Episode 24: 7 Things I’ve Learned In My Career
We've all heard the idea that people don't leave companies, they leave bad managers. And bad managers create toxic workplaces. I know you don't want that to be you.
It’s one thing to survive a toxic workplace but how do you prevent one in the first place if you are a leader?
Often, toxic workplaces start from the top of the organization and radiate down into the rest of the organization but there are micro-cultures inside of teams that you definitely have more influence over.
In this episode we cover:
6 ways you can prevent a toxic workplace as a leader
How you may be contributing to a toxic workplace and not even realize it
Full Transcript:
[00:01:05] Welcome back to the Upgraded Career podcast. My name's Nicole Case, and I am your host for today, and it is my birthday week, so around this time of year during my birthday, it falls in the, about halfway through the calendar year, about halfway through the year. and it's also the time for graduations, it's time for, you know, it feels like, you know, a big transition happens for a lot of people during this time of year and it also just so happens to be my birthday week at the same time.
[00:01:38] So I love this time of year. I get. So energized about new beginnings, about fresh starts, and it just causes me to do a bit of reflection naturally during the year, so, so I tend to set a lot of goals at the end of the year, like a lot of other people do traditionally at the end of the year, beginning of the year in January.
[00:01:58] But then just my birthday tends to be a really great natural time. For me to do some additional reflections. So I don't know if you kind of go through that whenever, whenever your birthday hits, no matter what time of year. But for me, I feel like it's extra kind of special because it actually ends up being about a natural halfway point throughout the year for me.
[00:02:18] So this year when I was doing a little bit of reflection, I realized that, you know what, I've come up with some various, you know, thoughts or insights just over the course of my career, and I thought I'd share those with you today. So since this week, I am turning the big 37. Now I am going to share with you the seven insights that I have learned over the course of my career.
[00:02:45] So first let's just go ahead and dive right in. The first insight or the first, you know, just kind of thing I've just realized in my career or a tip, um, or a tip, if you will, is. , you have to figure out how to, how you work best. This is something that I actually didn't really think through or figure out except for over the last few years.
[00:03:09] So this is why I'm putting this at the top, because I feel like if I would've figured this out way earlier in my career, I would've probably saved myself a lot of headaches. But you have to figure out just how you work best. We all have our own. You know, kind of natural rhythm and, and just ways that we wanna take in information.
[00:03:29] And I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what that looks like for you. So for me, you know, what's the time of day that you do your best work? I can tell you first thing in the morning is not the best time to have me on a call or to try to get me to do really deep work. So the mornings, now that I have my own business, I try to ease myself into the day.
[00:03:52] I try to get my workout in during the day. I've realized that I do not like working out at night. I actually don't feel really great when I work out at night, so I prefer to do it first thing in the morning when I get up, and I like to kind of ease into my day and not have to be on and take calls. , um, if I don't have to until the afternoon now the dentist don't always work out that way for me.
[00:04:14] I also do a lot of training and um, a lot of corporate engagements and things like that. So when I do, I, you know, kind of, I do have to do some stuff in the morning, but I find that my really great creative work I tend to do in the afternoon and in the evenings. And if I look back on my career, this was a pretty, a pretty obvious thing now looking back on it, because I remember anytime I would need to do.
[00:04:35] you know, PowerPoint presentations or answer emails or anything like that, or just be really creative and come up with communications and things like that. Doing it at night on my couch with a glass of wine was the time that I was going to do it. I could not will myself to sit at my desk or sit in my cube in an office and crank out.
[00:04:56] you know, like really great high quality, uh, presentations or PowerPoints or anything like that. So I always ended up procrastinating on that. And then I would do it at night, at home, after dinner, sitting on my couch when I was a little bit more comfortable and, you know, I wasn't getting interruptions from other people in the office or I wasn't distracting myself, um, by having other people kind of around doing things in the office.
[00:05:19] So what is. , what is the time of day where you do your really best creative work or deep work? When's the best time of day for you to be maybe in meetings or be really social, um, in your workplace? Really just sit down and think about that. Now again, you might not always be able to control all of those things with your schedule, but it's really, I think, important to have kind of a baseline understanding of that and the more you are able to.
[00:05:45] You know, move some things around the, the better, um, you, I think the better you're able to be a little bit more productive. Which leads me to the next part of figuring out how best you work is figure out an organization, system, whatever that looks like. I. For you. I used to have a boss and I copied her for a really long time on this.
[00:06:03] Um, I had a boss where she would have a little sticky note that she would keep on the front of her notebook. She carried this little notebook everywhere she went and at every meeting that she, that she went to, she always had this notebook with her and she always kept a sticky note on the top, on the front of it.
[00:06:18] and that's where she wrote her little to-do list and then she'd cross it off as she'd go. And so I copied her on this for years and years. And even when I went to other companies, I copied her on this and I realized that that actually doesn't work for me very well. Like writing to-do list on a sticky note like I.
[00:06:35] I have to rewrite it all the time. It gets bent or gets ripped off. It gets dirty and like she would have like sometimes multiple sticky notes or sometimes inside of her, of her, the cover of the notebook. She would have a special sticky note for special things, and it was just, again, it worked for her really, really well.
[00:06:53] I just found that that did not work for me. So I needed to figure out a different way to organize myself and keep my to-dos and keep everything straight so I wouldn't forget anything. And what I found that works better for me is by calendaring everything, meaning I don't have sticky notes or um, to-do lists.
[00:07:10] that I keep in a notebook somewhere, I will do like a brain dump of the things that I need to do, especially when I get really, um, overwhelmed sometimes I, I just, I just need to do a brain dump of all the things that I need to do and I'll, and I have a little notebook for that, and so I'll write all of that down, but then I immediately transfer it into my calendar so I have a really clear understanding of just how long that thing is going to take me in my day.
[00:07:35] So, Whatever that organizational system looks like for you, sit down and really experiment and figure out what that, what that is. And again, I really wish I would've figured this out earlier in my career. I think it would've saved me a lot of heartaches and a lot of missed deadlines and a lot of, um, a lot of things, uh, you know, staying up, really like to get things done because I'd forgotten something.
[00:07:55] Um, and then, The, the final kind of piece to this around how do you do your best work is just how do you like to take directions or escalations, or how do you just like to take in information? Again, I didn't figure this out for a really long time, and when I realized that I had, um, a h d and as long as part of a h adhd, sometimes we have a hard time processing auditory instructions and.
[00:08:20] that makes a lot of sense as to why sometimes people would talk to me and they're like, oh, I need you to do this, this, and this. And I'm like, ah-huh, yeah, sure. And I'd basically just kind of black out or glaze over whenever this would happen. And then I'd be like, oh crap, what did they say? What did it they?
[00:08:34] What is it that they needed? And then I would have this panic moment, and then I'd feel bad that it seemed like I wasn't paying attention. And it's not that I wasn't paying attention, it's just that it takes me a minute to like process what somebody is say, saying to me. , um, you know, in an auditory way, which is kind of funny that I have a podcast now and this is how I do it, but this is what I figured out about myself, that I prefer to communicate verbally, but I prefer to get communication to me in writing
[00:09:00] So, I think again, if I would've known this, um, earlier in my career, I would've been way more intentional and just way more vocal about that with, you know, the, the leaders I was supporting in HR or just my boss or my peers. Just, if somebody was starting to give me instructions, I would've just, I would've just been really intentional about like, hold on one second.
[00:09:19] Lemme get up my notebook and, and write this down. And a lot of times I would, I would naturally, you know, do that. I would, you know, again, carried a notebook with me everywhere I went in, made sure I wrote things down, but I just, I think I just would've been a little bit more vocal about that, just even just telling my boss about, this is how I work best.
[00:09:35] It's really helpful for me to get. Instructions in writing or it's really helpful if you just give me a minute to write down instructions step by step so I don't forget anything. Because if I just hear it, then it's highly likely I'm going to forget something. This kind of harkens back to whenever I was waiting tables that the biggest lie I would ever tell myself is like, yeah, I'll totally remember to bring that salad dressing, or I'll totally remember to bring that box to that table.
[00:10:00] Who wants to take out box? Like I would, I would forget things all the time unless I wrote them down and I created, I remember. Creating a system there too to keep myself organized and to make sure I was taking down the orders in the way that made sense. . I had my own little process for that that I figured out over the years.
[00:10:17] So this is the same thing. In your professional life, in your work life, you have to figure out how you work best. You know, what's the time of day where you get things done really well? Do you have a really great organizational system that feels like it works naturally for you and just, you know, how do you like to get and receive instructions or just information?
[00:10:37] How do you best. , um, how do you best get and receive that? And just the more you can really be thoughtful and reflective on those things, the more you're able to share that with your team. Share that with your boss so that you can just work well together, right, and get things done. So that's my first tip of my first realization.
[00:10:57] The second realization. or tip that I have for you in just my years in my career is just really figure out what your strengths are and lean into those, lean into those strengths. So, like I said about, um, I do much better with verbal communication. Pre, prior to me starting this podcast, I had started a blog very briefly.
[00:11:21] You can't find it anymore, but I very, I had said for years, I'm gonna write this blog. I'm gonna write a blog. I have a lot to say. I'm gonna write a blog, and I, well, frankly, pissed around for a long time, was really scared to do it. And I finally got the gumption to like buy the website and get it all set up.
[00:11:36] And then I started writing and I realized, you know what? This actually is not very fun for me. And so I stopped doing it and, and then whenever somebody said to me, Nicole, maybe you should do a podcast. If you prefer to be a more verbal speaker, you could do that. And so once I started, This podcast, I was like, boy, this is way easier,
[00:11:56] This is way easier. And my strength is definitely more in verbal communication. So why don't I just lean into that? I'm just gonna lean into that. And that certainly has saved me a whole lot of angst by just figuring out what are my strengths and leaning into those. So I, I remember in my career kind of needing to figure out how to use Excel, right?
[00:12:19] Like, . I don't know many people in the corporate world today that doesn't have some sort of a need to know how to use Excel. Right. And certainly in hr, I needed to, I needed to do that. I had all kinds of data that I needed to gather and provide to leaders all the time. And I needed to provide dashboards and different things and then just, and really learn how to tell the story about how to.
[00:12:45] About what that data was telling us and maybe the direction that we needed to go or a decision that needed to be made based on that data. So of course I had to learn how to do V lookups and do pivot tables and all of those things to make my life easier. But I know that using Excel, first of all, it's not super fun for me.
[00:13:04] It's kind of energy draining and. I'm just, I'm not going to be that person that's gonna go take all of these exam advanced Excel skill classes and be like this super whizz with Excel. Like, I'm not gonna spend my time trying to improve that particular skill. if it's not something I enjoy and it's not a huge strength for me to begin with again, what my strengths are are looking at that data, analyzing the data, and then figuring out the story that it's trying to tell us, and then presenting that to others to, again, influence decisions or, you know, influence a policy or something like that.
[00:13:42] So when I worked at, um, a previous organization, one of my colleagues, one of my peers was really, really good at Excel and loved using it. And so he would go off, he would get the data, He would slice and dice it at all fancy, and it would take him no time at all. And then he'd come in my office and he'd show me what he did and he'd be like, let's see it.
[00:13:59] You know, I did this thing and I made this chart and all this stuff, and that's really cool. And then we sat down to get, and we sat down and we kind of looked at it and we kind of figured, figured out, you know, how then best to present it to the leaders. And then I would be the one who'd go off and present the data to the leaders because again, my verbal communication and my presentation skills, that's, those were my strengths.
[00:14:18] And so that's what I chose to continue to develop. , anytime we are in jobs where we feel like, you know, things are just a battle and we're just completely drained of our energy, that could be the culture, that could be the people that are surrounding you. But I'd also take a look at the tasks that you're doing every day.
[00:14:37] If these tasks that you are having to do in your job every day are really, really energy draining and you never feel like you're ever gonna be good enough. Maybe it's just not a strength for you, and that's okay because everybody has their own strengths. We just have to figure out what yours are and then craft our career, craft our jobs around that.
[00:14:55] Remember, um, talking with a, uh, with a client not too long ago about this whole thing I like to do, use the Clifton Strength Finders with my clients in our second session, no matter what program that you're in with me, I always do a Clifton strengths finder. Um, assessment with all my clients in their second session.
[00:15:13] And the reason is so that a, I get to kind of get to know you a little bit better, and I understand what your strengths are, and it also is gonna tell me a little bit about how you might want to interact with me. And then it also just. Helps reinforce probably a lot of the stuff that you innately know about yourself.
[00:15:30] And I remember working with one client, she was in a sales position, commission-based position, and one of her lower strengths on the StrengthsFinder assessment was, um, with competition and just the environment she was in, in a, in a commission-based sales position. It was just very, it was a highly competitive.
[00:15:49] um, it was just a highly competitive, uh, space and she's just like, this is not meeb. And one of her top higher strengths is harmony, which, you know, doesn't sound like that goes very well together. Competition and harmony probably sounds like there's a lot of. Conflict there. Right? And so once we identified that, she was like, well dang, no wonder why I'm so unhappy in my job, or no wonder why I'm not performing the way that I wanna perform because this is just not my jam.
[00:16:15] Right? And it's not to say that you can't. Have a strength in harmony or you know, you know, not have a strength in a particular area and still do really good at your job. It's not to say that, but maybe you approach your role in a little bit of a different way, but if you can identify those strengths, those things that you just do naturally really, really well.
[00:16:37] Why not try to amplify those things? Make sure, of course, we're taking care of any areas that are still required in your job and you're still able to get those things done, or you're still able to navig navigate that so it doesn't trip you up. But again, ensuring that your job and the work that you're doing day-to-day is leaning into your strengths.
[00:16:57] That is where that magic happens. That's where you can really start to find really great fulfillment in your work because you're like, ah, yeah, this is my sweet spot. This is where I need to be. So the third, uh, the third insight that I have for you that I've just kind of figured out in my career and frankly figured out kind of.
[00:17:16] Kind of late in my career is this idea of setting really crystal clear goals that give you direction while also staying flexible about how you get to that goal. So for me, for such a long time, I was just . Super rigid with my goals. I would set them, I would set these really high goals, and then I'd set up my week.
[00:17:38] You know, I'd be like super, super rigid with, you know, this is what needs to happen this day and at this hour. And if it didn't happen because you know, life pops up every once in a while, and any time that would happen and it would derail me, I would just be completely and utterly derailed for either the rest of the week or for the rest of that goal.
[00:17:56] And then maybe I wouldn't. Continue pursuing that goal because if I felt like I got off track just a little bit, or it didn't go exactly the way I thought it was supposed to, then I would just be, you know, completely derailed. So I used to have, actually, even just up here in this office that I have. . I have a really big wall over here to my left in my office, and I had, I had created this floor ceiling, um, rolling like eight week calendar using painter's tape and then having, um, all these different colored.
[00:18:31] Uh, sticky notes of all the different tasks that I needed to do in that particular week, and then I would rewrite it, I would move things around. And on one hand it provided flexibility to move things around, but what it did was really just, it was really just a visual manifestation of my overwhelm, right?
[00:18:47] And my husband finally said, Nicole, like setting these goals and being super rigid about it. in setting too many goals. Like this is not healthy for you. Like you continue like to beat yourself up and, and talk about just how you're not doing enough and how you're not showing up the way that you want.
[00:19:02] Why don't you take, why don't you take that down? So I did. So I took down that, um, that calendar system. I switched to something different and I also just needed to do a lot more mindset with mindset. Work with my own coach and with my therapist around. This idea of experimentation and flexibility that like, Hey, maybe I have these three things that need to get done this week.
[00:19:25] It really doesn't matter what day it gets done, it just needs to get done by the end of the week. And just allowing myself that grace to move things around. Also, to not overstuff my schedule, which again, once I finally started moving to fully calendaring, everything. that really, I really helped me open my eyes to how much time a lot of these tasks really take.
[00:19:47] But we have to know that we might have these really big, you know, audacious goals and, and I, and I. So encourage you to set really big goals for yourself, but we also have to again, be really flexible about how we make our way to those goals and not beat ourselves up if it doesn't turn out exactly the way we thought.
[00:20:06] Because in the end, it turns out exactly the way it should. One activity I do, um, every year. Uh, at, um, at the end of the year, at the end of the calendar year D on New Year's Eve, is I write myself a letter to my future self one year from now saying, dear Nicole, you had the best year ever. These are all the things that you did this year, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:20:28] And then the following year, I read it back to myself to see what all actually came true. Now you can call this vision pacing, or you can call it visualization. You can call it manifestation, whatever you wanna call it. But I just find it really useful, and I've been doing this now for years. , but about writing myself this letter.
[00:20:44] Just say, you did an awesome job. You know, keep it up. All of these things. And I remember one year, this must have been 20, 20 19, I wrote myself a letter to my future, to my future self. Um, at the end of the year of 2020, right? And of course, we all know what happened in 2020, so on like December 31st, 2019, I wrote myself, you know, so naive, Nicole of what I thought I was gonna achieve in 2020.
[00:21:13] And one of the things that I wrote down is that you hit this revenue level or this revenue goal in your business. You know, you're so proud of yourself of all of the work that you did to hit that revenue goal. Well again, The fall, when did I actually read that letter back to myself, but December 31st, 2020.
[00:21:31] And of course, no one could have predicted about what was going to happen in 2020, but the interesting thing was, no, I did not hit that revenue number in 2020. I actually did not come anywhere close, but. The real reason why I wrote that specific revenue number was because the ultimate goal was for me to leave my corporate job and go full-time.
[00:21:56] Into my business, which is what happened. So I met my ultimate goal of going full-time in my business in 2020. I just didn't do it the way that I thought. And it was just so funny cuz I spent so much time in 2020 beating myself up because I wa hadn't made the revenue that I thought I should have by that point, or the revenue number that again, I had given myself the previous, the previous year.
[00:22:21] But again, when I go back and look at what was really the ultimate goal behind that revenue, that revenue number, again, it was for me to go into my business, which I still ended up doing anyway. So set yourself some really big, scary goals and set that direction, but be more focused on going directionally.
[00:22:43] Correct towards that goal and not so be so concerned about how you get there. That will unfold as you start taking some steps forward. So, on that with goals. The fourth tip or realization that I have figured out over my, the course of my career is learn to set boundaries early. You're setting all these really big goals.
[00:23:07] You're achieving all these great things, and you're driving towards all of these amaz, this amazing, you know, upgraded career and upgraded life for yourself. But we have to also set boundaries. , I did not learn how to do this. I actually had to learn this lesson multiple times in my corporate career, and then again, once I got into my business, because I just really did not learn the importance, or I really just didn't learn.
[00:23:35] How to properly set boundaries, and I truly believe that when life continues to put this lesson in front of us, it's clear we have something more to learn in this area. So boundaries is something that I finally realized. Continue to need to evolve over time. So the fact that I needed to learn this lesson also makes, kind of makes some sense because, again, you evolve and grow in your career.
[00:24:00] You evolve and grow in your pr, in your life outside of work. So it makes sense that your boundaries also need to grow and evolve with you. And so now, What I'm realizing is that anytime I get to another new inflection point in my business or in my life, I also have to remind myself, okay, let me go back and look at my boundaries again and make sure I've got everything set up to help me succeed and support me.
[00:24:27] in this next chapter or in this next, you know, season of life that I'm going into. So I remember again early on in my career that I was just working wild and crazy hours. I was always the first one in the office, the last one to leave. By the time I get home, I'd have dinner, and then as soon as dinner was over, you know, I was opening up my laptop again and, , you know, answering emails and doing stuff.
[00:24:49] And I remember my husband and I was just so tired and just, just so, just overwhelmed and on the brink of tears nearly every day. And I remember my husband stopping me saying, like, Nicole, who's telling you you have to do this? Who has, who's telling you, you have to work at this pace? I know your boss. I've met your boss.
[00:25:07] She doesn't seem like someone. Who is doing this, you're telling you you have to do this, and he was so right. This was such an expectation that I had put on myself that I felt like I had to work these wild, crazy hours, that I had to be available all the time, that I had to respond in, in such a, in such a quick way that it just wasn't sustainable and it was making me utterly miserable.
[00:25:34] It was making me so tired and exhausted. So we have to learn what these boundaries are that we need to put into place for ourselves. And we have to remember that boundaries are for ourselves. They are not for anything else. They're not for anyone else. We're not trying to control of their people. All boundaries are, are how we want to.
[00:25:56] show up in the world and how we wanna interact with others and interact with the world. So we have perfect control over the boundaries we get to set for ourselves. We don't have control over how someone might respond to our, our boundaries. We don't have control about what other people's boundaries are.
[00:26:13] The only thing that we can control is ourselves, which on the surface of it sounds really simple, but on the other hand is also really difficult to set boundaries with ourselves, right? Like, I am not going to respond to emails past seven o'clock at night, or I'm not gonna re respond to things on the weekends unless it's, unless it's a, um, an actual emergency, which I don't know how many actual emergencies there are in business.
[00:26:40] There's actually not a whole lot, unless you, again, you are someone who is. Physically saving lives. You are, you know, in organ donation or you are an open heart surgeon, or you're a nurse or a doctor, or, um, again, a first responder or something like that, where truly, truly time is of the essence. There is a bonafide, you know, reason for you to be operating at this level of urgency all the time.
[00:27:10] Otherwise, we cannot have our nervous system running at this pace all the time. So we have to figure out how to set these boundaries and then just figure out a way to communicate them to others, to hold true to them, and then again, continue to revisit them, you know, throughout, throughout our career and throughout the year really.
[00:27:32] So the fifth realization that I had in my career is that working hard is not enough. to advance yourself in your career. . You know, my dad worked really, really hard, still worked really, really hard. He owns his own business as well. My mom and my mom and him, um, run a business where we're from in Pennsylvania, but it's very much, if you don't work, you don't get paid.
[00:27:56] And I remember him telling me all the time, he was like, you know, Nicole, if as long as you're working hard and you outwork everyone else, you know, you'll be just fine. You'll be able to, you know, move up in your career and you'll be just fine. And that might be true. , maybe in the beginning of your career or at in certain fields or in certain roles that might make sense.
[00:28:16] But I can tell you that by just working hard, no one is going to know what the outcome of that hard work is unless you show it to them. So you have to figure out a way to make yourself visible, visible, visible, visible to, that's a hard word to say. , you have to make yourself visible to your leadership, to your stakeholders, to the people who make those decisions about, you know, again, who gets the raise, who gets the bonus, who gets the promotion?
[00:28:47] Who gets that coveted project, right? You have to figure out how to. , articulate your value and demonstrate that, yeah, I'm doing all of these things. I'm checking all of these boxes, but here's what it actually means for the business. And this is even true if you own your own business, right? Like I can be the best coach out there, and if you weren't out here listening to me on a podcast, or if you didn't somehow come across.
[00:29:12] you know, my information, or if maybe someone in your network knew of me or experienced me and shared my information. If they didn't know about me, then how would you know that? You know, I have this business, or I do this work, or I work with people in this way, right? I can be the best coach on the planet, but if you don't know about me, if I don't put myself out there in a way that feels authentic and it feels good to me, it's unlikely that we would connect and that we would, you know, potentially end up working together.
[00:29:41] So, . Working hard is not enough, frankly. Just doing really good work, doing your job really well. Honestly, that's table stakes. And of course I know you're doing your job really well cuz you're awesome and amazing. So now we gotta make sure that people see that value in you. But that takes me to my sixth tip and realization, which is you can do all of those things.
[00:30:05] You can do all the right things with making yourself visible and articulating your value. and there's still gonna be people who don't get it. There's still gonna be people who don't see your value, who don't see that you know you are the right person for the job. , and I just encourage you to let that go and just recognize, you know what, not everyone is for me.
[00:30:28] I'm not for everyone else. And don't feel like you have to stay any longer in a role, in an organization, in a relationship, whatever, with people who do not see your value again. , I, I encourage you and empower you, and I work with all of my clients to help them gain visibility in their organizations and in their businesses.
[00:30:53] But, and you can do all of those right things, but there's still gonna be someone who just doesn't see that value or just who doesn't get you. And I want you to figure out, again, how you work best, what those strengths are, what those goals are for you. . And if those don't align with the particular business that you're in or the role that you're in, or just it doesn't align with the, the leadership that you know, maybe you have in your, in your company, that's just not the place for you.
[00:31:23] That doesn't mean that you're wrong, that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong either, um, in some cases, right? Um, uh, no, they're totally wrong cuz you're awesome. But you know, if you are just not in the right place. , then you're not gonna be able to be successful in the way that you know you're capable of.
[00:31:41] So don't stay any longer where you're not valued. If you're in the wrong place, you are not a tree. Let's get up and let's move to a different organization. Let's move to a different place. . Now I recognize there is a level of privilege there around people being able to up and move jobs in a, uh, really, really easily.
[00:32:02] But I still challenge you to say, listen, this is not the place for me anymore. These people don't see my value. I'm gonna take some steps to exit and go somewhere else. It may not happen overnight, it may not happen in a couple of months. It may take a year for you to, um, to, to get moved on to that, to that place that does value you or to find that place that does value you.
[00:32:23] But at least you can say, I know all of this stuff that's going on right now. This really doesn't have anything to do with me. This is just not the right place for me. Right. If we think about farming or we think about, you know, planting, You know, planting vegetables in your garden or planting plants in your yard.
[00:32:40] You know, some plants need lots of shades, some plants need lots of suns, some need more water than than others. Some needs really specific pruning and others don't. So, you know, we can't expect a plant to grow in an environment where it's not being supported in the way that it needs to be supported, and we can't think that about ourselves either.
[00:33:04] And so finally our, my last insight for, you know, my 37 years being on this Earth, just my insights into how to have that amazing upgraded career is to remember that the best investment that you can make is in your own development and in your own health. I have, um, a person in my life. In my family who, um, started a business and sold it, um, many years ago and now invests in other business, other businesses.
[00:33:39] I remember several years ago, um, sitting around the kitchen table and, and just talking to him about investments. This is a, you know, financial investments and things like that. That's, that's also not a strength for me. I mean, I don't know if you had a clue with that when I said that spreadsheets aren't my jam, so, financial investments and things like that is something that I'm learning about this year.
[00:33:58] That's a goal of mine to, um, just to be more aware and have some more understanding around financial investments so that, um, my husband and I continue to position ourselves in, in the best way possible. But I remember sitting around the kitchen table a few years ago before I went full-time in, into my own business, just asking him about investments and selling his company and what he does now and, and how all that works.
[00:34:21] And I just said, if you know, what would you tell. Someone who's getting, just getting into investment, what is the first thing you should do or what's the first investment you should make? And he said, without a doubt, without hesitation, invest in yourself. Because no matter where you go, no matter how much money you have, if you are not investing in your own professional development in some way, no matter where you are in your career, , then you are going to end up falling behind and you might not be as satisfied in your role if you can, if you find that you're staying stagnant.
[00:34:57] again. The other thing is investing in your health. This is something that I've been learning way more about over the last several years. The older that I'm getting, you know, I turned 37 this year, which on one hand is not super old in any way, shape, or form, but it's also, you know, I'm start, I'm like, I'm marching towards midlife, like real quick.
[00:35:17] Right. You know, I've started to, you know, put on the night cream and stuff like that. My skincare routine in the evenings have really. I've really gotten a lot more expensive over the years and I just realized that, you know, I've looked at other people in my life and I'm just like, I want to experience this life so fully and I wanna travel and I wanna do a lot of things.
[00:35:39] I wanna be here and experience really amazing things with my husband. I wanna be there for my niece and nephew and for all of my friends as kids. And you know, for my sister and my sister-in-law. I wanna be there for my family and just again, Really live this full life, and I'm not going to be able to do it if I'm sick or dead.
[00:35:57] So how can I continue to invest in my health, ensuring that I understand my unique needs, what I specifically need in order to make sure that I'm living a full. and long life. So I've been making sure again, that I'm going to the doctors every year that I'm getting all the checkups I should be getting.
[00:36:18] This year I've been working with a dietician to find out, you know, some specific nutritional needs that I have. I've been, I've learned about some food sensitivities that I have that I didn't realize before, and I'm sort of navigating that right now. But I'm definitely feeling a difference in my energy level, and I know that whenever I am.
[00:36:40] moving my body in ways that feels really good. Whenever I'm fueling myself with food that tastes really good and also is agreeing with my body that I'm able to show up and be here with you all and show up for my clients and show up for my family in the way that that I want to. So that is my. Infinite wisdom that I have for my, that I have for you.
[00:37:04] My 37 years of infinite wisdom, my seven insights into having, um, an amazing career where we first have to figure out how we work best. We lean into our strengths and get to, um, optimize those and amplify those over time. We're going to set goals. But allow the direction, flexibility on how we actually get to that final goal.
[00:37:32] We are going to set boundaries early and often, and also revisit those as our situations change. We're gonna not only work hard, but we're also going to make ourselves visible so that we can get the recognition, um, that we absolutely deserve. . We're also gonna recognize though, however, that sometimes some people are not gonna get us.
[00:37:56] They're not gonna see our value, and that's okay. We're gonna go to a place that where people do see our value, we're gonna get clients and customers who do see our value, who do understand us, and then we're gonna continue to invest. In our own development and in our health. So again, we can show up in the way that we wanna show up for our families and for our co colleagues and coworkers and clients.
[00:38:24] So that's everything that I had for you today. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today and listening to my seven insights for my 37th birthday. If you like information like this, I highly recommend you go over to my website at Nicole Case speaks.com/newsletter and sign up for my newsletter, my weekly newsletter, where I send you all information like this each and every week.
[00:38:47] In addition to letting you know when the weekly podcast episode drops as well. So if you wanna go over there, get signed up for that, to get even more information and insights about upgrading your career from me. And I will see you back here next time, same time, same place. And in the meantime, remember, your career deserves an upgrade.
