Ep 35 Hoku Success Story (for podcast finished)
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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone): [00:00:00] Welcome back to Career Clarity Unlocked. Today's episode is a must listen. If you've ever felt trapped in a job that no longer fits, but weren't sure how to break free. Today, we are diving into an incredible success story from one of my amazing clients, Hoku. She went from being completely burned out in a high stress corporate job.
And seriously, the math did not math on her workload to land her absolute dream job in the events industry. One that fits her perfectly, both in the work she does and the company culture she's now a part of. But let me tell you, this journey was not a straight line. Hoku faced so many challenges.
Workplace bias, being overworked and undervalued, getting ghosted by a career coach, seriously? And struggling with imposter syndrome. Her [00:01:00] story is real, raw, and full of the exact moments you might be facing right now. The self doubt, the roadblocks, the imposter syndrome. But more importantly, it's proof that the career and life you really want is 100 percent possible.
Let's dive in.
So before the career clarity formula, I was working for a very well known company.
On the e-commerce side, and I was a program manager that managed both the day to day operations and the strategic programming for, a less than truckload freight program. So, I managed over 650 semi truck carriers across the U. S. that moved shipments from a, seller's warehouse over to a consolidation terminal.
And then, it was our job to reconsolidate all of that freight into our fulfillment [00:02:00] network to be sold to consumers. So, that was my day job. My side gig, I'll say at this company, I was also the global vice president of the indigenous, employee resource group at this company. So, I kind of had two jobs, but only one of them was paid.
So what that meant was a ridiculous amount of hours a week, super burnt out, stressed all the time. There was way too much work and not enough people. I was given my full time role in March of 2023. We had a reorg and before that there was eight of us doing what I was doing at least 25 percent of the time.
And so when you take eight times 25 that's 200 and 200 is one person and I can only be 100%. So that math did not math. So that was really, really hard. I asked for help every week, every other week [00:03:00] and was pretty much told, no, we don't have the resources and obviously things fell through the cracks and I got really burnt out.
My mental health and my physical health just tanked completely and I think I actually met Theresa while I was on a leave. I had to take a medical leave like to get my head on straight again. And we bonded over Hawaii. And then one day I was like, Hey, like do you, do you do stuff? Like, what do you do
And then, then she explained to me everything. And, and now here we are. I feel like. You have to go through the hard things to get to, you know, you have to be refined while you're going through the hard things and once the fire, it's time for the fire to go out, then you get this beautiful, work of art and, and another door opens, which it has, so.
I was definitely at a, I'm not going to say that I was [00:04:00] desperate because I did not reach out to Theresa in desperation, but I was desperate.
I had, I had been burned by you know, career coaches in the past. And so I was very leery of reaching out and asking for help again.
Yeah, so I knew that I needed to make a change when, oh man, there's a few things that happen. So in 2022, at the end of 2022, I was up for promotion and the promotion process at this company was, pretty weird. I've never experienced this anywhere else, but you had to have a document written about you, explaining all of the things that you've done, all of the impact you've made.
, you had to show everything with data, obviously and then a group of leaders gathered and read your document and decided if you got promoted or not. And then the last part of that was you had to have a [00:05:00] certain amount of leaders at certain levels provide feedback for you. You never really got to see what that feedback said.
So they were either for your promotion or not for your promotion. And then after this like hour long conversation, these people that may not even know you or your work ethic or anything got to decide if you got promoted or not. So I, I laugh because now that I'm on the other end of it, it's just comical to me.
So at the beginning of 2022, I called out to my senior leader that our business line did not have any women or people of color promoted. In the previous, I don't know how many quarters it was, we had a conversation. I pointed out a few disparities that I saw, with gender and race and, and then the next three quarters there was a person of color that was promoted, but still no woman.
Which started to speak to me a little bit [00:06:00] louder about other things. So, anyways, back to where I started. I was up for promotion. We were working, my manager and I were working on my docent. And then in March of 23, when we had this reorg, I was told, well you have a new manager, and your new manager has to go through the process with you, so you pretty much have to start all over.
Which was really disheartening. This was the second time in this org that I was told I was up for promotion and it didn't happen. The first time I got pregnant and was pretty much told because of the timing of your pregnancy you won't be promoted and I was too much of a coward to go to HR and deal with anything because as we all know HR is meant to support the business and not the employee.
So it is what it is. So then I was told, so that's March when we had the reorg, we had to start all over. A couple months later, I was pretty much told, your promotion is not on the table right now. [00:07:00] And, that's that. No real other feedback. I started hearing, you're not really meeting the demands of your job.
You know, you're missing deadlines. Which I was, you know. I'm doing the job that eight people were spending at least a quarter of their time. That's two hundred percent. But that doesn't math. And I owned up to that, but I also kept the program running. . I kept our customers happy. I, I made some really big impacts in terms of saving money all that to say it didn't matter. I was one of maybe half a dozen women in my business line and there was a couple of us that were much more vocal about disparities and, biases and we were all told that our promotions were no longer on the table and we were all treated a little bit different.
If you were a fly on the wall you could put a co worker next to me [00:08:00] that's also a woman and myself, very similar work ethics, very similar amounts of things that we've done impact all of that. The real difference was the way I guess that we brought up disparities, but I brought them up in a way that really showed biases when it came to gender and race and I wanted to use that as a, as a place to educate and that just wasn't received well, which is, it's fine. Now that we're here. So at that point I was like, all right, I gotta get out. I gotta get out. I wanted to stay with the company. I loved the company. I loved the work that I was doing with the Employee resource group was making a big impact for indigenous people inside and outside of the company and I really wanted to get back into the event industry.
So I had spent About [00:09:00] six years in the event industry previously. I own my own wedding planning business. I love people And that was my goal. And so my goal was this is a thing at this company. I'm just going to switch into that role. And every time I found a role, I either had to move across the country to keep said role or someone with just a little bit more experience came in and beat me out, which now I see that it was.
There was a reason for it, right? Like, now that I'm walking into this amazing opportunity
yeah, they, you know, this company is, is known for working through the midnight oil or burning the midnight oil. However, that saying goes and I was doing at the height of it probably 60 plus hour weeks. I also wanted to get back into the event industry so bad that I took a part time job bartending at a local event center.
So I was working, you know. [00:10:00] 60 hour weeks. It was more like 55, but some pushed over 60, answering emails and messages on our messenger. And all hours of the day, all days of the week, , also working the second time, this part time job and trying to be a mom and a wife, , and, and, you know, an active person in my community, which I failed miserably.
Yeah, so I tried working with, two other career coaches but it just wasn't the right fit, I'll say, the first coach that I had met with was a few years ago.
And I was at a point where I wanted to move up. I wanted to move into something new, something challenging. It was before I moved into the business line that I moved into previously. And I just, like, I didn't know what to do or how to do or anything. so I found [00:11:00] someone, honestly randomly, on LinkedIn.
And, started working with them. And then they, like, ghosted me. We had one or two sessions, you know, doing a couple things here and there, like with my resume and with my LinkedIn. She never got into the meat and potatoes of anything. And then she just ghosted me. And it took a while, but, I mean, I didn't put a ton of money into it, but I put enough money into where, you know, you expected to get something because you paid for something.
and at this point, I was not a person that loved conflict. And it took a lot for me to say, hey, I paid you for this. This is what we agreed, agreed to. This is what hasn't been provided. You know, at this point, let's just cut ties. You know, give me a refund and let's just go our ways and she was like, okay.
Yeah, I'm so sorry blah blah blah blah. So fast forward to 20, where are we at? We're in [00:12:00] 24, 23ish? Somewhere in 23. I had a colleague of mine that I worked with on the indigenous side of things and she talked about amazing things. She spoke amazing things about her coach and how great she was and how she helped her do all of these career changes and how she helped her identify all these things about herself and I was like, Oh, she sounds really great.
Do you have, you know, information that you can share with me? Can you introduce me? And she's like, well, she's not taking new clients. And I'm like, okay. So then she sent me all these other coaches and I, you know, had those informationals. We just didn't click. And then she said, you know what? Just reach out to my coach and see, reached out, you know, wanting to get to know each other.
What, what are your goals? Blah, blah, blah. Loved her energy. She was super excited about my goals and all right, great. This was a much larger investment, but I, I had said to her, I need someone to tell me [00:13:00] what to do in order to make this move. I know I want to make this move, but the last time I was in the industry, I owned my own business.
And that's very different from working for someone else and moving into the corporate side of things. You know, I knew that I didn't want to freelance. I knew I didn't want to own my own business again. Which people might think is crazy, but I was just at a point where I just, I didn't want to be the boss, you know, I just, I don't want to have to worry about it all the time.
So, we started working together and then I learned very quickly that our sessions turned into like therapy sessions, which I know can happen with coaches. But, I never got the direction and someone to say, Hoku, you need to do this, in order for me to get to where I wanted to go. So, I bought a package of ten sessions, we had nine sessions.
And by session four, I was like, well, I don't know if this is working and [00:14:00] I said something, not very direct, but I said something. And then sessions 5, 6, 7, 8, were kind of better, but very therapy like. Don't get me wrong, she helped me identify things. Like, my absolute dream, and And what I was willing to do to get there, and if I was willing to take steps and compromises.
So there was a lot of talking about it, but there wasn't any, this is how you go and do it kind of a thing. So it was really frustrating. And we had our 9th meeting, and we said, you know, see you later or whatever. And I was like, I'm not scheduling that 10th. Like, this, in the grand scheme of things.
She's a great person. She works amazing for some people. It just wasn't my style. And so just I needed somebody to get on my butt and tell me what to do Because going from I've been in supply chain for [00:15:00] 13 years so going from supply chain like procurement program management and wanting to make a move over into events That's very hard to do on paper.
Yeah, it's like, it's not even a different chapter in the book. It's a book on a different floor in the library.
There is, I don't remember what it's called, but there is a, a type of career coach is a certain certification that you get. And that type of coaching is very much, it just reminds me of therapy. Like, what do you think you should do about that? Well, how do you feel about that? Well, what would you like to talk about today?
And that's how our sessions went. And that just, that wasn't what I needed. Should I have been, do I wish that I was a little bit more aggressive at the beginning? And said, hey, like this isn't what I want. To either then have her pivot or, you know, take some of that investment back and walk away. Yes, but you live and you learn.
Yeah. And I'm so I'm a firm believer [00:16:00] that you got to walk through some dirt, some mud to get to something good.
And, you know, I'm a believer and so I pray about everything and I prayed about this and I heard very clearly like, yes, move forward, you need to do this, and yeah, so I joined the Career Clarity Formula because honestly, I, I was super cautious. I was super like, I don't know, Theresa, this sounds too good to be true.
Like, you know, I told her a lot about what happened to me and, how I kind of had no trust in other people at this point. And she actually had me speak to somebody that took her course previously. And this person is was was the final selling point for me. I won't say her name here in case she doesn't, you know, want people to be like, oh, come back to me now kind of a thing.
She's great. Super honest. Very [00:17:00] blunt, I have, now become a very blunt, very transparent person. So, you know, I had a lot of hard questions for her. I wanted to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wanted to know exactly what I was getting into. I think we spent almost two hours on the phone, and then I said, okay, so you did all this.
So what happened? Like, was it worth it? Do you have a new job? And, And she was walking me through every single step of the process, and what she was learning about herself, and at the end she's like, Yeah, I've been in this new role for six months now, and I'm as happy as I could be, and blah, blah, blah, blah, and rainbows and sunshine and puppies.
And, that's what did it for me. You know, I, I obviously had to convince my husband to let me invest money in something again, but If she would not have, I'll say this, if she wasn't successful, or even before telling me [00:18:00] that she was successful, if she wasn't as upbeat and as positive as she was, I don't think I would have done it.
But you could tell how genuine she was. She was not someone that was just trying to get a sale for Theresa. She 100 percent was like, joy was just coming out of her. Like, when she was talking about her life before and her career before. You could feel that heaviness, you could see that heaviness on her face.
But as she started talking about everything she was learning, it was like a little bit lighter and a little bit brighter and sitting up a little bit taller. And then at the end, it was just like, okay, I want that. Like, I want to feel that, and she made a pretty big pivot as well. And I was like, well, if you can do it, I can do it.
And the rest is history now. So, , the career clarity formula really helped me learn a lot about myself. [00:19:00] I'll say, there there's things that I already knew, like I wanted to get back into the event industry. But during the first step of this process where it's all about, you know, your career clarity, what do you want to do? What are you good at? What skills do you have now that can transfer into these other things? What types of companies do you want to work at? I had, I had no idea of any of that, I'll say. I was very much like, I love people. I'm really good at administrative things.
And I want to go back into the event industry. That was it. And after this, I had this entire picture of this is how I work best, this is how I don't work best, this is exactly what I want to do, and I remember getting to that point, there's a point in the first step of the process where you go through all of these questionnaires and figure out, you know, your personality types, which I geek about because I love personality quiz type things, and, and learning [00:20:00] about you are this way, you act this way because of bla , love that so much.
If you haven't taken a Sparketype test, do it, so we got to this point to where it was, identifying like the top five job titles or career titles. And I will say one thing that I loved that I actually did not learn or I didn't know a lot about until this process was how to use ChatGPT and Theresa taught us so many amazing ways to use that just to help us make our thoughts put together in pretty little bows, I'll say.
And I remember one of, one of the things was helping us find and identify five titles of jobs that we wanted or that fit for us, you know, based on all of this other criteria that we had already gone through. And ChatGPT gave me [00:21:00] the same title five different ways. And I was like, you're joking, right?
Like the only thing I can do is this. And I remember getting on a call with Theresa and saying, I need help, like ChatGPT thinks I'm only good enough for one job and she said, well, did you expand it to 10 or 15? I said, I expanded it to 20 and it gave me the same job 20 different ways. To which we all laughed because it was on one of our coaching calls.
So there was many people on there and she's like, alright, well send me all the info and you know, we'll go through it and that's one thing that I absolutely loved about this program is It's structured, it tells you exactly what you need to do, when you need to do it, and how to do it. But then she also lets you go out on your own and figure it out.
But then, if and when you hit a wall, she's like, come to me, I'm here for you, let me help you. And she actually does. I mean, I got on a call with her, we went back and forth through email for a few days, and she [00:22:00] helped me realize that, I'm not just one thing. I, I can be many things. And then after we had that five list, it was, well, do you really want to do these things?
Like, this is where you fit, but do you really want to? And so then it was picking and choosing the things that I really liked, that sounded interesting to me, and then coming up, finalizing that down to my top three. That alone is worth the money. Figuring out why I am the way I am, how I work best, what I want and what I don't want.
What roles I can do, what skills that I have that can transfer, but also where do I have some skill gaps that I might need to focus on learning? Because, hey, LinkedIn Premium has a ton of learnings on it, so use that, like, use the tools you have, right? And then, going and having this list at the end of, at the end of this section, having a list of 20 companies that I really [00:23:00] want to pursue.
That alone is worth it to me. Because I, I was just like spitting spitballs at a wall and seeing what's stuck at this point and now I have structure. Now I'm feeling good about this. Now I know what companies match my values and what I want. Okay. Now, now we've got something going. And at this point, I was like, oh, I can do this.
I do have the skills to do this. I might need to brush up on this or this, but look at me, like, okay, I'm not that bad. Because you have to remember at this point I was so beaten down mentally and emotionally that I had no self esteem. I had no confidence. I didn't think anything I did was good enough. And don't get me wrong, like, I am damn good at what I do.
Not to be arrogant, but I'm just, I'm good at what I do. But I, I thought nothing of the like of myself. [00:24:00] And so that was the first section. And then the second section was branding, which honestly was probably my favorite. I hate rewriting my resume. I hate it. and the steps and the process to rewrite our resume.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Super easy to follow. It made you think in a different way. And it just helps the, the process just helps you set up for future interviews. But my, my, probably my favorite, favorite, favorite part, I'm going to say everything's my favorite. My absolute favorite part of the branding was redoing my LinkedIn profile.
I can't tell you how many times I have redone my LinkedIn profile throughout the years, but having this process and the structure of being able to be myself and put my personality in there. I can't tell you how many people I have had that have said, oh, your profile is so good. Can you teach me how to do that?
And I'm like, no, but I know [00:25:00] someone that can. Or people say, wow, this is really impressive. I've never seen one this good. Like, I get compliments on it all the time. And I have this, there's a hook at the end of it that one of my goals personally is to learn how to play piano. And so at the end of it, I say, you know, If you want to contact me about any of this, or if you know how to teach yourself how to play piano, like, reach out.
I've had like half a dozen people say, oh, here, I use this app to learn how to play piano. I was like, well, that's super cool. So if you don't know this about me yet, I'm unapologetically passionate about people and I will sit at a coffee shop and just randomly start conversations with people because I love getting to know people and learning about them and what makes them tick and all the things.
And, so that was really cool just people to reach out and be like, Hey, I can do that. Here's how I did it. I haven't taught myself how to learn how to play piano yet, but I know how to now.
So the first time that I identified my [00:26:00] dream role, it was more of a confirmation. I knew this is what I wanted to do. I, I knew I wanted to get back into this industry. And I was like, okay, tell me something I don't know. No, not really. It was just a confirmation. Like I'm on the right track. Not only is it what I want to do, what I'm good at, but according to all these things, what I should be doing.
Which, again, is something I needed. If this, if I would have gone through this process and it would have said something completely different, I would have been like, oh, okay, that might have sucked for a little bit. But I, it did exactly what I asked it to do and I just got lucky and it was my dream role.
So, I will say though that I had a lot of imposter syndrome come up throughout the process. , I had a lot of like, I guess I'll use the word rejection very quickly. I have, I know a [00:27:00] lot of people just because of the indigenous work that I do and some of the indigenous networks I'm in, so I would reach out and
have conversations and, you know, tell them this is what I want to do. I want to make this change. And I heard a lot of like, well, you can't go from what you're doing now to what you want to do. Like, that's not possible. You're going to have to take steps along the way to get there. And I was okay with that.
You know, if I had to take one or two steps for a couple years and then get to do what I wanted, I was okay with that because that's what I thought I had to do. But at this point I was like, I don't really just want to settle again. I don't want to just do something just to do it. You know, I wanted my next career to be something that I was happy about and passionate about and really loved.
And honestly, I, when I open up to someone, like they get all of me. And, and so I was super vulnerable with Theresa at this one. I was like, you know, what, what, what's the [00:28:00] worst thing that's going to happen? Someone's going to be like, suck it up, buttercup. So, I remember we were on one of our weekly calls and everybody was like, oh, I had interviews at this place and I had calls with this place.
And everybody was like, rainbows and sunshine. And Theresa was like, okay, Hoku, give us your updates. And I was like, honestly, y'all, this sucks. Like, I keep getting rejections. I keep hearing this is impossible. Like, everything up until now tells me that I should do this. But I just don't feel great about it.
I don't feel like I can make it happen. I felt really bad. I'm pretty sure I started crying because I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm ruining all of your parades. But, I needed to do that because not only Theresa, but the other women in this group, some of them have become very good friends of mine, really just spoke so much.
love and energy and positivity into me that I really needed to hear. You know, I [00:29:00] love Theresa so much. She is your biggest cheerleader, but man, if you need to fix something, she's going to tell you need to fix something. And it was that night, I don't remember exactly what she said, but she said something to me and I was like, oh, you are a real person.
Like you're not just rainbows and sunshine and puppies. You're all like, gung ho until you're being stupid and then you're gonna tell me I need to fix something. Which she did in love and truth. And all the other women were like, we don't even know you and we can already tell you that you need to go into this role.
You know, every, everything this role is, that's what you are, and so, you know, I got out of my pity party and, really started connecting more with the women. And I'll say that's what really changed for me is, , there were some women that were in the industries. That I wanted to be in, and some of them made some really great connections with me, or with, sorry, made some great introductions for me.[00:30:00]
One of them actually led to my role, but at that point it was, let me get to know you guys, let me get off my pity party. And it, it was a, what, what can I do for you and what can you do for me type of a thing. And at that point I was like, nope, this is my dream job. I was right. Screw you, enemy, trying to tell me no.
And let's keep going. Yeah. So, going through this process, and really looking at what I did previously. It took a while, but there, there was a moment where I was like, oh, everything I've done before could apply to my new career. So let me just like being in program management, being in supply chain management, procurement, all of that.
It's very, it's very different from the event industry. Very different. But, the [00:31:00] way I thought about the event industry and how I still feel about it, I want to tell you, like, give you a little picture and then it'll make sense. I think of an event planner as a conductor in a symphony, right? And each section of that symphony, each instrument section, I think of as a department.
In the business, right? And so while we're practicing or meeting and collaborating, we are making sure that every single section can be on time on key in tune, you know, as perfect as they can be. So, when we get together to do this thing together. It's a beautiful symphony sound that comes out. And I've always thought about the event industry like that.
You know, I, I like to lead from behind. And I don't need to be the person that is up front [00:32:00] announcing things. I don't have to be the person that is doing the panels. Like, I've done speaking panels. I've done all that stuff. That's not where I thrive. But I'll do it. . I like to be the person that nobody really sees, you know, in the conductor, you just see like their hair coming out and all their arms flailing around.
I like to be that person. and so when I thought about it like that, and then I thought about program management and supply chain, in reality, they're the same. You know, I still have to work collaboratively in what I was doing. To make things happen for my customers in order to make sure that orders were picked up in order to make sure that, performance was met by all my carriers in order to work with other teams and convince other teams that I need them to do something for me more than they need to do something for someone else.
Just like, hey, flutes, I need you to play louder for me. Then I do the trombones kind of a thing. And so realizing that [00:33:00] my project management skills, my ability to talk to people and get to know them and really understand a person is a person. That all transfers, you know, all of my logistics experience, all my logistics skills.
I love bringing order out of chaos and I did that all the time in the supply chain. Well, guess what? I get to do that too in the event industry and I really loved building programs. Because you build something, you create it, you make it pretty, you let it go for a little bit, and then you get to fix it and make it more efficient, make it more beautiful, make it whatever, more shiny, louder, whatever.
All of that goes into my dream job. So it's kind of like I've been on this path, if you will, this yellow brick road for years, gaining all of these skills. That [00:34:00] now let me take it back to the event industry, but not only do I get to plan events, I now get to also build programs, so I get to do both things, so like honestly, I feel like my dream job coming.
I can't wait. So, after going through the Career Clarity Formula I received multiple job offers from two different companies. One was Dream Company, and this other one was Dream Job, at a company that wasn't even on my radar, I'll just be honest. But, one of the other women in the Career Clarity Formula, introduced me to someone at this company to have an informational about this role she saw posted, which is now the role that I'm going to be in.
and I'll just say both of these opportunities came about through introductions, [00:35:00] you know, my dream company, it's a nonprofit that supports indigenous people in stem. And starts as young as pre k and all the way through their career. And I've been a part of this organization for a few years and absolutely love it.
and someone that I know from the corporate world went there and then she said, oh, there's a role coming up. I want to introduce you to someone that while we were at a conference in October and see if this works. And so we're having these conversations where, you know. Finding out what, what that's going to be like.
And at the same time, one of the girls in career clarity was like, oh, I know someone over here. And so I did not go into this thinking that honestly, either one of these things was going to happen. And for me, I mean, yes, they were interviews, but they were just conversations, you know, getting to know each other, getting to know what these roles were. I knew a ton about. Obviously the organization [00:36:00] that I was a part of, I knew a ton already. I knew absolutely nothing about this company, but. ironically, the, the, this company has everything that I wanted without even knowing it had everything that I wanted. And they are a cooperative purchasing company, which is kind of cool because, like, I know what that is.
I was in supply chain, like, I know how that works. And so I'm not walking into this place blind, and I'll, I'll tell you, it was the hardest decision I have made in my career. I never thought I'd be able to choose between dream company and dream job. You know, , I will say dream company was not in the event industry.
It was doing something very different. Which I was super excited about, but I couldn't turn away the dream job. I just couldn't. It, it turned into [00:37:00] all of this work I've done. This goal and this desire that I've had for so long, like I have to pursue it. I have to go and do that. You know, and going with this place, I still get to be a part of this organization.
I still get to volunteer with this nonprofit. And so I, I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds at this point. But, and like I said earlier, this is, I get to do event planning. I get to build programs. I get to do project management. I get to work collaboratively with a ton of different departments.
Every single person that I've met from this company is a people person. Like they care about you as a person before they care about anything else. And my biggest driver. And wanting to move into a people focused environment is like, yes, the bottom line is important, but I don't want to have to look at people as a commodity.
I want to be able to look at people as humans and humans need connection in order to [00:38:00] thrive. In order to live, like, we're not meant to do life alone, we're not meant to do business alone. And if I have to choose between the bottom line and a person, I'm choosing a person all day. Because in my experience, the bottom line will come, it'll be fine.
You gotta take care of each other first, so, I'm so excited. I can't wait. So, this company, when I was having an informational with the person that I was introduced to, I stopped her at one point and I said, hold up, this sounds way too good to be true.
She goes, that's what I thought. I said, you're telling me you guys actually care about your people, they make sure not to kill you and give you work life balance. The benefits sound amazing, and the work you do is really impactful. Plus your company actually cares about the community they're in and they do a [00:39:00] ton of work with the community, which I'm super passionate about as well.
And I said, so what's the, like, what, what's the catch, you know, like, this, this sounds way too good to be true. What's the catch? And she said, no, that there is no catch. This, this is what it is. I honestly didn't believe her. I was like, no, there's no way. But as I was going through all of these interviews and conversations, I asked some really hard questions, because I really needed to know if this was for real or not.
And every single person said the exact same thing. And I was like, all right, well, it can't just be like this. So then, you know, you do your research and working at blah, blah, blah company and not one bad thing posted about them. And I was like, okay, so, you know, get the two offers or praying about it. And I, there was just this joy and excitement that came from [00:40:00] this company.
Not only in my side, but every single person I talked to, and how passionate they are and how much they love working together and you just don't hear that from everyone through a process. And, and so it was, it was an easy decision. Well, it wasn't, but it was.
And honestly, so I, I accepted my offer two weeks ago at this point. I start next Monday and you know, I, I had some questions, before I even signed anything.
I just had a ton of questions. I think I sent my new boss like 20 questions over email and within four hours she had every single question answered and I was like, oh, and this was right before Thanksgiving. I was like, this is impressive. Okay. And she's just checked in a couple times here and there.
We're so excited. We can't wait. Here's what we're doing. Can't wait for you to join the team. Here's what onboarding is going to look like. I have never, ever [00:41:00] had an experience like this. I cannot tell you how excited I am to get back to work and start doing things because I'm just so excited about working with these people.
So. So when I got my offer, I immediately went to Theresa. I said, Theresa, can we talk through this? I want to negotiate, but I don't know what to negotiate. And she said, okay. In one of her sections, she has a negotiation module.
In the last job search section and at this point I hadn't gone through that and I purposely didn't go through that until I was at the offer stage because I didn't want to think forward too much, that's one thing that I learned very quickly in the job search section was I didn't want to get ahead of myself so I only did the modules for what I was going through at that time because that was, I tried doing everything at once and it was information overload.
So then I went back and, and [00:42:00] this, this worked for me. So he said, okay, we'll meet this day. So I went through the strategy stuff and I was like, okay, breaking down the process. made a lot of sense. She made it so easy to understand. And so when we got on our call, I said, I want to negotiate money and I want base salary and I want to negotiate vacation time.
I, didn't want to start over on vacation. You know, my previous company, I had over four weeks, and this one was starting at two and I was like, no, that's not going to work. And so we talked to a lot of scenarios, you know, understanding this role is a government entity. This company is a government entity.
And so that meant that there are levels and steps to each level, which meant you had to negotiate within the level that they were offering you. But the trick was they, there's [00:43:00] nowhere to find the steps and levels that I could find because it's not a federal job. It's not a state job. So those salaries weren't posted.
It's confusing. Anyways, so we talked about what happens if you ask for X and then you get, you know, Y kind of a thing. In the end, we, started at, the highest that the job posting was posted at and we added like another 10,000 to that and said, this was my range. You know, and, and which was a little lower than my target range was previously, but I had always been open to, you know, like, look, this is my range, but if something's really, really, really, really amazing, I'm willing to go at the low end because it'll pay off in the end.
And that's kind of what happened here. And then I said, [00:44:00] I don't want to be greedy and ask for exactly what I had. For time off, but I want to ask for a little bit more and so she helped me, use the right words in the right places, to, and this was, this was different because it was all over email, to negotiate over email.
So, you know, pointing out the value I bring and pointing out, some of the results. And value that I've brought to previous roles and then being able to negotiate saying, hey, can we do this to this? Like, is this in your budget? And oh, by the way, this is a senior level role. Can we do this amount of of time off instead?
And, in the end, we, I was able to negotiate to the top of their level for salary, and we were [00:45:00] able to increase the vacation as well. So I got exactly what I asked for. Alright, if you are on the fence about joining the Career Clarity Formula, let me ask you this. Are you happy with what you're doing right now? Are you satisfied? Are you fulfilled? Do you go home every day exhausted? Tired? Do you have the Sunday scaries? Do you wake up? Because you're stressed about work, do you dream about work?
Do you want to keep living like that? If the answer is yes, I'm sorry, but why? If the answer is no, just suck it up and do it, buttercup. This is going to be the best investment that you could do. Honestly, it, and look, I'll tell you this, because the person that I talked to, talked to, told me [00:46:00] this. Her journey is not my journey, and my journey is not your journey.
But I believe in you, Theresa believes in you, and even though I am not in the program anymore, I am a resource for you. Every single woman that you will go through this program with is a resource. When you're making an investment, you're not making an investment in Theresa, you're making an investment in yourself.
Theresa just gives you the tools through the career clarity formula to put everything together in little boxes and structure so you know where to go next. Because let's talk about it. Let's just think about this. As women, we do so many things. Some of us are moms. Some of us are sisters. Some of us are daughters.
Some of us have multiple jobs. Some of us run things at church. Some of us run nonprofits, we volunteer, we have to get food on the table. That's a lot. And to have a career, especially in this world, [00:47:00] where it is still so old fashioned thinking that every woman should just be a stay at home mom. If you are not 100 percent satisfied, if you're not getting what you deserve, if you are being belittled and treated poorly, trust me, it's so much better when you find your, your dream.
And you can do it. I found my dream. And look, it's not all rainbows and sunshine. I didn't think I would. I had some doubts and some imposter syndrome, but guess what? I had a group of women that were willing to walk alongside me, that were going through the same thing, and Theresa, who was willing to give me that love and support that I needed.
And trust me, she's a real person, because she's going to tell you when you're being dumb. In the most loving and caring way. She's not gonna say you're being dumb. That's just me. So do it. Seriously. And if you're like, I still don't know, ask her to talk to somebody who's done it. Might be me. Might be somebody else.
But I'm not gonna lie to you. I'll tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly. [00:48:00] There's really nothing ugly. But I'll tell ya. Do it.
Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-1: Wow, just wow. If Hoku's story doesn't make you believe in what's possible, I don't know what will. She went from feeling stuck, overworked, and totally drained, to stepping into a role that lights her up. And she didn't just cross her fingers and hope for the best, she put in the work, got crystal clear on her next steps, And made it happen.
She also learned how to own her worth in a way that completely changed the game, allowing her to negotiate a salary and benefits package that reflected her true value. And here's the thing, this isn't just her story. It could be yours too. So if you're sitting there wondering if you can do this too, let me make it easy for you.
Yes, you can. [00:49:00] And you don't have to figure it out all on your own. And you definitely don't have to stay stuck in a job that's draining you. That's exactly why I created the Career Clarity Formula. To help people just like you finally figure out their next career move and actually make it happen So if you're ready to gain the clarity strategy and support you need Let's talk book a free consultation with me and let's unlock your career clarity together Thank you for tuning in everyone.
I will see you next time
