Happy New Year! Join us for a journey through a year of growth and introspection on Coffee and Career Hour. We're revisiting our top five impactful episodes, sharing insights on building personal brands, and expressing our gratitude for your priceless support.
As we reflect on our journey, we recall episodes that struck a chord with our listeners – from exploring identity development to our somewhat controversial take on AI in career development. We discuss how these episodes have not only sparked insightful debates but have also been instruments of self-discovery and transformation for ourselves and many of you. We also share our experiences and learnings from stepping into new arenas like paid speaking engagements, workshops, and even presenting at conferences.
Looking inward, we emphasize the importance of embracing our individual leadership roles and carrying an internal locus of control. As we sign off, we leave you with an enormous thank you for being instrumental in our growth and share how our podcast has influenced and enriched your lives. Here's to another year of growth, learning, and meaningful conversations!
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Happy New Year! Join us for a journey through a year of growth and introspection on Coffee and Career Hour. We're revisiting our top five impactful episodes, sharing insights on building personal brands, and expressing our gratitude for your priceless support.
As we reflect on our journey, we recall episodes that struck a chord with our listeners – from exploring identity development to our somewhat controversial take on AI in career development. We discuss how these episodes have not only sparked insightful debates but have also been instruments of self-discovery and transformation for ourselves and many of you. We also share our experiences and learnings from stepping into new arenas like paid speaking engagements, workshops, and even presenting at conferences.
Looking inward, we emphasize the importance of embracing our individual leadership roles and carrying an internal locus of control. As we sign off, we leave you with an enormous thank you for being instrumental in our growth and share how our podcast has influenced and enriched your lives. Here's to another year of growth, learning, and meaningful conversations!
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Hi everybody, hello everyone.
Speaker 2:By the time you hear this, we will be January 2nd 2024.
Speaker 1:OMG. That's why we sound so excited it's going to be the new year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the new year, I think, brings a lot of energy. I know, in the last podcast episode I said I don't like the new year and it's not my favorite holiday. I think, though, I get energized by those around me, but I truly don't, because I feel there's such a weird falseness and like oh, there's a new year.
Speaker 2:It's new me. It's so cheesy. We should be doing this often, not at the start of a whole, almost 400 days. But anyway, enough with my negativity about the new year. Welcome to 2024. How are you feeling about an Arminay?
Speaker 1:Well, I am excited. There's a lot of unknowns right now. By the time this episode rolls out and it's 2024, I will be a new person. Yeah, you're going to be a mom. Omg. Yeah, I'm going to be a mom, and I don't know how to process that right now.
Speaker 2:And that's okay. I don't know how to process that you're going to be a mom, but if you guys know, let me know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seriously, any tips are welcome. You can email.
Speaker 2:Just comment on any one of our Instagram posts, for God's sakes.
Speaker 1:Seriously, but yes, that's why we're excited. There's a lot happening at the start of the new year, at least for me personally, so it'll be interesting to see how my evolving as a person is also going to affect how this podcast and how my platform evolves as well.
Speaker 2:I agree. I just want to substitute one thing the word effect. Effect has a negative connotation. I want to say impact. Impact your work and your life and who you are, because you're going to be just fine and I cannot wait to see who you've always meant to be, which is a mom.
Speaker 1:Wow, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that. So Arminay will be impacted not affected by this, but it's 2024. We're excited because, guess what? Now it's our chance to kind of look at back. When we started this podcast, I mean, you had the platform I just joined.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but with that, like the MJ Arminay dynamic, the career confidence with Career Rise, that stuff was all born last year, january 2023.
Speaker 2:I know it feels like such a short time ago and we've done over 30 episodes together.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:That's a lot. That is a lot. I mean that's a lot for two people who have two full time jobs plus extra things they do on the side, and Arminay is literally growing a human in front of me. So I count that as a lot.
Speaker 1:It is. Yeah, it's true, this not being our main gig. Yeah, we've been very consistent, absolutely. We've been bi-weekly episodes and we plan to continue doing that for many years to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're excited we're gonna start to come from Coffee and Career Hour, but what do we? Our first episode of the new year. What are we doing today, Arminay?
Speaker 1:Well, what we want?
Speaker 2:to do is Do we have a?
Speaker 1:plan? Yes, we do, we do. Amongst all the excitement, what we want to do is a year in review, yeah, and then look back at our year, our first year with Coffee and Career Hour, our top episodes, what our audience liked, and can you just reflect on how we've also grown with this podcast?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I've had a hell of a 2023. You've too, because half the year, more than half, you were growing the human being. I'm just not gonna get over it until they see the human being out of you, which will be soon. So by the time you guys are listening to this, they will be outside of Arminay, which is insane. But this platform, this podcast, this audience has really these two people right creating this have grown so much in so many different ways. A year in review is really necessary, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when we started last year, we did not even know what to expect.
Speaker 2:Absolutely this podcast.
Speaker 1:Right, it was an idea. It literally happened at work where MJ was like yeah, I've always wanted to do a blog on career development and like on my career journey, or maybe do a podcast. And I was like I have a podcast, why don't you join? And literally that was the conversation I was scouted, recruited and hired. Yeah, all in one day.
Speaker 2:I'm like five minutes. So see, you can find a job anyway.
Speaker 1:I was like I can't pay you.
Speaker 2:Hey, at the end of the day, it's been a tremendous experience and I wouldn't have chosen it any other way.
Speaker 1:Me too. Me too. I think that this is working out really well and we're seeing the results from our audience as well, absolutely. So we are actually very grateful for our listeners. You are all amazing. We hear a lot of great feedback. We'll get to that, too, sometime in this episode, but we kind of want to start by reviewing some of our top episodes, based on what the listeners have shared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Our top number one episode, which is super controversial, I think, for like career practitioners, there's a and in Armin I have talked about the difference between a career coach and a career counselor, so there's a lot of different contradiction. This is a controversial topic. But the use of AI in career development material I should say so our top episode by number of lessons right was striking the balance chat, gpt and resume right, which where we shared a whole bunch of different research and our own personal opinions on the use of AI and AI and career development and how people are using it as they craft their different materials for job search and different items like that. But this was our top listen and I think in the world, ai has been around for a while. We just haven't seen it used in the way it's been this last year. So it's become so much more of a hot topic and you know an education and work and it's replacing jobs and creating new ones as well. But AI, as was big in the world, was also big on our podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's just a reflection of where the world is at, where society is right now. But we had a lot of fun doing that episode. We had to learn ourselves as well. We went in, we dug up some research. We had to understand the behind the scenes of it to be able to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one I remember I'm like, oh, I get to use AI and play with it and I it was not fun. And AI is also not something I use on the daily basis. I mean AI in the terms of like open AI, google bar, all of these other platforms where you ask it questions, like things like Siri and Apple devices and Alexa and Amazon devices. I use AI in those ways, but to use it like this in my everyday life for work or school related things, not so much. So it is really a truly a reflection of where the world is and this also this new generation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, we see it with our students all the time and professors and how they're adapting their curriculum to the AI, the changes in AI. So it's just really interesting to see where it's all gonna go in the next few years. But we're already, in academia, seeing a lot of changes.
Speaker 2:I was going to say a month ago. I was at a conference now and I asked people there was a session on AI and the use of it in career efficacy, like all these different things and I was like do you, how do you feel about it? And there was one person that was like oh, I use it all the time and I use it every day. And I would ask another person to be like oh, no, I'm so against it. And they would ask another person. They'd be like in the middle, and it would go on and go on. I would ask different people how they felt. And it's interesting because I'm like yeah, I still feel the same, I don't really use it and I don't know what will make me want to use it. It really takes a lot out of you. But anyway, ai is huge and it's really revolutionizing the way we do things around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely. So that was our number one top episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah past year. The next episode that you all loved was titled the number one problem people face when making a career decision. So that episode was actually done before MJ joined podcast. That's okay. That was during my solo days when I had first started, and this episode really talks a lot about just career and decision in general, how the current development cycle plays out in our lives and and having too many options sometimes that we see with our students all the time. So it's like the the unlimited number of options that causes some of the uncertainty that people face.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. People get stuck a lot of the time in the exploration or in the investigative phase of who they are and making career decisions so really that that really keeps them in one place and doesn't allow them to to grow and really execute some of the things they want. So career decision making is a huge part of our lives and there are so many different things that impact our decision making, especially career decision making, because it has to do with our lives. Right, career and life influence one another and there's a balance, so it really does impact and I'm so glad this is also a number one of the top episodes because this is highly important to think about very actively when you are thinking and reflecting on your career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I hope that our listeners took away some really important messages from this episode. Please go back, listen to these top five again and share your feedback with us as well.
Speaker 2:You are always welcome to reach out the next one drum roll is being your authentic self at work, and I wish there was like a little party sound here, because this was our first one together. Oh, and she is our first one together. Yeah, oh, this one.
Speaker 1:Oh, I loved this one.
Speaker 2:I remember recording this and I remember sitting there and I'm like this is it.
Speaker 2:This is the start of of it all, and this one this is probably my second favorite, not only because it was our first book.
Speaker 2:It really is a true reflection of who I am, and I really break down the authenticity of who I am and how I bring that in my in my job. But the work that I do in general right as a practitioner, as an educator, as a person in society all wrapped in one, and Armin and I got to really share who we are, not only in our lives, but who we are with our students and our coworkers, and who we share different parts of how we are as well. And being your authentic self at work really does bring you holistically into it as well. One of the things that I have noticed recently and have been saying a lot more is the reason why I love career development is because it's also about identity development, and I love to talk about this stuff, and so bringing your authentic self to work really has to do with how is your identity developing in the place of which you work, also with the work that you do? So this one is, theoretically, is also one of my favorites too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, there's a lot wrapped up in this episode because it really does talk about career development on that different level. It's not just about you know making decisions about your career, but it's beyond that. It's about how you grow as a person in your career, which is, you know, the underlying theme of everything that we talk about on this podcast. You know each, every single episode, but this was like that first one that really highlights, highlights that I love this episode too, especially because I know that a lot of times, our students, our clients, will ask us like, how do you bring your authentic self to work? And, yes, and people often have this misconception that like, oh, I'm a different person at home and I'm a different person with work, and the reality is that's not the case.
Speaker 1:I'm actually really dig deep into that in this episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really not the case. I'm the same everywhere, except when you find me at Target. I will not talk to you.
Speaker 1:She has a hoodie on.
Speaker 2:I have my hoodie on, I have yeah, I do not want to be seen anywhere outside of what I do, because it's not me. It's fine, though, it's fine, but guess. So that is our third one. So now we're going down to our fourth one, armin, tell us what about our fourth one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one was called On your Shit and that was back in my solo days again, and in this episode I really talked about limiting beliefs and essentially recognizing that in ourselves, understanding that we all have limiting beliefs, we all have areas of improvement and things that maybe kind of hold us back, but recognizing that and not allowing that to get in the way of your growth, your development, trying new things, taking initiative, making an effort, because we could get wrapped up in our heads and just replay those negative messages Like that's kind of like a human tendency I think we all experience. But in that episode I talked about why it's important to just own those limiting beliefs that you have so that you could allow yourself to not allow them basically to get in the way of your success.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We are often the barrier in front of our own success. So sometimes we have to overcome ourselves and what we believe and how we believe things, and change the messaging of what we're saying to our own selves to be able to really thrive and succeed, and that's very important. We know one of the buzzwords right now in the world is imposter syndrome, especially in education and talking about identity and all of these different things. Owning who you are, owning those limiting beliefs and really reframing that message to yourself allows you to walk a different path as well. Yeah, I love that. That could be a whole different conversation. I love that you also had these. The ones that you did by yourself also are coming up in the top five. It shows how awesome you were even before this dynamic duo happened, so I love that.
Speaker 1:You know, but the dynamic duo is whole another one.
Speaker 2:So let me tell you about our fifth one, because this one's actually your favorite. Yeah, yeah, it is. So this, the our fifth top listen to episode, is called career success starts with you, and this one really dives deep into the importance of understanding of who we are. But it takes a twist because it looks at generational trauma. It looks at our self image and how it manifests into both our life and our career, and I know this one, arminay Arminay, and this is also one we actually published on our Instagram, so you can even watch a cute little reel of both of us recording this one live. This one was really fun and I think we got to dig deep into parts of ourselves and our history and our families and in our cultures that we really never have gone there before and got to understand pieces that we really didn't see and understand as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a deep episode.
Speaker 2:That one was so deep, yeah, so high emotions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it takes career decision making to another level that we normally don't think of, but but everything that we've experienced, including generational trauma, impacts the decisions that we make in our careers and just in our lives in general. Right, so we wanted to shed light on how some of those deeper layers of our identities can make an impact on our career decisions. So if you're into some of that deep stuff, definitely check that out.
Speaker 2:So, again, yeah, absolutely, and these are our top five, meaning there's going to be a whole new set within the next year. So if there's something you are dying to listen to or you want us to talk about a little bit more or expand on, even just let us know, right, we always love your comments and your feedbacks, and we also want to know what your favorite episode is. We can sit here and talk about our favorites and the different top ones that we've had, but what is your favorite? What is one that you that really resonated with you? Or what are quotes or messages that we've shared as well that also, personally, resonate with you too?
Speaker 1:Yes, please send those to us. We'd love to hear and maybe even share in our next episode. Yeah, you can either email us or send us a DM on Instagram.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, with that said so, we reviewed our top five episodes. We kind of talked about some of the main themes around those episodes and now we want to talk a little bit about how we've grown and how our podcast has grown in the last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember planning this now a little over a year ago and I was super like, okay, you need to research, you need to do this, you need to do that, and I was like freaked out and I was like, oh my God, this is like a huge deal and all of these things and lights, camera action and and so many other things and Armin, it was like, can you chill? There's probably somewhere around the conversation and I remember being so nervous and at this time now I think I can change. Finally, that career confidence is new. It's been around for almost a year. It'll be a year in March March 8th actually it's an International Women's Day but our podcast has grown and we have grown as well and we've gotten so much more comfortable into who we are as human beings and talking about career to others around in our audience. As we know, you are all living different lives and we fell into this amazing groove and dynamic of just being authentically ourselves, no matter where we are and in which capacity as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's honestly been amazing. I mean, the podcast has allowed even us space to reflect and and think about our own career. Yeah, yes, the intention is to expand our knowledge to the general population and help people with their career decision making. But I think, just being in the service industry for my entire career, you know I've learned that you can't help people without also you learning and growing, like they literally go hand in hand. There is no way we could be there for other people and help others grow and develop without us doing the same work ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I agree. That's something I've been recently thinking about with students, and how much of ourselves do we bring and do we show them that we've also grown as well, so they can, in turn, take that information and grow themselves as well? So it's huge. And I mean with our clients as well, right, how much of ourselves do we bring in? It's such a beautiful dynamic. I really do cherish the work that we do, because it's not only helping others, but it's we're also growing ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. No, it's really amazing, and with that our platforms have expanded.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yes, it's exhausting to just think about how big they've grown over the last year.
Speaker 1:No, it's true, it's true. I mean, we've both done things that were new this year in relation to our platforms. So let's start with you, mj.
Speaker 2:Oh geez, so in less than a year ago, because it was in March when I launched Career Confidence.
Speaker 2:I remember Armin I've said this before you were the one who inspired me to like actually pull through.
Speaker 2:If this woman in a positive way, right, if this woman who has a full-time job is a full-time wife can do this, I can do this too, and I was so excited and I know that Career Confidence and it is it's a place where I really want to empower others with this sense of confidence in their careers and really redefine what that means to you.
Speaker 2:And it's now become a place where I'm sharing different parts of my experience in my life as a career counselor and as a social educator and in my platform and different parts of who I am. Even like it was sick last month and here I am sharing that because it's important to talk about self-care, so off topic, but I've grown this platform from a mere small, small size I remember having like 12 followers and now it's currently recording this. It's a little over 500, right, it's small as it's growing, but it's individuals who have stayed engaged, have seen me grow and connections I've made as well, and I'm so privileged to be able to share this with the world and to share our talents and the things that we do for others, to take it a bit of an edge of and grow as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. No, it's been amazing seeing you grow this platform and the journey that you've been on and all the conversations we have like you know, outside of the podcast we're like, okay, how do we do it? And I'll be the one asking how do you do it in real life? What's in now? But it's awesome to see because, honestly, it does take a lot of work.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:It really does. I mean, just the platform alone can be a full-time job.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Right Podcast alone could be a full-time job. So all these different pieces, they work together in the way that we're doing this, but they each take up a lot of time and energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I would say, too, like it's also they're parts of you, right? They're parts of who you are and they're important parts To me, they're really important parts to who I share. So, thinking like I probably overthink about how I do this and that's fine, because that's just who I am. It's important for me to share my story because I know the impact it's going to have on all of you. Yeah, and I've grown just from having the platform. I've had the opportunity to participate and meet some incredible people and amazing people who've just also transformed my journey as well, so I'm grateful for you too. Yeah, yeah, love you. Tell me about career confidence, because you had career confidence before me. You had career confidence before career confidence.
Speaker 2:No you've had career rise before career confidence and you've I've seen you just expand in ways that I'm like wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, this year I've done new things that I hadn't done before. Social media wise, I'm not as active as you are, and in the future, hopefully, I can be more active but for me it's been more of the going out and doing workshops yeah and presentations and actually being paid for these yes, Shops, which is insane. And you know it's not about the money at all, but like when you put in so much time and energy into developing a brand and a platform, then all of a sudden somebody reaches out to you and is like we want to pay you to come speak at hell yeah.
Speaker 1:That's. That's another level of, you know, feeling like, okay, okay, this is going somewhere and I'm feeling successful. It's been a slow start. I mean, I started this in the pandemic 2020. So we were like, you know, people were not really thinking about growth and development.
Speaker 1:It was like survival mode and I'm over here like I'm going to start a platform, hey, but hey, you know, that was me. I needed to do it at that slow pace because for me, even, just even, if I just focus on my Instagram, like when I started and I've said this before on the podcast I didn't want to show my face on Instagram.
Speaker 1:It was like I was hiding behind the scenes of like okay, let me just like post a little bit about career development and see where this goes. The Instagram evolved, the website evolved, you evolved, yes, I evolved. I became comfortable sharing my face, sharing my message. I realized that like I am the brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are separate from me.
Speaker 1:So what we tell our clients all the time is like you, your identity and your career are aligned. Essentially, me like. It took me doing all these things and revamping my social media and the website and everything, to also realize that me, my identity and career rights are aligned. I cannot hide behind the screen, you know. With that said, I've had a slow start, but this past year it's I've one, I've been getting clients regularly, so that's been amazing. But two, it's been the workshops. So I presented, I was asked to do a workshop on resume building for UCLA's Alumni Association which is separate from our jobs.
Speaker 2:Let me just say that it's completely separate. This is Arminia's career rise, not as an assistant director.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that was that was one. I loved it, enjoyed it. That was a virtual workshop. I was asked by two classrooms to go and present in person. Yeah yeah, One was my alma mater at CSUN, the other was MJ's class yes, my class but they were both for graduate students and it was more so talking about the career services industry and my journey as a professional. And I'm like what? Like my journey as a professional. I would never think that someone would ask me to go and share that at this stage. Right, Like I don't see myself in being someone to go and talk about, look at my journey as a professional, but that's happened twice already.
Speaker 2:I'm like wait, Arminia, you've come to two of my classes, Two separate ones. Yeah you talked about flow theory a couple months ago.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, that was another one, totally yeah, flip my mind, but yes, so flow theory, which I absolutely love, and we can talk about flow in another episode here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Love flow theory. So that was another one. And then my big one, I posted about this on my Instagram. This one oh my gosh, so funny. It happened while I was on vacation, on vacation in Hawaii and and I was doing this resume workshop for the LA County Library Virtual workshop and I it was to the general population, so anyone who basically has a library card is able to attend these workshops. And, yeah, I loved it, I worked with them and that was like the major one that I would say happened this year. But that reminded me I did one when I went to Paris the year before. Yeah, and that it's so funny because every time I go on vacation, I end up having a workshop to do is taking more vacations, clearly.
Speaker 1:I think the universe is telling me take more vacations and I'll give you more workshops. But the Paris one was also to my alma mater, talking about About the industry, to graduate students. Yeah, so it's just been interesting, the different places like people will reach out to me from and say oh, I saw you're the LA County Library, absolutely no connection to anybody there and they saw my profile and they were like we, like your style. We would want you to. If you're open to do a workshop for our population.
Speaker 2:I didn't even think when, when I was talking about career rise, I didn't even think about, like my, my profession I seem saying this in quotes my professional life, because I'm like, holy shit, like I taught three classes this year to different audiences Grad and undergrad. I taught, no, I did I teach that. I. I did a Workshop, a resume workshop for high school students. Crazy enough this is so weird it was the same high school I took my SAT at. So that's a weird, weird connection. And then the third thing I did that's Out of the blue was I was on a panel for my alma mater and I was the Well, I was representing what I do and and where alumni go, and I was asked to do that, which is weird and awesome and amazing, and to be part of different things.
Speaker 2:And I have had first, and I just presented at a conference this last month yeah, I'm like hearing you and I'm like, wait, I've done so much more than just do career confidence. Yeah, I mean at work, I've excelled and done things. But well, it's a whole another thing to talk about later.
Speaker 1:You've done, it's been a big year. It's been a big year for both of us in in in growing our brands and their Basically in our professional lives, whether that's part of your full-time job or whether that's part of the platforms that we're building. It's been a big year for us and of course we started this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and can you imagine if this was year one? Yeah, what the rest of our lives are gonna look like? We're gonna have more kids one, so we'll see there. We'll see if I have any more letters behind my name. Yeah, and we'll see. We'll see what happens, but this has been a really awesome year and I'm excited to keep growing our Platforms and just to keep growing as a human being right next to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So thank you all to our listeners for following us, supporting us. Yeah, because, honestly, we we couldn't have done all of this without if we didn't have them. Absolutely so we are really grateful to be in this space and have this, this opportunity to do this kind of work yeah, so let's talk a little bit about our best moments, right, and what we really enjoy about this platform.
Speaker 2:And one of one of my favorite things is and I say this is a social educator and I know that sounds very, very academic, but it means to really just share our education and the knowledge we have with others, and that is truly my favorite part of what we do is to share parts of ourselves and the knowledge we have and have had the privilege to learn with Everybody else who can listen to this platform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the best feeling right when I think about, like you know, back in the day, when technology wasn't advanced and people didn't have have the space and the opportunity to share their knowledge right or have an impact on the world, I mean, unless you were, you were legit in the media. I mean that was, those were the only people who had an impact right. But now everybody, everybody has influence and influence, yeah, and the thing is that, like even what I've noticed too, is you know when you don't think you're Influencing people?
Speaker 1:you are you are, and actually sometimes those are the most impactful Influences.
Speaker 2:I'm pointing at Armin a right now, and I'm pointing at myself. Hell yeah, she's influenced me a whole lot and these cases.
Speaker 1:It's like you don't even know what you know, you're speaking yourself. And then people who gravitate towards that energy will you know, will then one day come and tell you oh my gosh. I've learned so much from you. Yeah, so I think, and that's why going back to the authenticity is it's so important. Yeah, you have a positive impact on people's lives. But yes so sharing your knowledge with the world. Having the opportunity to do that, has been one of the things we enjoy most About this podcast. We also enjoy growing with you all.
Speaker 1:Yeah the confidence and the comfort level, yeah, from me. Oh my gosh. I remember so in my solo days when I was gonna first, first launch the podcast. Must have taken me three to four hours to yeah, plan what I was gonna say Recorded. Every time I said um, or like you know, froze, I would stop it and start over.
Speaker 1:You're so funny yeah yeah, because I was like no, it needs to be perfect. And then three, four hours later I was like wait, so now I'm done recording. I still got to edit this thing and I was like I don't know if I can do this, because I don't have that much time to dedicate to one episode, right? Yeah, so I gave it a rest at that time. I clearly was not at all ready at that time to start a podcast. It was literally just an idea and for me when I have an idea, I'm like I gotta try it. But I'm so glad you did. Yeah, I'm too, I'm too.
Speaker 1:It took me a little bit after that and thanks to my husband who he bought me the microphone and he was like you better start using this microphone, you know, because he wanted to motivate me and encourage me that I could do it. We had a lot of conversations Around podcasts and he would like help have me listen to different podcasts when we were writing in the car, just to kind of get the different styles and all of that. So, thanks to his influence and motivation, I was like you know what? I'm gonna try this again and I did, and I tried different things. I tried different things.
Speaker 1:One time I tried a script. I wrote out everything I was gonna say and then read off of it and I was like, no, I don't like that vibe. That's not authentic, it doesn't sound like me. So those were the early days and you could probably see those, see all of that, in the episodes If you listen to the early days. But it's changed so much, so, so much more confidence, so much more comfort and and being here sharing a message, knowing that there's an audience out there listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for me it was just. This has been a place where I've been able to be out of my shell and I've been able to say, like I like to be behind the mic, not the screen, and I like this space a lot more and it's and, like you know, sometimes we record it and I kind of forget about it, and then people will come up to us and be like, oh my god, I heard this and I'm like, oh yeah, like I said that, and it's kind of like evergreen. It is evergreen material and it's evergreen opportunity and I just love it and I've grown so much, just as a person, and I'm so glad to have this platform be a part of that, and this is honestly one of my favorite platforms. So, share this with others, because this is content that we love to create and we really wish we had more time to do so. But, yeah, as we grow, you guys grow, and vice versa as you grow, we grow too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is another one of the things we love about about being on this end of the microphone. Mj, what is your favorite episode?
Speaker 2:So my favorite episode is one that was in our top five, and it is career success starts with you. This one was very personal. You and I talked a lot about our, our culture, and I'm somebody like my life is ingrained in my culture. I live and breathe being Latina and Central American. Central American. I love it and it's something that I really do have, even my fiance's culture. I really try to embed that in our lives and things like that.
Speaker 2:And when we're talking about generational trauma and the impacts it has and who we are in our lives and our career development, it's very important to acknowledge these things that are. Who we are goes beyond our own lived experiences. They go deep down into the blood that we have and the descendants in which we have as well, and also it's it's saying like your career success starts with the most important person, which is yourself. And this is one where I tell students all the time and to use a little bit of the Gen Z language, like, do you want to be a main character in your career? Absolutely Right. And this is something that is. It reminds them of who they are and who they want to be and what they want to be, and it's. For me, it's been a reminder that I want to make sure that I am I'm the star of my own life and that I'm I'm being selfless for myself as well as being selfless for others. But it's also important to recognize the history and the background and culture in which I come from too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I think what that this episode really does is it? It's. It highlights the importance of internal locus of control. Yes, because it's. Once we understand how our history or culture or families, lived experiences impact us, then we can take control of how we want to well, allow that stuff to either hinder us or or support our success, right?
Speaker 1:That's true, but when we don't reflect on these things, the same as like imposter syndrome and limiting beliefs if we don't acknowledge that we have these things, they're going to eat away at our success and we're not going to realize it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so I think that episode does a good job of highlighting the importance of having an internal locus of control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's mine, what's yours?
Speaker 1:I really love how to be a leader in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are a leader in my life.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, you're my everything. Oh my gosh, you are funny. I would say you're a leader in my life because I think, yes, we definitely learn from one another. I really love that episode because it talks about again, taking ownership. Taking, yeah, I think, everything that talks about internal locus of control, ownership and basically not making excuses. Yeah, everyone has challenges and and some the playing field is not fair. We know that, right, people start at different, different stages. But, with that said, understanding those things doesn't mean then sitting in victim mentality.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because that's not going to get us anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's understanding and then recognize okay, what can I do to push forward? And so taking leadership in your life whether that's making a career decision, taking a risk in your career every single time we sat down to record an episode, that was us kind of taking that ownership right, absolutely, even when we were super scared in the beginning. Every single time I have a workshop, someone requests me to do a workshop, I still, like you know, as my heart skips a beat, I'm like can I really do this? Especially the ones that are paid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh, they're paying me. This is such a big responsibility, I have to make sure it's good. Even though I do this every day in my nine to five job it's. It's somehow different because it's outside of my day to day work, right, but every single time I'm like no, I'm going to do it. Even when I go on vacation, I'm like no, I'm not going to let this opportunity go. And I'll credit some of that to my husband too, because he's always really good about saying like, just do it, just try it. You know, this is a risk you have to take because you're not going to get comfortable unless you do it. So he does a good job of cheering me on too, but all those things. That's the theme of how to be a leader in your life.
Speaker 2:I think it's important what you said about we are all not born in the same level and stage of life. Right, like some of us have low SCS, you know, some of us just haven't. Unfortunately, they're generalized discriminations in our lives and different areas in which we start and and limiting beliefs. Let me just leave it as limiting beliefs. And you're right, if we stay the victim in our own life, we're not playing main character energy and we're never going to aspire to be who we want to be or what we want to do, and that's very important. And if you can't lead yourself in your own life, you can't really lead anybody else anywhere.
Speaker 1:Mike job, yeah, right there. Yeah, yeah, you know, and, as you're saying, that I'm thinking about, okay, think about some of the most influential people in society.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:They didn't all come from privileged backgrounds. Many of them did not come from.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about Michelle Obama. I'm a she's like, honestly one of my idols. I freaking love her. Yeah, she's somebody who I'm like. Yeah, she did not come from if you read her book but coming. Oh, I love her story. I've listened to it, I've read it, I love it. I put her a lot of quotes in some of our student newsletters as well. It's a whole separate topic. But she didn't come from a background that was privileged and things like that. And look, she became right first African American black, first woman of America.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and that's the same for any, even some of our historical figures to absolutely the ones who made a difference in society. Many of them had really really challenging childhoods or family dynamics or whatever challenges they might have gone through. So the reality is that, like you said, take take that, be a leader in your life and take that ownership and move forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. We told you top five, told you our favorites, how we've grown, some of the things we enjoy most about this podcast. But now it's time to turn the tables and talk about what you said, because we wouldn't be here, as we've said many times, without you, and you are most important people, because you guys are the ones who receive this, and we've heard some countless just amazing things over the last year and we want to share them with you, as I thank you.
Speaker 1:Oh, mg, one of my favorites yeah, yes, one of my favorites. Mg comes into work one day and she's like Arminate. So this was a week that we skipped the episode because both of us were sick. There's a lot going on, so we skipped an episode, right. And then it was the day after that episode was supposed to air. Mg comes into work and she's like my. Someone I know messaged me and told me where is your episode? Like, we listen to it at work all the time on speaker and we have nothing to listen to today because you guys didn't publish an episode. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe people you know are listening to us as a group in their jobs. That's, that's just like the highest compliment for us right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is. That is very sweet and you know who you are because you are listening to this, because you are a regular listener, and we appreciate you and the audience you bring as well, and we really do hope that you're learning a lot from this and you're taking a lot of this knowledge as well. But absolutely, please share with us, like the different ideas you have at DMS. That's just one of the comments and feedbacks we've had, one of the other ones we have, and this is kind of like on our routine, but we love to hear it anyway because it is something that happens and is said within our work time, but it has nothing to do with our actual nine to five job.
Speaker 2:A lot of our co workers and the students we work with know about Armin a and my podcast and they comment us all the time like regularly on oh it's Tuesday, like I listened to you on my way into work, or I'm I'm I'm doing a presentation on this, so I learned so much from this episode and I use this in my session and all of these different things, or or either they're people who want to learn more and we'll just listen and be like, oh my God, this is such a cool podcast. One of one time Armin a and I were in a different students identity center and the student was talking about, you know, some of the personal challenges they were having and they were talking about how much they love listening to our podcast and the dynamic and the interesting, the irony of seeing us at work to our jobs and then going home and listening to us after, yeah, and how we're the friends they always want to have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the cutest, it's, so it's really, you know, it's validating, obviously, to hear positive feedback, because we do put in a lot of effort and energy into creating this. So we we love to hear that other people are learning from these episodes and really resonate with us and what we're sharing.
Speaker 1:So, we love hearing that it is validating, but you know, at the end of the day I think it comes down to if you gravitate towards this information is this is where you're adding your life, that you are interested in these topics, we welcome you. We please share. Please share with other folks who you think would resonate with this information, and I love that people share, that they like the dynamic between the two of us. Absolutely and that's also really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, our dynamic is one that's very, very unique and that the energies are very synchronized when they're here, and I really wouldn't have wished for another better podcast partner and co-host than you.
Speaker 1:Me too. So, with that said, we are grateful for our listeners. Thank you all so much. Again, it's a new year. We wanted to do a year in review. As you see, we've had an exciting year and we look forward to an even more exciting year ahead. And for you all too, we look forward to hearing what you want to hear from us, your success stories and how you've grown over the year as you listen to our podcasts.