Elevate Your Career

Finding a good listener can be a challenge. You are surrounded by people who talk over you, change the subject back to themselves, and develop their answers while you are still talking. It’s frustrating and rampant.

But what if you turned this lack of human connection into an opportunity? Let’s look at the benefits of making your living as an exquisite listener:

You Get Paid for Your Emotional Intelligence: Listening isn’t passive. It’s a high-value skill. Professionals who listen well help others process their emotions, make decisions, and resolve conflicts. In our noisy, distracted world, professional listeners are an indispensable resource. The coaching industry in the U.S. is large and growing, estimated at around $18 billion in revenue in 2025 and slated to exceed 20 billion in 2026.

You Develop Deep Emotional Intelligence: When you actively listen every day, you naturally improve. You refine your empathy, patience, emotional regulation, and nonverbal awareness.

People Trust You More: Being known as the person who really listens builds stronger personal relationships and professional credibility.

Holy cow, it’s profitable, helps you grow, and inspires trust. I would add one more thing that means the most to me. Listening for a living is deeply rewarding. At the end of an initial session with a new client, I often hear that they now have hope. I’ve given them space to access their own wisdom.

I encourage you to focus on your listening skills and find ways to improve them. Start by remembering people’s names when you meet them for the first time. I know—you are terrible at that. We all are. Prove you can do better, and you are on the road to being a genius listener.

The first evening at coaching school can be unsettling. The biggest surprise comes when students learn the role of a coach, as distinct from a consultant or a therapist. For many, they feel lost, stripped of their accumulated knowledge and expertise.

Here are some definitions to help you understand what the role of an ICF (International Coaching Federation) credentialed coach is:

Coach: A credentialed professional who partners with clients in a structured, ethical, and competency-based process to unlock awareness, action, and sustainable growth.

Consultant: An expert providing advice, solutions, or recommendations based on specialized knowledge in a particular field.

Therapist: A licensed professional who addresses psychological, emotional, or mental health issues, often focused on healing past trauma and resolving dysfunction.

In presenting the three definitions, it’s important to honor and respect each role. The key is to understand the difference and stay in the optimal lane to benefit the client. This can become even more confusing as a career coach because we integrate aspects of consulting and therapy into our work.

Let me be more specific. Many clients come to a career coach feeling anxious and discouraged. They may be stuck in a toxic or unrewarding job. This has real emotional consequences. A great career coach honors those feelings. If the client is severely distressed, then a referral to a therapist is warranted.

Additionally, career coaches offer expertise and information. They administer career assessments, assist with resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and teach job search strategies. The key is integrating coaching with consulting, so the client owns the process and is accountable for it.

If you have been thinking about becoming a career coach, this mini tutorial will help make your first day in class much easier. The next cohort of the Career Coach Entrepreneur Academy starts March 17, 2026 🍀🍀🍀Please reach out to me directly to learn more about our program. Visit the Academy website (link in comments) to schedule a call to get your questions answered.

When it comes to networking to find a job, I find it best to be blunt. You benefit from controlling the conversation, the impression you leave, and, perhaps most important, your follow-up.

Your number one goal is to make each person you meet feel successful. Most people want to help, but the way you frame your strategy and approach to your job search can limit or eliminate their ability to help you.

Let’s break this down:

Control the Conversation: If you don’t guide the conversation, it can drift into small talk. To avoid this, ask targeted questions that reflect the excellent research you have done into your desired industry and role. Keep the exchange focused on your career goals and strengths.

Address any Baggage Directly: If you are meeting with someone you have a history with, be sure to clear up any past conflicts or misconceptions. Leaving them lurking in the background will undermine your efforts and theirs.

Control the Impression you Leave: Position yourself clearly by sharing relevant achievements. Frame your experience strategically. People are more likely to help someone who seems purposeful.

Control the Follow-Up: Here’s where the biggest pitfalls lie. Many people you network with will offer to send your resume to an influential person they know. They think this is helpful, but it’s not. You lose control. You don’t know if they sent it, and you have no good way to follow up. Ask them to call the influential person and pitch your amazing qualifications. Then you send the resume to a warm lead. Things go much more smoothly, and you remain in charge.

If you are trying to find a job, you already know that applying for listed jobs is mostly useless. Online job sites make it easy for hundreds or thousands of people to apply. At some point, humans need to narrow the pool down. Their favorite default is to hire someone they already know and skip the overwhelming listed job scenario.

So, focus on networking and be a control freak about it. You will save time and improve the quality of your outcome.

Affirmations work well when they are aligned with a strategy. For example, if you are heading into an important interview, you might be willing to say positive things to yourself to improve your performance. You are not lying to yourself; rather, you are leveraging your intelligence to elevate your self-esteem.

The science behind affirmations is compelling. Here are a few reasons why they work:

Your self-concept shapes your perceptions and behavior: Your brain is constantly filtering reality. What gets through that filter depends on your self-concept (your internal story about who you are). Affirmations can reinforce positive identity beliefs, such as “I am capable” or “I belong here”.

Thoughts are not just abstractions—they’re neural activity: Repeated thoughts strengthen specific neural pathways. Thus, certain interpretations and emotional responses become more automatic over time. Affirmations are repetitive mental exercises. Eventually, they rewire your brain.

You create the expectancy effect: Beliefs change physiology and behavior. If you genuinely expect to handle challenges well or believe you can learn new things, you will persist towards your goal for longer periods of time and interpret setbacks as temporary.

In the midst of a career transition or a job search, many factors are out of your control. But you can choose to manage your thoughts and add self-statements to your daily routine that increase your confidence and creativity. I think that’s worth doing.

Career violations like layoffs, power-hungry bosses, and toxic workplaces are real—and can be devastating. If they persist over time, you begin to feel wronged and powerless. If that’s not bad enough, there is a secondary impact. You shut down mentally.

Let me break it down for you. Here are ways the victim perspective narrows your thinking:
• Limits perceived options: Your focus shifts to asking, who caused this or why is this unfair? This reduces attention to questions like, what can I control right now or what small action can I take to improve my situation?
• Shifts responsibility outward: You may, in fact, have experienced a real external threat or violation. But focusing on outward causes reduces your sense of personal agency. As a result, problem-solving may stall because action feels pointless or impossible.
• Increases emotional load: Feelings like anger, fear, shame, or resentment take up mental bandwidth. You may resort to short-term venting rather than sustainable fixes. Additionally, you can begin to burn out your support system.

These are all problematic impacts. But the one that hurts my clients seeking career satisfaction and success the most is the erosion of creativity. When you feel stuck and victimized, you don’t see options. You can’t think outside the box. The best next step (which might not be that hard) eludes you.

For all these reasons, I want you to take back your agency and your brilliance. If you feel victimized by an aspect of your current career situation, I invite you to shift your mentality to massive accountability. Now you are in charge.

The science of stuckness (yes, there is such a thing) has found that when you are stuck, you also feel utterly alone. Newsflash 🔦🔦🔦, the opposite is true. Most people report being stuck in some aspect of their lives. You are far from alone!

From a career development perspective, I call this your crossroad. You are not where you want to be and are paralyzed by anxiety. You worry, struggle with self-esteem, and see few options. You stay with your current situation because it’s the devil you know. Also, the consequences of changing your career and making a mistake further thwart your potential progress.

Here are some steps you can take to get unstuck:
Step One: Calm Down
When you feel stuck, your brain interprets the situation as uncertain or risky. This activates the amygdala, shifting you into threat mode, which includes narrowed thinking, reduced creativity, avoidance, and procrastination. As difficult as it might be, you need to start breathing and settle your nerves. Take a long walk, talk to a chicken soup friend, or make an appointment with your career coach. Get support and stop isolating.

Step Two: Shrink the Problem to Restore Agency
Large goals overload the prefrontal cortex. Small goals work because they reintroduce predictability, create fast dopamine feedback, and rebuild a sense of control. So, identify micro-actions, such as meeting with a colleague for coffee or taking a career assessment. Build on your success and reboot your confidence.

Step Three: Change the State, Not the Thought
Stuckness is a state of being, not a belief. Some good ways to shift your state include physical movement, novel environments (even a different room), and temperature shifts (cold water on your face). These state-shifting actions reset neural firing patterns and interrupt your thought loops.

As you feel less stuck and in the flow of a journey to the next chapter in your career, you can harness your intellect, creativity, and resources to design what’s next.

You have likely heard to trust your first instinct when taking a test. The research supports this guidance if you are assessing your knowledge of facts or taking a multiple-choice exam. But this advice does not hold up when completing the Elevations career self-assessment (link to Elevations in comments below).l

In a state of ambivalence, you are tempted to rush through the prioritization of your values, skills, and interests. If you do this, your results will reflect your confusion. In the hunt for clarity and career direction, you might get the opposite outcome.

So, here are a few quick tips to help you get the most out of Elevations:
• Take Elevations when you are well rested. Limit distractions. You need to think deeply about who you are and what you want in the next chapter of your life.
• As you determine your top 15 values and enjoyable skills, make sure you are tapping into what matters to you—not what society, your family, or your culture is telling you to do.
• Notice you can move items from the thumbs up, to the OK, and to the thumbs down column easily. In other words, feel free to change your mind as you get more options to consider.
• When you get to the Interest section, don’t analyze each career from a practical standpoint. Imagine the career options are a stack of magazines. Select as many as you would like for the thumbs-up column, reflecting the full range of your interests.
• Slow down and engage both your heart and your head. You are designing the foundation for your future.
• Take advantage of your 30 days of access to revisit your assessment. You can refine your choices and get the best results.

While Elevations can be purchased by anyone without special training or a license, it is a powerful platform that can be optimized if you follow the guidance I offer here. If you are in a career crossroad and need additional help, please visit our career coach directory found at the ElevateYourCareer.com website.

Perhaps this is the nudge you’ve been needing to level up your career in 2026. 🎉🎉🎉

Leaving your job is stressful. You worry about your team absorbing your workload. Saying goodbye to a great boss can weigh on your heart. Or you are escaping a nightmare boss. And, you might feel loyal to the organization, whether you should or not.

In the middle of this complex scenario, you wonder when, or if, you should tell your boss you are looking for another opportunity. It’s not a clear-cut situation.

Here is some advice to follow if you, or someone you know, plans to leave but does not know what to do:

Do Not Tell Your Boss You Plan to Quit If:
• Your boss has proven to be unsupportive, unreliable, or flat-out terrible. They will likely use the information to make your life more difficult.
• Your company has a policy of walking employees to the door upon termination. Your employment may be in jeopardy if they find out you are ready to leave.
• You cannot trust your boss to keep the information confidential.

Do Tell Your Boss If:
• There is ample evidence that your boss is trustworthy. A great leader will encourage you to grow in your career in any way that suits you. They can support you when you need to go to job interviews, and you will feel less conflicted about your exit.
• You are motivated to train your replacement. This might seem nuts on the surface, but you’ve worked hard to create solutions and positive relationships in your current role. You might enjoy protecting the investment you’ve made as you move on.
• Your boss is an important part of your professional network and will be willing to open doors for you. A great boss has taken the time to get to know you and understands your strengths. They can be an important ally in your search and in your career over the long haul.

Most people feel they need to keep their job hunt secret, and as I mentioned, sometimes this is the best choice. But take a moment to step back and ask yourself if an honest, transparent conversation is warranted. It can reduce your stress and give you more creative energy to make an amazing transition.

Like so many things in life, the reality of being trained as a career coach is full of unknowns.

Here are the biggest surprises: 🎉🎉🎉
Coaching Will Humble You:
Coaching is not consulting. Coaching takes your opinions, your stories, your experiences, and your judgments out of the equation. Having a deep conversation about another person’s life and career without inserting yourself will likely leave you feeling a little off balance.

Career Coaching is a Deep, Complex Challenge:
When you think about career coaching, resume writing, and job search might come to mind. While these are a part of a career transition, they are the products at the end of a holistic process. In the Academy, you are trained to support clients through the psychological and strategic phases of a mid-career transition. Finances, relationships, self-confidence, self-awareness, life purpose, and life balance are all part of the career coaching process.

The Timing Will be Perfect:
Without exception, every CCEA alumnus will tell you their coach training experience came at just the right time. For some, it’s a bridge to retirement. For others, it is time to start their own business and escape the corporate rat race. We’ve had several students move through the Academy while facing major health problems. The cohorts bond and support each other in reaching their dreams.

Please join us and have your own transformational experience. The next cohort starts Tuesday, November 18th, 2025, in the evening, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PST. Classes are delivered live on a virtual platform. There are a few seats left. We'd love to support your growth and the fulfillment of your aspirations. Visit the Academy website for more information (in comments).

Being stuck underemployed or unemployed at any stage of life is tough. But recently, my heart goes out to young men trying to find their way into rewarding careers. Their stories vary dramatically, with some lingering in low-paid jobs, unable to find work in their chosen profession. Others spend time playing video games and hiding in their rooms, unmotivated because they have no idea what they want to do.

As they grow older, they feel more behind and discouraged. Anxiety and depression creep into the equation, making it even harder to discern the best strategy or the right path.

Let’s be real. This is a complex problem with no one-size-fits-all solutions. But, for those of you who are in this boat, please read on. If you are a parent, friend, or relative of an amazing young man struggling to find their way, this one’s for you.

Tip Number One: Stop Looking for the Silver Bullet Career
It’s only natural to be drawn to careers offering stability and income potential. But deciding to go into the latest hot job is a mistake. You must choose a profession that matches your values, skills, interests, and personality. Step back and calm down. Take a solid career assessment (link in comments) and meet with a career coach. You need to get out of your head, regain your emotional strength, and select a role, industry, and field that matches your natural talents.

Tip Number Two: Be Prepared to Make a Sacrifice
Any career field you choose will have a downside. The required education is expensive and takes years to finish, the entry-level salary is too low, or the competition is intense. The list goes on. It does make sense to minimize risk and cost. But, in the end, you will have to accept the inevitable hurdles and focus on work that matches you.

Tip Number Three: Stop Isolating
Depending on how long you have been struggling to find your path, it is likely that you are spending too much time alone. This is a bad choice. It will intensify your depression and reinforce the feeling that you are failing. Join a group of other people your age. Soon, you will discover you are far from alone. Once you realize that your situation is both normal and common, you can start networking. In the process of meeting others and sharing what you learned from your self-assessment, you will uncover opportunities that can only come from interpersonal relationships.

Finally, decide on your first step. Pick one of the tips above or follow your own wisdom. Take action every day, and momentum will build. Your brave decision to live up to your potential makes your life better and enriches the world.

As a little kid, I used to pass the time in church, praying for the other people in the pews. I would imagine what challenges they might be facing and silently send my support. It was my deep, sensitive self-emerging early on.

I wondered about the meaning and purpose of my life—not in young adulthood but, rather, again as a child. I was a raw nerve, responding to the people and feelings around me. I was a sponge without coping skills.

About 20% of the general population is identified as highly sensitive. It’s nice to have a term for it now, but it was unavailable in my formative years. Frankly, it was both emotionally painful and exhausting. If you happen to be a highly sensitive person, you know what I’m talking about.

When it was time for me to pick a major in college and prepare for a career, I was lost. I was interested in interpersonal relationships and personal growth. I also loved to read and write. I tried studying psychology, but the courses I took focused on Pavlovian responses and boring studies.

Additionally, I feared that I was too sensitive to help other people. I would be heartbroken by every tragedy others would face.

In a moment of foolishness, during college, I told my Mom I thought I wanted to be a counselor of some sort. She looked at me like I had two heads and asked, “Why would you want to sit around all day and listen to other people’s problems?"

In the end, I was lucky and found a way to employ my sensitivity. In fact, I think it’s the key to any success I’ve had. As a career coach, I listen deeply and hear both what is said and unsaid. I’ve learned how to be both compassionate and set boundaries, not taking on the pain that belongs to others.

I have a number of clients right now that are highly sensitive. They can all (eventually) articulate an interest in coaching or therapy as a career, but vacillate because of the time it takes to get trained or the cost. They know the demand for both career coaches and therapists is sky high, but still, they resist.

I’m reaching out to you today to encourage you to take the bold step to become a career coach if you’re heart is telling you this is a perfect fit. The next cohort of the Career Coach Entrepreneur Academy is enrolling now. Check out the information on the Academy website (link in comments below) and set up a time to get your questions answered.

I love training career coaches, and I love highly sensitive people! 💕💕💕💕