Career Glow Up: Betting on Yourself and Getting Off the Struggle Bus with Allison Hemmings

Joanne Skiles[00:00]
Hi, everybody, welcome back to Her Career Unplugged, the show where we have successful women like our guest today that shared the unfiltered truth about how they built their careers. And today we have a guest who's literally sold everything her house, her car, her comfort zone to build a life and business that lights are up. And this is Alison Hemmings. she's the career glow-up coach, founder of NUO Executive Solutions, and a

Joanne Skiles[00:26]
Fierce advocate for executive women who are ready to stop playing small. And I think we're all ready to stop playing small. She's

Alison Hemmings[00:33]
Absolutely.

Joanne Skiles[00:34]
coached thousands of executive women into senior roles and six-figure negotiations, built a community of over 22,000 ambitious women, and she did it all while rewriting the rules of what a career is supposed to look like.

Joanne Skiles[00:48]
she's the career glow-up coach, a digital nomad working from the beaches of Costa Rica and living proof that it's never too late to bet on yourself. So welcome. Thank you for being here, Allison.

Alison Hemmings[00:59]
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Vimala Pydi[01:01]
Welcome

Joanne Skiles[01:01]
Awesome.

Vimala Pydi[01:02]
Alison.

Joanne Skiles[01:03]
I am really, really happy for you to be here. I think this is something like we talk about so much on the show that there isn't a straight path and there's not like the view. And I would love like, come on, you're living the nomad life, which is maybe one of my dreams of, you know, once my kids leave and go off and I have an empty nester then I can do that. So be I'm gonna save myself for the rapid fire.

Joanne Skiles[01:27]
but I will interrupt because everybody knows me. I do love to talk in between. But I will hand you over to my lovely co-host Vimela who's going to ask you some questions.

Vimala Pydi[01:36]
Thank you, Joanne, and welcome Allison. what a great story. And as Joanne said, very curious on your journey to where you are at. I am an empty nester. My child is out in college, but I don't know if I have I'm ready to just go where I want to be, but really curious to learn about your journey. So I'll be asking a few questions. We can do a deep dive or very conversational.

Vimala Pydi[02:03]
so I and Joanne will be like just have just walk us through to through your journey and how you're helping women. So are you ready?

Alison Hemmings[02:11]
Yeah, I'm ready, yes, for sure.

Vimala Pydi[02:13]
All right, let's do it. the first question, you call yourself as a career glow-up coach. What does that mean? What does it look like? especially when you work with women. can you walk us through that?

Alison Hemmings[02:29]
Yeah, that's a really great

Alison Hemmings[02:30]
question. when I say career glow ups, I mean I am an expert in helping people's career go from wherever they want to to the next level, right? you know, as we talked about on the top of the call, like careers are not necessarily linear anymore. Like long are the days where people had like I mean, I talking

Alison Hemmings[02:48]
Talk about this, like my mom had two jobs in Canada, one for 20 years, the other one for another 20 years, right? Those days are gone. Like people don't live like that. And the world is changing really quick. And so I help women get to where they want to get to in their career by, you know, making sure that they're not playing small, using my career glow up framework to help them get to the next level. But long are the days that we have traditional jobs, like those are just long gone.

Vimala Pydi[03:16]
True. Yeah, totally agree with that. And I love the name Career Glow Up. It's it's a a

Alison Hemmings[03:22]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[03:23]
very nice way to look at your career and kind of think about how you're going to like glow in whatever decisions you make.

Alison Hemmings[03:32]
Mm-hmm. Well, one of the reasons I went with career glow up versus just being, I mean, essentially I'm a career coach. But a lot of times when my clients are coming to me, they're not just a lot of times it's not just your job that's the actual issue that's in your life. Like if you do not have a life

Alison Hemmings[03:47]
And all you're doing is going to work, which is a case for a lot of women. You just you're you get up, you go to work, you come home, and you work a little bit more and then you repeat and you do that over again. A lot of times it's not just the the career aspect, it's actually having a life itself. hobbies and passions outside of just your work and your family, right? so I've had clients who've come to me who are like thinking that they need to change their job. And no, you don't need to change your job. You need to get a life.

Alison Hemmings[04:16]
And a life that you're passionate about, and then having boundaries around your work as well,

Joanne Skiles[04:20]
Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[04:21]
right? So

Joanne Skiles[04:22]
I that's so important, the boundaries.

Vimala Pydi[04:22]
No, that's yes.

Joanne Skiles[04:24]
The boundaries that make you a lot happier when you have hobbies along with it and an actual life.

Alison Hemmings[04:29]
A hundred percent.

Vimala Pydi[04:29]
Right. Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[04:31]
Yeah, you

Alison Hemmings[04:31]
have have a life. Like and it's so easy for us to

Vimala Pydi[04:33]
You need to have lights.

Alison Hemmings[04:34]
forget that piece. But it is very, very important that you have to have a well rounded life, even if it's your business or your you're working for somebody or your contractor, whatever it is, if all you're doing is going to work, sleeping, and repeating every single day, you're gonna get burnt out and you're gonna hate everything else around you. And I only say this because I was also that person. Like I've lived that life. I know how it is.

Alison Hemmings[04:59]
To to just work and have nothing else besides that.

Vimala Pydi[05:01]
True. And one example I have is I started my career before being a parent. And when I became a parent, I had less time to dedicate to my work. Like before it was pretty much like 20 plus hours because I did I didn't have a life outside work. When I had

Alison Hemmings[05:20]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[05:21]
my child, I felt that I'm not contributing enough. Like even if I worked eight to nine hours or

Vimala Pydi[05:29]
over the usual work hours, I always felt like I was not doing enough. So I think that's a very good point to think about not just work, outside work to have that well balanced and whatever you're accomplishing within that seven, eight, nine hours, you you should feel like you're worth it, right? That's one thing I learned from my career journey. But yeah, that's that's a great point, especially for women.

Alison Hemmings[05:55]
Yeah, it's so easy to forget. I think people

Alison Hemmings[05:57]
and people don't really talk about it either, right? Like we take a lot of pride in being hard workers and d devoting ourselves to it, right? It's almost like a badge of honor. Like, well I do this all the time and I live for this. Okay, but you also have the life, like, you know, right.

Vimala Pydi[06:13]
Yeah, yeah. That

Vimala Pydi[06:15]
is important for you as coming in as a coach to coach people on work-life balance and feeling okay, feeling fine with it. thank

Alison Hemmings[06:25]
Mm-hmm.

Vimala Pydi[06:26]
you for doing that. going into the next one, you built a community of 22,000 executive women. That's quite remarkable. I just want you to pause and we want to applaud for you to do doing that. That's a

Alison Hemmings[06:40]
thank

Alison Hemmings[06:40]
you.

Vimala Pydi[06:41]
Huge initiative

Vimala Pydi[06:42]
and you have done tremendous work, 22,000. That's that's a huge number. So question there, what's one pattern you see in women specifically who are stuck? And what shifts when they finally break through that pattern?

Alison Hemmings[06:57]
the biggest thing that I notice in my coaching practice when it comes to people making a change is that they are really stuck in their comfort zone. especially when you kind of get into the mid part of your careers, like in your late four thirties and into your forties. You've been doing this job for a long time, right? And everyone knows you and you can do the things and and and you get so comfortable with where you where you are that it is like it feels like

Alison Hemmings[07:23]
Anything outside of that is impossible. And we get really safe within these comfort zones. So I have people who are like, well, I've done it for the last eight, nine years. What else can I do? They can't even think of their life outside of this box that they've put themselves into. And they get really committed to being on that struggle bus. Like, this is how I've always done it. This is the way it's gonna be. And

Alison Hemmings[07:46]
That's not the that's not necessarily needs to be the case when it comes to your career, right? There are companies out there that are craving and who really wanna have your your expertise. But because we're so safe, like, I can't leave here. I've been here for seven years. I promise you, if they had to reduce cost, if if something happened, if AI or something comes that can

Alison Hemmings[08:08]
change this landscape of your workplace, they're gonna get rid of you in two seconds. Like let's just we've seen this a million times with people having this loyalty of I can never leave this job and nobody else can do it better than I can. And then something comes around and they're gone in two minutes, right? so I feel like fear, especially after COVID, like you have to think, and I mean I don't I whatever your opinion is about COVID, there was a big time where we were isolated for a very

Alison Hemmings[08:35]
A long period of time. And there was so much uncertainty that was happening in the world. and we were afraid to make changes and and in that isolation, we became we I don't feel it, I feel like a lot of us haven't left that. And so we still have that same kind of mentality, like I just need to be safe. And in that safety, on the other side of what's keeping you safe is all the things that you want in your life, all the dreams, the goals, you know, all the things that you that business idea that you've had.

Alison Hemmings[09:03]
that

Alison Hemmings[09:03]
you've been sitting on, they're always on the other side of the fear. But we just get so comfortable. So being comfortable costs us a lot of money.

Vimala Pydi[09:12]
Two

Joanne Skiles[09:14]
That

Joanne Skiles[09:14]
that is very true. because being comfortable, we we like you said, we hesitate. And I see that so much in

Alison Hemmings[09:22]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[09:22]
so many people that I've even mentored that like they go, Well, if I do that or I stick out or I stand out like and

Alison Hemmings[09:30]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[09:31]
I and I I love your point about, you know, when the time comes if they reduce costs, they're gonna cut you. And that's very true. They're as

Joanne Skiles[09:38]
sad as it is, there people want to say there's no loyalty towards those for companies. I'm like, yeah, but there's also no loyalty from companies to people.

Alison Hemmings[09:46]
A hundred percent.

Alison Hemmings[09:47]
Like as

Vimala Pydi[09:48]
Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[09:48]
a recruiter, like I mean I had a recruitment firm for so many years and I can't tell you how many times I've had calls from the hiring manager. Like I had one was leaving a funeral of somebody who passed away, literally leaving the funeral from somebody who just died like two weeks ago, and they were like, We gotta get this this role filled.

Alison Hemmings[10:07]
You're leaving their funeral. Like and I get it, like business has to move on. I I'm not, you know, but that's just to show how replaceable we are. Your your HR is leaving your funeral. They should be mourning your loss, being sad. And all they're thinking about is like we gotta replace Sally in accounting. Like you know what I mean? Like

Vimala Pydi[10:24]
True, true.

Joanne Skiles[10:25]
Yeah. It's it's the

Joanne Skiles[10:27]
harsh reality of the world and

Vimala Pydi[10:30]
Right.

Joanne Skiles[10:31]
yeah, it's it's it's it's it's depressing in a way, but

Alison Hemmings[10:34]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[10:35]
it's also like that that's why don't let it hold you back because the same idea that they're gonna replace you I don't know, maybe I'm a little ho cold hearted here for those listening. I'm like, but if they're gonna replace you, you can replace them.

Joanne Skiles[10:49]
Granted, everybody who's ever looked at my LinkedIn, you will know I've never stayed at a company that long. Because what why? Why? Why why make less and not do what you want to do when you can get somewhere else? So

Alison Hemmings[11:03]
And I feel like, you know, a lot of times we're using the same kind of philosophies that our parents had.

Alison Hemmings[11:08]
Right. Like as I said, my mom had two jobs in tw in four years. Granted, my mom did love her her career and she was happy there. But that's not the way of the future. Like it's just not it's just not gonna happen anymore. And the reality is is people who make career tra changes make more money, they are able to move up the ca the ladder a lot quicker. And people who stay stagnant in those positions, they end up paying getting paid significantly less than what they were

Alison Hemmings[11:38]
making before. And a lot of times people think, well, if I stayed a company for 10, 15 years, it makes me look loyal. Okay, but for a hiring manager, sometimes it's like, well, why are we gonna hire you? You don't know anything else besides how this A and B company did it for 15 years and you never even moved up while you were there. Like a lot of times it even comes like

Vimala Pydi[11:58]
Okay.

Joanne Skiles[11:58]
No,

Joanne Skiles[11:59]
that is perfect. And there has been

Vimala Pydi[12:00]
But

Joanne Skiles[12:01]
reasons why we have not moved forward with candidates. Was

Alison Hemmings[12:05]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[12:05]
well, they've only worked at they've only worked at a contracting defense company. And even though they did well in all the question, you know, all the technical questions, can they really cut it in a startup environment? You know?

Alison Hemmings[12:17]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[12:18]
And and it's like

Vimala Pydi[12:19]
Fire.

Joanne Skiles[12:20]
just because they've only ever had experience at Lockheed Martin, you know? And I'm like, that's

Alison Hemmings[12:23]
Yeah, exactly.

Joanne Skiles[12:25]
That's the unfortunate reality. You spent ten years there. People don't think that you'll be able to handle a different industry.

Alison Hemmings[12:30]
A hundred percent.

Vimala Pydi[12:31]
Yeah, and the

Vimala Pydi[12:31]
other side of it is are they resistant to change is what you'd be looking at in the candidates who stayed at one position forever. if that's your career goal, it's okay, like that's fine. But if you are trying to look at growing in your career and feeling like too comfortable where you are at, I think like breaking that pattern would be your first step. And also know that when you're getting interviewed, specifically now.

Vimala Pydi[12:57]
companies are looking at moving into AI, moving into different technology in technology space, they'll be looking at you as really hard to change, right? Like are you

Alison Hemmings[13:09]
Mm-hmm.

Vimala Pydi[13:10]
like changing, evolving or not? Yeah, that's that's the other way to look at it. but

Alison Hemmings[13:15]
A hundred percent.

Vimala Pydi[13:16]
awesome, awesome. So my next question, that's one thing is breaking the pattern, don't be too comfortable. try to look outside.

Vimala Pydi[13:24]
The

Vimala Pydi[13:24]
other one I'm really curious about upon is clarity to offer framework that you have. you do have a 90-day period, you do have some numbers that you throw out there to to help women in their roles. Can you like what does that mean and why do you have that 90-day timeline there?

Alison Hemmings[13:43]
Well, 90 days is ju typically a long as long as it takes in order for somebody to complete my program. and I always try to look at your career kind of like real estate. Like if you were to put your house up for sale, you wouldn't just I mean, I'm from Toronto and in Toronto a regular smegular house, like even outside of the Greater Toronto area, is a million dollars. Like it's an expensive city to live in, right? And if you bought your house twenty years ago.

Alison Hemmings[14:08]
You didn't pay a million dollars for it. Like you maybe paid a quarter of the price. You would never just take the same kind of philosophies that most people do when it comes to their careers, like you would do with your house. You wouldn't be like, Well, I paid four hundred thousand dollars for it in nineteen ninety-seven, so I'll just take ten percent more than what I'm getting paid now. Like there's just no way nobody ever thinks about it like that.

Alison Hemmings[14:31]
When we think about real estate and we were putting up our house for sale, we look at it like, well, what do I need to well, what are some of the things that we do before, right? You're gonna look at the market, you're gonna look at your house, look at the comps, look at like when I sold my place, things that were attractive to me were not necessarily attractive on the market, right? I learned that

Vimala Pydi[14:52]
Okay.

Alison Hemmings[14:53]
the hard way. Like, I need to do some renovations before I put this house up for sale.

Alison Hemmings[14:58]
We don't do that same thing with our career. And I mean, if you think about your career, you wouldn't even have your house if you don't have a right career, right? So

Vimala Pydi[15:06]
Okay.

Alison Hemmings[15:07]
it's just as important, but we market it so willy-nilly. We're just kind of like, Well, I'm gonna go on Indeed and see who's hiring and maybe I'll fit into this position, right?

Alison Hemmings[15:18]
if you think of your career like real estate, if you were to put your house up for sale, there would be things that you did before you put your house up for sale, right? You're gonna look

Alison Hemmings[15:26]
at your at your home itself, what needs to be renovated, what you know, what do we have in the attic? Like what's in the garage? All of the things, right? We don't necessarily take the same approach when it comes to marketing our career. We depend on job boards and what's happening on the internet or what s I don't know why I keep going to Sally and payroll, but what Sally and payroll says about the industry.

Alison Hemmings[15:52]
And so in my program, in our framework, we look at it like real estate. We're gonna do this the staging part, which is a big part is also mindset, but just getting prepared to handle this market, what it's gonna look like, where you're gonna be able to find things. And then what does the market dictate? Right? Like if you're when I I talked about houses being expensive in Canada, a million dollars for a house, you're gonna be strategic on how.

Alison Hemmings[16:18]
You were gonna you're not gonna be like, well, I know everyone's getting a million dollars, but I'll take 750,000. What? Why? Like, why would you do that? But we do that with our careers all the time. All the time. Like if I was to be looking for a house right now and I saw a house in Toronto and it was listed at $500,000, I'm gonna think something's wrong with the house.

Alison Hemmings[16:39]
I'm not like, let me go buy it. I'm like, what the heck is wrong with this place? It must be haunted. Like who's living in there? You know what I mean? Like, do the walls, or there are four walls, or there's only three walls. Like, that's where my mind would be going. But with our careers, we don't have the same kind of mindset. We just kind of do whatever. We're just we just sell it to whoever the highest bid bidder is. And that approach is what keeps people really stuck.

Alison Hemmings[17:06]
In my program, I teach people how to lease your experience. So you're not just selling it to the highest person. A lease is mutually beneficial, right? you ru you lease a car or lease a house for a certain period of time, you know, w because you know it's gonna help you get to whatever level, right? So it's just having that same kind of philosophy when it comes to our career, not just being so

Alison Hemmings[17:28]
Being stepping into being the CEO of your own career versus just letting the internet dictate what you do and what you get.

Vimala Pydi[17:36]
Love it, love it. Especially the way to think about your career as real estate. That's awesome. The upgrades you're doing on yourself, scaling up, everything kind of pays off. you need to account all parameters when you're looking for a new job. Love that actually. I'm going to add that to my mental model as well.

Alison Hemmings[17:59]
Perfect.

Vimala Pydi[17:59]
Alright, the next part is the fun part on just your journey. when I was r reading and researching on how you kind of sold your home, just got up, sold your car, sold everything, moved in to a different place, Costa Rica, a different country, and also how it ties to your something that your mom advised you on, like live your life.

Vimala Pydi[18:25]
can you kind of like talk us through how you decided that you would do that and also how it shaped you as a woman you are today, like as a coach or wherever you are at this point.

Alison Hemmings[18:38]
Yeah, well I mean I always when I was deciding on moving, there was something that was really like I love I love being Canadian, I love living in Canada. I didn't leave Canada because I don't like Canada like

Alison Hemmings[18:50]
I know that's people have that in their head sometimes, but that was not the case for me. I just felt really, really bored in my career and in my life. Like there was just something missing. And I had lived in Costa Rica before. Like I had been there, I stayed a year there and I came back because both of my parents needed me at the time. but my

Alison Hemmings[19:10]
I had lost both of my parents within a year and which really made me think about my career and life differently. Like when something like that happens and you lose two people that you're really close to, you start looking at your life in a very different way. One of the last things that my mom said to me is for me to live my life. And

Alison Hemmings[19:26]
I was working and I just felt this like I was like, what am I working for? I was not in love with my recruitment business anymore. I just wasn't. I'd done it for so long. I switched industries. I got into IT recruitment and I did not love it. Like I loved it during COVID when we were, you know, like and then and then after it was just like I just

Alison Hemmings[19:49]
Did not love the candidates, didn't I wasn't I fell out of love with my career. And I had to really take a good look at myself. And listening to my mom's last words would literally was to live your life. I'm like, if I had no limitations, what would I be doing? And I started picturing this life for myself. Like, you know, I don't I'm I always stand the original child free. You know, now it's like kind of cool to be child free, but I've been for a long time. So it's like, okay, I

Alison Hemmings[20:13]
don't have any children holding me back. I right, I'm like I I'm lucky that I I I'm able to have something that I can sell and to go

Alison Hemmings[20:22]
you know, go to other places. Let me start thinking about how I really want my life to look without limitations because I am blessed to be able to be in that position. And so number one, I'd always I always say this to people when you have a goal like this, you can't do this by yourself. You need a coach or someone to help you because if I had just tried to do it by myself, there is no way that I would have moved. Like the fear would have gone into me. I would have been like, I'm safe here. I've lived here forever. I love my name

Alison Hemmings[20:49]
I love my friends, I love my family, what am I doing? Right. But I had a bigger vision of for my life. You know, I wanted to live on a beach. I wanted to eat straight from the trees and just have that kind of freedom. I didn't want to be so materialistic and care about all those things that we get consumed about in North America. And

Alison Hemmings[21:12]
I just I made that decision and I did it. I just had to have faith that I was going to be able to continue what I was doing. So I was packing up all my stuff and prepared to do recruitment in Costa Rica. Like literally, I was like, I'll just do it.

Alison Hemmings[21:28]
I I know what I'm doing. I'll just switch industries. And as I was packing my stuff up into my house, I'm like, I don't want to carry this business with me. Like I don't, I'm changing everything. Why am I bringing this if I don't love it? Like and it felt kind of hypocritical to to who I am.

Vimala Pydi[21:46]
Amazing. Awesome. Yeah, that's great. what a lovely story. Yes. all of I I think it there's like most of us might be thinking about moving somewhere cool. It might be a dream. It's not that you don't like the place you're in, it's just being adventurous and kind of figuring yourself out. So

Alison Hemmings[22:05]
Mm-hmm.

Vimala Pydi[22:06]
kudos to you for doing that and what an amazing story.

Vimala Pydi[22:10]
next I next few questions I want to kind of dig into how you're championing women and helping them in recruitment. One story that stood out: you had a candidate who didn't have the right or preferred a resume for becoming a VP, but she might have had it in her. How d what did you see in her and how did you help her get there?

Alison Hemmings[22:34]
well, number one, this what I've just learned because I worked in IT recruitment, which is a very male-dominated industry, like mostly male industry, women versus men, and I hate I don't but men, they never need to have done the experience to feel that they're good at the job. Like you will meet the most

Alison Hemmings[22:53]
confident woman who's done everything and they'll be like, I'm not sure if I can do it. Like, girl, you can do it. And then you'll meet a man who's never done it at all. And they're like, I'm the best and nobody can beat me. And you're like, what the heck? Like, is there not a a a balance? Like we're just

Vimala Pydi[23:07]
Yes, I see that. Yep.

Joanne Skiles[23:08]
Mm.

Alison Hemmings[23:10]
so conditioned to believe that unless we've done it a million times and been praised for it and got the crown and the the award after, then we can't actually claim it. So that's number one. Like

Alison Hemmings[23:21]
really stepping into understanding what you bring to the table, even if you haven't necessarily done it. Like I I have not managed a team of seven hundred people. I just haven't. I've managed a lot of people. But if you threw me in to manage 700 people, girl, I got it. Like I will be able to do it. Like I thought it's right. So I I feel like having the confidence to know that you can do things is it's not something that's been taught to women. We're always told to like level down.

Alison Hemmings[23:50]
Don't be too braggy. Don't don't be don't you don't want to come across too aggressive. my gosh, you know, especially women of color. Like we hear that all the time, this nonsense of just you have to be perfect in order to get ever to get anything. So really working and having that understanding of like you don't you don't need to to do it a hundred percent.

Alison Hemmings[24:12]
of the time in order to claim that skill set. You can actually just know that you can do it and people can catch on to that. Like how many times have we been able to just figure things out? Like as women, that just comes natural to us. Like, right? But why do you need to have the permission right away in order to to claim it?

Alison Hemmings[24:30]
So, yeah, my candidate had a terrible resume. also, she'd been in her job for so long before we met. most people are not sitting at their desk all day thinking about how awesome they are and how well they do their job. Like just just not like you don't finish your day. Yep, that's right. That was perfect. Let me just tell like nobody does that, right? So once we went back and

Alison Hemmings[24:51]
We're able to understand the impact that she did within her career. She was able to kind of see it a little bit more. And then our obviously your resume and your LinkedIn aligns. And we got all of those stuff together so that they were in alignment. just like similar to if you were to put your house up for sale. you're not gonna just you're not putting up a messy house for sale, you're not gonna put up a messy career to go on the market. So that's again, that's our first step in our program.

Alison Hemmings[25:17]
And yeah, she ended up getting like a forty thousand dollar increase from the last position that she was in. And lot a lot of it's just owning it.

Vimala Pydi[25:23]
Wow.

Alison Hemmings[25:24]
Yeah, like we I can't tell you how many times I will meet somebody and they'll I'll be like, tell me about this your last position. And then I'd be like, Okay, yeah, I was a VP of operations and I got an account that brought in twenty-five million dollars into the company. And I was also in the birthday committee, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Alison Hemmings[25:43]
Lisa,

Alison Hemmings[25:45]
you brought twenty five million dollars into the company. yeah, like I just part of the strategic team and like what like what? That is major. So pulling all of those things out of people is also like it's it's crazy how we just are s we're just too humble and being humble is what's

Joanne Skiles[26:01]
Yes.

Alison Hemmings[26:02]
keeping you broke, I promise you. Like

Joanne Skiles[26:04]
I love that you're saying this because that is exactly the problem. And maybe maybe I'm on the other side where I'm just an arrogant person. But but I'm like, brag

Alison Hemmings[26:11]
Go

Joanne Skiles[26:12]
about yourself. When you're in an interview, sell yourself. Talk about

Alison Hemmings[26:16]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[26:17]
yourself. because that's what everybody else is doing. Like you gotta

Alison Hemmings[26:20]
A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Joanne Skiles[26:22]
you gotta sell yourself and you know, you

Alison Hemmings[26:25]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[26:26]
you got it. You got the interview. That's step one. Like, come on.

Alison Hemmings[26:29]
Exactly. And

Alison Hemmings[26:30]
nobody's coming. There's n there's no one that's gonna come and be who's gonna be able to articulate what you bring to the table better than you. There's nobody coming to save you. You don't have other cheerleaders that are in the background saying, Yeah, like Joanne's a person or Alison. Like nobody's doing that. It has to come from you. And you I mean, I know it does feel counterintuitive in the beginning, but I mean

Alison Hemmings[26:53]
An interview is the only place that you are about allowed and you're supposed to brag about yourself. Like, yeah, maybe if you're on a first date, calm down a little bit. Like we get it. But in an interview, like that is the literal time that you're supposed to be doing those things. And yet for so many of us, it is hard for us to do. And it's a lot of it just comes straight from conditioning from when we're children. Like it it just is.

Vimala Pydi[27:18]
Yes. True.

Alison Hemmings[27:20]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[27:20]
Yes. Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[27:20]
The conditioning.

Vimala Pydi[27:22]
So you have to train yourself. You have to be your cheerleader. You have to be your marketing person. You have to be everything when you are in that interview. Just think about like kind of like going into this other personality and talking about yourself, right? Sometimes that helps too. Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[27:35]
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's not

Alison Hemmings[27:39]
and I I mean we we joke about it, but I mean if you spent your

Alison Hemmings[27:43]
For most of us women, the formative years of our lives, we're told to be good girls. Like how many of us have heard that? Be a good girl. You know, go and play in the corner. Don't brag about yourself. Don't make s Sally feel bad because you feel good about yourself. Or don't, you know what I mean? Like the the boys only like you because they're being mean to you because they like you. All of that stuff. And it's like it's just complete nonsense. And then you wake up one day and you're 40 years old wondering, like

Alison Hemmings[28:11]
Why am I afraid to like put my hand out and claim that it's my thing? Well, it starts from when we were children, you know, always conditioning us to believe that we have to take less than what we deserve or we have to work harder, or somehow that hard work that we're doing is gonna get recognized. And it doesn't. Like nobody cares. You can I you know how many times I spent hours overtime burning myself out, j making sh and for nobody to even notice. And the difference was is that I just

Alison Hemmings[28:38]
thought that my hard work was gonna get recognized versus me telling people about my hard work. Like how are they gonna recognize it if I didn't tell them? Like it seems silly now, but it's just how we've been conditioned as women.

Vimala Pydi[28:49]
Exactly. Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[28:50]
That's amazing. Yeah. Everything that you have said, it's right on dot. And most of us experienced women in their careers, you might have gone through those phases and trained yourself to get out of it. And still, like even after years of experience, sometimes you you still don't hundred percent make use of like marketing yourself, advocating for yourself, like talking about yourself. That's why I think

Vimala Pydi[29:15]
Having a coach definitely helps. And thank you so much, Alison, for kind of like getting into that role and helping other women and coaching them in their careers as well. so to tee off, like do you have any closing remarks before we go into a fun section that Joanne is going to walk us through? She is she has a funny side, she can kind of like do a quick

Alison Hemmings[29:40]
huh.

Vimala Pydi[29:40]
rapid fire with some really good questions, but anything to tee off and we'll hand it over to Joanne.

Alison Hemmings[29:46]
The only thing that I would say, just to kind of end things, if you're a woman kind of second guessing yourself as to where you will be, I my experience as a recruiter, especially working in male-dominated industries, is that women

Alison Hemmings[30:00]
We need to brag way more than what we do. I when I say I promise you that our male counterparts, I have seen it firsthand, feel no ways. They could literally be straight out of university and have had this a job at Starbucks, no offense to anyone who's working at Starbucks. They could have been a barista or a barista, whatever, right? For six months and they go into an interview so much more confident than we do. And so any woman who's like second guess.

Alison Hemmings[30:29]
Yourself or or you know, afraid to talk about your accomplishments. I just want you to know, like Tim down the road or Chad, Connor, whoever is going up for an interview against you, feels no ways to be able to talk about what they bring to the table. And I promise you, if you feel like you were being

Alison Hemmings[30:48]
over confident, you are probably just at the confident level and need to up it up a little bit more because these guys are coming in over way over confident beyond. We're we're thinking, okay, I I'm twenty percent too confident and they're three hundred and fifty percent more. Like

Joanne Skiles[30:58]
Way, way beyond I had a fresh as a fun story.

Joanne Skiles[31:07]
I had a fresh college grad trying to tell me how AI worked. I have a PhD in computer science. Okay. No, no, no. I'm like, no, no, no, we're gonna

Alison Hemmings[31:17]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[31:17]
stop. I don't like throwing my credentials at people, but no,

Alison Hemmings[31:21]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[31:21]
okay. I I'm

Vimala Pydi[31:22]
But yeah.

Joanne Skiles[31:22]
like, I l I love your confidence, but you gotta calm down, dude, okay?

Alison Hemmings[31:27]
Yeah,

Joanne Skiles[31:28]
Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[31:28]
yeah,

Alison Hemmings[31:28]
yeah, exactly. And then we're like, I don't know if I should say that I was excellent at bringing in this twenty-five million dollar account. Meanwhile, they're like, actually I know everything. So there's I mean there's a co you know, there's there's a compromise. You gotta meet somewhere in the middle. But women, we are so our our issue is not

Alison Hemmings[31:46]
overconfidence, it's underconfidence. So even if you do a hundred percent more, you're just meeting men. You're just at the bare minimum.

Joanne Skiles[31:56]
Yes.

Joanne Skiles[31:56]
That and that's the best part about it is because you reminded me of that interaction that I just had like just a couple of weeks ago. And I'm like, if I talk to anybody, I'm like, yeah, that's pretty typical in my industry to deal with that. Like really? You have someone who

Vimala Pydi[32:09]
No, it is. Actually it is. Technology

Alison Hemmings[32:09]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[32:13]
argues with you about AI when you have these credentials? I'm like, Yes, yes, they do.

Alison Hemmings[32:18]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[32:18]
It is very true.

Vimala Pydi[32:19]
Yeah, I attest to that too. I have I have n number of examples where I do that and I have like twenty five years of experience. I've done masters in computer science. I've like so many credentials to back me up and data points, but I do see that always. So that's a great TR. Yes.

Alison Hemmings[32:34]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[32:35]
Yeah. I love it. Just take up a little more space, everybody. It's okay. You

Joanne Skiles[32:41]
can take some space from them. Don't let the man spread the room.

Alison Hemmings[32:41]
It's all good. No one's gonna get mad at you. Exactly.

Joanne Skiles[32:47]
All right, so we are going to get unplugged. This is a very quick, rapid fire. So I'm just gonna jump right into it and ask you first question. Best career advice you've ever received, besides your mother's, who probably gave you gold.

Alison Hemmings[33:00]
To treat your career like you're the CEO of it, like you're the boss you were in charge and just own it. Best career advice I ever had.

Joanne Skiles[33:08]
Perfect, yes. a moment in your career you do differently.

Alison Hemmings[33:11]
That's a really good question.

Alison Hemmings[33:12]
You know what? I had a very toxic boss many years ago when I worked in retail. I wish that I quit. I wish I

Joanne Skiles[33:19]
Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[33:19]
quit earlier. Like there was just so many signs in the beginning, and I kept them thinking that I could change her. And when you're in toxic environments, there's no changing people. The only thing that needs to change is you.

Alison Hemmings[33:30]
So I suffered in silence, thinking it was gonna change for a year, and it really affected my mental health. So if I could do it all over again, like the moment that she started saying the crazy stuff to me, I would have been on the job search. And now that's how I live. That's how now I know, right?

Joanne Skiles[33:46]
Yeah. No. Yeah is a good one. Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[33:49]
Morning routine structured or chaotic.

Alison Hemmings[33:51]
I'm I'm a type A kind of person, so I have a very structured morning. I gotta get out in the sun. So right now I'm in Colombia. I'm in Medellin, Colombia. So in the mornings, if I don't get up and get out in the sun and go for a walk, have and have a coffee, I am not a good I'm not good. So yes. So structured for sure.

Joanne Skiles[34:10]
All right. Alright. I like that.

Joanne Skiles[34:12]
last question. If you could coach one woman in history, who would it be?

Alison Hemmings[34:16]
my god. One woman in history. Okay, I I I don't know about history, but I have one person who I have known for three years who I know that if I was to coach them, they would end up being like the the president of the world. Like I I know I have a

Vimala Pydi[34:35]
Love it.

Alison Hemmings[34:36]
Yeah, it drives me crazy because I've known this person since I was a recruiter. Like they came to me as a recruiter and I've always seen their excellence and they never seem to move up in their in their ranks, even though they're super smart, super talented. And this person, I know exactly you can tell that I'm super passionate about this because and I thought about this for a while. I know exactly what they are doing to hold them back. Literally.

Alison Hemmings[35:02]
Like I'm like, if you went into just even one coaching session with me, I could just knock this nonsense that you're presenting to the world out. Like I can just see it in her. And she just she is committed to the struggle bus. She just is committed. She doesn't and I feel like a lot of people don't really understand the importance of coaching. Like any person that you know who is successful has a coach. Like you are we're not meant to be able to

Alison Hemmings[35:30]
to hustle or to struggle things out to finding the answer. Success leaves clues. Like there are people who are able to articulate or be able to see what you are doing.

Alison Hemmings[35:41]
Or what you are not doing and be able to change that so you can get results very quickly. It may take you five, six, seven years to figure it out and they can pinpoint at this in one or two sessions. And that person, my I don't want to say her name, but like every time I see her online or I reach out or she'll reach out to me for a question, she'll come to one of my and I'm just like, girl, if you knew, if you knew, but she's just committed to being on the struggle bus, I'm just convinced. But yeah, that

Joanne Skiles[36:08]
Yeah.

Alison Hemmings[36:09]
would be my person.

Alison Hemmings[36:10]
And if she's listening, I know I think she would even know who she is. But some people just n they're just like that. They just it's like they want it but they don't they're afraid. It's like a fear. Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[36:18]
Yeah. Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[36:21]
I get it. There's I remember being that way when I was a lot younger. I think there's a little bit of fear still in me. I'm not saying that I'm perfect or anything. I'm listening

Alison Hemmings[36:27]
Of course.

Joanne Skiles[36:28]
to it. I'm like, man, I need coaching on like the fractional tech leadership roles. So like I get it. I get it. So don't let the fear and I think that's a great closing note here is like don't let fear hold you back.

Alison Hemmings[36:41]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[36:42]
Yes, totally agree.

Joanne Skiles[36:42]
And and and and

Joanne Skiles[36:43]
don't don't stay on the struggle bus. Like is that a good place?

Alison Hemmings[36:46]
Exact it's not a good place. Like if you don't know,

Alison Hemmings[36:49]
then somebody else n needs to know. Like everything in life, like it's like I've always struggled I I use this example with my clients a lot. Like I struggle with my weight. Like I just this is just how it is. And it's like

Alison Hemmings[37:01]
There's so many different strategies. Obviously, you know, like you eat less, go to the gym, right? But all of those things, yeah, like it's it's easy to just say that's the answer, but there's so many other things that are tied to that, right? Your relationship with food, though your dependency with food, where you eat. extra some people feel exercise, they hate going to the gym. They feel really self-conscious in the gym. So that's that causes another anxiety or whatever. And then you can meet a coach who's like, Well, you don't need to go to the gym, you can just go for a

Alison Hemmings[37:31]
walk or like what if you change these couple of things and then you now you have structure and accountability and then the weight starts falling off. Like do you know what I mean? Like it

Joanne Skiles[37:40]
Yes, exactly. Exactly. And

Joanne Skiles[37:42]
that's the thing, is like it's a perfect example. We when things don't work when we're on a diet, we change stuff,

Alison Hemmings[37:49]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[37:49]
right? When and I I'll go back to diet analogy because I struggle with my weight a lot. So but we change things up. We do something different. We try to make things work. We you could stay committed to the struggle bus of your weight, but you're

Alison Hemmings[38:02]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[38:02]
never going to be happy then.

Alison Hemmings[38:04]
A hundred percent. Sometimes a problem is bigger than you.

Joanne Skiles[38:05]
So why stay on the struggle bus with your career, right?

Vimala Pydi[38:05]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[38:08]
Yes.

Alison Hemmings[38:09]
Exactly.

Joanne Skiles[38:10]
Thank you so much. This was an amazing talk. I think one thing is where can our listeners find you, follow you, join your community.

Alison Hemmings[38:19]
Yeah, well, I mean, certainly you can find me on LinkedIn. I live on that platform. so you follow me at on LinkedIn, Allison Hemings, the Glow Up Career Coach. I also do free, I call them career glow-up strategy calls. I mean I can't work with every single person, of course, but

Alison Hemmings[38:37]
You know, it's really geared to kind of feel to find out if working with me is going to be a fit. So we look at where you are, where you want to get to, and see what's holding me back and if I can help you in that process. And that's a complimentary call that I do. Other than that, you can find me on LinkedIn and send me direct messages and sign up for my my calls.

Joanne Skiles[38:58]
Wonderful.

Joanne Skiles[38:59]
That's that's that is great. I hope that someone here, if you're listening, this resonates with you. be sure to reach out to Allison. I think there are many of us that I actually, as we said, as most people do need a coach. I I've had informal coaches through my career. So it's not to say that I never relied on a coach either and it's invaluable. And so make sure to think about that and see how you can sell yourself because that is what.

Joanne Skiles[39:24]
Being out on the market is selling yourself.

Alison Hemmings[39:27]
A hundred percent.

Joanne Skiles[39:28]
So thank you everybody for listening. Please remember

Vimala Pydi[39:30]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[39:31]
to like this video if it's on YouTube or if you're on Spotify. I think there's a like on Spotify. so like, subscribe. and until next time, stay bold, stay curious, and stay unplugged.

Vimala Pydi[39:43]
Thank you everyone. Have a good one.

Alison Hemmings[39:44]
Thank you.