How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be a Career Expert and Mindset Mentor?
To answer this question, it’s probably best that I share with you a defining moment that brought me to where I am today, mentoring people like you on exactly what do to get ahead in their career consistently.
The defining moment in my life took place when I was swapping in and out of shoes balancing the career, family and home fronts on what felt like steroids. I wore the shoes of a female executive on Wall Street in an abrasive environment, a girl geek immersed in a male-dominated field of technology, a survivor of multiple layoff cycles during two desperate periods in the rocky financial services industry while losing my father in hospice care, had just begun my divorce and slipping into the single mom shoes for the first time; it was probably the most pressure I have ever felt. The one approach during this stressful time which I continued to put into play was an assertive yet feminine attitude and took on new leadership roles. Looking back, I felt I needed to put all the career strategies which had always worked for me on overdrive to keep my career growing. After the smoke cleared, I stepped back and really high-fived myself for the first time. There wasn’t a secret sauce, I had cracked the code several times on how to move ahead and it didn’t have to be stressful or take so long.
I have since made a commitment to mentoring and empowering women professionals showing them how they too can advance. This combined with my love of teaching and being a writer, naturally led to creating a step-by-step drivers manual for women and running mentoring programs.
I know all about the self-sabotage stories women tell themselves because I have been in their shoes once. In Our Shoes began as a mission I launched to empower women, not just mothers or those in IT, but any woman who is motivated yet feels stuck and is letting other people and factors discourage her from moving ahead.
How I created consistent results in my career is continuing to apply a series of essential practice-building steps that had always worked for me. I gave speeches and ran seminars sharing ways I kept my career going, how I created my own rules and got the flex-time I needed to stay on my A-game as a female manager. I grew the backbone I never knew I had, I fended off anyone who was a risk to my career or the work I was to accomplish for my firm with my eye always on the end-game. I discovered being uncomfortable and under fire was helping me grow so I continued to seek and take on more senior roles and projects that would stretch my career passed its perceived limits. I did this gracefully and with a smile, while still standing my ground continuing to trust my gut instinct.
My purpose today is to share the subtle yet gutsy career tactics women like myself have used to advance in our unique authentic way – not with aggression. Since then I’ve worked with private clients, spoken in front of countless groups motivating and teaching the steps they need on how to get out there, lift their self-confidence, speak comfortably to anyone in business, in any setting and advance to higher-level roles.
Who are your clients exactly?
I work primarily with women professionals and some “enlightened men” who want to move their career to the next level, transition to a new career, get back into the work scene if they have been out for a while, need guidance on how to build confidence and speak more comfortably in any business situation or just need to get out there to promote themselves. I have worked with professionals from several industries, inside and external to corporate, in the US and UK.
How are you different from other “career coaches”?
You have me as a career expert and leadership consultant, I’m not 100% on board with the word coach because I teach exactly what you need to do versus only guiding you on the answers you will come to on your own, although I will motivate and coach you along the way following the steps I deliver. I’m not a jack-of-all-trades. I am very focused on anything and everything that works to get you moving ahead in your career and speaking confidently to promote your skillsets. I have also walked in your shoes and know exactly how challenging it is to get ahead. What you get with me is no-nonsense undiluted expertise from over 18+ years of my own experience moving my career ahead on Wall Street as a woman and the lessons I learned over time from other female senior managers like me who shared their own methods of advancing their careers. I throw in a dose of tough-love at times to gently get you out of your skin, keep you accountable, but will never let you give up on yourself. More reasons here why the education delivered is unique.
What type of personality do you work best with and what is expected of me?
The Gutsy Career products and programs were created for people who are serious about making a career move and taking a stand for a more fulfilling position which they can grow into and feel excited about. You can be in a low-energy place, have self-confidence issues, feel stuck as long as you are willing to trust and open yourself to possibility, setting your mind to what it is that you want in your career.
You would be expected to take consistent action during our mentoring sessions, with a no-excuses approach to being happy in your career; just a very different way of thinking and full support from me while you achieve these incredibly exciting goals: moving to a more fulfilling career, making more money, raising your credibility and speaking confidently in any work situation.
For what type of professional is this program NOT going to work?
The education here will not work well for skeptics and individuals who just want a paycheck making more money, and also who consistently make excuses for not getting their assignments done or challenging aspects of the program. If you are one of these people I gently and respectfully ask that you do not reach out and I hope you understand why. We’ll probably just not work well together and I wouldn’t want you to waste your time or money. I hope you can understand why.
What exactly is the Gutsy Leadership System and what does it include?
Moving to a new level in your career means attracting hiring managers and any professional that crosses your path to you, so they can open up doors! The system covers the foundation of first getting yourself out there internally with your mindset and recognizing all of your career assets. What inevitably happens with my clients is that they’re stunned when they see how much they really have to promote about their career assets. Once we clear that path we dig in and get you out there stepping through the key areas in the program. On a personal level, this spills over into as well because my students won’t settle for anything less at home either once they have seen their results on the business front. All results and details of what the system includes can be found right here.
Each program includes valuable cheat sheets, assignments and workbook material customized to fit where your career is headed and how to get there. The tools will be handed to you, ready to make your own and you will get excited and motivated about the next career move you make, in a new higher-earning, more challenging role.
Does this really work?
Yes! The result of our work is an approach to getting outside your skin, pulling up a mirror to all you bring to the table as a professional, bumping up your self-worth and how you see yourself in your career which over time and with your dedication, works consistently to attract hiring managers and have you confidently speaking about your career assets comfortably and naturally with anyone. The work you do in the program is not a one-shot deal. It stays with you in the long run so you can consistently keep advancing to higher and higher confidence levels, recognizing your market-worth and taking on more challenging roles. I encourage you to check out the testimonials here from private clients and those who attended bootcamp events I have run all based on the same system.
What results can I expect?
You can expect to:
- Advance to a higher-level, more challenging and fulfilling role assertively, not with aggression, by tapping into your intuition and bench strengths, waving away fear of failure.
- Attract the right job opportunity in an organization aligned with your record of achievements and the skills you enjoy the most, even if you’re not ready or are experiencing self-doubt.
- Earn a higher salary, given your entire career package you have yet to fully recognize.
- Be authentically comfortable when speaking to management and peers, confidently projecting your expertise in any setting.
- Deep dive into recognizing your entire track record, strengths and “career currency”, discovering your market worth and embracing your career story.
- Attract Management to want to meet you, being visible, raising your hand, turning on a “radar” for seizing opportunities working in any industry and at any stage in your career.
- Consistently engage others to want to be your best customers, stepping up your degree of influence.
- Create an authentic and consistent “voice” in business by aligning your thoughts, actions and dialogue showcasing your purpose and value at a company just like an entrepreneur.
- Get motivated about your career assets, recognizing all your value-adds getting comfortable with what you bring to the table a la Self-Promotion.
- Experience the freedom to ask for what you want in your career.
- Launch a killer, highly “attractor factor” resume that tells a compelling story about where you are in your career and what you bring to the table.
- Create new goals for yourself to keep pulling yourself into your future as opposed to pushing so hard.
- Stay accountable to these goals and achieve them.
- Earn a higher salary.
- Assertively ask for the salary you deserve based on the market and all your experience.
- Move to a much higher confidence level, naturally showcasing your assets and what you bring to the table.
- Lock in your 3 to 5 year career & salary goals, setting your career compass to consistently advance to new positions.
- Speak comfortably and own any conversation confidently with management, peers, direct reports in any setting.
- Increase your market value in your industry by tapping into your “career currency”.
- Exercise influence using your subtle soft skills.
- Own any room when speaking up at meetings, delivering a speech, running presentations.
- Lock in a consistent ‘voice’ in your verbal, writing, internal dialogue and body language statements.
- Cut deals that make for a win-win.
- Wave away rejection and turn the word ‘No’ into ‘Not right now’.
- Cross over from routine Worker Bee to Big Picture thinker.
- Shoot down assumptions about those considered “unapproachable” and embrace the unknown.
- Scout for connections, sponsorship and mentors: internally, externally and virtually.
How quickly can I expect results?
This depends on where you are right now and how much you put into the assignments. If you are just starting to make that next career move, within one month you will have experienced an internal makeover of how you see yourself in your career shoes. We will have deep dived into all you do expertly and with your unique brilliance. After this milestone we leapfrog into the rest of the program because you have shifted your mindset. Within two to four months from this milestone we are honing in on the exact job opportunities right for you and working on proven ways to build your pipeline and kick in the tools you learned as the new self-promoting confident you who speaks comfortably about her career assets. Depending on how clear you are on your next move, it can take anywhere between 4 to 6 months of working together to apply all the steps, sometimes longer if you begin scratching out positions you thought were a good fit but actuallly weren’t after just one interview. That’s a good thing however. You want to be sure the next path you take will sustain you for a while so you are not jumping around.
Will I recover the investment I put into this coaching program?
An absolute YES and here’s how. I want you to stop reading for just one moment to ask yourself “What is a more fulfilling career worth to me? How will the rest of my life be impacted when I can come home happy, feeling confident and excited to be control of the next chapter in my life?”
We spend a lot of hours working in our lifetime and we only have one life. Taking care of the work front and being financially independent is a cornerstone of our life; once nailed down it allows you to open up every other area of your life because you are in a positive state and won’t accept anything less in those areas either. It shifts the playing field in a BIG way.
How much time would it take you on your own to step onto a new position, raising your self-worth in your field, finding the right position, making more money, getting to a level where you are confidently carrying yourself everywhere you go? If you consider a low 5% pay increase, you will more than cover the investment made here (you’re going much higher, don’t worry). Investing in yourself is a no brainer because who else is going to?
Marisa, based on everything I’ve seen and read about you, I know you’re the one I want to learn from. What are my options for getting started?
That’s great! Please celebrate yourself for a moment because as women we don’t do that enough. You are taking a step which supports you in your career. Did you know that one of the most prominent characteristics of successful people is that they take action? They are decisive, take action and they move towards success faster as a direct result of this. Its’ a well known fact these people make decisions based on their gut instinct.
Just email: Info@InRShoes.com indicating your interest in registering in one of the programs and I will be happy to walk you through the different options to see which one will be the vey best for you. Lastly, I am honored to be selected to help you. I know we haven’t met, but I know you get it. We are cut from the same cloth. Let’s get started! : )
