This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - 111 / How To Transition Without Starting Over with Blake Shofield

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

Our work environments aren’t going to change unless WE change. You don’t need to walk in today and quit, but you can start taking action towards creating, finding or building the career opportunity you want. Here to help us do that is Blake Shofield - Founder of The Bridge To Fulfillment, a former corporate executive whose job it was to turn around 8 and 9 figure businesses. Despite her success, Blake constantly found herself feeling unsettled, chasing the next job or promotion to make it better, so she could finally do fulfilling work while having the time to be more present with family, and lead a less stressful life. (I know I’m not the only one who can relate to that) After two cross country moves, increasing frustration with more of the same, Blake forged a new path to build her own business where she now helps other women do the same. Not every woman is in a position to demand or create their dream job, or to walk away, but those of us who are, damn well better. For ourselves, for the people we love, and for the women that aren’t yet able to. That IS woman’s work. You can join Blake’s community by visiting: https://thesuccessfinder.com/group-detail/62ec1ff9daf2c900137dfa35 and get her complementary and personalized career fulfillment plan by visiting: www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/start To learn more about what we are up to outside of this podcast, visit us at NicoleKalil.com. Get your copy of Validation Is For Parking.

Hey you, have you reviewed the This Is Woman's Work podcast on Apple Podcasts yet? Your reviews help us get bigger and better guests, so I need your support. You can write a quick review or just tap the five stars. Please and thank you. I am Nicole Kalil and you're tuning into another episode of This Is Woman's Work, where together we are redefining what it means, what it feels and looks like to be doing woman's work. When I first started this show, I wanted to examine woman's work from three very specific angles. What I called you work, which is the internal work we

all get to do to grow and better ourselves, to get better at listening to our inner voice, to reestablish and build trust within, to become authentically you. Of course, confidence is a big part of that for me, but we've also explored things like grief, imposter syndrome, mindset, and more. The second part of woman's work I wanted to dive into is what I call homework. This meant all the things we do and are when we're not at work, from being single to being in relationships, finding love, getting divorced, being a mom, and caring for aging parents. We've covered a whole gamut of different roles, relationships, and commitments that many of us make. And lastly, I wanted to explore the work part of women's work.

I mean, it's right there in the title, right? I wanted to create an opportunity for all of us to rethink being a woman in the workforce. And then I wanted us to challenge the status quo, question the way things have always been done, walk away from toxic cultures, build businesses the world needs, raise our hands for every opportunity we want, lead, impact, and get paid what we deserve. I'm not one for small goals, if you can tell. So here we are over a hundred episodes in, and I want to invite you again to rethink the work part of woman's work. Here to help me do that is Blake Schofield, founder of the Bridge to Fulfillment, former corporate exec whose job it was to turn around eight and nine figure businesses.

And despite her success, Blake constantly found herself feeling unsettled, chasing the next job or promotion to make it better, so she could finally do fulfilling work while having the time to be more present with family and lead a less stressful life. I know I'm not the only one who can relate to that. After two cross-country moves, increasing frustration with more of the same, Blake forged a new path to build her own business where she now helps other women do the same. Blake, thank you so much for being here. I'm excited to have this conversation. My first question is why is it that you think that women stay in careers they're

unhappy with or in environments that don't serve or support them. Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Nicole. It's an honor to spend more time with you again. You know, for me, I think what I see here are consistent patterns that traditionally come down to two things. Number one, we're living our lives out of fear, right? And when you see life that way, everything looks like a huge risk or a huge sacrifice. Uh, I describe it as constantly getting stuck at the dead end,

right? I keep searching all of these things, but everything I find feels like I'm gonna have to give up something or it's a huge risk or I'm not going to get where I want to go. And then the second reason, which obviously ties into that is you don't know what you don't know. Right. I think for, at least for me, you know, I'm a former type a, or I guess always recovering type a perfectionist. And I was used to solving my own problems. And I believed that if I couldn't solve this problem, no one else could solve it for me. What I didn't understand, and it took me 40 years to learn, is that we all have blind spots. And we all have a really limited perspective about what's actually possible. I have an old mentor that says, you know, the amount of knowledge you have is equal to the grain of sand in the entire universe, right, of

the ocean. And I think that that's really true. But when we get stuck in circumstances that we're really unfulfilled in, it's really easy to get caught in what I call the mental spiral, which is the constant overthinking of all of these things. And it's also really easy to believe that if you can't see it, it doesn't exist, or maybe it's just not possible for you. So it's interesting. I couldn't agree more, but I'd love your perspective on this because I do believe there's an element of privilege that I have in that, you know, I could walk away from a career or start a business. And said another way, I don't know that every woman is in the position where they can do that. But what I do believe

is that far more of us are than we think there are. So the fear element spoke to me so much, but I also think it's what you said, this starting with no or starting with it's not possible versus starting with yes or starting with it is possible. How much do you think our mindset or how we see our situation is playing a part in what we believe is available or what we believe is an option for us? Your perspective or your mindset on it, I think is the vast majority of it. I often say the last five years, having done a tremendous amount of work and really in many ways, look back at the person five years ago and go, who the heck was she? Um, is an understanding that I often say the most important thing you can invest in is how you think

and how you know yourself. And so you started off kind of talking about, I'm not sure if this is possible for everyone. And I actually believe that it is. Now, is everyone's path the same? Absolutely not. Do some people have tremendously more barriers or things they have to work through? Absolutely. But I will tell you that, and I think this is where you're alluding to that many people are actually far more capable of this than they believe.

Think that they don't have the circumstances or the skills or the whatever it might be to do it. And I see that over and over again, where it's like, you absolutely can. And what you want is absolutely possible. But I think that we have to recognize that this is an individual journey. Everyone has to go through their own personal journey. And some of us are closer to it than others. But I know when I was sitting in my corporate job, realizing like finally after moving cross country and then realizing I needed to move again and it wasn't

working. And I just started saving money. I did not know what I was going to do. I had this feeling that I just needed to save money because at the time I thought was there's no way I'll be able to replace this income. And I just need to start saving. I spent five and a half years being the sole income earner. My husband was a stay-at-home dad for three kids, right? And then I ended up moving cross country and again for another job. And I was there about five, six months. And I said to him, this is not going to work long-term. You need to go get a job. So my husband was actually working only six months out of like the last six and a half years when I chose to leave corporate America. Everyone's journey is different. For some people, being an entrepreneur is the right path,

but I think it's what, 14% or so of the US? Most people aren't meant to be entrepreneurs. And I think a lot of times women believe that that's the path because it seems like the only way to get what you want. But this idea of like, am I able to do this? Is it possible? How much of it is our perspective? I would say probably 85% of it. I think it's possible for everyone to lead a fulfilling life and do work that they're passionate about and have the balance that they want. Each person though has to go through their own journey to get there. And some are closer than others and some, it may take longer than others, but I often say in many ways, this has been, you choose your heart, you choose your heart in life. I think often we're choosing the heart that we think is going to be easier, which is the familiar.

There's a, an old quote from Virginia Satir. It says, most people choose the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. And so I would say in the last five years, in many ways, this has been some of the hardest work I've ever done, but literally some of the most exhilarating, passionate, um, most fulfilling things I've ever done. And I recognize that the life I was leading before was incredibly hard and I was choosing that hard and I didn't need to choose that hard. I could have chosen the hard that actually gave me all of the benefits, the joy, the expansiveness, the ease in my life that I didn't know I was missing. I hope people go back and rewind that because it's so, in my experience, true and profound. I think we have to choose

often between two discomforts, the discomfort we know and the discomfort we don't. And so many of us are sitting in the discomfort that we know we're limiting our opportunities so much. So I also think there's an element, a disservice, a lot of entrepreneurs or successful people do to everyone else. And that is to make it sound like starting a business or entrepreneurship or changing careers, career transition, or finding a new job, it must include sacrifice and starting over. It's like all just thrown out the window and you start from scratch. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think that's really true. And it's a huge part of why we get stuck. It's very black and white thinking. All or nothing. And it's why I chose to call my business

the Bridge to Fulfillment is because I realized that everyone felt like it had to be this leap. And that was scary and unknown. And in many cases, people were moving too fast. They didn't have the pieces that they needed. So I often talk about, it can be a bridge. You can build it plank by plank by plank

to get where you need to go. And I think that's true of everything, but it certainly comes up when we talk about our careers and transitioning and starting businesses. It's funny, I was talking to somebody the other day who had in the last two years left corporate and started his own business. And he talked about how he works more hours now than he ever did. And I was like, oh, that's funny.

I did the exact opposite. And I think it's important to understand that there's a choice and there's an ability in the way we did that. I probably spent in 18 years in corporate America. I spent the majority of those years working 60 to 70 hour weeks. And I have three kids. I was exhausted all the time and sick all of the time. And when I started building my business, it was very intentional for me to do something different. Today, I run my business and I actually have two businesses and I run them four days a week. And I spend Fridays with my youngest kiddo and I travel often to events. And I want people to know it's completely possible.

It's completely possible to make a really good income and do work you're passionate about without having to sacrifice your life. Yeah. it's completely possible to make a really good income and do work you're passionate about without having to sacrifice your life. Yeah. Well, and again, that kind of discomfort that we know are the ones that we don't. It's ironic to me when people say that because you're already making sacrifices. Like you just said, you were sacrificing time with your family. You were sacrificing, you know, changing locations of where you lived and where you were sacrificing time with your family. You were sacrificing, you know, changing locations of where you lived and where you were and time. Like there's so, you know, desire, passion, we are all sacrificing something. And so this idea that making a change, whatever that means,

because I agree with you, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Being a business owner is not for everyone. But I do think finding a career that you get to bring your best self to, that you're valued and compensated well, and that is a good environment is something we all can have. But this idea that you have to sacrifice everything to do it, or it's going to, starting over, yes, you have to learn some new things. Yes, you may be uncomfortable, but I brought all of the experience and wisdom and success and achievements and everything that I had from my previous career into my business. And I think we're just doing this disservice. I think a lot of people want to wear like a badge of honor, right? Like, look at how hard I'm working. Look at all the sacrifices I made. And there aren't enough people saying what you just said and what has been my experience too, which is, you know, I'm working less, making more, loving what I do, not having to deal with other

people's crap, you know, at least not in the level I was before. Anyway. All right. So one of the things I know we agree on is that self-awareness is the key. Why is that? And how do we use our self-awareness to help make good career decisions? Yeah. To me, clarity, which comes from self-awareness is one of the most critical things that we are missing in life. And it's, it's really at the heart of why we keep leading lives that aren't achieving what we want to achieve. And I think it's very challenging because most people don't even understand they don't, they're not self-aware or they don't have clarity. We've never been taught. I certainly wasn't taught about this. And so often I get on a phone call with somebody and I say, well, tell me about what it is that you want to do next. And they're like, oh,

I'm clear. You know, this is what I'm looking for. And I would say they have 10% of the clarity that they actually need to bring something to fruition. And so there's clarity in terms of, I understand what I want and what that looks like, but there's also self-awareness of, I actually understand fundamentally who I am, what I'm gifted at, what I value in life. I help my clients do what I call unlock their fulfillment framework, which is the things they need in their career and life in order to be truly fulfilled and happy in the longterm. I would say most people maybe know 10 or 15% of that. And then the second big piece of self-awareness that I think is really critical is unlocking your secret sauce transferable skills.

These are the skills that you are uniquely gifted at. They give you energy, drive, and momentum. But most people are looking at this from a very surface level standpoint. And really all of the benefit is to understand it much broader. So secret sauce transferable skills are those unique combination of skills, but it's also your perspective or your lens of how you look at life. It's also looking at how your past experiences have come into play and your natural way of working. And when you understand all of those things together, it's what I describe as your unique fingerprint for success. So Nicole, when you said, well, I just take everything that

I had from the past and it comes with me. The hard part is if you don't actually understand why and how you create success, you don't understand the fundamental things that need to exist in order for you just to work in flow and in ease, then it's really hard to then go, how can I take this experience that I've spent my entire career, my entire industry and, and see it in other ways. And so that part about like clarity, knowing what I want and that vision forward, but also self-awareness, I understand who I am and what I need to be fulfilled and why and how I work at my best. I think it's incredibly critical.

And I feel like I see consistently, it is such a huge deficit. Very few people understand this about themselves. Yeah. In the land of self-love and self-care, I think one of the missing elements that people aren't talking enough about is we need to actually know ourselves. Yes, we need to love ourselves and care for ourselves. But that missing linked to me as really intimately and deeply knowing who we are and what makes us tick and what we have to offer and all of that. And I have found in my work, far too many women have no real grasp on, on that. And I think it's such a huge opportunity. Okay. You say that transitioning careers requires more than just tactics. Tell us more about that. I often say it's both an emotional and a tactical

journey, and this is where we get stuck. And here's why I say that. Because for more than a decade, I read every book. I did all of the worksheets about find your passion. I followed all of the steps about how to job search. And it didn't solve my problem. And what I consistently see is when we are at a place where we hit that crossroads and we're really unfulfilled and realize what we're doing isn't sustainable or isn't what we want to do long-term, we get stuck because of the limiting beliefs, perspectives,

fears, doubts, anxieties that we have sitting there. And we're trying to solve a problem sheerly with tactics and it will never work because you're not actually moving past the boundaries and the limits and the perspectives that you have constantly been in. And I'll give you an example of this. You know, I was in retail for 18 years. I worked for five different companies. I moved cross-country twice for roles. And I kept moving to different types of retail companies, hoping that that would be it.

I would find things like, oh, I need better work-life balance or a company that values leadership. And I would move things like, oh, I need better work-life balance or a company that values leadership. And I would move for that. But ultimately, I was never actually getting clear on why it was misaligned or what really needed to change. And in order for me to transform and build something different for my life, I had to get past my fears of what if I'm not really as good as everybody thinks that I am? What if I make this decision and I completely fail,

right? These are the things that come up when we, when we look to make a significant change, because we've defined ourselves or we've seen life a certain way. And so what I've consistently seen is when you want to do something that is of change or really leveling up from a personal development standpoint, you need both tactics and, and the emotional side to be able to actually get to the other side and accomplish what you want to accomplish. Okay. So how, what advice do you have for people listening who are like, okay, so I know this sounds counterintuitive, but like, what are the tactics for me to go through the emotional side of it? What, What are some resources or some ideas

or some things that would support me in rethinking something or seeing something from a different lens or letting go of an old belief? I find it to be easier said than done, especially those old ingrained beliefs that we've been walking around with subconsciously for years and years. Yeah, a hundred percent. So, you know, I have a six step process that I use to help my clients really transition into more fulfilling careers and lives. And the first two steps start with what I call gain control, which is to get out of fight or flight syndrome. And first of all, you cannot get clarity. You can't see the path ahead when you're stuck in stress and anxiety and all of these things that actually shuts down your

frontal cortex, your creative problem solving part of your brain. So the first thing is you got to get control of your time, your energy, and your mind. Once you've done that, then you can start to dig deep and it starts internally. It starts looking internally instead of externally. So from like a high level standpoint, those are the first two steps to take. I would say if they're looking for resources, I actually have some resources on my website, which is the bridge to fulfillment.com, where you can actually come in and I have a quiz that will actually help you identify like, is it the right time for change? I also have information that I'll tell you, right? What are

the biggest mistakes people are making in their job searches? They're trying to create that change and move into something different. But what I would ultimately say is, especially if so used to doing things ourselves, but when you get to a point where you have invested significantly in your career and you are a high achiever, you are earning things. You owe it to yourself, your family, your future, and all of the work you've already done to be able to have an expert, be able to come alongside you and help you see what you can't see, help you remove those limiting barriers. Cause I can tell you, like I said, I spent well over 10 years of my 18 year career trying to do this myself. And you're right. It's very challenging because it's just the way you view or see life. You don't even see the opportunity in front of you. Yeah. And, and that can be in the form of hiring somebody like you or a coach or assessment work, but there are also, you know, much cheaper and free resources as well.

But, you know, obviously it's just like anything, the more you put in, the more you seem to get out. Okay. So one of the things I talk a lot as it relates to confidence is how action is so important. We can't think hope, fingers and toes cross our way into confidence. And similarly, we can't think hope or fingers and toes cross our way into the career of our dreams. We must get into action. So what advice, and sometimes I think we as women think we need to conquer the whole staircase as opposed to, you know, just take one step. What are some pieces of advice for anyone listening in who

wants to take action? What are some good next steps? I love that you said this. I completely agree with you. I have a mentor that says action organizes. And often we don't think that it's very easy to get stuck in inaction or overwhelm. And you're right. We look at it and we look at where we are and we think, oh my gosh, it's so far. How am I going to get there? And really it all starts with just taking the right next one to two steps. So I would say if you're sitting and you're unfulfilled in your career right now, and you likely think that you can't make it any better. So you think the only solution is to go find another job. What I would actually tell you is to look at what are, what's the biggest frustration

or the biggest drain going on in your life right now and solve that first. Often what I find is it's because we don't have habits, boundaries, we're not actually setting our calendar up to have space to get work done. That's creating some of the chaos of why we feel so burned out, so exhausted, so unfulfilled in our careers, and then feel like we don't have time to go do the work to create the

next career path or to go do the thing. And so to me, many times what I see as the simplest step is to start and actually look at where am I spending my time and my energy today? And how can I just take one step forward and starting to solve that? Again, sometimes, Nicole, that comes with its own barriers. Fear about not being seen as the team player, all these other things. But sometimes it's really simple. Sometimes it's actually saying, OK, I'm going to set aside at least two days a week. A 90-minute block first thing in the morning is my high leverage time. And I'm going to use that time to really get done the most important things.

I'm not going to allow any meetings or anything else to get in the way of those two timeframes. And then at the end of the day, I'm going to look at what I accomplished. I'm going to keep track of what went well and what didn't do well. And then I'm going to adapt from there because as we can start to create more space in our day, in our mind, in our energy level, it then opens up more space for us to start taking the next steps and start getting more and more clarity. That's so good. I'm so glad that you said that because I think sometimes when we're unfulfilled in any aspect

of our life, certainly our career, it's sometimes easier to think that the thing is the problem, right? It's the job or the company or the whatever. And that may well be the case, but I think it's important for us to check in with ourselves in which way am I unfulfilled? Why am I unfulfilled? I don't know if this is true for anybody listening, but for me, sometimes I recognize I'm unfulfilled because of something going on with me. And I'm bringing that to my career. I'm bringing that to the situation.

So if somebody does that, makes the space, makes the time, what would be a couple good tactics or good resources for somebody who's like, I do need to change careers, whether it's to start a new business or find a new company or go into a totally different industry. In addition to working with somebody like you, what are some other tactics? Well, first and foremost, I would tell them to just stop with the searching LinkedIn job boards, updating your resume stuff. Like this is where everyone goes and it doesn't, will not solve what it is that you need to solve. It has a time and a place. It's just always being done way out of sequence. So if it becomes clear to you that, yes, I need to make, whether it's a job or an

industry change, or maybe I want to become, maybe I'm debating becoming an entrepreneur or whatever that might be, is really being able to stop and go inward to really be able to understand what is it that I really need and want in order to be fulfilled. And a lot of times it can be easier to start with what you don't want and then reverse it. It's a really easy to be like, I don't want the micromanaging boss. I don't want X, Y, Z. So if you get stuck, you can literally flip, well, okay, if I don't want a micromanaging boss, then what kind of boss would I want in my ideal world? Then I would just really challenge you to get outside of the box of building this list from what you think exists, what you think other people want you to have, what you've seen exists, and just really expand your mind to say, if I could create the world I

wanted, what does my life look and feel like? What am I doing on a day-to-day basis? What am I working on? Who am I working with? What does that actually look and feel like? Because until you have clarity on those things, even just at a foundational level, you aren't going to be able to find what you want. But even more so than that, I think what it can do is begin to build confidence of like, oh, I now see why I've been unfulfilled in my career. And I think that's really important because part of why we get stuck in fear that we can't do what we want to do is because we move into these jobs with the fingers crossed. I did it so many times. It's like, this is finally going to be it. This next company, this next job, I'm finally going to be happy. And then the payment period wears off and you're not.

And so you begin to really self doubt, right? Like maybe I'll just never be happy. Maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe what I want doesn't exist. And so when you can get really clear on what it is that you really want, often then you can look and go, Oh, just to what you said, Nicole earlier, like now I understand why I was unfilled. It's clear to me. And with that clarity, now I know what to avoid. Now I know what to stop doing. Now I know that this job that I was looking at that's similar that I think people would hire me for because I think they could see how my skills would translate actually won't make me happy. And that is sort of the beginning part of being able to understand this journey and start to uncover what's right for you.

It's so powerful, Blake, and so important. When I made the transition, I did do that to a certain extent, but I ended up having to do it over and over in my business because I didn't do it deeply enough. One thing that I would add, and I'm just curious your opinion after doing that. One of the things I often suggest people to do is if there's an industry or a business or a career or whatever that you think after self-reflection, that might be a good fit for you is then to reach out to people who are in that position and ask some questions and do a little bit of fact-finding. And because what I've experienced both myself and with people that I've worked with is sometimes we think something is a certain way because we're looking at it from the outside looking in. And it's not until you talk to people that you

might find out that something you think is the right fit for you isn't because you're coming from a place of self-awareness, but you don't know every job from the inside out. So doing a little bit of digging there, how important is that? And where does that fall in your mind in sort of the order of things? I couldn't agree more by the way that changing your resume and going on a job hunt is not the best next step. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. It actually doesn't surprise me to hear you say that you didn't go deep enough and you kept doing this over and over again. It's the pattern I've seen hundreds of times. And that's why I say when people come in, they're like, oh, I know what I want. I'm like, tell me what it is. And usually it's 10 or 15% of what they need. And I think what happens as a result of that is we waste years of our life and a lot of time and energy because we're constantly having to go back and iterate and iterate and iterate. I often say what we do is about six layers deeper than what everybody else does. And that's why it creates that level of like massive transformation because you're not having

to constantly iterate. You're coming from a much deeper knowledge and understanding. I would also say what you said is a hundred percent true, right? Once you have, once you understand, again, fulfillment framework, secrets, us skills, and what I often say after you do that is you need to define the criteria. You actually need to understand exactly the right type of organization, size of organization, industry, leadership, way of working that's right for you. Those are all foundational elements. Without that, you're going to waste a lot of time and energy and or you'll move to something that's better, but then you'll be back doing this again. So all those things need to happen first. And then you go into the narrow and deep job search. And then from there in the narrow and deep job search, that's the fourth step.

So first step is gain control, right? Regain control of your time, energy, state of mind. Second control. Second step is clarity. And that's where we talked about really unlocking who you are. The third step is defining the criteria. That's where I'm talking about really getting clear on the right fit and how you can get your highest value in the market. And then the fourth step is gain focus. And that's the narrow and deep job search. And what I like to say, focused on the art and science of authentic networking. And that's exactly what you're talking about, Nicole. Then it's going and actually speaking to the right people

to open those doors, uncover and actually build a spider web of people that are championing for you, but actually understand what would this job look and feel like? Will I actually be happy and successful in it? And when you do that and you can identify the right thing, then what it actually does is it can help you actually understand the exact skills, traits, and experience necessary for that role.

So then the step after that is all about positioning yourself in the market. And now you're building the bridge. Now you're helping people understand, oh, this is who I am, right? This is my secrets, my skills, and my experience. And now I can build a bridge and show you how I've already been using the exact skills, traits, experience that you need just happen to have been in this job or this industry or this way. And so you're 100% right. But to me, you have to really have the foundational elements first. And then when you have those, those conversations are really powerful because it's not just that I'm understanding if

my perception of this job is right, but I'm actually helping somebody understand who I am and the value I can add. So it works in dual ways, right? I get the benefit, but then they can benefit me because now they understand who I am and they can open more doors for me too. Yeah. I hope you all have been taking notes and I'm sure we could talk about this for hours longer. Blake, thank you for your wisdom and your time. And if you're listening and you want to hire Blake or learn more about the work that she's doing, thebridgetofulfillment.com is her website. You can find her on LinkedIn. Blake Schofield will put all, in show notes. And she has an ascend community that you can join if that's of interest to you. Blake, thank you so much for your, your time. I appreciate it.

No, thank you, Nicole. It's been such a pleasure. And I mean, like we connected before, it's just wonderful to be with somebody who shares the same values, but has experienced many of the same things, right? Success or life leaves clues. And I think it's a beautiful thing to look at your journey and what you've learned and how symbiotic it is with what I have learned. And ultimately at the end of the day,

it's just different doorways to the same thing. So thank you for allowing me to come and share some of my experience and for honestly being an excellent interviewer. I appreciate your questions. My absolute pleasure. Thank you. All right. of my experience and for honestly being an excellent interviewer. I appreciate your questions. My absolute pleasure. Thank you. All right. I'm going to close by saying that I am not suggesting that business ownership or entrepreneurship is for everyone, but I am suggesting that a healthy work environment, getting paid and being confident in your value is. If you're not experiencing all three of those things, then it's time to do

something about it. Have the conversations, ask the questions, self-reflect, and stop buying into the crap story that you don't have any other options. You don't need to walk in today and quit, but you can start taking action towards creating, finding, or building the career you want. Our work environments aren't going to change unless we change. Not every woman is in a position to demand it or to walk away, but those of us who are damn well better for ourselves, for the people we love, and for the women that can't. I can't think of anything that's more important than that.

This is woman's work.