Being an entrepreneur is hard, lonely, and intimidating as hell, which is why having a strong community to connect, commiserate, and collaborate with is crucial. Enter BRA Network (aka, Business Relationship Alliance). BRA's fabulous Founder, Carrie Murray, found herself frustrated, overwhelmed, and looking for answers after launching her first business. She turned to her network of fellow entrepreneurial female friends and discovered that she was very much not alone in these feelings. Listen to hear how Carrie created a pun-heavy, hot pink, super supportive community of women who lift each other up instead of tearing each other down.

We're all familiar with the "quit college and start a company with a ton of funding in your early 20s" entrepreneur story (thanks, Zuckerberg.) What we don't often hear is the more strategic, less sexy version that involves working for a ton of companies and trying out multiple roles throughout your 20s, collecting information and experience on someone else's dime and THEN going out on your own. Rachael King did exactly that for the first nine years of her career before launching two companies in two years. Find out how this former MTV Twitter Jockey contestant has made a career out of embracing her many professional curiosities.

How many people have been asked in a job interview what their greatest weakness was? (Raises hand.) Most of us have been told our entire lives to work on improving our weaknesses, when in reality, doubling down on your strengths is a far better strategy to excelling in your career. On this episode, Certified Strengths Coach Scott Asai talks about how you can discover what your strengths are and leverage them to find and land a new job.

Until very recently, HR professionals weren't exactly seen as the cool kids in the office. The only time you interacted with them was when you were in trouble, getting someone else in trouble, or being let go. Fast-forward to today, and you now have people with titles like, "Chief Happiness Officer" at many companies.

On this episode, Ellen Sweeney, Head of People at MeUndies, enlightens us on how she went from hospitality to HR, what the heck a Head of People does, and shares some of her secrets on how you can snag a job in an incredible company.

Most of us will be laid off or fired at some point in our 40+ year career, but for Shayna Marks, it happened four times in five years. Instead of allowing those professional setbacks to crush her spirit, Shayna instead chose to roll with the punches, lean into the lessons, and take her career into her own hands by launching her own social media strategy and consulting business, Citrine Marketing.

On this episode, Shayna shares how she was able to overcome each of those professional dips and create a bright and cheerful business and career for herself.

By now you've probably heard of the term, "Multi-Passionate", AKA someone who has many professional and personal interests. Adriana Kertzer is a Multi-Passionate x's a bazillion. In my longest podcast interview of the season, I get Adriana to talk me through how a little girl from Brazil managed to find ways to "braid" all of her many passions and interests together (including but not limited to corporate law, digital strategy, real estate, design, cannabis, project management, and Favelization) time and time again throughout her career. 

The average job tenure for workers aged 25-34 is three years, which means in our 40+ years of working we'll have a lot of different career paths to explain on a resume and in a cover letter. Rather than looking like a job-hopping flake who can't make up your mind, it's up to you to figure out how to tell your career story in a way that makes sense to a future employer.

In this episode, I chat with Life and Career Coach, Carolyn Birsky who found herself in the same position early on in her career. After finally finding her calling in coaching, Carolyn now helps other women navigate their 20s and make that important decade feel less confusing.

A Northern New Jersey native with a personality as big as her bright red hair, Julie Knapp grew up surrounded and enamored by the arts. After graduating from Syracuse University with a double major in Television, Radio & Film and Psychology, she spent the first phase of her career attempting to find her place in Hollywood, taking unpaid internships and low-paying gigs in Production and Reality TV show casting. 

Four years of speed bumps, career detours, and a 3,000-mile cross-country move later, Julie took the leap from the world of Reality TV to pursue her passion for casting scripted TV, landing a role as a Casting Assistant on TBS’s “Cougar Town.” Throughout the last five years, she's worked on over a dozen shows and is now the Associate Casting Director on ABC’s “Designated Survivor.” 

On this episode, hear how Julie never let her childhood dream of working in the Entertainment Industry out of her sights, even if it meant taking part-time jobs and sleeping on couches along the way.  

Throughout our lives there will undoubtedly be times when, well, sh*t hits the fan. When life gets in the way of your carefully-laid plans, be it in your career, your business, or your personal life, how you deal with the situation (or don't) can have lasting ramifications. 

In this solo episode, I'll share with you something deeply personal that recently impacted my personal life (and therefore my business), and how I dealt with taking care of myself and my responsibilities in a way that honored both.

If you were to ask most people whether having a career filled with purpose and meaning was important to them, the majority would say, "absolutely." In reality, finding purpose in your career can feel like a pipe dream that sounds great, but is way harder to achieve than we'd all like it to be. 

Kate Gremillion, Founder & CEO of Mavenly + Co. has spent her career helping people get the resources and mindset they need to pursue work that works for them. In this episode, Kate talks about how she's searched for and finally found purpose throughout her own career, and how ultimately the job that's provided her with the most meaning has been the one that's allowed her to help others find it in their careers.

Nobody loves their job every second of every day, even if it's their dream job. Finding ways to stay excited year after year in your career is the key to long-term happiness. Emily McDonald, Founder and CEO of The Stylist LA has spent the last nine years finding new elements of running her business to get excited about, going from launching The Stylist LA out of her living room in 2009 to dedicating herself to working on her business and not in her business in 2018.

In this episode, Emily shares with us where the idea for The Stylist LA came from, how the company's grown alongside her, and how she keeps from ever getting bored with the business year after year. 

We've all heard of the 7-year itch in relationships, but many people experience something similar in their careers. Whether it's a 2, 5, or 7-year itch, knowing how to work with it instead of fear it is the key to having a career filled with fulfillment and purpose.

Lara Dalch has done exactly that throughout her career, going from teaching preschool to running promotions marketing for Comedy Central and the Cartoon Network to becoming a Certified Pilates Instructor to launching her own Health & Lifestyle Coaching business. Learning to use her professional boredom to discover the next exciting opportunity has kept Lara's career interesting and full of the variety so many of us crave. On this episode, hear Lara's tips for how to leverage your own professional itch into your next move in a way that doesn't make you come across as a job-hopping flake. 

In the age of LinkedIn, do you still even need a resume? Do you actually have to keep it to one page? Does anyone care if you have proficiency in Microsoft Office? Worry not - Michele Lando, Certified Professional Resume Writer and Founder of Write Styles has the answers to all our burning resume questions. From knowing how to position yourself best for a role in a new industry to writing a resume that stands out above the hundreds of others it'll most likely be sandwiched between, this episode is full of can't-miss tips from the resume queen herself. {Listen on iTunes}

By now you might know that I hate the advice of "follow your passion" because generally, it leads people to more frustration than happiness. Emily Katz, Founder of Modern Macrame is one of those rare humans who not only has followed her passion, she's launched one successful business after another doing just that. 

Hear Emily share her career story that includes more than one magical, synchronistic moment, and learn how she's managed to embrace and capitalize on her creative Multi-Passionate gifts throughout her life. 

Ever thought about selling your belongings, moving cross-country, and breaking into Hollywood as a television show writer? That was Henning's plan. Fast-forward five years and no less than 15 "survival jobs", and he's thisclose to making it happen. 

Listen in as I chat with my friend, fake brother, and fellow recovering Type-A, Henning Fog about how he learned to set aside his preconceived notions of how one succeeds in their career and ultimately got the call that would begin chapter two of his professional story... while making a latte.

Most people won't stay in the same type of role for their entire career, but knowing what to switch to and figuring out how to do it can quickly leave us with paralysis by analysis. Erin Williams began her career chasing the Hollywood dream of acting, but after falling out of love with the industry and getting sick of going on audition after audition, she discovered a more appealing career path in the wine industry.

Although switching from acting to wine seems like a less-than-obvious leap, Erin found ways to learn as much as she could about this new topic, gain valuable experience taking whatever roles necessary, and ultimately landed an amazing job slightly out of her league by showcasing her charisma, drive, and ability to meet people on their level. 

Ever felt awkward at a networking event or in a job interview? Turns out, the solution may have been to just unclench your butt! In this episode, improv expert and Founder of The Engaging Educator, Jen Oleniczak Brown gave us this nugget of wisdom as well as many others like saying, "yes and..." to get out of a sticky situation at work. Warning: If laughter annoys you, you may want to skip this episode.

"I'm really not happy with my career but I feel super overwhelmed with all the things I need to do in order to make a change happen. The whole thing feels too huge/not possible for me."

I've been there: Paralysis by analysis. Overwhelm. Frustration. Confusion. Knowing you should make a change in your career and actually making that change are two very different things. We often hold ourselves back from moving toward a career we want because we don't feel prepared enough to make all the moves necessary to get there.

In this solo episode, I go over some of the big excuses we come up with for why we're not ready to make a move in our career and offer up some solutions for dealing with those excuses. Whether it's not feeling like you have the right skills, deciding that the time it'd take to get to your dream job is too much, or thinking that you have to know every single step between where you are today and where you want to be, I've got you.

One day today will be twenty years ago, the best time to start working toward a career you love is now.