How I CREATED a job I love (and you can too!)

Hey, everybody. So this week, I want to talk a little bit about creating the job you love from the perspective of how I created the job I love. I want to tell you two stories and the lessons that came with it. That really helped me to develop the business to where I am from teaching to here, because it's been, you know, not just a straight line journey. I don't think anybody's journey is and I think it really helps to hear these stories. Before I do this, I want to tell you a little story about a client when last week that I think was amazing, the one I walked away thinking about all week, I will say it's more of a life win in that category than a business win what I think about it, because honestly, for me, I really do believe that if your life doesn't work your business can’t. 

So I had a client last week come to this particular thought she was thinking about how one of the things that's been in her way, a little bit, a lot of it is waiting for everyone else to be proud of her. And it resonated with me because I have done this. And I know you have probably done this, we've all done this, where we feel kind of yucky, because we're waiting for someone or something on the outside to validate us to tell us you're doing a good job, keep going. And in a lot of cases, often we're waiting for someone that's never going to show up to do that. Whether it's a parent or a spouse or a friend, or what have you. Were like we want to hear they're proud of us. And that's just not how they roll as humans. And having this thought came with this big aha for her that she could be, she could decide to be proud of herself. Like on the regular starting right now. And this is actually hard. This is hard work. Because we as humans have been particularly women have been conditioned. Like don't flaunt your wins. Don't overstate your successes, God forbid you make everyone else feel small, or anyone else feel small, even when your intention is really just to share. So it's a really big deal. To decide to be proud of yourself, no matter what. Like that. It's okay to be proud of yourself no matter what. And even if you just walk around with that in your heart, that's a big deal. So for you, like the thing, just walk away thinking about my be? What if you could be proud of one thing you did every day? And it's not do new stuff. You have something you did today that you'll do tomorrow that you did yesterday that you can be proud of? What is it?

How do you find it?

What if you just sat down and we're proud of it for two minutes? How would it feel? And then from a business standpoint, if you're always proud of what you're creating, imagine what that attracts to you. Like, I am proud that like I'm on episode 18 of a badass like I just keep coming. I'm gonna consistently do this, because I think it's fun. So what are you proud of today? And how can that help attract the people you want to you? So on to stories, I want to tell you two stories today about how I got to here and created the job I have. One of them is when I left teaching in 2010. So when I left teaching in 2010, I left a tenure teaching job I'd been there like 10 years. And I was coaching teachers at that time. So I was in like a fairly highly coveted position now in a classroom with a lot of flex. And I decided to leave when we moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Now we move states. And if you're not from the east coast, it sounds like the normal thing you would do when you move from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. But you'd be surprised how many people live in New Jersey and commute to Pennsylvania. And how many of my colleagues assumed that that's what I was going to do. It's like an hour and 40 minutes from my house to my old schools that I was working in. But with traffic it's a lot more than that. And I decided that that's not what I wanted to do. So that's the first part of it. The other part of it was in 2010 it was a stupid time to leave a tenure teaching job. If you remember the market and all the things that crashed in 2008. And that really led to schools tightening their belts and not hiring as much there weren't as many jobs to be had. There had been cutbacks, there have been all these things. And in the midst of that, I was like well, I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna go find a new job. And so I knew over the winter we were moving and when I decided to leave for June, that gave me the Spring to sort of be looking for jobs and applying and interviewing and doing all that thing. The other thing I had to do was the work of moving my certification from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, which also sounds like it should be simple and isn't. And so I did all that work. And then came spring and I interviewed and interviewed and interviewed and nothing. And so I've friend recently asked me like, how did you not freak out? How did you contain it at that point? Good. I didn't, is the short answer. I didn't. I was like, Oh my gosh, what if I never get a job. And so I painted basically, every wall of this house, when we moved in, I ended up spending a couple weeks at my best friend's house, because she had actually had a medical emergency happen and needed help with babies. And I actually had the flexibility to do that. And then shortly after that, I had a friend reach out to me who was working in Encyclopedia Britannica at the time. And he said to me, Sara, would you do some consulting for us locally? Because they had a big contract with a local school district here. He's like, come out to Chicago and talk to us about it. And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever, I'm not doing anything. So I had time on my hands. And I thought, like, Well, part time, I'll start something part time and like, Okay, and so I went out there on like, a Tuesday. And I came home on a Thursday with a full time job completely unexpectedly. And it was probably project management, it was managing a tool that they sold at the time. But slowly, it evolved into a different kind of role. And it like, shook my world from head to toe, because I had always known I would be a teacher, I knew I would teach in a classroom when I was seven. And so all of a sudden, you know, 15 years in, I found myself working in what was very much not a classroom working from my different room in this house for a company that was 1000 miles away, on like, no real schedule, with a boss who was just like, Yeah, do you good luck. And I was like, whoa. And it just rocked my brain. And it took me a long time to come away with the lesson. But the lesson was this, the world is bigger than you think. You walk into teaching into a classroom into like the certification you get from college and all the classes you take in all of that. And you think like, Okay, this is how I use these skills. I use these skills to teach children x y&z whether it's a subject or a grade level or whatever.

But what I realized when I went to Britannica is there are hundreds of ways that I can use my teaching skills. And I had not thought of like 99% of them, I didn't know that what I was doing was even an option. Like I literally didn't know it was a choice. And then over time, as I met more and more people in that world, I got to see that like, there are lots of other versions of how I could use my teaching skills that I just flat didn't know existed. And people who had left teaching, or were in and out of teaching or in the library world, who were doing, using their teaching skills in really interesting ways that didn't involve being in a classroom. It was corporate, it was independent. It was, you know, the whole range of things. And it opened up all these doors to me about what was possible, and how relevant teaching skills are in the larger world. Because teaching skills are people skills. And lots of people don't have people skills, especially in the corporate world. So it is really a revelation to think like, Oh, I have the skill set that is easily transferable. I had no idea. And so if you are a teacher, or you were a teacher, and you're thinking like, Oh, I'm stuck here, I'm not saying Neve, but I am saying what you're doing the skill set you have. There's lots of versions of out in the world. And it's okay to explore that. If this is time to do something else. You don't have to feel bad. I felt really bad for a long time that I had left. But actually, it's turned out amazing and I'm super happy with all the things I've learned and done. So I can love what I do and still use my skills outside of the way I started. The second story is about leaving Britannica. So I was a botanical for seven years. And about five, five and a half years in. I got bored.

Honestly, I had stability. I had amazing flexibility. I worked with amazing people. I got to do all kinds of things that I never expected. Did I love the people best to though, and I had this life that I led where I could be here for my kids were very small at the time, that's when I had babies. And, you know, I could have that flexibility. But I was starting to disengage because I just like it just wasn't where my heart was, like, did I believe in the tools? Absolutely. But it was not. I just got bored, I wasn't being challenged in the way I wanted to be. And so I had talked to a friend about this. And she led me through this set of questions that she had actually gone through with a friend of hers.

And what I looked at, were three things. What I love to do, and I made like charts on the wall, I made charts on chart paper on the wall. So I had a lot of short paper at that time. So I made a chart about what I love to do. I made a chart about what I'm good at. Because I think you know, a lot of times we have skills, we're really good at something but we don't enjoy doing it. Like they're they're plenty good at. I don't know, a whole bunch of things that I think are super boring. And I'm sure you have the same things that you're good at, but you don't want to do 24 hours a day. And then I also looked at what I needed. When I was thinking about leaving Britannica, I was applying I applied for a bunch of teaching jobs. I applied into the schools here locally, I interviewed I did lots of things I didn't get anywhere. I had at least I had one of the local school districts here, send me an email afterwards to tell me I wasn't qualified. And I didn't have enough experience. And this is after like 20 years in education. And I was like, Oh, boy, okay. And I was like, heartbroken. Like, it was awful. But then when I looked at what I actually needed and love to do, it turned out that what I really needed more than anything was flexibility. Because my husband traveled a lot at that point, he was in a job where he wasn't necessarily here and somebody had to be here. So me going back into a skill building wasn't actually feasible. It was like what I thought I wanted, but not what I needed. And so I looked at all those things. And I looked at the overlap. And from that wants and needs and loves and goods at good to do. Good, what I'm good at sorry. I built my first business. And I actually went back to teaching college kids part time, which was part of the stuff I applied to do when I was thinking of leaving Britannica. And when I left Britannica, I actually didn't leave all the way right out of the gate. I, I went part time, about six months before I left, I said to them, Look, I know this isn't what you do with people. But I'm building this business and I need time to do it. And do you mind if I work 25 hours a week instead of 40. And we had some negotiations, and they let me do that. And then eventually I laughed. Because, you know, I think I went part time in March. And I left in August. Because all of a sudden all of these opportunities to teach college kids started rolling in. And I realized I couldn't do all this at once. But I wanted the teaching. And so I think that was I know that was the work the looking at what I really wanted. And what I needed was the work that has put me in the position to be where I am now to enable the beginning of my entrepreneurship journey. And so the lesson I walked away from with that is that it was really worth taking the time to tune into what I actually wanted, what I was good at what I loved to do and what I really needed from a job. And from my time, you know, how much money do I need to make? how flexible does my life need to be? What hours Can I can I give How much time do I have? And I would say for me the process of working through that took some time. And I did it all on my own with friends. I mean, if I had had somebody working with me, if I had coaching at the time, if I had known what was possible, it probably would have gone a hell of a lot faster. It involved me and lots of flip charts in more than a little anxiety, honestly. But it was really worth it. And it's actually something since then I have done with countless friends and with clients in person after person. Because when you turn into you, it changes everything. What it taught me was I'm allowed to be happy with the work I'm doing. And I am not someone who wants it to be the same year after year. Like I had a colleague who I adored, who was just great with it being the same every year for 15 years. I'm not like that. That's okay. Some people are great with staying being teaching the same grade level for fifth Dude, 30 years, year after year, and I just was never gonna be that person, I'm not built like that. And I'm okay with it. So whether you are the person that wants it the same all the time, or whether you're looking around and thinking like, hmm, what's next? All those things are okay, and you get to be happy.

What's really nice for me is that like, I've gotten to be a model for my friends, some of them decided to stay in teaching and change gears within the education system. Some of them left and found new paths, some of my friends that I've talked through this, and the clients are not in education at all. And it's still changed things for them. And the other thing I really appreciate about it is that I'm a model for my kids. And that matters. Like, I'm a model for my daughter, who gets to be like, you know, what, I want this, I'm great at this, I need this, I'm gonna make my own. And that's really what I have been able to do over time by tuning into what I want and need, and I'm good at. And so what I want to offer to you is that the same is possible for you. If you're perfectly happy, where you are doing what you're doing, then stay, the world needs you to do that. But if you're like, there's got to be more, it's got to be different. Please explore. If you need help with that exploration. I'm kind of like a tour guide operator, I help you plan the tripping. Find the landmarks and the road signs and the fun places to visit. That's what I'm really good at. I know, in the end, what really matters is you deserve to be happy in your work, no matter what that looks like. And that you can make your own version and be happy and make money. I am living proof of that. And I really do know that the doors are here for you to walk through, there's no way more possibility than most of us have ever realized that you can, you know, find something else that fits you really well. Or make a version of it for yourself yourself. Like you don't have to have it show up you can create it that is within your power. And so if you are looking to create coaching can make it go so much faster, trust me, I have done it with coaching and without and the width coaching version worked a lot better. It made money a crap ton faster. And it was a lot I mean, still painful but a lot less painful in the offing. So if you are looking for that kind of help I that's what I do with people. I help them work through this. And I love that process more than anything because I know you deserve it. So if you're wanting to talk about it, please reach out send a message. Come see me on Facebook or LinkedIn or come on into my group. It's called Teachers in Business just like this podcast, or go book yourself an hour to chat on my website www.torpeycoaching.com.

And from there, I wish you happiness and the role you're in more than anything. May it be exactly what you want. May you be a model for your kids, for your friends for all the people that love you, and may any change you make. be creating the job you love.