🌊 The Plunge #1: How to Incrementally Reinvent Your Career

Plus the roots of war, a wintry new vocab word, and my (entire) household's take on Taylor Swift

Thank you so much for subscribing to The Diving Board! I’m honored you’re here. “The Plunge” is going to be the main event - a weekly-ish post that follows the format you’ll see below (essay + thoughtfully collected trinkets and treasures). Occasionally, I’ll share other posts of a different format. Now, let’s dive in.

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Let me sing to you now, about how people turn into other things.

-Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Over the span of two decades, I’ve touted the following career identities: Touring Speaker for a social justice cause, High School Spanish Teacher, Social Worker, Leadership Development Consultant, and Executive Coach.

That’s a lot of times I’ve had to change my answer to the ubiquitous networking question, “So, what do you do?” And I’m less than halfway through my working years!

One of my most drastic career shifts occurred 5 years ago, when I left my corporate job in Leadership Development at Target and launched out as a solopreneur Executive Coach. At that time, I wrote and posted an article on LinkedIn called How I Made the Leap. Exhilarated and terrified, I shared my freshly-tested insights for anyone considering a major career change.

Now, 5 years later, I’m mixing things up again in my work.

This time, however, I’m not so much leaping off a cliff as I am slow-dancing my way into new territory. If my exit from the corporate world was a bird taking flight, my latest endeavor is an inchworm gradually progressing to the next leaf on the branch.

Source: Pixabay

So many people - perhaps you are one of them? - dream of making a career transition: starting a side hustle, breaking into a new field, or finding more meaningful work. A few will make an abrupt, sweeping change. Most will need another way - a path that, while still daunting, is less jarring and can be undertaken with brave baby steps.

If you’re curious, I shared a video recently about how I’m evolving my work. I’ll still be coaching leaders and teams, but I’m looking to add Author and Speaker to my list of career identities. (Eek!)

In today’s post, I’ll give you a peek into HOW I’m going about making this slow, deliberate shift.

I’m learning a lot about how to incrementally become something else, how to add identities and capabilities that will layer onto and integrate with the work I’m already doing.

I hope you find something helpful here for your own unfolding path.

1. Follow your longings, even if you have no idea where they could possibly take you: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a melodramatic teen penning poems in my diary. (Note: the subject of these poems was usually (1) my unrequited love for a boy named Marcus, or (2) Jesus, who did at least return my affections.) In the last 10 years, I’ve started and stopped multiple writing projects across many genres, always stalling out and second-guessing myself. A year and a half ago, I could no longer ignore the siren song to WRITE, JUST WRITE, and so I decided to follow this longing further down the rabbit hole, determined not to give up this time. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Invest in guides and experts: Where the rabbit hole led me initially, via a referral from my friend Beth, was to the exquisite Joy Reichart, who became my writing coach. I worked with Joy for many months, and she unleashed the writer in me and left me changed. I wrote so many poems and creative prose pieces in those months, and I did not know what in the world that would lead to since I do leadership development and most leaders aren’t buying poems and I need to make an income, so all this creativity was soul-filling, but was it really practical? In spite of my discomfort with the aimlessness of it all, this season was instrumental and readied me for what happened next. In the Spring of 2023, I discovered the Hungry Authors podcast, took their Book Mapping class, and got clear on what I wanted to write and how it could fit into my existing career. I hired one of the co-hosts, Ariel, as my book coach and proposal editor. If Joy unleashed the writer in me, Ariel helped me channel that inner writer in a clear direction. I could not have brought my writing dreams to life without these guides and experts. Save your pennies and make the very worthy investment into hiring people who know more than you or who specialize in helping you find clarity. For some of you, hiring someone may not be necessary. You can simply invest time into interviewing people who already work in your area of interest.

3. Experiment: Last year, before I had gotten clear on what sort of writing career I was aiming for, I started an Instagram account and just started posting poetry. I fell off the wagon after a few months, but I learned a lot from testing the waters and putting stuff out there, and that has paved the way for a path that feels right and true.

4. Declare your intention: As my work with Ariel resulted in a more focused writing path, I knew if I didn’t declare a crystal-clear intention for my hopeful career shift, I would keep putting off the incremental steps to make it real – especially public ones. So (NERD ALERT 🤓) I made a Career Shift Strategy deck for myself. I planned to present this deck to absolutely no one, but just doing the exercise brought me so much clarity and resolve. The most helpful slide in the deck was the one shown below, where I made a bold claim about the career shift I was aiming for. A few months down the road, I was ready to declare my intention more publicly.

5. Research your heart out: Not long ago, the idea of being an Author and Speaker felt like “something other people do”, not something I knew a thing about. How do authors make money? How do you get a publisher to publish your book? How do you get speaking gigs? I started my own self-directed research project that consisted of podcasts, reading books, reaching out to people in my network with knowledge or connections, and following thought leaders. 9 months later, I’m no expert, but I no longer feel like a total imposter in the publishing world (just a sort-of imposter). I know enough to be dangerous and to get the ball rolling.

6. Find the time: “Claire, how the heck will I find time to research and network and take incremental steps? This adds up to a lot of hours!” I won’t argue with you. I’ve had plenty of stops and starts because life and work were just too full at times to go down this path. I finally reached a point where my curious energy was peaking at the same time my life was calming down a bit, so I carved out space. For me, that meant getting up at 5am most days and spending 1.5 hours researching and planning. I got my Starbucks Flat White (shout out to my favorite early-bird baristas Alex and Alister!) and drove to a nearby park. I sat with my laptop on a bench facing the lake, and most days an enormous flock of goslings waddled by - very cute, lots of poop - as I explored and plotted. I will never forget those weeks. I wanted so much more time, but eventually those mornings paid off. They added up to a working knowledge and a rough plan I could take real action on. Eventually, I reshaped my schedule and financial plan to make space during the workday for writing, too. But I started in the margins of life.

7. Accept that you will never not be afraid: Let me tell you what I am terrified of right now: That I’ve invested all this time and will never get published. That I will get published but sell no copies of my book. That I will not make any money through writing and speaking. That people will stop offering me coaching work because they think I’m just a writer now, and then I really won’t make any money. That I will put my ideas out there in written form and offend someone or otherwise make a fool of myself. I could go on. While unfamiliar territory is exciting for some, it’s comfortable for almost no one, myself included. The sooner you embrace the fear rather than waiting for it to go away, the sooner you can make strides towards your next career identity.

What about you? Which of these principles inspires you to inchworm your way in a new direction? What have you learned as you’ve made career shifts yourself? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Now, get back in there.

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• If you need a way to turn your big, squishy ideas about a possible career shift into tangible tasks and timelines, I present to you My Magical GAANT Chart.

• My friend Sarah shared the work of Jacqueline Baker with me this week. Perfect timing for this post, because her podcast Just Start is a great resource for helping people turn ideas into action!

• ICYMI: Check out my About page to learn more about The Diving Board and yours truly

• On a (very) different note, the wars in our world are weighing heavily on me, as I’m sure they are on you. This quote reminds me of my part in it all:

“Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women.”  

Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh

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• I’ve been digging the free New York Times Games app. Each day, I can do one of each puzzle (Wordle, Connections, Letter-Boxed, etc.) for zero cents. I’m generally not much of a phone-gamer, but this small dose is the perfect unwind at the end of the day.

• After a slow start, winter is in full swing here in Minnesota. In honor of the most depressing time of year (to me), here’s a new vocab word I learned recently, thought you might need it.

Apricity (noun): the warmth of the sun in winter 

• Expect to hear me use this word in a sentence soon, such as, “Can’t talk, clouds just cleared, gotta go get me some apricity while I have the chance.” Or “IMO, apricity sucks compared to the warmth of the sun in the other three seasons.”

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• Taking a poll: does this sound (A) like a fun adventure or (B) your worst nightmare? I’m going on an anniversary trip this week with my husband Rob (16 years!), and get this: we won’t find out until the morning of our trip, just before leaving for the airport, where in the continental U.S. we are going! We booked a surprise trip through the agency Pack Up + Go. I’ll let you know in a future post where we ended up!

• Every member of my household loves Taylor Swift, which means we don’t fight about what music we ask Alexa to play. At this point, I could probably say, “Alexa, play you-know-who” and she would comply. I’m going to try that tonight. Here are each of our favorite songs. Claire: Style (1989); Mabel: 22 (Red); Amos: Haunted (Speak Now); Rob: Dear John (Speak Now). Tell me your faves in the comments! Or just roll your eyes and move on if you are tired of hearing about Taylor Swift! 😘

Me and my husband Rob at the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Concert in Minneapolis this summer.

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That’s a wrap! If you know someone who might enjoy this post, click below to share freely.

Bonus post coming later this week: 2023 in Books: What I Read, Loved, and Found Lackluster. And next week, we’re jumping into one of my favorite topics: Vertical Development. If you don’t know what that means, great! I can’t wait to explore it together.