Curating Career Life Stories: How did I get here‪?‬ Kathy Lawless

Join me for the career reflections of TJ Hovel, sales executive, and coach. At the young age of 8 TJ knew he wanted to be a coach in a small town, just like his dad, who coached TJ in high school.

Even though school wasn’t his thing, he earns a business degree and starts his own trucking business. After running it for 8 years, the 100-hour work-weeks leave little room for coaching, or anything else. He makes an aggressive life change -- sells his business, house, and car; gets divorced; and then couch surfs for a year while earning an associate degree in physical therapy.

For about 3-4 years TJ loves being a PT. However, he can’t shake the call to coach and starts seeing a limiting future as a PT. After talking to a friend about what he really wants to do, the friend connects him to a coaching gig – 8th grade basketball! It’s a great start, where he makes valuable connections. Another friend connects him to a technology owner who is so impressed by “who” he is (values, work ethic, ability to transfer skills, etc.) that she makes an offer after 48 hours of meeting him.

 

Today, he's livin’ the dream! Doing work he loves that’s flexible for his lifestyle as a dad, strongman competitor, physical fitness trainer and coach of an elite high school basketball program!

What’s served TJ best, two things:

1) “Hard work and discipline. Growing up on a farm I understand how the world works, how you have to put in a whole lot of hard work before results are seen.”

2) “If you know what your path looks like and you want something different, you have to do things differently or you will get the same results you’ve always gotten.”

His words of wisdom: “If you can really understand yourself -- understand what drives you both good and bad – and understand what you ACTUALLY want -- not what you THINK it is you want -- but what you ACTUALLY want to do with your life, then you can make the decision and start taking steps to move forward.”

Join me for the career reflections of Carlene Thissen, singer, songwriter & author. Her dream is to become a doctor, but then discovers she has an aversion to blood. Unsure about what’s next, she drops out of college and gets a job as a secretary.

Working as a secretary, and wanting to do more within the business, she becomes an expert in coupon bar code scanning. Leading her to bigger roles and ultimately to starting her own consulting business. Music has always been part of her life, but she never thought of it as a career until much later in life.

After a successful 35-year corporate career, she leaves it all behind and begins searching for what’s next. As someone who pays attention to signs, she discovers new opportunities prompting her to write her first book and song. And the rest is history.

What’s served Carlene best is: “My ballsiness!”

Her words of wisdom she’s got three:

1)  "Be Useful." -- A quote she likes from Arnold Schwarzenegger's documentary and book
title.

2) “Do what comes easy.”

3) “Watch for signs.”

Join me for the career reflections of Shara Ruffin, clinical social worker, and consultant. Her dream is to be the next Mariah Carey,




once reality sets in she
shifts to becoming a lawyer, then to psychology and ultimately social work -- because what's behind human behavior is so interesting!

She’s the first born in her family, setting her on path of more firsts: first to go to college and graduate, first to get a master’s degree, first to get a professional license and first to launch her own business. Her’s is story overcoming far too many of life’s major challenges: the death of a child and a brother, her second child diagnosed with only months to live, divorce, poverty, coming to grips with her own depression and mental health issues.

What’s served Shara best is: “My willingness to adapt, remain flexible and have faith -- which was hard. I always kept going, I never looked back. No matter what bomb was going on in my life – every hardship is to teach you something.”

Her words of wisdom she’s got three:

1) “She quotes a story from Will Smith’s memoir about building a
wall ‘brick by brick’ – it’s not thinking about the whole wall; it’s thinking about one brick at a time.”

2) “Know that you’re not perfect, be willing to make mistakes and
take chances.”

3) “Live every day, not like it’s your last day, like you are proud
you lived it.”

Join me for the career reflections of Christine Clyne-Spraker, former co-CEO, board member and author. Her dream was to become a civil engineer, but after receiving a “C” in calculus she panics and switches her major to advertising.

A bold move after college takes her to California where she’s recruited by Enterprise Rent-A-Car into their management and sales training program. Which turns out to be a great fit, setting her up with skills she’ll leverage throughout her career. She’s drawn back to Colorado and at the urging of her dad, starts exploring the pharmaceutical industry which leads her into selling medical and surgical devices. Through her intense preparation and training, she becomes a trusted advisor in the industry. This is also where she meets her business partner.

What’s served Christine best? Three things: optimism, tenacity and naiveite. She credits her naiveite to not always knowing what she was getting into, she just jumps in; her optimism for knowing that things will work out for the best no matter what; and her tenacity to get through anything. It’s a recipe that’s worked well for her!



Christine’s words of wisdom are words from her dad: “A job worth doing is worth doing well.”

Join me for the career reflections of Amy Friel, program leader at a health tech start-up. Growing up in Detroit in the 70s & 80s she experiences the impact that both Japan and China have on the global economy, the car industry, and her family. These influences factor into her career choices.

In grad school she earns dual degrees, her MBA and a masters in Asian Studies. She meets her husband in grad school who is also pursuing similar dual degrees. Both share the desire to work in Asia, which they achieve after a few career steps working for international companies in the US. 

What’s served Amy best is her player/coach approach; she becomes a subject matter expert herself and then facilitates excellence in others nurturing their talents so they can do their best work.

Her words of wisdom: “Don’t worry about ticking what you think are all the right boxes, think about being evaluated as a whole person, not just line items on a resume.”

Join me for the career reflections of Susie Moss, Regional Director of Development for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Mountain States Region. While she didn’t always know her career path, she did know she was someone who needed to be engaged and connecting with people. In college the realization hits her that she is good at sales, which was also her dad’s career,
another positive indicator this would be a good path for her.

Susie is not one to shy away from risk or challenges. After 25 years in corporate sales roles, she and her husband bought into an interior design franchise. New career paths for both and great timing for their family situation, but bad timing for the economy. This journey leads her to a series of steps landing her where she is today – in the right job for a cause she believes wholeheartedly in!

What’s served Susie best: “my gut instincts -- when making career decisions and as a parent.”

Words of wisdom, she’s got two sets:

1.  “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

2.  “When you’re at a bad point in life, you
need to ask for help."