or they're starting a business venture, her universally applicable methods empower clients towards success. Skalka's expertise has earned her recognition in esteemed publications and podcasts, including Inc.com, Business Management Daily, Recruiter.com, NBC News, and her very own show, The Plight Attendant. And when she's not transforming lives, you'll find her exploring new horizons, creating art, or enjoying quality time with her furry friend, Newman, the Golden Retriever. Welcome Skalka! 

[00:04:09] Skalka: Thank you. It's great to be here with both of you. 

[00:04:12] Lori: We're excited you are here. 

[00:04:13] Nola: Before we dive into the details of your entrepreneurial leap of faith, why do your friends call you Skalka? 

[00:04:20] Skalka: So it goes back to, I was a reporter when I first graduated Auburn university. I was a journalism student and I was a reporter for a couple of years. And Skalka, Skalka, I am Southern, so you'll hear me say Skalka, the Alabama comes out, but Skalka is correct. And I just really identify with my last name so much that I kept it when I got married. I'll always be Skalka. And it is challenging for some people to call me by my last name, but I do prefer it. Yes. 

[00:04:47] Nola: That's very cool. Okay. Please go ahead and tell us and our listeners, what was life and work like before your big transition?

[00:04:56] Skalka: I was a corporate marketing director. I actually grew a team at the last company I was with it was a large multinational corporation and I was there for a little over 10 and a half years. And growing that team was just so eye-opening for me. I always knew that the thing I enjoyed the most about everything I did was actually developing people, figuring out what lit them up from the inside and figuring out ways to make that possible for them. But until I had my own team and created actually my own team at this company. I really didn't have a vehicle to do that. So it was just the perfect combination of time to identify what the company needed, build the team that would provide those services, but also be able to develop every single person on that team so that they could really flower into the kind of professional they were meant to be. It didn't mean that what they came in hired to do was ultimately where their gift really led them. And sometimes it led them to other opportunities outside of the company, which I think is very important and extremely gratifying as well. So that life was really concentrated on taking those people, developing them into whatever professional they were going to be so that they could be happy people. I love the Steve jobs quote because one of the things I always told everybody, and I firmly believe this, is that we spend so much time working. In fact, we spend more time at work in the enterprise of work than on any other single activity in our days. So that means we're spending more time working than we are with our family, our friends on our hobbies. So it has to mean something to us. More than a paycheck or something that we occupy our time with. It really does fundamentally have to mean something to us. So that's why I love that you brought in that quote in that speech from Steve Jobs because it's incredibly important for people to realize that what they have to contribute is so much more than the title they're being called for the eight or nine or 10, whatever hours a day that they are doing that function.

[00:07:03] Lori: What was your motivation to start a side business? How did your entrepreneurial journey begin? Because I'm thinking that it was later that you realized one of the things that lit you up was helping people find the thing that they were passionate about. But did you always know that? 

[00:07:21] Skalka: I think I probably always knew it, but I don't think I gave credence to it. Running a department and bringing people in and sort of understanding what it is that, that excites them. I think I always did identify with that, but I don't think I 1 believed I was really good at it or 2 that that was what I was supposed to do because I was supposed to be, you know, have my marketing hat on had my department leadership had on had all those hats on. But I wasn't focused on what was making me happy. And starting my entrepreneurial journey was really not intended. It wasn't something that I set out to do when I left my corporate role. It was actually, I was having a conversation with a client. She remarked how great it was that we could have that conversation, I could work with her during the day instead of at night and on the weekend, when we were both not doing our full-time role. She said, you should do this. And I said, what? And she said, this, you should coach full time. And I never thought about doing that. And shame on me because it was a thing I was always telling somebody else. Like you spend so much time at work, like you really want it to mean something. And I thought, what means something to me? And if I'm going to spend a lot of my time doing it and really put myself out there, what would that be? And understanding that there's a frustration that comes from people who either don't feel empowered to tap into that part of themselves, or have never had the opportunity to even know that they can. And so I think seeing that and understanding that I had it in me was. Probably the genesis of the real entrepreneurial journey where I thought, you know, I'm going to do it. 

[00:08:51] Nola: What qualifications or certifications or experiences did you draw from your corporate role that actually made you feel confident in your ability to provide career coaching services to other professionals?

[00:09:05] Skalka: So I think the main way is when I first came into the last role, the department did not exist. And so I came in to basically do sort of marketing content, but all the pieces weren't there. So very slowly I started to identify a need, make the presentation to my leadership. This is the need. This is the capital expense that will be required to fulfill the need and then I did my own recruiting. I got very skilled at understanding what were the skills, the talents that were needed for each position and finding people who could do that. But there's a mindset that I also wanted to bring in that open, positive growth centered mindset that I knew would serve not only the business needs, but also the individual's needs. Because there's something innate about every human being that's beautiful and unique to them. And that's what you want to draw out. That's what I had a feeling being able to do that for people, over more than a decade, that I knew that was the thing I wanted to do for other people, because not everyone even believes or has confidence in the fact that they do have that in themselves. So that would be a huge thing that I knew would serve me well as an entrepreneur. Just helping people become whatever it is they're meant to become. Yeah, it makes me incredibly happy. 

[00:10:25] Nola: Very cool. 

[00:10:26] Lori: So how did you and how do you differentiate yourself from others in the field? And basically, what is your unique value proposition and how did you recognize it? 

[00:10:39] Skalka: Early on in my time coaching, I did do documentation. I did resumes. I did cover letters. I help people with all those things. What sets me apart now certainly wasn't then, but having done it for so long, that's why I had to evolve. And the reason for that is I do immersive career coaching. So it's not singular focused. It's not, I need to update my resume. I need to interview better. I need to get through the ATS, any of those things. It's immersive. It's going to be everything. And the reason for that is because people who have a career challenge are sitting at an intersection of opportunity and need. And they may not realize how to get through that intersection. And the reason that I stopped doing resumes is because a resume has one purpose. And that is to get you an invitation to an interview. What you do with it from there is up to you. Interview prep is great, but that's all about self-command. And there's a certain amount of recall, but self-command is very important when you're in the moment. There are some things that are going to happen that will throw you, even if you've prepared for all the known questions and you've done your research on the company, there's going to be something in you, if you are someone who has any challenge with self-confidence, if you have something about yourself that makes you a little self-conscious, you'll telegraph that in an interview, no matter how prepared you are. That's what we need to get at the root of. So that intersection of opportunity and need, you have a great opportunity. This is the role you want. This is the company you want to work for. This is what you want to do. But your need is something self-identified, or maybe it's just been a challenge, something that's been holding you back. I can usually tell what that is for someone, or that they have a challenge just by the way they present. Again, if they cave in, when they talk to me, we have a self-confidence issue. If their eyes go down, they're not sure what they're about to say, those kind of things. Those are all opportunities, but also it gets into perception and reality. And so, we have to understand that in the absence of information, perception, what the interviewer sees or what the other person sees, becomes their reality about you, but it may not be true.

So that's why an immersive approach. I think is so important, and that's why things like neurolinguistic programming and cognitive behavioral therapy are so important so that we really understand our own behaviors, our own reactions to things. What's challenging us in the background that's being broadcast to other people, and how can we work with that? And that will serve you in every area of your life. Because again, life happens during work hours. So it's going to benefit you not only in the world of work, but in the world period. And so my unique value proposition is that I teach struggling professionals, people who are struggling with a challenge that is manifesting itself in their career. I teach them how to harness that power that they have, that self-command and self-knowledge so they can turn whatever the adversity is into the advantage for themselves and get through that intersection of opportunity and need. That's what sets me apart. 

[00:13:34] Lori: You know, what comes to mind when I'm listening to you say that? Nola, do you remember our episode on identity 

capital?

[00:13:41] Nola: Yes, I do. It was fascinating. 

[00:13:43] Lori: Yeah, so identity capital is all about connecting those pieces within your background that help make the story that you're selling to either pitching for a client about yourself or for a job application. So I have this piece in mind, but I'm also thinking Brene Brown. And vulnerability and her whole own your narrative story. And what I hear you say is it's not just about being able to answer a question. It's about helping people own their story and really tell it in a way that helps them stand out from the competition and do that in a way that's natural. And the only way that you can do that is to work through it. So that kind of is where that immersive part of your coaching comes in. It's like, this is who I am. And this is where it comes from, and this is how I present it. So here's my narrative, whomever I'm talking to. 

[00:14:43] Skalka: Exactly. And it also benefits them so that when they get that role and they're in that environment, there will be unknowns. There will be things that will happen that you can't plan and prepare for. That's just the nature of life. Right? So. Those things happen. How do we respond to those things? Whether you're taking a new leadership role and you inherit another team and now you've got a blended team and then there may be challenged there. The people may not be thrilled about that. How do you deal with that as a leader? How do you work through those things? And the more you understand yourself and why you think and do and behave in certain ways and what is challenging to you, the better you're going to be equipped to work through that. 

And I've said this before, but mastering the moment is an incredibly important thing. And it's a lifelong work in progress because we all are. But how many times have we said something, done something that we wish we could take back, but that moment is done. And when you do that in a professional setting, you often get no second chance. So you can avoid that. Those situations are avoidable. But again, it does take that immersive sort of approach to understanding why we do and think the way we do. An imposter syndrome is something that is very real. But if we have an inferiority complex, yet, we're high achiever, and most people who do suffer from imposter syndrome are high achievers. When you have that, and you drill down to the whys, the whens and how it started, you can begin to identify patterns. And when you can identify the pattern, you can then begin to identify a pattern of recourse. How you can begin to address that and arrest those behaviors, because now you know they're happening. You understand the situations that are likely to bring that, you know, bubble it up to the surface of you. And how to intercept that before it causes you to do or say something that you would rather have not done before that happened. So, yes, those things are incredibly important. Everyone responds to things differently. No, 2 people are going to have the same thought or reaction to the same situation. It's just not possible. It's probably why no 2 people have the same fingerprint. Those fundamental differences are incredibly important to understanding that in the moment, thinking and shifting, and that is great for problem solving as well. There's no end to the list of benefits that being able to do that can provide. 

[00:16:55] Nola: Well, a variety of theoretical frameworks for your methodology, including what you've developed as exclusively as what's called RAM thinking. So tell me, how did you come up with this new, unique methodology? 

[00:17:10] Skalka: There's a group called Positive Intelligence and they have a wonderful PQ mastery program, which is you have intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and then there's a sort of mental mastery. That's what they call it. But there's a lot of that sort of understanding and training into how to recognize in ourselves the things that are challenging us. And then how do we work with that? 

And then, understanding the results pyramid, which has been around forever, but at the very top of the results pyramid, which is where people live, you have results or reality, the R, and that is the direct result of the actions that we all take. And we take the actions we do because of the mindset we have about. The world in general, in our place in it. What we believe to be right, true, real, and possible for each of us. We either do or we don't do something. If we don't think we have a shot at the person that we're attracted to, we won't take action. We won't go to the places we know they are. We won't join the clubs that we know they are going back to high school. If we think our boss doesn't like us, we are less likely to take positive action on our own behalf. And you marry that mindset up with root causes. If I have a victim mentality, if I have a sort of, I'm a hyper achiever mentality, but that doesn't work for me because I'm not really bringing my whole authentic self, because that's a defense mechanism. It's a mask. If I am a pleaser and a lot of people identify that way, but pleasers are notoriously poor at self-advocacy, and so you marry that up with a perception, your perception that your boss doesn't like you. That may not be reality, but you will do or not do things that will create situations that won't be in your best interest because of that.

So the reality that we have is the direct product of the actions we take, and we do that because the mindset we have. So that's the R, the A and the M in RAM thinking. And you can get down further into our values, opinions, and beliefs, but they all bubble up to those three things. And those three things are at the core of how we all live our lives. And so if there's any area that you're not happy with, is part of your existence, your experience at work or beyond, take a look at your day-to-day actions. Are they moving you forward in a positive way, a way toward a goal that you want, or are they not? And if they're not, what do you think about those things? Where do you really live in your mind about your belief about what's possible for you? And when we can get into that, we can make real and lasting change. And that to me is very, very important. It's what I go back to the immersive part because singular focus is great. There are wonderful coaches who provide incredibly good services, doing those services, documentation, cover letters, interview prep, but singular focus for me, there's an end there. But we don't end there. And so we will be in a situation if they're successful. Now we're in that role. We're with those people. They, nothing prepared you for that. Nothing helped you understand your own thinking about that environment and what that looks like. So if you are someone who is challenged with limiting belief, and you're in a new environment where you've successfully navigated the entryway into it, but you don't know how to navigate through it, it could be either a very short experience or a very painful experience. And that is what I want to avoid. That's why career coaching for me is the entire lifespan of your career. And that career could be in one place, many places. It also could be with your turning a passion into your profession. I love it when people are able to do that because I really do feel like they're tapping into the soul, your heart led business. I think that's how it happens. When you can turn your passion into what your profession is. 

[00:20:55] Lori: As an entrepreneur, do you remember the moment, that epiphany of the RAM methodology showed up for you? What that was like when you realized you were seeing things that maybe your colleagues weren't or a way to design working through something that your colleagues weren't seeing?

[00:21:15] Skalka: From a personal development standpoint, the first time I thought, they're reading people wrong, and it changed the way I thought about management was, I was beginning to grow this department, and my then boss came to me and he said, you're going to get an intern and this is him. He was probably 24, 25 years old. He was very young, very tall. And he had a business degree. And so I sat down with him and I said, okay, well, I'm not sure where I'm going to plug you in. This is what I need. What can you do? And I thought he was joking when he said, well, I'm a rapper. That was like, music rapper? It's like, yeah, it's like, okay, tell me about what you do. And he said, well, you know, I write music and I make rap videos. I said, do you make your own videos? Yeah. I said, do you edit your own videos? Yep. We needed a video department. I said, okay, what do you use for that? And so he starts Adobe Premiere and Maya and all this stuff. And I was like, okay. I said, what about your album covers? Who does those? Cause he had showed me his YouTube channel. He said, oh, I do that. I know Photoshop. Okay. I put him on a couple of things and I said, okay, well, here's a product image. It's not great. Photoshop? Which of course we wouldn't do, but I wanted to see his skill. And it was amazing what he turned out. And so that really clicked something inside me that was like, look beyond the resume, the documentation, look beyond this, because that's what he liked to do. He did that in his spare time, no money. What is it that you're spending a lot of your time on? If you could make money great, but if not, you're still going to do it.

There is. Something that you're going to be great at wrapped inside that activity. Now, let's bring that out. And if you're already here, let's see what that is. And so I started doing that with everyone on the team, just to get an idea of what they really, really enjoyed and putting them on those things and thinking through that. And it made pretty much every project better and it also made them better at working with each other because you could start to see it's like a recipe. When things bring out the flavor and other things in the sauce pot, that's exactly what they did. So it made the team dynamic even healthier. 

[00:23:16] Nola: That's a wonderful success story.

[00:23:18] Lori: Oh yeah.

[00:23:19] Nola: \We all know that there will also be times when things just don't go as planned. So in your case, tell us about a business idea or a team building experience or some client interaction that failed and how you either turned it around or let it go. 

[00:23:37] Skalka: I could talk about ones when I was still in corporate and ones as I've been a coach now in my own business.

I think definitely I had pitched a couple of things at corporate that didn't land well. I had a project where I wanted people to think about our customer five years from now, they're not our customer yet, but they will be five years from now. How do we talk to that person now because that person also has buying power. Now how do we identify them and talk to them, and how would we do that as a marketer? What story would we tell them? And so we created a video series and everyone liked it in theory, but it didn't have traction with the CEO. So that was one where the approach wasn't quite there. I didn't understand my audience. I understood the audience's audience, the company's audience. Our clients, but I didn't understand my audience. I was looking at my audience as the company's customers and my team. My audience is everyone you interact with. They are all your customers, your internal customers. And I didn't have an appreciation for that. It was a good lesson learned for me, but it was an opportunity lost for me. And so it was a good lesson though.

I did have a situation where I did have a client. Who came to me with a very specific goal of a very specific job with a very specific title. And through the course of our work, that title had, and that job had eluded her for years. It just was always just out of reach for her. And we got through a lot of that deep internal work and understood why it had been out of reach for her. But that was sort of, I don't want to say an insurmountable challenge, but people are ready for the message when they're ready for it. Not everybody can hear what they need to hear when they need to hear it, if that makes sense. And I don't think I'm saying it correctly, but when you're ready, you're ready. And when you're not, you're not. It's the reason why some people I've worked with on and off for years, because things will happen in that moment. That light bulb goes off. The moment it does is like, oh, now I get it, but we weren't ready for it before. And that actually happened last year when I first opened the business. I had a client who just was not ready yet. It was not the time. I believe it will be, but it was not the time. And that is another growth opportunity for me to realize. A very favorite saying of mine is, don't push the river. And I use that philosophy for myself, but also with clients. If someone's not ready for something, then that's okay. There will be a time, but if you push it and you force it, the adoption of it and the implementation of that information will never be to their best interest to their highest good and achievement. So don't do it. And that takes a lot of self-discipline. It's taken a lot of years to understand that if it's not the time, it's not the time. 

[00:26:12] Lori: So using yourself as an example, how did you manage it? What kind of systems did you put in place that really helped you organize the steps or set the priorities so you could make that final leap in the direction, basically from being on the threshold to taking 

action.

[00:26:33] Skalka: I'm a systems person. I love systems. I feel like when you have strong systems, you have a support, like a backbone that you don't ever have to worry about. And so I started asking myself the question, what would it take? What does it really involve? And so I did some research. So I had to compartmentalize things. I had to organize and do sort of my own little mini launch plan of my schedule of what I needed to do. So what is it? Okay. Open a business. That's an entity. What do I need to do for that? I live in Florida. Are there requirements for those kinds of things? So understanding all of the fundamentals, the mechanics, and there are a lot of resources out there, like the Small Business Administration places, because I really didn't know. I think if you're on the cusp, if you know your head and your heart are marrying up and they're like, this is the direction to go and you want to do this thing. Then I think take the pressure off yourself, start to put into place a system, even if it's just doing a checklist on a piece of paper. What do I need to do it in what order? Because when you can see it laid out for you, it's a lot less stressful than having it all here that you have to filter through manually. So you have that checklist, you have it in order, but you know how much time you can comfortably devote every day to it. If you're still trying to do it while you're working your full-time job, what's realistic for you? What's comfortable for you? And I think that's something that a lot of people don't give themselves permission to do. Because there are a million things out there that will tell you, you have to do it by this time, or they'll give you like 10 ways to be successful in four months. And yeah, okay. But for most people, it doesn't work that way because everyone is unique. And so what is your unique style? What do you need to do? And I think that's the most important thing for people is understanding their own personal requirements. Yours are going to be different from mine because you live a life that is different from me. So if you are someone who wants to start your side business while you're still working full time, what does that look like? How much time do you have in the morning after work, those kinds of things to devote to it. And then again, just make a simple checklist of what you need to do to start the business. Segment it out because that's a lot easier to manage than the sort of nebulous, I want to start a business tomorrow. I want to open an Etsy store to sell my resin, my acrylic paintings. That's great, but you need a process behind that. And I think that once you can begin to develop even the most simple system, it takes so much pressure off because you can see it on the paper. You can check it off and know you're making progress. 

That's the other thing, is, don't shy away from congratulating yourself for even the babiest of baby steps, because that is forward momentum. And a lot of people will quit on their goals before they reach them, because in our minds, this is the goal. I have to reach the goal, not understanding that there are a thousand mini goals that we're going to hit all along the way that make that one possible. And when we can see that, we see the progress. We don't see the progress because we're not recognizing those achievements. That's when people quit. So don't quit on yourself before you're ready, make the list, know what you need to do, benchmarks for yourself, milestones, whatever you want to call it, but write those things out. I think that's one of the easiest ways to get going and show yourself it's not the big monster that you think it might be. Or, it's not as easy as you might think it is, so give yourself permission to say, okay, maybe I need some help thinking through this. 

[00:29:53] Nola: Going back to mindset, though, I can personally attest to how easy it is to put other people's needs before my own, especially my family's. Can you speak to that and also share some of the ways you practice self-care? 

[00:30:07] Skalka: Yeah, definitely. One of the things I like to do is make partnerships. I like to make people part of my partnership for success. So if you're running a household, if you're married, and I'm married for a long time, we're responsible for a lot of things. But a lot of times what we'll find is when we take a very kind of close look at how we've gone about doing things before, maybe we haven't created partnerships or strengthened those partnerships because we're used to just the doing part of it. So that's also understanding ourselves and giving ourselves some grace to say, I'm going to delegate this. I normally do this task, but I'm going to delegate this because I need to prioritize my time. I need to think through this. That can be really, really tough. If I'm the one who is the grocery shopper and I know I can get it done faster, but trusting my husband to go and do that for me, he's going to forget this. He's going to forget that. But then also balancing that out with my larger goal. Is it really the end of the world if he forgets paper towels this time? It's not. I have a car. I can get there if I need to. But right now, I need to focus on my business plan. I need to focus on sending some emails or doing my newsletter. I've got to focus on this task. That understanding of priority. I think the Eisenhower matrix is what's urgent and important. And then what's just important. What's urgent. So those kind of things and balancing them out, but also bringing in your support system. Understanding where you can get help. If you are a true solopreneur, it's just you. Then figuring out how you can prioritize and giving yourself permission to not have to do it all at once or not have to do it perfectly. Messy over perfect still gets it done. still moves the needle forward. For me, self-care is taking that time and knowing that I can take that time. And sometimes it's a matter of in the moment time. One of the best tips for self-care I know is stop. Right? Give yourself a pause. If you're in the middle of your own like personal frenzy or your own little, you know, emotional or mental tornado, because you've got a million things to do and something just went wrong. Your computer crashed, something happened. Pause, stop. It's okay. Give yourself a moment. Because when your brain is stressed, it can't solve problems. It's kind of in this little bundle. So when you can relax yourself and do some kind of calming exercise, 4 4 4 is one of my favorites. You'll hear me talk about it a lot. You breathe in for 4, you hold for 4, you exhale for 4, do it 3 times in a row in less than a minute, you will naturally lower your heart rate. And when you do that, you are in a naturally calmer state. And when you do that, your brain functions differently. That whole prefrontal cortex is now activated. That's where problem solving happens. Self-care is giving yourself permission sometimes to just stop and you can do that in under a minute. You really can. 

[00:32:48] Lori: Great advice. Since your work includes working with professionals and helping them develop their leadership skills, we were wondering what's your leadership superpower?

Ooh, 

[00:33:02] Skalka: I think it is curiosity, really. I have always been the kind of person that I want to understand the why behind what, and sometimes that what is another person. And I think when you are, at least for me, yeah, in a leadership role, being curious about what's happening or who the people are. Really knowing them, it unlocks a lot of doors. It's a great key. Curiosity is I think a really underrated skill to have. 

[00:33:31] Nola: Love that. 

[00:33:32] Lori: Great superpower. I love it. Thank you, Skalka, for being our guest. We're sure your personal and professional experience as well as your real-world tips and suggestions will inspire and motivate ambitious women to take the leap of faith to do great work in a career or business they truly love. Before you go, how can listeners get in touch with you? Where should they go if they want to learn more about you, your business, or any upcoming programs that you might be offering?

[00:34:01] Skalka: Sure. They can go to my website, career insights consulting dotcom. And I have actually a mastermind program. I'm doing early enrollment for October right now. September is full, but I am doing a Self-Command Mastermind. And it's sort of a deep dive into harnessing that power. I also have my signature work that I do with RAM thinking, which is RAM Fitness. And you can read all about that on that website. And then I have started a YouTube channel, The Plight Attendant, which is the name of my live stream on Tuesdays. It's all about personal problem solving and tapping into your personal power. And like we just talked about, give yourself permission to become what it is that you are meant to become. So my website and YouTube are probably the best ways to get more information about me. And LinkedIn, I shouldn't forget LinkedIn. I'm just Gretchen Skalka at LinkedIn. 

[00:34:47] Lori: Perfect. We'll be sure to put links to all of those websites on our show notes. Well, listener, we hope the ideas and thoughts shared here today have sparked your interest and curiosity to make a mid-career change or to become a first-time entrepreneur in the second half of your vibrant life. Remember to come back next week for part two, where Skalka will be sharing the strategies she uses to guide professionals on their path through career pivots and leadership development. And be sure to stick around to the very end for a fun little chuckle. 

[00:35:20] Nola: If you found the information we've shared helpful and want more tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox, sign up for News You Can Use over on our website, stickybrandlab.com or click the link in our show notes. And remember, small steps, big effects! 

[OUT-TAKE]

Using science backed strategies, including NLP CPT. I did that wrong. 

[00:35:44] Lori: She was worried. She was going to say. CBD. So, right. Ooh. 

[00:35:51] Nola: I still, yeah, stumbled over it either way. Okay. Retake.