Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction
00:01:18: Community vs network
00:03:48: Great community examples
00:06:16: Why communities are important
00:06:54: Avoiding the echo chamber
00:09:22: Different roles in communities
00:10:21: The importance of contributing
00:11:24: Finding or creating a community
00:13:18: Building and maintaining a community
00:16:46: What a successful community looks like
00:18:42: The ripple effect
00:21:09: Summary tips
00:28:02: A Squiggly Careers spoken word poetry by Pritesh
00:31:13: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: Hello and welcome to the Squiggly Careers podcast.  This is a weekly podcast where we try and help you to take practical action to navigate through the ups, the downs, and occasionally knotty moments of a Squiggly Career.  We've got over 270 episodes to help you, and if there is ever a topic that you need support with which you don't think we have covered, then please get in touch.  We will either find you the episode, or we'll put it on our list of things to record.  You can record us at any time, helen&sarah@squigglycareers.com.

But today, I'm not joined by Sarah.  Instead, I have somebody else in the Squiggly Careers hot seat.  I have Pritesh Chauhan, who is one of the people who are part of our Squiggly Careers Advocate community, and this is a group that we created, a community that we created, once we'd done our TED Talk last year; because we decided that one of the things we wanted to do was create a group of people who were connected by this desire to make careers better for everyone, because we recognised that that was how we would increase our impact, and also how we would learn more about how to make careers better for everybody.

So, today's podcast episode is going to be all about how we create communities around our career, and why it's important too.  The starting point actually is that a community is different to a network, and I think there's a really nice definition from quite an old Harvard Business Review article, which we'll link in the PodSheet, from Henry Mintzberg, and he said that, "We are social animals who cannot function effectively without a social system that is larger than ourselves.  This is what is meant by community, the social glue that binds us together for the greater good".

This is really why I mean a community is bigger than a network.  A network of people is people that know you and are connected to you; but a community is social glue, binding us together for the greater good.  This is a group of people around what you do, not just you.  And when you have a community that has social glue, that are connected by a desire for greater good, it enables you to increase your impact, it enables you to build your brand, it enables you to accelerate your learning. 

So, in the conversation that Pritesh and myself are going to have today, we're going to talk about the experience that I've had in creating a community, and also Pritesh's experience in creating communities.  Because, as well as being part of the Squiggly Careers Advocate community, he's also Head of Community for an ethical trade membership organisation.  So, he can give you the perspectives of someone who's expert in this area, as well as someone who's experienced it directly.  And we wanted to share a little bit about what it means to create a community, and to be part of one; what we've learned works well, what we think could be even better, and how we can all help ourselves to create more community in our careers.

Before I introduce Pritesh, I did just want to say that one of the amazing things that Pritesh has done to contribute to our Squiggly Careers mission of making careers better for everyone, is he has produced a beautiful piece of spoken word poetry about his experience as a Squiggly Careers Advocate, what it's meant to him, and how he thinks this message of Squiggly Careers can help everybody succeed.  So, we're going to play that out at the end of the podcast today, so please listen to that.  I'll also share the video of him sharing that piece on social media, so you'll see that on Instagram, where it's just @amazingif, and we'll also post it on our Amazing If LinkedIn group too.

So, without further ado, I'm going to introduce Pritesh to the Squiggly Careers podcast.  Welcome, Pritesh.

Pritesh Chauhan: Hi, Helen, thanks for having me.  I'm really excited to be here.

Helen Tupper: So, I thought we must start with just a bit of a chat about what communities we've both been part of around our career, why we joined them, and what we got from them.  So, maybe you go first.  What is a community that's been helpful for you and connected to your career?

Pritesh Chauhan: Yeah, one of the ones I've actually joined more recently is called The Marketing Meetup, which I know you know well, because I think you were on it last week.  I joined it, I saw it online, I saw it on LinkedIn, and it was like, "I'm marketing, I should probably be in that space and hear what other people have said".  And I could not tell you how much I think about The Marketing Meetup now, what the team and Joe and those guys do just brings so much energy in the sort of likeminded people aspects of community, they are teaching me what it means to be consistent in your communications. 

The emails that I get from Joe are fantastic, and I tell my team about them, I tell other people about them, but as a marketer, I hear from other people, it's about being current, I hear what people are doing, the tips and tricks.  The network is now great, loads of people are reaching out, so I'm just getting loads and loads of energy from those guys at the moment.  And, yeah, it just wants me want to tell more people and do more things.  So, that's a really good example for me of what community can really do.

Helen Tupper: And, were you looking for a community, or did you just stumble upon it on LinkedIn and thought, "Oh, that would be interesting"?

Pritesh Chauhan: I don't think I was looking for a community at all, I've got enough going on.  We deliberately have communities that we have responsibilities for around where we live, and the families, and all of that stuff, there's stuff that's already there.  But from my point of view, it was something that I stumbled upon.  I went to one of the webinars and I was like, "I understand what they're saying", and I feel like my voice can be heard. 

I wrote messages and people started reaching out and saying, "I saw you at the community, what about this; what about that?"  So, it happened really organically, and that's what's more exciting, is because when it happens more organically, it's more of a fit for you; rather than, "I need to be around my mentors, I need to be around people that talk my language", could be pretty dry if you're in the wrong place, you know.

Helen Tupper: I think finding your fit is really important, so in the introduction, I talked about the difference between a network and a community.  And I think a network is about a number of people that you have a connection with, and there's not necessarily a bond beyond that.  Whereas, I think a community is where people feel a sense of belonging, because they've found their fit with likeminded learners, or people who share their passion, or people who want to grow the same thing as you.  Does that community have that fit for you?

Pritesh Chauhan: Yeah, I've been chewing over why communities are so important.  They're so intrinsically the most natural thing that we're part of, but why do we care about them, and lots of discussions about community?  It's because it's an extension of ourselves right now.  It's an identity piece for us, being able to say, "I'm part of this [or] part of that".  So, they do have an impact, more than just a network that might help you find a job, or help you learn something else. 

There's something really personal about community, and you choose where you go, to your earlier point about whether I chose or not; that fit was something that was a calling almost.  So, I think it's because of that personal touch that it means so much.

Helen Tupper: So, if it's an extension of you, how do you make sure that the communities that you're part of aren't just a big echo chamber, which is like this narcissistic network, right, like, "I'm just going to go join places of people who think like me and act like me and what the same things as me", but that's just group thinking action.  So, how do you make sure it's more than that?

Pritesh Chauhan: It's context.  If you are just in a group with exactly the same people saying the same things, it's probably going to get pretty boring pretty soon, unless it's adding anything of value to you.  We talk about a lot in squiggles, but it's all about how you grow and how your pains are.  So, there's a lot of groups that I'm part of that I see people and I'm like, "Oh, my God, they're amazing" or, "I never thought about it that way", or they come from a completely different world to me, that there's something probably quite interesting here.  You have to be open to it. 

There's a mentality there, if you want to be around people that tell you you're great at what you're doing, then I'm sure there's a feed for that on Instagram somewhere!  But for me personally, it's very much the context around that group, and if it's right for you, it will always give you something new.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, and maybe there's a bit of challenge in there; it's not just people that just repeat the same things as you.  I was thinking about a recent community that I bonded with and felt like I belonged to, which was this Yellow Learning community, which I joined last year.  Do you know what's interesting, was somebody identified, a guy called Roland, identified that it would be a good community for me to join, which I also think is quite interesting, when people are recognising that that would be a good community.

So, he was like, "Helen, I think you'd like Yellow Learning", and I joined it and it was fascinating, because it really wasn't people like me.  There were some academics, there were some engineers, there were people -- nobody did what I did, or had worked in places that I had worked, and I absolutely loved it.  And I think I listened a lot more because of it.

I think the danger of being in communities where everyone knows things that are quite similar to you, sometimes you can overcontribute, because you're like, "Oh yeah, I know that [or] I've done that [or] I've been there [or] I know that person"; but actually, when you're part of a community where people are connected by, I don't know, a passion or something, not the job that they do, I was much more in listening mode, because I recognised that I have so much to learn from this group of people, because they have done things I've never done before and been to places that I don't know about!  I think that it's really helpful to be in learn-it-all mode in communities.

Pritesh Chauhan: Yeah, I definitely agree.  There's a responsibility linked to any community that you're a part of personally as well.  So, there are some where you might be a natural leader, because people look to you to give your voice, or because of your expertise or something.  But then, there's others where people don't say anything, and actually their role is to absorb and to try something new and explore and learn.  So, I think it's identifying who you want to be in that place.

Helen Tupper: I think that's a really, really good point for people to think about, not just what communities do you want to be part of, but who do you want to be in that community, what role do you want to play, because that might be different in different communities.  Because, in the Squiggly Career Advocate community, I think my role is to start the conversation and bring the community together.  But my role actually isn't to overcontribute; I kind of want to spark something that keeps going.  Whereas, in other ones I might be like, "Well, my role in this community is to listen and question".  I think it can be different in different places.

Pritesh Chauhan: Yeah.  I think with digital, if we talk about digital for a second, in terms of online communities, I think a lot of people think that they can just watch, and that's fine.  But I've been trying to encourage people to say, "Your opinion or your experience or your approach or perspective can actually add to this".  And what I've found is, when you chip in a thought, it might be scary at first, but when you see the response that you get back, that's when everything changes, because you start to feel valued and part of the conversation, and then that leads to something else.

And, in a physical capacity, one of my mentors used to say to me -- actually, what happened is every meeting, town hall or something, he'd always ask a question and I'd be like, "You ask too many questions", and he's like, "No, because people have spent hours presenting or working on this presentation.  Have you ever presented and you say, 'Are there any questions?' and everyone just says no and waits to go?  But then, when one person asks you a question, you feel like you're connected, you feel like you're involved, you feel like someone's heard what you're saying".  So, it's also about just turning up for other people.

Helen Tupper: I'm just thinking now, as you're talking there, the start point is, how do you either find a community that you want to be part of, or create a community that you feel would be useful for your career?  I think, from my perspective, it would be great to get your builds on this.  From my perspective, creating a community has to start with a passion that you want to scale, something that you recognise is bigger than you, so that if you can bring people to it, it can be better because of it.

So, I think anyone who's listening to this and thinking, "Gosh, I'd actually really like to take this thing and make it bigger", I think start with passion and connect people to that.  And I think, if you're thinking, "I'm not ready to start one, but I do want to be part of one", I think maybe either ask people what communities they are part of, or maybe it's just being in observer mode a little bit more.  Like you, I guess, were a bit in observer mode when you were on LinkedIn and you just saw something and you experimented.  It might not have been right for you, but you were willing to put yourself in that situation.

Pritesh Chauhan: Yeah, I think it's great advice.  I think, for whichever camp you're in, wherever you want to be, it's about trying something and realising that it's always going to evolve.  That's one thing about communities, whichever they are, is that they're living, breathing things and they always change, and no two are the same.  Because, I think what people are trying to do at the moment is figure out the structure, like what is the foundation of a community, and there are some parameters, there are some rules and things, but the reality is, every single person in whatever community you build is going to be so unique, and the thing you're talking about is unique, and the timing is unique.

A community can last for a week to build, that people come together to raise the money to fix something and that's done.  Once it's done, they know each other, but they go and do different things.  Or, it could last forever.  So, it's like a breathing organism.  So, you can try it, test it, do something.  If it doesn't work for you, you can leave, you can do something new.  It's not, "Once I've built this house, that's it, it's fixed".  Communities are living creatures.

Helen Tupper: It's a big commitment to decide to create a community, when you talk about consistency, because it's like, "Okay, so one of the things that I'm really passionate about is sustainability.  I'm going to create a community around my passion for sustainability, so I can increase the impact of my work and learn from other people".  That's a really clear objective as to why I might want to do it.

But then what I've got to do, is have a monthly virtual meeting, and then I've got to send out a monthly newsletter; it's a big commitment of time, which is quite interesting.  You know your point earlier about, "These can be a project, it can be short", a community can exist for six weeks around an objective; or, I don't know, for six years around something.  What are your thoughts on the effort that it takes to create a maintain a community?

Pritesh Chauhan: Loads of people have said it on your podcast, "When it feels right, it doesn't feel like hard work".  So, if you're doing something that you care about, then you'll happily stay up and write an email, because you know it's going to connect, it's connected to what you're trying to get out to people.  So, I would add that into the mix is that, yes, it's a lot of effort, but when it's a passion project, then that effort doesn't feel like hard work, it's towards a cause.

But the other thing I was going to ask you is, what is success?  I think we're going to talk about impact a little bit, but I would say, don't try and boil the ocean, a classic phrase, because the reality is, do it for a few people, get your friendlies going, figure out what those ten people, how do they want to connect?  Okay, on WhatsApp.  Let's set up a group there.  And then when someone else comes in, you just throw them in that direction, rather than trying to figure out, "Okay, I'm going to have 500 people at some point, and I'm going to have to do a newsletter and a podcast, etc".  All of sudden, you're like, "Whoa, I need a team.  Oh, I don't earn any money right now.  Okay, maybe this is not going to work", and you can very quickly be like, "Let's not bother".  Start small, start with your friendlies, try things out. 

From a career point of view, I just want to give you a really interesting example.  When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, in terms of starting to think about my squiggle, even before I knew that was a thing, I actually went out to people that I worked with and people that I knew, my family and friends, and I asked them, "What is it about me that you value?" and it's something I did with my coach, and they all told me all these things that they value about me.

So, it was only 25 people that I went to, and they gave me all this stuff, freely, happily, with all their time, and it's that sort of thing.  So, if you want to start a sustainability project, go to the people that understand that language, tell them your idea, they'll give you other things to think about.  You can ask them, "Do you want a WhatsApp group, Facebook, what is it?" and then just start with them, and then build it up and build it up and then see what happens.

If it isn't the right thing in six months' time, well you've tried something, you've got something to talk about, you've got a story to tell, and then you can move onto the next thing.  And if it works out, then at least you've done it and started it, rather than just sitting there going, "How am I going to possibly manage a monthly newsletter?"  I think start small, trial it.  We're in a digital world where you can put up a website, take it down, post something, take it down, it doesn't matter.  Try some stuff, tweak it, figure it out.

Helen Tupper: I think you're right with communities, they can be iterative.  You don't have to commit to a community for life.  I think you have to create it and see who comes.  And if no one comes, then it's okay, it's fine, go and try something else out.

I thought your point there around impact is something that we should talk about like, "What is success?"  So, I've gone, "I know that I'm passionate about design thinking, I want to create a community around that thing, great, and I've started it off and I've found some people who also love design thinking, they want to come to my monthly chat about design thinking.  Brilliant, great!"  But what is success?  Is that the number of people that turn up?  Is it the number of shares of our weekly session on LinkedIn?  What are your thoughts about, what does a successful community look like?

Pritesh Chauhan: I'm going to take you right back to the definition of community.  Community, completely understood by everybody, but when I started as Head of Community last year, I went and asked everyone in the company, "What is community?" and they all told me different things.  So, to understand what success looks like, you have to understand what you're even doing in the first place.

So, write a definition of what your community stands for, and actually figure out what you want to put your stakes in the ground, and then everything else should fall around that.  So, if you're trying to get more people to your cause, because that leads to funding or donations, then it's a volumes game.  But if you are trying to build awareness about something, if you're trying to get people on your side, connect to people that you'll mentor or support or sponsor or something, then your metrics are completely different.  They're number of conversations, they are sentiments, they're, "What comments did we get today?  What questions are people asking?"

We've run virtual meetings, and sometimes no one asks a question, and that's a learning point for us, "Okay, what did we not set up, because people didn't feel open enough to write something?"  Or people have gone, "I've come to 15 of these things, they're fantastic".  That's success.  So, we've been trying to measure it in terms of the purpose that we're wrapped around.

But this new thing that I'm really absorbed in is called the Ripple Effect, it's what does that actually mean?  So, if you're trying to help workers in a different country, then working backwards to that point, it's great bringing people together, but are you shifting any of their mindsets so that when they go and do their job, that's having an impact on workers in a different country?  That's success. 

It's a longer chain, and it's this ripple effect of, "What am I setting out to do; then, what can I do as a result; then, how do I measure that?"  You measure that through actual examples, case studies, stories that you can tell, people that turn up to say, "I'm going to speak at your event, because I learn something", people that come on your podcast because they care about what you've done.  All of those things are success factors.

So, it boils down to what you actually stand for and what you're setting out to do; because, if you want to raise money, it's all about numbers; if you want to build a following to earn stuff on platforms or just to build a community, it's all about numbers, and therefore you have to play the numbers game, an engagement game, and learn about likes and thumb-stopping content and 30-second intros and all that stuff, it's a very tactical approach.  But if you're building a community around a cause, then your success measure should be completely different.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, I really like that point, because I mean, mine and Sarah's perspective is definitely a community around a cause, around making careers better for everybody.  So, we are far less swayed by hard metrics like, "How many people have used the hashtag, Squiggly Career Advocates?"  I mean, I don't even know.  And it's not that I don't care, but the thing that I really care about, I mean I could probably measure it if I wanted to, but it's a more intuitive thing for me, it's how does the conversation continue when we've not started it.

I love to see, in the Squiggly Career Advocates community, people helping people that we have nothing to do with.  I think that's your ripple effect.  It's like, we put a pebble in the Squiggly Career ocean that has resulted in people connecting, and then they continue the conversation.  And the more I see people helping people in action, because of some connections that we've created, the more I go, "Well, that's the power that I want from this community".

Just listening to you there, I thought as we come to the end of this, and before we go into your amazing spoken word piece, which I can't wait for everyone to hear, I was thinking about how could we summarise this into just some sort of tips?  Maybe if I go first, and if you build on with your experience.

So, first of all, if we do tips for anyone who's thinking, "I have a passion, I would like to create a community that are connected to this passion, who can make it bigger than me", I think my top tips on this one: the first would be, for me, be really clear about the purpose.  It's not just a collection of people, because that's like a network really.  This is a group of people that you believe can come together to accelerate this thing, and increase the impact of the thing you want to work on.  So, I think be super-clear about the purpose.

The second thing I would say is, curate but don't constrain the conversation.  So, the Squiggly Career community are talking about things that I didn't know that they would talk about, and they're making connections that I didn't know that they would do, and I think that's brilliant; because, I think your job as a -- I loved the language you talked about with Marketing Meetup, "Community Leader".  I think that your role as a community leader is to curate the community and the conversation points, but not to constrain it.  Let those people take it where they want to go.  So, that would be my second point, create, don't constrain.

Then my own learning, we sort of touched around the edges of this, is use tech tightly.  What I mean by that is, people are so used to engaging with lots of different tech tools.  So, we do Zooms and we do Microsoft Teams and we do WhatsApps and we do whatever else we do.  I think that you do need a bit of structure, and I don't actually think we've got this quite right yet with our communities.  But I think you do need to say the conversation, "We meet monthly on Zoom, and then the conversation continues in WhatsApp", and I think you need to give people that guidance, because people do want to stay connected, but it goes all over the place if people are like, if you haven't created it for them, little subcommunities can exist and you lose the impact of it. 

So, those would be my three top tips for creating and sustaining a community.  Anything that you would add to that?

Pritesh Chauhan: So I would add, focus on your friendlies.  So, start with those, don't worry about those that don't come with you; they'll come when they convert.  Make some real traction with the ones that you can build some support with, and then you can worry about the others later.

Try different approaches, you're not expected to get it right.  Like I said earlier, these are living, breathing things.  So actually, if this platform doesn't work, or this bit of tech doesn't work, then try something else, and it will work better for you; it might not work better for everyone.  And regular feedback updates and learning.  So, this is one of the things that I think a lot of people have reached out to me saying, "Oh, you're building an online platform?"  We built one, because the exec told us to build one, and we can't get any engagement on it.  You're like, "Well, how often are you posting on it?  What are you doing with it?  Have you got someone to moderate it?"

It's the thing of, just because you've got a community, or you think you have a community, doesn't mean that it is.  You have to put in the effort to tell them what you're doing, feedback what you've learnt, give them an update and just keep them in the loop.  I do a quarterly update of everything that's happened, just so we can tell people that what you've said and what you've done, we've heard it or we didn't hear it, or we decided that we didn't want to take that route.  So, regular feedback updates and learnings.

I think we alluded to it is, be proactive in other communities, go and learn from other people if you're trying to build one, because you'll see some best practice in place that you can say, "I really like that, I'm going to try that".

Helen Tupper: Brilliant, yeah, I think that's a really good point, spend more time.  And I could probably do that.  And then engaging with a community, so maybe someone's thinking, "I want to learn from being part of another community", or maybe someone thinks, "I don't necessarily want to create one, but I do see the benefit of this in my career".

My top tips if you're listening and thinking, "Yes, I would like to be more part of The Marketing Meetup [or] I'd like to be part of Squiggly Careers Advocates community", I think when you find these communities, what you give is as important as what you gain, and this is Pritesh's point about, find a way to contribute.  You don't have to do it on day one.  Get confident first of all, but whether it's a, "I agree [or] I disagree", or you connect with somebody afterwards, continue the conversation, what you give is as important as what you gain, to sustaining a community.

I think the other thing that's really beneficial, is when you can support other people's work that are part of that community.  So, connect with them on LinkedIn, like what they're doing, send them a private message to say that you've seen it.  I think it's a big part of the bonds and belongings that exist in the community when you do that.

Then I also think, find ways to stay in touch, because even if, let's say, you're part of a community and then life and work gets in the way of you being part of it regularly, you can still drop someone a message, you can still say, "I really valued that presentation you gave a couple of months ago".  Just find ways, so that your engagement doesn't, I guess, stagnate.  So, just think about how you can stay in touch with people, even if you can't make the monthly conversations, or whatever it might look like.

What about your thoughts about being part of communities, any other top tips?

Pritesh Chauhan: You talked about it in Finding Your Next Role, a couple of podcasts back, where you list the things that you like.  So, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, because that's where likeminded people are and these communities exist.  So step one, if you're on LinkedIn, and you're thinking about your career and you want to be exposed to different things, then type in the thing that you do or you want to do, and find the groups that exist and start reading what they do.  So, the obvious thing for your career is that.

But on Instagram, if you like things and you think, "That would be really interesting".  I've got a friend who recently started a whole catering thing because of the pandemic, because they just loved all this fancy gourmet plating-up of dishes and parties and all that, it's now a fully-fledged business, because it was an interest that they moved into that.  So, don't forget about the things that you care about.  Work and life is this thing that exists in harmony.

So, if you like spoken word poetry, then you find channels and people and then somehow, somewhere, you end up connecting the dots, and it's a collect the dots to connect the dots piece.  So, always remember who you are and what you care about, and then find those communities, because you don't know where that's going to end up as well.

Helen Tupper: So, first of all, Pritesh, thank you for your time in sharing your insights and your wisdom and your experience building communities; and also, in collecting and connecting dots, you mentioned there your spoken word poetry as an example.  And you generously, and amazingly, wrote a piece all about the Squiggly Careers community.  So I thought, what we might do, if it's okay with you today, is close out this episode of the Squiggly Careers podcast with your amazing spoken word piece, about what it means to be part of the Squiggly Careers community.  Are you comfortable with that?

Pritesh Chauhan: Yes, thank you, that would be great.  Thanks for this discussion, it's been really interesting.  I would love to share that with you now.

Helen Tupper: Okay, well Pritesh, over to you to close us out on the podcast.

Pritesh Chauhan: "Wouldn't it be amazing if your dream job was less of a dream and more of a reality, where career success wasn't determined by how far or how quick you progress, but by realising your true potential and unlocking endless opportunity, where there's no route to the top, no glass ceiling, no waiting in line, where we're less pre-occupied with promotions and pay raises and privy to others that now is our time?

"And wouldn't it be amazing if our careers were more squiggly and less ladder-like, where each sidestep, each twist and each turn is an exciting extension of our skills and experience, where we grow, where we make an impact and where we learn?

"A Squiggly Career is a path full of uncertainty and possibility, where the future is determined by your aspirations, what you work at and who you want to be.  There's no one size fits all for the definition of success, and our squiggles are so tremendously unique to us that they differentiate you from the rest.

"Okay, and as great and as lovely as that sounds, wouldn't it be amazing if there was somewhere you could go that gave you all the guidance, the tools and the tips, for you to know how to plan and practically shape the idea career for you, backed by an army of likeminded squigglers, collaborating and supporting for you to see it through?

"Career destinations are a thing of the past.  Moving frequently and fluently between roles, industries and locations means our journeys can be multiple and vast.  You see, I grew up in the 1980s, when ladders were strong, you had a job for life, your loyalty to a company was deep and your time was long.  So naturally, I dreamt of my own steps to the top, from marketing assistant to market exec to marketing manager to senior marketing manager.  I was climbing, I was jumping, I was rising nonstop.

"But then the wheels started to spin, there was nowhere to go.  I was told, "You need to wait for a director to leave for your chance to grow".  I pushed and I waited, and boy did I get frustrated.  I'd invested so much of me, it was plain for everyone to see that my loyalty, my skills and experience should have propelled to where I was destined to be.

"Weeks turned to months, months turned to years, every development conversation would just heighten my fears.  And then one cloudy day, I saw a post from one of my peers, excited and inspired by this book, called Squiggly Careers.  The post demanded that I stop for a minute and ask myself a profound question that would prove quite revealing, "Is the obvious next step really the most appealing?"

"Something clicked, a new world unlocked, I explored and I read and I learnt a lot about myself, my strengths.  I identified my values, I built up my network, my confidence grew and I opened up the possibilities of a future that I get to choose.  With my new idea of what success could mean, I had many curious conversations about roles I'd have never considered right for me.  The excitement of exploring something brand new, and then realising that it's the dream role for you, is so amazing.

"I realised then that if you're not focusing on your strengths, your values, your confidence, your network and your future, then who is?  Start right now, everything you need is right here, podcast, PodMail, practical PodSheets, a PodPlus and more, You Coach You.  Whether you like it or not, careers are changing.  Let your values be the compass to lead the way, be a learn-it-all, take control and be brave.  And now, when anyone asks me what they should be focusing on this year, without question, I'll be telling them to embrace their Squiggly Career."

Helen Tupper: Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast, all around how to build and be part of communities.  I hope you've learnt a lot, let us know.  Let us know if you'd like some other guest seats when Sarah and I are on holiday.  You can always us with feedback.  We're helen&sarah@squigglycareers.com, and the PodSheet that supports today's episode, that will summarise some of those ideas for action, some of those tips to take away, will be in the description for this episode.

Sarah and me will be back with another episode next week, but bye for now, everyone.