Career change: what do I need to do now to feel empowered?
The newsletter that starts with a question
Hello subscribers and visitors, welcome to this new edition of my newsletter which explores refreshing and unconventional approaches to career change through questions and interviews. In a short second round of career coaching questions I am focusing on making a shift away from fearing the big choices and making the “wrong” decisions, towards taking small steps guided by curiosity. Here’s a recap of the series so far:
How would you approach career change differently if you took your focus away from the end result?
What’s just one step that you can take today?
My next question to have a think about is:
What do I need to do now to feel empowered?
This questions aims to get you exploring how you can raise your confidence and energy levels, feeding positivity into your thoughts and ideas. This is a particularly good question to think about if you’re feeling powerless to create any movement with your ideas at the moment, or if you are seeing barriers and limitations rather than opportunities. If you can, go for a walk with a notebook and pen, sit somewhere peaceful and jot down some ideas. I can also facilitate this with a coaching session.
To continue with the series of questions please subscribe here, if you haven’t already.
“My whole brand is inspired by nature.”
There are so many golden nuggets of widsom from Charlotte Holroyd in this episode of my show About The Adventure, which can be applied to all sorts of career paths and approaches to working. A particularly popular topic is Charlotte’s emphasis on the importance of knowing your values and integrating those into your work, business, and lifestyle. I asked for her tips on how to identify your core values, which can be particularly challenging when you’re feeling fed up or low on motivation and confidence.
Charlotte is the founder of Creative Wilderness, an ethical branding design agency in Greater Manchester. She provides intuitive creative design, brand identity, web design and print to independent businesses across Stockport, Cheshire, Manchester, and around the world. In addition to this she has created The Brand Builder online branding course for soulful business owners or designers who want to learn how to build a brand that has purpose, WOW and positive impact. Charlotte also co-hosts a monthly "Conscious Entrepreneurs" meet-up that brings people together in a small group to talk about business ideas, to share wisdom and to help each other. I have attended a couple of the online meetups which were really valuable to me because I connected with new people which really lifted by energy levels.
I think that this episode will be particularly valuable to people interested in branding, ethical business, sustainability, and creating work grounded by personal values. I think it will also appeal to anyone who is thinking about working as a freelancer, starting a business, or creating an online course. You can see the questions I asked Charlotte plus more details about this episode over on my blog.
This is my longest episode yet, packed full of valuable wisdom and honest reflection. It’s been a popular one too with over 100 downloads so far. A very special thank you goes out to Charlotte for sharing her experiences of career change, some of the challenges along the way, and also for answering questions that were sent in by listeners. Since recording this episode she has been working on some seriously awesome new offerings, including Brand Wisdom Sessions and Finding your Brand Wow workshop.
Podcast news
Next guest: I have already recorded my next interview with Steve Wharton who is retraining as an early years teacher at the age of 43, following on from his work as a Lake District storyteller and performer. Gabby will be working on the editing soon!
Questions: I am working on a new blog post about my experience of podcasting so far, with some straightforward details on the costs, tech, support and prep. Do you have questions that you’d like to send over to me? Email sarah@sarahventurer.com
Reviews: What do you think of my podcast? If you’ve listened to any episodes I’d really appreciate it if you can please add a review here or on itunes. Or you can of course email me: sarah@sarahventurer.com It will help other people to discover my podcast.
My episode on The Living Project Podcast
I was recently invited as a guest on the The Living Project podcast to share my personal connections with earth, air, fire and water and how these elements have guided me towards creating a new lifestyle in the Peak District. Hosts Cormac and Josh asked me questions that got me reflecting on the small steps that I took to make changes in my life, and the significant role that spending time in nature has played throughout.
It was a really interesting and grounding experience to be interviewed in the format that the hosts have created. We got to know each other a little bit first on a zoom call, I answered some questions by email about some of the topics which really got me thinking about my connection with nature, and then we sat together for a good 90 minutes to record the interview.
This formed part of the third series of their podcast, so there are plenty of other great interviews to listen to as well. They have recently interviewed each other which I particularly enjoyed listening to. I think that their approach to interviewing is really unique as they provide a really memorable experience for their guests, and bring out interesting stories and perspectives.
It’s been really fun getting to know Cormac and Josh and we’re planning to meet up later this year if possible. I’m also planning to interview them together on my show as they both have really interesting career change stories, and I’d love the opportunity to share the work that they are doing now alongside their podcast. You may have already read their interview on my blog, more from them coming soon! Here’s my episode of The Living Project if you’d like to have a listen.
Other career change resources
Everything Endurance podcast - I listened to a really interesting interview this week with Stu Westfield who lives just over the hill from me, in Hayfield. He talks about his career change from working as an aerospace engineer to becoming an expedition leader, inspired by his trips to Africa. He also gives some excellent tips on safety in the hills, and shares his interest in history, African recipes, and much more!
Careers in the tech sector - In addition to my work as a coach I also do some freelance work with Sheffield Digital. I’m really enjoying this new campaign that we’re working on to uncover the skills involved in the digital industries and to share different pathways into tech jobs. We’ve released three interviews on YouTube so far, and there’s plenty more on the way! Soon my interview will be featured too which is about my work as a freelancer.
Featured coaching session
Following a very misty, damp and blustery morning walking in the hills this week it was really wonderful to watch it all lift and to feel the sun warming my back up here. I had eaten my sandwiches further down the hill, tucked behind a wall for shelter, but I couldn’t resist going to the top of the hill to take in this fantastic view of Edale while I sipped my hot flask of tea and devoured a chocolate bar. The longer that I sat up there, the more relaxed and content I became, and I felt so much better than when I had headed out earlier in the day.
As I poured my tea, I thought how wonderful it would be to sit here as part of a coaching session. I think it feels really special to share a view like this during the experience, and I’ve noticed how the landscape can help to open up a new perspective. I often find that we mirror what we see and experience in nature, it seems to happen subconsciously, and gives a sense of release and relief.
After Easter I am going to start offering 1-1 outdoor coaching sessions to people who are local to the area, but of course the remote options will still be available. It doesn’t have to be a big trek, this is just a short walk from Edale, but can also be extended up on to the Great Ridge. My focus is on asking questions and listening to answers as they are explored, which the walking facilitates through gentle movement and the views inspire.
If you’d like to find out more then please email me: sarah@sarahventurer.com
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Thank you for reading my newsletter! In the next one I’ll include Steve Wharton’s interview, a new blog post, and a new career coaching question to think about. I’ve been doing some mentoring work recently and I’m really enjoying it, so I’m thinking about running some workshops soon. These will be online to begin with, but then hopefully we can do some outdoors as well. More details about that next time! This afternoon I’m being interviewed by Chris Kenworthy for his new podcast, then I’m meeting up with a friend who lives in the village to do a litter pick together. What are you doing today, any new ideas or projects you’re working on?