What could it look like? with Melissa Burbridge

There are a million ways things could go when you take a risk on yourself, especially when leaving a career without a plan.

In this episode, we dig into Melissa's story and what things looked like for her.

She shares how you need to open yourself up before you can truly commit to the possibility of a change, there are so many other great insights in the episode.

Interested in learning more about the group programs she talks about: The Evolution Blueprint or The Career Transformation Jumpstart

Until next time!

Transcript

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Welcome to Season 3 of Raise the Anchor with your host, Melissa Burbridge. This season, we are going to inspire, ignite, and create space for you to go after the change you want with invigorating interviews and some deep diving into my personal story. We hope you enjoy... Hello and welcome to another episode of Raise the Anchor with your host, Melissa Burbidge. This is a self episode. You guys seem to really love hearing my story. And so I love sharing it. The more I can, the better. So we are going to deep dive into what it can look like if you leave a job that you are unsatisfied in. That is a question I get all of the time. There are a lot of things that can happen and it is different for everybody. So I will just share what it looked like for me. So for me, I walked away from nursing into a full-time job, knowing that that full-time job wasn't my forever job. And she knew that it wasn't my forever job as well. We gave ourselves like a five-year run and I was slowly building a side business that I didn't know would be my full business. It was just like a fun, happy hobby. And she had actually hired me to do the same for that full-time job. So it was like a kismet. It was like meant to be the way it was. And she was an amazing boss. I will be forever indebted. And you're going to hear her in two weeks on a podcast episode or about her in two weeks on a podcast episode from our guest Leanne. She just, she saw something in me and she knew she needed to take a chance on me and that I could help her in the meantime. And her business is blossoming. It is doing absolutely beautiful. And I was happy to help in any little way that I could in her blossoming business. So I love that she took a chance on me. It was scary as hell because I was doing something that I didn't know a lot about, even though I had dabbled in real estate, I had been showing apartments for her and condos for her occasionally. I didn't really know what my job would entail and I didn't know completely what I would be doing in that job other than I was learning social media. I was going to social media day conference to really learn more about it and I was slowly building something. I just didn't know what and I was I took that leap of faith and being able to do that. So I slowly and surely figured out what I wanted to do while I was doing this other job because the job was fun and happy and enlightening. And I knew it wasn't my forever job. It allowed me this space to explore within. And that is what people don't understand when you're stuck in a job you don't care for that exploring piece is limited because you're automatically trying to replace the a job or you're trying to replace an income and you don't have that freedom because you're so stressed and worried. You're just not living the way you want to be living. So you're restricted in what you're able to do. Because I can tell you, I was doing so many network marketing jobs. I was planning my trip to Disney. I was doing any small token that can make me happy to boost my spirits enough to be able to try and figure out what would make me happy. I have been doing social media for my network marketing job for a while. And I loved social media, but I didn't relay it as a job. I related as a need for that network marketing position, but I didn't come to terms that that is what I needed to be doing as a position. So it wasn't until I was in my new role as a business development manager that I had this positive free space within myself to explore. So even if you are unhappy in a job and you're worried to leave that job because you need that stable income, I did too. I was able to find a substitute job in the meantime to get away from that negative space. And that is my biggest advice if you are stuck on not knowing what you want to do. and you're not willing to put any of the work in in the meantime, but you need out of that space is to find a filler. It doesn't have to be glorious. It just has to be better than the negative space you're currently in. It sounds counterintuitive. I'm telling you to leave a job into another job that you're not necessarily going to stay with, but it opens up that space to be able to discover what it is you truly want to be doing. There are other options. Obviously, I do a group program, which would be great. So you could stay in that negative space and slowly open up and work through some pathways into opening up positive space so that you can move forward. And if you listen to next week's podcast with Cheryl Klein, you'll understand how just shifting and working through some of those problems can open up that positive space that you need to explore. So you don't necessarily have to leave your negative job or a job that you are unsatisfied in right away to open up that positivity. But you have to be open to that positivity. And often when you're in that negative job, you're not open to the positivity unless you actually actively go out and look for it. And in a couple of weeks, you'll listen to Leanne Miles state how she had a good job that she absolutely loved. But she went into a job that ended up hating and she really wasn't willing to leave it without the accolades of having the same comparables in a new job. So she really had to play with that, but she was open to that change. So you have to be open to that change. You have to be open to investigating how to move forward and just getting a network marketing job or just getting a side hustle is not necessarily opening you up to that positive space that is opening you up to automatically just jumping into something else. So yes, it sounds funny. I'm telling you to jump into a new job that is jumping into something else, but you either have to be fully committed into that something else to open up that space or or you have to allow yourself time to figure out how to open up that space. So network marketing is great. It's a useful thing for a lot of people. A lot of people can do that as a side hustle and it's more of a hobby. It's more of what they want. But if you are indirectly trying to figure out what it is you want to be doing with your future, having too many jobs is not going to free up the space to actually figure it out for you. You have to do the work. You could go into as many network marketing jobs as you want. You could go into as many little part-time side hustles as you want. It's just not going to work unless you open yourself up to the change. So that is the message I want to get across. I love side hustles. I love network marketing. I'm a big supporter of all of it. I want you to open yourself up to the change. I want you to need that change because that is what is going to help you. That is what it's going to relieve you so that you can see what it's going to look like when you're in a job that you absolutely love. What people don't understand is how detrimental it is to your own health to stay in a job that is not satisfying you. I can tell you it can have serious health ramifications. I've had quite a few come out of it and it can lead to even more. So my blood pressure has been an issue for years. They say it's because of when I had my son, but regardless of that, it was the consistent stress. And because I let it go for so long and I was slowly taking medicine here and there, it's taking longer to actually bring it back down and keep it back down and stay in that healthy range. There's also had to be a lot of hormonal work because I was always burnt out, always burnt out. It's also what opened me up to being re-triggered with my PTSD. It's staying in that negative space holds negativity that you project out into the world. So opening your heart up to the thought of change and knowing you really need that change and you're already looking if you're looking for side jobs. So just keeping your mind if you're looking for those side jobs, maybe try and Reach out to somebody in your network who has done a big change and see what worked for them and see what tools they can give you to work past some of the stuff. Because you can go into the network job, marketing job. You can go into this other job. If you haven't worked past the issues of what that job is doing to you, you're not going to be successful going forward. So you really want to focus on making sure you're open to that change. So I jumped into the new job. It was absolutely amazing. I was flowing. I had clients coming to me because I was in that positive space. I realized that social media was something that I wanted to be doing. I wanted to be helping small businesses grow their businesses online. So I took as many courses as I could on social media. I started taking on more clients. I openly told my boss that, I was slowly building this business to be something that I wanted to be my full-time job at some point. So I did build it a little too fast, a little too much. And I had to hire somebody in a pinch to do some of the things because I was falling behind in both jobs, which was great. But at the same time, I went a little quicker than I thought without giving full thought as to what was going to happen down the road. So I got lucky. that I was able to have a network of people that could help me stumble into my new position as a full-time business owner, which was absolutely fun. And there was a lot of fun to be had in the beginning, but there was also a lot of lessons. So one of the things I want to say on today's podcast is when I get asked, what does it look like? It is not an easy road, but if you are truly enjoying what you're doing, That road, whether it's hard or easy, is better. It's easier to grasp. It's easier to reason with yourself as to what is going on. And when I say that is I ended up with severe burnout. I had to let myself down a lot. And there's a lot of guilt that goes along with that. I had to hold back certain projects that I wanted to really go forth with myself. but my health was more important to me. And in my old job, I would have been like, well, whatever, I have to go and do it. I have to, whether it's affecting my physical health or not, I have to go and do it. When it's a job that was for me, I was like, okay, I'm justifying the long-term. So I have to cut these things back, heal myself so that long-term I can deliver all of these aspects that I want to be delivering. So it's a constant shifting of your mindset to adapt to the new situations. It's been life-changing. I absolutely love what I do. I do work a lot, but now I am a CEO and I've shifted my mindset around that and opened up my space to actually taking days off. So when you jump into becoming an entrepreneur, I don't want to scare you because it's absolutely amazing. It is not for everybody. And you have to be open to the first couple of years. You're going to be working more hours than you do at your current job that you're hating. And that is to establish a solid foundation. Without establishing that solid foundation, when things like COVID come along, you're going to crumble. When you come up against a roadblock, you're going to crumble. You have to have that solid foundation that can withstand some of those failures because those failures, you need those failures. And I know it sounds funny that I'm saying you need those failures, but you need those failures to grow because without those failures, you're not actively going to grow. You learn from those failures, you tweak from those failures, you perfect from those failures. So having failures is a good thing. But what I did with the Evolution Blueprint is I'm limiting those failures. I'm not limiting them in a bad way. I'm limiting them into not allowing you to have failures that you don't need to be having. You don't need to be struggling out of the gate, you need to be working on what makes you happy so that you can move forward into the future. So in doing so, we're giving you the simple structure to be successful. So the simple tools, the simple strategies to go forward. And then once you're forward and you're solid, we can build on those and allow you to have those failures in discovering what works and what doesn't work, but we're eliminating the immediate stress of trying to figure everything out afterwards. So when I'm saying that, I've never owned a business. I've done a lot of network marketing. I've done some of this. I've done some of that. But running your own business is a lot different. There are a lot of things that people don't tell you about. I had no idea what a CRM system was. I had no idea that I should be building my email marketing list the whole time. I had no idea that just posting to post was like something you didn't do because in the beginning, that is what I did. So I stumbled upon all of those. And all of those mistakes only made me stronger in working forward in what I needed to do. I knew I wanted, like this podcast alone, I knew I wanted a podcast to inspire women to go after change. And I started it with my daughter. That was probably one of the biggest mistakes because the content that we talk about on this podcast was above her level of It was above her age level on what she should be comprehending. So that was kind of a big mistake and that was a learning curve. And then we integrated it into the digital media world because that's the company I was building at the time. And then once I realized that this podcast has a bigger than itself kind of mission, Its mission is to help as many women as we can go after their dreams by inspiring you with life-changing stories. So I said, okay, this has to shift over to my coaching. It has to shift over to the Melissa Burbridge coaching, but I'm just starting out that coaching so that coaching is not established. So Raise the Anchor decided to become an entity on its own that sifts into my coaching. And the reason it sifts into my coaching is because I'm hoping that by listening to these stories, you decide to open yourself up to that change that you've wanted for a long time and working through the progress, working through all of the issues to come out on the other side and choose to live for today and not for retirement. The reason I say that is because often, We do. We go through work. I hear from my husband all the time. I have 20 more years of work and then I can retire and then I can live. Well, no, I want you to live now. I don't want you to suffer through 20 years of work just to live because what if tomorrow doesn't happen? Then you've never actually lived. You need to live while you work. You need to have those experiences and so that you can build those memories so that you can actually live your life. Just working and going to bed is not a life that is just existing. And you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I would rather live for tomorrow, live to watch my children, live to travel, live to explore, live to have these adventures now so that I can, when I retire, I can just have them bigger. I'm not going to change a lot. I'm still probably always going to work because who am I kidding? I'm kind of a workaholic. But when I retire, I don't have to look back at my life and say, oh, now I can finally live. I can say, oh, this has been so amazing. I can't wait for the next adventure. I want to miss work when I retire. I don't want to retire to finally start living. So That is what some of it can look like. And I will certainly do more episodes of this, but I just wanted it to be light and easy and breezy to tell you mostly to be open to the change. If you're actively looking for a job because you're in a job that you don't like, maybe instead of immediately jumping into something that you think you're absolutely going to love. And then in three months later, you realize that it's no different than the job you're in. Maybe take a second to reflect back and look at what it is about that job you actually don't like. Is it the job? Is it the politics? what is it so that you can explore the opportunities and possibilities going forward so that when you finally do commit to that forever type of job, you know what it is that you want. And if you want some help there, we do have our group program. It is currently open. It's called the Evolution Blueprint. If you want to look for it, it's at Melissa M. Burbridge, or you can Google the Evolution Blueprint. We also have a smaller version if you're not wanting to be an entrepreneur because the Evolution Blueprint is geared more towards people wanting to be entrepreneurs, even those in network marketing, because you are entrepreneurs and we have geared the program to be able to help you to be successful as well with a business in a box kind of at the end. We do have the Career Transformation Jumpstart available as well and open. That one is a smaller condensed and is more geared towards those wanting to go back into the regular nine to five type of jobs. So we do have those two programs. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I look forward to releasing the next two episodes with Cheryl and Leanne. And I look forward to hearing from all of our listeners. Have a good day. We hope you found that story very inspiring. We look forward to bringing you more this week. Subscribe to the podcast to stay in the loop. Don't forget to leave a five-star review to spread the love even further. We hope you have smooth sailing.