#54 – Lost Your Work Mojo? How to Rekindle Your Excitement For Your Career & The Power of Embracing Discomfort | Empowerment & Career Advice

[00:00:00] Loree Philip: Hi, and welcome to Daring to Leap. I'm your host, Loree Philip.

[00:00:04] Loree Philip: are you stuck in a career rut, yearning to reignite that spark of excitement for your work, but unsure where to start? Join us as Randi Roberts, a former pharmaceutical executive turned entrepreneur, reveals why she stopped being excited about her work, what she did about it, and what you can do to get your career mojo back.

[00:00:27] Loree Philip: Let's dive in.

[00:00:29] Loree Philip: Randy Roberts is the president of Randy Roberts Coaching LLC and founder of the Fulfilling Career Happy Life Community. Randy is an executive and career life coach, helping people love their work as they achieve their career goals.

[00:00:46] Loree Philip: Before becoming a coach, Randy had a very successful 30 plus year career as a pharmaceutical executive working for both large companies and a small startup. Welcome to [00:01:00] the show, Randy.

[00:01:02] Randi Roberts: Thank you, Lori. I'm glad to be here with you today.

[00:01:04] Loree Philip: Yeah, I'm so glad you're here and I can't wait to dive in and talk to you about so, so many things.

[00:01:10] Loree Philip: But first I want to start with you had. A very impressive 30 year career in the pharmaceutical industry. And I'm curious to hear your story about what really caused you to make such a big shift from doing that to going out into entrepreneurship.

[00:01:29] Randi Roberts: Yeah. It's it's interesting because I'm one of those people.

[00:01:33] Randi Roberts: I'm so lucky. I've had two careers that I just have loved so much have fit me at the right time of my life and all that. And I'm really proud of what I've accomplished in both. And it's taken like. In my first career, it took a lot of soul searching to figure out what needed to change, and it was kind of painful because I loved it for so long.

[00:01:54] Randi Roberts: But to, to more directly answer your question, I, the thing that I [00:02:00] loved about pharmaceuticals is it really satisfied my personal need to do some good and to do well. So, Pharma was a place that I could do both. I mean, I love the fact that pharmaceuticals makes people's lives better. Healthier, extends their lives.

[00:02:17] Randi Roberts: You could say a lot of different things. So that really satisfied my need to do, to do some good. And I really enjoyed the work. I found the mix of healthcare and business really stimulating. I loved working with all these smart people. Well educated people. It just really ticked a lot of boxes for me.

[00:02:35] Randi Roberts: And then what I realized was all of a sudden it felt like all of a sudden I started to Hit the snooze button rather than jump out of bed in the morning Like the things that used to excite me were somewhat exhausting at times And so I had to figure out what had changed And what I came to was that I had gotten my dream job, essentially.

[00:02:59] Randi Roberts: I [00:03:00] was leading a billion dollar business in the U. S. market for a major pharmaceutical company. I, I was in heaven in some ways. But in other ways, what I realized was I had gotten so high up. internally focused in a big organization. I spent all my time doing things like pre aligning someone before meeting so that they would approve my recommendations.

[00:03:24] Randi Roberts: And I had already heard their concerns, trying to assess the landscape of the organization rather than really focus enough. for my, for my needs on the actual patient. So I realized it was time for a change. I needed to get back in touch with the doing good part of my career. So that led me to what do I do here?

[00:03:48] Randi Roberts: Do I, do I leave big pharma and go to small pharma? Do I do something entirely different? And my first next, like for me, I knew That the biggest risk was letting myself get [00:04:00] bored. If I just sort of stopped before I felt done, I was at risk of jumping at the wrong job. So I started my own consulting company, which was a solo shop, me doing project work in the kind of work that I'd done for companies that had a leadership gap, a strategy, that kind of thing.

[00:04:20] Randi Roberts: So I did that for about 18 months. And then one of my clients hired me as their chief commercial officer.

[00:04:26] Randi Roberts: But all the things that I went there to do, which was essentially build out the commercial side of the company, build the sales. Team, build the marketing team, build the market access team. All of those things were delayed several years because we got some inconclusive clinical data.

[00:04:42] Randi Roberts: So it didn't make sense for me to stay. I left and at that point had to do some soul searching again. What was it that I wanted to devote myself to for the next phase of my career? And one of the things that I knew I had always wanted to do was be a coach. I know that At [00:05:00] different points in my career, working with an executive coach made an enormous difference for me in a lot of different ways.

[00:05:06] Randi Roberts: Skill development, tapping into my confidence, getting over imposter syndrome, knowing I can do the big thing. Like in so many ways, coaching was really pivotal for me. And I've always had, desire to do it, a desire to help people. I've mentored so many people. So I dove in, and launched my business.

[00:05:27] Randi Roberts: And it's been five years now.

[00:05:29] Loree Philip: I appreciate your, your story and your journey. And, think we can all relate to that feeling of, we just don't jump out of bed excited anymore. And, and I know we're going to get into more details about what we can do about that, but I'm curious as you were along this journey and you were thinking about doing something else.

[00:05:53] Loree Philip: You mentioned earlier imposter syndrome, what came up for you? Fears, doubts, [00:06:00] things that you had to overcome to actually leave such a a grounded, stable career. And go out and do consulting work. How did that look like for you and how did you get past some of that?

[00:06:15] Randi Roberts: think it's a really good question because the easy thing to say, and you hear a lot about imposter syndrome or people doubting themselves.

[00:06:24] Randi Roberts: And essentially what that is. It's us getting in our own way because the problem is between our ears, right? Yeah. I mean, the good news in that is there is something we can do about it. It's not always that easy. The thing that a lot of people do when they experience that imposter syndrome or doubting whether they can do something is to just sort of say, Nope, I got this.

[00:06:45] Randi Roberts: I can power through. Okay. That may work for some people, but for a lot of people, that's just delaying the pain and it's going to come back. So for me personally, what I thought about in order to get past that was [00:07:00] just really knowing that I had a lot to offer, that I, my experience, my wisdom, my coaching skills was really going to benefit people.

[00:07:13] Randi Roberts: And to be honest with you, Laurie, the coaching comes somewhat naturally running your own business. Like running a coaching business is very different. Then, then being a coach. And so the ways that I think the imposter syndrome came up for me was when it came time to go public with this and start marketing my business and telling people what I was doing and building my client base five years ago because I was judging myself.

[00:07:39] Randi Roberts: What are people that I worked with in the corporate world going to think about what I'm doing? The scale is so different. I went from running a billion dollar business, hundreds of people reporting to me to being a solo entrepreneur with contracted team and employees and things like that. How are people going to [00:08:00] judge this and what are people going to think?

[00:08:01] Randi Roberts: And that was all me doing that to myself. I didn't need anybody else to judge me cause I was judging myself. And so it took some work to get over that. And once I did, and I recognized that. If someone judges what I'm doing or it's not of value for them, that's okay. I don't need to offer value to everybody.

[00:08:22] Randi Roberts: It's about offering powerful value to the right people, to the people whom I can help. And essentially getting over myself and being willing to, use your term, dare to leap, dare take the risk to out myself, talk about what I was doing, let that evolve and know that it's scary and I can do it.

[00:08:45] Randi Roberts: Like both things are true.

[00:08:46] Loree Philip: Thank you for sharing that. I resonate with that so much because I had similar fears when I left corporate and I didn't talk about what I was doing. Most people didn't even know I had left. [00:09:00] And, and so that was actually one of the things that got me to start my podcast was. To let go of that fear of being seen and fear of being in the spotlight and putting myself out there.

[00:09:10] Loree Philip: It was a forcing mechanism to show up every single week and have something to say and not feel like I was. Pushing here, look at me, look at my stuff, look what I'm doing, but here, here's some value right in my episode and, and I want to share it. And I think the point you made about what you're doing doesn't have to support everyone is important because there is a certain person that.

[00:09:40] Loree Philip: Is out there that needs to hear your message and how can you reach that person without, putting your message out there, knowing that I'm going to reach but I, I, in this way, I might reach the people I need to reach.

[00:09:57] Randi Roberts: love what you're saying.

[00:09:57] Randi Roberts: And, and we do have [00:10:00] similar backgrounds in terms of coming out of the corporate world and then diving into our own thing, if you will. And I relate so much to what you said in that sometimes the way to get to the next level is to To welcome the discomfort, to take on that, get out of your comfort zone.

[00:10:20] Randi Roberts: Sorry, my alarm just went off. Yeah. Sometimes the way to level up to, to really take that next step. Is to embrace the discomfort and intentionally get out of your comfort zone because that is where growth happens and it's interesting because we talked a little bit about how did I know it was time to leave corporate and when, when the itch started, when I started to wonder if it was still right for me.

[00:10:47] Randi Roberts: I realized I was, I was doing things I knew how to do and it's not that it wasn't hard. It was, and it was stressful and it was all the things, but I was in a way repeating myself. And so my [00:11:00] own challenge to myself was to get uncomfortable. And I literally had in my calendar every day and I put it at different times so that it didn't like become invisible to me.

[00:11:10] Randi Roberts: But somewhere on my calendar was, what have you done to get uncomfortable today? Because it was that important for me to push the boundary a little bit and boy, starting my own company and getting out there and doing all the things that you and I do to run small businesses. Some of it's uncomfortable, but you know, the sooner for me personally, when I recognize that I didn't have to speak to everybody and if some people didn't like it, that was fine.

[00:11:37] Randi Roberts: They just, it wouldn't be for them. That was okay. I mean, in life, Especially now there's so many inputs coming at us all the time, social media, things we need to read, TED talks, people, interactions, connections, you can't take it all in. You have to say yes to some things and no to some things.

[00:11:55] Randi Roberts: Otherwise, there's never a powerful yes. And so on the [00:12:00] putting content out there, end of it, I have to be okay with people. I have to support people doing the same thing. So yes, it's good. It's always good.

[00:12:08] Loree Philip: Yeah. Yeah. The thing that resonated with me with what you just said about getting outside of your comfort zone, What I found is, so when I was in, in corporate doing my previous role, actually didn't feel like I pushed myself that much to get outside of my comfort zone.

[00:12:27] Loree Philip: I played it pretty safe. And what I noticed is. Sometimes we really need that internal drive of something we really, really want to do to get us to push our own boundaries. So I wasn't, I wasn't raising my hand saying, Oh yeah, put me in for that. Put me in for this. I'm going to go, give that presentation,

[00:12:51] Loree Philip: But now. What I'm doing, I had decided for me is so important that I'm willing to [00:13:00] be uncomfortable. And, cause I know, I, I feel like if I don't, it's not going to work and I can't let that happen it's like I have to do this. And so there is this connection back to whatever it is that you're doing.

[00:13:19] Loree Philip: Why is it important for you and reconnecting with that on such a consistent basis will really, really help give you the motivation to feel uncomfortable and day in and day out because it's, it's not a fun feeling. That's for sure, but it is quite rewarding. It's quite rewarding when it works out.

[00:13:39] Randi Roberts: Oh, I was just going to add sometimes what we need is a little bit of a mindset shift on it. And so for me, if I am, consciously saying every day, all right, what am I doing to be uncomfortable, to get uncomfortable? How is that going to lead me to growth? Then when it comes during the day, I'm going to welcome it, bring it on.

[00:13:58] Randi Roberts: This is my chance to [00:14:00] practice. It doesn't mean it's fun, I might still want to avoid it, but my approach to it is so different than if I'm just going through it unconsciously and something happens that makes me uncomfortable. So in some ways it's like a little game I play with myself, but it totally works.

[00:14:17] Randi Roberts: It's just about

[00:14:17] Loree Philip: being intentional. Intentional is what I was thinking to that word. Because you're choosing. You're saying, I'm choosing to do this. I know it's going to make me uncomfortable, but I'm choosing to do it. And you're right. It's a different, it's, it is empowered feeling versus somebody else telling you to do something you don't really want to do.

[00:14:34] Loree Philip: That's going to make you uncomfortable. Or if it just pops up. like to shift gears here a bit, Randy, and talk to you about. Going back to that feeling that you had in your pharmaceutical career, when you just, you started to wake up and you just weren't as excited about the work as you used to be. We're going to dive in quite deep here on this topic [00:15:00] because this is something that I, I, I know so many people feel, especially if they've been in a career for a while or in a specific position for a while.

[00:15:10] Loree Philip: We get into these ruts. We get into this place of this was exciting when I started, but now I'm kind of over it. So can you walk us through what we can start to do when that happens

[00:15:25] Randi Roberts: think it's an important question because when you're thinking maybe it's time to make a change and sometimes that change can be right where you are, like the, the company that you're with, if you're able to shift some responsibilities, take on some new challenge whatever that is, you may be able to satisfy what you need right there.

[00:15:45] Randi Roberts: That's great. Or it may be time for you to make a change. But if you aren't asking this important question about, wait a minute, what's missing, what used to work that isn't anymore. you don't have the answer to that, you may end up going somewhere else [00:16:00] and coming up with the same problem because you haven't gotten to the root of it.

[00:16:03] Randi Roberts: So essentially you have to make sure you're fixing the right thing. And so it's really important to look into what's working for you and what isn't. And the fact that, Like in this example, you used to feel excited about something that you're no longer excited about. That's an interesting sort of laboratory to play with because you can bottom of what is it?

[00:16:27] Randi Roberts: It might be as simple as, Hey, it was really motivating to me when it was new and it was challenging. And I knew I was growing and now I know how to do it. Like that was kind of my experience. Or it may be there's been a change in leadership and I don't feel as connected anymore. I don't feel as aligned from a values perspective, or it might be I'm.

[00:16:50] Randi Roberts: I just don't see the benefit. I don't see how my work is making a difference. Like there's different answers for different people. And, and if I can, there's actually a tool available on my website for [00:17:00] people. If you're at this very point, if you're wanting to try and figure out what's going on. So it's called a career satisfaction assessment.

[00:17:06] Randi Roberts: It's a self driven tool that you could take yourself through and try and It's a great place to start to get to the bottom of this if you're not sure what what that feeling is. So there's different ways to do that. You can use a tool like that on your own. You could talk to somebody else, a friend, a mentor, a coach, to try and figure out what that is so that you're making the right next moves.

[00:17:27] Randi Roberts: And for a lot of people, especially if you're in a big corporation, There's big benefits to staying right where you are. You may have invested a lot of years in the support, building the business, the financial benefits if there's stock options and things like that. So there's a lot of good reasons to stay.

[00:17:46] Randi Roberts: So if some of the things are still working, and you could tweak some of the other things to sort of get that juice back, then that's often a great option. Having said that, there's also some [00:18:00] good reasons to go. If there's an at all a toxic situation for you, if you're being asked to do something that crosses a values lines, those kinds of things like those may be good reasons to, to leave right away.

[00:18:12] Randi Roberts: And then there's a middle ground. But if you're in the situation where you're making this change of your own, you're driving the change. You're doing it on your own timing as opposed to most of us who have been in corporations have gone through restructuring. We may even have had to take a severance package than somebody else's.

[00:18:29] Randi Roberts: It's driving the timing. But if it's on your own timing, you can take a bit of a pause and try and get to the bottom of this, figure out what it is that you need to solve before you make that jump. And that doesn't mean like during that time, you could still be warming up your network and doing some research and things like that.

[00:18:49] Randi Roberts: But sometimes just taking those actions that may lead to a step can help, can help you feel challenged in a different way. Because if what you need is [00:19:00] challenge on your job, there's different ways to build that in. There are times when staying right where you are in the job that you're in is the right thing to do.

[00:19:09] Randi Roberts: We need money. We need benefits. We need security. Maybe there's other things going on in your life where doing things that you know how to do well are good, are good. And you may be missing the challenge. So you may be able to build it in in different ways, different aspects of your life. So there is no one right answer, but I am such a believer in for you individually, let's figure out what it is so that you can make the right decision for yourself.

[00:19:38] Randi Roberts: It's not the same for everybody.

[00:19:40] Loree Philip: Yeah. Yeah. There's so much there, Randy, in what you just said. And if I start at the top, we all, I think I want to stress the importance of first of all, just getting really in tune and noticing your feelings about how things are going. And so I think it's our [00:20:00] natural tendency to just.

[00:20:01] Loree Philip: Ignore it or think you're having a one off day or this'll pass and just kind of push it aside. And so the, the first step in my mind is really to notice how you're feeling. You're not as excited, you deserve to have a career that you're excited about. Let's start there. And then once you get to that point, digging in a bit deeper as you talked about and trying to figure out.

[00:20:30] Loree Philip: What is missing for you, I think is such a really great. Step Randy that you brought up. And I resonated what you said about what you don't want to do is just go try to fix it. And then you might without doing that exploratory work, because you might end up where you are right now. It just delaying the inevitable.

[00:20:53] Loree Philip: And so when I was. Personally going through this process for myself, what came up for me that was [00:21:00] missing was this really strong feeling of freedom for me was missing. So I really, really wanted more flexibility, more control over my time and energy, more control over my schedule. And so when I did that reflective work, what I noticed was what, just going to a different industry in a different company.

[00:21:24] Loree Philip: Doing something else was probably not gonna solve that for me. Yeah, and so That's where I came back to you know what if I did that Maybe I would be happy because I do love to learn and grow and take on new challenges Maybe I'll be happy for a year, but then I would be back right back to where I was and so that was for me What really caused me to really focus on doing something on my own.

[00:21:50] Loree Philip: But to your point, everybody has their own individual needs and things that they love, that they're missing out that they feel like is missing right now for [00:22:00] them. Were you going to say something?

[00:22:02] Randi Roberts: No, I just, I, I, it's a great example of that dynamic that I see so often in people and a lot of times people can't necessarily define it that way.

[00:22:14] Randi Roberts: Like. Something's wrong. Not sure what this is that you were able to identify a really tangible thing. And in that example, like these days, there's a lot of remote or hybrid working situations. It might have been possible for you to solve for that right where you were. So that can be a consideration because you're right.

[00:22:34] Randi Roberts: Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. And so you want to make sure that you solve this. I'm so happy to hear that you were able to do that.

[00:22:41] Loree Philip: Yeah, it was, it was not on the surface level. I spent quite a bit of time with a coach exploring all of these things and getting deeper because I just wasn't.

[00:22:51] Loree Philip: Used to asking myself and taking the time to reflect and truly try to understand and get to the bottom of what was [00:23:00] missing for me. I just knew that there was something off and one of the things that, that just came to mind that might be useful for, for listeners that maybe are thinking about, okay, I don't really know what it is, is to just start to start to kind of audit your, your energy on your day.

[00:23:19] Loree Philip: What kind of tasks or energy draining tasks. What kind of tasks that you're doing that you get really excited about in your day and start to, to write those down and notice, you know what, I really love working with a big team doing these types of projects, but I get really bogged down when I have this, this and this going on.

[00:23:43] Loree Philip: And so you can start to see the types of things that are really making you feel. a not so positive way about your career, and that might give you opportunity to think of some creative ideas. On other positions you might be able to do, other roles you might be [00:24:00] able to fill without, to your point, having to go look for something brand new and different,

[00:24:05] Randi Roberts: think what you're saying is important, and I loved what you said about pay attention to how you feel and I'll, I'll take it even to a finer point, which is Mm-Hmm.

[00:24:14] Randi Roberts: pay attention to how you react. Mm-Hmm. , because your reactions are kind of more pure. You haven't filtered them yet. So like one thing. The an example that comes to mind my husband and I a couple years ago downsized and we were looking to rent a place for a couple years so we could try out a new town and we went after this rental hard and we didn't get it and my husband and I both looked at each other were like.

[00:24:38] Randi Roberts: I feel kind of relieved like that was really telling that you know that this was going to work out for the best. And there are analogous situations that happen at work and things all the time. So we catch your initial reaction before you filtered it because that can really tell you a lot about what's working or what you want or what you don't.

[00:24:58] Randi Roberts: Mm hmm.

[00:24:59] Loree Philip: Yeah. Thank [00:25:00] you for bringing in that example. if we, if we're going through this process for ourselves and we started to nail down a few things it's like, okay, I, I'm figuring out this is what, what's working, what's not working. This is what I'm missing. What is the next step, Brandy, for somebody who's like, okay, now I kind of have an idea of what this is, but where do I go from here?

[00:25:25] Randi Roberts: My suggestion is get out of your own head. And that can look like a lot of different things, but talk to somebody and it, it might be a spouse, it might be a friend but talk through the things that you're experiencing because what I find is just the verbalizing of it to another person can really unlock what's beneath it.

[00:25:49] Randi Roberts: And it makes such a difference. And I see this with coaching clients, we'll talk about something, they will have a, what's To them, a breakthrough and the progress thrills [00:26:00] me to see them making that progress. But from my perspective, we haven't done anything magic. We've just talked through. issues that they're experiencing and I can share my experience and reflect a little bit and those kinds of things.

[00:26:13] Randi Roberts: So I say get out of your own head and talk to somebody else is a great way to start. Get some other ideas.

[00:26:18] Randi Roberts: it can make a big difference to just talk to someone else and then start to, it might be journaling, it might be some people may just keep notes in their phone or whatever it is when these things pop up for you, note them, see if there are themes or threads that connect them, that kind of thing that may get you started with figuring out what you need to, it.

[00:26:41] Randi Roberts: To change and, and it's interesting because sometimes it's the situation that's changed and sometimes it's us that's changed. You may be at a different phase of your life. You may be for example, if you've moved from having young kids at home to being in the empty nest phase of your life that frees [00:27:00] up.

[00:27:00] Randi Roberts: Time and energy in a way that maybe the situation that fit for you before no longer fits because you're in a different season of your life. So there's the answer can come from a lot of different places, but give yourself permission to focus on yourself a little bit and and dig into that.

[00:27:19] Loree Philip: Hmm.

[00:27:20] Loree Philip: Yes. Give yourself permission. I, I completely agree. And I will just double down on what you're saying. The power of getting your words out into the air, into your reality is so important. And, and you can do that with a friend. Like you said, you could do it. You could record yourself and just listen to it.

[00:27:43] Loree Philip: You could do all kinds of things if you don't have somebody right away to talk to or in journaling can help as well. But, we, unless we sit down and think through and express. Some of these things it's very, very hard to then come up with [00:28:00] some ahas and creative solutions. And what can I do next? think before this step, I was thinking about it when you were talking about the permission, if, if you're not, if you're feeling or reacting in a certain way, you're not as excited about your work. You're starting to notice some of the things that are missing. Decide for yourself, make a decision.

[00:28:24] Loree Philip: Am I okay with the status quo? What does my next year look like unless I make a change and really dig into that personal authority around. You know what? probably should do something different and it could even be really small. And I'm curious if you have any examples, Randy of, sometimes people can make a really small shift in their environment

[00:28:51] Loree Philip: In their position that really makes such a big difference in their day to day experience. Do you have any [00:29:00] ideas around that?

[00:29:01] Randi Roberts: Yeah. I mean, thinking of an example, I, I, a client that I've been working with for a couple of years, she is a principal in a consulting company and was. feeling as though they were missing opportunities in terms of the clients that they could bring in.

[00:29:18] Randi Roberts: And it would benefit her and it would make her feel more part of the company, but it would also benefit the company. And she sat with this for a while and then got up the courage to talk to some people about it and was able to affect a change in her situation. And, and I would say it was worth taking that risk.

[00:29:37] Randi Roberts: No matter how it worked out, because then she could think either she could manifest this change that had a win win, or she would know what she was dealing with. And she could think about what that meant for her to your point. And like, let's take a situation where someone. is, is trying to decide whether they should make a move or not.

[00:29:58] Randi Roberts: If they based [00:30:00] on your criteria of how will my life look next year, if I do this, if I don't do this, they may decide that even though it's not perfect, the right thing is to stay, but then they've taken the control and made a powerful decision. That they can then work around and so it won't niggle at them in the same way because they've considered it.

[00:30:18] Randi Roberts: They've made their decision. They've thought about how they can compensate for it or you know that kind of a thing. And it will feel or they have the opportunity to feel entirely different about the situation. Does that make

[00:30:32] Loree Philip: sense? I, yes, yes, I completely agree. There, is power in the decision and when we don't decide something is a decision.

[00:30:42] Loree Philip: And so like if we decide to ignore it, for example, and I love this because. You're right. You can choose to stay. You could look at everything and choose to stay with the things exactly how they are, but it will feel different because you've really thought it through and you decided that this [00:31:00] is what you want for yourself.

[00:31:01] Loree Philip: And you can always reevaluate that down the road.

[00:31:04] Randi Roberts: Yeah. You get to make the rules. You can change the rules. Yeah. You know what occurs to me as you're saying that? I've never thought about this connection. It's very similar to putting closure on something. And there are people that feel differently about this.

[00:31:18] Randi Roberts: Like. had a client that I was working with for a few months who just kind of disappeared on me. I could like create this story about why that happened and what did that mean about me as a coach or whatever the reality is. I don't know. And, and I reached out a couple of times, but for me, what was important was to put closure on that because then I could sort of free up that energy and, and focus on other things.

[00:31:41] Randi Roberts: And so I just sent him a note acknowledging that and making sure that he knew the door was open in the future. It's a similar kind of thing where for people who need closure on something, making that. Active decision and moving on. It can be what shifts that energy.

[00:31:57] Loree Philip: Yeah, I had not thought about it in terms of [00:32:00] closure, but I think it's really powerful.

[00:32:02] Loree Philip: And the other thing you mentioned earlier that I want to bring back up is

[00:32:07] Loree Philip: in your example with your client, right, she went, had to build the courage to go ask for something.

[00:32:13] Loree Philip: And I've noticed this quite a bit with myself. And then other people is that we, we box ourselves in because we make assumptions about whether something is possible, whether or not somebody is going to say yes or no, whether or not, well, that position doesn't exist right now. So, I possibly can't do that.

[00:32:36] Loree Philip: And so I would really like to encourage people who are in this situation. To kind of just come up with your ideas let go of the constraints and let go of the assumptions that it's not going to work, or this person's never said yes to this before, whatever it is in your head. And this goes back to get out of your own way, which was that you were talking about early, Randy, [00:33:00] because we don't know if it's going to work or not.

[00:33:05] Loree Philip: Don't be the one to tell yourself no before you even get out the gate.

[00:33:11] Randi Roberts: You can guarantee the no.

[00:33:13] Loree Philip: Yes. So, right. When you, when you put that box around yourself and say no right off the bat, you're guaranteeing a no. When you go explore beyond that and you actually ask, it might happen. It might not happen.

[00:33:27] Loree Philip: But to your point earlier, you have more information now. You can feel good about, I tried this. They said, no, that might make your decision a little bit easier for yourself about what left is available of the options for you moving forward.

[00:33:47] Randi Roberts: Yeah. I mean, what you're saying is so important and it's, this is another mindset shift where if you're taking a risk, you're trying something, you're getting uncomfortable, there is no guarantee it's going to work. if you can[00:34:00] adopt the, okay, even that is a win because I get really powerful information. that will say it's bringing an idea to somebody and taking that risk and they say no. Okay. They said no. Now I know how that plays out. Now I have information upon which I can make the decision that's right for me.

[00:34:19] Randi Roberts: So if you can adopt that mindset of even if it doesn't succeed in the way you hoped, there's still something to be gained. That you can take your next step based on, I, really believe that, but I also want to acknowledge that it is not always easy can almost feel like, all right, I'm rationalizing, that really sucked, and now I'm trying to turn this around and say, how was that a win?

[00:34:45] Randi Roberts: Like, I get that. It doesn't feel good. It's not what we're after, but if you're going to go through what could be seen as a negative experience, why not get something out of it? So I advocate for that.

[00:34:59] Loree Philip: Yeah. [00:35:00] Yeah, I agree there. It's it is a risk and it's uncomfortable. it opens up more possibilities.

[00:35:07] Loree Philip: think we're going to start to close up here a bit. Randy, I'd love to hear any last thoughts from you for our listeners who are not feeling as energized anymore about their career and.

[00:35:19] Loree Philip: In looking for guidance.

[00:35:21] Randi Roberts: I think I just want to reiterate a point that we talked about, which is giving yourself permission to look at this. This is important. It can feel almost frivolous if you're in a situation where I'm doing well in my career. I'm, I'm well compensated. I can provide for my family or whatever the money means to you.

[00:35:40] Randi Roberts: It's usually more than money. It's security. It's whatever it is. all those things are lined up, you may even make yourself feel guilty for not being fully satisfied. And I think it's important. I think the people who are listening to your show are seeking something. They [00:36:00] deserve to feel excited.

[00:36:01] Randi Roberts: They know how that feels and they want it back again. And so I say that is important and it's worth going after and exploring and. see what you find, but if you have the question, pursue the answer.

[00:36:16] Loree Philip: love that so much, Randy, and the only thing I have to add is that you deserve it. If you have the question, you deserve to look for the answer.

[00:36:26] Loree Philip: You deserve to have a career. that excites you. every day is going to be an exciting day, but on the whole you if it's generally good for you or not good for you. Thank you for that. And if you could share with our audience where they can connect with you and learn more about you and your work.

[00:36:46] Randi Roberts: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So one of the best ways to find me is through my website. You can send me a note or look into the resources that I have there, which include my own podcast and that tool that I mentioned, the career satisfaction assessment. [00:37:00] My website is Randi Roberts coaching. and go to the fulfilling career, happy life section for that resource.

[00:37:10] Randi Roberts: Another way to find me is through my own podcast, which is available in a number of places, including my YouTube channel, which is fulfilling career, happy life.

[00:37:20] Loree Philip: you so much, Randy. I really appreciate you being open and vulnerable about your experience and sharing all your wisdom with us today.

[00:37:29] Randi Roberts: Oh, it was my pleasure.

[00:37:30] Randi Roberts: Thanks so much for having me.

[00:37:32] Loree Philip: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you've enjoyed it, I would love for you to subscribe. If you're already a subscriber, don't forget to share the podcast with a friend.

[00:37:44] Loree Philip: And make sure to tune in next week, Whitney Alexandria will be here to discuss how you can build your inner champion.

[00:37:52] Loree Philip: I hope you have an amazing week. It's your time to shine. Bye.