Welcome to the latest edition of the “I Love My Career” series which aims to celebrate women (and my
clients) who are stepping up and making HUGE leaps in their careers. I love sharing the real and raw truth on what it takes to achieve career success.

One of the reasons I love my job is I get to work with ambitious women. Danielle is one of the most positive women I know and is someone you always want to talk to. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons she has had so much success in finding her dream job and now preparing to start her dream business.

Listen to my interview with Danielle below:

Where you were before the program started?

The company I was working for made a decision that they were going to move their entire sales force to Texas. So, I was really contemplating moving there even though it really wasn’t something that I actually wanted for myself, and I wasn’t super happy in my job as it was. I was really confused about what I should do.

Tell us what did you find the most valuable in the LYCF program?

Once I decided that I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing and I wanted to try something new, I came across Anna’s formula. I had four months until my company was picking up and moving to Texas and it was just about the same amount of time that the program walked me through finding a dream job -> in just 90 days.

I thought how great would it be to have something all lined up so I didn’t have to move to Texas. How great would it be if I could find something that I really liked and really aligned well with all of my skillsets.

For me, I was willing to make an investment in adding some structure to my job search.

I think when you get into the mindset, ‘Gosh, I’m miserable. I just need to get out of here. It doesn’t matter what it is, I just need to get out of this job!’’ That’s a recipe for more disappointment down the road of getting into another job where you will feel stuck.

I loved that in your formula that we started at square 1 – Where are you from? What do you want? What are your dreams look like? What do you want your life to look like?

I was able to get more in touch with the big picture of what I wanted so I could say no to jobs that were lucrative in the short term but weren’t ultimately in line with what my desires and my goals are for my career.

Where you are now?

I accepted a job with an advertising agency that has social media. One of the things that I want to do is really understand social as a strategy because ultimately I want to be an entrepreneur. So right now I’m working on the account side for managing accounts for companies like NBC, Warner Brothers and even Red Bull. It’s a really cool opportunity for me to get contacts with those brands and figure out how they think about their marketing.

The agency that I chose to go with is on the cutting edge of social media. They’re working with big brands and doing destructive work in this phase. It’s been really great for me to be able to work with those types of people. When I start my own business I will know how I want to approach social as one of my marketing channels.

I also really like the job because the position is remote so I can work from San Diego, which is the city that I love, but it allows you to travel outside of it as well. So I can go home and work from my mom’s house and my dad’s house and spend time with my family in between. I have a lot of freedom right now with where I work and I’m really learning about myself too – that’s something that I really value. I like to be able to go where I want, when I want to and work from anywhere that has an internet connection.

What would you say to someone who is thinking of joining the program?

I would say that to really ask yourself are you going to do this job search all by yourself?

I think that there are a lot of people they are held back because they are like “I don’t know if this is the way for me to get a new job or I don’t know if does work or not.’ I think I knew myself well. I say yes to a lot of different things. And if I didn’t have the accountability and the structure to go about my job search, it wasn’t going to happen for me and I wasn’t going to be approaching it with right perspective.

I just appreciated in one of the trainings we are talking about searching for jobs online and Anna said, “Danielle, I know you are going to look for jobs online but your biggest focus, you’re my social butterfly, you need to go network and you need to go meet people and that is how you’re going to find your job.”

And you know what? She was absolutely right! That is how I found my job. I had three interviews on the same day. I got advanced in all three of them to the next round of interviews and one ultimately gave me an offer that I accepted. But all three of those interviews were because people in my network knew me and knew what I would be good at the job and helped me get an interview.

Working with a coach that has done it before, that is going to give you structure and ways to frame your job search is so so helpful. And 90 days is a short period of time where you get instruction and a long enough period of time for you to take a little step back and see the big picture.

Some of my girlfriends were in the same phase as me when I started my job search. I said to them, “Hey, I’m doing this awesome program and I’m working with a coach to go through this process.” These friends didn’t choose to do the program with me, and now it’s been a year and a half and they are still in the same exact job. They are burnt out, they’re exhausted every day and dreading going to work and I’m not. I’m in a new position and I’m making movements forward in building my business and I’m in a new career.

Last words…

Go for it! If a career change is truly what you want, make the investment in yourself. It’s not going to help you just for the next job, its going to help you change the way you think about your greater career for your entire life. It’s not just for the immediate although it will be a great way for you to get immediate results. Anna’s the best! I think she’s awesome!