225 How to Find a Career you LOVE | Devon Turcotte

Jul 18

Say hello to this weeks guest, Devon Turcotte,

Owner, careerified | Career Advisor | Employment Transition Specialist | Workshop and Program Facilitator | Helping Gen Z and young Millennials develop meaningful careers

Tune into this weeks episode…

Today I’m chatting with Devon Turcotte, a Certified Career Strategist and the owner and founder of Careerified, a career exploration service.

Devon is doing really important work in our world, which involves helping GenZ to build intentional careers and to support mental health by helping them find their path.

Parents and adults often ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, as if it's something that can be decided just like that.

🤪 They might as well ask what the weather will be on July 1st next year!

How are you supposed to know what you want to do with the rest of your life when you're just a kid?

You haven't even lived one-third of your life yet! It's absurd to expect children to have their lives figured out already. The best they can do is give a tentative answer based on their current interests.

The pressure to decide on a career path at such a young age is unnecessary and unfair. Kids should be free to explore different options and figure out what they're passionate about without feeling like they have to make a decision that will shape the rest of their lives. That’s where Devon Turcotte, Founder of Careerified, comes in.

Devon and I chat about…

How building a business is similar to job searching and some of the things you can do to make it success
Connection between mental health and career development
Where passion fits in to finding a career (and whether you should chase it or let it grow from the good work you do)

Devon works with GenZ & younger Millennial categories to build confidence and self-efficacy, and to research career options and prepare for job transitions.

Here’s a sneak peak at my prep notes for the show…

Key Questions:

Why did you decide to launch your business after working at a college for many years
What were some of the first steps you took
How did you find your first client
Refined or codifying your method - how did you work on that
What’s working for promoting your business
Milestone
What’s something you’re currently problem solving for in reaching for the next level

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Episode Transcript:

You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey RAL. We're hanging out here today because one day, while hiking in Peru, after just having been let go from my dream job, it hit me. There's so much more to life and there's no excuse for not embracing uncertainty. And trying new things to really explore our full potential in this lifetime.
On this weekly podcast, you'll hear from successful entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and visionaries, just like you, so that you feel less alone as you pursue everything you want and deserve in this lifetime. This is a space where big sky thinking is welcome and conversations about daily betterment are essential.
So if you're ready, Stop living an ordinary life and start living a visionary life, then welcome home.
Hey visionaries. Welcome back to the show. I am taking a couple minutes to record this intro for an amazing episode today. And I actually found this time gifted to me because I have a lot of people who fill out the application on my website and then they can go in and. a complimentary 15 minute discovery call.
And I don't know if it's like the full moon right now. People are talking about how everything. Crazy and people are feeling off and weird business things are happening. And I don't know if they say don't make any big, bold moves around a full moon, who knows, but regardless, I just feel like people are off because I had a no show earlier this week.
And then right now I'm supposed to be on a discovery call with someone else and I texted them and followed up anyways. boring, mundane things that you probably don't care about. it does kind of bother me cuz I'm like you had reminder emails, like how can you possibly forget? But regardless I'll give anyone the benefit of the doubt, always because shit happens.
We know that. Um, and like I said, I don't know a lot about this full moon, but it seems to have. Really shook people up, shaking, shook. all right. You're probably like, why did I tune into this podcast? What is the visionary life podcast again? is this just where Kelsey tells us about her day and what's going right and wrong?
No, it's actually not. So anyways, let's get into today's episode. I think I'm in a bit of a giddy mood as. S Thursday afternoon. It's a beautiful day. Um, okay. Wow. Reset. So today I'm chatting with Devin Turcot and she is a certified career strategist. And Devin is the owner and founder of career of. Five, which is a career exploration service.
So Devin is doing very important work in our world, which involves helping gen Z to build intentional careers and to support mental health by helping them find their path. And she tells this incredible story about a newspaper article that she's. and it really paints a picture of the impact of Devin's work and why she does what she does.
And it's so funny, how something as simple as a newspaper article can really solidify the vision behind your business. So. You know, parents and adults, they often ask kids what they wanna be when they grow up. And it's something that we feel like the kids should just have an answer, but it's like, that's equivalent to asking them what's the weather gonna be next?
July 21st. And how are they supposed to know what they wanna do with the rest of their life? Maybe you guys felt that way. Like, I'm pretty sure. I used to say that I wanted to be a veterinarian. And then up until I was like 20 years old, I said I wanted to be a pilot. so random. Right? but kids should be free to explore different options and figure out what they're passionate about without feeling that pressure to make a decision that really does end up shaping the rest of their life.
And so this is where Devin Turco the founder of career five comes in. And in this episode, not only are we sharing strategies for, um, You know, finding the right coach and supporting kids on this journey, but I'm also digging into the, behind the scenes of Devin's business. So we chat a lot about how she decided to launch into this new career path, where passion fits into finding a career.
We talk about the connection between mental health and career development, and she shares a little bit about how she's been able to find clients, especially over the last two years during the pandemic. We kind of hit on it all in this episode, but I think more than anything, you're gonna love that Devin is bold.
She's well spoken, shares a lot of great wisdom. And of course we would love to hear what you think of the episode. So if you wanna tag careered on Instagram, tag me at Kelsey RAL, we love when you share a screenshot and it just means the world. So enjoy the episode and I will see you guys next week. Same time at same place.
Devin welcome to the visionary life podcast. You and I were connected through a LinkedIn post. So gotta love the power of social media in bringing, you know, two people who otherwise may never have met together. So really appreciate you being here and cannot wait to dive into your journey of launching careered.
So thanks again for joining. Well, thanks
for having me. I'm excited to
be her. So I recently read a LinkedIn post. Actually, you have tons of great content. So I'll say right off the bat for everybody to just go check out your LinkedIn, it'll be linked in the show notes. Uh, but you said that high school Devin could never have predicted that she would someday one be providing any kind of career guidance, two, be a business owner and three live in prince Edward county.
So those are obviously three things that you are doing right now, but I'm assuming. That hasn't always been the case. So can you kind of take us back to before you found entrepreneurship before you moved to prince Edward island, what were you up to in those, like, you know, earlier days of your
career? Um, I actually started my career in environmental consulting.
Mm-hmm I had done an undergrad in geography. I did a graduate certificate program in environmental manage. Those were still pretty new at the time was doing that route. And
the thought was, I, I think I'd like to go
this route. I was interested in some kind of work that would provide some protection to the environment and, you know, working with big companies to help them come up with strategies and whatever seemed like a great idea.
Mm-hmm and so that's what I did. I started working for a small firm in my hometown and. They were awesome, actually. Um, it's a great thing about small business, right? There's there's, there's always a bit of passion to it. There's you? Everybody's really engaged in the business. It was a really lovely place to have a sort of a first grown up job.
Um, but I hated the work so red flag. Yep. There it is. Outboard all day. Yeah. All day. Um, and honestly, because I wasn't enjoying it, I wasn't very good at it either. I mean, it's hard to do things that you don't like doing. Um, and so. Push myself through. I kept thinking, no, no, this is what I signed up for. I agreed this with myself.
This is what I was gonna do. Um, but ultimately it just didn't make any sense. So I went back to school for communications and the plan was to stay in the environmental field, but in more of a PR capacity. And what I ended up doing was taking a job with a nonprofit that promoted careers in the trades to students.
So for about five, six years, I worked for skills, Canada, Ontario. And I went into schools and delivered presentations to students in grades 12 to, uh, sorry, seven to 12. Yeah. Um, I organized events. I facilitated all kinds of events. I worked with teachers, I worked with parents and I started gathering all this information on how people view careers.
And especially from a very young age from skills, I moved into the community college system in Ontario. And at first I was in recruiting and then I moved into the career center and it was especially remarkable in the career center, talking to students, which in the college system you're graduating, usually you're 20, 21 years old.
And they reflected a lot of the same things back to me that I was hearing from 13 year olds, you know, seven, eight years previous. In their schools talking about trades and how you become a trades person and what an apprenticeship is versus university versus college. And it was so interesting that they really hadn't learned anything.
Even though now they'd gone through high school and they'd gone through post-secondary and they were still saying, well, I don't really know what I want. They came with now, this added layer of. I'm pretty sure I've screwed up my whole life because now I'm 21 and I did this thing and I spent this money.
Right. And you're sitting there thinking like, dude, you're 20 mm-hmm , you've got like so much time. There's so many things you can do. Like, this is the time of your life. You need to get out and play, have fun, like discover who you are, you know? And they're just, all they can see is I, I screwed up so bad and.
You know, at the time there were, we were starting to really see an escalation of mental health issues in the post-secondary system. And all of this to me was culminating into a place where I went, we need to start having better conversations with kids about careers. Like we need to stop asking them, what do you wanna be when you grow up?
Because there's just, that's such a hard question to answer. And especially now, as we hopefully are starting to come out of this pandemic, The options are almost limitless. Like we've seen so many different ways. People are making money online. They're having two and three and four side hustles in addition to their regular job.
Like it's amazing the way people are building their careers, it's totally different even than what we were doing five years ago. Mm-hmm so for me, the journey to entrepreneurship, that's really what spurred it was. We need to be doing better things for our kids because they're honestly struggling. At the worst end of it.
We, you hear, um, stories about suicides out of colleges and universities all across the country. And it's all stemming from this place of, oh my gosh, I made the wrong decision and it's costing me all this money. And I put all this time into it. There's nowhere to go from here. It's like, there are a million places to go from there, but nobody's telling them that somehow it's not getting through.
So that to me is really what kind of launched the journey into entrepre.
Oh, my gosh, this is such an important conversation. And I see it, you know, I'm in my thirties and a lot of my friends are at a point where they're very unhappy with their careers. They have regret of the path they've taken and they very much feel stuck and they feel like there is no way out.
And. I have this different mindset. I don't know what it is, but I'm like, no, the possibilities are endless, but I'm curious. So you're saying like kids at 21, they're having this remorse of, oh my God. I'm on the wrong path. I'm unhappy. And they, they don't even believe that they can make a change or find something that lights them up.
Why is that? Like, why do you think there's such a pandemic of people who are unhappy at such a young age feeling pigeonholed?
I think it's a mix of a lot of things. Um, from that career perspective, I. The way we have the conversations, you know, we start when kids are really young saying, oh, what do you wanna be when you grow up?
And I always say, you know, it's ridiculous. When you see back to school photos, like on everybody's Instagram and Facebook at the beginning of the school year and the kids holding up the little chalkboard, right. Is what I wanna be when I grow up. Yeah. And I'm like your kids in JK, what they know about careers is like what the dogs on paw patrol do exactly.
Like fire teacher. It's like, those are two, two out of a million careers.
Right. You know, why are we even putting that on them from Citigo and we think it's cute and that's fine. Yeah. But. Around grade six or seven kids start to seriously think, yes, what am I gonna do with my life? Right? Like they start to differentiate.
They start to, if they've been involved in different activities, that's about the age where they start to go, Hey, I'm either I'm better at this than other people, or I'm feel more skilled at this than right. They reach that age where it's like, I actually have some skill I'm actually developing. My sense of self and they really start seriously thinking about, what am I gonna do?
This is grade six and seven. They're not in grade 12. No, but grade 12 is when people start going. So what you gonna do after high school? And at that point, you know, if they've been thinking about it already for five or six years, and they haven't come up with an answer, they're panicking. Mm-hmm and they haven't, I, I think they don't have the experience and they don't have the language to be able to say, I don't know why, but I know I like X, Y, and Z, but I don't know what that looks like.
I don't know what that translates into for a career. You know, I like math. I don't wanna be an accountant. Yeah. But I don't know what that means. You know, mm-hmm and they just they're, they're not given kind of the, the structures. They need to be able to articulate that.
And your whole thing that I've, um, grabbed kind of from some of your content is that you want us to teach these kids to lead with their curiosity, um, and really follow that because if you follow your curiosity, the awesome career, probably a await.
So I'm assuming this is kind of like the catalyst when you had these realizations that we're kind of doing it all wrong by pigeonholing kids into. There's only a set number of careers. You need to decide when you're six years old and, you know, once you graduate university, you just follow that path. So I'm assuming this led you in to starting your own business.
So I guess, can you take us back to the moment when you decided I need to launch my own business and what ensued from there?
Um, okay. So first there was a news report. That's about five years old now, and it was a story about. The student reaction to four suicide deaths at one university in the span of about one semester.
And I remember seeing this news story. Yeah. And I've watched it quite a few times since then. Um, and that sent a shock waves through the post-secondary system of, oh my gosh. We're not supporting kids enough in mental health and all this kind of stuff. And I'm watching it thinking there was one quote in particular where the student said something to the effect of.
Counseling is great, but it's only gonna do so much if you expect me to get nineties and everything. Yeah. And that was the point where I went, who expects you to get nineties in everything who told you that you need to get nineties and it weighed a second here mm-hmm and that's it. And it was so interesting cuz in the whole news story that wasn't something anybody else picked up.
And so for me that was, that was the ultimate. Okay. This something needs to be done. And at the same time I was working in an environment that wasn't great. Um, wasn't super supportive. I always worked in really great teams with really great people, but the wider organization was having some challenges.
Yeah. And so I was looking for an out anyway, and for me it was, you know what, I'm not getting any younger. some of that let's be real. Yeah. If there's a time to do it, What better time than now. And for me, it was very much, um, I laid low for a long time. It was like the, the seed was there and I was thinking about it, but I started having conversations with my spouse about, okay, what do we wanna do about money?
How are we gonna handle this kind of situation? Um, starting to tuck things away for a rainy day and being ready for making that transition. Because I mean, I had no. Initially, I didn't know what it was gonna look like. Yeah. Um, and let's be fair. I still don't entirely know what it's gonna look like. I think that's the nature of being in a business.
Yep. Um, but just financially preparing was one of the first steps I started digging into of like, okay. Let's assume I'm not gonna make any money at all for five years. let's, let's go with that assumption. Mm-hmm and roll from there. Mm-hmm um, but yeah, it was very much a case for me of. I need to follow my values here.
I need to follow what is echoing in my head right now, because what I'm doing, isn't working for me professionally or personally, and also there's this need. Out there that isn't being met. Mm-hmm .
Yeah. And I love that you did it kind of responsibly too. And like, you didn't just like throw your arms up and say, I'm not happy at my current job.
I quit. I'll figure it out and like build the parachute on the way down. Like you, you did think it out and you thought like, okay, If I don't make a lot of money for the first couple years, maybe I should start saving and kind of like mitigating that risk, which I think, um, can help the transition become a little bit easier because it takes that desperate energy away from launching your business, cuz that always shines through.
So, um, so when you did kind of commit to, okay, I'm going to leave my job. I am going to start careered. What were some of the first steps that you remember taking to really bring this business to life?
One of the first things I did was connect with the small business center in my community. Um, the nice thing about working in the.
Postsecondary system into sort of the 2010s when the Trudo government came in, one of their promises was to put more funding into work, integrated learning in colleges and universities. And so a lot of schools took that money and they created, um, entrepreneurship centers for students. Ah, because it was a great way to be able to support students who wanted to get work experience, but like very specific to how they wanted to do it.
Or if they wanted to launch a business, it gave them a safety net. So I had done a lot of work. That entity as at the campus I worked at, which was amazing. Cuz then it was like, I knew about a lot of resources that I was so grateful to understand. So I knew there's a small business center somewhere in your community.
They're funded by business development in Canada. so yeah, I reached out to them first and said, you know, I'm launching this business. What do I need to know? What do you provide? How can I, you know, take, take advantage of the services you offer. And so I started going to, they offered free workshops on things like.
Do you need business insurance? Like, oh, do I need business insurance? Oh, okay. Yeah. I should probably know about that. You know, marketing, accounting. What do you need to know about keeping your books? What's um, what's, what's the base stuff you need to know for your next tax return. So you're not, you know, getting on the CRA's red flag list.
Yeah. Um, and that stuff was so invaluable because I, I knew little bits and pieces. The access was huge and it was all fully fi like I never had to pay for any resources, which was amazing. And you didn't
have any previous experience in entrepreneurship, right? So this was like, truly, like I'm going to learn as I go and like attend these workshops because I truly have no idea how to write the business plan or how to market myself.
Yeah. And like, I didn't even take entrepreneurship in high school. Nothing. Mm-hmm
nothing. So you're taking all these workshops. You're really starting to get him to momentum, like figure out like all the key assets that you need to get started. How do you find your first client? Because that is kind of a big milestone, right?
When you finally get everything out there and then somebody says, yes, I want to work with you. How did that happen in your world?
In my world and still true today, the majority of clients that I get come through, networking and referrals. Yep. Almost all of them. And it's so funny because when it comes to job search, I always say the most overlooked strategy is tell everybody, yes, tell everybody you're looking for a job.
And that is the thing that I find so many entrepreneurs do too. Is you just, I don't, I don't know if you feel. Kind of uncomfortable talking about it or, I mean, which is common at the beginning, I think when you haven't quite hit your stride or you haven't so totally figured out what your offering is or yeah.
Whatever, it can be intimidating to tell, well, I'm a coach, this is what I do. I, which I totally get. But yeah, that was, that was my strategy. Tell everybody so yeah, that was how I got clients and yeah, it's it still continues. Now I, as it's been challenging through the pandemic, for sure. Mm. But as much as possible.
in every situation presented to me. I tell people who I am and what I do, and, you know, talk a little bit about, especially that mental health thing, I find people are really like, wow, never saw it that way. You're right. You never saw it that way. Most people don't. So yeah. It's um, it's huge. Cuz people always go, oh, that is so huge.
Well, I'm gonna be on the lookout for that. You know, that's a really common thing I hear, but yeah, the, the networking is massive. It's a huge part of it.
Mm-hmm yeah. There's so much to crack open there because you're right. Like whether you're looking for a job or whether you're starting a business, something that so often gets overlooked is.
You're just like keeping it all to yourself. Like you don't even tell your friends and family, you launched a new business or you don't even tell your network that, Hey, I'm searching for work as a graphic designer or whatever, you know, industry you're looking to get into. So how are people supposed to rally around you and support you if this is like your little secret?
Right. So definitely sharing it is important. And then, like you said, By sharing it too. You also become more referable. Like if, if you tell me that you are looking for work as a graphic designer, or that you launched a graphic design business, maybe I don't need your services, or I don't know anyone hiring, but as soon as I'm in another conversation later that day, and somebody says.
You know what Kelsey, like, I'm at a point where I need to hire a graphic designer. I'm like, oh, I know just the person. And it's only because you got out, told people, let them know what you're up to. That you're now referable to other people's networks. So yeah, I think that's such a good point. Like the more people you can tell the better, and I don't know if it's that people are shy or they're just maybe.
Worried about judgment per se, but I think being able to communicate what you want or what you need, or what kind of support you're looking for is a skill that we are all kind of shy about, but that we should be doing more often.
absolutely. Yeah,
absolutely. Okay. So you find your first client through networking.
Um, can you tell us, first of all, a little bit about what types of clients you work with? Like, what is the big challenge that they come to you for at careered and what is like the typical outcome after somebody's able to work with you?
So my main client base is gen Zed. Uh, most people. Between 16 and 30 years old.
Okay. And so there's sort of a few distinct groups in there. So some of them are students either high school or postsecondary. Yep. Some of them are youth who have withdrawn from postsecondary or have been asked to withdraw from postsecondary. Yeah. Um, and then some of them are people who have graduated fine, but they've landed in their career.
Not quite the way they expected to. So the biggest thing people come to me with. I'm at a decision point and I don't know what to do with it. So for the high school kid, it may be, there are eight different things I wanna do. And I don't know which one to pick mm-hmm for the person who's maybe 28 it's I don't like this career and I really wanna change, but I have, I feel like my only option is to go get a master's degree or to go.
Back to school and I'm not sure I can afford to do that. So right. That transition tends to be a big, um, a big theme of people who come to me. Mm-hmm , mm-hmm afterwards. Mostly what I hear from clients or from their parents, depending on on their age. Yeah. Is that they feel a lot more confident in their ability to make decisions.
They feel a lot more comfortable with the pace of how things are going. Mm-hmm very often when it comes to this stuff, we feel really Fran. Um, and I mean, I do this as a business owner too, cause I have like 300 ideas of things I wanna do and yep. You can't do them all. Um, and you feel this. Panic of, but I need to, and it's, it's kind of, for me, a lot of it is just, just helping them to kind of take the stuff out of the big clump in the big ball and kind of lay it out in more ordered yeah.
Pieces on a table and be able to look at it objectively and then choose what makes sense to the next thing. And then keep those things for another time. Because you can come back to them and you may come back to them. Um, but yeah, I find the biggest thing is people are like, I feel so much better about my ability to make these decisions.
Yeah. And to do them effectively, because I know where to get good information. And I know what thought processes are most helpful to me. Mm-hmm
and I can imagine that a lot of your client situations are different and they're coming to you with. Different goals and outcomes that they're looking to achieve.
So how did you figure out like a system or a process? Like how did you know what type of package to put together for these clients right off the bat? Or did you just kind of get started working with people and then assemble some sort of logical roadmap of how a typical client would work with you?
It was a bit of a mix of both, um, coming into doing independently work that I used to do.
as part of an organization, I sort of had an idea of how I wanted to start mm-hmm um, and what needs are kind of usually the most common? So, uh, it's funny because, um, the most popular package people get from me is it's only four sessions of coaching, but it's very targeted, specific to career exploration, getting you to a place where you have.
A few different options and the tools you need to decide which option to do next. And it was intentional to be short and to be left open-ended mm-hmm and the first two sessions are almost identical for every single person. I talk to no matter where they are, when they come to me. So that to me is like, that's a no brainer yeah.
Of, you know, and it's always a conversation around interest values, hobbies, strengths, um, and then looking forward to. What kind of life do you see for yourself? You know, when you're no longer on this earth, what do you want people to remember about you? What sort of impact do you wanna have? Um, and now those conversations don't change at all.
Uh, and then from there, it's, after they've reached a point of, okay, we have a few ideas of careers. We have a little bit of information under our belt. We've done some labor market research. Then it's like the wild west. It can go in any different direction from there, depending on. What the person needs and what they're interested in.
So that's where it's continually a work in progress. Um, yeah, but those, those first two sessions are always like almost identical, which is kind of funny how that turns out. Cause it turns out we all worry about the same things when it comes to careers.
This episode is sponsored by the visionary method.
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Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's such an interesting exercise for anyone to go through no matter where you are in your journey, even if you're really happy with your career, if you don't know what the interests are, that you have the values that you do hold yourself to. Hobbies strength. It's really hard to imagine, like how you can continue to evolve and make sure you're staying in line with all of those things.
And I don't even remember doing anything like that in school. Like I remember distinctly taking one test in like grade 10 where you had to like click some boxes on a website. And it literally told me I should be a chimney sweep for my career. I'm like . And that was what it spit out as my best suited job.
And I was like a chimney sweep. Like I'm all for it. I love. And I think it said that because I said I wanted a job that was active and where I could like. Use my body and be physical, but at the same token, like to have it spit out that, and then me think that that is my only option. It's like, maybe it should have said no, you value a job that.
This type of lifestyle, this type of work hours, this type of interaction with humans versus saying like your option is a chimney sweep. So yeah, just really enjoy like your approach. Instead of telling me what I should do. It's like, no, let's explore, leave it open ended because you're probably gonna change jobs throughout your career, but at least, you know, it'll all intersect at your interest, values, strengths, and what your gifted at right.
Anyways. I just thought I'd share that story cuz like I'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever forget that.
that's fantastic. And the funny thing is, I mean, I use assessment tools like that, but I use at least three with each person. We don't just do one yeah, yeah, yeah. I use those three and then we bring it back to okay.
If you did this kind of work, how does that speak to. Your values or how can you find out more about what the work environment is like so that it suits the kind of work environment that you see yourself in? Mm. You know, it's like you, you, it needs to be massaged,
chippy sweep. That's amazing. yeah, that's a good one.
um, I'm curious. So, first of all, how long have you been running your business career? Five.
I opened in August, 2019. Okay. So it's
been about two and a half years or so. Is there a milestone that you've hit that in particular you are really proud of or something that really stands out to you as like, you know, this is something that I achieved that I should be celebrating.
Hmm. Honestly, the biggest milestone at this part is. It's still going. Yeah.
Mm-hmm,
the pandemic Reed. A lot of havoc on my business. Mm-hmm um, the whole career development field actually was pretty interesting right at the beginning when things closed and it was completely, nobody had any idea what was going on.
Right? How long is stuff gonna be closed? How many business will be closed? Who's gonna be able to reopen like nobody knew anything. And it was really funny because a lot of my colleagues in the field were like, is anybody else getting. Am I getting work right now? , you know, it was, nobody had any idea what was going on.
Um, in my own situation, my daughter at the time was seven and my spouse was working remotely, regular, full time. He's like an it guy. So really the only thing that changed about his work was the location that he actually worked in. And nothing else changed. So sort of by necessity, and obviously this happened to a lot of women in the pandemic.
Yes. I had to shut my doors. Yeah. Right. I got a seven year old. I can't just leave her on her own all the time. She can't do school on her own. Nope. Just doesn't happen. And it was a recurring theme. I mean, we just moved out here to PEI, uh, at the end of 2021. So she went through all of her grade three year.
In Ontario where they were on, on online school for good half of the year, you know, it was so I could not operate it more than a part-time basis because it was just, it wasn't just, she's fine with the school stuff, but she was starting to develop depression and anxiety. Like she can't just be left home all alone all the time.
And so, yeah, I mean, for me, the biggest milestone is that I'm still going. Yeah. And I'm still finding opportunities to. try new things and collaborate with people. Um, there's a lot going on with being in a new space. Yep. Um, and just having the opportunity to explore new things there mm-hmm but, um, I think that's the biggest one for me, because it's been.
A heck of a ride to be able to keep going in the last
couple of years. Yeah. Well, and kind of on that note too, like to get up every day and to even just work on your business for like one or two minutes, because you're in mom mode, you're in, you know, like we just moved and we're trying to rebuild our life.
Obviously something was keeping you motivated and some people call it like a vision or a why, or just like that north star. Um, I'm curious for you. What is your why in running your business? Like, why do you pour into this business? Even on the days when it would be easier to just step back and be like, that's it like, this is really hard work
for me.
It always comes back to that mental health piece. Yeah. You know, for me, it's, it's hearing the echoes of the students in the news story saying we're expected to get 90. We can all have our roommate. Who's our best friend from back home. We don't all have supportive families at home. Yeah. If it happened to that person, it can happen to me.
And I'm scared. Mm-hmm for me, that's it? Because it is so often obviously mental health is very complex. I'm not gonna say like, if you know your career stuff, you'll never have depression, but so much of it in my experience comes back to those questions of. What if I'm not, what if I don't pass this chemistry course, I'm never gonna get into the university I want, and I'm never gonna be successful if I don't get nineties in everything.
No one's ever gonna hire me. If I, and it's all total garbage, like none of that is true. And somehow we know this is adults, right? I mean, how many grownups do you know, wherever asked to show a transcript as part of a job interview. Right? We know this stuff, but somehow it's not translating to them. And so for me, it always comes back to.
Somebody needs. Do this more, this needs to be talked about more. And why should it be anybody else? Like I'm already talking about it. Mm-hmm so let's talk about it. Um, but that's oh yeah. That's it for me. That's
it for me. I love that. Like declaration of why should it be anyone else that is such a great mindset to have?
Or like if someone else can. Why not me. Why can't I be a leading voice, at least among all of my peers. So I think that's incredible and a very inspiring vision and something that obviously you feel very connected to, with a greater purpose beyond just you, um, and yourself, which is neat, uh, on that note too.
Because there's a lot of moms listening to this podcast, people who, you know, have also had their business or their life kind of turned over over the last two years in the pandemic. I'm curious to ask you, has there been any rituals or routines that you've been able to utilize even amongst a lot of change in your life that have kept you connected to your business?
Um, for me it was. No matter what. Um, and there were some days where it was more intelligent, but no matter what it was going through the morning routine of getting ready for the day, even if we weren't going anywhere.
Oh, can you expand on that a little bit more and why that was helpful?
Yeah, for sure. So especially all the times when, um, you know, online school was going on, things were closed.
Like there's literally no reason to leave the house. And I know plenty of people who. Spent the better part of two years in pajama pants. Like I think we all do, um, guilt
for, for me, there was
for me, there was a mindset piece of no you're gonna get up and have a shower and eat breakfast and get dressed and make your bed.
And you're gonna act like it's just like another Workday. And there was something in that that pushed at least my brain to say, this is about as normal as we're gonna get right now. It's about as business as usual as we're gonna be able to do. And so I hung onto that and that, that worked really well for me.
I mean, I don't think it's for everybody and I don't think everybody would agree with me on that, which is totally fine. Um, but for me that was a big one to go through the motions of it's a regular day, even if it's not, um, there's something, uh, I like the word they use ritual. There's something in a ritual to that, you know, mm-hmm, , there's something in saying.
this is the indicator of we're switching from day to night and night to day. We're switching from home to work, even if we're not actually going anywhere.
Hmm. Yeah, it's so true. One thing that I even started doing, uh, kind of at the start of the pandemic was just showering as like my transition point, cuz I would usually get up, go for a walk lays around in.
Tights or my pajama pants, drinking coffee, you know, whatever I was doing. But the moment I needed to get on my first zoom call, it was like, okay, you go shower, put on a fresh set of clothes, something a little nicer than what you've been bumming around in. And that to me was like the entry into my Workday.
So I think, yeah, just having those. Little micro rituals. Like you're describing can be so helpful and being like, Nope, I'm leaving home life here now, even though I'm just going to the other office or kitchen table or wherever you do your work from, but it's like a signifying point in your day that, you know, it's like, okay, the entrepreneur in me is turning on the business owner in me is turning on mm-hmm
Yeah. Do you have any big projects or things that you're working on? Like what's lighting you up right now. What's keeping you busy. What's coming up in your world in 2022.
Oh, uh, oh my gosh. So many things. um, the biggest thing right now, I'm working on developing relationships with people in various areas, but I want to bring more parents into career conversations.
Yeah. Gen Zed themselves report that their parents are the most influential people on their career decisions. Oh my gosh. Yes. They get left outta the conversation. And I definitely find that people will come to me, especially more in that group of people where they're, they've been working for a bit and they don't like it.
And their parents are very much, you know, just push through. It'll be fine. Especially if they've landed in a role where there's like there's a pension or there's benefits or whatever. And. A lot of parents are working with outdated information and they're trying to advise their kids. And the kids are like that doesn't resonate with me and their parents are feeling frustrated and there's really no way to include them in the conversation as it currently exists.
Right. Like we do career classes for high school kids, but where are the parents? , you know, I mean, school boards can't be. Teaching parents like they're, you know, they're, they're maxed out their resources, teaching kids, never mind trying to reach to their parents, but you can't leave them out of the conversation either.
So that's a big one for me right now is trying to find ways to have more of those conversations and, and help parents feel more confident in being career influencers for their kids and being able to give. Good quality information and have good conversations that way. That's a big one for me right now.
Mm that's so important. And so will you be gathering parents like in a room or online or creating stuff for them? Like how do you mm-hmm bring that to life. That's
the plan? Um, to do a little bit of all of those things , uh, partly dictated by COVID of course. Yeah. Um, and I mean, there's parents all across the country, so, uh, obviously there'll be geographic limitations to some things as well, but yeah.
Um, Yeah, hoping to offer more around, uh, at least workshops to start. Uh, I would, I have a very, uh, a little growing community of parents online that, you know, I'd love to see grow and have more engagement where they can talk to each other and say like, Hey, my kid feels like this mm-hmm and somebody else, you know, maybe on the other side of the country is saying, my kid feels like that too.
What is going on with these kids? You know, to have. Those sorts of connections be available, I think is really powerful.
Mm-hmm and just one last thing. So I, it feels like you're in a bit of a unique situation because your target market is the kid like the 20 year old, but you're actually speaking to the parents most oftentimes.
Is that true? And does that present a challenge at all?
Yes. And yes, it absolutely does. That's where, um, It's so funny, cuz people say to me, oh, you should, you should just be marketing right to the kids. Like you should be on TikTok marketing to the kids. And I'm like, which I can do. Absolutely. But for a lot of them, yeah.
It's their parents who are paying the bill. So they're the ones who really make you feel like it. But yeah, you need both parties on board, so it absolutely poses challenges. Um, and uh, that's been a bit of an ongoing theme. Yeah. But again, it comes down to networking and having those conversations with people to say, this is who I am.
This is what I do. And this is who I serve. Almost everybody. I know, knows somebody who has a teenager who is stuck and has no idea what to do. Right. And so it's, that's the best route I've gone so far. Um, as time goes, now that restrictions are getting a little bit more chill. Now, I think there's more opportunities to collaborate with, you know, hockey teams and dance schools and places where, you know, they're already engaging parents and youth at the same time.
Um, that really wasn't a possibility for a long, long time. So, yeah, that's starting to open up a bit more now, too, which is great.
Very very smart. Yeah. Well, we definitely wish you all of the best as you continue to grow this. I feel like this is a topic that is not talked about enough. There was certainly when I grew up not enough support around that question of like, what am I supposed to do with my life?
And it's really been for me, a journey of self discovery that I've had to learn the hard way by going into the complete wrong field after university. Feeling completely misaligned, but I feel grateful that I had something within me that told me, like, go follow this curiosity, go follow that curiosity.
And there was this whole convoluted path that eventually led me to where I was today, but I certainly could have benefited from someone like you really asking me the questions of like, who are you? What do you value? What lights you up so that I didn't. You know, make so many wrong turns, but again, it's all part of the journey.
So I really admire what you're doing and see so much value in it. And certainly would've loved to be introduced to you back in the day, but regardless, I hope this conversation inspires the parents listening or people who are at a crux in their career to reach out to you. So on that note, where can people find more about your services about you, all the places they should connect with you?
uh, well, as you mentioned, I'm on LinkedIn. Uh, so you can find me there. You can find careered at careered CA as well as on Instagram and Facebook.
Awesome. I will link all of those in our show notes. So definitely go reach out to Devin and thank you so much for being with us today on the podcast.
Thank you again for having me.
It was a great time.
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