I have an awesome book giveaway at the end for her new book that just dropped about transitions and new jobs and whatnot. So I have a lot of notes even for myself and I’m pretty set with where I wanna work, but I want to help people and give, give, give. And just so I can pay forward a little bit about what Michelle dropped on this, you’re gonna want to take notes.

If you like it, smash the like button. Subscribe to it, all that jazz and my sponsors affiliates, absolutely love it. So [00:01:00] without further ado, here comes my really good friend, coach Michelle Schafer. Your job search GPS, let’s level up. Time to Shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. This is Scott Ferguson. And off mic. I just had. A fantastic conversation with a good friend Michelle Schafer, who’s north of the border. We’re talking about my sunny weather in South Florida and the white stuff still on the ground up there in in Canada. But Michelle Schafer is a rockstar coach and ICF certified and facilitator specializing in career transition and leadership.

She’s the owner and founder of Michelle Schafer coaching, empowering people to achieve career fulfillment. Michelle’s a passionate. Is passionate about people and inspired by their progress working with clients at all levels of organization and across sectors, including federal and municipal, government, high tech, non not-for-profit and financial services.

Michelle offers coaching one-to-one and in groups and is most recently was recognized and get this Squad is one of Ottawa’s top coaches in 2024. So Ms. [00:02:00] Michelle, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself the time to Shine Today, podcast for our C squad, but first. What’s your favorite color and why?

Oh,

Michelle Schafer: my favorite color. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me, Scott. Welcome. I’m so excited to be here. My favorite color, I would say is purple. And what? I’m wearing purple today. , For the visual. Here, leave it

L. Scott Ferguson: out. That’s purple. It’s just,

Michelle Schafer: it makes me happy. I’ve got purple in my scarf.

I’m wearing a scarf that I got when I was in Peru hiking Machu Picchu. It’s got purple in it. Love that color for sure.

L. Scott Ferguson: And it’s royalty. There

Michelle Schafer: you go.

L. Scott Ferguson: And as a coach, coach, I’m not wearing

Michelle Schafer: my crown today. No, no, no. I left that, I left that in my other room.

L. Scott Ferguson: I her leave it at home squad, the whole crown thing.

But no. It’s a mix between red and blue. Right? So you got the fiery side sometimes and the blue chill side at other times, so

Michelle Schafer: That’s right. What you forget about the purple is born. Really? Yes. From two other colors. Right, exactly. So love it. Thank you for highlighting that.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. So. Career transition, which, , in this day and age, it’s [00:03:00] very important.

Yeah, it is. Especially the way everything’s changed to like online, not at work. Going back to work, , here, here, at least here in the states after post pandemic, , people are, , demanding. Hey, we’re, we’re opening up shop again. So, but some people had moved to Florida, it was a little bit more free.

Right. So they, yeah, they could work from home. Right? Mm-hmm. But still work for a company in say, California or somewhere else, but now they’re getting called back and they’re like, I don’t want to go back. So there’s a lot of that stuff that’s going on. So tell me, first of all, I gotta know the roots of you, Michelle, like what got you into the, maybe where you started, but also the, the passion that made this blooming of the, , how you’re helping people with these transitions.

Michelle Schafer: Exactly. And , I mean I love that you asked that question because , when I’m working with clients, I love to hear their career stories. Well, yeah, I, I have my own as well, obviously, so I got into coaching through career transition and so I actually lost my job twice over the [00:04:00] course of my whole career.

Mm. Figures. I’m on a podcast and something now comes into my throat. Sorry about that. Bad timing, right? So I lost my job through restructuring. And so, , over the course of my career, I was working in financial services. Actually, my first restructure, I was 18 years. With TD Bank Financial Group, large national organization.

Yeah. And lost my job for the first time. It was my first job out of high school. Wow. And I had to reinvent myself into something new. I knew I wanted to get into not-for-profit. Started working for our Canadian Cancer Society locally here. Also a large national organization. Yeah. But within both organizations, I was doing some coaching.

I mean, I was. Coaching, developing individuals. Oftentimes they were trainers because I was in the learning and development space. And a year before I lost my job a second time, a good friend of mine who is a coach just said to me outta the blue one day, I never understood why [00:05:00] you didn’t do this as a career.

And at the time I said, oh, I love my job. , Why would I wanna change? Well, then when I lost it, , the second time, yeah. It made me think, you know what? I have to think about that. Maybe this is the universe telling me I should explore this, right? And so I started networking with coaches, trying to figure that out.

Talking about like, , what kind of coaching there is available. And I realized, , I have the career transition experience. I’ve lost my job. I’ve needed support myself. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I was the person. To provide that support. So, got my first level of certification, started my practice 10 years ago now.

Wow. And so now I support individuals who have lost their job in the same way that I received support when I lost mine. So it’s really come full circle for me.

L. Scott Ferguson: Got you. With, with that being said, I gotta go here first because, , we are in this business to serve, serve, serve, right. Yeah. But also we gotta get paid.

Okay. Of course. So, of course, lost their [00:06:00] job. , Like, like, and I’m sure you’ll agree me, the, the first thing on most of their mind is, shoot, man, I have to pay for a coach. So like,

Michelle Schafer: like

L. Scott Ferguson: how it has to be some kind of challenge to overcome and people like us, we look at challenges as opportunities. So, but like, how do you handle, handle that?

If that, if that’s even an objection, maybe I’m wrong.

Michelle Schafer: , I mean, you make such a good point because , especially in these times, like we’re in a time right now where loads of people are losing their jobs. There are layoffs in all kinds of sector, like government, retail, and technology. Like, it’s almost like there’s no sector that’s, that’s not affected.

Right. And you’re right. These are individuals who may be. At the time they’ve been let go, haven’t been provided with any kind of career transition support. So then they’re flailing, they’re trying to figure out stuff on their own. So I also like you, Scott. I mean, I operate from a principal and a place of wanting to give [00:07:00] back.

And so like. I post on LinkedIn daily, like five outta seven days of the week. You can find me on LinkedIn. Oh yeah, you can. Yeah. Talking about career transition topics and giving away free strategies, like it’s not just talking about being in a job search or maybe some of the challenges, but it’s also about the things to think about, the things to do, really actionable strategy.

So I do that. I also will reach out to people, like if somebody is engaging with a post of mine or maybe they start following me, I’ll just reach out to them and say, how can I help? Like, what questions do you have? Mm-hmm. It’s amazing the conversations that you can have. Yeah, and I mean, obviously these are all conversations that cost the other person like, like nothing but their time.

I actually give complimentary 30 minute conversations to people. If you wanna reach out, you want to share your challenges, you wanna explore. What else you need to do in your job search. I have a booking on my [00:08:00] website. You can book a conversation with me and it will cost you nothing but your own 30 minutes to have the conversation.

So, so I really believe in that giving back too, like looking for work. I. It takes a village. Well, anything in life takes a village right of support. And knowing the credible resources that you can reach out to where you can get information, you can get support are so key. And I think we’re also really lucky.

We have lots of resources online where, , you can find, not just on LinkedIn but just on the internet, like there are, there are podcasts devoted to. Looking for work, for example. Sure. Like Mac Pritchards, finding your Dream, dream Job podcast is one of those. Sure. So, so directing people to what they need can be really helpful for them.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that you. Or on LinkedIn, because that’s the only social that I’m really involved in as well.

Michelle Schafer: Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that you’re not, I affectionately call it pitch slapping people where like, yeah, you get hit up every day with the pitch slap exactly like, oh, this, this, and this, and I’m [00:09:00] like, , you just kinda see through that.

But it, yeah. , The, and also that you have kind of like a half hour of power. That you get, , that you’re giving people. So that’s a total give giver. I believe in kind of like I was told before by Gary Vaynerchuk, he has this book, it’s called Jab, jab, jab, right? Hook. Right. So, okay.

You give, give, give, and then you, , you get with that, with the Yeah. Reciprocity through it. That’s beautiful that you are slow playing it and not just going after it. So you’re building genuine relationships.

Michelle Schafer: Absolutely. So

L. Scott Ferguson: what do you feel in someone in your field makes a great coach?

Michelle Schafer: Oh, like what makes me a great coach?

Yeah. Or somebody who plays in the career transition space. That’s an excellent question. I would say the first thing that individuals who want to work with me, for example, or with a career coach are looking for is somebody who gets their experience. Like somebody who can, who can put themselves in the other person’s shoes and understand [00:10:00] the impact on.

Your physical health, mental and emotional health when you lose your job? It’s painful. It’s devastating when there’s so many clients that I work with that didn’t see it coming, and so they’re needing somebody to understand their experience to provide that first level support. So I would say.

Bringing that quality and that ability to your conversations definitely makes me a good coach to support people. Yeah. Something else that I know other people have told me is that they’re looking for somebody to give them some actionable strategies, like help them create a plan. Like it’s not just about.

Talking in the sessions, , like how, how’s your week been, Scott? Like, that’s not very helpful. But actually talking about, so Scott, tell me what’s one thing that you did to support your job search and then giving that person some other ideas? Yeah, that’s really helpful too. So I think a career coach to be really effective, to [00:11:00] help people needs to have knowledge, needs to have knowledge of the market, needs to have a knowledge of.

The kinds of activities that individuals need to engage with and to know that, for example, somebody looking for work, it’s not just good enough to look on LinkedIn or Indeed or any of the job boards, right? You need to get out there. You need to be reaching out and networking and, and having a plan to do those things.

So a coach will also. Help to identify some gaps in a person’s job search strategy. I do mention networking very intentionally because a lot of the clients that I work with, they just want to be behind the computer. They just want to look at jobs and they just want to apply. They don’t want to have conversations and ask for help.

So a really great coach will help to gently. Flag any gaps in their strategy and help a client to be able to take steps forward confidently. With networking, it really requires a plan. So [00:12:00] helping that person devise a plan is really helpful too. So, so a coach just doesn’t rubber stamp everything. Like, for example, if I’m looking at somebody’s resume.

I’m not just gonna say, oh Scott, your resume looks great. Like, go and apply for jobs. If I see some things that really need to be worked on, sure, I’m going to bring those strategies forward. And more importantly, I’m not just gonna help to coach that person through making the changes. I’m gonna give them models.

I’m gonna give them examples. Yeah, I’m gonna give them some resources. To help them feel confident and good about the changes that they’re making. So I would say those things in particular make me effective in this space, but certainly things that clients have told me that they’re looking for when they are seeking out the support of a coach.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, empathy’s huge with that. And I almost wanna call you a instead of a coach, but like a coach salt, right? So it’s like, because you can consult them on their resumes and stuff like that. As a coach, I believe that. [00:13:00] Everyone knows what they want, they just don’t know how to talk themselves into it. And that’s what that coach really kind of does for them.

Right, exactly. Or consult, you can actually consult them on it. So I’m gonna start calling you a coach consultant, which is I think is more fitting, which is beautiful. So, yeah. Okay. So let’s say you are in a, a one-on-one discovery situation. She or he wants to make sure that you’re the right coach for her.

You

Michelle Schafer: know,

L. Scott Ferguson: is there any good question that you wish they would ask you but never do?

Michelle Schafer: Ah, that’s a really great question. I would say the one question that I don’t hear, but I think can be really insight, an insightful question for people to ask me would be. When you were looking for work, what was your most impactful job search learning like?

In other words, what did you learn from looking for work that guided how you look for work going [00:14:00] forward? Hmm. I never get asked that question, but I think because I know what my answer would be because I made all kinds of mistakes. Sure. Obviously, when I was looking for work. Two, , because I’ve been in this situation where I’ve been thrust back in the job market, I know what I would answer, which is.

I didn’t realize when I first started looking for work, the power of networking and reaching out to others and building relationships, and I would take that one step further and say, I didn’t know the power of looking through my network instead of just at it, meaning every single person, right? That like Scott, you, you would have an extensive network.

Every person that you know. Would know hundreds of people. Right. Same with me.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love that.

Michelle Schafer: I didn’t get that when I was looking for work. I was just, , when I wanted to get into not-for-profit, I had three people in my network that were in not-for-profit. So I reached out to those three people and I thought, well, I guess that’s it.

Like nobody [00:15:00] else is gonna help me. Right? But I didn’t realize that. All of the people that I knew in the those, yeah, like, I mean, all of the people I knew in the banking world knew hundreds of people and every single one of those people practically, yeah, knew somebody, a not-for-profit they could connect with.

So that would be an awesome question for somebody to ask me about my own learnings because it also. Shed some light on maybe what some gaps are in their own job search and things that they need to pay attention to.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. I love it. And, and you’ve walked this walk, you’ve did this. Yeah. You took action on it with that and that, which is.

Something that people are gonna look for. Especially I know when I hired my first coach 26 years ago, , as I’m still with her in 1999.

Michelle Schafer: That’s amazing. ,

L. Scott Ferguson: And it, it’s like I would look at it and I was a young man at that. I’m 53 now, so I guess I was 27. And just like seeing, and I remember asking her, what one, what, , what do you expect of me?

, Again, I wasn’t looking for a [00:16:00] job, but she was, , that like that I asked that. But what you just said about, , what are pitfalls, what are things, things that you feel that I’m going to hit, and then the challenges that become opportunities to reframe ’em as that, that, that’s, that’s fantastic, man.

So, yeah. What do you feel then your weaknesses are as a coach? Hmm.

Michelle Schafer: Oh gosh. I would say that’s, you know what? Yeah. I’m glad that you asked that question because that’s a question that I help to coach my clients on as it relates to interviews. Right. Because in an interview, that’s a classic question, like whether it’s, , tell me what one you suck at. Yeah. Well, and and that’s it, right?

Like, and we’re all human, right? Yeah. So it’s. It’s like, it is one of those things that it’s, it’s part of it is just being aware, right? It’s being aware of the things that we need to grow in and we need to develop in. Yeah. So, so one of the things that, and it’s something that I’m aware of and it, and it [00:17:00] crops up right time and time again, it does happen.

I’m human, I’m a coach, but I’m human is, I have a tendency sometimes to talk quickly and. , When, when you’re coaching, sometimes , somebody might miss something that you’re talking about or a question that you ask. And so, , one of the things that I’m really try to be very mindful of, and again, I’m human, so it, it doesn’t always happen consistently, we try, but it doesn’t always happen, is before I get on a call with somebody, and right now, I mean post pandemic, I’m doing all my coaching online, like on Zoom.

Is I just take, take a beat, right? Like, just take a few breaths, ground yourself and focus in on, okay, what is going to be important to this individual and how can I support them? And I find when I ground myself, my, like, I’m slowing down my body because I’m taking some breaths. Which [00:18:00] slows down the mind.

The mind now is not like on that hamster wheel, like just going, going, going. And it also prevents me from getting distracted. I mean, my office, nobody can see it here in terms of what I face out to. I face out into my backyard. It’s easy to get distracted by a squirrel, a bird, or whatever.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, there’s a dog that squirrel.

Michelle Schafer: Exactly. So where are the squirrels? Right, love. They’re there, they’re like, especially at this time. It’s spring. They’re all over the place. Yeah. But just when you ground yourself, and this is a technique I actually will work on with some of my job seeking clients too, because you can get so revved up.

That now you’re like, whoosh. Like everything is just in full gear, where when you just take a few breaths, everything just slows down. You can make decisions better. You can listen. Yeah. More effectively. There’s so many things that come from that. So grounding yourself

L. Scott Ferguson: leads to enlightenment. That that’s, it [00:19:00] really does.

That’s amazing. So you mentioned it opens up the door like doorway, phrases and words earlier. So. I, I, I feel I know what it means. ’cause there’s certain times in my coaching relationships that I hear those kind of, those words that kind of opens the door into an enlightening conversation. And yeah, we, we we’re getting there, so I.

What are some of those words and kind of conversations look like from your point of view as being a coach for people looking in, , career transition or just looking for a job?

Michelle Schafer: For sure. I would say the, the most common ones that I see, and they’re really connected to assumptions and judgments that a job seeking client will have is if the statement starts off with.

I think dot, dot dot Or i should dot, dot dot. Or I know.do dot. These are all like assumptions and judgments that people are putting [00:20:00] on themselves. Like I’ll, I’ll give you an example of how it sounds in practice. So I will have a number of clients because I tend to work a lot with like. Mid-career professionals and, and some professionals are at like, almost the tail end of their career.

Like they’ve lost their job, but they’re, they’re pretty close to retirement, but they still need to work. And so I’ll hear, I’ll hear somebody talk about like, they’ve been applying for jobs, they’re not getting any interviews, and they’ll say, well, I think it’s because I’m too old. Or I know it’s because they already have an internal candidate and they’ve gone with that.

Right. How do we know these things? Like, , and, and, and I’ll ask, so where, where the conversation can go into it, and an enlightenment territory is, I’ll say to this client. What facts and evidence do you have to support that way of thinking? So you think you’re too old, beautiful. What, what facts do you have?

Like, what is the evidence? Yeah. Well there there is none, , like, so, so [00:21:00] that can be a game changer. Like when I hear that, I try to jump on it as a way of exposing what those, limiting prove it to me are.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. I love it. Yeah. You prove me that so many people speak and it’s

Michelle Schafer: empowering for people to see that they have these thoughts.

Right? And

L. Scott Ferguson: so many people speak in, in the negative definitives where my clients are not allowed to use. I would, I could. I should. Like, should, should. I should. You should all over yourself, right? Oh, yeah. It’s like, dude, it’s like I can’t, I will. I am. We’re speaking definitive. We’re gonna activate the reticulate activating system.

We’re gonna see things and go, ? Yeah. Which is beautiful. Which, so how about your clients that are looking to level up their work and they’re stuck? In the imposter syndrome. They’re like, I don’t know about that. Like what do you, what kind of coaching do you take ’em through on that to overcome imposter syndrome?

Michelle Schafer: Yeah, I, and that, that’s a great question too, because it is something that I see show up, especially at the mo. Well, [00:22:00] there’s two places I see it show up. I see it show up at the moment that people are considering to apply for a job because they. They might convince themselves, oh, I can’t do that. Oh, that’s too high for me.

But I also especially see it at the time of an interview where, where people are crafting their, I like to call them their happy ending stories. , Like those examples of things you do really well, like a fairytale. Right, right. It ends in a good way. You wanna share those stories? I, I see it show up then too.

So, so what I’ll, I’ll work on with a client, it’s, it’s back to the evidence and proof. So if somebody says, well, I can’t do that. Well, what evidence do you have to support, well, what are the specific things that you’re seeing where you don’t meet those qualifications and nine times outta 10, , we, we can go through all of the qualifications and the person meets everything.

So I’ll say, well, what, , what’s holding you back? What’s standing in your way? It’s all of those powerful questions, right? I love that that unlock, , like what it is, like, it’s that lack of confidence and , for somebody who has lost their job. [00:23:00] Especially if they didn’t see it coming, their confidence and their self-esteem takes a massive hit.

Yeah, it, yeah. Nose dive. Like whoosh. So, so helping to build them up by redirecting them back to all of their achievements, like, and I’ll ask them, so, , here’s this qualification about leading projects, and the person says, well, I don’t know if I can do that. Well, look, I’m seeing on your resume, you’ve led some projects.

Tell me about that experience. What did you do? What did it result in? And if they’re really stuck, I’ll. I’ll encourage them to ask other people, like ask other people what were the ways in which you provided value? And when you hear from other people, that’s empowering. It’s enlightening, it builds up your self-esteem.

So I work with them like. Literally by going back to what your evidence is, what are those achievements? Yeah, but if necessary, bring in other people. I remember there was one individual, and because you mentioned earlier, I’m a workshop facilitator and so I will help [00:24:00] to, , help individuals with writing their resume.

That was one of the courses that I’ve, I’ve taught, and I remember this one individual, he could not get connected to his achievements. He could not see anything that he had done, and so. Working with him to see that he was striving for what I call fireworks moments. Like fireworks moments might be, I saved my company $1 million.

Right? Yeah, that’s massive. But how many of us get to do that? Well, not really very many. Sure. So helping him get connected to. The everyday fireworks moments, the times where he, , handled the customer complaint in a way that that person was really happy and and believed in the company after. Yeah.

, That can help people get past that imposter syndrome and recognize that. They’ve been offering value every day, and we all offer value every day. No matter what you do for your organization, no matter how long you’ve been there, no matter [00:25:00] what level in the organization you are at, you are offering value every single day.

And sometimes all we have to do is ask other people and they would be happy to tell you,

L. Scott Ferguson: absolutely, I should espouse whatnot. Like it Absolutely everyone has something they’ll say to you. I mean, I believe that a lot of people, especially my coaching, I notice including myself, that I. A lot of people attach that confidence to their abilities.

Right? And like, , I’m blessed to coach a billionaire, , a hedge fund guy, , coach, coach a, , a couple, PGA golfers, major league baseball players, n NFLs, fun and stuff like that. Who am I to do that? Right? I’m attaching my abilities, I feel, to my confidence. But what I found, Michelle, is that once I can get my clients and myself to attach my confidence to my intentions.

Yeah. Like the intention all about. Mm-hmm. Like what I’m doing, if I’m gonna speak in front of, 1500 people tomorrow, it’s like I gotta be intentional. What do I want to give them? Yeah. So I’m thinking even in your line of work, which I know that you, you’re doing that by having them talk to [00:26:00] their wins.

, People that feed them into it and they find that intention is like, dude, my intention is to give my best. To this interview. My intention is, get my best for this, because they’re probably not even gonna get an interview unless they’re qualified. Yeah. At least. Unless things have changed a lot, , in the past.

Yeah. And it’s that

Michelle Schafer: combination of like, not just applying and being qualified. Right. But if you really wanna get an interview, then you engage your network and get somebody to get your resume into the right hands. Thank you. Get somebody to put in a good word for you. Right. That combination. Is going to put you more on a path of an interview than if you just relied on applying online.

Right? For sure.

L. Scott Ferguson: So if you’ve seen back to the future.

Michelle Schafer: Oh yes. Love that. It’s gonna be 40 years old next

L. Scott Ferguson: week. Okay. That movie. So let’s get in that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the 22, the double deuce, the 22-year-old Michelle. I don’t know if it was Shae for that, but let’s go back to 22-year-old Michelle.

What kind of knowledge nuggets might you drop on her? Not to change anything, ’cause your life’s been pretty good, right? But [00:27:00] to maybe shorten a learning curve, blast through maybe just a little quicker.

Michelle Schafer: Yeah, I mean, I would say there’s, I mean, there’s a couple. There’s a couple things I would tell my 22-year-old self for sure.

One is. In times that are challenging in times where the, the waves are really rough and it is hard to kind of feel like you’re above water to tell myself, this is not my forever place. And I, and I share this very liberally with my job seeking clients. Yes. Like you, whatever you’re going through right now, you’re like, if you’re looking for work today.

You are not gonna be looking for work forever, you’re not gonna be unemployed forever. But in the moment, right, it seems all encompassing and it seems like it’s the forever place. Yeah. So I would say that’s, that’s number one. That’s beautiful. The second thing I would ask, because at 22. I was still building my confidence.

Like I, I would say over, I mean, over our lives we tend to [00:28:00] build our confidence, but especially at 22, I was still figuring stuff out. Right. I would say, I would tell myself, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, so if you don’t ask for a meeting. You get nothing. If you don’t ask for help, you get no assistance.

Right. If you don’t ask to join somebody’s circle, yeah. You’re gonna be on the outside of the circle. So, yeah. And, and you’re no further behind. If somebody says, no, I’m sorry. I can’t help you. I’m too busy. I. But you could be very, very far ahead. Yeah. And I’ve really learned that lesson throughout, like multiple things in my life, like through my business, through my coaching practice, but certainly the, the times I had to look for work and those, those sayings are, I, I share those, like they’re in my book.

Yeah. And a number of points, but I, I share them with my. With my career transition clients because they’re so true. I mean, these are timeless pieces of advice and they, they really are things that I’ve learned, but I’ve seen that when, when clients [00:29:00] embrace these things, doors start to open for them.

They get new possibilities. They’re getting interviews where they never got interviews. They’re talking to people where they never were talking to people before, and that’s. Amazing to see that. Like, that’s my biggest reward as a coach is when I see that transformation. Somebody’s stuck when they come to me and now they’re not stuck and now they’re, they’re flying on their own.

Like, yeah. I love seeing that. That’s beautiful. And yeah, lots of life lessons for sure.

L. Scott Ferguson: A hundred percent. And , I, it’s funny when you said the first thing of challenging times, it’s not your forever place. It’s like, I’m actually speaking on that tomorrow. I have a. Can speak. Oh, really? Called every, , overlapping your happiness.

Which is, ’cause everything’s finite. Right? Everything ends. Yeah. Meaning like if you’re going through a bad time, it ends. But if you’re, if I’m like, Hey Schaeffer, come on down to Florida, man, we’re gonna rock the stage together. You’d be like, yeah, I’m going down to see Fergie. We’re gonna have a great time.

Yeah, that’s what, you’re still gonna go home. It is like that time. So you overlap it, you find things. [00:30:00] Exactly. Speaking to that like. How does Michelle want her Dash remembered that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date and death date. Hopefully it’s way down the road.

But how does Michelle want her dash remembered?

Michelle Schafer: Gosh, I would say, I mean, the biggest thing. Like, if we’re talking like legacy, then, , like what do you want to be remembered for? I would say it’s, it’s to give back to others, like, , to, to really help others. And when I say that, because that sounds so high level, so , ways that, , because anybody can say, well, I, I wanna help people.

Well, I mean, how that shows up is so different. I would say one of the things that I do now and I want to always continue doing is. Giving back to my community. So helping people in the community that are needing assistance. Like for example, right now, I, I, , post on my neighborhood Facebook page, like just to say, Hey, you’ve got a career coach in the neighborhood.

Have you lost your job? I can help you. [00:31:00] Ooh. But it’s also, , when somebody comes to you and they have a challenge and you. You have something that can help them or , somebody who they could talk to to get assistance. I love being that person. That’s a connector. I mean, this week alone, I mean, we’re recording this on a Thursday and I have already made what, five introductions to other people.

Based on needs that those people have. I mean, it takes me like two minutes to do that. Right, exactly. Quick introduction, open up the door. Definitely a relationship. A lot of people won’t do that though. Sure. And so I, I, I do wanna be remembered for that. It’s something, I mean, I like, like pay it forward, right.

Mm-hmm. That’s an expression. I really live it. Yeah. Like so many people have helped me. Over this journey called life. , Behind me, I don’t know, Scott, if you can see, I’ve got a sign in my office that says Find joy in the journey. I love it. And it applies to career work, but applies to life.

Yeah. And so anything I can do to help people on that [00:32:00] journey, love it. Lots of people help me. I wanna be that person to help others as well.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s beautiful. Such a Go-Giver man. That, that, that’s fantastic. And that’s why we get along

Michelle Schafer: so well see. That’s

L. Scott Ferguson: right.

Time to Shine Today, podcast Varsity Squad. We are back. And Michelle, we will make it a 0.1 time to meet live in the flesh and we’ll talk about some of these questions probably 15, 20 minutes. But today you got five seconds with no explanations and I promise you they can all be answered that way. Okay, ready?

Ready to level up. I’m ready. Here we go. All right. Michelle, what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Michelle Schafer: Is look through the network, not at it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love that she, one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Michelle Schafer: Movement and motivation. Oh, sorry. Movement and meditation. That’s what I meant to say.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Movement’s medicine, baby. I love it. So. You see me walking down the street or maybe at a networking event or something, you’re like, man, fury looks like he’s in his doldrums. Gimme a book that you’ve read that really helped [00:33:00] flip a switch to get you back other than your own. Of course,

Michelle Schafer: of course.

Answering your Call by John Schuster. Beautiful. That was an inspiration for me.

L. Scott Ferguson: Beautiful. Most commonly used emoji. If anyone you text,

Michelle Schafer: oh gosh. Happy face. Love it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Nicknames growing up.

Michelle Schafer: , I never had any, but somebody in grade three called me Mickey.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay, love that. I didn’t

Michelle Schafer: like it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. So you have any hidden talent and or superpower that nobody knows about until now?

Michelle Schafer: Oh gosh. I mean, I think my superpower is, I, I see people like and not like the sixth sense I see dead people. If you ever saw that movie with John Bruce Wallace, that’s not it at all, but just, , that ability to really dial into love it. Somebody’s experience is my superpower.

L. Scott Ferguson: Beautiful headline for your life.

Michelle Schafer: Ooh, that’s a great one. Adventure Awaits.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that. Go to ice cream flavor.

Michelle Schafer: Oh, I, so I can’t choose one. I have to have three. So, okay, gimme [00:34:00] three

L. Scott Ferguson: quickly.

Michelle Schafer: Like like a Nutella version. I like gelato, so like Nutella some kind of chocolate fudge and like a lemon.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it, love it. There’s a sandwich called a Mickey Schafer.

Build that sandwich for me. What’s on, what are we eating?

Michelle Schafer: Oh my gosh, it is gonna have lots of vegetables. So roasted red peppers, Turkey, mayo spinach definitely those things.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Favorite charity and or organization you’d like to give your time and or money to?

Michelle Schafer: I love the organization here.

They’re local in Ottawa. They’re called World Skills and they help newcomers to Canada find work. They do a lot of awesome, awesome work.

L. Scott Ferguson: Beautiful. And last question, you can elaborate on this one a little bit, but what’s the best decade of music? 60 seventies, eighties, or nineties? Oh, definitely the eighties.

Yeah, I know, right? It’s our generation. I love the eighties. Without a doubt. Yeah. So my friend, how can we find you?

Michelle Schafer: So if you visit my website, m schaffer coaching.ca you can do a [00:35:00] number of things there that you can look on my programs and services under the Career Transitions tab. You can also find my book so under the, my book.

Tab, you can do a few things. You can get a free chapter to my book, so if you wanna try before your buy mm-hmm. It’s a downloadable free chapter. Love it. You can also get the whole book as well, so you can get your copy. It’s on Amazon. You can order it there. You can also under the contact me tab.

You can book. If you felt like you wanted a conversation with me, you can book a 30 minute complimentary consultation or discovery call. Welcome. Just fill in the information and and I would be happy to talk to you and on LinkedIn. Of course. LinkedIn, yes. You’ll find me writing about career transition.

So follow me, connect with me. Let me know that you heard me on this podcast, which I’m really hoping that you did. Okay. And would love to have more conversation with you. That’s

L. Scott Ferguson: beautiful. And [00:36:00] so this book that you met, that you wrote, that’s an absolute gem cultivating career growth. Right. Navigate career transitions with Purpose.

Purpose, yes. So let’s talk a a little bit about it. I wanna give ’em kind of some teasers ’cause they can get the first chapter right? Yes. They go into your website. I’m gonna direct that. I’m gonna put that right in the show notes below squad. So go ahead and thank you and go right to that. But talk, talk to me a little bit about the book.

Michelle Schafer: So this book was really born out of my desire to want to help job seekers navigate a job search with confidence to help ’em find energizing work for organizations that believe what they believe in. I mean, that’s my why. I believe that everybody should be able to find that and record recognizing that.

, Sometimes it can be hard to find the right kind of resources. I mean, the internet is full of all kinds of resources. Of course, none of it flies. I wanna make sure to, oh, there’s tons of stuff out there, and there’s stuff [00:37:00] out there that is not really incredible either. Right? So this is like, I call it the A to Z approach to looking for work.

Everything from starting the reflection on. What’s important to you in the work that gives you energy? What kind of organization do you wanna be part of? What are your deal breakers and non-negotiables? Doing all that, , foundational, reflecting, and then putting together a job search plan that involves looking online, talking to recruiters and, and networking, and then moving forward from that, once what your direction is.

You can start marketing yourself. So there’s chapters in there devoted to how to build your personal brand and level up your resume and level up your LinkedIn profile, how to prepare for interviews, how to craft a networking plan so that you’re not just reaching out, , to anybody. You’re very targeted.

You mentioned the word intentional before. I love that word because with my book, you can intentionally seek out. [00:38:00] Those opportunities that are really aligned with what’s important to you. And I end the book with everything to do with transitioning into a new job building your own onboarding plan with the things that are important to you so that you can start off a new job with success.

That’s awesome. There’s even a chapter on how to navigate those really tricky emotions like discouragement, frustration, overwhelm, that comes with the job search. Those things happen. Those things happen in a job search. I mean, I remember

L. Scott Ferguson: is the Kindle, pardon me? Is the Kindle version friendly to the book?

Michelle Schafer: The Kindle version. I mean, it’s the whole book, but online. So

L. Scott Ferguson: if you Right. I just wanna make sure it’s friendly. ’cause sometimes, , the paperback book will have stuff that they can write in and take notes in. Me, I’m a Kindle guy and I like to highlight stuff on my Kindle. But

Michelle Schafer: that’s a good point.

So there are spaces in the paperback version where you can make notes. So it’s kind of like a workbook and a book book. Right. People know how to use

L. Scott Ferguson: Kendall. They can actually do that, by the way, , if you [00:39:00] highlight an error, you can. Make notes in it. I just didn’t know if there’s like Exactly.

Thing, resume or something you had to fill out like on the book itself. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Squad. Good stuff. I’m going to do a three book giveaway. For the first person that puts the first three people that put career, just put career in. ’cause I know you’ve listened this long to, to this awesome interview that I had with a good friend Michelle.

Put career in, I don’t care if it’s Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn text it to 5 6 1 4 4 0 3 8 3 0 and then say your name and if you’d like the Kindle or the paperback, it’ll be, it’ll be sent to you. So, and if you could, Ms. Michelle. Yes. Could you leave us with one last knowledge nugget that we can take with us, internalize and take action on?

Michelle Schafer: Absolutely. I would say it’s be intentional with your career. I mean, our, our careers, oftentimes we go with the flow. We just accept promotions. We apply for jobs without really thinking about it. Be intentional, like know what’s [00:40:00] important to you, and then intentionally seek out opportunities that align with that, that will guide you, not only if you’re looking for work right now, but also what will guide you for your whole career.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s beautiful. And squad, I, we guys get a basic, actually an in-depth masterclass with my good friend here that Michelle, that was almost forced into exploring coaching by her coach. She found the passion in it. She’s a total go giver. She’s gonna help you find those credible resources that are gonna help you level up into your new occupation.

She believes that a great coach is empathetic to those looking for work. They know that physically. Not just the pocketbook, but physically, mentally, it’s just being affected. So when you meet with Michelle, then you’re going to have somebody that’s very empathetic that’ll help you gently shine light on your blind spots, right?

She really wants you to in her, in your network, and she wants out there pressing flesh, right? Get in your asking gear, ask for the help where [00:41:00] needed, right? And then. Big, big, big bomb here drop was, , look through your network, not just add it. There’s people there that go deep, like you might know four people, but those four people might know 50.

You just never know that it’s gonna align with your intentions, right? She believes that grounding yourself, it leads to enlightenment. And when in doubt, direct yourself to your awesome achievements that you’ve had in your past. And whether you’re looking for a job or not, remember, there are people cheerleading you on, including, including yourself.

’cause you’ve actually li lived the time. It reminds us that challenging times is not your forever place. Not everything is finite. Everything ends good or bad. Everything in. So I’d like to say, , overlap your pa, , your count overlap, your happiness. , She will be remembered as a compassionate Go-Giver and a relationship creator.

She wants to make relationships, whether it benefits her or not, it’s gonna benefit you. ’cause she knows on the back end she’ll get benefited. And [00:42:00] lastly, she wants you to be very, very, very intentional. With your career and your life, seek out opportunities that are going to align with your intentions. And that’s what my good friend Michelle does.

She levels up her health. She levels up her wealth. She’s absolutely stunning. She’s driven, she’s earned a varsity lover letter here at Time to Shine today. Thank you so much for coming on, Michelle. I absolutely love your guts.

Michelle Schafer: Thank you so much, Scott. Love your energy and was so happy to be on your show today.

Thank you.L. Scott Ferguson: Thank you. Chat soon.