Susan’s Story
I think there are a lot of women in my shoes, we got divorced late, our life is not where we planned for it to be at this time of our lives, but this is our new reality and we have to live in it.
We need to figure out how to go forward and Alison and the Cardy Career Coaching team were absolutely instrumental in that.
I had fallen prey to a scam and the promise I could set up an ecommerce website. I’m a pretty savvy person, but it was exactly the right opportunity at the right time and I bit hard.
This online business failed, I wasn’t making enough money and I knew the profession that I was in was dying.
What to do Next?
I wasn’t really looking for help online at the time. I feel like the internet is like the Wild West and there’s a lot of opportunities out there and no real way to vet them, to see who’s legitimate, who’s not. I was trying to work organically with people I know and people who know people that I know. I cast around and one of my friends who has an amazing network of contacts put me in touch with a coach who referred me to Cardy Career Coaching.
It was really to figure out what I could do as a side-gig that would earn extra cash now and when I lose the job I have, could be scaled up to be more part-time or even full-time.
I had lost a large amount of money in the business that was a scam and I had to recover that money. I’d been laid off twice and there was a knot of insecurity in my stomach that said it could happen again so easily. If businesses can hire someone half my age, for half my salary, why wouldn’t they, even if they had to train them? I understand the business side of it, I just had a burning need to plan ahead, but I didn’t know what to do.
There’s SO MANY Options Out There
My Plan B could be anything: I could get my commercial driving licence and drive the tour bus, I could be the mobile dog groomer, I could be a docent at the museum? What could I do with the skills I already had that would not involve a lot of training or extra schooling? I’m not going to go back to law school or medical school. I’m not going to go and study to be an engineer. I need something I can mostly already do.
My coach helped me to see that I had a viable business opportunity that I could do on the side with my current skill-set. I didn’t need to retrain, but instead could use all my years of experience in my new venture.
I have a way forward and if I have a need to scale up my new business I can and I know how to do that. It lets me sleep better at night. I can’t think of anything that could be improved. It was just a great experience. The challenge for me was to put the business idea we created into play and I have already secured clients for this business through my own network.
Relief by Having a Plan
I would tell others not to be afraid. It’s so difficult to sit and live with that anxiety of the future and not have a plan. If I lost my job tomorrow, I could get on social media and scale up. I see the path forward and the next step, scaling up a business, a business that uses all the skills that I already had.
If someone was considering working with the team I’d tell them that they can help you figure it out. You know something needs to change, but you don’t know what or how to get there and Alison and the team just help you figure it out.
It impacted my life in so many ways. It gave me a sense of strength and security. The path may not always be smooth, but I do have the skills and tools to figure it out and it’s really nice that I can touch back in with Alison or my coach, if I need to.
Know Something Needs to Change in Your Career, but Not Sure What?
