In the past, Anna used to live a double life – working a day job she hated and then coming home to be a “job applicant” after work and on weekends. She was totally stuck and didn’t know how to get out. She didn’t even care what jobs she applied to, all she knew is that she needed to get out! It took years for her to finally figure out that applying to jobs online didn’t work because she needed to understand herself better first. And as soon as she did that, that dream job just starting popping up left and right. Eventually, she didn’t even have to apply for jobs because those jobs would just come to her.
Anna started her blog, Classycareergirl.com, to document what she was learning during business school at The Rady School of Management at University of California, San Diego and at her full-time job. After graduating with her MBA, Anna’s career coaching plans were hatched while working as an Adjunct Professor at her company, Booz Allen Hamilton. She taught employees how to find career satisfaction by identifying their interests, motivations and skills. While teaching that class, she discovered her own interests were coaching, mentoring and influencing others. From that day on, she had one career in mind, a career coach and she went for it!
Then, in 2012, after paying off more than $80,000 of debt with her husband, Anna made a decision to decrease her hours consulting to part-time so that she could focus on other opportunities that excited and challenged her. A month after she made her decision, an opportunity to teach as a Professor of Career Development to undergraduate students popped up at DeVry University. This position was 100% the perfect fit for Anna’s dream career of career coaching.
Although happier going in the direction she wanted, more issues continued happening in Anna’s personal life. Many times she started focusing on other dreams and goals in life only to find major doors being closed. Each time she thought her life was headed in one direction, the closed doors continued to show her that her life was meant for a bigger purpose. Anna’s rock bottom was in a hospital hearing some tough news from a doctor that she was miscarrying her first baby. Anna was so stressed and overwhelmed with her job that the first words out of her mouth were, “I hate my job, I need to quit!” From that day on, she knew she was going to find a way to do what she loved every minute of every day.
And then another opportunity happened, a book deal. Anna was approached by a publisher to complete another life-long goal of hers, writing a best-selling book. The Professional Women’s Guide to Managing Men was published in Feb-14 and ranked #36 on Amazon in Women & Business.Anna’s book is a step-by-step guidebook for women on how to work with men including examples, step-by-step instructions and details on how to be the best female leader possible. She leans on her eight years of experience as a consultant for the military (managing mostly men!) and is excited for her book to be in your hands!
During the last 5 years, Anna and her website have received the honor of being:
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Invited to speak internationally to 800 women at The Global Leadership Forum in Curitiba, Brazil
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Named by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Career Sites of 2013 and One of the 35 Most Influential Career Sites of 2014
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A winner of the Top 5 Blogs for Young Professionals by Levo League
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Included as one of the 15 Career Experts To Add To Your Twitter Feed Now by The Daily Muse
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Featured guest career expert on Fox 5 News, San Diego 6 News, ESPN 1700AM and People Stylewatch magazine
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Ranked #36 on Amazon for Women & Business for her best selling book, The Professional Woman’s Guide to Managing Men
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Certified Adjunct Instructor for “Take 5” To Navigate Your Career online course at Booz Allen Hamilton
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Professor consistently evaluated with high approval rates by students at DeVry University
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Awarded “Performance Recognition Award” for managing a client delivery team and a $75M annual navy budget while at top consulting company, Booz Allen Hamilton.
- Featured “Elevate Spotlight Member” highlighting the rapid growth of ClassyCareerGirl.com over the last year in Ali Brown’s coaching program
Anna’s following gained and her expertise grew as she created her signature “90-Day Love Your Career Formula” program and her “90-Day Corporate Rescue Plan” which include consulting services to help women ditch their day jobs and make their career dreams happen in 90 days or less. She has quickly expanded her team and now is a CEO to a four-person rapidly growing company.
Dreams do come true! Anna’s husband, John, quit his day job to become the Chief Operating Officer of Classy Career Girl! Watch out! This power couple is up to some big things this year! You can sometimes find them working hard but usually they are just having dance parties with their daughter, Mila, in their living room.
