"Possibilities, Options & Dreams"

Your Career 2.0 Launchpad Episode 106 with Brian McNamara and Sophia Gibbs

August 11, 2022 Brian McNamara and Sophia Gibbs Season 1 Episode 6
"Possibilities, Options & Dreams"
Your Career 2.0 Launchpad Episode 106 with Brian McNamara and Sophia Gibbs
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Sophia Gibbs describes how she shifted her career focus to involve her family while outlining the process with career coach Brian McNamara.

From the article https://entrepreneurssource.com/blog/... on The Entrepreneur's Source Blog https://entrepreneurssource.com/podca...

Mother-Daughter Dynamic Duo

Happy Mother’s Day! In honor of all of the invaluable women who provide nurturing, guidance, and love, The Entrepreneur’s Source® is highlighting a mother-daughter team who are following a new path and pursuing business ownership together.

After spending more than 15 years working in healthcare, Sophia Gibbs was ready for a change. As associate director of clinical operations at Weill Cornell Medicine, Gibbs garnered a wealth of management experience, including recruitment, finance operations, and communications. Despite achieving a successful career in Manhattan, Gibbs had a desire to get back to the basics of customer service.

“I enjoy my job, but it does not focus on day-to-day care. It’s more administrative. I wanted to make a positive impact on people’s lives,” Gibbs said.

With three children beginning to enter the workforce, Gibbs’ primary focus was on helping them achieve a successful future. She had her sights set on business ownership to provide a legacy for her children. “I wanted to have a business I could pass down to my kids,” she added. “Business ownership is the best thing I can give them. It serves as a trust fund for down the road.”

Gibbs worked with Brian McNamara, a Career Ownership Coach™ for TES, to help achieve her entrepreneurial goals. TES coaches use education-based tools to help people set goals and explore possibilities at no cost. Coaches focus on helping people determine their Income, Lifestyle, Wealth, and Equity™ goals to chart a new course. TES coaches hold people accountable to their dreams and help them attain financial freedom.

“Brian gets to know you as a whole person. He is very available and very resourceful. He made us feel as if we had a partner during this journey,” Gibbs added.

Career coaching helped Gibbs decide that business ownership through franchising offered a low-risk, high-reward path to achieve success for her family. Franchising allowed them to operate a proven brand with the training and support needed to succeed.

“Sophia is extremely kind, caring, calm, cool, and collected. Through that, she’s achieved great success in life,” McNamara said. “We started working together last September, and by the end of the year, she’d decided on not one but two businesses.”

Having an aging parent exposed Gibbs to the gaps in the home healthcare system. Confident a better alternative existed, Gibbs signed a franchise deal to open a ComForCare location in nearby Jersey City, New Jersey, and immediately gave the leadership reins to her 26-year-old daughter, Sierra Graham. ComForCare offers an in-home care solution for the elderly.

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Unknown:

Welcome to your career 2.0 Launchpad hosted by the entrepreneur source. My name is Mike toper. I've got two fantastic guests joining me today Sophia Gibbs and Brian McNamara. And first, we're gonna start with Sophia just one wants you to give a brief introduction about yourself, your role, and maybe one interesting fact. Hello, everyone. My name is Sophia Gibbs. I was born in the West Indies, immigrated to the US when I was four, raised in Brooklyn, New York. At an early age, I was drawn to the medical and science field and have had the good fortune to be able to work in that field for my entire adult career. I am an avid animal enthusiast, and I love reading and learning new things, especially different foods. Alright, and Brian R. T. Yes, coach. Brian McNamara. I've been with TS now just under two years, Cornell alumni, which Sophie and I have in common, and my passion has traveled. So I've been to 35 countries and that does not mean in the airport and out of the airport. That means exploring. So discovering new food, new places, and kind of getting off the the over trodden tourist route. So that is that is my passion. And that's part of what brought me to this is the flexibility of lifestyle that I have, as a career coach allows me to take on more travel adventures that I've had with a traditional 40 hour week job. That's excellent. All right, well, let's get right into the nitty gritty. Sophie, I want to start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about your career life before you got into contact with T? Yes, I've always been in the healthcare realm, either on the research side or wetlab, or administration. Currently, I work focusing on the ambulatory clinical operations at Weill Cornell. And I spent most of my time working on different initiatives, onboarding new doctors, working with patients and helping them solve issues that have been plaguing the healthcare realm for a long time. And I believe it's been, I've been there for over around 15 years, correct. My career has been 15 years been at Weill Cornell now about seven years in different occupations a way different hats. I started out as a clinical manager when there was a merger with another location. And since then, have been a divisional administrator. And now I'm a social director of collaboration for the Department of Medicine. So you're a mover and shaker. So at which point did you decide and what inspired you to kind of go searching for something now. So even before COVID, I started realizing that I was not really engaged in what I was doing. I was just doing everything pretty robotically. I knew what I was going to do at least, I had an idea of what's going to do today, but next week, and it just got to be kind of monotonous. And then I also realized that I like to travel. And then when COVID hit, it kind of dawned on me that I was only traveling where I needed to for work, I would take the family with me, they would have a great time visiting museums, amusement parks, pools, and then we rejoined the end of the day, and I had nothing to contribute. But oh yeah, the lecture was great. Or I learned about a new way to improve revenue cycle or HR management, I really wasn't engaged in my family or my own life, especially when COVID hit. So there's got to be something else out there a different way to have an impact. But the same time we captured from time to time for myself, I needed more flexibility. And then I happened upon Mr. McNamara. And since then he showed me a way that I can actually have all the things I want and a life for my family for myself career, but still have time for myself where I can actually travel and enjoy the travel. And obviously, he's a man who enjoys some traveling itself, as he told us So Brian, how did you meet Sophia? And what was your impression of her initially when when you guys got in contact? So Sophie and I met through a LinkedIn connection. And my first impression that initial colleague recall, I was quite honestly blown away by her positivity towards the world around her during a time that was very difficult for all. So during COVID, you know, everybody had similar stresses, regardless of where they live, but living in the greater New York area and working Manhattan certainly post its own unique set of challenges. But again, very level headed and put on a very positive attitude, despite so dealing with, you know, a late surge didn't seem to faze her from my perspective, that in her commitment to business ownership, it was September, she said, I've made up my mind, I would like to be in business or own a business by the end of the year. I said, Whoa, the audits kind of that's kind of fast. Let's talk about but the way that she engaged, you know, her commitment to the process of discovery looking at new opportunities for decisiveness? Yes, I like, let's move on or No, I don't allow her to actually achieve that goal. So by December she was she was on with a couple of businesses that she decided to move forward with. And certainly there was more to come after that. But she stayed true to her. Her commitment commitment of December, I am now convinced that this is the right opportunity for me, let's go. And she did this. In a matter of weeks when we first met, it was it was pain, Sophia. So what did you you know, what were you looking for? What did you share with Brian, you know, say, Hey, this is where I want to put my focus. This is this is where I'm leaning. I mean, you must have had a couple of areas are already kind of help unpeel that for you a little bit. I would definitely say he helped me focus. I have three major passions, health care, shelter, education, and also animals. So he said, Okay, how about we narrow it down, because that seems to be too broad of fields for you to try to jump into immediately. We had several conversations. And so when he presented a few health care companies for me in different realms, and I said, Okay, Comfort Care speaks to me, especially now that I'm trying to go through the same kind of pain points that others are going through taking care of their aging parents. So that was putting in that note, and they do go above and beyond doing a lot more planning a lot more services than the typical home health care company does. And just to show that he presented a company that I kind of fell in love it because they married jamboree with a steam program. And I said, You know what, I love the concept. And he said, great, so how about you get on the phone with these people, talk to them and see if it's really a good fit. And luckily for me, it was Yeah, and that's tumbles and great family connection here. Your daughter will be working with you are working for comfort care in your plans to have your son working at least part time for tumble. So you mentioned more family. Well, that's getting them involved. And Brian, in in listening to what she was looking for in her passion. How are those two comfort? Karen tumbles? How'd you land on those? Or was it just kind of presenting some options? I think Sophia was right. And in terms of it was it was listening, having the conversations around what she was passionate. And as it turns out, she had a personal connection to both which I didn't know. But through life experiences, she had a connection to or in a greater understanding of what it takes to care for an elderly parent or loved one. And then her son also attended steam learning, which I was not aware of. So it just happened to be by coincidence that she knew a lot more than the average person would know about those two industries. And Brian, what was it like mentoring Sophia and kind of going along this process together? Just a pleasure. Every day. In fact, we still touch base and pretty much on a weekly basis, absolute pleasure. And just I haven't had a client like Sophia, quite honestly, and all aspects of positive aspects. So I've had clients, I would say that about different people in different fashion, but just again, engaging a very professional. Again, professional means both in the thought process to doing the homework, doing the research, but also just showing up and being engaged despite the fact what's happening in the hallway just down from where she's sitting. Now, all the craziness that she's surrounded, she was focused on the entire experience. And that's, that's awesome. And obviously you had that built in, you know, a little bit low up for travel. And you know, having gone to Cornell together, you guys kind of have a little bit of that connection. I mean, did that play a role Sophia in you? Or was that just kind of like an extra Hey, a little familiarity here. I think it helps me connect with Brian. As far as mindset, he understands, like, I have worked with a few other Cornell alums here, we all have the same sort of mindset, we set goals, we stick to it, we try to keep each other accountable, which is what I really appreciate with Brian. And you know, he kept me on track, and focus most of all, excellent. And so for you, Sophia, can you tell us? What is the process been like? And how has your life been? As you start getting both of these ventures going here? It's been absolutely. For me, fantastic. I like to be busy, I like to be engaged. I've been more exploring of New Jersey than I've ever thought I would find in different places, looking at how it's changed and appreciating all the different changes and nuances. I've met some really fabulous people and I'm working with I've been sharing this with my children and they're actually getting more excited. They're looking forward to not even just working with these two companies, but maybe one day getting their own companies they realized that life isn't about just getting up and doing a nine to five you can have much more than that you can. The whole American dream could have it all. You know, work play success, and they understand that you're only going to Add as much as you put into it. So I think right now, like early days are understanding the drive determination that it takes. The beauty of this is I can always either sell the businesses later on or pass it down to them. So I think quite another understanding what it takes to manage things, grow things, and to be completely invested in something that you have a lot of skin. Yeah, that's so fantastic. And just one last question for Brian here. Can you tell us what kind of satisfaction you get? And I see the energy coming out when you talk about this, but what kind of energy or satisfaction you get from from being able to help Sophia, and you heard, you met her back in September, and now you're seeing this road progress? I mean, what's that like for you to know that you're playing a huge role in this? So I get satisfaction out of my client satisfaction. And in this case, I'll give you a great example. She mentioned she loves to stay busy and does not like to be bored. And she went in and she said, Oh, I was even after settling on one. She said, kind of subsequent call, you know what I was thinking about? I think I'll even do a second business. And that's what will tap the brakes, right? Tap the brakes on this. Are you sure what's happening around you? I'll just happen in your life. Are you sure she's Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. But I was actually going the opposite way. Like, perhaps we start one. But then later down the road, you can do another. And sure enough, she did too. But you know, I was trying to make it. So that was in her best interest. Knowing that starting one is not easy, by itself. A second is even more complex, right? You're dealing with different industries and different locations and all that. But with the help of her family, I think it's become a team effort. And you know, she has troops that have assembled around here that can that can help get this done. And, you know, I couldn't be happier with the decisions that she's made. And I'm looking forward to going out to Jersey City at some point and visiting in person as these businesses actually have the ribbon cutting here. Yeah. All right. Well, I mean, you know, go team Big Red. I want to thank you guys for joining us here by McNamara. Sophia Gibbs, thank you so much for your time. And thank you for sharing that story. That's as really incredible. And hopefully get some inspiration those who watch that again, my name is Mike Soper, and thank you for watching your career 2.0 Launchpad