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33 - BECCA CARNAHAN - Own Your Career Story
14th November 2022 • Her Empowered Divorce • Beverly Price
00:00:00 00:27:34

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Becca Carnahan is a career coach, author, and mom of two. As a career coach and CEO of Next Chapter Careers, Becca specializes in helping mid-career parents land fulfilling jobs they love without giving up the flexibility they need. 

Prior to launching her own coaching business, Becca trained as a career coach at Harvard Business School and has 14 years of experience in the career and professional development field. She also previously worked for the Boston Celtics and has published two bestselling children’s books and a career development book, When Mommy Grows Up. Becca has a BS in Marketing from Boston College and an EdM from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

HERE ARE 3 TIPS TO HELP YOU ON YOUR ROAD TO SELF-EMPOWERMENT

  1. Framework for figuring out where you'll be most fulfilled in your work next
  2. Identifying your big three - what do you want other professionals to know about you.
  3. 3 steps to build your compelling elevator pitch to advocate yourself, network, and interview

CONNECT WITH BECCA CARNAHAN

CURIOUS TO FIND OUT WAYS ON HOW YOU CAN TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE AND START YOUR OWN JOURNEY TO SELF-EMPOWERMENT?

Make sure you visit https://herselfexpression.com/#quiz to take the free quiz to determine where you stand on your own journey to self-empowerment.

TO FIND OTHER WOMEN WHO YOU CAN CONNECT WITH, SHARE, AND GROW TOGETHER, JOIN THESE TWO COMMUNITIES ON FACEBOOK AND LINKEDIN

Her Self Expression Sisterhood on Facebook

Her Self Expression Network on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH BEVERLY PRICE

SUBSCRIBE TO THE HER SELF EXPRESSION PODCAST

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Transcripts

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If you'd like to move from self-loathing to self-love, as Beverly did, stay tuned for today's episode that is Sure to help you take on the world. And now here is Beverly. Enjoy the show.

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Most women struggle with their self image and self confidence. Her self expression provides knowledge, support, and insight to help women on their journey to self-empowerment on the inside and out, so they can confidently and successfully take on the world. Today, I have these questions for you to consider.

Do you feel fulfilled at work? What do you want other professionals to know about you? How do you advocate for yourself? Well, today my guest is Becca Carnahan, career coach and CEO of Next Chapter Careers. We'll be talking. Owning your own career story to feel empowered for the next chapter. Becca is a career coach, author and mother of two.

As a career coach and CEO of Next Chapter Careers, Becca specializes in helping mid-career parents land fulfilling jobs they love without giving up the flexibility They. Prior to launching her own coaching business, Becca trained as a career coach at Harvard Business School and has 14 years experience in career and professional development field.

She also previously worked for the Boston Celtics. How about that? And has published two best selling children's books and a career development. When Mommy grows up, Becca has a BS in marketing from Boston College and at Ed m from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Now, you might ask Beverly, you coach professional women on empowerment.

Why are you having another coach who does similar work on the podcast? Well, I believe in the theory of abundance. It says that there is more than enough opportunity around for all of us. Many times women follow the theory of scar. And compete with other women causing a negative support structure, but abundance creates positive support for all women.

Hi, Becca. Thank you so much for being my guest today. It's so good to have you

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Thank you for having me.

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It's like, no, you're internal empowerment. So my journey to empowerment I think pulled from having multiple different roles and experiences that I have learned from. So you mentioned working at the Boston Felts. That was a very early in my career and not what I thought I wanted to do forever. I wanted to be in sports marketing, but after.

Being in that role for about a year or so, they had a, a change in structure. It was a bunch of us who were hired early, were, were let go. Our contract was over. And I think that was a really pivotal part of a time in my life of thinking about how can, how can I take what I learn from this experience and empower myself to take the next.

And that's what led me to working at Harvard Bimal School for many years. And then through that experience being like, All right, what can I learn from this, from this experience? What have I learned about myself that will help me take it to the next chapter? And in owning my own business? So these different experiences that you have through life and figuring out what you can learn from them, I think is super shitty to your own self-power.

It

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Create that mindset where you turn that into a

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To, to feel that sadness, to feel the, all the emotion that come with, with the stuff back. What was the turning point for me to help me think out? What I will learn is actually I was dating my then husband at at the time, my boyfriend at the time, my husband now, and he could tell that I was feeling down on myself and we, he took a day off work and we went to the.

So it sounds like a very funny story. But we went to the zoo like the middle of the day in March. So there was no one there at the zoo. And riding around with the zoo like little kids and experiencing that moment, I think really helped me think about, okay, what, what do I love to do? What brings me joy?

What did I, what were the parts that brought me joy from that past work experience? How can I pull some of that out? And think about what I want to do next. So if you're feeling like a failure, if you're feeling really sad about a, a setback in your career, I would encourage everyone just to go on something to do that's fun, that brings you joy, that brings you energy, and allow that joy and energy to bring that back and to figure out, Okay, now this is what I've loved.

This is what brought me so much po. So I'm gonna bring that same energy back into my thought process about what's next for me. And I

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You are continually writing that career story. So when I work with women who are thinking about what's next for. We go back and sign the through line between all the decisions that they've made up to this point, and there always is one, even if it seems like they've done a variety of different things, that whole hopped around into different jobs.

There's a key motivator that has led you to certain roles. There are skills that you've enjoys using. So pulling out those themes, finding the through line between what you've done so far. And then most importantly, figuring out from all of that, what do you wanna do next? You're writing that next chapter, so it's themes, it's through lines, and then going forward towards what are you going to, how are you gonna take all of that and continue writing the story.

Wow.

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Why did I want to be when I was a little kid? You can go back and. When you were a little kid, what did you wanna be When you grew up, let's say you wanted to be an artist, and what did you love about that? Was there an element of creative expression that, that you just loved about this that, that vision of being an artist and have you continued to see that you lying, Think about that first job you took right out of, out of high school or out of.

What were you doing? Was there, was there an element of creativity, even if it was creative problem solving or getting to think about design or color in some way. And then what was the next role that you took? Even if it was something very, very different, was it still scratching that creative itch for you?

Mm-hmm. , When you go back and think about those decisions and think about those things that you've wanted to be next, and then ask yourself the question of. I think that's super powerful in being able to create the story and then tell the story to someone else, because that's where people get stuck, right, is being able to tell that story to themselves, but then share it with someone else.

But if you start a story saying, not just saying, I did this job and then this job, and then this job, but if you start the story saying, Throughout my entire career, I've always been driven by helping others or by creative expression or. Analytical problem solving, and here are the different ways that I've done that, that sparks something different.

Right. And it gives you empowerment of this story, but it helps someone else. It gives them a hook into your story too. Gotcha. Wow. What, what do you

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So the cool idea out there being a next chapter that you didn't write the whole book when you were when you were younger and yeah. I think that is, that's a big concern for people that they think that they made all of their choice with and made their bed. Now they have to lie in it. No. Our favorite books, our favorites, Entertainment.

There's always something that's happening. And there's the story, tin is to progress. So that's how I think about it as a next chapter that you are just, you're in charge of writing what happens next? Gotcha. Well, I

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Are there things in particular that a woman going through these types of changes should be thinking about?

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We have a lot of pressure on us. Mm-hmm. . So I know that people already thinking about a lot of things. So how I wanna encourage people is that if you are already take, you already have a lot of things that you're thinking about. So let's just break it. Break it down into actionable steps, things that you can do next.

And there are five little categories that I like to break this down to is you're trying to figure out what's next? What's this transition going to look like? What do you really need and want out of that next chapter? And that's really your, your needs. So those necessity elements, What do you need from a salary perspective?

What do you need from a flexibility perspective, benefits, all of that. Then the, the people that are most important to you, who you want to be surrounding yourself with next, you have those choices as you're thinking about this next move that you're making in, in work or life. Then also, what are your key motivators?

What gets you outta bed in the. What gets you excited to go do work or your hobbies or, or what are those things that, that get you excited? The, the fourth one being the, your day bay. What, what skills do you enjoy using? What sort of environments are, are a good fit for you? And then the last one, it's kind of a big one, but it's the future.

You, what are, what are the goals that you have? Mm-hmm. for yourself, for your family, and how can you best set yourself up to go after those? So those are a lot of big questions, but I like breaking them down into categories like that so that you can do some, some journaling on them, some free writing on those topics, and it doesn't feel like a bunch of whole jumbled thoughts.

It's broken down into smaller bit. All right. I got, I have my ducks a little bit more in a row here when I have this in category. Yeah,

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And see

what

occurs across all of them so they can pick out the ones particularly that they're good at and they like to do to kind of motivate them and give them some direction kind of in

the future.

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And maybe you like those things, maybe you don't. So giving yourself permission to think, What skills do I enjoy? , using and which ones have I just been told I'm good at? And do I have to keep doing those things or can I get paid for doing the things that I actually enjoy doing? And oftentimes you can. So let's just figure out what those things are.

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Well, this is a great time to take a quick break. Everyone. Please stay tuned. We'll be back in a moment when Becca will share her three actionable tips to help you on this journey. Hi, beautiful Beverly Price here. If you want personalized guidance on your journey to confidence and empowerment from someone who's been there and don't want to go it alone, then my signature coaching may be just right.

With a confidential approach and one-on-one personal support that has helped hundreds of women, we'll work together to move you forward. Whether you are looking to deal with a major life change or an overall life overhaul. Schedule a free discovery call with me today@herselfexpression.com to learn more and say yes to the ride of your lifetime.

Now, let's get back to the show and we are back. Becca, what three actionable steps would you give to the woman in our audience to try and empower them in their career?

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So let's try to control those a little bit. Let's put some structure around it. Okay. So three big things I would start with here. Figuring out where your career, sweet spot. And this goes to the point Beverly was just talking about around the skills that you want to use. But then overlaying that with the, the passions that you have, arms, your, your value out, meaning who's gonna pay you to do these things?

What are the problems that you can help solve? So trying to figure out in that little Venn diagram of passion, your value add and your skills. Where's some, where's some overlap? So that's step one. The second part is around that career criteria. So when I was talking about those five categories of the need, the day to day, the people those categories that really bubbles up into crafting your career criteria.

What are the things that you want and need? From this next chapter of your career, getting real specific on that, writing those down. Okay. Very specific. And you're very specific. And I wanna include the why behind them too. This is what I coach people on a lot that not just saying, I want more flexibility in my job for this next, this next chapter.

Yeah. I want more flexibility in my job because I have Aling parents that I. Making, I want to want and need to be there for, for appointments. I'll have Kim Kims or I'm trying to get to soccer practice and this is really important to me and my family. So put in the why behind the things that you want me.

Okay? So we have your career sweet spot behind your career criteria. The third part of it is then using these, these really important data points to start exploring different paths forward. So, okay. Now that you know what you're looking for, you have a very clear idea of what you really want and need from your, your sweet spot and your criteria, then you can start to explore different paths forward and ask really good questions.

And whether that's questions that you're asking in your research as you're identifying great companies that would be great companies for you to work for or in informational conversations and networking you have more good data to ask good questions from, so you're gonna get more good data back to see if this next company or role would be a good fit, not just for N one, but a good fit for.

Gotcha.

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I'm gonna, I'm gonna break something else down here for you again into, when you think about your pitch and your stories, let's put it into three different little subcategories here. What is, what do you want someone to remember about you in your elevator? Leading with that? What do you want someone to remember about you when they walk away from that conversation?

And then what is the highlight reel that prove that you can do those things, or that you have those experience, so not your entire career. But if you want to be known as someone who is, I think great at, at coaching and mentoring, so with the highlight rail you have worked in, in higher education, you've done this work, you've managed a team, you have been really successful in your volunteer work in coaching and mentoring, give 'em a little highlight reel.

And then the, the third piece of it is what's next for you? And being very clear on. In this next, well, the next stage of my career, I'm really excited to be doing X, Y, and z for working for a company that does da da da da. Being able to contribute and da, da da, da way and replace them, da, da da is with something that is very specific based on your career speed spot.

So I think when we put it into that framework, the whole idea of an elevator pitch gets that much.

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And that's what we're doing when we are thinking about your career speed spot and what are those individual words? What's fit, Huh? The essence of the, the talent that you bring the impact that you want to make to the world. Pulling out those right words through that fa is a big part of your expression and telling your story.

And then once you're really competent in your story and you're reaching out to people, telling 'em that story, asking your food questions. You're going to feel like you're more in the driver's seat of your career. Whoa. Because you have more, more to say, This is what I bring to the table and let me go talk to you about how I'm gonna help you solve your problems at this, this next company.

You are very much driving that car. And that's not another way. Think about self empowerment is like putting you in.

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They're not coming through just job board. So you are more in control of this problem solve, and we know exactly what you are, are looking for, and that for what you want and need for, for yourself next. And you've reached out to people, you have identified companies, you've talked with, people, you told your story.

That's was going to lead to more success in your, in your job search and in your career. Gotcha.

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whether that was when I was a little kid and wanted to be that artist or wanted to, you know, I wanted to be, when I grew up too, I wanted to be a food decorator. I wanted to draw the little designs on place with soft at fancy restaurants. I'm not even sure where that came from. But this whole idea of expressing myself through creativity was really important, and it's a big part of why I ended up starting my own business.

And having more creative control about the content that I was was putting out and how I was even designing my website and things like that. So for everyone else, it's figuring out what does self expression be flight to you? How do you like to put yourself out there into the world? And maybe that is putting pen to paper and writing something or drawing a picture, but also it could just be how you like to interact with people.

How you like to make people feel, how you like to experience the world, understand that about yourself. It's going to just give you so much confidence in how you are telling your story and, and making your impact. Great. Absolutely

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Listen. So be able confiding at my website, which is becca kagan.com, so just by name, find me there. And there's links back to social media too on LinkedIn, a ton. Just under my names there too, Vacca crying in on LinkedIn. And I definitely invite your listeners to, to come chat with me there.

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Of uncovering your career sweet spot, crafting your career criteria, exploring really strategically, and then planning with a really, with planning your. What you're doing there. If those steps seem interesting to you and you wanna dive into it a little bit more about how you, how you think about doing that just go to that carnahan.com or beth carnegie uh.com/free training and, and hop in there and learn more.

Sounds great.

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I believe that we need both outside and inside strength to come together to make our empowerment journey complete. Thank you for. Becca and myself on this episode of her self-expression. I hope you can see the direct connection between owning your own story and empowerment. I love connecting you with incredible women that can provide actionable steps for you to take on your journey.

You can find our podcast through lakes at Apple, Spotify, and more so please download and share the episode with your friends so we can bring you even more interesting topics and more impactful guests. Remember, the more you express yourself, the better you feel. Self-expression doesn't have to be a mystery.

It's your key to navigating life changes and self-empowerment, both inside and out. But most important, Remember that you don't have to go it alone no matter where you are on your journey. I'm the coach that's here to help. Thank you and take care.

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To listen to past episodes, visit www.herselfexpression.com. Once there, you're going to want to take our quiz to see where you stand right now on your journey to self-express. If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts with Beverly and other like-minded women, join our Facebook group, the Her Self-Expression Sisterhood.

Invite your friends too when you download and subscribe to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, or other podcast services. Be sure to leave us a review and tell your friends to download it too so we can continue to help others. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and. Self-expression doesn't have to be a mystery.

It's your key to confidence and self-empowerment, both inside and out. But most importantly, remember that you don't have to do it alone. Visit www.herselfexpression.com and join us today.

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