 Hey there, good morning or good afternoon depending where you are welcome to this live conversation that I'm going to be having with Natasha Knight Natasha bravely volunteered So what we're what we're talking about today is that I wrote a book Hopefully you know that but I wrote a book calls I'll show you the career stories method and the first step in the book is to write out these index card stories and Sometimes when People first write out the stories and they have all these stories. That's kind of the easy part The part that that has a little bit of art to it that sometimes takes a couple of tries to get at is To then take all those stories that you collected through the process Which typically takes people seven to ten days and taking those stories and then trying to make sense of What is the common arc across all of these? So what I thought I'd show you today is just a demonstration of What of what that looks like? So we are that's what we're we're gonna talk about today So I'm gonna bring Natasha on she has collected a bunch of stories I'm gonna listen to them take some notes and then by the end of our conversation Which will be about a half hour. I'll help her or I'll kind of give a suggestion of what I think will be a great career And and then she can kind of we can talk it out together But yeah, so I'm gonna bring Natasha on so hey Natasha. Hi, Carrie. How are you? I'm I'm really excited To do this. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Yeah I think I think this is just a fun way for people for people to learn. So that's That's what I'm excited about Yeah So I think in terms of what I'm seeing here I'm just looking at I'm not getting the LinkedIn comments. I'm just getting the YouTube content comments right now But I will take questions at about The half-hour point. So if you're saying something on LinkedIn, I'll check my phone in about a half hour But we're just gonna we're just gonna talk So thanks for buying my book. No problem. It's my pleasure. Thank you for volunteering to do this This call with me. Thanks for writing all your stories. Do you do you want to just dig into them? Sure? Sure? Yeah, so what? So you did the method you came up with a bunch of stories what story you want to Share with me first of a moment of feeling great at work. I can start with story number one I think I may have like Subconsciously rank ordered these as I came up with them so we can start there. Yeah, beautiful. All right, you go I'm all yours. So Story number one is About what we used to call in a department where I worked at UNC Greensboro We would call it advising day and I was an assistant professor and we didn't have Well, although we had students that were assigned to us in the system Like the the enrollment system or whatever we had students that were assigned to us as advisees we would have what we would call advising day and What that basically was was we would have all of these all of our students for the entire department undergraduate students come and Someone would meet with them one-on-one Normally about 15 to 20 minutes per student and we would do this all day On a single day for the for the semester So there would be one day and in the spring semester and one day in the fall semester And we would just meet with them and hear what was going on hear their stories about the semester What classes were going well making sure that they were on track with Graduating on time for those especially who were seniors and for those who were Earlier in their undergraduate careers making sure that this was actually what they wanted to do because I think some people come into the Major of nutrition thinking that it's something different than it actually is so we would basically do a lot of listening and a lot of troubleshooting and a lot of degree planning with these students and none of us were Like it's not like I was trained to be an undergraduate student advisor But I loved it And it was very quick to catch on But I'm an introvert, but I love talking to these students all day for that one day each semester And it was like exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time Um, and it was a great way to get to know the students I didn't have some that would specifically request me And so that kind of was a signal to me that I was making a positive impression on those students Um, and that meant sometimes they were going to have to wait for like an hour because there were extra students in front of them already um, so that was a real I think um testament to me of how Fulfilling it is to work with students. Um, and how much I actually love to do it. Yeah Okay, um, was there so that's like a whole day. Was there a specific like a specific mall Like moment and yeah in the day like was there a Like a student that came like I wonder just the more specific we can be was there like A certain situation like I I could see how the people waiting an hour or two Sold out coach Would feel great, but is that was there? to remember one Yeah, I can think of a well This probably happened more than once but I can think of um a student um that I spoke with during advising day who had taken um My intro to nutrition class which was another story um that I I shared with you but they had taken my intro to nutrition course and um Coming from high school. They said they they were struggling in the course um And she just had no idea she she didn't realize that she was supposed to like read ahead of time She said in high school We would come to class learn and then we would go home. They would tell us what to go home and read Yeah, and I said well in college is the other way around We don't have time for you to catch up and learn everything in class We're really just giving you a high level overview and making sure you understand Um key points, but you really have to take some responsibility to learn the content. Um outside of class and um So she had that trouble during like her freshman year and a couple years later Um, she was a junior getting ready to go into her senior year enjoying advising day She said I remember you had that conversation with me And I was having such a tough time in that class and you gave me the information that I needed In that particular space to understand what I was doing wrong Um, and that really changed my entire course like how I studied and took, you know, responsibility for my classes Um, and I couldn't believe it like I you know, I just had that conversation with her I just kind of like It was like a five minute conversation after class one day And to know that it made that type of impact on her was Amazing a couple years later when I didn't even fully remember Um, I remembered her and I remembered the conversation But it's not like something that I think about all the time So that was one advising day story. That was a huge success. Yeah. Okay. I'm just taking notes Okay, I love that story. All right Um Story too, let's just do them and then I'll let you know what I see in them. Yeah, is that okay with you? Yeah, that's fine. That's fine um So my final MBA consulting project So a lot of folks who know me know that I just finished what I hope will be my last graduate degree um, I was working You can do it. You can you can stop taking them. I can stop So I just finished my MBA in december and part of that Degree program like to work to complete the degree you have to do a You have to do a uh, a final consulting project So I worked with the nonprofit here in richman and worked with them on their domestic violence Program and their emergency housing for domestic violence survivors um, I had to learn So much stuff for that project. I don't know anything about what I do now But at the time didn't know anything about real estate didn't know anything about domestic violence beyond what we see and um, you know, just uh pamphlets or Stories or what have you didn't know anything about programs for domestic violence violence housing um, and You know, it took a lot of work to Put together the proposal work with my advisor to do that and then you know with very little guidance complete the project um And the project overall the proposal was well received by my client Um, I do think that if I can think of one particular moment in that process it would have been the Um, not the very last presentation I gave but the presentation or the the conversation I had with them Um, after I sent them the final report um, that was Just amazing to hear them say this is exactly what we needed. This is far and beyond what we thought um, we would I think I I don't know that they were expecting that much from a graduate school project But so this is you know, this is exactly what we need and we're we can this is something that we can actually use And we anticipate being able to implement. I think that um For a project that I had absolutely no subject matter expertise that moment Of um being able to pull together like the culminating project or products rather being able to pull it all together And to hear them say that was um was huge. So I'm kidding. Yeah I love and in it like was it Um Because the praise is always great. We love the praise. Was it the gap like was it the gathering of it or the writing of it? It was the gathering of the information So being able to talk with stakeholders across uh, I live in the Richmond, Virginia area So being able to talk with stakeholders across this area about domestic violence and about housing for domestic violent survivors Um, learning what some of the challenges are I mean, you would think that If you're trying to do something that positive That there wouldn't be a whole lot of pushback, but there is you know, there's something that we call not in my backyard syndrome and learning about that and what some of the other organizations in the area have had to Tackle was really eye-opening. So I think it was the learning And then being able to actually pull it all together into something that was useful Um, okay. Yeah That's okay. I love it. I'm already seeing themes So, okay. Yeah for anyone who's just joined us Um, I'm with natasha who's sharing gorgeous Gorgeous like these are these are really beautiful stories. Um from like best days at work And then I'm listening to the stories and then trying to figure out if there's some some common themes So she can take all these experiences and go hey, this is my career brand. This is what I'm really great at So we're on to the story story three um, okay, so the next story is um coordinating as student led journal article um, so I'm in public health and as a researcher one of the things that we Need to do as early and as often as possible Especially if you're in academia, which I'm not anymore, but I'm still sort of tied to that space Is to publish journal published manuscripts in journals So you create it you send it off someone critiques it sends it back to you at least once for you to for you to um Make edits and then hopefully after a couple of rounds of edits They say this is wonderful. We would like to publish it in our journal So the first time that I had an opportunity to do that was in um When I was in my first master's degree when I was working on my masters in public health one of my instructors said hey, I really think you should Um think about writing a paper about uh your experience in this community-based course It was the first course that the school or that the program Actually held in the community um and with community members in mind To the degree that we did for this particular um semester so um I thought about it and I said well, I guess that means she sees something in my Engagement in class. That's what I was gonna say Like that's incredible that you were selected incredible. Um, she she was very instrumental I think in making a couple of decisions in my me making a couple of career decisions So I hold her in very high regard and so I said that meant that she sees something in my engagement in course She's in the course. She sees something in my writing So I'm gonna take a stab at it because I knew I wanted to go Get my phd after and that would help um to have that type of thing on my resume um so We announced the project a few other students signed up and I was sort of the what we call the lead author So I was the person most responsible for making sure that everything got done basically And filling in on the writing if someone else couldn't Couldn't do it So that meant that you know organizing our meetings Setting up the schedule for writing and assigning the sections making sure we actually submitted it to the journal being the corresponding author with the journal And making sure that they had everything that they needed in response to their Questions and their comments on our on our paper So we after I think maybe two rounds of revisions where it was finally accepted um and so it was um amazing like I remember like sitting in the cafeteria at my new school when the email came through and I was elated And again, that's the that's the prize that you were talking about before But for this story, I can't think of like one specific moment It was just that entire process because Again, we learned so much about like how does this work? um, and then being able to Share the stories of my classmates was important because we had to collect um interview data from them or survey data from them rather and then interview data from Some of the department leaders. So it was just the it was just the whole thing I can't pinpoint one specific thing in that process that was like wow um But it was fascinating and it was my first paper and then Like nobody can ever take that away from me because it's it's out there now Carrie, I can't hear you hold on No What happened going? Okay, so um the next story was the mentoring breakfast um story that I sent you several years ago I was the co-chair for the mentoring and professional development committee for a national organization that was really focused on improving the health of african-americans and um at some point we determined that Or we learned rather that our members wanted more hands-on mentorship from some folks who are more experienced in their careers So we had to come up with a way to actually Provide what they were looking for Because we knew that we didn't have a whole lot of time to plan something For the annual meeting and we knew that at the meeting We wouldn't have a whole lot of time to actually execute something because we were going to end up Having a really tight schedule as it was So we came up with the idea to have a mentoring round table Where instead of the one-on-one speed mentoring We would have groups of students and early career professionals seated at tables together And then the mentors would actually be the ones to rotate instead of the the mentees That day Well leading up to that day We had tons of stuff to do reaching out to mentors confirming them creating the schedule making sure that We actually had a place to hold the event And at the time what we could afford was like coffee and some and some bagels and that was it But we were able to pull this off with Without charging our mentees anything And our mentors were all willing to do it for free. So we gave them Great certificates and let us have appreciation for their you know for them to go back and share with their employers And then the big day Of the actual event We had a sold-out event like we for our first event ever it was completely sold out and um We It went off without a hitch like we had a waiting list We had people waiting in the hallway to get into this event And it happened that way for a few years later. Um, you know, I think that like the moment was that day like having um Just that like that hour and a half that we had it felt like It was going on forever and then it felt like it was over in like a second at the same time. Um We were able to help so many people and that one's like almost 80 people We were able to help and make sure that they were connected to somebody who could provide guidance for them um for their careers, so Even now some colleagues that I I met there we we reminisce on that event. It's it was it was it was fabulous And the second story with a lineup Yeah Lighting up for something that you coordinated. Oh Made that connection, but yeah, you're right. You're right We're like into In demand of like, okay. Um That's that's gorgeous. Uh Next one for and I'll just say for people who are just popping in and being like Why is the traffic talking so much? Um, she's sharing stories that she wrote Um Kind of using prompts from my from my book and I'm listening to the stories and trying to figure out What is the common theme between all these incredible stories that she's telling? Um, all right ready story number five. I think on five. Yeah. Yeah, go for it. So this is about, um, a national, um Healthcare initiative that I helped to launch am I one of my previous positions? Um, so We when I joined the organization, I think we were supposed to launch this thing several months out And then all of a sudden one day we get a call from Somebody's leader's leader And they're like, we need this out right away. So we basically had to get it out in less than a week Um, but thankfully one of my earliest task was actually to work on creating an implementation plan and protocol for the initiative So we had already done and then the team before I even arrived I completely want to give them credit because they you know initially came up with the idea and um Had already made a whole lot of plans around it and so I just sort of came in and said well Here's how we can uh based on the evidence what we can put together for implementation um, so I had to finish that in just a few days and work with my team members to create a rollout Presentation for the our partners across the country who are going to be actually implementing the initiative um Working with our communications team to develop language for a press release, which is not the same as writing like A scientific journal abstract. So that was fun to learn a different type of um of writing um And then you know just collaborating with the team to make sure that we had all as much of it as we possibly could have In a one space to uh get it rolled out without Like ruffling any feather ruffling any feathers simply because it was something that was new And people already had plans in place and we knew that this was going to be a heavy lift for some folks So we executed as well as we could there were some bumps along the way um, but I remember talking to um One of my grantees who I don't know if they I don't know if they were fully confident that everything was going to work out Um in the beginning but in the end it did like in in places like texas and california They can have these events and reach thousands of people at one time Which is like in my little town you can see behind me. There's like trees I can't even imagine but you know, they were able to pull off these wonderful events like where they were reaching people in Testing knowledge and helping people get connected to screening for um this particular health condition and It was amazing like the entire process was amazing, but I think hearing those stories from My grantees that they were able to pick this up and run with it and actually Get it done under You know Still having to do all the other things that they were initially planning to do But they were still able to get this done too. That was that was huge. So it was a big big effort of let's help some people who really need um Who really need help and who are most vulnerable to to chronic disease? Yeah You do um You do really meaningful life changing work Yeah, that's one of my values is to do meaningful work and make a difference Yeah, like in every every um The story i'm seeing like i'm like oh, I can tell what's important to you That's absolutely important. Yeah So let's do one more so that we can get into kind of making sense. So of the stories that you have left what Which one makes your heart sing the most? Well, we already did one about my teaching. So I'll do the last one. I sent you which was the super late focus group Okay So I was living in the dc area at the time and I think I had to go to a town called Frederick and if anyone Knows anything about the dc area like going out on 270 to Frederick at six o'clock is a nightmare But it was my first time doing it and I had no clue and it was raining So I was supposed to get there at 5 30 and I think I probably got there around seven like it was that bad Oh So I was going out there to do a focus group with an organization that served families who were Um at the time we called people, you know families in that situation Homeless now we may call them unhoused, but at any rate they were in um pretty serious, you know states of being um in terms of not having consistent and You know safe housing so Um, I was supposed to go out there to do this focus group with them to learn what they were pleased with with the organization that they were being served by And what they were facing that the organization had not yet been able to address Um, and I put this in the story because I think it's pretty significant I was a young black woman in a room with Middle-aged mostly white men and women And in that space they waited for me first of all like no one left No one was angry when I got there. They were all completely understanding of the traffic and the rain Um, and they you know, they they nobody rushed the conversation We had the full hour or so focus group And they were very transparent and easy going and willing to share their stories in a way that I think Had I known what the what the demographics were going to be of the group I may have gone in feeling a lot more nervous than I did um But they made me feel at ease And they were completely um, you know open to telling their stories and I just I could not believe it So I took a lot of care in writing up that focus group report and reporting back to the organization What um their clients needed um and what they were doing well And how they were able to help their clients make some pretty significant advances and getting their situations to be a lot better than they were um, I had just I you know, it was eye-opening for me because I Relative to what those folks were going through was living a pretty privileged life And that never had my housing stability threatened So I was humbled by their um that 90 minutes of being there the hour to 90 minutes of being there Humble by their willingness to talk to me willingness to share things that were very personal Um, and I took that responsibility of you know, sharing their stories very seriously Well, that's a beautiful story. I don't know if you see the comments I don't I don't Hi, I love I love it. It's um So when you did the cards Did you come did you come up with like did you compare the stories and did you come up with the skills that you? Saw in them and what did you what did you come up with? So the three that I came up with were compassion teamwork and planning Those were the three that I came up with Okay, I'm I'm laughing not in the I'm laughing because you chose these like Teamwork and planning are just so overused And I don't feel like they give you they don't give the credit for The and even the compassion like for the kind of teamwork Mm-hmm that you that you do and the kind of planning like you do plan. I think um I'm gonna go into advice mode now Okay, when you're when you're talking I think when you're talking about the planning is that you don't just like Plack like you plan and you make it happen and you also make sure that everyone feels included Even the even you know the voices and people who maybe never get their voices captured You they are in those plans in those documents And it feels like in a lot of the stories that you're telling their voice or the perspective Wasn't taking into account before and that is Super like that is like um, you know, I haven't done all A lot of community development work, but that's rule number one, right? Yeah, we don't fly into communities and become the voice for them We allow them we help to go bring their voice back and go can we make some smart decisions? And I think that you're really great at that. Okay I would say maybe for me the words that I used and maybe this is for anyone watching is is when When you're writing down those skills of trying to put it into words that are unique to you And that no one else is using because compassion and teamwork and planning Anyone could say that like I'm great. I'm super compassionate. I'm great at working with others You know I'm planning cool things So think of other words For what compassion might mean for you And maybe what teamwork or describe it in a way like one of my super skills is problem solving But I can't say problem solving because right as everybody says problem solving So what what I say is I love to solve problems like in the muck with people alongside them Oh, I like that so people go. Oh She's not she likes to You know, I like to sit beside you way up put my camera around you And we're going this not be like Let me tell you what you're good at because of my quiz, right? well So the words I have what I like what I thought the themes that I'm seeing um I might add a fourth one actually but one is capturing the voices and the concerns of others Often when those voices aren't heard or shared And I feel like you're doing it In a really respectful compassionate way, but I think you're you're a master At that. Oh, thank you Right, you capture the voices of those students who came to see you like one to one and giving like them advice You did it Oh, yeah, you capture even for that conference for the mentees for like that for that day you did it in the last story um Yeah, like that's Gorgeous, you do that Number two, she's got a Tractor that's like leaving so I'm trying to do everything Do you know? No, no, no, he's done and I can just like you may see me walking around But I'm listening because it's really cold outside. Yeah, cool um second um, I put delegating or giving order Or maybe it's providing to to things because a lot of your stories are about um, something needs to be done and you You make it happen, right like you Um, and I feel like you make it happen very last minute, right um, but I think this like Yeah, pulling the resource like I put resourcefulness um Pulling things together you use the word pulled together. I think like six times. Oh wow So that's a word that you could use because if you're If you're telling the story and using the words like oh, I pulled it all together. I got everyone Hold it all together You're naturally going to say it So why can't you just be like somebody who captures the voices? Helps to capture and share the voices of other people or voice right and then like no not give voice that sounds awful um But and then pulls it together because you you use that and then the the third the third thing I'm seeing is just this resourcefulness and And it's it it can be on like the little level of you talking to that student and her not knowing to read the book in advance right and and Having that and maybe like so I feel like that resourcefulness, but also the like the eye of the eye for detail of what to look for Because you heard that and you didn't say like Oh And then not call it but you went, you know Here's here's what you can do about it and I feel like that's what you were doing with the other organizations so when you were like probably when you were doing your um That uh paper when you like um What was the other one? So I'm looking all my cards are all over the place. Okay um when you um When you were Aware of what that group needed and that the the old way like that they needed that the the tables and they didn't need Yeah, like all of that I think is based like that you're just you can Well, it's a pulling together again So you're really good at like like pulling together and giving order to projects with pulling over the resources that people need In order to amplify the voices I like that word amplify And the fourth one that I see is that you are able to create Create programs or offerings or events or spaces whatever word you want to use like you can focus in um That people really want So if you ever want to sell a course like if I wanted to sell a class I would want you on my team Because I bet you I could say hey, you know, no one's buying my course What am I missing that like that they need you would probably be incredible at going Oh, I'll talk to the people and figure out what they need I'll figure out what they need and then I'll pull it all together and share it for you like I feel like you Um, and all of that's probably like great great listening How do any of those Feel for you. Do you think I'm off? No, I don't I just never I I never thought to I had a mentor who used to say you should you know engage in graceful self-promotion I don't think I learned how to do that until just this moment Oh, that's all the the graceful self-promotion language. I've been looking for for Like 10 years now. So this is Yeah, all of it sounds really um Really spot-on and it also aligns with exactly what's in my Like my top five to ten strengths. So it all makes sense. Yeah beautiful, I love it. So in a in a statement and like Like so when you're at this point in the process, you don't have to take these skills and like make it your headline or advertise them Right now it can be for you and then you can think of How to creatively do it, but I feel like this the statement might be something like Like I am the most I'm the most useful When I am pulling together Um, like I think information lived experience um of people And then putting it into a plan Mm-hmm. I I create things in response to need Yeah, that's exactly right That's exactly if I have to Create something just from like just because Yeah, like that to me is really difficult But if I have I guess it goes back to needing to also feel like I'm making a difference Right and doing meaningful work, but it is exactly that it is creating things in response to Someone else's need most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I would like I don't know what you're doing You know career wise now But I would go Like the way you want to use this is you want to make sure that any job that you applied for any project that you started Anything you got involved in Allowed you to do these four things most of the time Yeah, right so allowed you to work with people that allowed you to pull together resources and make things happen Yep, right and that if you're able to do that most of the time You're gonna like your career. Well, it sounds like your career This kind of feels like a very easy one because your career is pretty incredible so far. Well, thank you It's been a very windy road, but it's been a good one. Yeah, and um, yeah social science and community development Um, that's not easy. That's not easy work. It's not that's not easy Yeah, and it attracts all the helper types um, yeah, so That's what I have like that's what I what I have so things to do with this Write it on a sticky note You know, but that's sticky note like behind your computer. So every time you're writing or connecting you remember What's good about it? Um I've even like written it out as lines on the paper in a journal Sent it out loud like to myself in the mirror so that I remember just to ground yourself in Hey, the things that I'm really super at is pulling all these things together Making it happen I create what people want. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I will do that. I will absolutely do that Um and write it in my journal. Yeah, and on my sticky notes that I have all over the place Yeah, because it just takes you out of the um labeling yourself as like whatever title or and a lot of people from academia will also um Just name their degrees, right? You're so much more It's some it's such a big part of our identity, especially when we're going through the process of like when you you know The graduate degrees of phd in particular It when you finish you have to sometimes refind yourself because that is your identity for four or five years at least So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Sweet Um, so I'll let you go because you I don't know what your fixer person was doing That office doors and solved finally so yes, I'm so excited So I'm gonna go check on my office doors and I'm gonna tune in later to look at the q&a, but thank you so much Kerry, this was fabulous. This is fun. Uh, thank you so much. Yeah for being in the rest of your story. No problem I muted myself um, so I'm here just for another Boy, I'm just like how long am I here for another like five minutes or so? But if uh, you have a question about what we were doing there Uh, any questions about the books or using stories in your careers? It'll let me know um, once one question that often comes up is that people see um This first part of their story and they're just like well, where do I use this story on my resume or where do I use this in an interview? and that's really Like 10 steps away. So some of the stories that natasha shared She might be able to use on her resume and her linkedin the other Use for those stories is she actually used the stories to help her figure out What she's awesome at so sometimes those beginner stories. We don't use them to market ourselves at all They just help us to confirm the story that we're telling ourselves, right? um Cool, so um, I'm seeing a question here and I will um Answer it How do we compile the essence of all the stories together into one brand statement? It just seems complicated to do. Yeah, so As she was writing though like as she was telling me the stories what I was doing and how you would do it yourself is that So as she shared a story, so I'm going to find my example card So as she shared a story um I I wrote out The skill or strength that she was using in each of those stories so I just wrote down a couple of words of kind of the essence of The skill of strength and for each story she did that and then as she told a story And the same skill came up. I just put a check mark beside it When you're doing it yourself You have your story on the front of the card On the back of the card you write all the skills and strengths And then you look at all the skills and strengths together and like maybe get a highlighter But circle the what like yeah circle the ones that keep popping up So if they're showing up in seven of your stories one same skill It's probably a skill that you need to Highlight or work with or let it be the foundation for your work um If it's a skill that maybe pops up once It's a good to have it's a bonus Might be a strategic advantage But if it's not coming up in all your happiest work moments You probably don't want it and usually it's three or four So for for her I just kept hearing the story of helping people Being this great listener Pull she was saying it like pulling things together giving voice, right? So Yeah that Because I kept hearing it. I was like, I think it's this right Uh, Paula is asking what about if you're in the middle of an imposter symptom crisis And you cannot find the stories that make you feel good hoy, yeah, so Uh, it's funny. I was on a podcast I don't know like two weeks ago And a person asked me like or we were talking of this method and they're like well if you do this method You don't have imposter syndrome because you can see what you're good at and I was like, yeah, so If you're in the middle, I think maybe like absolutely my method Assumes that you know how to get in touch with those moments If you don't uh, if you have the book, I would skip to step two and do some of those. I love myself Meditations that wouldn't be great. A meta practice would be great. Um Yeah, and I think sometimes another, um Common thing that happens is that some people Think that the stories that they write down need to be huge like they need to be um About winning the award or about or bigger than they need and what you're just trying to be like when When might I have smiled at work even in a completely toxic job? Was there something like can you think of something? That actually felt okay or good? um, and if you're still stuck I don't know if you have the book, but I have um Like I don't know 40 30 or 40 prompts at the back and a lot of times when people are really stuck just um Reading a prompt is easier, right? So coming up from examples then and that just gets them starting and once you can um have one or two Of the prompts work usually when you come for three after day three You'll be able to find a like a story that feels good without without needing the prompts um, you know, but a prompt is just like You know, when did you do something that made it? Made it easy for people to feel comfortable asking you questions or Sorry Like right about a time you improved a process So sometimes the prompts can help you if the prompt of Work that makes your heart sing is not within reach right now, and it's not in within reach for a lot of people Yeah, so don't don't extra beat yourself about up about that um And then kirsten is asking what if we can't identify the skills or strength, especially not into such Nice and unique wording that you did with Natasha. Yeah so um again like in the book I have a list of um Like I have a list of of common skills that come up. Oh, no, I don't I have values I'm lying to you. Sorry Oh, no, I do. So I have common career skills here um So see see if any of those words work The other is that as your um, you can do what I just did with her so instead of Writing out the story or after you write them out speak them out And see if you naturally and don't read off the card But just share the story and see if there's words that keep You keep saying and if you keep describing Describing it as as something, but you know, you mean another skill um So i'm not describing it right um So if you at the back of the card are calling it problem solving But you notice when you speak it that you're that you're saying oh, I help I help people sort things out then you want to use those words help people sort things out You I usually lean to the more casualness of it Um to something that's already within within your your lexicon of words and language that you already use Um because it's going to mean more to you And when you're selling it later, you'll be able to pull those words in um The other thing is that's like sometimes you need outside help so It's easy for me like my super skill is My super skill is just that is being able to listen to stories and go And make order out of it is something that i'm that i'm good at So it might be getting some feedback So see if there's a friend that you have that you could both do it together and then go How in casual language? Or not using any of the buzzwords might you describe my skills and see if that um if they can help you? Yeah, um And then David is asking how about if you feel confident enough could you ask others whom you trust for stories? No No, don't do that. Okay. Uh, so here I would not ask There's that career advice of um You should ask people other people which are good at I wouldn't The question to ask though is um question to ask is Do you remember a time when we are working together that I seemed really happy and what was I doing? Do you remember a time when you were working with me and you looked over and you saw me and thought whoa She's really in the flow What was I doing so you can ask that? I wouldn't ask other people what you're good at because they typically Only see like they only kind of see what you're good at In terms of how it helps them or what they've seen But you want to see if they've witnessed you in the flow and you haven't noticed those are really great I think so I just see so many people they don't want to do the work of the stories And so they ask other people. Hey, what am I good at? and And then they get this long list and then I see people creating career brands based on that But none of the words are really true to them. And so it doesn't really have I don't have any meaning to it. Right. It doesn't make them delighted to You know to share it Okay The question is what if the person never got a chance to show their awesome at work What if their super skills were never utilized because sometimes that happens in very conservative workplaces so absolutely Yeah, so a lot of people don't get to Show their awesome at work. So the places I think there's kind of two places that you can look so one again is work But in those micro moments, so You know, was there a moment at work? Maybe everyone was grumbling about having to stay late um And your boss really, you know pissed you off And everyone was kind of grumbling and then you did something that changed the mood or um, you know You instigate like see if there's If there's a moment even in the grumbles that you did something that you're proud of in these stories No one else has to have seen it right. So if if you felt it and if you had a taste of it and it felt good Um, it doesn't matter that no one else saw because these are just your foundation stories the other place to look is sometimes um from school or outside like extracurricular or um Yeah, like other side projects. So I've had clients who didn't love their day jobs But we're on like a community center board or help to organize You know a soccer team and they're really proud of you know doing the research and doing the drills and and meeting with the parents So sometimes it can come from other from other places. Yeah um Yeah, great question So question is how could we do this with people who don't have lots of work experience such as new graduates or high schoolers Yeah, so same Same thing like my my daughter Is 18 my oldest daughter is 18 um And has not been an excellent student Never joined a club And this still worked for her Because when we talk about moments when she felt felt joy, there's still moments, right? And they didn't always work out So for her she was like Oh, yeah, there was a day that her regular theater teacher was sick and they had a sub and um and the sub came And said she got to direct a scene for that day something that she never got a chance to do And she really loved Giving direction like that day was the highlight of her day, right? Was like giving that direction The other thing that she was really great at is like whenever her friends were crying or upset is that she would be the person who would You know come go to the washroom and comfort them, right? So immediately I can go well jewels. You're really super at Like directing people, right? You're good at at she's good at the same thing. I'm good at but Being able to see where the scene needs to go and get people there And you can also meet people in the moment And so you I'm like you want to study something that allows you That aren't like that respects that and you want to use that You know when you when you're talking about, you know, letting a job you want to talk about those stories, right about creating order Seeing a vision making it happen Yeah, so sometimes they might find it you might with a student say When you were assigned a project in school What role did you naturally take on in the group? Did you delegate things? Did you? um You know check up on people Were you the person who was the procrastinator? But you came up with a good idea at the end or the group never knew were you the like Pizzazz in the presentation So see if they can find even like little micro moments of when they felt alive might work um So yeah, David saying after this I'm really understanding how a person working through exercises versus self-esteem for that alone yeah, because um it can it can for I think what happens is that in Regular career coaching the first question you get asked is What are you proud of accomplishing? and if you and it makes the assumption that you've Accomplished something and what if you haven't or what if you're not proud of accomplishing it? Then you immediately feel like defeated and how are you going to sell yourself? But instead think about moments when you felt good and it might might not come from a good place. I worked with client a couple years ago. So boy He'd just graduated. He'd never had a job. His mom was like he needs to get a job And the only thing he was really great at was video games. And so even there I said I was like, so when you're playing a video game What have you organized? What did you do? And he talked about you know getting all these people from all over the world together on a mission to get I don't know something from a dragon and And so he was talking about how he he loved bringing all these people together and the scheduling and sending out the emails So that was that just helped him to know that he actually had those skills, right? And maybe he'd never used it professionally, but he but he had that so I think um Yeah, getting everyone on the same page and that he had that Was big and I think he ended up going into I feel like he went into marketing or something, but Yeah, so it can come from from those experiences too. Yeah Cool. I think that's good. I think that's time. Um, thanks for checking out this live It's been nice to talk at you. I really loved talking with Natasha and hearing all her gorgeous stories um Yeah, my tips are if you've written out the seven stories um If you've written them out and you're trying to figure them out either Look from dig in deeper to the story to find the micro moment. So the way I would say to Natasha, you know How what did I ask her? It's like, what's the specific moment? So see if you can get even deeper to find that like specific moment um Do it with a friend because you can share stories and maybe they'll see each other. Um, like I have a career stories I don't know a career stories club where we're all sharing stories and then we tell each other what we see in it. Um So, you know, either find either like join a group that's already doing it or make your own group and see if you can You can help each other out. Um Yeah, that's all so thanks so much for joining me. Have a great afternoon. Okay. Talk to you later. Bye