This blog shares why “So what?” stories are so important in your resume and cover letter.

"So what?" stories help employers understand why they should care about your accomplishment. A well-crafted story detail what the issue was, how you dealt with it, and what you accomplished. Some people call this using the “SMART” method. I can never wrap my head around all 5 components of the SMART acronym. I prefer to illustrate important concepts and information using stories.

A “So what?” story that includes numbers (also known as metrics) and descriptive words (which can include adjectives) helps put your accomplishments into perspective.

Another way of describing this concept is that “So what?” stories share qualitative and quantitative evidence that what you accomplished is worth noting.

Resumes and "So what?" stories

Here’s a couple of examples, lightly edited to protect identities, from resumes that I’ve helped people refine over the last 4 years:

Original text "Safely operate skidder and chain saws"
Transforms to "Safely operate skidder and chain saws with zero accidents for a 3-year period"

Original text “Led the day-to-day trading operations for 5 funds, alongside other Managers”
Transforms to “Managed the day-to-day trading operations for five investment funds worth more than $350 million”
 
These samples are short on purpose, they each fit on a page as a resume “bullet” point. Stories can be as short as five words.
 
When drafting your “So what?” stories use your own words, to showcase what you actually did. Add numbers where you can like "4 years" or a percentage if that's appropriate. Numbers help tell a compelling "So What?" story.
 
Cover letters and “So what?” stories

The most important thing to remember about a cover letter is that it's not about you! Frankly many employers aren’t that interested in candidates’ dreams, passions or aspirations. They want to know how you can help them.

This is where research can come in handy. Invest time researching your prospective employer (see Job Search Tips #1, for hints).

Try to identify what is important to that employer. Are they proud of their safety record? Are they actively seeking a more diverse workforce? Do they value their employees volunteering in the communities where they have offices? Has the job you’re applying for been turned over 6 times in the last 3 years? Why might that be?

Once you have a decent idea of what is important to the employer, showcase your gifts (skills, experience, knowledge) using “So what?” stories in your cover letter.
 
For example, when I applied to become a PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise service provider as a Business Growth Advisor (BGA) my cover letter read in part:

“I love how inclusive PARO is, from your logo to programs tailored for women from all backgrounds and abilities. I strive to communicate with people in a way that works for them. For example, last week, I had a friendly and productive typed chat in Zoom with a deaf business woman, about creating inclusive online training programs. She connected me to Canadian companies that provide live closed captioning services, ASL Interpreters, and LSQ (French) Interpreters. I am also integrally bilingual, English and French.”

You’ll note, this “So what?” story doesn’t include any numbers, instead I describe that I practice inclusion, and that I strive to communicate effectively with people from many different backgrounds, something that I knew, from my research, that PARO was looking for.

When writing cover letters (and resumes) tell the truth, don't make stuff up! What you're doing in the cover letter is giving them a feel of what kind of person you'd be like to work with.

As an aside, I’m happy to report that I’m really enjoying my first month as a PARO BGA. I’ve already got a couple of new client intake conversations set up for August!

If you enjoyed reading this post you may also enjoy:

Job Search Tips #1 Research
Job Search Tips #2 Informational Interviews 

To get a free copy of my eBook “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” click here

To learn more about Career Coaching services click here

Last week’s blog covered two money related topics: Incorporation and Business Insurance. There were also links to several free resources that you can explore at your own pace.

This week’s blog covers finding the right business bank account, and introduces the concepts of cash flow and overhead.

Finding the right Bank Account

A common pitfall for people starting a home-based business is mixing up their personal and business finances, by trying to track everything in one bank account.

I strongly recommend getting a separate bank account for your business. It helps you track how your business is doing, in other words are you actually making any money? And it makes things a lot easier come tax time!

Shop around by visiting your communities’ banks and credit unions, you can even check out online banking options if that’s within your comfort zone. Explore and find out what type of account is the best for your business. Banks and credit unions all try to offer competitive advantages, find the one that provides an affordable option for your type of business.

If you’re creating a high-volume business, with lots of transactions, it may be worth it to become a member of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB). Membership benefits include lower banking fees with partner financial institutions.
 
When I became a veteran, one of the first things I did was to shop around for a bank for my business.  In one bank, the Small Business Accounts Manager was more interested in telling me about his upcoming vacation than in telling me about the services his bank offered. In another bank, I ended up talking to the Branch manager. She asked me about my business, which at that time was a vague idea of doing what I loved best in the military, speaking, training and writing.

I planned to help others learn strategies and tactics to help them, their communities and organizations thrive. Based on what people kept asking me to talk about in my last few years in the military, I thought my target audience might be women in search of work life balance. I didn’t have a formal business plan, just a vague dream of a business idea. The Branch Manager liked what I shared, and ended up offering me a line of credit and a credit card to help me launch my business!

It’s worth shopping around for a financial institution. Tell people what you’re interested in. Sometimes, people will offer help before you even realize how useful that can be.  If you ask for what you want, you might just get it!

Bonus Tip: For some timeless advice check out Carol Ann Budd’s article “Tax Tips for Business Owners.” 
​
Bonus insight: Take some time to reflect on who your ideal clients are. I was wrong in my initial thoughts on this. Over time, my ideal clients revealed themselves to me.

Cash Flow and Overhead

I have several entrepreneur models in my family. My mother-in-law ran a business selling natural products out of her home for more than 30 years, my sister-in-law is a serial entrepreneur with many creative based businesses, my dad started two engineering consulting firms, and my husband started his business 5 years before me. I also have two uncles who are entrepreneurs and an aunt who put in decades as an incredibly successful Mary Kay saleswoman.

One of the lessons my family taught me was to keep my overhead low, until my cash flow is going well. In other words, don’t rush to buy a new desk, fancy giveaways, a brand-new car, etc. They taught me to keep my initial expenses low.

My biggest expenses in my first 16 months of business were buying a laptop, getting incorporated, professional insurance and buying some business cards from a local printer.  I decided early to shop local whenever possible! Did I mention that one of my uncles runs an incredibly successful printing business in Saskatchewan?

Overhead is the name that accountants and bankers use to describe recurring costs that must be paid on a regular basis, whether you have any sales or not. This can include, but is by no means limited to: rent, insurance, payroll, and software licensing fees.

I still haven’t bought any pretty branded things to give away like pens or USB sticks. I use as many free resources as I can, such as free LinkedIn. I have not spent a penny on marketing or advertising. My marketing is word of mouth (in person and on social media) and/or done by strategic partners. I even built my own website, which for several years was basically an online business card.

Last year, when I was ready to start scaling up, I began investing in getting outside help and paying for software to help me reach a larger audience for a new series of online courses. This included my website getting a professional makeover – while still using the cost effective Weebly platform that I know and love.

Cash Flow is literally the cash coming into and leaving your business. This “cash” may all be electronic, it’s anything that counts as money. For example, if you sell 100 stickers at $5 each, you’ve got incoming cash flow of $500.

You also have expenses, for all the materials used in creating those stickers, from the electricity for the machine that prints the stickers and the printer (overhead) to the paper used for printing. The bills you pay to cover those costs are cash flowing out of your business.

Continuing with the sticker example, it’s important to allocate some of your cashflow to materials, and some to overhead. Calculating what you’re going to pay yourself is also important. If you end up with zero cash after paying for the materials and other overhead, and you don’t pay yourself anything, then you’re not making money with that part of your business.

And that’s OK, as long as the stickers are a loss leader, that is a way to get the word out about your business, to attract clients to buy your higher priced products and services.

Consultants and other service providers may offer “free” services and resources, to help attract clients. For example, my free offerings are generally related to networking. It occurs to me as I edit this that my blog is also a free offering!

I’m curious, what’s the best financial advice you’ve followed so far?

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

The Power of Team Work
​Digital Bread Crumbs

You’re welcome to access my free mini course “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” at https://courses.empoweredpath.ca/

Running a business out of your home can be appealing for a number of reasons. As more people start contemplating the benefits of creating their own career by becoming entrepreneurs, it’s likely that they’ll have a few questions.

One of the things that people don’t like to talk, think or write about is money!

I’ve been an entrepreneur since the fall of 2012, the first few months were all about figuring out what I wanted to do, and setting up conditions for success. This included a few financial matters.

Over the years I’ve picked up a few more strategies and tactics shared by colleagues, family and government funded resources to help entrepreneurs thrive.

This blog covers two money related topics: Incorporation and Business Insurance. There are also links to free resources (from many sources) that you can explore at your own pace.

Incorporation: Yes, No or Maybe?

One of the first money related matters to sort out with your business, is how to structure it. Are you going to be a sole-proprietor, form a partnership, or incorporate?

There are benefits to all 3 models. I chose to incorporate my business because I started late, and wanted to protect our family’s assets, the money invested in our home, my military pension and my RRSPs.

If I had known how low risk my business actually was, I would have waited, and run it as a sole proprietor for the first few years. That way I could have written off several of my start up costs, on my personal taxes.

My accountant tried to get me to do that, but I can be pretty stubborn, I insisted on incorporating. He did persuade me to incorporate in Ontario instead of in Canada, saving a lot of paperwork especially come tax time. As my accountant explained it, unless I planned on setting up shop in other provinces, I didn’t need to incorporate outside of the province I lived and worked in.

Be very careful if you’re going to start a business partnership. Invest in getting separate legal advice. Too many friendships and families go through tough times when they realize that they made a bad decision by starting a business together. Formalize your partnership in writing, and have it witnessed.

To learn more about whether or not it’s time to incorporate your business, I recommend a one-hour video from the WE CAN Project at Queens University “Is Incorporation Right for You?” 

Business Insurance

It’s worth looking into additional insurance for your business. If something happens to your home, and all your products are damaged, will your home insurance cover that loss? If not, consider requesting a change to your home insurance, or purchasing business insurance.

If your business is in a service-related industry, check your professional association for insurance discounts and/or talk to a few Insurance brokers.

Once I started my business, I began researching insurance. My husband had a 5-year head start on me as a business owner, I’d heard him speaking about how expensive insurance was. He’s an HVAC Refrigeration mechanic by trade, and his business is classified as being part of the construction industry. 

My business is all in my head, and in my home office, it’s about knowledge, which is a very different matter when it comes to insurance.

My insurance rates are about a tenth of what my husband pays and I get a really good rate because I’m a member in good standing with the Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA). The Insurance broker I spoke to explained that my business insurance was so low because it’s almost unheard of for a Human Resources consultant to get sued!

Remember when I wrote about incorporating earlier than I needed to? I learned how low risk my business was about a month after it was incorporated. Once you’re incorporated, it’s a real pain to stop. Lots of paperwork!

Bonus Tip: Find a few trusted resource people, like a lawyer, bookkeeper, accountant and insurance broker when you start thinking about setting up your business. Paying up front for professional help can save you lots of financial heartache later on. Leverage your network to find the resource people that can help you!

Free Resources

When I started learning how to be an entrepreneur, I accessed free resources to figure out how to set conditions for success for my business.

I'm still learning new things, and I am grateful that many programs share their knowledge freely with their target audiences. Here’s a partial list of resources you may find useful, with a note about the geographic regions each covers.

All Entrepreneurs

• Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) - Canada
• Chambers of Commerce – Canada (if your current organization or your professional association is a member you can attend Chamber events at member rates) Many of the annual Small Business Week events (October) are free
• Your local business development corporation – Bay of Quinte region
• Your local small business centre - Bay of Quinte region

Women and non-binary Entrepreneurs

• NWAC #BeTheDrum Entrepreneur Program – Canada
• PARO Centre for Women Entrepreneurs – Ontario
• WE CAN Project at Queens University – Greater Kingston Ontario region

​Why did I suddenly decide to write about money and home-based businesses? Well, all the marketing mavens I follow and learn from recommend showing your value by providing useful information to potential clients for free.

And, I just joined the PARO team as a Business Growth Advisor (BGA), which means that my company will get paid for me to do something I love: helping people learn how to start and grow a business. Best part, this makes my services much more accessible to those with a small budget, because PARO client’s access BGA’s for free!

In an upcoming blog, “Home Based Business: Let's talk Money part 2.” I’ll be covering the topics of Bank Accounts, Cash Flow and Overhead.

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Making Your Virtual Meetings Work and/or
Ask for What you Want, you Might Just Get It!

You’re welcome to access my free mini course “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” 

To sign up for my monthly newsletter and to receive advance notice of when courses are going live click here.

Many people don’t enjoy meetings at the best of times. There are entire books written on how to run effective meetings, and lots of cartoons and jokes about ineffective meetings.  Meetings are an obvious pain point for many.

Pivoting to holding meetings virtually is handy in some ways, and can be incredibly frustrating in others. All the things you didn’t like about attending meetings in person, are amplified when the meetings are held online. Some of the things that appealed to those who like attending meetings in person, seem to be missing when the meetings are taking place virtually.

How can we possibly make virtual meetings work you ask?

This article shares 25 tactics and a couple of bonus tips that can vastly improve your virtual meeting experience. I’m sharing what I learned from when I first started holding hybrid meetings (live, by phone and by video connection) more than a decade ago while serving as a senior officer in the Canadian military, and what I’ve refined over the last 8 years as an entrepreneur who works with virtual teams.

5 Tactics for Meeting Preparation:

Preparation plays a big part in holding effective meetings.  Here are a few things you could add to your virtual meeting check list:

1. Share the meeting link in advance, and then share it again the day of the meeting.
2. Share the purpose of the meeting and a draft agenda in advance (preferably with the first meeting link). 
3. Share reading materials in advance when at all possible.
4. Log in a few minutes early to address any technical issues. 
5. Make sure everyone understands how to use the technology in advance.  For important meetings, hold a dress rehearsal with key participants.

BONUS TIP:  If the agenda is more than 90 minutes long, consider including a health break.

When participants know the purpose of the meeting, and have an opportunity to look at and contribute to the Draft Agenda, they know what to expect and are able to prepare in advance. Even really creative people, who always seem to be going in a million directions at once, enjoy having an idea of what to expect at a meeting.

10 Practical Tactics for Making your Virtual Meeting Work:

1. Start the agenda with brief introductions, this helps people understand who is in the meeting, and their purpose for being there.  
2. If you’re expecting a large group, set a time limit for introductions and have a time keeper (also sometimes known as a facilitator, or the meeting Chair) gently remind people to stick to the time limit.
3. After the introductions state the purpose of the meeting to focus people’s attention.
4. Go through each item on the agenda, under the assumption that people have read the materials in advance, so that the discussion can keep moving along.
5. If you’re holding a meeting that requires motions to be approved, where possible draft motions in advance, it helps save time and keep the meeting moving.
6. Make sure that participants share the air. If someone starts monopolizing the time, which risks taking the meeting off the agenda, firmly, politely, and kindly ask them to table their thoughts for a side bar meeting on that topic, or ask them to share their thoughts in an email or phone call after the meeting is over.
7. Always leave time near the end of the meeting for a round table discussion. This is an opportunity for participants to bring up things that they’d like covered, if not today, then at the next meeting. It’s also an opportunity for participants to confirm their understanding of what took place during the meeting. Some people wait until they are asked to share their ideas before revealing the gems of knowledge and ground-breaking ideas that they’ve thought of.  Not everyone is an extrovert ready and willing to share their ideas to anyone who will remain still long enough to listen.
8. It’s very effective for the meeting Chair to list tasks and ensure that people know what’s expected of them before the meeting closes.
9. The last item on the agenda is the date and time for the next meeting, if applicable.
10. Commit to ending the meeting on time. People are busy, they appreciate knowing that they can rely on the meeting Chair to respect their time by sticking to the agenda. If at all possible, end the meeting a few minutes early!  People will enjoy attending your meetings if you respect their time.

BONUS TIP: Thank people for participating in your meeting, even if it’s a part of their regular duties. Adding a few words about their specific contribution is a nice touch. It demonstrates that they were heard and are valued.

5 Tactics for Inclusive Virtual Meetings:

1. Make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate, and that they can do so in a manner that is comfortable for them. Some people prefer to type in the chat, rather than speaking out loud. That’s OK!
2. Allow participants to turn off their cameras and mics. Part of the virtual meeting fatigue is feeling like you always have to be “ON” and camera ready.
3. Approximately 20% of the world’s population is disabled, sometimes with invisible disabilities. This may make virtual meetings more difficult for them. Provide live closed captioning and/or sign language interpreters whenever possible. Especially if you know your meeting is going to include people with disabilities. If you have a large company, your human resources team can find out how many people require this sort of accommodation. 
4. Whenever possible include at least closed captioning for every meeting, this normalizes the practice and relieves the people who normally wish for this sort of support from the burden of having to ask for it. Closed captioning helps the deaf and hard of hearing people, those who are attending a meeting in their second or third language, and those who have difficulty processing the spoken word.
5. If you’re working with a set team, get in the habit of calling on people by name to provide their feedback in a set order, so that they know that they can chime in with their thoughts, either verbally or in the chat, when it is their turn.  This is particularly important if you’re holding a brainstorming meeting using a round table method.  

5 Additional Tactics to Facilitate Hybrid Meetings:

1. Follow all of the tactics listed above, paying particular attention to calling on those who are attending virtually to share their thoughts on each agenda item.
2. Make a point of calling on the virtual attendees first when it comes time for a round table discussion. This allows them the opportunity to share their brilliant ideas, without feeling like they’re being included as an afterthought.
3. Allow people who are attending virtually to signal that they “pass” on commenting on some items. If you’re a sighted person you can see the people in your face-to-face meeting signalling that they want to pass. People participating by phone or by video should be asked. This may feel awkward at first. Don’t worry, with practice it gets easier.
4. If a virtual attendee makes a motion, or shares a key resource, ask them to include that text and/or link in the chat. This makes it easier for the person taking the minutes.
5. Make a point of thanking everyone, those who attended in person and those who attended virtually for making your meeting a success.

There you go - 25 Tactics for Making Virtual Meetings Work! Plus, a couple of Bonus Tips. May you enjoy all of your virtual and hybrid meetings moving forward.

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Investing in Accessible Online Learning
Growing your Network Online 
Leading Volunteers a Rewarding and Challenging Experience

To learn more about my new online courses click here.

To sign up for a pdf copy of a short eBook called "Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces" and my monthly newsletter click here.

On Monday June 21, 2021 I had the honour to be one of the AVA members to witness Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class (retired) Deborah Eisan being presented with her Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Honorary Captain (Navy) Scroll and Pins.

Debbie is an Ojibway Anishinabe kwe from Batchewana First Nation. She was formally appointed as an Honorary Captain (Navy) of the Royal Canadian Navy on the 19th October 2020. HCapt(N) Eisan is affiliated with the future Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Margaret Brooke scheduled to be delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy summer 2021.

I met Debbie over a decade ago, through the work she was doing with the Department of National Defence Aboriginal Advisory Group (DAAG). She was a vocal supporter of all Indigenous peoples interested in, serving with, and veterans of, the Canadian military. Debbie supported the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) programs to help Indigenous youth experience what Human Resources professionals call a Realistic Job Preview.

Debbie gently used her circles of influence to ensure that the Canadian Forces Aboriginal Entry Plan (CFAEP), the summer programs called Bold Eagle, Raven and Black Bear, and the Aboriginal Leadership Opportunity Year (ALOY) received support, helping participants learn new skills they could use in whatever future they chose.

Debbie continued to support the programs as a veteran, as she expanded her circles of influence to help even more Indigenous peoples thrive.  Debbie now plays an important role as the Community Events Planner at the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

Lots of important people shared congratulatory messages during the ceremony.  I’m sure the Navy will share their names and ranks.

The parts I was most interested in were the support and words of encouragement from Raymond Sewell who started the ceremony by drumming and singing the Mi’kmaq Honour song for Debbie, the congratulations from Chief Dean Sayers, Chief of Batchewana First Nations, and Debbie’s speech.

I was also thrilled to see Petty Officer 1st Class (PO1) Katrina Stewart, a Boatswain in the RCN from the Nisga’a Nation of New Aiyansh, British Columbia, serving as the flag bearer. Katrina graduated from the CAF Indigenous Pre-Recruit Training program known as CFAEP and has served in the Navy for 19 years.

HCapt(N) Debbie Eisan spoke about the dream that led her to join the Canadian military. She also spoke about the dream she and PO2 Innis had of creating an Eagle Staff for Indigenous peoples serving in the CAF.

Debbie ended off her speech with words of wisdom, that I’ve tried to capture here “Dreams do come, not always in the way you expect, in ways only the creator can explain. If we open our eyes and watch for signals, we’ll achieve our dreams.”

As a woman veteran, what struck me as particularly appropriate is that Debbie is HCapt(N) for the HMCS Margaret Brooke an Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) who’s first Commanding Officer also happens to be a woman, Commander Nicole Robichaud.

Miigwetch, Marsee, Merci, Qujannamiik, All our relations Debbie!

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy these military themed blog posts:

Women Veterans, Helping each other Thrive
Do we have Systemic Bias/Racism in Canada published in June 2020
"Mercenary" Partnerships and Trust

Do you feel frustrated with your career, like things aren’t going the way you expected or hoped?

Do you feel like you’re stuck and running out of options?

You’re not alone!

Many people go through this phase as they try to figure out how to get the jobs they really want.
So much so that I offer an 8 week Thought Partner program to help people learn strategies and tactics so they can learn how to design courses of action to achieve their definitions of success. You can learn more about the Navigating your Career Route Map program here.

Sometimes people just need a hint, or a short conversation to give them a boost of confidence to realize that it’s OK to ask for what they want.

I was brought up on the family legend of my mother asking for what she wanted, a posting to Europe, where she met and married my father. My parents repeatedly told us to ask for what we wanted, with the follow up that the worst that could happen would be that the answer is “no.”

On the other hand, the answer could be “Yes!”

Throughout my military career, I asked for what I wanted. This included courses, postings and even volunteer roles. I viewed meetings with the career manager as an opportunity to negotiate. When I was told as a newly commissioned officer, that my next posting would be to a job where the majority of my work would deal with things like requests for access to information, I cheekily asked if I could have a “real job.”

Luckily my career manager had a sense of humour and asked me to define what a “real job” was. I told him that I wanted a job where I had a staff and responsibilities, where I could use all the leadership training, I’d had during my military college experience. I also said I was willing to go anywhere for that kind of job.

That’s how I ended up at 403 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Gagetown, New Brunswick, where I was responsible for administrative, transportation, vehicle maintenance, supply and financial services support. I led a multi-faceted team, in a very male dominated environment. It was a fabulous opportunity and I thoroughly enjoyed my job.

Now, one of the things I do as a Thought Partner is help others identify the opportunities, they have to ask for what they want.

Last week, I had a lovely phone call with a woman I hadn’t spoken to in a few years. Kris Dawson saw my post about the Navigating Your Career Route Map program and asked if I had time for a call. Between getting ready for the program launching on June 25, and projects I’m working on for clients, my weekdays are pretty much booked solid, so I suggested a weekend phone call. Here’s what Kris wrote about me on LinkedIn:

“Even though part of my background was as a career coach, it's really hard to coach yourself into your next career. So I reached out to Chantal to get some clarity around my approach to a possible job opportunity. (She made herself available right away for me - on a Sunday morning!) She gave me some straight forward simple advice (and confidence) on what to do to ensure my needs were met. And, it worked! I landed exactly what I was after. Thanks Chantal for being my trusted coach and cheerleader all in one!

More on Chantal: I first met Chantal around 7 years ago through an HR Conference, hadn't spoken to her in awhile but always had her in the back of my mind. She carries with her great knowledge and experience and a very positive mindset and is available when you need her most! I have no doubt that she can help others gain a clearer path to their next career move.”

The advice that I gave Kris can be summed up as “ask for what you want, you might just get it!”

There’s more to it than that of course, which is why there’s always work for career coaches, mentors and Thought Partners.

Here’s my small ask, if my content resonates with you, please share it with your friends, family and colleagues, so that they can learn about the services I offer.

Here’s my big ask, consider investing your time, energy and hard-earned money in the Navigating your Career Route Map: Designing Courses of Action to Help You Achieve Your Definition of Success program.

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Job Search Tips #1 
Job Search Tips #2 Informational Interviews
Volunteering, Why Bother?

To learn more about my new online courses click here.

To sign up for my monthly newsletter and to receive advance notice of when courses are going live click here.

I’m thrilled to share that the introductory offering of the Navigating your Career Route Map: Designing Courses of Action to Help You Achieve Your Definition of Success program is now available online!

The Navigating your Career Route Map program is all about helping you discover and explore practical strategies and tips that may help you navigate how you can achieve your definition of success.

This program combines facilitated discussion with elements of coaching, mentoring and Mastermind processes. The program is presented in a small group, accessible, online setting, and includes individual Thought Partner sessions with me.

I’ll be sharing my insights into how you can navigate your work life, based on my successful military career, my transition to life as a veteran and entrepreneur, and the successes my coaching clients and mentees have experienced.

You’ll be participating in an interactive online group setting, which immediately expands your Friendly Forces network, and gives you an accountability partner group.

You may be wondering what Thought Partner means. Until I sat down to write this post, I thought it was a term I made up, to describe how I prefer to work with people.
​
Then I googled “Thought Partner” and learned that the term has been around since at least June 2012, when Rania Anderson, a wildly successful Speaker, Author, and Executive Business Coach, wrote a guest post for Forbes which reads in part:

“A Thought Partner is someone who:

Challenges your thinking.

Causes you to modify or change your paradigms, assumptions or actions

Has information or a way of thinking that provokes you to innovate or otherwise leads to value creation in your business, career or life.

A Thought Partner is different from a Thought Leader. Thought Leaders are people who are clearly and widely recognized as leading experts and visionaries in their field.

Thought Partners may also be Thought Leaders, though generally, they are not. Thought Partners are usually people who possess information, knowledge, or a way of thinking that challenges and provokes divergent thinking and action for you. Your Thought Partners may arise from within any area of your life; you just have to engage with and listen to them. When you can attune yourselves, there is music to be made.”

These words resonated so powerfully that the first thing I did after reading them was to reach out through LinkedIn to invite Rania to join my network. (We're now connected!!!) Then I went back to writing.

Wondering if the Navigating your Career Route Map program might be for you?

If you:
-  want to make changes in your work life, develop your career, and/or explore other career options; and
-  are willing to do the hard work of figuring out why things aren’t going the way you expected, to face things you might rather ignore, and to communicate with radical candour;
-  then this program might be the one you’ve been searching for!

I look forward to meeting, learning about, and sharing thoughts with the 12 participants in the Navigating your Career Route Map: Designing Courses of Action to Help You Achieve Your Definition of Success program. I hope to connect with you soon!

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Digital Bread Crumbs
Invisible Disabilities & Accessibility

To learn more about my new online courses click here.

To sign up for my monthly newsletter and to receive advance notice of when courses are going live click here.

Seeking out new learning opportunities is a life long habit.  On Sunday June 6, I officially joined the A.T.H.E.N.A. program run by the Audrée Dufresne and David Morrow from HRD2KILL. This program was specifically created for Canadian women veterans.

During my intake interview, I learned that in addition to participating in a weekly exercise session with the rest of my sister veterans, I’ll also be receiving 3 tailored workout plans each week as “homework” that will help me reach my goal to “be healthier” while respecting the body I have and my current range of motion.

Aubree interviewed me to find out what kinds of exercise I enjoy doing, and what I won’t do: no more jogging or running for me! She also asked me to perform a few stretching exercises so she could assess my current range of motion.

My friends, family and long-time colleagues know that I’m not a natural athlete. I enjoy moving my body. However, like many people I find it much easier to stay on track of my fitness program if I’m exercising as part of a group.

The A.T.H.E.N.A. program is totally virtual, and the other participants are all people I can relate to. We share the common bond of having served in the military. We’re all used to teamwork and for this serial of A.T.H.E.N.A. at least, we’re all of a similar age.

One of the great things about a shared military background, is that there’s a high likelihood that we’ll celebrate each other’s successes, and be understanding when one of us makes a mistake, or misses a session.

In my experience with the military, most people embraced a lessons learned framework. That is, when someone made a mistake, or if a plan didn’t turn out as expected, we reflected on what went wrong, and tried to do things differently moving forward to achieve a more positive result.

This is something I’ve seen time and time again as I connect with military members, veterans and even those who are military affiliated (part of a military or veteran family, or working as a civilian within military units). Generally speaking, we’re quick to admit when we make a mistake, and look for ways to do better moving forward.

We admit we’re human, and we are willing to help others achieve their goals. This means that when we join the civilian workforce or become an entrepreneur, we sometimes experience culture shock, as many organizational cultures are very different from what we’re used to.

I know without even having met the other participants of the A.T.H.E.N.A. program yet, that they will become part of my Friendly Forces network. It’s what most veterans do, we help each other and try to help those still in uniform as mentors or friends.

As I worked on developing the first of my paid online programs, I invested time and effort into imagining my ideal clients. I wondered, who do I know best? Who can I help the most? How can I target a specific group of ideal clients?

At about the same time as I was trying to pin down my ideal clients, I learned that there are 85,000 women veterans in Canada alone. I also learned that many veterans, and most especially women and LGBTQ veterans, find the programs readily available for all veterans to be too male dominated. Many women and LGBTQ veterans would like to participate in programs that speak to their needs, that while similar to those of male veterans, are distinctly different.

There are things that come as a particular culture shock to us that a male veteran is unlikely to experience. For example, when I became a veteran, I was appalled to learn that women and LGBTQ people can generally expect to earn 20-30% less than their cis gender male counterparts, even if they have essentially the same job, education, and experience.

I knew that I wanted to run a multi-week program, where I could help people explore and discover new ways of thinking about their work life to help them achieve their definition of success. Like I did when I became a veteran and started my own business.

Then it hit me, my ideal audience, the people I knew the best were military veterans. As a woman, my insights are likely to help other veterans who are not men. If I assume that only one sixth of women veterans are interested in pursuing a second career or starting their own business (in effect creating their own second career), then the number is just over 14,000.

The maximum course load for the first serial of “Navigating your Career Route Map: Designing Courses of Action to help you Achieve your Definition of Success” is 12. That’s less than 0.1 % of my ideal audience. Now all I have to do is find a way to reach up to 12 participants interested in investing in the program.

My next blog will be about a scholarship contest for one of those 12 spots. The contest will be shared widely on social media, with advance notice going to those who are on my email marketing list.

NOTE: Being part of my “ideal” audience is NOT a prerequisite to participating in the “Navigating your Career Route Map: Designing Courses of Action to help you Achieve your Definition of Success” program. All are welcome, as long as you follow the Rules of Engagement.

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Micro-Blogging, Does it Work? - features a brief story about two women veterans who started their dream business The County Emporium
and
To Speak, or Not to Speak: Professionally 

To learn more about my new online courses click here.

To sign up for my monthly newsletter and to receive advance notice of when courses are going live click here.

Just as I believe that everyone has gifts to share with the world, things that they excel at doing, and can do better than most people, I know that there are things that I’m not good at doing. I’ve learned that the best way to compensate for that, is to partner with people who have the skill sets I lack.

What do I mean by that? Let me share an example. I do not think in pictures, while I can appreciate a beautiful scene, like the shining green leaves on the trees outside my office window, I have a great deal of difficulty visualizing the same scene.

What does that have to do with rebranding? I’ve known for years that images are really important to many other people. The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” exists for a reason.
​
One of my first afternoon’s as an entrepreneur was a photo shoot with a semi-professional photographer friend. She did the photo shoot as a favour, so that I could have a decent professional looking headshot and a few other images for my website and business cards. Up until this month, the fabulous image she took of a path in the woods near my home served as the banner image on my website, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
​
I’ve updated my head shot a couple of times since then. Even though I attended many branding workshops I hadn’t really spent much time thinking about it.

​In 2018, I invested in getting a logo created for Empowered Path Inc., I love my tree themed logo!

In my company logo, the tree represents a good life. The trunk is a blank space which turns into two branches within the leaves. The blank spaces represent that there is more than one path to creating a good life.
 
Circles can mean a lot of things to different people. To me, a circle represents collaboration, respect and influence. When we treat each other with respect and collaborate, we can help each other learn how to thrive. Each person has a circle of Influence. When we collaborate, we increase our circle of Influence, affecting more people.
 
This year, as I prepared to launch online courses, I decided to invest in getting help from professionals whose strengths complement mine. I reached out to my network to reconnect with Jen Detlor Kerr, from DetDesigns, and asked her to create a logo to represent the paid course that I’ll be offering soon.
​
I think in words and connections. I provided Jen with a very long description of what the course would involve along with a few pictures of a Bear puzzle as inspiration for what kinds of image I was looking for. I really liked that the outside edges were a blurred version of elements from inside of the bear and that the elements in the bear could represent different ideas and concepts.

I asked Jen to come up with an image that incorporated the main themes of my course, with stand alone elements over a sort of treasure map, showing that there were many different paths to success, which are often unknown and can be discovered and explored. I asked her to find a way to represent treasures (opportunities), obstacles, and inclusiveness all in one image.

Remember, I can appreciate images, without being able to visualize them. Jen created a glorious image, that exceeded my expectations, and looked nothing like anything I could have possibly visualized on my own. She shared drafts with me, which I shared with a close group of Thought Partners for feedback.

At the end of the process, the course logo image is infinitely more effective and powerful than anything I could have come up with on my own. 

What does this image mean to me?

It represents a treasure map for living a good life. Many things are uncertain, there are no charted paths, opportunities are all around us, and there is more than one definition of success.

The jewels represent opportunities, which are sometimes hidden. The blocks represent obstacles. The network image represents an inclusive network of Friendly Forces, people who want to help us achieve our goals, our Thought Partners. The 3 concentric circles represent the circle of influence. The silver trophy and the silver medal with a purple ribbon represent different definitions of success. The compass represents each individual’s capacity to seize control of discovering, exploring and navigating a path to their unique definition of success.

I love this look and feel so much, that I’ve rebranded my entire website to match it. And over the last couple of weeks, as Jen provided slightly simpler less busy versions the images, I quietly and without fanfare updated all of my social media banners.

Rebranding has been an adventure!
​
If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:
“Gratitude Plants the Seed for Abundance”
Do you Prefer Initiative of Caution?

To learn more about my new online courses click here.

To sign up for my monthly newsletter and to receive advance notice of when courses are going live click here.

“Recce” is a military term, short for reconnaissance, and basically means exploring the paths you might take without committing too much energy or investing a lot of money and other resources to help you make an educated guess on how you may choose to achieve your goals.

One of my dreams when starting my business was to deliver training to help people reach their goals. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do this, so I spent a LOT of time in Recce mode. I grew my network, met and collaborated on a variety of projects, all the while building up my business savvy.

Last year, I decided to expand my business by offering online courses. To set the conditions for success to deliver content to a wider audience, I did an in depth Recce. I reached out to people in my network and asked for advice. I started with learning about how to make my content as accessible as possible, because Inclusion Diversity Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) are all very important to me. And quite frankly much of the online content readily available is NOT that accessible, which creates an opportunity for my business!

In 2020, I hired Two Canes Consulting. After doing a website audit, and making the Empowered Path website more accessible, Sarina Cormier and Natalie Minnema taught me how to create more accessible online content. Then, I asked them to research and complete user testing on potential platforms.

In early 2021, I participated in a WE CAN Project at Queens University six-week eCommerce coaching course delivered by Dionne Baker of Shop Boss Secrets. She helped me realize the most effective path to delivering online content was through a host site, also known as a marketplace.

I realized that to do this right, I needed to invest in getting help with the things that I’m neither good at, nor enjoy doing. I reached out to the Friendly Forces in my network again. “Friendly Forces” is a military term, that basically means, the people who are likely to be on your side, that you can count on to help you out in a tough spot.

Penny Olorenshaw, from Build Marketing helped me create an email marketing plan, made more improvements to my website, and helped build the Empowered Path courses site.

In 2020, I took Smartphone Video Formula courses in person and online with Aaron and Angela Bell. They helped me realize I could record lessons on my phone if I wanted to. I asked Aaron for a referral for video editors. Playing around trying to edit videos on my own was fun, but ultimately not my strength.

I love learning, when I invested in the Pro + Growth Thinkific package, I took the training offered to learn how to set up the paid course I’ll be launching this spring. One of the first pieces of advice they shared is to offer a free mini course to let people know who you are and what your training is like.

My immediate reaction was to feel sick to my stomach, because any time I record video with no live audience I do a terrible job! A few days later I woke up at 430 am and thought to myself, you have everything you need to upload a free mini course! A few minutes later I was at my desk outlining my first course.

For fun I’d set up my smartphone next to my laptop moments before I delivered the “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” session on April 20, 2021 to a live audience of over 100 serving military members, their spouses and others who support people transitioning to life beyond the military.

I’ll admit that the top of my head is not always onscreen, and I rarely make eye contact with my phone. In spite of that, when I watched the edited videos, I thought to myself “Yes! That’s the energy I bring when speaking with a live audience, even when I can’t see them.”

I reached out to the Friendly Forces team I’ve been connecting with to help me put together the paid courses and said, let’s do a test run with this free mini-course. I’m grateful to Jackie Bell and Taylor Bell from Gorgeous Edits for the fabulous work they did creating the short videos for my first publicly available online course.

I invite you to do a Recce to learn more about the free “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” course by clicking here.

If you enjoyed reading this you may also enjoy:

Growth is Uncomfortable!
Respecting "I Can't"
Fitting the Pieces Together