You're listening to Women Infused Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business, and fascinating faith. And now, your host, Christy Lynn Olson. Welcome to Episode 21 of the Women Infused Radio Podcast Show. I'm so glad you're here, and thank you for tuning in today.
On today's show, I continue my interview series from our published book project, We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight, Women of Faith in the Marketplace. It's a two-volume book series featuring 19 women of faith from around the United States who are walking out their unique assignment in the workplace. The books are available on Amazon.com, and we have a link in the show notes here so you can order your copies today. These women are all so accomplished in their respective fields, yet they have struggles just like you and I, as they strive to be salt and light, integrating biblical and spiritual principles into their work environments with grace and truth.
I've been learning so much from each of these women, and I want to share something special with you. The complete, uncut, full-length interviews are available exclusively on the Women Infused Network Broadcast app, which you can download for free for Apple and Android. Just go to womeninfusedapp.com, there's a link in the show notes, or your favorite app store. We'd love for you to join our community of spirit and purpose-filled women of faith, where you will find relevant VIP broadcasts in the areas of faith, lifestyle, and work, plus a free Bible app and study tools that will help you dig deeper into God's Word for yourself.
When you download the app, just register and log in. Search for the Women Infused Podcast channel, and you will be able to download your free copy of our bonus devotional e-book, Love Notes of Encouragement for Women of Faith in the Marketplace. This is our free gift to you. In it, you will find more words of wisdom from the co-authors of our book series, plus a space to journal and pray over each specific topic mentioned by the author.
We pray that this e-book will bless you, inspire you, and encourage you in your journey of faith as you walk out your unique assignment in the marketplace. Today, my guest on the show is Nicolette Barrett. Nicolette has been married for almost 23 years to a senior pastor who has pastored all of those 23 years of their marriage. They have a beautiful teenage daughter, an adult son, and a dog named Bam Bam.
On the professional side, she's worked in corporate America for over 25 years, with over 15 years in various leadership capacities in operations, marketing, and as a corporate trainer. She is also the proud owner and founder of IROC Resumes, a premier career development company specializing in resumes, LinkedIn branding, interview prep, and career management. She is passionate about helping serious career professionals understand they are more than just an employee, and that they are in fact their own corporation, their own brand, and their own CEO. And she works to change the mindset from employee to business owner within the structure of corporate America.
You can find a link to her website, iroccresumes.com, right here in the show notes. Now, let's listen in to my interview now with Nicolette Barrett. Well, today I want to welcome Nicolette, and Nicolette Barrett is one of the most phenomenal women I have met so far on this journey. She is working full-time in a corporate position.
She is a full-time pastor's wife. She also has an entrepreneurial side to her. She has a new business that she's gone with a couple years. And the exciting thing for me is I read her brief little intro that says she's been married for 23 years to a senior pastor and has a beautiful teenage daughter, adult son, and my favorite, a dog named Bam Bam.
So welcome, Nicolette, to our show. Thank you so much for having me. Great introduction, and I love my little doggy Bam Bam. Oh, I bet.
What kind of a dog is Bam Bam? He has a Shippoo. I'm Shippoo mixed with Poodle, and he is just adorable. Oh, my gosh.
I know we have a little dog, and there are babies. So our kids get older, and then we have these little babies. So when I read that name, I just pictured this little perfectly lovely family with their dog, Bam Bam. So I'm so excited to have you here and to maybe see pictures someday of Bam Bam.
Yes. You know, one thing, with your experience, now you've been in the corporate world for over 25 years in a lot of different leadership positions, and then you've owned and founded this company on the side working with career development. And the thing that I loved when I heard about this is that you help professionals understand they're more than just an employee and their own brand and that they are their own CEO. What kind of things do women in the marketplace need to remember about being their own CEO and that employee by someone else?
Well, what I try to make sure that I teach and express is that you actually own your own career, and you also own your own development, and you own your own brand. Once you accept the fact that you are in control of that and you own it, then you don't have to feel like your career is being dictated and led by someone else, circumstances, layoffs, the economy, or what have you. You can still develop your own brand, your own self, and actually your own company, meaning the company of me incorporated, and then make sure that you have all the skills that you need that are transferable to any opportunity. So when something unfortunate happens, such as a layoff or reorganization, or you're being told that you no longer can do this job, and now you have to do this job, and you don't want to do that job, you can actually say, okay, what kind of skills do I have?
What kind of talents do I have? And where can I take that? And you can take that anywhere. So when you treat yourself as your own company, you can market yourself to any other company out there that you want to go to.
And being able to understand and own it empowers women and gives them a lot of confidence to say, you know what? I do have what it takes to do more than just this particular job will be, I guess, under the gun with this company telling me what I have to do, and then, indeed, do what I want to do. And that is so important. I love when you said, we are the company of me.
And if we remember that, that is empowering. And especially today, I mean, it used to be years and years ago, you worked at a company and you retired at that same company. And sometimes that is still true today, but more so than not, I think people find themselves in three, four, five, maybe even more different positions in a lifetime. And so they have to learn how to make their skills transferable.
That's what I hear you saying. Exactly. Because you never know. And in the economy today, companies aren't looking to maximize their profit, maximize what they can get out of their employees.
So they may pay you a certain wage, how you do it, how you do it at a certain level of duty. But then because, you know, the economy, they don't want to hire anybody else, they may add additional duties on you or they don't even need your position anymore. Then where are you? So that means that you're too engaged with the actual company itself.
And you need to separate yourself from the actual company that is your employer and see yourself as your own company so that you can make sure you're packaged properly at every step of the way. And always be prepared. It's always better to be prepared ahead of time than all of a sudden something's happening and then it's a crisis. And then at crisis, the preparation can be jagged, it can be in a desperate mode and really not clear.
That's great advice. And, you know, what you're really doing is teaching women to rely on the strengths and the gifts that they have as opposed to what someone puts in their job description. Exactly. Yes.
And I love the fact that we all have different strengths. And I know I asked you before if you had taken the Strength Finder 2.0, and that's one of my favorite assessments. And you came up with your top strengths are Relator, Strategic, Connectedness, Communicator, and Arranger. And tell us, if you can, what strength has helped you the most do you think kind of navigate your career?
Maybe it's more than one, but if you have to pick one or two of those, where do you think your strengths have helped you the most? I would say the first one would be strategic. And it's so funny that being a strategic person, I never really saw myself as that. And one of my former leaders in another role identified that in me.
He said, you know what? You have a very strategic mind because I have the ability to see a situation and not see it as it is, but what it could be, and also make sure that it happens. I don't see, oh, we can't reach that goal. We can't do this.
I look at that, no, this is what we can do, X, Y, Z, and we can do this, and then we break this down. So he said, you know what? You really have a strategic mind. And being a young leadership professional, that was very empowering to me.
A male would tell me that and really identify that in me as a woman because we're not necessarily seen as that. We're more seen as the arranger, as the remater, and as a connector. Right. So for me to have a strength as a strategy person, I really own that, and I have really managed my career according to that.
And then I'm able now to teach that to my clients, which is very, very empowering. And then I guess the one that will go behind that is because I am strategic. I am a very good relator as well. So I'm able to get things done by the relationships that I build.
And when I build those relationships, my strategy comes to life, and it's all my goals get achieved. So I would say those are my two strongest. That's great. And how have you enjoyed the entrepreneurial journey so far?
I mean, has it been challenging to you in any respects, or what has been the most fun part? Well, it's been both fun and challenging. And the fun part about it is that I never set out to actually be an entrepreneur. I always used to joke in my house, I'm going to be an entrepreneur one day.
I just don't know what. So I was always talking about these crazy ideas I would come up with. Really, convention. And then he's like, no, I don't think that would work.
And I ended up falling into this entrepreneurship because of the major changes going at the corporation that I'm at. And because of the actual changes, I was responsible as a leader, as in corporate America, developing your employees, making sure they get positions and not lose a job, but actually gain a job. So I was always very good at doing that throughout my career and throughout the different states I've worked in and all the departments. So I've made sure that I got all my people prepared.
And with me being able to get my whole team prepared, I actually got my whole entire team promoted. And two of my people were promoted to $14,000 increase in their pay into those types of roles. So I was like, you know what? I have these skills.
I've always had these skills. Let me see who will really need it. And my two employees said, Ms. Nicolette, you really need to do this as a business.
I said, you know what? I've been sitting on this forever. Instead of me doing these copy-maniac adventures I'm trying to do, I'm using my own talents and my skills to birth a natural business. So that's the fun part of it.
I actually see that people respond and actually need what I do. So I put the blog out on Facebook and all of a sudden I started getting inbox requests actually for me to help them with their resumes and interview and all that kind of stuff. So it actually grew based on Facebook. And the challenge has been, of course, oh my gosh, okay, now that I'm doing the resume part, I'm doing interviews, how can I expand?
What else can I do? Because my customers would actually ask for additional items or additional things, career development, career strategy, but I'm already doing it, so let me just do it and market my skills out into the marketplace. So being able to make sure that I'm servicing my customers as well as doing the job I need to do as my angel investor, being in corporate America, to be able to fund my venture to do the IROC resume. So being able to balance those are sometimes challenging, but I found calendaring systems.
Calendly is my best friend. Yay, I love Calendly. I'm glad someone else likes it. Oh my gosh.
I mean, that has really helped me. And again, some other different tools like Asana has helped me as well. So being very organized, so that's keeping on top of that and being able to service my customers. It's always a challenge, but I'm up for the challenge, and I use those tools to my benefit.
That is great advice, and I'm going to write down those tools and make sure we put them in our show notes, because I think that sometimes women just need a few tools. But I hear you playing to your strengths, and definitely the strategic piece is going to come through and all of that. And the other thing I hear you saying is you want to be of service to your clients. And so that always makes me think of how do we, as women of faith in the marketplace, follow this path of servant leadership.
Can you tell us a little bit more about why is it so important to be a servant leader, and how has that impacted your work environment? Well, being a servant leader, and I started doing this a long time ago, before it became very popular in corporate lingo, because I know, because of my relational skills that I have, being able to listen to people, undergird them with, and support them with their own personal ideas, and things that they're going through, and their families, or what have you, and just listening to them, and engaging with them as a person, and not as a worker be, that I need you to do this to get the results I need. Because I'm able to do that, and serve them from that perspective, I find that they, in turn, serve me to make sure that I reach my goals. So it's that servant, I'm basically going back and forth.
I serve you, make sure you have what you need, so you can be successful in your role, and then in turn, that success will automatically make me successful in my role, because they're doing their best job, because they have a leader that's supporting them. And that's in the corporate world. And when it goes over into my business, what I do, I empower, and I encourage, and I tell them that you have everything inside of you you need to make that next move, whether you've been laid off, you feel devastated by that, or something's going on at the current job that you're in now, that you're ready to leave, you have whatever it takes, and I'm going to make sure that your marketing document tells you all your story so powerfully that you're able to walk into your next opportunity with no issue. And every time I'm done with one of my clients, I always tell them I'm adding you to my prayer list, and I'm praying for you to make sure that you get your next role, and that you're going to be happy in that next role, and your life will get back on track.
I'm always praying. So I serve them, I make sure I give them the best service that I possibly can, being available to them, answering their question, and empowering them with not only my encouraging words, but also through prayer. You know, and prayer is, we all know we're supposed to pray, but I think sometimes in the midst of a busy workday, we kind of forget that praying for those that we're serving is probably first and foremost, should be first and foremost on our list, but it sounds like it kind of comes naturally to you now. It's who you are, you can't separate that, and it's just integrated into your whole walk.
Would that be a true statement? Yeah, that's a very true statement, because I never understood how we could be separate. I have not one way of work, and a different way outside of work, and a different way on Sunday. I am the same person regardless.
You get what you get, and when you see me, it is what it is, and I have all right, so I've always been that type of person, and the people are drawn to that, and then if I have that open opportunity, even in the workplace, I say, I'm going to pray for you, and there are something of that, I will do that, and I will add them to my prayer, because sometimes I have taken people into a room, and we prayed at that moment, and so, and that's just who I am, and it still allows me to be successful as a corporate leader, and do my job without it impacting or causing any type of pressure in the workplace. You know, that's so important. So some people are coming to you and asking you for advice, or you're able to go into a room and pray for them. You know, it's one thing people ask you, have you ever been in a situation where they have not asked for that counsel, but you're certainly, as a spiritual being, aware that there's something going on, and you probably just instantly offered to pray for them, but how does that, has it opened doors for further conversations, maybe with someone who's not a believer, or someone who isn't really sure what they believe?
Yes, it has, and you know what it does is, even if those are not necessarily totally believers and active in church, the fact that they hear the word prayer, and that I'm going to do that, they believe it from my heart, and so it's easy for them to accept it, because it's from where the place is coming from within my heart, and so there are those barriers and walls, I'm going to report you, or what have you, that doesn't happen, because they know it's coming from my pure heart, and I can do it in such a way, and pray for them in such a way, that they don't feel like they're being beat up over the head with the Bible, but it's also an encouragement to let them know that they're so out there, and someone greater than who we are, that can actually help them if they so choose, and so that's what I try to do to make sure that I'm seeing my heart, and it's coming from my heart, and when I lead from my heart, it is received into the heart. What about gossip, and you mentioned this briefly in the book, and it kind of caught my eye, because I thought, you know, everyone loves water cooler gossip, and it's so easy to fall into that trap, how have you kind of kept yourself away from that, whether it's a specific situation, or just in general, but gossip can tear people down, and so how have you dealt with that as a woman in the workplace? Well, I try not to, I work hard not to be judgmental on anybody, so if someone comes to me with some stuff, and I have to actually talk about one of my best friends who's also Christian, and we're here at the same company, we preface it, okay, only the fact that we will not go over into gossip, if it's not something you know for sure, don't talk about it, so we always preface it, just the fact, not gossip, and that's it, because you don't want to get caught up in speculation, and tearing somebody down with an assumption, because when it happens to you, you don't want that to happen to anyone else, and with it happening, unfortunately, to some colleagues of mine here at the job, I didn't, want to pass judgment on them because i know them to be christian women and unfortunately something happened that scared them away from being you know in a good situation and you know we all stumble nobody's perfect and so i didn't want to know about the gossip i didn't even care about the gossip i said no i don't want to hear because i know these people and i know they're good people and all i did was just offer my prayers to that and i try to guard myself against that and i'm deflected and i don't even welcome it into my environment because i have too many things going on to welcome that in my environment so once people know who you are in your character you're either going to be the drawer of that gossip or a deflector of that gossip and i have been wanting to be a deflector so to be honest it don't even come to me it rarely comes my way and if it doesn't somebody don't know they don't know what that person lets me bring it to me i just don't i just don't tolerate that because we all fall and we all have to pick ourselves up and god is the best person to help us do that absolutely and thank you for sharing that because i think you kind of hit the nail on the head we all fall and we can all sit in judgment but they always say when you point the finger at someone else you've got what three or four fingers pointing back at you you know we have to be careful of what we're saying and what we're listening to and so i think for some women sometimes they have to set those parameters like you did saying we're just going to talk about the facts anything after that we have to be quiet so i think you've set systems in place it sounds like that you know what you stand for what you won't stand for and that has worked for you so that's great advice you know part of being a woman faith in the marketplace also means we have a lot of things we have to do a lot of expectations and we have to structure our time in a way that we don't lose ourself in the process and that's one of the questions that we ask in the book and i remember you remarked that being a senior pastor's life not only are you working in the marketplace but you feel like these expectations and assumptions of the church can also weigh heavy on a pastor's life so how have you kind of navigated that and how have you chosen to be active in church and also set boundaries i have a great supportive husband and he has been one to say you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do meaning setting the stage and not allowing the membership to come to me and ask me to do things that are too overwhelmed because although the member may be asking they don't realize that there are 10 others that came and asked me to do something as well so if they were aware that there are like 10 to 15 people coming at me asking me to do different things they probably would step back and reserve that so he's been very protective of me and that knowing that you know he would make mention you know working you know she has to have their child all these different things so he's been a great supporter of that so i wouldn't really have to say much but what i can do is pick and choose the things that i can do because of course i want to be active i want to be supportive so i do it in a way that it's not overly stressing me out that i'm pulling my hair out now that has been a long time coming when i was a young pastor whose wife with a brand new child and did not really didn't understand how to balance that because i'm still doing ministry at the peak everything because you know it was my husband and i didn't have a responsibility at home so i could do a whole lot of other things so it was great but then i'm still trying to do all those things and work full-time and take care of a brand new baby and that began to weigh on me i said oh my gosh this is this is too much and then i had to step back and realize it and with my husband's help to say you know you don't still have to do all this stuff right now because you have you know coming the baby and if down the road you want to get back involved in some things go ahead and do that so that was really helpful for me to kind of reorganize myself in time to really focus on the family this new life that we brought into this world and then once life gets a little bit less active get back into ministry heavy when i can or bring it in pieces and not to the level i was doing when it was just my husband and i just free and fancy we do whatever we want those were the days right so you know it sounds like you kind of have this great um now you're in this room you understand what balance looks like a few years ago a woman by the name of cheryl sandberg wrote a book and you're probably familiar with it called lean in and it brought up this whole conversation about can women do it all what would you say to a woman who is struggling right now trying to do it all and just feeling like she's dropping all of her spinning plates or dropping the ball everything you know what advice would you give her i would tell her to drop them drop the ball step back put in some self-care and then think about what is it that i truly want to do hey it's christy again that was just one part of my interview with nick willett to hear the full interview where we talk more about new opportunities work that's challenged her faith values and career and struggles she's faced along the way and how she pushed through them with no regrets but you need to download the women views app where you will find full-length interviews from all of our co-authors and exclusive bonus materials to help you walk out your own journey of faith in the marketplace you can download the free women views app at womeninfusedapp.com link is here in the show notes or just go to your favorite app store when you download the app on your mobile device just register to log on and then go to the channel icon on the bottom of your screen on the app there you will find the podcast channel where you can click and find nick willett's full interview episode 21 you can also get your free copy of the e-book love notes of encouragement for women of faith in the marketplace there is a link to the free e-book devotional when you click on episode 21 could you do me a favor too tell all your friends to download the women views app at women views app.com our vision is to reach 1 million women for christ with faith teachings lifestyle information and practical business and leadership principles for women of faith and if you know anyone who you think would like to have their own broadcast channel on our network please have them contact me by email christy at christylinolson.com i'd love to chat with them about it goodbye for now and remember alone you are significant but together we are amazing this has been women infused radio connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit and we want to connect with you get your free gift unveiled voices six things you need to do to define your value voice and vision for more information on the free gift and links to join the conversation on social media visit us at christylinolson.com visit us at christylinolson.com Thank you.