Career Glow Up: Betting on Yourself and Getting Off the Struggle Bus with Allison Hemmings
In this episode of Her Career Unplugged, Joanne and Vimala sit down with Allison Hemmings: the "career glow-up coach," founder of Newo Executive Solutions, and a former recruiter who sold her house, her car, and her comfort zone to build a coaching business from the beaches of Costa Rica (now Medellín, Colombia). Allison unpacks why she rebrands career coaching as a "glow up", because the traditional, one-job-for-twenty-years career is gone, and why the real problem her clients bring her often isn't the job itself, but a life with no boundaries around it. She breaks down her "career as real estate" framework for negotiating from strength instead of taking the first offer, shares the client story behind a $40,000 raise, and gets candid about the confidence gap that keeps qualified women stuck on what she calls the "struggle bus" while less-qualified men walk into interviews without a second thought.
Show Notes
- Allison's own glow-up: after losing both parents within a year, and her mother's last words to "live your life," she sold her house, car, and recruitment business in Canada and moved to Costa Rica, now living as a digital nomad in Medellín, Colombia.
- What "career glow-up" actually means: helping people move to the next level in a world where the traditional, one-job-for-twenty-years career path no longer exists.
- Why the problem clients bring her often isn't really their job; it's a life with no hobbies, no passions, and no boundaries outside of work.
- The comfort-zone trap: mid-career professionals get so settled that leaving feels impossible, even though company loyalty rarely runs both ways.
- A blunt reminder of how replaceable we are: as a recruiter, Allison once got a call from a hiring manager leaving a colleague's funeral, already asking to get the role backfilled.
- Why staying at one company for 10-15 years can actually work against a candidate; hiring managers may read it as resistance to change rather than loyalty.
- The "career as real estate" framework: just like staging a house before listing it, you have to prep your resume and LinkedIn, know your market comps, and negotiate strategically instead of accepting the first offer.
- "Lease your experience, don't just sell it to the highest bidder", treating a role as mutually beneficial for a defined stretch of time, and stepping into being the CEO of your own career.
- Why she couldn't have made the move to Costa Rica alone; you need a coach or outside support to push past the fear of leaving what's safe and familiar.
- A client story: a woman with a messy resume who didn't recognize her own VP-level impact; after reframing her accomplishments, she landed a $40,000 salary increase.
- The confidence gap: men rarely wait until they're fully "qualified" to claim a skill, while women routinely undersell what they've already proven; you don't need 100% of the credentials to own what you bring.
- Hard work doesn't get recognized on its own; "nobody's coming to save you," so you have to be your own advocate.
- An interview is the one place you're supposed to brag about yourself, and childhood conditioning to "be a good girl" and not show off makes that harder for many women.
- Rapid fire: best career advice is to treat your career like you're the CEO of it; the moment she'd do differently is leaving a toxic retail boss sooner; mornings are structured around sunlight and a walk; and the one person she'd want to coach is someone she's watched stay stuck for years out of fear.
- Her closing message: don't stay on the "struggle bus"; get a coach, change your approach, and give your career the same strategic prep you'd give a house before putting it on the market.
- Where to find her: LinkedIn (Allison Hemmings, the Glow Up Career Coach) and her free career glow-up strategy calls.