"Women are leaders everywhere you look, from a CEO to a house wife that holds together a home. Our country was built by women who stand alone" Denise Clark
Everyweek we will feature the adventures of one amazing woman. We aim to celebrate the varied and colourful roles women play within industry and business. Experience inspirational, real stories by real women; Interested in being featured? Please send your adventures to info@zarsmedia.com For previous adventures please click here
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Introduction:
‘Adventures of a working woman’, I must say to begin with what a great way to get women from all backgrounds and walks of life to share their stories and to encourage and support each other. So thank you Afi for inviting me to share my story.
My name is Janice Taylor and I run my own small business as a career coach and trainer at Blue Sky Career Consulting and have been doing this since February 2000. I am married with one daughter and run my business around the needs of my family. However as I approach my fifties I find myself wanting to really focus my energy on growing my business through the use of technology and social media, even though I don’t have all the details fully worked out.
My journey
When growing up I never expected to end up running my own business – this did not even crop up as an option. I had my eyes firmly fixed on gaining good qualifications and then pursuing a career within an organisation.
Over the years I have made some quite major career changes. I started out as a graduate engineer working in manufacturing, then gained a qualification in Systems Analysis and through this ended up running an Open Learning service to support staff at Ford Motor Company. Having worked at Ford’s for a few years I then made the move across to a Further Education college in North London and it was here that I first became interested in adult careers and the stories behind them.
It was through a friend that I discovered the one day a week Post Graduate Diploma course in career counselling and management at Birkbeck College University London and wanted to reduce my hours at work to accommodate my studies. Unfortunately, this was not possible – so with the support of my husband we made the decision that I would leave full time employment and pursue the course and self employment.
For me this was the second time I had chosen to leave fulltime employment to study, the first being my decision to leave my first job as a graduate engineer after four years to pursue a qualification in Systems Analysis, more on this later.
Today as I look back I really cannot imagine going back to work for someone else. In some ways I am ‘unemployable’. I cannot see myself relinquishing the flexibility and freedom of working for myself, even when work is difficult to find there is something inside that keeps me going. Largely I think because I remember very clearly how I felt on the morning I handed in my letter of resignation to the college and the sheer sense of euphoria I felt as I emerged onto the steps of the building. I remember it was in October and it was one of those clear blue crisp autumn days.
My current role:
My role as a career coach and trainer involves me working with adult groups and individuals alike to help them to take stock of where they are, where they want to be and how they are going to make the change.
I am a great believer in people being able to take greater ownership and control of their careers and working lives.
Generally I work within organisations, sometimes as part of an in house service provided to encourage people to become more proactive in their career and professional development or I am asked to come in as part of a leadership development programme or change programme.
On a day to day basis:
For me no two days are exactly the same, if I am not out and about coaching or delivering training I will be either; designing new workshops/courses or I will be networking especially via social media to source new clients and contacts. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, Twitter and PinInterest. Or I will be working to build and strengthen existing relationships with people I am working with and have worked with in the past. I also write blogs to promote my business and my approach.
Other days I’ll simply be catching up with administration and emails.
My focus at the moment is very much on updating my website, so I can improve my presence online. Interestingly the person I ended up working with to do my site is someone I met through Linkedin. Her name is Kate Bacon and I came across her in a discussion about website designers.
What would I do differently?-
Hmmm, not so sure on this, I left my first job to pursue a Masters degree and realised on the first day that this was not the right course for me. It became very clear in the first lecture, but as I had given up my job to do this I decided to get my head down and get the most I could from the course even though I knew I wasn’t going to end up working as a Systems Analyst.
Looking back on this the one thing that really helped me to focus and keep going was the dissertation, I enjoyed the research and pulling together the 20,000 word report that helped to pull my marks up and in a strange way set the scene for where I am today as my dissertation involved looking at how adults learn and relating this to the design of courses.
What I wished I had perhaps realised earlier was my love of writing and how I might have done more with this earlier in my working life.
I’ve learnt that sometimes you need to make the best of where you are, make the most of the hand you are dealt. It has also taken me a while to learn to live with feeling uncomfortable and pushing forward anyway. I haven’t always pushed myself as much as I could and would link this to not feeling as confident to do so. But now, I firmly believe in the maxim, ‘action first, confidence can follow later’. I can be overly cautious at times, which isn’t always a bad thing but can cause problems at times.
Hobbies/Outside interests/Passions
Writing – I have at least three book ideas bubbling about in my head, none of them related to my day job, so I do want to get cracking with these. I started blogging about three years ago and have been surprised at just how important this has become and the sense of joy and achievement I feel every time I publish a blog.
Music is another interest and passion, for the past three years I have been learning to play the piano. I am completely hooked on this and was lucky enough to pass my grade two at Christmas and am working towards my grade three. This activity absorbs and engages me and takes me away from the day to day.
Singing- again just about three years ago I joined a gospel choir based in Brighton, I must say this is one of the best things I have ever done. If I had my time again I’d work as a backing singer or a choir director. Really love the idea of getting a group of people to sing together.
Physical exercise – I try and swim twice a week, just love being in water. Find this therapeutic and some of my best ideas, thinking time is when I am simply ploughing up and down in a pool. For me this is almost like meditation, where I am solely focused on my stroke, my breathing and just letting my mind wander at will.
Business Success
To be honest this is mixed - in terms of financial gain, I have run my business around family needs and commitments. When you work for yourself, you can command pretty high fees, but it’s whether you can tap into a continuous stream of work that will make the difference. I always think that being self employed is like waiting for a bus, nothing for a while and then three come along at the same time and then the fun begins.
I would say ‘Yes’, if you define success in terms of being able to meet other commitments, look after my daughter and engage in some interesting work. I definitely work to live and whilst I value interesting and varied work I also want the time and energy to pursue other things.
I am a strong believer in outside hobbies and interests that allow people to explore different aspects of their personalities. I see no reason for people to wait until they retire before pursuing hobbies. My singing and piano playing are for me non negotiable.
Success secret – not sure I have one, other than a certain level of stubbornness and determination not to give up. I’ve learnt that when your back is against the wall, you have no option but to come out fighting.
How do I balance everything?
I have one week to view diary and every appointment is entered here, so I will have entries for swimming, school events, client meetings, and training days all in one place. This allows me to see at a glance how my life looks for that week. I have used the same format of diary for many years as it works well for me. I like to be able to see a week at a time, so I can plan out each week. Have learnt not to cram every task into my diary – some things need to wait until I can give them my undivided attention.
In terms of balance I try and make the middle of each week my core days for delivery, either coaching or delivering workshops. Mondays and Fridays are slightly more relaxed and are my days for writing, developing new courses, social media and general admin. However I will work at weekends if need be and I always have a notebook, a book and iphone with me so I can make use of ‘small pockets’ of time as I wait to pick up my daughter.
Whilst I don’t cram huge lists into my diary – I do find that writing a task down helps me to focus and get it done. I review on a weekly basis what needs to be done.
I used to try and juggle with a lot of different things, but then realised that this was exhausting and increased my anxiety levels. The more you have to juggle the more you worry about dropping something.
So as I approach my fifties I am going for a different mindset, one of ‘dancing with my life’. Applying myself to one thing (one dance, partner) at a time, if necessary I can switch partners and move onto something else. But each dance and partner will have my undivided attention for the time we are together.
My focus is less on saving time and more on conserving my energy.
The maxim ‘less is more’ seems particularly relevant. I refuse to clutter up my diary with stuff and am looking at my physical space in much the same way.
Women making a difference in the workplace:-
We need to continue being present and not allow ourselves to become invisible in the workplace at all levels.
We need to continue to strive for equality of opportunity for all women and continue to learn and develop in the workplace. We also need to step out at times and take risks.
I think the world of work will eventually wake up and smell the coffee with regards to women in the workplace.
Recommendations/Advice:-
Starting own business,
Don’t be afraid to tell people, friends, family and colleagues about what you are trying to do. My very first piece of consulting work came as a direct result of a conversation with a former work colleague. People can’t help unless they know what you are doing.
If you are excited and energised by your new venture, other people will pick up on this and may well be in a position to help – but you need to tell them.
Accept there will be bad as well as good days, you won’t always feel on top of the world with your decision to work for yourself. Keep yourself up to date, don’t get too comfortable with clients, you can’t assume that they will be around forever. You will need to constantly on the look out for new opportunities or new ways to serve the clients you are with.
Your service and or product need to evolve and change, otherwise they will become stagnant.
Starting work as an employee
Having some good and well recognised qualifications are a good place to start along with a strong network and strong work ethic. Pursue your dream but have the basics covered.
You will never fully be able to predict where your career will take you. So will need to keep an open and flexible approach/mindset towards opportunities and continue learning and updating yourself. Qualifications from school, college, universities are really just the start. You will need to evolve and change throughout your career otherwise you may well become stagnant.
It is also worth checking in on yourself – conduct a career mot every six months or so just to see where you are. The biggest danger I think is just allowing yourself to ‘drift’, believe me I have done this.
My legacy: - something around helping women to move beyond survival and learning to ‘dance with the life they have’.
“In an uncertain world we learn to dance on a shifting carpet” Thomas F Crum.
Not quite sure why, but this really does it for me. Something about the image it conjures up makes me laugh and I think we really do need to be able to laugh at ourselves and life at times.
‘Adventures of a working woman’, I must say to begin with what a great way to get women from all backgrounds and walks of life to share their stories and to encourage and support each other. So thank you Afi for inviting me to share my story.
My name is Janice Taylor and I run my own small business as a career coach and trainer at Blue Sky Career Consulting and have been doing this since February 2000. I am married with one daughter and run my business around the needs of my family. However as I approach my fifties I find myself wanting to really focus my energy on growing my business through the use of technology and social media, even though I don’t have all the details fully worked out.
My journey
When growing up I never expected to end up running my own business – this did not even crop up as an option. I had my eyes firmly fixed on gaining good qualifications and then pursuing a career within an organisation.
Over the years I have made some quite major career changes. I started out as a graduate engineer working in manufacturing, then gained a qualification in Systems Analysis and through this ended up running an Open Learning service to support staff at Ford Motor Company. Having worked at Ford’s for a few years I then made the move across to a Further Education college in North London and it was here that I first became interested in adult careers and the stories behind them.
It was through a friend that I discovered the one day a week Post Graduate Diploma course in career counselling and management at Birkbeck College University London and wanted to reduce my hours at work to accommodate my studies. Unfortunately, this was not possible – so with the support of my husband we made the decision that I would leave full time employment and pursue the course and self employment.
For me this was the second time I had chosen to leave fulltime employment to study, the first being my decision to leave my first job as a graduate engineer after four years to pursue a qualification in Systems Analysis, more on this later.
Today as I look back I really cannot imagine going back to work for someone else. In some ways I am ‘unemployable’. I cannot see myself relinquishing the flexibility and freedom of working for myself, even when work is difficult to find there is something inside that keeps me going. Largely I think because I remember very clearly how I felt on the morning I handed in my letter of resignation to the college and the sheer sense of euphoria I felt as I emerged onto the steps of the building. I remember it was in October and it was one of those clear blue crisp autumn days.
My current role:
My role as a career coach and trainer involves me working with adult groups and individuals alike to help them to take stock of where they are, where they want to be and how they are going to make the change.
I am a great believer in people being able to take greater ownership and control of their careers and working lives.
Generally I work within organisations, sometimes as part of an in house service provided to encourage people to become more proactive in their career and professional development or I am asked to come in as part of a leadership development programme or change programme.
On a day to day basis:
For me no two days are exactly the same, if I am not out and about coaching or delivering training I will be either; designing new workshops/courses or I will be networking especially via social media to source new clients and contacts. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, Twitter and PinInterest. Or I will be working to build and strengthen existing relationships with people I am working with and have worked with in the past. I also write blogs to promote my business and my approach.
Other days I’ll simply be catching up with administration and emails.
My focus at the moment is very much on updating my website, so I can improve my presence online. Interestingly the person I ended up working with to do my site is someone I met through Linkedin. Her name is Kate Bacon and I came across her in a discussion about website designers.
What would I do differently?-
Hmmm, not so sure on this, I left my first job to pursue a Masters degree and realised on the first day that this was not the right course for me. It became very clear in the first lecture, but as I had given up my job to do this I decided to get my head down and get the most I could from the course even though I knew I wasn’t going to end up working as a Systems Analyst.
Looking back on this the one thing that really helped me to focus and keep going was the dissertation, I enjoyed the research and pulling together the 20,000 word report that helped to pull my marks up and in a strange way set the scene for where I am today as my dissertation involved looking at how adults learn and relating this to the design of courses.
What I wished I had perhaps realised earlier was my love of writing and how I might have done more with this earlier in my working life.
I’ve learnt that sometimes you need to make the best of where you are, make the most of the hand you are dealt. It has also taken me a while to learn to live with feeling uncomfortable and pushing forward anyway. I haven’t always pushed myself as much as I could and would link this to not feeling as confident to do so. But now, I firmly believe in the maxim, ‘action first, confidence can follow later’. I can be overly cautious at times, which isn’t always a bad thing but can cause problems at times.
Hobbies/Outside interests/Passions
Writing – I have at least three book ideas bubbling about in my head, none of them related to my day job, so I do want to get cracking with these. I started blogging about three years ago and have been surprised at just how important this has become and the sense of joy and achievement I feel every time I publish a blog.
Music is another interest and passion, for the past three years I have been learning to play the piano. I am completely hooked on this and was lucky enough to pass my grade two at Christmas and am working towards my grade three. This activity absorbs and engages me and takes me away from the day to day.
Singing- again just about three years ago I joined a gospel choir based in Brighton, I must say this is one of the best things I have ever done. If I had my time again I’d work as a backing singer or a choir director. Really love the idea of getting a group of people to sing together.
Physical exercise – I try and swim twice a week, just love being in water. Find this therapeutic and some of my best ideas, thinking time is when I am simply ploughing up and down in a pool. For me this is almost like meditation, where I am solely focused on my stroke, my breathing and just letting my mind wander at will.
Business Success
To be honest this is mixed - in terms of financial gain, I have run my business around family needs and commitments. When you work for yourself, you can command pretty high fees, but it’s whether you can tap into a continuous stream of work that will make the difference. I always think that being self employed is like waiting for a bus, nothing for a while and then three come along at the same time and then the fun begins.
I would say ‘Yes’, if you define success in terms of being able to meet other commitments, look after my daughter and engage in some interesting work. I definitely work to live and whilst I value interesting and varied work I also want the time and energy to pursue other things.
I am a strong believer in outside hobbies and interests that allow people to explore different aspects of their personalities. I see no reason for people to wait until they retire before pursuing hobbies. My singing and piano playing are for me non negotiable.
Success secret – not sure I have one, other than a certain level of stubbornness and determination not to give up. I’ve learnt that when your back is against the wall, you have no option but to come out fighting.
How do I balance everything?
I have one week to view diary and every appointment is entered here, so I will have entries for swimming, school events, client meetings, and training days all in one place. This allows me to see at a glance how my life looks for that week. I have used the same format of diary for many years as it works well for me. I like to be able to see a week at a time, so I can plan out each week. Have learnt not to cram every task into my diary – some things need to wait until I can give them my undivided attention.
In terms of balance I try and make the middle of each week my core days for delivery, either coaching or delivering workshops. Mondays and Fridays are slightly more relaxed and are my days for writing, developing new courses, social media and general admin. However I will work at weekends if need be and I always have a notebook, a book and iphone with me so I can make use of ‘small pockets’ of time as I wait to pick up my daughter.
Whilst I don’t cram huge lists into my diary – I do find that writing a task down helps me to focus and get it done. I review on a weekly basis what needs to be done.
I used to try and juggle with a lot of different things, but then realised that this was exhausting and increased my anxiety levels. The more you have to juggle the more you worry about dropping something.
So as I approach my fifties I am going for a different mindset, one of ‘dancing with my life’. Applying myself to one thing (one dance, partner) at a time, if necessary I can switch partners and move onto something else. But each dance and partner will have my undivided attention for the time we are together.
My focus is less on saving time and more on conserving my energy.
The maxim ‘less is more’ seems particularly relevant. I refuse to clutter up my diary with stuff and am looking at my physical space in much the same way.
Women making a difference in the workplace:-
We need to continue being present and not allow ourselves to become invisible in the workplace at all levels.
We need to continue to strive for equality of opportunity for all women and continue to learn and develop in the workplace. We also need to step out at times and take risks.
I think the world of work will eventually wake up and smell the coffee with regards to women in the workplace.
Recommendations/Advice:-
Starting own business,
Don’t be afraid to tell people, friends, family and colleagues about what you are trying to do. My very first piece of consulting work came as a direct result of a conversation with a former work colleague. People can’t help unless they know what you are doing.
If you are excited and energised by your new venture, other people will pick up on this and may well be in a position to help – but you need to tell them.
Accept there will be bad as well as good days, you won’t always feel on top of the world with your decision to work for yourself. Keep yourself up to date, don’t get too comfortable with clients, you can’t assume that they will be around forever. You will need to constantly on the look out for new opportunities or new ways to serve the clients you are with.
Your service and or product need to evolve and change, otherwise they will become stagnant.
Starting work as an employee
Having some good and well recognised qualifications are a good place to start along with a strong network and strong work ethic. Pursue your dream but have the basics covered.
You will never fully be able to predict where your career will take you. So will need to keep an open and flexible approach/mindset towards opportunities and continue learning and updating yourself. Qualifications from school, college, universities are really just the start. You will need to evolve and change throughout your career otherwise you may well become stagnant.
It is also worth checking in on yourself – conduct a career mot every six months or so just to see where you are. The biggest danger I think is just allowing yourself to ‘drift’, believe me I have done this.
My legacy: - something around helping women to move beyond survival and learning to ‘dance with the life they have’.
“In an uncertain world we learn to dance on a shifting carpet” Thomas F Crum.
Not quite sure why, but this really does it for me. Something about the image it conjures up makes me laugh and I think we really do need to be able to laugh at ourselves and life at times.
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Copyright 2020 Zars Media All Rights Reserved privacy policy Website disclaimer Website usage terms and conditions
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