Career Coach Central Podcast with Career Coach Griz: Episode 1- Condensed Show Notes.
Hello, my friends and welcome to this inaugural blog post. In it, you'll learn a little bit about me and get some tips, which are sprinkled throughout.
I am so thankful that you're taking the time to read this. This blog, along with my podcast—Career Coach Central Podcast with Career Coach Griz—is a place where I’ll share my candid musings on various career topics. Both this blog and my podcast are helpful if you are working as employee or a business owner and want more satisfaction out of your career.
This blog is meant to be a space where we can speak candidly about what’s happening out in the professional world and empower you to make important changes that boost your level of overall satisfaction, both personally and professionally.
Connect and Receive a Free Tool
Want free tools, tips, and exclusive offers for career-related resources? Well then before we go any further, I invite you to head over to my website and sign up to Get my Work-Life Tips and Updates. When you do that, you'll receive helpful information—not spam, because ain't nobody got time for spam—delivered right to your inbox.
As a free gift for signing up, you will immediately receive a Decision Tree that helps you create some boundaries at work. This tool helps you decide when to say “yes” and when to say “no” whenever optional requests come into your space.
Let's take a moment to talk about why it's important to draw boundaries at work.
If you’re a people pleaser like me, we end up saying “yes” to so many things and we end up overcommitting ourselves. That usually happens because we initially get excited about being helpful—so, we say “yes.” But before we know it, our time is completely booked up and we get stretched too thin. The result is having precious little energy left over for our personal lives which quickly leads to feelings of burnout and frustration.
This free gift—the Decision Tree tool—is a helpful visual that has helped many people say "no" when needed, and it will help you, too. I encourage you to print it out and to put it somewhere where you can easily see it. Or take a screenshot of it and have it on your phone so that whenever you're asked to do something, you can pull up your Decision Tree and use it to help you decide.
A Short Summary of Grisel’s Professional Journey
I'm a Gen Xer in my early 40s—a seasoned professional who has always been interested in people. When I was in college, my undergraduate major was Psychology—Counseling was my focus area.
As I progressed through my studies, I found the science of behavior—you may recognize it as Behavior Analysis.
I immediately fell in love with behavioral science. I spent copious amounts of time learning about the ins-and-outs of human behavior and went on to Graduate School to become fully immersed into all facets of the science.
My journey began in a laboratory setting studying the laws of behavior with rats and pigeons because, believe it or not, the underlying laws of behavior hold true across species. From there, I practiced applying those principles in the world of developmental disabilities where I worked extensively with individuals with Autism and their families. My counseling background served me well there as I found myself supporting families who were coping with their child having an Autism diagnosis.
My studious progression led me to find my passion area—Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Behavior—where the skies opened up, so to speak, and I immediately knew I landed in the space of my professional calling.
To put it simply, I/O Psych is the application of Psychology to work. I have always been fond of everything having to do with work. In fact, my first job was in a manufacturing plant when I was 14 years old and have worked ever since. That’s a story for another day.
In any case, I finished up my graduate degree in I/O Psychology, specializing in an area called Industrial/Organizational Behavior management. The science of managing behavior—or performance—in work settings. That started my career trajectory, landing me where I am today.
Why Career Coaching?
I'm a person that has always loved to talk about what people do for a living, understand their level of job satisfaction, and help them find ways to improve both their work quality and level of career satisfaction. It's actually my conversation topic of choice, even in social situations. Go figure.
Let's rewind for a minute and take it back to 2005...
In Graduate School, I worked in the Office of Career and Student Employment Services. My job there was to coordinate all of the career development activities for students that were about to graduate, leave school, and enter the workforce. I was in charge of coordinating career fairs, sessions on resume writing and interview preparation, and other career-preparedness events. That's when my career-coaching journey began.
Simultaneously working on a Master’s degree with a central focus on enhancing the way people work, while working as a graduate assistant helping people find jobs they love, was a beautiful marriage that has been interwoven into my career ever since.
That, and my love for all things career, uniquely positions me to be a career coach.
I've sat in every seat of the hiring table. I know exactly what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for in candidates, I know what candidates feel when they're undergoing the interview process, and I've been the cheerleader behind the scenes guiding both sides of the table to choose wisely.
Career Satisfaction Matters
Work takes up one-third of our lives. The other two-thirds are your (1) your personal time and (2) the amount of time that you spend sleeping.
So, if you're not happy at work, that unhappiness spills into the rest of your life, and it negatively affects your life experience.
But, on the other hand, if you're happy at work—if you are able to be yourself, gain energy from your work, and shine like the brilliant star that you are—those fantastic feelings spill over into the rest of your life. The result is better sleep, and more enjoyment of your life experience.
That's what I'm here to help you improve—your overall life experience.
I have first-hand knowledge of the havoc a mis-matched career has on one’s life. I'm a person just like you who has experienced ups and downs in my life and in my professional journey. I’ve also received and delivered trainings (and certifications) in contemporary practices to that enhance your work life on topics like communication strategies, conflict resolution, Emotional Intelligence, change management, leadership effectiveness, and other soft-skill topics that enhance teamwork and effective, engaging work environments.
I've collected those experiences and have created programs—courses and coaching systems—to help individuals like you level up in your career and bring more balance into your life.
I personally know what it's like to want more out of my career, and to work my fingers to the bone trying to get it. Which is why, ultimately, I decided to grab my career with both hands and take control over it, instead of it taking control over me.
I've always known that having my own business is ultimately what was right for me, personally. Some things happened in my life—in fact, I was in a situation where I was a full-time employee eating frustration sandwiches every single day and ended up being diagnosed with cancer. It was a rare cancer Appendix Cancer—Goblet Cell Carcinoid (GCC), to be exact. The doctors don't know how I got it, in fact, they don't know very much about it. One in two-million people get GCC, and I was diagnosed at a very high point in my life.
My cancer diagnosis crystallized for me just how precious life is, and the only thing that I could think about in that moment was all the things that I had left undone. They were undone because I was disproportionately spending all my energy on work that was not fulfilling for me anymore, and it was draining me of all my energy, leaving very little left over for me to take care of myself and enjoy my life.
So, in the nine months it took me to recover from that surgery (yes, nine months), I made the decision that if I made it out alive, I was going to change around my priorities—change my life—and that's exactly what I did. When I was well enough, I got serious about starting my own business. I put all of the pieces in place and when it was time, I stepped out of my corporate job to run my side business full time as a consultant for work cultures. From that business sprang my Career Coaching business. For more information on what that journey looked like, please check out my book on Amazon called Trust Your Wings: How I Left My Corporate Job to Start a Consulting and Coaching Business from Scratch.
How Career Coaching with Grisel is Different
Career coaches are a dime a dozen. There is no shortage of qualified folks out there who can assist you with writing a resume and cover letter, and even help you prepare for job interviews.
Although I offer online courses for those items—courses that have been vetted by recruiters and are based off of the insights they’ve shared with me on what makes candidates stand out in today’s job market—I’m different from other career coaches out there.
I integrate my background in Psychology, Behavioral Science, Work Culture Consulting, and Career Counseling to help you find the types of roles that are best aligned with your personality style, your strengths, and your career calling. Roles that move you toward the vision you have for your best life. Once we do that, we then create your resume that tells your compelling professional story on paper, and we get you prepared for interviews in such a way where you are empowered to confidently present yourself as the shining star that you are.
In addition, I offer a coaching program designed to help you break through the personal barriers that are creating professional challenges for you. Breaking through them enables you to walk with confidence toward a higher level of success, income, and work-life balance.
My career coaching focus is to help you be happier in your work life—where you are able to bring your best self to work every day—and so you can better enjoy your personal life.
I gently guide you through a tried-and-true process that clarifies the kind of work you are the most excited to do right now, where you can really leverage all of your skills and experiences and also bring your authenticity to the table and be your true self in your job.
When you’re doing that kind of work, you gain energy instead of being drained of it.
When you’re able to do your best work, you’re better able to help the people you serve, and you get huge levels of satisfaction from your career.
When you're on fire like this, more opportunities become available to you, such as salary increases, promotions and more control over where your energy goes in professional settings.
I offer coaching packages depending on where you are in your journey and what you want to accomplish. You can see the different options I offer by visiting the Coaching tab of my website.
Closing Tip
Prioritize your mental health and your life experience.
Because, my friends, you never know when your last day will present itself.
I'm sorry to get morbid about it, but it’s true that you never know. Remember my cancer experience that I shared with you? I was on top of the world in my personal life—not in my professional life, but in my personal life—and that train came screeching to a halt unexpectedly.
When that diagnosis hit me out of nowhere, I was suddenly looking at the end of my line and the doctors didn't know if I had two weeks or two years left to live. I had no choice but to look at where I was spending my time, and I wished in that moment that I would have made the decision to prioritize my personal life sooner—to take a look at what was happening in my professional life and make some changes earlier. I was spending all of this time helping other people with their career, but I wasn't doing that same kind of work myself. Thankfully, I’ve been cancer free ever since my last surgery and I intend on living my best life until I draw my last breath, whenever that day shall be.
I'm only telling you this because if you haven't connected to anything else that I've written in this blog post, connect to this:
Do yourself a favor and prioritize your mental health. Prioritize your life experience and take a look at your career. Ask yourself, “Is this giving me what I need in my life?”
If you find that the answer is “no,” and you need some help figuring out how to make important career changes, then don't wait to get the support you need. Do it today.
Investing in your personal development is usually the last thing that we budget for, but it's what gives you the largest return. When it comes to your life experience, your life is precious, and you deserve to live it to the fullest. Trust yourself to commit to the coaching progress, and you'll be astonished with the positive changes you create in your life.
Grisel Scarantino, MA, ODPC is a Career Coach, better known as Career Coach Griz. She’s a coach, consultant, speaker, author, home chef, Bigfoot enthusiast, enjoyer of life, and lover of funny dog videos. If you want to fall back in love with your career path, learn how to gain more traction in your job seeking, grow your success as a professional, and better enjoy the life that you're working so hard to support, then follow her on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Click here to schedule your free consultation.