How to find your purpose + make it a reality (01)

We're changing things up a bit over the next few weeks – I'm going to take you deep into career exploration and help you figure out exactly what you want to and are meant to do with your life. Nbd, right? 

Why?

I am a career coach. 75% of my business is comprised of clients who want help finding their career path. Yet, probably 10% of my newsletter and LinkedIn content is focused on career exploration. 

I've intentionally shied away from talking about career coaching for two reasons. Firstly, I get overwhelmed trying to distill the four-months of exploration that I do with clients into a short email or post. Secondly, job searching advice is a dime a dozen. Seriously, there are thousands (millions) of posts on how to update your resume or network. 

Instead, I am going to talk about what makes me so passionate about career coaching – it is a self-discovery journey that requires deep exploration, helping you get to know yourself on such a deeper level, and once you know what you're meant to do, you get to work (and live) in a way that feels so much more aligned and authentic. 

So over the next several weeks (in this newsletter and the next podclass), I'm going to walk you through the exact process I use with clients, and give you the tools you need to start exploring and making your dream career a reality. 

Here is what we'll cover (you can read more about my approach here): 

To get you inspired for how powerful this exploration can be, here's an example of how my client and I used this process to help her find the right role. 

Kyle had the coveted post-MBA trajectory – she was a consultant at an MBB-firm, got promoted on schedule – but was ready to take her next step. Kyle knew consulting wasn’t right for her long-term, but didn’t know what was next. 

Like so many former consultants, Kyle could do anything with her generalist skill-set and the optionality was overwhelming. She wanted to make the most of her consulting experience and set herself on her long-term career path. 

Kyle was wrestling with two big questions – 1) what she wanted to do long-term, and 2) based on that decision, what was next.

We got crystal-clear on what was important to Kyle in her next role – she wanted more time with loved ones, a professional home where she could build expertise over time and continue to learn. She wasn’t willing to sacrifice growth or balance, so needed a role that would give her both. 

As we dove into Kyle’s strengths, it was clear that she had a mix of superpowers that make her uniquely good at strategy and execution. When we paired her superpowers with her priorities, we created a 10-year vision for Kyle to be a General Manager or P+L Owner at a company whose products create tangible value (i.e., industrials, material goods). 

Having her long-term vision made figuring out her next step easy. Kyle began applying for roles in corporate strategy, corporate development and business operations. 

Kyle quickly found the right role and joined a PE-backed national kidney-care clinic network as their Director, Clinical Operations. 

This role will allow her to build her operational skillset, putting her on the path to GM and positioning her for future opportunities within the private equity firm’s portfolio, all with more balance. Plus, she has a great boss to learn from and grow with!

Learn how other clients used this approach to find their career purpose here. 

Stay tuned for our first deep-dive on operating principles, and how to define what is most important to you, in two weeks!