Curating Career Life Stories: How Did I Get Here? Ep. 100 with Kathy Lawless

Join me for the career reflections of ME! -- Kathy Lawless, life story curator & podcaster. A journey that starts with always saying yes to doing more and taking on more responsibilities, then with experience & wisdom shifts to being more intentional about what’s next. Kathy finds the structure and opportunities at a fortune 500 company fits well with her natural leadership abilities and work ethics -- until it doesn’t. Which happens to coincide with her 20-year anniversary at that company. Causing her to question “what do I have to show for 20 years of work?” Always one to celebrate the completion of projects and her team & colleagues’ contributions, she decides to start her own business helping people capture & celebrate their career and life stories. Of course, transition is never easy. She talks about the challenges that most entrepreneurs face: having to do it all, knowing when you should be finished with something, dealing with the highs and lows of a new company, selling yourself, measuring success, sticking it out, etc. What’s served Kathy best is: assuming positive intent, operating with a hand forward and hand back, and recognizing the difference between circumstances and what she is committed to. Her words of wisdom come from two Stanford professors who wrote Designing Your Life: “Be curious, talk to people and take action” – she adds her interpretation that: “you can only do it (figuring out what’s next) for yourself, but you can’t do it all by yourself (meaning, you have to get out of your head, talk to people and take action).”