Second Act Success Career Podcast
Season 1 - ​​Career Clarity Mini-Series - How To Get Clear On Your Career Goals | Ep #104
Episode - #104
Host: Shannon Russell
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Shannon Russell: This is my career clarity masterclass mini series. . Over the next five episodes of the podcast. I will walk you through ideas for your second act career, as well as my four steps to achieving career clarity. I ran this masterclass over the summer and I received really positive feedback from it. I am breaking it into five, easy to listen to. Bite-size episodes. My hope is that you will learn some tangible ways to get clear on how to choose the work you really should be doing and how to decide on a job or a business that will truly fulfill you.

All right. My friend, it is time. Let's get started.

Hey you, are you feeling stuck? Desperate for a career change or thinking of starting a business but you're just not sure how to make your first move? I'm television producer turned career coach Shannon Russell and this is the Second Act Success Career Podcast. This is where you will not only get the career advice you've been craving but you'll get tips from career and business experts along with [00:01:00] inspiration from others who have made a career transition to find second act success.

Let's get started. Welcome to the 2nd Act Success Masterclass on Career Clarity. Are you in the right place right now? for your life as it is today. what we are going to do today in this masterclass is really talk about doing that self reflection, and then really trying to produce a life of abundance in whatever that means for us.

I just want to take a second to really congratulate you on taking the time out of your busy day to focus on this. And it means it shows that you have a desire to make this change in your career or this change in your life. And that dedication is really what you need to kind of work through this process and to get you there. Showing up really is the first step towards change. So I just want to say that I'm very proud of you for being here [00:02:00] and for taking that first step towards change.

Now for those of you who might be new to the Second Act Success community, let me reintroduce myself. I am Shannon Russell. I am a career transition coach. I am a certified YouMap® coach as well, and Before all of that, I am a mom of two boys and they are my world.

And they're the reason that I started this business. And they're really the reason for everything I do. Just to give you a little background, since I was very little, I dreamed of working in Hollywood, going to Hollywood, working in the entertainment industry was.

I was the first person in my family to go to college and there I studied communications and theater and film and I ended up working in the entertainment industry. I lived in New York City and Los Angeles and worked in TV for about 16 years. And loved it, loved every second of it.

But once I began starting to have my family, I realized that the hours in TV just really didn't work for [00:03:00] me. So I needed to be a more present mom. That is what I wanted. And so I had to figure out how to pivot, which is a challenge to all of us. And that's why you're here, right? Just trying to figure out how to pivot is, is the hardest part.

After the birth of my second son, I knew that that was the time I really needed to transition. So, I didn't know what I was going to do. How would I get my skills from television, a really niche industry to transfer over into anything else? I was really going through a lot of soul searching. I felt really, really lost and I don't want to say mistakes, but definitely tried quite a few different things. To see what would work. And I ended up just following my heart and kind of stumbling into entrepreneurship. And I opened my first business, a Snapology franchise. And I realized that entrepreneurship gave me the schedule and the time to be able to be that present mom.

And I was [00:04:00] able to use my experience in television of managing big budgets and productions and hiring people and directing talent and using my writing skills to write marketing copy. All of that I was able to use as, I grew my business it was really cool to make that pivot and then transition and see that I could actually.

Do it and succeed. I have owned this business now for about seven years it's been a really successful venture for me. And it kind of led me to becoming a coach because I had a lot of customers. I had friends starting to ask me,

why did you make that change? And more importantly, how did you make this drastic transition from TV into owning a business? And can you help me do it? So it really kind of planted those seeds about trying to help other people, especially women, realize that they can make this change and they can figure out.

Something different to do with their [00:05:00] lives when all of a sudden they find themselves kind of in their midlife wondering Okay, what I did for my first act didn't quite Fit into what I'm doing now. And so that's where Second Act Success came into play and I started coaching women to feel empowered to transition into a new career that really fits them better. helping clients one on one, helping them really figure out, their next steps.

So I want you to know that it truly is possible for you to get clarity on that next step and move towards it.

[00:05:34] Shannon Russell: Hey, it's Shannon. If you are enjoying this podcast, then you will love my weekly newsletter. It's full of career advice, productivity tips, and of course, inspiring stories of women who have launched a new career that they love. Just go to secondactsuccess.Co to sign up.

Now it's back to the episode.

[00:05:54] Shannon Russell: Let's really start by acknowledging how rapidly changing today's workforce is [00:06:00] you might have noticed this really through, witnessing it in the workplace that you're currently in, or even just through the news, there's a workplace shift of people going from full time to contract, which is what I did back in the entertainment industry, kind of working.

Project to project, which doesn't leave a lot of room for stability. So it's definitely tricky. And a lot of larger companies are doing that where they're letting go of employees. hiring contractors or freelance temps to work on the projects, not giving them benefits, and then just kind of saying, okay, you did the project.

We don't need you any longer. So there's definitely that shift since the pandemic, especially there's also the shift of people going from working in the office and really having that camaraderie to working remote. From home. And that's a really big shift. and larger companies are laying off employees in droves, as you've seen probably all over in the news, really large companies.

it's proving that there's just not a lot of [00:07:00] reliability in the workforce. And even smaller companies like my franchise, we're finding it's harder to hire. People who are becoming a lot more empowered and maybe picky, if that's, I don't know if that's the right word, but more, sure about what it is that they do want, and they're not going to just take any old job, if it doesn't fit what they want, and I kind of applaud people for that, I really do, it just leaves a lot more room for that grayness, in what we're talking about today, which is really, Finding that professional fulfillment in a career that really aligns with our goals, our passions and our purpose.

it really can be challenging because we're dealing with all of these other workplace parameters. With the right mindset and strategies and the self reflection that we're going to really go through in this masterclass, you can gain that clarity and ultimately make a really informed decision about which path you want to follow.

for your career journey. So what is a second [00:08:00] act? Alright, a second act is a change to start fresh in a new role using the experience that you have, that you enjoy doing, that you really love, and that sparks that joy and brings that fulfillment to you. So if you chose a career right out of high school or college and you worked in that career for many years, Or even a few years and you realize oh, this isn't me.

This isn't what I dreamed of doing It's different somehow or maybe your life has shifted and it just doesn't fit your schedule or what your Ambitions are anymore that is completely okay and completely normal. it just means okay Well, let me use what I learned in that first act and transfer it over into the second act.

a second act might be starting a business, like I did. It might be starting over at a new company. It might be starting over in a new role completely, even at your current company. Maybe you switch departments and you try something new. It could be [00:09:00] writing a book. That's a huge second act. Maybe that's a dream you've had since you were a little girl and now you are getting a chance to become an author and write that book.

It could be launching a podcast. It could even be just volunteering full time. maybe you're at that in your role, in your career, in your life where you're done with a nine to five, you're done with the working money is not so much maybe an issue or a concern for you. And you can. Go into volunteering.

How incredible would that be to be able to donate your time to charities that you truly care about? And there's a lot of people who are using volunteering as their second act.

[00:09:37] Shannon Russell: Now, achieving career clarity, is a journey, right? It's important to remember that achieving a career that you really want is more of a journey and you need that self reflection before you can take that next step, and really the dedication.

So by understanding what lights you up in your life and what your passions are, you'll be able to. Follow that, and move along in your career journey. I hope that some of these [00:10:00] tools can kind of show you how to focus in on the step that you're in right now and show you how to just use the tools that you have, which is really your internal compass, your why, why do you want to make this change?

Now we're going to think about it. We're going to assess our own values, purpose, passions, research. what we can right now in the moment and start looking forward and setting that schedule and the goals for ourselves. Because really, I think a lot of times we want everything to happen overnight and really it's just setting ourselves up to have little steps.

That will really make that path move, forward. You don't want to just assume that you're going to say, I want to become a doctor and all of a sudden you're going to be a doctor tomorrow. So it's knowing that it's a journey and you want to be confident in the direction you're going in and really just be patient with yourself and know yourself and be dedicated to making this happen for yourself.

there's so much [00:11:00] fun in the unknown as scary as it is. It's exciting too. I don't know about you I'm very much a person who is okay. Great. What's my next challenge You just have to have that passion and know that you can do it, have that confidence and that confidence can only come from you. hopefully you've taken some notes throughout this. Hopefully you've gained a little bit of clarity. And now I really want you to take the first step in doing some action, really taking that action and focusing.

[00:11:26] Shannon Russell: Okay. My friend, it is time to wrap things up on this intro episode into my career clarity mini series. Make sure you are subscribed to the Second Act Success Career Podcast, we are going to dive into the four steps to achieving your career clarity over the next few episodes. Thank you for listening and for spending some time with me today, I will be back tomorrow with an all-new episode where we are going to dive into all things, career clarity. Thank you so much. I'll see you then.

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