IAM134- Career Change Agent, Podcaster and Life Coach Helps Women Recognize and Make the Most of What They Like

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Sara McArdle of Saramcardle.com. Sara it is awesome to have you on the show.

Sara McArdle 0:36

Great to be here. Thank you so much Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem and super excited to have you on and what I want to do is read a little bit more about Sara so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Sara is a career change agent and life coach and she wasn't born with an obvious calling. In fact, while she knew when she started working as a professional graphic designer that something was missing, she waited nearly 20 years to make a change. In 2013 she began practicing Compassionate Communication. A discipline that helps people transform negative self talk, identify what matters most to them and take steps towards a more wonderful life. Her experience of empowering herself and others was so transformative that she pursued a Whole Person Coach certification and launched a business to help women recognize and make the most of their unique gifts, and just like her find work they're madly in love with. Today, she works one on one coaching women, she hosts workshops and events and has her own podcast called Women Who Went for It, that features inspiring checks with successful career changers. Sara, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Sara McArdle 1:38

I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:39

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I want to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Sara McArdle 1:45

Sure. So you just gave an overview because it's included in my bio, but I will unpack it a little bit more. So I don't know about you. But I picked my first career when I was 17. And we are not fully formed as adults, even in our brains are not fully formed. And I chose what I was, quote-unquote, going to do for the rest of my life at that time, which I know a lot of my clients do as well. And that involved a conversation with my sister where she said, so what are you going to major in college? And I admitted to her I don't know, I'm scared. So she said, Well, what do you like? And I said, I don't know, art and computers. And she said, Well, how about graphic design? And I said, what's that? And she said, Well, let's open my college course book and take a look. So we did we looked at it. And it was basically art and computers. So I was like, okay, great done, sign me up. And that's how I chose the thing that I was going to do for the next 20 years is the five minute conversation, went to school, awesome, went to the workforce less awesome. I got into my first job. And I remember thinking almost immediately, really is this it. It was not the collaborative creative atmosphere that I had had when I was in school. And I was working at a daily newspaper cranking out ads, and I'm sure that's a wonderful job for a lot of people. And it wasn't right for me. And I found myself designing a double page spread one day that was weed whackers. And riding lawn mowers and thinking this is not it. So I decided to go into nonprofit, which is much better, and I had an awesome employer. But something was still missing. And I couldn't put my finger on it. And I tried to fake my way through it and find some really cool hobbies to wait for the nights and weekends to roll around and find my sense of satisfaction there. But every time I went on and did really cool things and organized weekend trips for friends and all this adventurous stuff, I would come home and feel unfulfilled again within 24 hours. So I joined a leadership group that invited me to see how I was living into my values. And that could apply anyway that I chose. And I chose my career, I was like, I'm gonna look at this thing. finally admit that I'm not happy, admit that I need to make a change and then do something about it. And I was the one who was most focused on my career in that group. So didn't have a lot of direct support. But I was surrounded by people who are also going for their big dreams. And I found my way to coaching which I actually found out was very similar to some of the hobbies that I've been doing in professional and personal development and mentoring people and doing something called compassionate communication, which you mentioned in my bio, and I realized I had the skills and there it was. It was coaching and I started coaching, fell in love with it immediately. It was the best fit. There was no question and when I started coaching, I realized Gosh, it took me a really long I'm time to get here do an understanding of what I wanted to do. And I want to be able to offer that to others as well, so that they can find their way to work that they absolutely love much more quickly and easily than I did. And so that's how I picked my niche.

Gresham Harkless 5:15

Awesome, awesome, awesome, man. It's always interesting, especiall like you mentioned, like when you were 17, and you figure out what you're going to do for the entire rest of your life, and you don't really know even how to make that decision. So find something and whatever it seems like it clicks, you just kind of go with it. But then you realize that maybe that wasn't as in depth of analysis as it could have been. And then you start to do that, kind of redirect yourself towards where you should be.

Sara McArdle 5:38

Yeah. And I actually have one other part to add. The interesting thing that I discovered in all of this journey is that the thing that was missing was parts of me that were going unexpressed. So, I was only doing graphic design, I wasn't doing anything for interaction with other people and supporting them in their growth. And once I combined the two, I've found the sweet spot. So now I have multiple income streams with graphic design and coaching. And it's awesome.

Gresham Harkless 6:05

That is awesome. Yeah, definitely, sometimes you forget that you can kind of create your own life, so to speak, where you can bring those two things together, because this is your zone of genius, this is what you do the best. So you're able not to just choose one or the other, you can do both and find that kind of sweet spot like you talked about. So I think that's pretty awesome. And now I wanted to drill a little bit deeper in how do you help those people that you work with find their sweet spot and find their passion and those unique gifts and continue with their calling?

Sara McArdle 6:31

Absolutely. So I think what's really important is that I distinguish what I do from somebody who might be more of a career counselor. So there are a lot of people out there. And they work with folks to find the right job by doing administered assessments and helping them with LinkedIn and interview skills and kind of just guiding them and telling them what direction to move in. And for me, I don't advise clients on what they need to do for work, I advise them on how to find the answers in themselves or what they need to do, and coach them through creating an action plan to get there. So all the doubt that pops up along the way we work through that. And I've worked with people who do cool things, like buy an Airstream trailer and refurbish that and check that out for work and start conferences for women and get on a team to do that. And those aren't things that are gonna pop up in an assessment or a menu of potential fields out there. And then we work with something called the Seven C's of successful career change, which is kind of my roadmap that I've developed. Because in my own process, I had to teach myself strategies for finding the change that I needed. And now I am using those with my clients successfully. So that's exciting.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Yeah, definitely sounds exciting. It's like as you're explaining and talking about your story and what you do for your clients, I definitely see the synergies and the parallels between like your story and how you're able to kind of help out those clients that you're working with. So I definitely can see how you could probably say I've been in your exact shoes. So here's how I can help you to go through and do that analysis. So you can make sure that you're making the right decision.

Sara McArdle 8:06

Yes, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 8:08

Awesome. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or set you apart from but do you have an example of secret sauce, you can get to us.

Sara McArdle 8:16

As I said, I'm a career change agent and life coach rather than a career counselor. And I work with women who are bored or burned out in their chosen field. And we work to find meaningful new work that makes them want to jump out of bed in the morning. And sometimes that means fully changing careers. Sometimes they add an a side hustle everywhere in between. And usually these women are at a place where they're kind of questioning their path forward. A lot of them have had something major happen like a milestone birthday, divorce, kids going off to school, they are just having a lot of layoffs in their organization. And they're thinking, gosh, am I next on the chopping block. You name it, but something is causing them to reevaluate, and they only know that they don't want to continue to do what they're doing now. They just want to do something else. But they don't know what that thing is.

Gresham Harkless 9:06

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And me having been somebody that has been laid off or and been in those kinds of tense situations, I can definitely you know, understand to a small degree exactly like what it feels like to be in a frustrated position and not understand like if you made the right path, and what's the next step and all of those things. So it kind of sounds like you are able to kind of help alleviate some of that stress, and definitely help people realize that there is a better way and some opportunity.

Sara McArdle 9:30

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 9:31

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Sara McArdle 9:42

Sure. So one that I love is actually kind of old school, I found that apps and programs weren't giving me the functionality that I was looking for. So I wanted to be able to back out and look at a whole month's calendar electronically and see entire days color coded did not as specific events happening on those days, but the whole day had its own color to represent something. So for me that was Am I really busy that day and unwilling to add in anything else? Am I a little bit busy between my personal and professional life and I have room for a little bit more, or is this a day that I want to block off entirely as my own so that I can recharge. So I started doing that in word and I downloaded their calendar function. So it's almost a combination of my personal and professional calendars where I color code these days. I started out with red, yellow, and gray, red being no more yellow being a little bit more in gray being no more. And then I even started to tweak it so that I was color coding days, like dark blue for play, light blue for business development, orange for personal growth. And I find that being able to back out and look at my whole month allows me to see if I'm spending my time on the right things and how I'm distributing my time and energy and I find that to be really useful.

Gresham Harkless 11:06

Yeah, that definitely sounds awesome. And I absolutely love it. And I'm sure definitely obviously you being a graphic designer, and a lot of people being visual people, but I love the breakdown of it, but then the backing out of it. So you can kind of look at a moment's glance and see, okay am I gonna go crazy this mother? Do I have like, all these things piled up? Or am I making enough time for play? So you can look at kind of like a moment's notice and see exactly how you're balancing everything?

Sara McArdle 11:30

Yes, yeah. So if people asked to add in a new appointment, or spend time with me socially, then I can look at the calendar and decide is it this week? Is it next week when truly fits in? Given all that I have going on?

Gresham Harkless 11:44

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, I love that. And I will be borrowing that was I appreciate you. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Sara McArdle 11:58

I would say honor when it's time to make a change, because we are all meant to grow and evolve. And I always think of that. I don't know if you had this been in the yearbooks we used to write never change. How terrible would that be? If we were still the people, we were in high school. So I encourage you, it's if you find that it's time to change, honor that even if you have invested a ton into your business. If you have that nagging voice in the back of your mind that saying, You know what, this is not making me happy. It's hard, but honor it.

Gresham Harkless 12:32

I love that. I love that. And I also find that sometimes when you hear that voice, and sometimes if you ignore it, then it starts to build up. And certain things happen in your life to push you that way.

Sara McArdle 12:41

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:43

Yeah. Sounds like you have to listen to it one way or another. So it's always best to kind of just go with that gut feeling that you have. So I love that CEO nugget. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition for what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. But I wanted to ask you Sara, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Sara McArdle 13:00

So for me, I am a one person company. So being a CEO, for me means having the freedom to make my own business decisions, which I absolutely love. And it also means having the courage and humility to ask for support from other people where I need it, whether that's hiring something out, or asking my colleagues or my support system, just getting help when I need it.

Gresham Harkless 13:25

Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely love that definition in that perspective, because often even being a solopreneur and one woman or man band, a lot of times you have other people you can reach out to as far as resources, whether it be support, or delegating things, but it definitely is a really good perspective to kind of remember that you're not necessarily alone all the time. There's resources out there for you.

Sara McArdle 13:46

Absolutely. We forget how many resources there are out there. I'd say get out from behind Google and get out into the world interacting with people and make those connections so that you are highly resourced.

Gresham Harkless 13:59

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Sara, I truly appreciate you so much for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then how best people can get in touch with you.

Sara McArdle 14:11

Sure. So I have a free download. If you're interested in going to my site. It is a highlight of the seven C's that I refer to. The seven C's of successful career change. And you can download that at www.saramcardle.com/sevenCs. So I'm going to spell that out. It's saramcardle.com/sevenCs. You can download it there. So that is my website. If you want to just go to the general website, it's saramcardle.com. You can find me Sara McArdle Coaching on Instagram. And Sara McArdle Coaching on Facebook. I'd love to hear from you.

Gresham Harkless 14:54

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much there we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well. So someone can just click through And I'll follow up with you and definitely take advantage of that download. But I truly appreciate you for all the awesome things that you're doing. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Sara McArdle 15:07

Thank you. Appreciate it Gresham.

Outro 15:10

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai