The Classy Career Girl Podcast

Here’s the question I would like to tackle today. This question comes in from a current student, so I am keeping it anonymous. I’m having a bit of a crisis here. I started a new job, and I absolutely need to get out of here. Can I walk out of here? And how do I explain this one to future interviewers? I’m so stressed out at even the thought of coming into work. Do you have any advice? Do I switch jobs and keep on looking for a new career? I can’t even concentrate on my career search. 

I was challenged by my own personal business coach to write down what I would say to you if it was the last, final thing I could say on social media. Something that I might be scared to share with you. So here goes. I call it my manifesto and I shared it on Facebook the other day and it got a ton of great response. It was actually one of my most popular posts ever.  So here goes!

I was so excited and shocked to open my email up yesterday to see that my case study was in the top 5 of Stu Mclaren’s membership site contest!! I’m so excited to share more about my story over the last 6 months and how Stu and TRIBE have helped my husband and I re-design a business we LOVE. Because, work should be fun, right?! Here’s the video that is in the top 5 of the competition. If you are just here for the first time, my name is Anna Runyan and I am from San Diego. My husband and I have a business that we run together called Classy Career Girl International and we serve women who are in career transition and help them find a career they love or start a business they love. We’ve had this business for about 6 years and we also have a two-year-old daughter.

It's OK if you don't know what your dream job is. Many women I speak with are ashamed that they still don't know what their dream job is. It is a question kids are asked all the time, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" So asking yourself that question as an adult seems like you are really far behind. But, better to ask yourself that question NOW than five more years stuck in a job that is definitely NOT your dream job! Now is the time to start taking action to figure out what your dream job is.

It’s really not that complicated to get started building your website. That’s how I started and I continue to update and change my website myself. This article is just going to be a basic overview of the steps you need to take. We aren’t going to get too technical but if you want to get more technical, make sure you check out this post-> How to Start a Blog in One Hour or Less. Here is the overview because I think you just need to know the steps to take first. Note: There are a lot of different ways you can build a website these days and a lot of new companies popping up trying to make it “easy” for you. Make sure you do your homework and choose the right platform first because it’s hard to change later on down the road. I would rather put in a little work up front rather than go the easy way and face a mess of a situation a few months or a year in when you want to change your site. I have built a lot of different websites and use the same exact process every single time. It has worked really worked well for

If you are like me, you are subscribed to many different subscriptions. I challenge you today to count up how many memberships you actually belong to. You might save some money once you look at your billing statement. From the business owner perspective, having your own membership site can come with a lot of benefits too. If you want less stress and more freedom, flexibility and impact, it might be for you. Let's dive into 10 examples of membership sites and see if it starts helping you make the decision if a membership site is the right business model for you!

Today I have a special guest that I am very excited to introduce you to. I’ve known Emily Bennington for many years now as she is a top writer of all things professional development, careers and leadership for over 10 years and her latest book is one that I am really excited to interview her about because it’s a little different from the rest. Her latest book is called Miracles at Work: Turning Inner Guidance Into Outer Influence and I am hoping to learn a lot from her today because what we are talking about, merging your spiritual and professional selves, is something that I want to learn more about myself because I know I am in this very public professional space as a CEO of this company but I also have a very deep spiritual side as well.

I am an introvert and networking has always been difficult for me, but I have always known that networking would be the key to reaching my professional goals. I have found that giving myself a challenge is the best way to take my networking to the next level. In 2011, I challenged myself to meet with four people I didn’t know and four people I did know each month in my 4X4 networking challenge. I learned so much from meeting 96 people in my 2011 challenge but I wanted to take it to the next level. So at the beginning of 2012, I set another networking challenge for myself to interview 50 successful businesswomen about their career and professional success.

Let’s take a peak behind the scenes at the first 6 years of growing Classy Career Girl brand. I hope this video helps you see that nothing happens overnight! Even if you are feeling behind or that you are going too slow, you aren’t. You are moving at the perfect pace as long as you are taking baby steps forward. Don’t give up and stay inspired!

When you are struggling with discouragement and being overworked or bored, I completely understand how far off your dream career can feel. I want you to know that it really isn’t that far away. If I can do it there really is no reason that you can’t do it, too. That’s why I am so excited to give you just the very first steps you need to make your dream career or business a reality. I realized I was in charge of my destiny, just like you! Don’t settle!  

Here’s the piece of career advice I wish I would have known many years earlier. I wish I would have known this when I graduated from college. So many times I see women repeat the cycle of applying to jobs and then getting stuck in the same job that they hate. This is because they don’t understand themselves. If you spend the time to understand yourself better (I know it’s not easy!!) and you figure out your motivations, your personality, your interests, your purpose and your ideal workday, you’ll be so far ahead of the rest!! This is the number 1 thing you need to do before you even start submitting applications online or considering a career change. The first month of job searching should really be about figuring out who YOU are first instead if just updating your resume and blindly submitting your applications everywhere.    

Job interviews can be very stressful, even for the most confident person. Most people get nervous to some extent before and during an interview. You want to do your best to ease your job interview nerves because if you are nervous, it will likely show. The interviewer is looking to hire someone who is confident in their skills and abilities, and shaking hands and a wavering voice doesn’t really communicate confidence. To come across as confident and in control, a little preparation goes a long way.    

I often get the question of how I manage all my programs. Here’s the important key: I didn’t start here and you can’t compare where I am now to where you are starting today. I have been working on growing my business and learning about growing a membership site for SEVEN years now and it has not always been pretty. There’s been a lot of failures and giving up on things that just didn’t work out. Running a membership site is not easy. It’s not for everyone. But it is for me. I tried and tried to build my membership sites until things finally came into place in 2016 thanks to my incredible membership site mentor, Stu Mclaren. Stu is the founder of Wishlist Member which is a software I have been using in my business and for all of my online courses since I started seven years ago. He’s also the creator of the very BEST training program out there on starting and growing a profitable membership site called TRIBE. I’ll be sharing more soon about he helped me grow my membership sites dramatically and changed my life

OK, I admit it. I will tell you a secret just between you and I…..I stayed in a job I hated for many, many years because I had a good salary and health benefits and a mortgage and other bills to pay.  I dreaded walking into the doors of the office to a job that didn’t fit who I really was. I share a lot on this blog about how to find a job you love and I hope that you have found it helpful. But for most of you, there is an amount of time where you have to stay in a job you might hate until you can find that dream job.  I don’t want to ignore you and pretend like it’s fun. It’s definitely not! So while you plan your exit route, here are some tips to stay motivated if you hate your job.  

Grateful for your paycheck but know you don’t want to work there much longer? Over my years of working with students, I have seen many women close to getting their careers unstuck BUT they have one thing holding them back, their mindset.  Today, I want to share with you some positive affirmations you should repeat to yourself daily to help you make your career transition or start a business.  You must start thinking positively if you want to get out of a negative work situation. Changing my mindset was the biggest secret behind my career and business success. I have always been a huge fan of affirmations. I actually do these every morning for 5 minutes and have notecards that I have by my bed to read. I am way more confident and calm throughout the day when I do this along with meditating. These affirmations are written to help you build confidence that you will find the right career for you. I recommend doing these every morning and creating a morning routine that gets your mind in the spot to take on the da

CCG is getting ready to celebrate our SIX YEAR anniversary in March so we decided to collect the 100 best pieces of career advice from our site over the last 6 years. We hope you get inspired! Our suggestion is to pick one tip and write it down in your journal. Read it everyday and start practicing it in your career every single day.  

Stop the social media stress and put a plan in place. Today’s training call with Anna Runyan and Aida Diaz will help you get clear on how to organize your social media plan and what social media platform you should focus on first.    

If you want to be successful in your career, I have a little known secret for you. It’s not what you do to get ahead, it’s how you think.  Through my years of helping women find careers they love and succeed, I have seen many clients really close to getting their careers unstuck BUT they all have one thing holding them back, their mindset. You can’t get your career unstuck if you are not in the right mindset to get your career unstuck. If you take all the actions but don’t work on your mindset, you will not get the success you want. A few weeks ago, I shared 3 mindsets you need to attract the job you want.  Today, I want to share with you the five money mindsets you need for career success.  You may not realize it but your career success and how you think about money are very closely intertwined.  Once I was able to get my money under control, I had so much more flexibility to be able to pursue a career I loved.  I truly believe that your financial decisions and priorities directly affect your career. These m

Think you can't find a job with social media? WRONG!! Today there are so many opportunities available to you just by utilizing Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and (of course) LinkedIn! Listen to this podcast and get up to date to find your dream job with social media.