#508 Rediscover your career path and attract opportunities that align with who you truly are, with Keith Anderson.

Are you stuck in a career that no longer aligns with who you are, wondering if there's more to professional success than chasing the next job?

Many mid-career professionals feel trapped in roles that don’t reflect their evolving passions or values. In this episode, career coach Keith Anderson shares how to break free from outdated professional identities and start attracting opportunities by aligning your career with your true self.

• Discover why redefining your professional identity is the key to meaningful transitions.
• Learn how to shift from job-seeking to job-attracting using intuition, strategy, and personal branding.
• Understand the mindset and actions that lead to fulfilling, purpose-driven work in the age of AI.

Listen now to uncover the transformative steps that will help you align your inner purpose with your next professional move.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

01:51 - From $27K Teacher to Tech Leader: Meet Keith Anderson

03:52 - Intuition Over Evidence: The Underrated Career Compass

06:58 - Stop Searching, Start Attracting: The Mindset Shift

09:47 - The Identity Trap: Letting Go of Who You Were

13:01 - Reprogramming Beliefs: From Societal Expectations to Self

18:20 - The Common Thread of Successful Transitions

21:55 - Thriving in the Age of AI: Be More Human

25:15 - How to Learn More from Keith Anderson

27:26 - What Personal Development Really Means

28:54 - Advice to an 18-Year-Old Self

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"Don't get caught up in the small day to day stuff, what people think about you, and all of these things that are not in your control. You can only control what you do, what you think, what you say, where you go, what you do."

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Keith's website: https://keithand.co

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Click here to get in touch with Agi and discuss mentoring/coaching.

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Join our growing community at MasterySeekersTribe.com, where self-mastery seekers come together for connection and growth.

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🎙️ Want to be a guest?

Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery

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Personal development inspiration, self help insights, and actions to implement for self improvement and living with purpose.

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Transcript

Agi Keramidas: 0:00

Are you stuck in a career that no longer aligns with who you are? Would you like to stop chasing jobs and instead start attracting a career that aligns with who you truly are? Welcome to personal development mastery, the podcast that helps intelligent, busy professionals develop self mastery and gain clarity so you can thrive in a fulfilling, purposeful life. I'm your host, Agi Keramidas, and this is episode 508 many mid career professionals feel trapped in roles that don't reflect their evolving passions or values. By listening to this episode, you are going to discover why redefining your professional identity is the key to meaningful transitions, and you will learn how to shift from job seeking to Job attracting, using strategy, intuition and personal branding. If you are feeling stuck in your career, then this episode is for you before we dive in. If you resonate with these conversations and feel like you are at a crossroads in your life, I offer one to one coaching focused on personal growth and mindset. My aim is to help you reconnect with your inner compass, enabling you to make confident, aligned decisions whatever the next chapter may bring, get in touch, and let's have a conversation now. Let's get started Today. It is my real pleasure to speak with Keith Anderson. Keith, you went from earning$27,000 as an English teacher to leading teams at Google and meta, and now you help mid career professionals do the same through your company. You teach people how to stop chasing jobs and start attracting them using a brand a blend of strategy, psychology and intuition. You are passionate about helping mid career professionals rediscover their purpose, redefine their professional identity and create meaningful, aligned careers. Keith, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to

Keith Anderson: 2:35

speak with you today. Thank you. I'm really happy to be here. I'm

Agi Keramidas: 2:39

looking forward to this conversation, Keith, as I was telling you enthusiastically before we started recording, because I have the feeling that our listeners today is very much aligned to this, you know, message of transition in a career, whether it is something that is happening or has happened, or it is just a thought which many It starts like that. So we will explore, and I'm looking forward to explore, you know, finding purpose in a career which you talk about. And before we go there, there is one question I would like to ask you, to warm up immediately. And yeah, you know, there is so much career advice out there, some of it is right, some of it is wrong. It doesn't matter. My question to you is, what's one piece of career advice that you intuitively knew it was right way before, you know, you had the evidence to back it up?

Keith Anderson: 3:52

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. So for me personally, before I became a career coach, and you know, early on in my career, I've focused really much on doing things that bring me joy. And kind of, I tend to follow that path of where my heart is drawn towards, right? And you know, the best piece of advice that you don't really hear that much of is trust that as your intuition to be that guiding light towards opportunities and things that you should naturally gravitate towards or that you should not right. And a lot of times in people's careers, for example, you know, a lot of times you start out that way, and you you have, you want to take inspired action. Then after time that wanes, things change. And then you know, your energy and your ties go somewhere else. So before I became a coach, that was one thing that I noticed I was doing in my own life. And now, since then. Of realised that this is actually something that is scientifically backed and, you know, shows that, like you are following this right path, because it's, you know, it's, it's kind of a never ending journey, right, where you never get to the end destination, because that doesn't actually exist, to be honest, it's just like, you know, going through different different phases of your life and figuring things out that way.

Agi Keramidas: 5:27

It's a great way of looking at it as phases in our life, and it is the way it is really but many don't see it like that. You have to take it like an outside perspective of life. There is something that I read that you've said, and I would like to start us with with that, because I find it interesting. And before I do, I will just give this as you know, let's say preface to this conversation, assuming that our listening right now, and that's why I said that there is probably a lot of alignment. So I'm assuming that who's listening now is in the brink of a transition, or would like a transition, or in the middle of a transition. And when I say transition, I mean professionally mainly, but, you know, personal, professional have found that sometimes they intertwine very much. So I'm giving this, as you know, a base for the conversation, but my question to you was something you said that job seekers should stop searching and start attracting. And I like very much this approach, approach, I suppose that would require some kind of a mindset shift to be so tell us about this. Let's start with this.

Keith Anderson: 6:59

Yeah, for sure. So essentially, the idea behind job attraction and career attraction is basically seeing your life as a mirror, right? All the things that you are thinking, feeling about yourself, about your career, they're showing up in the physical world, right? So if you're unhappy with yourself, then that's what's appearing right in front of you, right? So it's about changing the script first inside, and then that is the impetus and the driver for making the shifts happening on the outside. And once you start doing that, your energy changes, right? People start, people start noticing your energy. And you know, when working with me in particular, like I show you the techniques to really create more of, like a magnetic perspective that you have online and in other in other elements, so that you have the language, the neuro, the neuroscience backed and linguistic back, scientific approaches within, embedded within your profile and your your visual brand, to actually, like, draw people in. So it's a mix of, like, this kind of inner working right, that you're doing, but it's also, like, really focused on, like, what are particular competence markers and warmth markers that are used that actually incite people to your tribe, essentially, to come find you and want to work with you, or have you worked with them? So, yeah, that's, that's essentially what it is. And, you know, there's a lot more to talk about there, but at a high level, that's, that's what it is, sure.

Agi Keramidas: 8:47

And I liked what you said about changing the script inside, which is a very it's a great represent the description. Actually, when I hear that the script inside, there is something that comes to my mind that is a strong, let's say, factor that people who are in transition have trouble with, and that is identity. So you know the internal script, the script inside, as you were saying identity, can I would like to hear whether they are linked, and then I would like to ask you a bit more about identity. And when I say identity, I mean professional identity that you know someone might have been working for 20 years in work that becomes a very internal, integral part of who they are as a personality,

Keith Anderson: 9:48

yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I think like these pieces that are inside of us and who we are over time, they can feel almost permanent. It right, like this is me, which I experienced too. I was a teacher for eight years, and I felt like Keith equals teacher, right? Whether I, you know, partially I consciously knew that, but subconsciously it was kind of another deep level of identity that I didn't realise. And I mean, I think like with that and understanding who you are, we all have different identities, right? We all have different sides of ourselves. So for me, when I transitioned from teaching into landing my first role at Google, you know, yeah, I had to do a lot of, I guess you could say soul searching or re identifying, all of these different pieces of me, not just teaching as my professional identity, but these other great aspects that I bring to a professional workplace. And I just bring to people that I work with, naturally, up to the up to the up to surface. But you know, besides that, I think, like the big thing with all of us is that we're not one dimensional. We're not a career path. We are not a job, right? We're so much bigger than that. And you know this, for example, for me, I, you know, as, as you said earlier, I went from teaching all the way up to leadership roles at meta, door, dash, calibrate, and then worked at Uber, Google, all these places, right? And I have, obviously, I've always been myself through this, right? But I change, and people change and adapt and embrace that right Change is the only constant in life. So, you know, get don't feel that the identity that you have now, as a teacher, for example, from me, is the only identity that you have in the future. You're way, way, way bigger than that in many different ways. You just might not have explored it so much in a professional setting, but even things from your childhood, your teenage years that you naturally gravitated towards, who knows, maybe there are things those those natural tendencies or gifts you have from those ages might now appear in your professional world, or might appear relevant. It's things aren't as linear as we like to think sometimes, or how society tells us right, and we need to kind of embrace that approach.

Agi Keramidas: 12:39

What would you say to someone listening right now that they're having trouble shading that previous identity. It is really strong they cling on to the end. In the end, it prevents them from, you know, embracing the change that you were talking about,

Keith Anderson: 13:01

yeah, for for sure. And I think, you know, just to double down on that with, you know, our programming, like societal programming, even parental programming from when we were really young, they're like, very big gravity pieces that draw us to a certain reality, right? So first acknowledging that there is that you are an identity in something like more of a larger programme unit or a larger societal push. That's not necessarily who you are, right? So first, it's acknowledge that, right? And, you know, be open with yourself and be okay with, you know, having these feelings of maybe money and prestige and all these things in your current path, right? How you don't want to leave them behind it just to start with just acknowledge that those are there, and don't try to put them down and say, Oh, well, you know, money is greedy. I shouldn't think like that, or say any should, should, should, don't should on yourself, right? And then, you know, from there, once you once you have started to get really clear with yourself on where you're at and and those those pieces, then it's about really exploring more about, like, you know, what really are you at that next layer, right? Putting aside all of the corporate Bs and the corporate values and all of that, who really are you? And you know to do that, it really goes back to basics of like, what do you like to do? Who are the people that you like to hang around or be around? What do you like to do with them? How do you like to help them right? And what is that feeling that you have from helping them right? And it might be. Or something that you don't even think is possible. For example, I have a client from last year who she was a litigator, and she hated her job, right? She did not like it, but she had such pressure to become a lawyer, right? From her parents, mostly, right? I mean, it was also seen as prestigious and high pain, and they're all these positive connotations with that. You know, believe it or not, through the work that we were doing together, she was able to go back to kind of the base of who she is, and she realised like she's more about helping people become better in what they're doing, right? And, you know, from there, she actually became the Director of Education for a nonprofit startup, you know, working in working with Palestinian children, right? Like, kind of random, right? Because she was, she was a corporate executive working as a litigator for a large tech company here in the United States. And doing that is like completely 180 so, you know, it's first identifying who you are now, then it's identifying who you are underneath all of the societal pressure, and then it's about planning a path on what your North Star is, and understanding what you represent in your life. Not like, I am a doctor, I am a teacher, but like, Who do you help? What do you help them with? And why are you doing it like and seed all of the different seeds that you have. Plant those, and some of them will ripe. Some of them won't. But that brings you towards the direction of where you're going, right? Because I also firmly believe in my own life, and what I've seen from everyone I work with you know, is that the purpose of life is to be happy, and to do that like you just need to go within First, understand where things are and trust that by following your intuition and your guidance, that you are moving down the right path, Even though it might not be anything that you thought it was earlier, you Know. So, yeah,

Agi Keramidas: 17:21

thank you for your answer. And I like very much that you ended with this, the trusting that the path that you're on, that you are guided on, it is it is so important to have this. I will call it connection. You know, you use the word Trust, which is a beautiful word for this. There is a I like very much the message that comes through what you're saying. Keith and I wanted to ask you one more thing, because you were mentioning your, you know, the people you've worked with. So out of the many people that you help them to make major you know, career transitions, what would you say is one commonality amongst those that have the biggest success?

Keith Anderson: 18:21

Yeah, for sure. So I tend to work with folks who are, either are who are drawn to move into tech, tech industry, or who are looking to move out of the tech industry, right? So that tends to be the folks that I work with, and from there, the one kind of underlying piece that I see most of them have is kind of the first stage that we were just talking about, you know, realising that, like these things of money, prestige and other people's impression of them, that that's fleeting, and It's not making them feel good, like you know, sure, it's great to be acknowledged as being a high performer, what have you, but at the end of the day, they're not feeling fulfilled in what they're doing. So, you know, it's interesting, because I haven't thought about it in this exact way, but a lot of it is like coming to a practitioner to kind of help them, like, find their light, find a new path for them and with not for them, with them. And you know, starting when we work together, it starts to be it starts out very exploratory, right, like, what if, right? And what are different things out there, because we don't know what we don't know. So it's, it's looking at all these different paths and seeing just what ones might sound interesting. And then from there, then we start doing career experiments and understanding what actually does it mean to to do whatever these, these other paths. Are that seem interesting, right? And then from there, it's identifying the North Star and then building out, what does that mean, right? What are the actionable steps that you need to take to get to these milestones? Right? Because at the end of the day, it's yes. Mindset is kind of the foundation of everything. Your inner work is the foundation. But nothing will happen if you don't take action. So like action is the most you know is the most important thing after you get clear with yourself, otherwise you're just thinking you know

Agi Keramidas: 20:37

for sure. And you mentioned, you said the word inspired action there or directed action. Also say because taking just taking action without a clear direction, where you're going is not necessarily good

Keith Anderson: 20:54

exactly

Agi Keramidas: 20:59

there is, I will ask, bringing again, back to, you know, the transition, or people that are thinking of transition, and there is in our especially in our time, it's very much prevalent more and More. And that is AI, it has been suddenly changed. So many things and changing, and I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, but in terms of the, you know, job finding or career transition in sectors, what do you think is the human skill that we really must cultivate much, much more to stay relevant with in an AI dominating environment. That's

Keith Anderson: 21:56

a great question, and I'm smiling and laughing a little bit to myself, because really ironically, what I think is like, I think the solution for this, for all of us is to be more human, like, to be more authentic to ourselves and being clear with who we are and expressing that out to the world, than following like what has been the traditional approach in the job sector, which is where, you know, a company posts a position and you try to fit into their box and be kind of this, this thing for everyone you know, and not really be yourself. And right now AI is going to be doing that. AI is going to be is filling in those boxes already. So what you need to do to stand out into land new roles, to get new opportunities, is to really be yourself. And don't think that you need to just fit a box, but once you start getting comfortable with being who you are and expressing that and under and knowing your worth, then things start to come to you, right? I and I also do want to say that you're very right when you say, AI, has really changed the game, right? In the job market, a lot of people are fearful of this, right? You know, it's interesting. I actually am not fearful of it at all. And I actually think that there's a lot of great things that are coming from it, right? A lot of these more manual labour type of roles, even in like white collar jobs are now being able to be done by AI. This allows a lot more creativity and innovation for us, right where we as humans can focus on these bigger pictures, strategic thinking. So if you don't find yourself naturally gravitating towards those things, this is the time for you to develop those pieces that are more higher level in terms of your thinking, your contributions, and what you bring to organisations, or really to the world, in what you bring so you know, again, it's ironic, because how to position yourself in a world of AI is to not like so say to yourself as an individual, yes, using AI, right? Like, don't try to push it aside, but you need to be different than AI. And with our job, the job market and fulfilling fitting into what companies say they want, that's not going to get you there, because AI can do a lot of that by now.

Agi Keramidas: 24:43

That's great. And you said, be yourself. I wrote, also be authentic, which sounded like you didn't use that word, but it sounded very much like like that. So thank you. That's a it's a great, great answer. Agi,

Unknown: 24:57

yeah.

Agi Keramidas: 24:59

As. We're going to start wrapping this conversation up. I wanted to ask you about where you would like to direct our listener who has found this intriguing and useful and would like to know more about you and your services.

Keith Anderson: 25:17

Yeah, for sure. So, so in particular, I work with people who, have you know, who are either in career transitions or who are thinking of transitioning into something that's more aligned with who they are, whether they have a clear direction of where that is or not. So if this sounds like you, please check out my website at Keith and Keith, K E, I t h, a n, d.co or go to my LinkedIn and my hashtag there is Keith and K E, I t h, a n, d and there, you know, look at every day I post content at 9am Eastern, standard time in Boston, wearing beast and see if the messages there resonate with you. If so, you know, I offer a complimentary 30 minute consultation, so hop on my calendar and we can talk. And, you know, we can see how we can either partner together, or how I can help you with where you're at in your journey so you're able to Move move move more quickly in the direction where you want to go, which you know time is time and money are both currency, and time is something you can't get back. So you know the it's always be thinking that time is such a valuable piece of what you have to give back. So let's make sure that if we do work together, or when you see what I'm doing, that we take that timepiece in as well, too. So anyway, let me know if you are interested in talking more, if my message resonates with you, and for all you listeners out there, yeah, I really hope you've enjoyed our conversation today, and I guess overall, I hope that it really inspires like bigger thoughts in you about who you are and your potential.

Agi Keramidas: 27:14

That's great. And Keith, let me also ask you, I have two final questions that I always ask my guests, and the first one is, what does personal development mean to you?

Keith Anderson: 27:28

Yeah, so personal development for me is, is about consciousness, to be honest. You know, it's about getting clear with the unknown and these assumptions that I have, or the blind spots that I might not even realise I have, and explore those and understand more what they are, and then also personal development is and professional development is really going towards what I am naturally drawn to, right? And for me, early on in my career is always interested in, like, the visual arts, graphic design, you know, I started taking classes and that just on a whim, and that became something that became my profession later on. So the, you know, these things are I might not have you might not have a reason or purpose for them, like for this big strategy in the future, but these things, once you start following these things that you're just drawn to, who knows they naturally kind of appear up in other places in your life. Later on,

Agi Keramidas: 28:40

you see me nodding because I agree completely. Thank you. And Keith, a hypothetical question, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give him?

Keith Anderson: 28:54

Oh, yeah, I would say, like, I don't get caught up in all this small day to day stuff and what people think about you, and you know all of these things that are not in your control. Because just like that, it's not within your control. Can only control what you do, what you think, what you say, where you go, what you do. So focus on that. And you know, once you do that, 18 year old Keith, you know, you start to feel more at ease, right, and not have so much angst about being in college. So, you know, give yourself grace, Keith, and focus on yourself, not on trying to make other people think differently of you, you know, so yeah,

Agi Keramidas: 29:47

that's great, Keith. I want to thank you very much for this conversation we had today, and I think for me anyway, and I hope that it also came. Close to the listener, there was the message that was coming strong. That was that much of you know, having a successful transition has to do with inner elements rather than outer elements, rather than documents or anything out there. You know this, you mentioned some works like intuition or being drawn to or things like that. So for me, that was a very clear, let's say, undertone in your message. So thank you for this. I want to wish you all the very best with continuing your mission, and I will leave it to you for your parting wisdom to the listeners.

Keith Anderson: 30:47

Yeah, well, thank you. Thank you everyone for listening. And you know, I very much agree that from this, you know, from this half an hour or so podcast episode. I hope that you know, you got that following your guidance, your inner system that brings you joy, that that brings you towards inspired action is the path to take. And you know, even though life might seem really complicated and there's all of these things going around, things that you could do, should do, all of that. It doesn't need to be that complex, right? Once you start listening to yourself, things, you start to learn how to feel, how to gravitate towards what works best for you. So I hope that you take that away, you know, and live wonderful. Have a wonderful day. And you know, if you're interested in this more, just reach out to me. You have all the information that we talked about earlier to do so. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you everyone for listening.

Agi Keramidas: 32:02

I hope you have found this episode enlightening. If you resonate with these conversations and feel like you are at a crossroads in your life, I offer one to one coaching to help you gain clarity and step into your next chapter with confidence. If that sounds interesting, reach out to me and let's have a conversation, and until next time stand out. Don't fit in.