Episode 153 - How I Changed Career 3 Times
Over the past decade, I have made 3 career changes in pursuit of more fulfillment, creative freedom, and flexibility. From mobile coffee business owner to graphic designer and illustrator, and finally to life coach, discover the strategies and mindset shifts that propelled me forward. If you're contemplating a career change but feel uncertain about where to begin or whether it's the right move, tune in now for actionable insights to gain clarity and confidence in exploring a new direction.
Topics
Personal Career Journey and Reflection.
Navigating the sunk cost fallacy in career decisions.
Valuing vulnerability, human kindness, and humility in career transitions.
Not owing blind loyalty to employers.
Challenging societal norms and expectations.
Acknowledging the risks and challenges associated with career changes.
The role of self-esteem in attracting interesting opportunities.
Creating a space to dream and allowing ideas to grow without immediate logistical concerns.
Being open to discomfort and finding a supportive community.
Leveraging skills and connections to create opportunities and attract dream projects.
Transcript
[AUTO-GENERATED]
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:06]:
Welcome to the Self Growth Nerds podcast. I'm your host, Marie, a courage coach, creative soul, and adventure seeker. Since thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019. I'm on a mission to help you embrace your most confident self so you can achieve your dreams too. If you're eager for deep conversations, big questions, and meaningful connections, join me on the quest to discovering how we can create a more magical and memorable life. Hello, nerds. How are you? I'm really good. I'm really excited about this episode.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:45]:
I think it's gonna be helpful for a lot of you. I'm gonna tell you about how I changed careers three times. I'm 34 right now, so it's been 10 years since I left college, and a lot has happened in those 10 years. I did 2, degrees back to back, 1 in television, 1 in graphic design, and then the first thing I did when I left college at 24, I was living in London, UK, is, run a mobile coffee business. Then, I became a graphic designer, and now I'm a coach. I have no regrets whatsoever looking back. I feel like I'm exactly where I need to be and love my job. I find it so fulfilling, and I have a flexible schedule that gives me, the freedom that I always wanted and allows me to tap into my creativity also in the way that I always longed for, and I'm really grateful about that.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:01:50]:
Now the reason why I decided to record this episode is because the worst thing to me is hearing someone say, oh, I only have 15 years until retirement, or, oh, talking about their college days and saying, those were the days, implying that it's only been downhill from there. It breaks my heart to realize that so many people, literally millions of people, are just waiting for life to pass by waiting for the weekend or waiting for their vacation, and they don't find meaning in their day to day lives in, like, a regular Tuesday. Now don't get me wrong. Career is not everything. You might have a job that's a means to an end, and you might find meaning outside your work with friends, with your kids, with your hobbies, whatever that is. Now this episode is about career, so that's what I'm going to focus on. But just know that I am aware that this is not the only place where you can find meaning. I just don't want you to feel like the last time you were happy and fulfilled was when you were 22.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:03:06]:
No. Like, it doesn't have to be this way. You can see life as an adventure that keeps surprising you around every corner. And, yes, there are risks to a career change, and there It is a price to pay, but to me, it's worth it. And you get to decide if for you, it is worth it as well. It all depends what you value. One of my favorite YouTubers, Carolyn Winkler, she made an analogy in one her of her videos that I thought was genius. She said you can keep climbing a ladder that you don't really care about anymore, or you can get off that ladder and start climbing a new one.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:03:54]:
And, yes, you might be lower on the ladder, but if it's a ladder that you enjoy climbing, then to me, that is worth it. It depends what's most important to you. Is it the height on the pattern. What comes with that, or is it how you feel on your way up? And, you know, use your discernment. I'm not saying as soon as You lose interest in, the the work that you were doing that you should jump to a different line of work. Sometimes, we need to reignite the spark. Just like anything, when, we are past the honeymoon phase in a relationship or in a career. It it starts becoming more challenging, and, I'm not saying run away from challenge, lynch, but you've got to figure out, okay, am I running away because it's hard, or am I just at a place in my life where I want to take a a new adventure.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:04:55]:
It's, you're you're the only expert of your own journey. There's no right or wrong. It's for you to, to be as honest with yourself as you can. Now before we get started, I wanna say that I don't know the specifics of your situation. I cannot talk about the practical step of a career change in your industry. That's not my specialty. I also want to acknowledge that I have a lot of privilege. I had the chance to have no student loan debt, which is massive because I've seen, the pressure than debt can put on people to to pay it back.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:05:41]:
And when you don't have that pressure, you're much more likely to be more relaxed and have more space for experimentation. I also don't have kids, which also gives me more flexibility, more time, and, it's just easier to take risks when there's no one depending on me. So you can see I've had pretty advantageous external circumstances. Sis. That being said, however, there were perspective shifts that I've made along the way, ways of thinking that helped me make those career changes that I wanna share with you. Because I can almost a 100% guarantee that you have blind spots in your belief system about what is possible for you or not when it comes to changing careers. These blind spots are getting in the way of you pursuing what's calling your heart. And so that's what I want to talk about to help you expand your way of thinking so that maybe you see a wider array of possibilities.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:06:54]:
All I ask for is your openness. So instead of going straight to, the the Growth Prix old man inside of you that's like, I can't do this. I don't know how. Just try to tell Self, maybe I could. Let's just play along with Marie and consider this. There's a really funny scene in the movie, elemental. It's a animated Disney movie where fire and water fall in love. So the girl is fire.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:07:25]:
Her name is Amber, and the boy is water. Her his name is Wade. So Amber and Wade fall in love, but they come from 2 very different backgrounds. She is basically the daughter of an immigrant, and she feels the pressure to take over the family business. And Wade comes from a super wealthy family, and he's always been told to follow his heart. So she gets frustrated at him at one point, and she says, Following your heart is only for the rich kids. And, of course, there is truth to that, but it's not the truth. And I'm not gonna spoil the ending, but it turns out she had the power to change the cultural narrative.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:08:14]:
The cultural narrative being, my parents sacrificed so much for me, and now I have to sacrifice for them. Is that a sustainable narrative that she wanted to perpetuate? Well, you'll have to Watch the the movie to to find out what happens, but my message here is that You can step into an active role in your life instead of a passive one where you think, well, this is how it's supposed to be, this is what I have to do. This is what people do in my family, in my culture. You can question These norms and decide to go against the current, decide to subscribe to a different belief system if if the one that you're currently subscribed to limits you and doesn't really make sense or is not in alignment with your integrity or your values. Anyway, I'm getting carried away now, so let's jump into my 3 career changes and what I learned from them. So 10 years ago, I'm finishing college, and my final project is the branding for the coffee truck that My partner and I are starting. I met him when I was doing my homework in a coffee shop. He was the barista there, and he was really nice to me.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:09:40]:
I thought he was flirting. Turns out he was just being like a normal, Nice person to the customers, but I invited him out for a drink, and we were together for 3 years. Half of that was spent leading a coffee mobile coffee business. We had a coffee truck. We had pop up coffee stands in events like corporate events, but also festivals, like Glastonbury, a music festival in, in the UK, or, smaller farmers markets, things like that. Looking back, there's 2 main lessons that I see. Number 1 is not being attached to the pastor to one way of doing things. I had just finished studying graphic design.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:10:31]:
I could have told myself, well, I have to work in graphic design. But, no, I am not like that. I follow what seems most interesting instead of forcing myself to follow the the, quote, unquote, the path that makes the most sense. I remember going to, a talk given by, someone in the graphic design industry in London, someone who had a lot of prestige, and he was giving us advice about what we should do coming out of college. He said we should go work in the most prestigious design firms because then that was gonna be in our resumes and it was gonna, you know, start our careers in the best way. I remember thinking, no. I don't resonate with this. There's nothing you have to do, and you wanna be careful who you take advice from.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:11:25]:
Do you want the kind of life that this person has. So this person I had in front of me is it was a super recognized designer in, like, a fancy agency. I don't want that. I'm not interested in that. So why would I follow his advice? Now if that's what you want, then go ahead. Just be mindful not to accept just anyone's advice. Also be mindful of people who say or your own inner critic who says, well, you can't just do x, y, and z. Let's say you've studied for 8 years in a certain, area and you get an opportunity that's completely different.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:12:09]:
If there's a part of you or, like, your uncle who says, well, you can't just up and leave. You can't just throw away the those years. Well, Why not? Why not? Maybe there's good reasoning, and maybe you can also challenge That reasoning. There's not just one way to approach your life. Personally, I knew that my graphic design skills We're going to be handy. Whatever I chose to do, they're very transferable. But even if they were not, Let's say you paid from your hard earned money, a degree, and then decide to change your mind. You might feel attached to the amount that you, quote, unquote, wasted and decide not to give yourself permission to do something different.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:13:03]:
This is the sunk cost fallacy. It reminds me of when I was at, you know, one of those events where they sell wine at a really exorbitant price, but the way wine tastes like shit. I had forgotten that it's never a good idea to order wine, at these places, and I was there trying to force myself to drink it because I had paid for it. And my friend made me realize, why? Why don't you just throw it away if you're not enjoying yourselves? Like, okay. Maybe you wasted the money, but you're also going to, like, waste your joy. Make yourself drink something you don't wanna drink. And that had me thinking deeply. You're going to you know, let's say you wasted the last 3 years or the last 6 years studying something that you Now realize you don't really wanna do.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:14:00]:
You're gonna, what, waste the next 10, 15, 20 years doing work you don't really wanna do. That to me doesn't make sense. And I also would not use the word waste. You didn't waste money or time. It was The cost, the price to pay to learn a lesson, to get to know yourself better. So instead of beating yourself up, take a lesson and keep moving forward. Okay. So that was the first lesson that, to me, comes out of choosing to start a mobile coffee business, as I came out of university with a graphic design degree.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:14:42]:
And the other takeaway is the importance of teaming up with someone, how you maximize the possibilities when you mix skills. I, on my own, could not really have started a coffee business, But with my partner and his barista skills, we made a great team, and 1 +1 equaled 3. We took my people skills and my graphic design skills, Mixed them with his expertise in the coffee industry and created something that we could not have been able to do on our own separately. This is going to be a theme in today's episode, how you can create so much more when you look around at the people you can team up with or the people you can ask for help. Okay. So a year and a half after starting the mobile coffee business, I was burnt out. I have never, to this day, worked so much in my life, like waking up at 5 in the morning, going to bed really late, working 6 days a week, having, like, boxes and boxes of coffee related stuff in our small London flat. It was intense.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:16:03]:
So I decided to go back to Canada. We were just about to open an actual coffee shop. We had been approved for a loan at the bank. The commercial space we were gonna rent was super cool. It was like a an archway underneath old train tracks, and, I freaked out. I was just about to commit to a life in London, and my heart said no. So I decided to leave, and my partner back then did not want to leave. So conflict ensued, and it didn't really end well.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:16:44]:
I don't want to go into details, but let's just say that I was young and naive and in love, and we didn't, sign any contract because I thought you didn't sign contracts with, people you're in love with, but, that ended up shooting me in the foot. And when I left To go back to Canada, I didn't have much money at all. But what happened next was amazing, and I still look back to this moment with a lot of fondness. Basically, we were supposed to serve coffee at a an event in a music school. And I had to meet a few days before taking my flight home with the director of that school, a woman we had worked with a few times to tell her that it was, not going to happen. I just decided to be vulnerable and told her the truth, told her the whole truth of what had happened. And she said, okay. I'm going to hire you as a freelance graphic designer for the school.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:17:53]:
You can work remotely from Canada, and I'm a I'm gonna give you an advance on your salary. Can you believe that? Can you believe human kindness? I'm still so grateful to this woman. So grateful. So what's the takeaway here? I guess we can interpret it in different ways. Humans are amazing, 1. 2, it it's helpful to just be vulnerable and tell people the truth. When you tell people the truth, I think they're more likely to wanna help you. And finally, I think we have to be open to receiving Self.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:37]:
Because if my ego had gotten in the way, I might have said, no. No. No. No. No. Thanks. And turn turn her down. But I think I, had the humility to say, oh my god.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:51]:
Yes, please. Thank you. And ended up working for them for about a year from my kitchen table. And that's how my graphic design career started. Well, I guess that's not true because I had done the branding for the mobile coffee business. So I had that to show for myself, and I I had done a few, freelance contracts on the side while I was in London. So, I worked for the music school. And meanwhile, also sent my portfolio to different agencies design agencies in Montreal where I live, where I have lived since and built up my experience this way.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:19:33]:
Then at some point, I figured I should try being employed Instead of just freelancing, I thought I I remember thinking my mom would approve of me at least trying it out, trying the 9 to 5 out, and it was not for me. I lasted 8 months. I left after 8 months, and What allowed me to leave so easily is the belief that I don't owe anything to my employer other than what we have agreed upon, other than the work they are paying me for and the 2 weeks notice I'm supposed to give them if I want to leave. What I notice with many people who feel stuck in their job is that they make it emotional when it has Nothing to do really with emotions. It's business. It's a transactional relationship, but many employers want you to feel like, oh, this is a family, and you have to be loyal to your family, and you shall feel guilty if you want to leave. No. That's bullshit.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:20:40]:
You don't owe your life to your employer. Your employer is not doing you any favor. They are paying you in exchange for your work, and you're not in prison. I've had So many clients tell me, but I cannot leave because then my colleagues, whom I love, are going to be in trouble. They're gonna have So much work to do. And that what I'm going to say is going to sound harsh, but bear with me. Okay? If you leaving puts too much on your colleagues, it is not your problem. It is a systems problem.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:21:20]:
It is the place where you work that has a problem, and they're the ones who need to figure it out. You should not take that burden on your shoulders. You should not sacrifice your well-being and your enjoyment in life because some company thinks they can get away with exploiting They're employees. Okay? I'm very passionate about this, and I see this most often in women because We have been conditioned to just put ourselves last and to be nice and to be there for people, but we've gotta be mindful that those traits of ours are not taken advantage of. My whole life growing up, my parents had a business, and my dad always reminded me that I don't owe anything to my employer because as my employer when it comes down to them. If they don't have money, if they don't have the resources, if they don't need me, they're just going to fire me. An employer is not just gonna keep their staff out of the goodness of their heart if they means they're going to go bankrupt. No.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:22:31]:
Okay? So it's the same thing for you. Don't sacrifice your well-being for someone or something that would wouldn't sacrifice for you because that's not what it's about. So let's, get back on track. I left the agency, and started doing freelancing again. One thing that I did that was super helpful is write a bucket list of the the projects, like my dream projects that I wanted to work on. There was a bunch of of things on there. I written it I wrote it down in my notebook, and then I posted it on Facebook, I think, back in the days. One of the items on the list was illustrate a children's book.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:23:17]:
And you know what happened? Literally, like, the next day or the day after, Someone called me and said, can you illustrate a children's book for us? Here's our budget. And it was a really good budget. And you know how that happened? That happened by me telling people what I wanted to do. So are you telling people what you want to do? You've got to make it public instead of keeping it inside because people cannot guess, and people can you cannot offer you, your dream opportunities if they don't know they are your dream opportunities? Let's take, a friend of mine as an example. They work in the TV industry as an editor, but their dream is to write, write for television. Now they they know a bunch of people in the industry, But unless they start talking about the fact that they wanna start writing, then there is no way an opportunity is just gonna fall on them from, like, the sky. You've got you've got to own your desires and be vocal about them. And you know what's gonna help you do that is feeling that you are legitimate, that you belong where you are, and that your voice is worth hearing, and that your ideas are worth exploring.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:24:46]:
If you don't believe that, it's going to meet to be more challenging for you to stand out and attract interesting opportunities. This is a self esteem issue, and that's something we can work on together. That's something that I work on with my clients, helping them strengthen their belief in themself and what they're capable of. So if you wanna work together, That's, that's something I can help you improve. And I have space for clients right now. You could be starting next week. So if this resonates, go to self growth nerds.com/audacity, and you'll be able to book a call so we can meet and have a chat. Okay.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:25:30]:
Let's move on to the 3rd career change that happened shortly after my thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019. When I came back in October, I knew I wanted to step into a career in which I had more impact, in which I was not told what to do so much. I guess I'm really allergic to being told what to do. And in my graphic design career, I had to create 4 clients, And so I had to adapt to their style, and very often, they told me that my style was to this or to that. And, what can I say? The artist within me, the the freedom obsessed part of me Did not like that very much. So I wanted more impact. I wanted more freedom, creative freedom, and I wanted more flexibility in my schedule so that I could go, travel, go on adventures whenever I wanted. So I read a bunch of books on how to create this sort of lifestyle, Books like, Jen Sincero's You're a Badass at Making Money.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:26:48]:
Also, Chris Guillebeau's Born For This. These are 2 of the books that I remember, but I was getting a lot of information and figured out that having an online business, creating value online could lead to this sort of lifestyle. So I I started experimenting. Actually, the experimenting started before I threwharked the PCT When I, illustrated a picture of Twerk, a thru hiking influencer at the northern terminus of the trail, I made this personalized illustration for fun that I sent to him, and he shared it with his thousands and thousands of followers who, many of whom wanted 1 themselves. So I started charging for this service, and the money that I made allowed me to to purchase my gear for the thru hike. This is another example of how Bringing 2 people together can create magic. Bringing my skills and the service I had to offer with the influence that twerk had on this huge community. This is not something that I would have thought possible, ball.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:28:06]:
But, again, notice how I had to believe that what I was doing was worth sharing In order to make that connection, that led to more. I have to trust in my ideas. How many of you have ideas like this that you just downplay? You're like, oh, yeah. I do this thing. It's alright. And you just keep it for yourself. You don't know what could happen if you found the courage in you to show it to the world. Nothing might happen, but you don't know.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:28:42]:
You have to put to throw a bunch of spaghettis at the wall to see what sticks. So I started building a community on Instagram. Thanks to Twerk, I started posting illustrations about my preparation for the trail. And, when I got back, I had, All of these people who were following me and you, might have been here from from the start, from from those days. If you are, hello. So happy. You might have followed me through, like, all my, adventures. So I got back from the trail, and I was doing graphic design work while on the side still experimenting with what was was possible to do online.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:29:33]:
The 1st experiment was a post trail workbook. Then I followed up with a pretrail workbook in which people could write their reflections, what they were afraid of, what they would have to overcome, what their Dreams were all that sort of stuff. That was really fun. I Self a bunch of them. They're still on sale on Amazon, actually. I loved how, once they were created, it was passive income. Right? Well, I had to do some marketing. Sure.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:30:05]:
So that's not completely passive, but it required less of my time than the illustration of people at the terminus where I was literally exchanging time for money. So I was playing around with that. And then in March, basically, 6 months after I came back from the trail, the pandemic hit. I'm really lucky to live in Canada because although I lost most of my graphic design work, There was a very generous emergency fee given to us by the government of Canada every month so I could stay at home without worrying, and I used that time to learn a bunch of stuff like how to create an online course. I was able to, create, an online course to help people prepare for a thru hike. That's like my, that year was my online business experimentation year, trial and error. So I hosted an online course with a live cohort, had a good time, then I started organizing a thru hiking summit, but gave it up. It was not for me.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:31:22]:
And it's around that time that I started considering going into life coaching. I had been listening to the podcast on Fuck Your Brain by Cara Lowentile for, maybe a year or 2, by then, and I loved what she was doing. She had changed my life just through her podcast. I I don't think I would have gone through hiking if it was not for, the shifts in perspective that she offered me. And one day, I had this thought. Well, if she can have a a career as a coach, maybe I can too. And with that thought, a a bubble was created. A, a space to dream like the, the coach Martha Beck calls it.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:32:12]:
A space to dream where you, open up to a possibility that you thought was just for other people. And you start thinking, maybe. What would it what would be required for me to go in that direction? And you just start playing around looking at the possibility in different angles, and you let the dream grow in this sacred space without the logistical parts of you ruining it. The the the parts of you that would usually go like, oh, but, we don't know where to start. We don't have the money. That would be too much of a hassle. They're they're not allowed in that room. That's what I see too many people doing.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:32:57]:
They have an idea for a change of direction or a project in their life, and the Idea is just like a little sapling, and then they come in right away with the big scissors. They cut the idea at the source. Not good. Too risky. We don't know how. There's too much effort, required, and they don't let it grow and see what it could become. You don't it's it's not like if you think about something, you're committing to it. No.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:33:26]:
You can just think about something and see where your mind takes you. See the opportunities that come your way when you consider certain paths. So what I did from that space of dreaming is ask myself questions like, oh, what would be required for me to become a life coach? Who do I know that could give me more information about this? I knew of 2 people who had studied coaching, And so I contacted them and asked them to go for a walk. I gathered information about how I could turn this possibility into a reality. And one of them recommended a coach training that was starting, like, a month or two later in January of 2021. And so I thought, okay. I can actually I can actually make that shift now. And I figured I could keep doing graphic design work to cover my basic expenses while I was making a transition towards coaching.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:34:28]:
And before we keep going with the story, I wanna point out a few things here that I believe are really important. One, what I was telling you about having a space where you're allowed to dream without pissing on your own parade, then the importance of reaching out to people, asking to go for walks or to go for coffee chats or Zoom chats with people that might have more information to give you so that you build your case. And you might end up realizing, actually, you know what? That's not for me. That's that's what might have happened with me as I was doing research. You know what? I don't think that's for me, but you've got to gather data before you can make a decision. And lastly, If you're considering a career change, I think it's really important to know what your basic expenses are. How much do you need to survive every month? This is gonna help you think about this transition in a more grounded way. So let's say that number is $3,000.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:35:28]:
You can ask yourself, okay. How long do I think it will be before I can cover these expenses with my new job. And what can I do to sustain myself in the meantime? Maybe you're gonna stay at your current job and save money while you build on the side. Maybe you're gonna save money so that you can quit at one point and focus a 100% of your time and energy on that new career when you have enough money saved to do so, or maybe you're gonna ask your employer for to go part time. Maybe you're gonna going to ask for a raise. I had one of my clients, do that. She wants to go off on her own soon enough, And she told me it would be a lot easier if she could put more money aside. So I asked her if she could ask for a raise, and she she got all stressed out.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:36:23]:
And she said she never had really asked for anything at her job, and so she felt bad. She was worried that they would fire her if she did. And, I encourage her to be audacious. She believed she was underpaid for the work that she was doing, And so I asked her how much more she wanted. She gave me a number, and I said, go ask for it. Go ask for it. And she was terrified, but she did, and she got what she wanted, and that extra money is gonna make it easier to step into the life that she wants to create. So all this to tell you that there are so many ways to make the transition.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:37:03]:
You just gotta open your mind and challenge your preconceived ideas. Okay. So like I was telling you, my plan was to keep doing graphic design work as I was transitioning into coaching, but I did not have to because in November of 2020, I had an idea. I remember the moment. I was lying on my bed looking at the ceiling, and it came to me. A few weeks prior, I had seen a friend of mine from high school that I don't often see, and she was telling me about how she started selling this document online to her followers that help parents, introduce their toddlers to solid foods. K. That's her expertise.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:37:52]:
And this document was selling really well because it was super helpful. And then my idea a few weeks later was what if I used my illustration skills and illustrated that document so that it not only be helpful, but also look really cute and is easier to follow for the visual learners like me. My friend was immediately into the idea, and so Not long after, I started working on it, and it took me about a month to create the illustrated version of the guide. And then we launched it, and it was a massive success. I did not expect this at all, but the revenue from this covered my basic expenses for a whole year, which made my transition into coaching so much easier than I had anticipated. What's important to take away here, in my opinion, is, again, mixing skills. So 2 people coming together to create something more. 1 plus 1 equals 3.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:39:00]:
My illustration skills with her specific knowledge and her audience. So that and, also, again, trusting my idea. I didn't know it was gonna work. I just gave it a shot. Do you take bets on Self, or do you just assume your ideas are not good enough? Are you willing to consider that you might be wrong? Just think about this. Maybe you have really good ideas that could have turned into something you can't imagine, but you have to be willing to, take risks and believe in yourself. And if that's hard for you, maybe you start by surrounding yourself with people who believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Right? That's one thing a coach can do for you.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:39:53]:
That's what I do with my clients. Very often, I'm going to believe in them and in their ideas before they believe in it themselves, and that gives them, like, Like, a more solid foundation to jump from. It gives them momentum. Like, oh, well, if Marie believes in it, Maybe there's something good in there. Let's let's try it. Because if if, like, your family and your friends are Insecure people who also don't have high self esteem, they're likely to to tell you, no. That's too risky. Don't do that.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:40:35]:
Like, it's already been done before, and this is contagious, which brings me to, the naysayers. When when you're wanting to change career, You might have people disagree, think it's a bad idea. I remember someone telling me, you can't throw away everything you've built in your graphic design career and as an illustrator. And that only tells us about what this person would allow themselves, What the the permissions that they would give themselves, which you don't have to subscribe to. You don't have to subscribe to their worldview and to take on their insecurities. I can do whatever I want. It's my life. So be careful who you listen to and practice trusting your intuition instead of asking everyone what they think you should do.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:41:32]:
That self trust is also something I can help you strengthen when you work with me. So back to the story. I started my coach training in January of 2021. I also started this exact podcast at the same time. That was 3 years ago. And when, the coach training finished, I launched my program brave and bold and, led that for 2 years. It was really fun. I met some amazing people.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:42:02]:
And while I was willing to take a pay cut in this career change, I ended up making almost twice as much as I did as a graphic designer that 1st year, not just from the coaching, but also from the the passive income that came from the guide I told you about earlier. So you never know, but here's the thing. If you're not willing to do something unusual, you will not have an unusual life. Many people want a, life of flexibility and freedom, but not many of them are willing to pay the cost, are willing to take on the challenge and to put themselves in harm's way for the potential of getting the life they've envisioned. There's not only financial risk. There's also the risk of looking like a fool. That's the emotional risk. That's what I found most challenging.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:43:03]:
Right? I have a massive fear of rejection and humiliation, and I I had to put myself out there. Very often felt like I was, you know, talking to a wall, like naked talking to a wall or, like, naked in front of an audience that didn't care about me. That was so uncomfortable, but I I'm gonna ask you the one of the questions that changed my life that I I've often asked you before in this podcast that came from Cara Lowentile in the podcast I I told you about earlier, unfuck your brain. She says, what if you were willing to be uncomfortable? What would become possible All for you if you were willing to be uncomfortable. This makes me want to cry, guys. So much is on the other side of discomfort so much. Like, this makes me think about my parents. I told you they, Built a business my whole life that they sold during the pandemic.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:44:06]:
They worked really fucking hard, And now they have an amazing lifestyle. They they can do whatever they want, basically. They travel. They have a bunch of friends. They're really happy. They're some of the happiest people in their sixties that I've met, but There was a massive price to pay. When they were my age, they started the their business. My mom was 30.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:44:33]:
My dad was 28, and everyone around them was telling them they were crazy. They were delusional, and they did they didn't have anyone's support. They had to believe in their own vision. They had to feel rejected. They had to feel like aliens in order to get the life that they have today. So how much discomfort are you open to experiencing? And you don't have to do it alone. Nowadays with the Internet, it's a lot easier to find people who are on a similar path as you to to find like minded people who also wanna take risks and can support each other, morally on that crazy adventure. And if that's something you're considering, I can teach you tools to expand your capacity for discomfort.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:45:26]:
The tools that I have learned in the 2 coach trainings I have done in the last 3 years, that I have developed with all the clients I worked with in the last 3 years as well and in my own journey as someone who has changed careers and who has, put herself out there through trial and error and became stronger through that. I can also be a neutral space for you to to help me about your dreams without the fear of receiving any judgment. I can help you trust your ideas. I can help you brainstorm your ideas to make them better. I can help you figure out who in your life you could reach out to that could help you. What are the resources that you have internally? What are the skills you can use? And what are the resources you have externally? Who are the people in your life either locally or on the Internet that you could, team up with to create something. There are so many possibilities, and my job is to help you see that. Open yourself up to that and start taking real scary action to make it a reality.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:46:44]:
If you wanna talk about your specific situation, book a call with me at self Growth nerds.com/ audacity. I cannot wait to meet you. I love meeting you, and you don't have to decide to work with me. We can just have a conversation about what that would be like, and then you make your own decision. Right? No pressure. So that's it for today. The last, Thought I wanna share with you is that you're not as stuck as you think you might be. You're not.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:47:12]:
You have skills you can use. There are people You can reach out to and ask for help. Get curious about what you could do. Follow your curiosity. Follow what seems fun, and stop believing social lies like you can't leave engineering after studying it for 8 years. Why not? Why not get playful and rebellious? If you think you don't have the money for a career change. Challenge that belief as well. Maybe you don't right now, but maybe you can make more on the side or maybe you can find opportunities.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:47:53]:
Like, my my sister went to, to do a master's in Copenhagen, and she got a full scholarship. She scholarship for, her studies, but also living expenses because she was a woman in IT university. Like, there there there was money for women in tech or something like that. You you don't know what exists If you refuse to look, you know, if you're already decided that it's not going going to be possible, Confirmation bias is going to make it so you don't see the doors that are open and that you could step through. And there's no rush. There's no rush to find the answer. Just keep your antennas up. Pay attention to what your inner whispers is are telling you.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:48:47]:
Pay attention to the the the nudges you receive from the the universe, and, that's it. That's it for me this week. I hope this was insightful for you. I had so much fun this episode. I think it's full of gems. So take what resonates, leave the rest, and as always, I would really love To hear what stood out for you, what's gonna stay with you, let me know. I'm at self growth nerds on Instagram. I'm just a regular human, so don't be scared.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:49:18]:
Come and chat with me. I'll be happy to get to know you. Okay. Have A wonderful, wonderful week, my friends. Bye. Hey. If you love what you're hearing on the Self Growth Nerds podcast and you want individual help finding a new direction for your life and developing the courage to make your dreams a reality. You have to check out how we can work together on self Growth Nerds or message me on Instagram at self growth nerds.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:49:53]:
My clients say they would have needed that support years ago. So if you're tired of feeling like who're wasting your life. Don't wait. Get in touch now, and I cannot wait to meet you.