Navigating Career Transitions While Keeping Joy at the Forefront

Work, work, work, work, work! It’s the first thing people ask  about when we meet them to describe ourselves - - but does it need to be the biggest part of our identity? In today's show, Emily talks about what that might mean for us if we decide to make shifts or transitions in our careers! Maybe you're like her, and you think of yourself as multi passionate... seeking diversity in the work that you do! Maybe you've made transitions in your work to accommodate other circumstances in your life! Listen in as we welcome Mady Smith to the mic (an expert in career and academic advising) to have a chat about the shifts we may see in our career trajectories, the reasons behind those transitions, and what we can do to keep joy in the forefront of our work lives! Be sure to share this episode with a friend who could benefit!

Time Stamps:
0:54 - Intro
2:47 - Introducing Mady Smith
7:17 - The shifts Mady's career has taken and how it led her to birth her comapny
11:08 - How Mady overcame her hesitations to shift careers as a young Mom
14:50 - Why are we so hesitant to make a career shift?
18:00 - The average amount of career paths in this day and age
20:30 - The idea of being multi passionate - Emily's career transitions based off of desires and circumstances
24:30 - All of your skills and interests don't need to be part of one career
32:00 - Shifting career identities once we become parents & tips from Mady for anyone who may be wondering where to start with a career transition
38:52 - Services that Mady offers through her business Future in Focus
41:18 - Recap and Emily's fave parts of the discussion
43:02 - Disclaimer

How to Connect with Mady Smith:
Click here to access her website 
Find her on IG @futureinfocuscc

Connect with Emily:

On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/

For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com

The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers

*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.

Transcript

Work, work, work, work, work, it's the first thing we get asked about,
about ourselves when we meet someone new. What do you do? But does it need to be
the biggest part of our identity? What does that mean for us if we make a career
transition or a shift or multiple? This October, after having been off of teaching
for six years, I've returned to the world of education as an occasional supply
teacher. It's a transition and a shift that's allowing me to still be a present
mom, a podcast host, a business owner, and a human who's just multi -passionate.
Today's episode brings on an expert in career and academic advising, and we chat all
about the shifts we may see in our career trajectories, the reasons behind those
transitions, and what we can do to keep joy in the front of our work lives. So
listen in.
Well hey there friend and welcome to the joyful flamingo podcast. I'm your host
Emily Schreiber and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves to
zoom in on their own well -being so in turn they can lead their most vibrant
aligned and joyful lives. I want to create a tsunami of self -discovered,
self -loved, and self -understood women to show up in this world unapologetically and
joyfully, and to pass the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels
aligned with your vibe stick around, I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find
our joy.
Hey, hey, hey, joyful flamingo flock, and welcome to the show today. How are we
already in November? It's bad shit crazy to me. Doesn't even else feel like October
just went by so fast? And we're already in the first week of November, and before
we know it, we're gonna be in the holiday season, which I love, so I'm not
complaining about, but my goodness, Golly, this year is going by so fast. Today's
episode, it's so exciting. It's a chat with a dear friend, Maddie Smith, who is the
founder of a company called Future in Focus. So if you've never heard of this
company before, Maddie, she's a local business owner and a mom here in Stratford,
Ontario. And I met her through Mutual Friends, and she just has this incredible
bright light about her. So I'm so thrilled to have her on the show today to talk
all about work, career, transitions,
and shifts, and passions, and identity, and how it all wraps up together. It's a
wholesome chat with a friend today who also happens to be an expert when it comes
to academic and career advising. Let me tell you a little bit about her before I
introduce her officially to come and speak. She is a problem solver.
She's a community builder. Maddie loves bringing people together, which I think is
probably one of the reasons why I love her energy so much. She also went to
Queen's University, so shout out to our Alma Mater. Oh, I just love meeting it.
Lots of other gales out and about in the real world. And she went to Queens for
Biology, and she then made her first career shift into the world of the federal
government and work with federal government. Within the government, she made some
shifts in the eight years that she worked there and then her and her husband
decided to explore rural community medicine, which is another shift that brought them
to the Stratford area in 2017. Maddie then made another transition at that point and
she started working as the director of the Ontario Health team through the COVID
years. And then she gave birth to her two sons, which is another large transition
and shift that many of us can relate to. While off on mat leave, she really
explored the passion that she has towards people, really, but to really specifically
helping people through academic and career transitions, which is why she did not
return to the Ontario health team after her second son was born, and instead she
launched her business Future in Focus in 2023. It has been such a great transition
for her and for her family. She's bringing so much joy into her work life now, as
well as being able to accommodate the added flexibility that her family requires.
Lots of transitions, lots of shifts for Maddie over the past two decades, which is
why she's the perfect person to chat with us today all around career transitions and
how to safeguard your joy throughout them. So Welcome, welcome, Maddie, to the pod.
Thanks for having me. You're welcome. OK, so the first thing that I always love to
ask people, especially if they're a guest on the podcast, is to just explain a
little bit about yourself outside of professional accolades, because I feel like that
allows people to get to know you a little bit better. And I know that there are
some avid listeners of the podcast who know you well, because we kind of mix in in
the same circle of people, but there are going to be hundreds of people who listen
that don't know you. So can you just give a little background as to what makes you
tick, what lights you up, those types of things? Absolutely. So I will say that a
lot of the people who know me, friends and family, might call me a chaos generator.
Because I give a lot of ideas quite quickly. Many are not great ideas, but some
are good. But ultimately, I think you'd mentioned it is really just my ability to
work with people, especially students and anyone who wants to just explore better
themselves and figure out what makes them shine. That's what I love to do.
So I have two young, very active boys, Hugh and Oscar. When I'm able to escape
from the boy life that I have at my house, I love to read. So That's kind of my
escape and my passion right now is autobiographies. I'm like obsessed with
autobiographies. Love it. OK, so tell me the the current autobiography you're reading
or the last one you read. Well, the last one I read was actually Demi Moore. So
that's what I know my voice is a little raspy. I'm not sure if I'm still sick or
if I can just like pull off Demi Moore. But I totally can pull it off first. And
then the other ones that I love is the Michael J. Fox and the Viola Davis. - Oh,
those are both really good for very different reasons. I think that a lot of
listeners can identify with a lot of what you're saying, just the age of and the
generation or I guess the time of having young kids. That's a huge transitional
piece in and of itself and we're gonna kind of get to how that affects your
career. But I do wanna focus in now on future in focus, which is your business,
your business offers a variety of different services, including employment strategy,
academic pathways, business consulting for both small and medium sized businesses, and
then career transitions and career transitions is the thing that I was like, oh, I
want to talk to Maddie about this because I think that there are a lot of people
in our age group that are experiencing a shift or a transition in careers or are
maybe wanting to experience that are a little bit fearful of what it looks like
those types of things. And so I would love for you to explain a little bit more
detail the shifts that you did make in your career over the past decade or 15
years and then how that led you to birth future in focus and and how that kind of
came to be if you wouldn't mind kind of giving us a bit more detail on that. I
would say it took me years to realize what I'm actually good at or capable of and
I think maybe I don't know if it's generational or as a woman and you kind of go
through the path right and I know for us I had great guidance counselors but it
was like okay you have certain have certain grades, you're eligible to apply for
post -secondary. And it kind of was just pick a subject and go. And I don't know
what it was about Queens, it was just that was always my dream. So you kind of
just go down this career trajectory. And after you start to do it, you just kind
of go with the flow and you take jobs, you apply for different schools. For me, it
was biology because I had a really great high school teacher. So you just go with
it. So it was like, okay, biology queens, it's tough, let's do it. But then you
end up with this really interesting degree studying trees and animals and microscopes
and everyone's like, are you gonna like go into do your masters of biology? And
that was not for me. I really loved it. I learned tons of things about it.
And then I chose to go in to like the workforce right after, right? Until I didn't
know exactly what I wanted to do next. I knew it wasn't biology. I knew it wasn't
labs. It wasn't microscopes. And that was when you were with the federal government,
right? Like that was your first job. Yeah. So explain to us a little bit about
that stage, the eight plus years that you worked for the federal government. It's
funny because I was with the federal government for eight years, but the majority
was with the Canada Border Services Agency, which was so interesting. And I was in
the job. And I'm like, I think I'm in somebody's dream job. It just wasn't mine,
because I was still tied to, I liked science, it just wasn't that biology element
of science. At the end of the day, I would leave and like that was a great day.
And I was always searching and thinking what I wanted to do next. And I was still
pulled to science, but I realized it's more like the healthcare and business was
always something that was probably more aligned with my interests. So in the
evenings, I signed up to do my masters in health administration to gain kind of
those business skills to support health care. And so I did that on the side. Then
I moved after having my masters of health admin to the public health agency of
Canada that aligned a little bit to coming to Stratford when I worked for the
Ontario health team. I loved working for the Ontario health team. And then you know
what, after having kids, And I know we'll talk about this. The transitioning is just
what I really loved about all of these jobs. And a lot of it was connecting to
the people and whether it was a colleague or whether it was one of my employees or
somebody who would say like, you know what? I want to go back to school or you
know what? I think I want to apply to this other job. And it didn't even matter
if I was the manager of the leader. Like I found such a passion in Um, yeah,
and people in like them saying, I want to try this, or I think I want to
completely change career path. After having my two boys, there was a few
complications and I did my certificate in career and academic advising saying, you
know what, at some point this will be a job that I want to move into. After
having Oscar, I just did a lot of reflection, I said, you know what, I think I
can do this right now. It would fit a lot better with our family life. Did you
ever end up going back to the Ontario Health team after your boys were born or did
you stay off until you launched your business future in focus? I went back after
Hugh and I didn't go back after Oscar. Okay. And then right after that, Matt leave,
that's when I launched, so in September 2023. What was it that made you decide to
put all the fears you have aside and really just go for launching it. How really
truly was it born when you had such a young because Oscar would have been what?
Yeah, he was one. Yeah, like just over one. And I think it was because it was
always something in the back of my mind. And then as a collective family, we had
to figure out what would work. And I think the timing, it was like a little bit
circumstantial, a little bit because of different medical needs and appointments and
what we needed like as a bit of a balance. And I found, as you know, like in
education and in healthcare, it's such a busy, busy, stressful time and environment.
So we said, you know what? I think the timing worked out, right? And I, I had
Hugh and then I went off from the Ontario Health Team and then I came back and I
just said, I don't want to keep going and coming back and going and coming back.
So I said, it's now or never, right? Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. And the concept
of trying to find a career or a job that fits around your life rather than the
other way around, right? Like fitting your life around whatever job or career you
have. And that can sometimes be a very tricky thing to allow yourself to think of
because I feel like our society really is kind of the opposite way in terms of you
go to school, you get your degree, you grab your job, you're there and you're there
for a really long time and then you retire and then you've got freedom. When I do
feel like that is shifting quite a bit. And I think it's kind of started with our
age group of people, people who went through COVID and saw some change in shifts in
their careers as they were doing that. But also people who have shifted into
parenthood and have seen or experienced some different desires within their work -life
balance than they had before and really exploring that as a piece. Would you say
that all of the shifts that you had throughout your career and into launching future
and focus, was it always a feeling of not dislike but disinterest in your job?
Was it that you just kind of kept feeling like, Like, this isn't quite it. This
isn't quite it. Like maybe I'm a bit a step closer this time, but it's still not
quite it. Or was it, you know, you really just for your family needed a lot more
flexibility. And so you were willing to make a big shift or was it maybe a
combination of both? That's a really good question. A lot of it, it's, it's really
not disinterest per se, but now when I meet a client or I come to a podcast or
go to a business meeting at the end of the day I'm so energized by it. There's a
lot more peace in what I'm able to do and accomplish when I meet the clients and
I just find a little bit more joy in my day -to -day work life so that at the end
of the day it's easier for me to like close the door and come and be more present
for the family. It doesn't, I really feel like motivated by some of the the clients
and the stories that I'm experiencing through Future in Focus And I know we'll
probably touch on it, but even just seeing like there's so many students so grade
1112 a lot of students doing like that extra year. Yeah,
gap year. And then I've had a lot of young professionals who just kind of want to
again shift their priorities be more available to their family. So like a different
work type setting and then other like more executives and people, small businesses
who need help from a business perspective, which I've really, enjoy it as well. Like
I love writing a business plan and I love a good mock interview. Those are my
favorite. I love that. We're gonna circle back on the types of people that you help
and specifically that parent piece, but I do want to focus in on what you said
about feeling just a joy at the end of the day. I mean, we're the joyful
flamingos. I can never shy away from a comment that uses the word joy. Really,
truly, That should be what it's all about, right? So my next question to you is, I
mean, we know through conversations of lots of people that we have in our life,
whether that's friends or family, that there are lots of people who are unhappy in
their career, unhappy in their job, right? So what do you think it is that makes
people so hesitant to make a career shift or a career change? And do you think,
this is kind of part two to the question that there's a little bit more hesitancy
in making a career shift with women than there is with men. Totally.
And I'd say the first one is confidence. This is something that in my business, I
want to learn a lot more about it. Like I kind of want to read up and study a
little bit more about techniques for building confidence, right? To feel confident in
yourself and your abilities. Like there are some of the most experience kind,
incredible clients that I've had that it's just a matter of confidence, right? And
walking them through and cheerleading for them as they go through an interview or do
application. So confidence 100%, but also external pressures and expectations.
And I know you've had done the generational piece. It's whether it's right or it's
wrong, there's definitely generational social media, what you see other people doing,
right? Like, oh, they can handle being a mom and going to work, they can handle
that. And obviously, that could be another whole episode, right? And exactly on like
the social media and the external pressures. I also think, and I was thinking about
this last night is timing. At each stage in your life, your 20s, your 30s, you
think it's never the right time to change. And then you end up later in your
career and you're like, oh, shucks, like I wish I could go back to my 20s and
tell my 20 year old self, it's never too late, right? And also field of work. I've
noticed there's a lot of fields of work that allow flexibility, but some not as
much. - For me, teaching was in that like education is in that sort. Even though I
know there's lots of people that are, they've got lots of thoughts about teachers'
vacation because teachers do tend to get more vacation than the average human.
However, the thing about it is that it's told to you exactly when you take it. So
there's no flexibility within your day of, oh, my kid has a Christmas concert that
I'd like to go see or, you know, my kid has a field trip or our family is
deciding that we're going to go away in April. And maybe I can't speak from
experience because I haven't been a full -time employee of the board for years now,
so maybe there is more flexibility than there was before, but in general, it is a
lot harder to get away from that sort of job than maybe other industries. And
sometimes you can take the expertise. I was thinking nursing too, right, or any of
those allied health professionals, right, where you have the shift, but you can't
just leave halfway for your kid's dentist appointment or their holiday concert. So
that's exactly it. - I do have a question about the average amount of career paths
that one may take in a lifetime because I do know that this is a shifting scale
and it's definitely shifting into more career paths than it was when our parents
were in the for us. And we're there usually for 30 or 40 years in the same kind
of industry, maybe even the same position for that long. So on average, from a
professional standpoint, how many times do you think people make a change in a
career job? And do you think we're headed into a direction that that's going to
continue to increase? So jobs, on average, people have 15 jobs,
which is quite wild. And that's what it's jobs versus jobs versus career. So you'd
see it more like a handful of careers. And then it's also the ones like your
teenage or your start off jobs too, right? So that probably adds like a good chunk
at the start. And some people are very fortunate to find their career and or their
job, which might turn into a career, and then their numbers are much less. But 15
is a lot of jobs over a lifetime, right? And I do I agree? I think there's going
to be a lot of change. And we talked about the generational differences of what
people want and what people expect of the workplace. And I think we touched on what
you were saying about people don't necessarily want to like it's like education, job,
and then you just like work in the same job field for your whole career, and then
you retire and you have that retirement bliss. And I think that's generational. So
it's really interesting to where I've heard a lot about like the hiring companies,
they're saying like, oh, everybody wants this full time secure job. But when you
talk to some of the newer generations, they're like, you know what, the job security
or the type of work is less important than or maybe like the job titles are less
important than like the meaning behind it and doing and the flexibility to work from
home every so often. - Yeah, I feel like that flexibility piece is huge for people
post COVID especially. - And there's the generational differences. So even I can't
talk to my parents about remote work 'cause we really, it's different, right? - Yeah.
- And I'm very for it. I think it's awesome. And I think especially from a talent
pool, I think at the federal level too, right? Like everyone's like, "Oh, you wanna
work for the federal government. "You should move to Ottawa." But because of remote
remote working through COVID, some of the hiring pools have been across the province,
across the country. And so it's been really a cool way to like build talent at
different levels. And I think it's less about time. It's less about, you know, your
eight hour workday, but more about like what you can accomplish. So that's been,
that's really good. I really dislike this terminology, but the whole concept of a
side hustle, this is definitely something that people in the past 10 years have
really like gripped hold of and and have really moved forward with primarily I think
because economically people need it. It's really hard for people to live off of just
one income. So there's that piece of it but for me specifically and I think I'm
going to like share a little bit of my story here too because I think that some
people may identify with it. For me it was also, I'm multi passionate. I kind of
felt like I was almost trapped. If I were to stay in one place,
doing one thing, I think makes me feel a little bit trapped because I have this
like creative side to me that didn't feel like it was pulling in all of the
different characteristics that I know that I'm good at and that I know that I love
and that bring me joy. And so I think this idea of a side hustle or something
else on top of, you know, this idea of diversifying your financial portfolio, really
looking at bringing in income into your household through multiple streams of income,
sometimes is financially based, but also sometimes is based off of just like desire,
something that really fuels you. And so from the time I was two, I was like,
I'm going to be a teacher. That was what I wanted to do forever. And then I did
that whole trajectory that you're talking about, right? I got my good grades in high
school so that I could apply to my dream schools. I got into Queens, went and did
my Bachelor of Honours there, and then I transitioned and went somewhere else for my
teaching degree, and then got hired right away. And I did some international teaching
for a little bit. I was in Dubai for a bit, and then I came back and then about
hired onto the board quite quickly because it was in a time where they, they really
needed French teachers and I speak French. So that was lucky for me. At the same
time as teaching, I was also building my Arbonne business alongside of that, even
pre -kids when I was in my like mid -20s, you know, it was introduced to me and I
thought, hey, that's a nice way of making some extra income at the same time as
doing what I love in teaching. And I didn't have kids at the time yet and I
wasn't married. So I had loads of time to be able to put forth into something
else. And so I built that alongside and then I had kids and it all shifted for
me. And then I was also multi -passionate about other things. That's how the joyful
flamingo was born too. You know, there was just like something in me that really
wanted something else too. And now the shift is happening in a separate direction
where, you know, My youngest is now going to JK next year. That's full time school,
but a lot of you may not know that I've actually gone back to some supply work
this year. And that was a scary decision for me because I haven't been in the
classroom for six years, but I made that shift primarily based off of wanting that
joy that you were talking about Maddie that, that I get from the classroom, like
the joy that I have when I spend the nine to three thirty with the kids, But
figuring out a way to do it, where I still have the flexibility piece for my
family and I still have the ability to be as present as I want to be at home. I
realized that that's not necessarily a possibility in lots of different industries.
Like you can't supply in every kind of industry. But for teaching for me, it works.
And so now I'm in this state where I'm like, okay, I'm pulling my income from
multiple avenues. I've got some supply teaching. I've got my Arbonne business. I'm a
Knicks ambassador. Like there's a whole bunch of ways of bringing that income in.
Do you see a lot of that in your business? You know, people like me who are
looking to shift careers as a parent. And what do you think are some of those main
catalysts that you've experienced with your clients that are really propelling them
forward to making that shift? Is it unhappiness in their careers? Is it life
circumstances like we talked about with kids, relocation, time freedom? Like what else
could it be? Like what are you seeing in your practice? Right now a big theme of
a lot of my clients that we've been talking about is I think they always think
that they it's like one career and then they have all these interests and all these
skills and they're trying to figure out how they can take them all into one career,
right? Especially from my younger students. I've had a lot of recent conversations
about it doesn't always have to be into one career. So from like a work
perspective, like do you want to work part -time? Do you want to work full -time? Do
you want to be casual? Like you can have that, but also have like a side hustle
or a passion project. And I call it a little bit of testing concept. There's
different scales of volunteerism and how you can get involved and explore interests.
It doesn't always have to be packed into one box. There could be a career. And
then, like you said, circumstantial or timing or something happens and they might
explore something different. We've just talked a lot about kind of diversifying it
doesn't always have to be packed into your job or your career path. It could be
something you do on the side. So you have a great job something that brings you
joy that at the end of the day you're good with and then you come home. Why can't
you leave some of those creativity some of those other elements of yourself. What do
you do for joy at home as well. It doesn't always have to be packed into that one
career path. From what I've seen, like the main catalyst perspective, I would say
obviously personal progression. So especially at this stage, kind of having been in
the workforce for 10, 15 years, might align with some families with the kids coming.
So adjusting their skills and experience, they've worked at the same job for 10, 15
years, and they want to grow, they want something different. They maybe want a
management opportunity. That being said, I've seen a lot of flexibility for life and
family. Obviously, it depends on which field, but how can you stabilize your work
hours so you can be more available to your family? Again, we say like being more
active to your kids activities. It's really hard to be the parent that because of a
shift or because of work that you, you're the one who says like, sorry, I can't
show up to your holiday concert, or I can't be the one who picks you up from
school or drops you off at dance class, and that's all very okay, but trying to,
as a household and a family, it's trying to figure out what you're going to bring
to a career, what you can bring to family and where you want to bring each of
your skills and interest, and they don't always have to be to the career. Yeah,
that's actually such a brilliant point to make, because people often also ask this
question, is your podcast a form of income for you? The podcast itself doesn't
actually make any money. I don't get paid per episodes. I don't have paid
endorsements or commercials at this point. We don't have tens of thousands of people
listening to each episode, but it brings me joy. It fills my cup. It allows me to
use my creative side. It allows me to create impact and joy for others, which has
always been so important to me. And you know what, maybe one day all of that will
change, maybe the podcast will blow up and I'll be offered an amazing deal by
Spotify for the show. But for right now, I'm just so joyful in the direction that
it's going. And you know, the brand itself has probably generated income for our
family through different ways, you know, collaborations as a Knicks ambassador,
retreats that we offer things that, you know, I wouldn't necessarily have without the
brand as a whole, the joyful flamingo, but the podcast itself, each episode,
it's a passion project. It comes from my heart and it's just something I do because
I love it. - And I think that you're so right, you know, that your joys and your
skill set and the things that you love to do don't always necessarily have to come
out of your work. And so this I think is a great transition for another question.
The first question that anybody ever asks you is what do you do, right? What do
you do? It's so interesting because we don't ask kids that question. So when we ask
kids who they are, we're asking them questions about who they truly are. But when
we ask an adult a question about themselves, the first thing we ask about is their
career, like what they do for work, which is so interesting. And maybe that's a
North American concept like I don't know what that looks like around the world like
internationally and culturally if that looks different. Our identity does not have to
be attached only specifically to our work. And so here from the floccies,
for the floccies from the expert friends, like she's saying that you've got your job
in your career, but it doesn't have to be everything that you are all tied up into
one. Yeah, and you can find ways to find some of your kind of aside hustles and
monetize them in a way like super great, but why can't some of it be unmonetized?
- Exactly. Like why can't it be like what you do in the community? Why can't it be
what you do for your kids? Why can't it be what you do for like the school
community type thing? So it's super kudos if you can find ways to also make
additional income for your family, which in many cases is beneficial and necessary in
today's world, right? Just go to the grocery store and life is expensive. So super
kudos for that too. But I also say, especially young people who want to add to
their resumes, sometimes we're going to do lots of volunteerism. If you're interested
in photography, like why don't we do that? And it might not, might eventually turn
into something that makes money, but why can't it be something that you come home.
It's kind of like reading my biographies, right? Like, I'm not making money, but
that is what I'm saving that for myself. Yeah. Yeah,
I love that. I love that. And I love that you're working with younger adults too,
to figure that out, because I think that that's probably a missing concept. You
know, in a high school, I do remember we had a guidance counselor, but I don't
know if all high schools have full time guidance counselors more you're shaking your
head do they not? No they do. The trick is that there's so many students and
there's so much need even to get through like which courses kids are taking and
especially some students who want to do post -secondary a lot of the guidance
counselors say they're so busy even just meeting students to make sure they have the
right baseline. So then a lot of them I've heard like a service like mine where
you can connect more about your skills and what options are available and where you
want to go and do program research has been helpful and if possible they can send
them my way. I've gone into high schools to do workshops for them, do mock
interview days. I'm also working at the local youth homeless shelter so whenever they
have a student who's or I should say like a participant who is ready for you know
a resume or to start to prepare to put themselves back into the workforce. I'll do
that as well. So again, it's not monetized for me, but it's being able to access
it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I hide clients, but whenever I have extra time, finding
ways to put myself in the community to support kind of that full range of
participants. I love that. To end here, the thing that's in the forefront of my
mind that I am constantly thinking about for women specifically, too, especially women
who have made the identity shift. You know, I identified so, so hardcore to being a
teacher that then when I came home to have my baby, I was like, wait, I'm not a
teacher right now. Like, who am I? I definitely lost identity there and had kind of
like an identity crisis. If I'm not teaching, who am I? And then I figured it out
and then I became mom. And And then I put so much of my identity into motherhood,
and this is the whole concept of the joyful flamingo, that then I started to lose
pink in other areas of my life of things that were really important to me. So then
finding that transition back to another version of myself, there's so many highs and
lows and movements within it. So the forefront of me is always thinking, how can
we, after having at ourselves, how can we like pass that information forward and
help other women who may be feeling like they're in the same situation? Can you
maybe give us a few of the, just so that women can relate, a few of the scary
thoughts that you had or the doubts that you had when you were transitioning into
launching future and focus and out of the workforce in the way that you knew it?
And then maybe give us some tips for people who are feeling like they might be
aching for a transition and they're not exactly sure where to start, some tips about
where to even start with that. I love this question, especially for women. Having
both of us kind of in the past few years did our Matleys and still have quite
young children. So you're parenting or you're on this leave for however long that
is. And I always say like a year, 18 months, but it looks different for different
people. And I know a lot of parents, they're going back to the workplace right away
or they're going within a few weeks, within a few months, right? So I just find
one of the scary thoughts is that imposter syndrome, right? You've lost your
identity, your confidence is very low. So it's, you feel like you're not capable or
that you've lost the skills that you might have had in your teens, your 20s. So
you're really less confident bringing that back to the workplace. So that's kind of
the biggest thing that I've seen and I know that I experienced right like going
back in and being able to contribute at the same level that you did before which
I've actually found people have been more understanding than you think coming back
into the workplace and just some of the positivity that I've seen and I've more
people than we think are understanding and aware of what it takes to raise little
kids right and whether that's because they did it themselves or they have family
members and they've seen just what it really takes, especially those early days,
right? Like the sleep deprivation and all those like stereotypical like sleep
deprivation is real and like take care of yourself. So there is like a really
large, lovely community of people who understand. So I have seen a lot of kindness
for people going back, especially into those really tough and challenging jobs where
you have to still give more. You're giving so much to your baby and then you go
back to the workplace and you're giving to your clients or doing lots of customer
service where your job's really taking a lot from you as well. So I'd say imposter
syndrome, but I also wanted to flag, and I hope this might resonate with some
people, is memory. I don't know about you, but it's like my memory,
I feel has taken a significant impact. And so that kind of worries you again,
where you're worried, like I'm not able to bring that memory or those details to
the workplace. But when I think about it, and I've talked to some of my clients,
is to always remember what you lose in memory, you might gain in other things.
So
exactly perspective, crime management, decision making, and dare I say, caring less
sometimes, like how you're seen or what other people think about you. So it might
not be memory for everybody, it might be something else, but just remember what
you've lost and some things you gained in other ways, both to be like a mother,
respect for that experience that you've gone through. So what you might lose in
memory, you might gain in other things. And I always say another piece is progress
takes time. And when you have your baby, maybe this is not appropriate to say, but
everything takes time and it starts with, you know, you leave the hospital and it's,
you got to have your first poop and then you have to have the first four hour
sleep stretch. And then it's, my friend always calls it putting on hard pants,
right? So jeans, not sweatpants. And it's your first getting out of the house. And
then it's your first making a healthy dinner, calling a friend, sending your thank
you notes, like progress is slow. And another piece is that your hormones take, I
think it's like two years to level out. I'm not sure if everybody knows that it
after having a baby, it's two years into your hormones level out in your own body.
It's really being like gentle and kind to yourself. And so you can slowly start
with setting those small goals, but then those goals become bigger and then bigger.
And then it might start entertaining the idea of a career transition or applying for
new work or returning to school. And that's kind of where be kind to yourself.
I always say, like, what have you done recently that you're proud of? And it might
be like, I don't know, I ate breakfast every day, or I got into the house every
day, or I once put on my hard pants, and then I threw them out, and I went
shopping and got new hard, like new hard. So just kind of to pull that together,
the scary thoughts is like that imposter syndrome, thinking that you've lost certain
particular elements of yourself. But remember, you've gained in other ways. And once
you're ready to make that transition, I'm just gonna kind of, my last piece is to
find your person to create accountability for yourself. It might not be your husband,
it might not be your mom, but even a friend that you're gonna say, you know what?
Like, okay, Emily, today I'm going to call a librarian 'cause I just wanna like
learn about her education path. Somebody that you're gonna hold yourself accountable
to and that's what my business does for some people who might not have somebody or
who want a neutral, friendly person to who's accountable to as they explore.
And it's gonna take time, just like having that baby and stabilizing as a mother,
finding your next steps, whether it's something that brings you joy or something that
brings you money or it's something in that career bucket as well. - That piece is
so beautiful. I think it's just like so indicative of motherhood in general too, or
womanhood in general, even if you don't have kids, you know, when you lose an
identity piece of yourself, you're often gaining another one. You may feel lost in
one area, but you may have gained so much more knowledge or perspective and
something else, which I think is so important for us to remember because we are our
own worst critic most of the time, right? And so we often are down on ourselves
for the things that we feel like we could have done or we did do at one point
and we can no longer do or whatever it may look like. But just remembering that
piece I think will be so helpful for so many people. Just give yourself a little
shout out on the pod for the types of things just remind people the types of
things you can help them with that future in focus. So she is a local business in
Stratford. But I feel like do you do any virtual like for any of the listeners
that are outside of the Stratford Oxford County kind of that whole area, would it
be something that you could do virtually with them as well? - Absolutely, yeah, I'd
say like anywhere, even within Canada, right? Like we could work with time zones,
but future and focus locally owned in Stratford, I do career and academic advising.
So if you're, they always say who are your clients? A lot of students, a lot of
kind of mid professionals, young parents, both moms and dads, a big piece is people
who have those interviews. Interview scare people. And I've had a lot of fun and
success with doing mock interviews. And again, just having that person to ask you
questions, prepare you, help build your confidence. In my first year, I had every
single client that I had had a different request. There was not one field that was
the same. It was awesome for me 'cause there was nothing. Like there is no cookie
cutter to you. Every client and every person has been unique and it's been really
great for me to learn in this first year. Love it. Okay and where can they find
you? We'll post this to the show notes but maybe just give us your website and
then your Instagram handle too so that people can go and take a follow of you
after the show. Okay so it's futureinfocus .ca is my website and then
future in focus CC so careers and consulting so future in focus CC wonderful and we
will post that in the show notes for you friends that you can go and click easily
on those links but I just want to thank you so much Maddie for your time and it's
so lovely when I'm able to interview people whom I know outside of the podcast too
because I knew a little bit about you and what you did but not a lot and so now
I feel like I do which is so lovely and I feel like word of mouth passes so
quickly, especially in a small town. And so any time I'm able to learn a little
bit more about a female entrepreneur in the area, it makes my heart explode because
it means that those people can be directed to the right person for what they need,
which is you for so many people, I think. So thank you for your time and thank
you for being here. And we're so excited that you were on the pod with us today.
Thanks for having me floccies. Oh, I love it. She's already a flock member. I love
it.
I really just love that woman so much. Oh, man, Maddie Smith, folks, from Future in
Focus. Go and check her out on Instagram. Take a look at her website. I know that
there are listeners on here that could use her services for sure, so I just am so
thrilled to have brought her to the mic today. I also loved so many tidbits of our
conversation today. You know, the part where she talked about when you may feel like
you've lost a piece of yourself in one area, you've likely gained it in another
area. Man, what a powerful message for us to remember. And then there's that whole
piece about how our entire identity or skill set doesn't need to be wrapped up in
one job, in one career path. Her advice was so spot on. Think of what are you
good at? What do you love? Follow those gut instincts and don't feel the need to
monetize everything. If it brings you joy and it fills your cup, it doesn't have to
be something that brings in money. If it can, amazing. Just like she said, kudos.
Amazing. That's wonderful. But we do have worth and value to give to our communities
outside just the standard economic way. She was really, really just speaking to my
soul there. Flockies, hopefully this episode gave you the courage or the permission
to explore that career shift a little bit further that maybe you've been thinking
of. Or contact Maddie to help you through it and allow yourself the option of
exploring a change if you feel like it will safeguard your joy. As always,
I'm so flocking grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for being part
of the joyful Flamingo Flock. Until next time.
Just a reminder, Flamingo Flock, that I am not a medical or psychological
professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and
journey through life and has brought to you through my own opinions and lens. Any
suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your
own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.