Janel Abrahami, Founder and Host Lunch Break podcast
Whether you're a corporate go-getter, an entrepreneur, or someone exploring the intersection of both, Janel's wisdom and experiences will guide you towards creating a fulfilling and diverse career path that aligns with your passions and aspirations. Tune in, be inspired, and embark on your own journey to building a multi-hyphenate career!
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TRANSCRIPT
00:02 Hi everyone, welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brand's podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I have a very special guest. 00:12 This is someone who is one of the amazing founders in my Emerging Brand incubator, someone who I genuinely adore and I listen to their podcast and I just love all of their content. 00:27 I personally have learned so much about a new way of looking at my career. So, Janel Abrahami, thank you for being on the show. 00:36 Hey, I am so happy to be here. Thank you. So happy to be here with you and have you here for anyone who's new to Janel. 00:43 Janel is a career coach for multi-hyphenate , which we'll talk more about shortly. And also the founder of Lunch Break podcast, which honestly is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to while I'm working. 00:59 So, thank you for producing that great show. And today's conversation I really wanted to learn more about your story. Obviously, I know quite a bit from working with you, but for someone who's new talk us through how you started your brand, how you started your business, and also your perspective on 01:19 career, because it's, I think, absolutely the future of how we're going to be looking at career. Awesome. Well, thank you. 01:27 I agree with that. Now, we are really talking about the future, and that's what I'm focused on. But I have been in the career development world for my entire career. 01:38 So, I fell into career development, and more specifically recruiting and jobs searching and that whole lovely experience that we all adore. 01:49 When I was in college, when I was in my undergraduate experience at NYU, I just fell into an on-campus job working at the career center, and realized, hey, this really lights me up. 02:02 I really, really enjoy the experience and the process of helping people figure out what their passions are, how they can make an impact on the world, what they think their professional purpose may be, and if they have no clue what that is, how to start discovering that. 02:18 At the career center at NYU, that turned into a nine-year career in different places in corporate HR, so learning and development, recruiting HR business partnership and consulting, I pretty much did it all in corporate HR. 02:34 After I stepped away from one really toxic job in the middle of the pandemic, where I was just totally burned out, I realized, I don't really know if I'm on the professional path, I want to be on any more. 02:48 I hope and think that a lot of listeners to this podcast tend to relate to this, but when you are such a people, please, or when you grow up getting those gold stars and checking all the boxes and having people tell you that you're really going places and you're doing all these great things, when you 03:04 get to your late 20s, early 30s, and you think, hang on a second, I did all the things I was supposed to do, but I'm not even really sure that I want this anymore. 03:12 That was a really difficult moment. I'm like spacing myself when I realized, you know what, I actually want something of my own. 03:24 I'm ready to create a career with my name on it. This is Janel from Blank, instead of being another employee, an X company or another HR pro at Y company, I had this like indistinguishable or un-extinguishable desire to create my own thing and put it out there in the world. 03:45 I didn't exactly know that was yet at the time, but it eventually became a career coaching business. I started my own business as a career coach first taking on one on one clients and then creating a group course to help people clarify their career goals and land an epic new job that they really loved 04:04 . One of them, they decided where they really wanted to go. And that course was called Pivot with Purpose and it helped almost 100 mid-level career millennials clarify their career goals, land amazing new jobs and even start their own things just like I did. 04:20 And so that's when I realized I'm not the only one who has this craving, this desire to define myself or stretch myself outside of my corporate job. 04:32 And so I went full time into entrepreneurship. I spent two years building this career coaching business, building my personal brand as a career expert. 04:41 And while that was really, really thrilling and exciting and the best learning experience I ever could have gotten, I feel like I got three MBAs in that time for a fraction of the cost actually making money. 04:56 And so the training money, yes. I also came to a very similar inflection point after two years of entrepreneurship where I realized, hey, as exciting as it's have been, has been, I actually don't think this is the only solution either for me. 05:13 And so what I got a little bit more comfortable talking about, even on my own podcast was the fact that being a solo entrepreneur, as I was for the past two years, was actually really lonely. 05:24 And there were parts of the corporate world that I still really missed. Like being on a small scrappy mighty team, like having that socialization opportunity and being part of a larger culture that didn't always ride on me. 05:39 And I realized that I had been in fight or flight mode for the past two years as a solo entrepreneur. 05:44 So I realized, if I'm someone who likes to think about and carve the way of the future of our careers, what if that looks like being a multi-hifinit and not having to choose between being a corporate go-getter or a full-time entrepreneur. 06:01 There has to be a fulfilling way to blend both of those identities. So you get the best of both worlds and are able to honor those desires without pigeon-willing yourself into like, oh, I'm just a corporate grinder or I'm out here on my own being an entrepreneur. 06:17 And so now I'm both. I used everything that I knew and have taught my clients about landing new jobs to land honestly the job that was on my vision board. 06:28 So now I'm out. I like, I like, manifested my perfect dream job that I'm in right now. I have a corporate job and I still have a business. 06:38 I am still a career coach and I still create career coaching content. I still create content around the future of careers. 06:44 I am a public speaker. I'm a keynote speaker. I have digital products that are available for people to download and use. 06:53 And so I am still running my own thing with the satisfaction of also contributing in a corporate space. After hearing your story, now everyone knows why I was so excited when you said yes to them on to the podcast because that right there, Janel is so inspiring, encouraging, and truly working with 07:18 you. I have looked at my career with a new set of perspective and it really opened up my business in so many different ways by just listening to you and your podcast. 07:32 So I was feeling kind of stuck with in my own career and genuinely I was so inspired by your own story and it helped me look at new perspectives of how I wanted to grow my business and my career in general and it's been really cool this past month has been such a game changer and it was just shifting 07:55 my mindset a little bit around my own career and I really contribute a lot of that to you and helping me shift that. 08:02 That's so cool. Yeah, really of course. So what you feel is one of the bigger differentiators in the career space I feel just in general I feel like it's either people are talking just about corporate career climbing the corporate ladder or entrepreneurship which tends to be on totally different sides 08:28 of the spectrum. Entrepreneurs are like I can never get a job. I am unhierable and that's the goal to make yourself unhierable and then people in corporate are like oh I'm assuming I've never really worked in corporate I had like one corporate job ever but it was first startup but it's like totally 08:48 different like don't get too out of the box like you're laying and stick to your laying like don't try to be starting all this stuff over here where entrepreneurship you have to be starting all these things all the time. 09:00 So like how have you been really bridging that gap because again it can feel like two polar opposites. Yeah I think you're so right I completely agree that that is the perception or that's what's most readily available to us to like see and consume as it has to be one or the other of these buckets like 09:20 right we and trust me my social media algorithm because I have been a solo entrepreneur and because I have been somebody who is very ingrained in the corporate space helping hunters of clients succeed in the corporate world it's either this is how to get promoted and this is how to land the job and 09:37 what to say in the job interview and blah blah blah all that corporate jargon or it's a scale of six figures by working right week and my mom I was like okay I think honest that is those are two very extreme sides of a spectrum for a population like you and me and folks who are around our age who are 10:00 on social media who are getting a little braver and more comfortable sharing their points of view online and becoming influential on regardless of the scale you know like I don't even want to use the words like micro influencer anything like that but are just seeing the possibility and sharing their 10:19 points of view what they're loving and what they're into and that is blossoming into a really cool way for them to start to what I call diversify their career a little bit so of that it's more a little bit about that so I think of diversifying your career like diversifying a financial portfolio and 10:43 like I've got here I'm not a finance girlie so I'll be metaphors going to be very basic but if you have a portfolio of investments or stocks your goals to diversify that and diversify your income so that one investment or all of your money is not in one bucket right right fooded thing to do it's the 11:06 smart strategic thing to do and you're making more quicker by diversify your investments or your assets I take the same perspective to your career so instead of saying I'm just a corporate go-getter or I'm really thriving in the 95 what if you thought about diversifying that by saying okay maybe the 11:27 majority of my career sits in the corporate bucket but I also have some entrepreneurial tendencies that I can honor by creating content online and maybe monetizing that or teaching live workshops on some of my hobbies like textiles or knitting or starting my own media outlet like a podcast that I bring 11:51 in really interesting people monetizing a personal brand when you think about diversifying your career it's okay if you at the crux of that is refusing to leave that it has to all sit in one basket in one one like full and land yeah one folder exactly if you're seeing like okay I'm gonna invest in here 12:18 here and here and the career your career just sits into like one place on the table that's how we kind of grown up in the past like centuries honestly but even over the past decade as entrepreneurship has become more attractive and sexier and more accessible to people we're still hearing it be one or 12:39 the other you're an entrepreneur or you're an corporate and there's a lot of animosity I think between those two identities as well that has kept a lot of individuals from feeling comfortable owning both of them so like either you're a corporate batty and like you're climbing the corporate ladder and 12:55 like you mean business blah and then you see entrepreneurs as like flighty or like too risky or too out there or you're an entrepreneur and you're like eff the man I could never have a corporate job I'm as that's a sell out blah blah blah blah but really the the reality is a lot of us sit in the middle 13:14 of that spectrum and there's a lot there are many parts of us that honor both of those things and so when I say diversifying your career I'm really talking about honoring the curiosity is that are natural to you I love that and I think more and more people are opening up to that especially during the 13:32 last few years we've had of just seeing the change essentially overnight to so many industries to so many jobs a lot of people had to step more into entrepreneurialism to help fill in those gaps and then some people who were an entrepreneur had a small business had to look for a job a 95 go to corporate 13:56 to sustain their life and their livelihood so I think it's also an interesting time for a lot of people to be more curious and open to this because of the changes we've had the last few years and something that you said earlier that I would love for you to touch more about on is the multi-hifinit I 14:16 think you're really speaking to the person that similar to you and I we have different facets of what we do and how we do it and that's something you've really helped open my eyes to and feel excited again about because you get sometimes burnt out and you're like what am I doing but you really helped 14:35 me and again listening to your podcast gave me new energy to look at it but what is a multi-hifinit person if someone's like I think I am I've kind of heard that before how would you break that down for someone yeah I think the easiest way to sum it up right now is if you have ever struggles to answer 14:54 the question what do you do? Oh perfect. You're really good sign that you're a multi-hifinit I struggle with this right now when someone asked me what do you do? 15:09 I almost have this little like I'm like during a headlight but that's what who the heck I am and all of the amazing things that I do but do I say that I manage learning and development at a tech company do I say that I'm a career coach do I say that I am a podcast host do I say that I'm a public speaker 15:32 and a keynote speaker and I lead workshops for other companies which one do I start with where do I land that is a really great indicator that you're a multi-hifinit but it doesn't even have to be to the extreme that I just articulated about it could be like many of my clients who went through pivot 15:49 with purpose which is now my online course for you to really decide where you want to go with your corporate career and land an amazing new job they realized I want to stay in corporate I want that stability I'm an account executive at this marketing firm and I am a textile enthusiast and I teach sewing 16:08 classes and I like create my own online on Etsy so I'm also an Etsy creator I'm a like they are multi-hifinit in that way that one job title cannot summarize and really encompass everything that they love to do professionally and all that they have to offer. 16:28 I love how you frame that because I feel like anyone who follows me or follows you and listens to this podcast I'm sure I had that same here in the headlight when it's like what do you do? 16:42 I know for so long I've had like nightmares where I'm like what if someone asked me to do it and it was always a joke too with my parents I'm like what do I do? 16:53 I would ask them and they're like, we can't get into this right now we're going to say it wrong you're going to get pissed off like we are not going to play this game I'm like just guess and the things that they would come out with I'm like what the hell right why are you saying just like most random 17:08 shit over the years of what they thought I did for a living but I totally resonate with the fact that if you don't know how to articulate that perfectly or there's not just one answer you are a multi-hifinit and that's cool right? 17:25 It's like it gives you new opportunities where I think in the past especially like our parents' generation it was like you had a thing this is your don't deviate from that thing right? 17:37 But now it's very much embracing those different aspects of you so you could diversify your career that you do have new opportunities that it could be yes and not either or well advice would you give to someone who is maybe in corporate but wants to entrepreneurialism that wants to maybe work part-time 18:08 or full-time and corporate like what is that advice you would tell someone to get started of finding their their groove with both of those aspects of that. 18:22 That's an amazing question I feel like this question comes up in some favor form a couple times a week for me yes because I like invite these conversations but also it's it's a real thing that people are chewing on and trying to work through our trying to solve for themselves and so I think the advice 18:43 that I've given that has resonated the most with people during these conversations is find your minimum viable product or your minimum viable path let's say called an MVP in like the business world the entrepreneurship world your minimum viable path so I'm gonna amend that it's usually product but I'm 19:03 gonna call a path for my work okay and so what is the lowest hanging most like foundational way that you can start experimenting with that other identity so say your a corporate go get her let's use one of my friends Melanie for an example she went through pivot with purpose she clarified what she really 19:29 wants out of her corporate career because of that course and she also realized I have a lot more to offer outside of my 95 that I'm excited to explore but what the heck could that be so she had to land on her minimum viable path to start talking about and creating and interacting with people around 19:49 the other things that she was passionate about which is mindfulness mindfulness and positive thinking positive psychology so her minimum viable path to see like how could I start talking about this in a way that could turn into a job could turn into another fast of my career it started with a guided 20:08 workshop that she did within pivot with purpose for other people who bought this course so we all joined to the same call sorry there was a siren no worries we all joined this zoom call and Melanie guided us through a workshop on how to cultivate positive thinking and positive psychology during the 20:34 work week we gave her feedback she was able to do a test run and just like okay I really loved the way that felt first and foremost I am naturally good at this and really excited about it and I have feedback now on how to make this better now what do I want to do with it from here could I deliver it 20:51 to my team at work and have this contribute to you know my visibility internally could I have it contribute to my prospects of getting a promotion yes and maybe I could turn this into like a digital resource that I can monetize or I could turn it into something that I can sell to other companies who 21:12 have a priority on employee well-being so because she figured out her minimum viable path to creating the thing that she had been interested in she was then able to expand on it from there but a pitfall or something that I see a lot of multihyphonic curious people do that kind of backfires on them is 21:36 thinking that they need to go from zero to a hundred next week I'm a corporate go-getter and I want to be an entrepreneur at the same time okay so now how do I build out this huge event series for 500 people by next month okay that is not what happened that is okay because how do you know you really 21:56 want to do that right happens if you are able to your strapped and saddled with this obligation you there are so many micro steps you can take in between here and there to one clarify the direction that you're going to gain more confidence in yourself to do that thing and then three builds brick by 22:24 brick to the entrepreneurial path that you're really excited about and the same can be said for corporate as well if you are a creative entrepreneur or an entrepreneur in general and you think you know what I could really use some psychological stability of being in the corporate world or I'm kind of 22:44 I'm creating that structure does that mean you have to go from entrepreneurship to working at a big four consulting firm right right right right and amazing local small business that you love and already patron in your community can you work there a couple hours a week can you then move up into consulting 23:02 for them on you know hiring practices or business management practices product flow etc could you then turn that into a more intense part-time job that could do the stability and then turn that into a full-time job the micro steps is what I would tell people to focus on instead of the resonate with 23:26 that advice also and something that I find often with founders that you know they come to me and they're like this is the brand I'm building or I want to build but it has to be this by you know the end of the month and they put so much pressure on themselves and I used to be like that too I used to put 23:44 so much pressure myself I remember one time I stayed up I want to say almost 24 hours building a website I was like I need a new website by tomorrow oh like it was a marathon of getting this done and I remember being in a coffee shop the next day still working on it and a friend of mine came up to me 24:06 and she's like hey are you okay like you slept much and you're drinking like a lot of coffee and you're just like really zoning I'm like I don't know I put this pressure on myself I had to have a new website by the morning and she's like I think this should maybe take a break and like eat a snack and 24:23 take a walk and I was like thanks for looking out because I put these really big milestones and pressure on myself and what I learned also over the years being an entrepreneur for 15 years now the the the last you could put pressure on yourself of this has to happen this certain way at this certain 24:44 time and you just more so have an intention you have a goal you have a focus you're taking intentional action but you're more open to seeing what that looks like right and that's I think something that again was really inspired by your own story of just the different ways you've diversified and being 25:09 open to that and again this month I've had all these new opportunities of diversifying my career my business doing more consulting also and I was like this feels really good it's not just one thing anymore and I was really resistant to that to be honest with you for a while but I really have now more 25:30 open and it's been such a great thing that I'm able to have all these different multi facets of my business and I my career come out and it feels really good in nourishing and that mental shift to is something I was feeling stuck with and again you inspire me and I changed it up and it feels really 25:49 good oh that's incredible I think something that came up for me as you were describing that shift that you just went through is the importance of curiosity and I also that curiosity is another like tried and true quality of a multi-hyphenet. 26:06 If you find yourself if you're thinking like could I be a multi-hyphenet and is that me if you find yourself really curious about other ways that you could be making an impact or other shapes that your career could be taking even if it's all like aiming at the same kind of like client or customer industry 26:24 if you always stay in fashion but you're curious like how are the other ways that my passion for this industry can manifest that's a really that's another really great sign that you are a multi-hyphenet at heart you just have this curiosity. 26:38 I love that also and I think leading with curiosity just tends to have cooler opportunities come to you because you are curious and I putting pressure necessarily on it like it has to happen this way at this time but you're like ooh I wonder how this is gonna turn out. 26:56 Yeah it just makes it more fun. Yeah you actually need like a content idea and that's good. That makes you know that makes me really happy. 27:03 I know yeah I have this one really happy. Okay so I obviously could talk to you for hours I appreciate everything you put it out into the world and everything that you share. 27:14 I know many people will be like work with you, listen to your podcast, take your course, all the things tell us all the info. 27:31 Yeah so this section is gonna be pretty medie because I'm a multi-hifinit and there has something to do with this work. 27:37 So first and foremost definitely join my little corner of the internet, find me at Janel Abrahami on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. 27:46 I actually am like a LinkedIn power user because I'm a career coach and comes with the territory. My podcast is called Lunch Break. 27:54 You can search Lunch Break with Janel Abrahami anywhere you get your podcasts and there I really talk about building a career that you're proud of, whether you're a corporate go get our or an entrepreneurial spirit. 28:05 It's all there for you, especially if you're some beautiful blend of both. And because I want to help you create your multi-hifinit career with success and passion in a way that really works for you, I have a digital course called Piffet with where you can clarify your corporate career goals and land 28:23 an amazing new corporate career that actually gives you energy and makes you feel like you're doing something worthwhile so that you can have the time and space to pour into your entrepreneurial passions. 28:35 And if you work with me, that is craving or could really use some career clarity, direction, networking, anything that falls under like the career development umbrella and you are creating a guest speaker or keynote workshop, I do those all the time as well. 28:54 And shout out to the one you just did at NYU, can we just say that too because you graduated from NYU and to have such a full circle moment to then be a speaker at NYU doing what you love. 29:07 I just my gosh, it's so cool. I mean, if you have two more seconds, I would just illustrate what that looked like for someone who's thinking like, someone understand how I may be able to come in and help them with my expertise. 29:25 So this was a day that was like literally taken from my vision board. It was a dream day. I started the day going to NYU in Midtown Manhattan and I am an NYU alumna from graduate school and I came in to speak to about 75 summer students in the summer publishing institute, all about how to use LinkedIn 29:44 to find their income. I led this signature session that I created and customized it for that audience. I just so happens to also be right before the editor in Chief of Cosmo Magazine on the I January, which was, I mean, so cool. 30:05 Then I hopped back home, I crossed the river, back to Hoboken New Jersey, hopped back home and because I worked West Coast hours for my corporate job, got home just time to do my corporate job, really move the needle on projects that I'm really passionate about. 30:20 Then I ended the day by making some tweaks and updates to my online course called Pivot with Purpose that has had almost a hundred happy customers and clients use it to clarify their corporate career goals and then I marketed that a little bit on social media and I ended the day reading a quarter-thorns 30:37 roses because I am a basic early, but that was truly a dream day and that's how easy it can look to be a multi-hifin it, granted not every day looks like that, but it can look like something as dreamy and beautiful as last week. 30:55 I love it. I was nerding out watching all of your Instagram stories and I think I even like voice memo like, whoa, this looks like that. 31:04 I'm just so proud of you. I want to thank you one for being you, two for being such an inspiration and personally I've learned a lot from you and three for being a part of the emerging brand incubator. 31:18 I love just how you've been building your brand and I feel grateful to be on the journey with you and I'm just so beyond proud of you. 31:27 I gosh, likewise to everything and to anyone listening, the reason I am able to articulate this so clearly is because I've worked with Kelly to get there. 31:36 Oh, I'm curious about so many things and I have will be like, hacks that I'm wearing. How does it all make sense? 31:45 Kelly is actually who helps to make it make it all makes sense. So thank you. Well, I'm beyond proud of you and thank you so much for that shout out. 31:52 Everyone go connect with Janel. Listen to lunch break podcast while you're working on all your career endeavors.
