Of all the US cities I’ve visited, Boston truly knocked me for a loop. I traveled there as part of a brief East-Coast tour I did back in 2006, when I was a full-time musician. As a life-long West Coast resident, my sense of history was young, without much context beyond the 1800’s. Walking around Boston, taking in its stately stone buildings, I got a much deeper understanding of just how old this country actually is. As I wandered around downtown, I turned a corner and stumbled on a cemetery that had been there since 1630! Most of the headstones were so weathered and crumbled that the names and dates had been lost forever. It reminded me that our lifetime here on Earth is shockingly brief, and I was quiet and somber for most of the trip (at least when I wasn’t singing onstage).
On the last morning of my Boston stop I was sitting at a patio table in a cafe near my hotel, enjoying the warm spring breeze and a cup of brisk peppermint tea. Birds were chirping pretty green songs in the hedges, and I closed my eyes to immerse myself in the sound. When I opened them a smiling woman was standing in front of me. She was in her 60s, dressed in a paint-splattered denim shirt, with fluffy white hair that floated cloud-like around her huge blue eyes. The patio had filled up, and she asked to share my table. I invited her to sit down, and we started talking.
I learned that she’d been given her mother’s maiden name, Carson*, which was a common practice in the part of the South where she grew up. She still had a slight Southern accent that made her speech softer and warmer than the heavy Boston brogue ringing out around us. Carson was a student at a nearby community college, working on a degree in Art History (her splattered shirt was the one she wore during painting and drawing classes). It was actually her third degree, after her Bachelor’s in Social Work and her Master’s of Science. In her career she had been a mental-health counselor, then a researcher focusing on brain injuries. She was also a yoga teacher and had trained as an EMT. She loved music, and was sorry to have missed my show the night before. I gave her one of my CDs, and she said she would play it for inspiration while she was working on her paintings. She was funny and engaging, with a deep belly laugh that sounded like she lived her life exactly the way she wanted to.
I was so impressed by Carson’s energy. She was obviously a passionate person with many interests that she actively enjoyed. Yet underneath her joie de vivre there was something determined, as if she had a very strong core that kept her focused and on track. I asked her if she would share how she came to have such a unique state of heart and mind.
Carson then told me some of her life story, which was marked by a high degree of tragedy, including the death of a parent when she was a child, a serious illness that kept her out of work for two whole years, and the death of her husband just three months after they got married. She was quite straightforward about it all, as if she’d fully come to terms with it, and then she leaned in to tell me something important. She said, “What I’ve learned about life is that joy and pain always come from the same thing: change!” I was riveted, and asked her to continue. “The dark things that have happened in my life came from huge changes, but so did a lot of the good things. The best thing we can do is enjoy this moment fully, and know that changes are always coming.” I asked her how she prepared for big changes in her life, and she said, “I just never stop learning new things. I try to stay curious about everything, and make good choices that will help me out in the future. I always see myself as the protagonist of my own life.”
How’s that for powerful wisdom?
I’ve never forgotten what Carson told me. From that day forward I started to think of myself as the protagonist of my own life, and it felt amazing to finally have that power! Finding it for myself also made me want to help other women do the same, so that they can have the career (and life!) that they truly deserve, even in the face of big changes. Right now there is a ton of chatter in the news about a great big change that might be coming our way: a recession. That might feel out of your control, but the good news is there are actually many things that you do have control over. It’s simple: the most important thing you can do to ensure that you are the protagonist of your own career is to stay strong and avoid burnout.
I’ve worked with some amazing career women who have been through many trials and hardships. Yet they stayed steady by applying powerful strategies that kept them on course, even through the Pandemic. I observed that they all did the same 5 things. This is NOT the usual advice to, “find a mentor!” or, “make new connections!”. These strategies build on the skills and resources that you have right now, and they’re simple enough that anyone can do them. So I created a training called, The Power Position: 5 Powerful Strategies to Support Your Own Career that outlines each one, and offers lessons and tips that you can apply to your current job right now. Here are some testimonials:
“Alicia’s 5 Powerful Strategies to Support Your Career is an outstanding training with actionable items that I can implement immediately to improve my career, life balance and mental health. Alicia gives me knowledge, examples and ideas that I reflect upon months and even years after hearing her speak.” — Megan W.
“Five Power Strategies to Support Your Own Career (and Mitigate Burnout) provided actionable tools to help me with day-to-day work stress, as well as create a plan for handling future stress that may arise. The Strategies were clearly defined, and the real life examples Alicia provided helped make them tangible and easier to understand how to implement.” — Ann S.
“Alicia’s depth of experience coaching and empowering women, combined with her clear communication style, and ability to quickly tune into individual questions culminate into extreme value packed into a short period of time. Time is one of our most valuable resources, and I’ll never hesitate to dedicate my time and the time of my team to Alicia’s coaching and trainings. The benefit is tenfold. This training is no exception, and is needed now more than ever, no matter where you are in your career” — Mary O.
During the past year I’ve given it to groups of women in corporations and companies all over the country. The testimonials for the event have been so fantastic that I want to share it with as many women as possible! On November 19th I’m offering this training to the public for the first time ever, at the lowest ticket price I’ve ever charged. I’m only going to do this once a year, so I hope you’ll grab your ticket now (hurry, there are only 30 available!)
This training will sell out, so grab your ticket now!
*name and some details changed for privacy