Gen Z Career Secrets: Confidence, Soft Skills, and Navigating First Jobs with Brianne Rush

Have you ever wondered what it truly takes to stand out, move up quickly in your career, and speak confidently, especially when you’re just starting out? In this episode of Speaking with Confidence, I dig deep into the real skills that make the difference between simply doing the work and truly excelling–skills that aren’t always on the job description, but that employers look for and reward.

I’m Tim Newman, your host and a former college professor turned communication coach. My passion is helping people build the soft skills that lead to real results, whether in storytelling, public speaking, or just showing up with more confidence. This week, I’m thrilled to speak with Brianne Rush, the founder of The Independence Lab. Brianne is a powerhouse when it comes to helping Gen Z women make the leap from college to career. She rose through the ranks incredibly quickly from intern to managing editor in a year, and employee to VP in four years by learning to decode workplace dynamics, advocate for herself, and, most importantly, overcome her fear of public speaking.

We kick off the conversation with Brianne’s story—how she knew from the age of eight that she wanted to move to New York to be a journalist, and what it felt like to finally live that dream. Brianne shares what inspired her to choose New York, how her experiences in dance and performance influenced her, and why total immersion in a city full of energy was essential to her identity and early career. She explains the lessons she learned—not just about working hard and climbing the ranks, but about truly living in the moment and building genuine connections, both professional and personal.

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

• Brianne’s journey from dreaming of journalism in New York to landing and advancing in her dream role
• The importance of immersion, living in the moment, and building meaningful experiences early in your career
• Lessons about working hard, networking, and creating opportunities for yourself—even when you start at the bottom
• What employers are really looking for in hiring today: the power of soft skills like passion, curiosity, proactivity, and communication
• How to stand out authentically in interviews—using storytelling, personalized cover letters, and honest conversation instead of relying only on AI
• Practical strategies to display confidence, curiosity, and proactivity in every step of your job search
• Brianne’s advice on career advancement: emotional intelligence skills, self-awareness, handling setbacks, and the value of progress over perfection
• Navigating boundaries, learning to say no, and prioritizing projects that advance your career (with a special focus on women in the workplace)
• Gen Z’s growing focus on self-knowledge, life transitions, and ditching outdated hustle culture for a healthier approach
• The mission behind The Independence Lab and actionable resources for building emotional intelligence

If you’re looking for real advice on how to marry soft skills and confidence with actionable career moves, this episode is for you—whether you’re early in your career, managing the next big transition, or helping others find their way. Be sure to check out Brianne’s free resources and connect with us to keep leveling up your communicat

Chapters

• 0:10 Meeting Breanne Rush
• 2:30 Taking Bold Career Leaps
• 8:42 What Employers Really Value
• 14:20 Moving Up Fast: The EQ Advantage
• 19:10 Overcoming Fear and Building Confidence
• 30:43 Career Transitions and Generational Differences
• 39:58 The Independence Lab's Mission
• 46:02 Closing Thoughts and Resources

Transcript

Tim Newman: 0:10

Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that helps you build the soft skills that lead to real results Communication, storytelling, public speaking and showing up with confidence in every conversation that counts. I'm Tim Newman, a recovering college professor turned communication coach, and I'm thrilled to guide you on your journey to becoming a powerful communicator. Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Today's guest is Breanne Rush. She is the founder of the Independence Lab, where she helps Gen Z women transition from college to career with confidence. She landed her dream job and climbed the ladder fast from intern to managing editor in a year and employee to VP in four. But it wasn't because she followed the traditional rules. She learned how to decode the unspoken workplace dynamics, overcome her fear of public speaking and advocate for herself. Recognized by platforms like Forbes, success and Women we Admire, she is dedicated to unlocking career growth for a new generation. Brianna, welcome to the show.

Brianne Rush: 1:09

Thank you, Tim, so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Tim Newman: 1:12

Well, I'm glad because, you know, when you first reached out to me one of the things that really really stood out to me which is kind of rare, you know when you graduated college you truly went for it. I mean, you put yourself out there and you went for what you had worked for and what you wanted to do. And this is you know for everybody. Listen, this is how things turn out. If you go for what you want and you do the work, success happens want and you do the work, success happens.

Brianne Rush: 1:49

That's so true. I mean, I knew that I wanted to move to New York and work as a journalist since I was eight years old, and if I didn't do that, I would have regretted it for my entire life. So I had no choice, tim, I had to go for it.

Tim Newman: 1:57

Yeah, it's um. Why New York, though? Because, um, yeah, obviously media and those types of things, but why New York? Was part of it to truly get away and immerse yourself in your career and in the culture of what you wanted to do. And what did you learn from that overall experience of truly immersing yourself in what you were doing?

Brianne Rush: 2:29

So when I say journalist, I am a trained journalist.

Brianne Rush: 2:33

However, I wasn't like the hardcore news.

Brianne Rush: 2:35

I wasn't interested in writing about breaking news and politics or the murder down the street, like I wanted more so to do the human interest stuff, and I also was a competitive dancer. So these elements of my life kind of came together, this idea of writing, this idea of dance, theater, performance it all seemed to blossom in New York. That seemed to be like the Mecca of all of the things that I was interested in and I had visited a couple times, you know, growing up, especially in high school, and I just felt that energy in my bones so I just knew that was like the place for me and so immersing myself in that seemed like the only way to truly make that dream come true is to go in there, combine what was the essence of me, you know, this idea of performance and writing and all of these things coming together, and it just seemed like that was the only place I could go to do all of the things and truly be myself. I just really felt like that was the answer for the first leg of my career.

Tim Newman: 3:40

Right. And what did you? What'd you actually learn from that? From not only a professional perspective, but a personal perspective, because you know the whole idea. I think where we're at now in society is the idea of work-life balance, which you know. That's a different discussion for a different day. I think there's some validity there to get your career started. Obviously, that's what you thought you had to do and it worked out. But what did you learn coming out of that?

Brianne Rush: 4:12

as you started to grow your career and get a little bit older. There's so much learning there and I won't say that I didn't enjoy it. I worked really hard. In fact. I remember my boss coming over to my desk at 7 PM and being like what are you doing Go home? You know like I worked hard. I really did put in the effort, but I was also in this brand new place where I got to explore, and so every day I would get off the subway at a different stop and go explore the city.

Brianne Rush: 4:34

Oh, my God so yeah, and I think it was this. This balance to what you're saying is I worked really hard to get where I was and that was so important because I was able to get you know. I moved there as an unpaid intern and within three weeks I was offered a full-time position and then I got a promotion, another promotion to that dream role, and so that hard work it. You know, I went there not knowing anybody and so that was a huge lesson for me.

Brianne Rush: 5:01

Right, there is, when you put yourself in the right places and you work really hard and you, you know, do the things that you're really passionate about, you can move up. You don't have to necessarily know the right people or you know, you can start at the bottom and make your way to the top if you work really hard. But I also developed a lot of friendships and got really close with the people in that office and developed this love for this city, and so the other side of that was to really be in the moment and I actually wrote about this in one of my posts is I part of my job was actually going to Broadway shows like how Lucky Am I?

Tim Newman: 5:41

Oh, my God.

Brianne Rush: 5:42

And yeah, and so one night I'm walking home and it happens to be this path, you know, from the Broadway theater to my apartment, through Times Square, and I yes, there's this negative connotation of Times Square and Taurus, I get it, but like I'm living my life, my best life, walking from Broadway to my apartment in New York City through Times Square. And I just stopped and I looked around and I was like holy mo, moly, this is my life. And I just soaked it in. And this was before smartphones, so I didn't, like you know, take a video with my phone or anything. I literally just absorbed it. And that has been a huge lesson in my life is to actually absorb and enjoy the moments. And you know, I I'm so thankful for that. But it, you know, as far as, like, career goes, as far as putting yourself out there goes, it was, it just taught me that you have to do it, you got to go for it, there's no choice.

Tim Newman: 6:36

Yeah, you know, I, I love that for you and I love that the whole idea that you were living in the moment and, you know, didn't pull out the phone and take pictures and those other types of things, you know, and I think that that's a that's a big difference, in generations too, because I don't, that's not my first go to is to pull up my phone and take a picture or take a video and people say, well, why didn't you take a picture? I said that thought never crossed my mind. I was just there, I was just experiencing whatever it was was, you know, and um, and now we have to document everything. But I, I gotta tell you, you know, when you just said that you're, you got off a different subway stop every, every night.

Tim Newman: 7:16

My dad vibes kicked in. It's like, oh my god, that would have driven me nuts as your father. No, no, you get on. This is where you go. You stop get. You go from your office to home. You don't make any stops in between. Um, I don't know if you heard me go gasp, because I thought, oh my God, you know, that's, that's just me as a, as a dad. But but anyway, I, I love that you did that because it's so important and, um, we, we have to if we're ever going to get anywhere in life. We have to take chances, we have to put in the work and we have to actually do the thing, whatever that thing is for each individual, and if we don't, there's going to be regrets down the line. So let's fast forward a little bit in your career now, as again I got tears coming down my face. I'm so happy for you.

Tim Newman: 8:07

Sorry, I'm so happy for you. It's sorry, I'm so sorry. It's allergies and and it really is. You know, my kids say, um, when I because I do, I am an emotional person and especially with my kids and and uh, something emotional going on, I just tell them I'm sweating, my eyes are sweating, it's hot in. But anyway, let's fast forward to your current career. You know the position that you're in you. You tend up to tend to be interviewing and hiring a lot of people. What are you seeing in this process and how has that changed over the course of your career, from the time you know, from you being an intern, being on that side of the table, to where you're at now?

Brianne Rush: 8:46

Yeah, so absolutely, In my day job, I am VP of operations for a digital marketing agency and we hire different specialties copywriting, design, SEO or rev ops and I get to talk to all these people and when they apply, when they upload their resume and their cover letter, our AI on the background now can tell us, you know, they match 60% or 70% or 100% of your job description and, in my position, what I would love to see a better combination for a hire, in my opinion, is somebody that matches 60, 70, 80%, but when you talk to them, they have so much passion.

Brianne Rush: 9:31

They have so much curiosity it's coming through that they are a self-learner and want to grow into this role, versus somebody who matches 95 or 100%, and they just don't have that drive, that curiosity to want to learn and grow.

Brianne Rush: 9:48

So the first combination is much more desirable on the employer's end, in my opinion, than the other side, and what that breaks down to me to mean is that your hard skills are important, of course, but it's those soft skills that are maybe sometimes even more important, and what I like to say is that confidence and curiosity is going to outrank your credentials, especially in these first time roles coming out of college or early in your career. So it's so important to let that shine in your resume. Show how you have started doing these different programs or learning certifications on your own, not necessarily even through school, just something that you've decided to do In your cover letter. Let your voice shine through. Don't make it sound like a robot, because man, anybody can have a robot. Write their cover letter now these days, and then, in that interview, make sure people know you love to learn, you are curious about things, you are willing to put in the extra effort to learn and to grow.

Tim Newman: 10:53

Yeah, and I'm glad you said that AI is such a it's such a great. It's a great tool. It really is, and the more that I'm using it, the more that I'm learning about it. It tool it really is, and and the more that I'm using it, the more that I'm learning about it. It it really is a good tool and it's making some things very, very easy. But on the back end, you know, because it's very, very easy to take a job description, pop it into chat, gpt and give it a really good prompt to tell you to write a really good cover letter for that job description. But the fact of the matter is you can, you can shoot that off to you and then you and I are going to talk about it and that cover letter is not going to match what's coming out of my mouth.

Brianne Rush: 11:34

Exactly, and there's some clues now where people are starting to say oh, that must be written by AI and you don't want that. That's the exact wrong thing to have happen. So if you can use it as, say, an editor or something to bounce your ideas off of something, to amplify your work, your strategy, your thoughts, it's a great tool and if you're not using it for that, you're probably behind. But if you let it do your strategy or your thinking for you, if you let it be your voice, you've already lost.

Tim Newman: 12:05

And to follow that up. You know that when you talk about you know being curious and and and being proactive. That's going to shine through too, because if that's doing that you're, you're number one. You're not being curious at all and you're not being proactive. You're not showing that enthusiasm to do the work to do, to comes back to doing the thing. Whatever that, whatever that thing is for anybody right To to get ahead to, to be good at what you do actually do, and that that's just going to. People are going to see through that real easy and that's that's what I think, from my perspective, is so hard, you know, to get you know younger people to understand. It's real obvious when, when obvious, when you're not being authentic, it's real obvious. It comes through really, really quick.

Brianne Rush: 12:51

Yeah, and I'm so glad you used the word proactive, because every employer wants somebody who is proactive. They would much rather hire somebody that is in that mid range of hard skills but is proactive and will learn, versus somebody who's just going to come in and check off some you know their to-do list and go home, even if they're working from home. But like that, proactiveness is such a key factor in hiring so?

Tim Newman: 13:16

so how do you show? How would you suggest?

Brianne Rush: 13:18

you know, gen z shows that they're proactive I'm glad we're getting there, cause I think in the interview you know we're we're speaking with confidence here and that's such a big place.

Brianne Rush: 13:33

You know in your life where you are speaking and you need to have confidence. But it is so easy to be nervous, it is so easy to lose yourself during those interviews and lose that confidence, and so the biggest thing that you can do to actually show up confidently and show that you are curious and proactive during those interviews is to prepare stories that align with the job description bullet points. So what do I mean by that? I mean print out that job description that you're going to apply for and for each one of those bullets of their responsibilities. Think about a time in your past where you can tell a story about how you actually did that. So in my case, I'm talking a lot about.

Brianne Rush: 14:19

You know, people who are just graduating from college. They probably did not have a full-time job prior to this that they can pull from. However, you may have a part-time job, you may be bagging groceries, you may be doing volunteer work, you may be the head of your newspaper at your college or part of clubs. You may just babysit your siblings. Whatever it is, you have something that you can pull from to showcase that and the best, best way to show that you are proactive and curious and actually be remembered during those interviews is to tell a story. So you know, if the job description says you must be organized, don't just say I'm organized, I'm a type A person. Tell the story about how you are. The editor of the newspaper and everything you know collapsed during COVID and so you had to reorganize everything. Tell whatever that story is. Tell it and that will be remembered in a way that's much more impactful than just saying I'm X, y and Z those adjectives aren't going to mean a whole lot to them than just saying I'm.

Tim Newman: 15:25

X, y and Z those adjectives aren't going to mean a whole lot to them. Right, and just using that example, if you think about it, you know, in talk about organization, what you know the person on the other side of the table can deduce from that is wow, this person cannot organize things, but they can organize their thoughts in a complete thought, rational sentence that makes sense. That is really kind of what we need and what we're lacking in for a person in this role and that checks off another box that you don't even know that you're checking off yet.

Brianne Rush: 15:58

Yes, those emotional intelligence skills are so, so important, tim, it's unbelievable how you can be so valuable in your hard skills but if you can't talk about it, if you can't communicate the value of those skills and what you're doing on a daily basis, it's not going to come through your interview. If you happen to get the job, it's not going to come through in a way where you're going to be on everybody's minds for promotions or raises. You have to be able to communicate in a way that is going to showcase the value of what you and your team is working on.

Tim Newman: 16:33

Yeah, and so let's take that and take another step backwards now. Okay, yeah, you advance really quickly in your career. Okay, what do you attribute that to and how can we relate that to Gen Z today going through the same type of career progression that you went through? Because, again, you're highly motivated, you're in this dream job space and, yes, you moved on really quick no-transcript.

Brianne Rush: 17:16

Yes, and so obviously it is to develop your, your core skills. Right, you want to keep learning in those things, that goes without being said. But what you should also be focusing on is improving what I'm referring to as emotional intelligence skills, or soft skills, and this is the perfect place, you know, speaking with confidence, because that is one core pillar of it is being able to communicate well. But that's what I did, is I really focused on a couple areas. One was self-awareness. So when I fumble or get nervous, I need to really understand what that means. What is it that made me nervous? What is it that made me kind of stumble in that case, and how do I fix that for next time? So I like to tell the story of how I completely bombed my very first interview that ended up landing me that New York internship we talked about, but it was my first interview. I just I really didn't know how to prepare for it very well, and the person asked me a question and I did not have an answer. My head went blank and I started to panic, but what I actually ended up doing was taking a couple deep breaths and I really just thought okay, how can I come out of this without you know, completely losing this job. So I asked the interviewer. I just said can we come back to that question? So we continued on with the interview. She asked the rest of her questions. I quickly did a little research and then at the end of the interview I said you know I'm ready to come back and answer that question. I did, we got off the phone. I'm like no way am I getting that job? But what actually happened is she was so impressed with how I handled myself that she created that internship for me. That position didn't exist. Created that internship for me. That position didn't exist. She created it for me and that's how I ended up moving out to New York and getting that role.

Brianne Rush: 19:14

So that's kind of that second part of it. You understand what sets you off. But then the self-regulation part is second. So knowing how to calm yourself down. If you do get into one of those nervous bits or you stumble over your words or whatever it is that's going to tee you off, how do you actually handle that now and regulate your body and your system to come back to a place where you can calmly and confidently keep going.

Brianne Rush: 19:38

So that's number two is I really worked at that and figuring out what that meant for me. And then communication skills are the biggest, biggest thing here for a lot of people, and more so as AI comes to. You know, quote unquote, take our jobs. Ai can't necessarily get in the room and lead a team, it can't necessarily lead a presentation to a client, it can't do customer service in a way that's going to calm somebody down. So speaking, having those communication skills, those presentation skills, that is going to be really helpful and that's something that I really really worked on for myself, because I used to be terrified to speak in front of people. Or if you put a camera in front of my face, I would panic. Obviously, you and I are chatting here on camera.

Brianne Rush: 20:26

So I have overcome that and it's because I practiced. I put myself in the room to keep doing it over and over again, even when I was feeling nervous about it or thought that I wasn't good at it, and so I would highly recommend anybody coming up in their career to put themselves in the room or put themselves in the situation where they are a little bit nervous, but in outside of their comfort zone, but do it anyway. So something that I did to your point was at our digital marketing agency. It wasn't really anybody's job to take sales calls. We didn't have a an actual sales person at the time, and so I said an actual sales person at the time, and so I said, well, I'll do it.

Brianne Rush: 21:11

And I was terrified and not trained as a sales rep, but I got on these calls, got on these Zooms and I just did it. I learned how to go in there, speak with confidence and communicate our value, and so that is something that, with time, doing it over and over again, I got pretty good at and ended up having you know the best numbers at our firm of closing. And so now people are looking at me like, oh, she can do these things, she can do these skill sets and speak well. Hardly anybody else can do it. If you can get good at these things, Right.

Brianne Rush: 21:44

And that doesn't mean, tim, you and I talk about this. We don't have to be perfect. It's okay for you to say the wrong word or fix your sentence or whatever it needs to be. You don't have to be perfect, but you just have to be good enough to do it and get yourself in the room and do it confidently, that people are going to start looking at you in a different way, and that's what's going to make them say, oh, he or she is ready for that promotion, he or she can lead that team. And that's exactly what I did.

Tim Newman: 22:13

Yeah, and I talk about, you know, progress, not perfection, progress, not perfection. And you know if, if you're, if you're going to allow the whole idea of you have to be perfect before you do anything, we don't get out of bed, right? I mean you don't get out of bed because you're not going to do anything perfectly. And you know I'm a systems person and you know I function very well with okay doing something. You know the same way every time. If it works, if it works, if it doesn't work, obviously change the system. But even even doing you know system work it doesn't come out the same every time, but you're, you're, you're do this, this, this, this and this, and and however it comes out, it comes out.

Tim Newman: 23:00

But you know you've got to find ways to get over that, that perfection piece, whatever it is, for everybody, because we all, we all, we're all different, we all. You know you, you've got to find ways to get over that, that perfection piece, whatever it is for everybody, because we all, we all, we're all different, we all, you know, succeed differently and progress differently. But find a way that you can get over that, that whole idea of perfection, and just make progress to get better every day, you know, five or 10% better every day, and I liken it to the sports industry, right, you know as an athlete, nothing's ever done perfectly, but the best, the best athletes in the world have always gone back to fundamentals and practice fundamentals over and over and over again.

Tim Newman: 23:38

Um, so so you'll understand from, you know, the young professionals perspective. Guys, you just put yourself out there. It's okay to be, to feel uncomfortable.

Brianne Rush: 23:50

Yeah, I'm not a big sports person, but I do know some of the best baseball players in the world are only batting 300, which is 30%. Right, that's the right math. So if they are getting paid millions to do that, it's okay to not be perfect, but put yourself out there.

Tim Newman: 24:06

And so, as you're volunteering to do things that put you outside the comfort zone, what else comes with that? Because there's also good and bad. Because we don't want to be the person that's the yes person all the time either, We've got to start developing some boundaries and say, okay, you know, if you want me to work on this, I can't do those other things. So how did you manage those types of expectations, Especially and you know I don't talk about this a lot, but especially from being the female perspective, because the females are generally the ones that are the ones that say yes to everything, just because they're people pleasers. So how did you manage those types of issues?

Brianne Rush: 24:48

Yeah, I kept my eye on the things that were going to advance me. So, instead of raising my hand to plan the office party, that was not. That was not going to advance me, that was not. That was going to take up my time and I was not passionate I'm. I didn't even like planning my own wedding. So you know that planning is just not something that I'm passionate about. I didn't see that as helping my career grow.

Tim Newman: 25:11

Right.

Brianne Rush: 25:12

So I didn't raise my hand to plan the party. I didn't raise my hand to necessarily clean out the refrigerator in the communal kitchen. Those are the things that I was like. You know I'm willing to help and do my part, of course, but I'm not going to raise my hand just because I'm a woman in the place that I'm willing to clean or plan the party. So I think, keeping your eye on the ball and really being able to determine this you know this project over here is kind of messy and nobody's role and it's not my role. But I can see how, if I do this, I could see the next couple of steps that's going to help me with, and so I'm willing to raise my hand for that. But over here, this one is just kind of there and somebody, without necessarily my zone of genius can, can accomplish that. That's something that maybe somebody else can raise their hand for. It's not something that I need to feel like I have to take on just because somebody's asking.

Brianne Rush: 26:12

So just trying to determine which lanes are going to work out for you and which ones are going to have the biggest payoff for the company that's something that's important is the impact on the company. That party probably isn't going to have the same impact as you jumping into sales and making those numbers, so where should you try to apply yourself? That's an important part of that.

Tim Newman: 26:35

Yeah, and and understand, truly understand, that there's there's a difference between being, like you said, being a team player and doing your part and doing the things that are going to advance not only you know you and your role with the company, but also is going to advance the company taking your time. If you're the number one salesperson, why are you going to take some time away from doing that, from generating revenue for the organization to to plan a party, and I'm not you know, that is what it, is right it's those things are important as well, but from the big picture, I I need to be focusing my time over here.

Tim Newman: 27:23

I need to make sure that that we're intentional with what we want and be able to have intentional conversations with supervisors about these types of things.

Brianne Rush: 27:34

Exactly.

Tim Newman: 27:35

Because there's a right way and a wrong way to have difficult conversations.

Brianne Rush: 27:40

Yeah.

Tim Newman: 27:40

As well.

Brianne Rush: 27:41

Yeah, you're right, and you still have to be somebody that people want to work with. Like I wasn't leaving dirty dishes in the sink, that's not what I mean by this.

Brianne Rush: 27:49

I just mean that you know using your now you, let's say, you've done all this work to build up your communication skills and you're really good at that your boss, your company, they would rather you utilize that in a way to impact the bottom line, somebody who's really good at team building. They should be in that, their zone of genius for that party. So, just understanding your strengths and their strengths and how that should work, yeah, it it, it, but then again it gets.

Tim Newman: 28:16

It gets back to something that you and I talked about before as well. You know, knowing who you are as an individual. You know you, you have, you have to truly understand who you are, um, and what you're good at, what you need to work, work on. You know your value system, what makes you tick all those types of things you. You have to know that going into it and you know, in your, in your current, current role, where do you think we are from? From the younger generations, in knowing who they are as individuals.

Tim Newman: 28:48

Where do you think we are in that stage?

Brianne Rush: 28:49

You know, I actually think that the younger generation is probably doing better than we are in that instance. Yeah, that's my opinion. You know this is kind of a silly thing, but you know, watching some of these reality TV shows, these younger people are asking well, what's your love language? I would have never asked that, you know, when I was dating, I would have never asked that. And so I think that they are taking the time to really evaluate who they are. They are meditating more.

Brianne Rush: 29:20

You know, I have done an interview with this young man named Jack Wagner. An interview with this young man named Jack Wagner. He is say you know, we had this whole conversation about how it used to be kind of like this woo, woo, people look at you silly if you said you meditate. It's not like that anymore. A lot of people are getting into that to have that quiet space. Whether it's, you know, sitting there like this or not, it's having that quiet time to yourself to really think through who you are, what you value, like you said. Time to yourself to really think through who you are, what you value, like you said.

Brianne Rush: 29:48

And I think people are beginning to be a lot more in tune with that. So you know they're asking about love languages, they are meditating, and I'm reading all the time that Gen Z is saying they don't actually want those mid manager jobs anymore because it's just not worth the trade-off to their mental health or their social health. And so I really do think in my time when I was coming through my career, it was just go, go, go, hustle, hustle, hustle, get to the top as fast as you can. And I don't necessarily think that people are saying that's the only path anymore. So in my opinion, you know that might be a hot take, but I do think Gen Z is taking the time to know themselves a little bit more.

Tim Newman: 30:30

Well, you know, I I number one. I think, if, if, if that's, I think it's great, whether I think it's right or not, I mean, if you're, if that's what you're seeing.

Brianne Rush: 30:40

I think that's awesome, I think I think.

Tim Newman: 30:41

I think it's great and I think they're. You know, as they get older, just like anything else. You know, we talked about how you know you got to a point where, okay, what's the next step in my life, what's the next professional step, what's the next step in my personal life? And I think you know, really, my generation and the generation before me there was no next step. This is what you were going to do and that's what you were going to do, right. So so people my generation are are starting to have, starting to have, you know, second and third professional lives.

Tim Newman: 31:18

And you know, as, as the younger generation start start coming up, you know they're going to, they're. My guess is they're going to see okay, this is where I was in this season of my life. Now it's time to move on to another season, and that next season is going to mean that I do things differently, or I want different things, or I'm going to have to work differently, or or, or do those whatever we need to do to make our life, to be happy in the life that we're living. And if that's what they're doing now, that's awesome because it's going to make that next transition for their life even easier.

Brianne Rush: 31:55

Absolutely. I think it's all around knowing yourself but not trapping yourself, right? So for me, I knew I wanted to be a journalist and live in New York. That's what I wanted to do. But it was a really hard decision for me, for after a couple of years I kind of you know, missed my family who lived in Ohio and I wasn't as passionate about the role I was in anymore. You know, dance the magazine I worked for was a dance magazine and and I, like I said, got to go to these Broadway shows and stuff. But there was just I. I looked at it and I said, is this it for the rest of my life? Am I going to be talking about dance? And I was like I don't think so, right.

Tim Newman: 32:38

So, I.

Brianne Rush: 32:39

So I ended up moving back to Ohio and really taking a year to reevaluate and I ended up in content marketing, which what I mentioned is that through line I was still using my writing skills and telling stories, but it was in a completely different way, in a completely different place, and I was able to grow that career and so I never felt trapped. And I think that's important because you know my, my dad. He was an accountant and worked at the same place for 40 plus years. He's still working there, even though he's supposed to be retired. That's, you know. That's, I think, one generation's kind of view of career. Mine has been more so freedom to pick and choose, but we, you know, kind of made at least those decisions to just do a couple of things or maybe to just make a couple of pivots.

Brianne Rush: 33:28

You know, gen Z is kind of seen, kind of known as this job hopper generation, where they're going year after year getting new job, new job, new job. And that's something that they have to kind of overcome and figure out for themselves is when is it appropriate to take a new job? Maybe you know, increase that salary, or you know, get into AI, get into tech or get into these new things that are developing all the time, which is great and you shouldn't make those moves in your career but when is it maybe good to stay Stick?

Brianne Rush: 33:57

it out Because you like the work culture, you like your role and you can have the freedom, or at least the pathway, to move up and continue to make an impact. And that's going back to that idea of self-awareness and what's going to be best for you and your career. But it's yeah, it's definitely changed throughout the generations, for sure.

Tim Newman: 34:15

Yeah, and I also think that you know the whole idea of job hopping is from an HR perspective and a hiring perspective. It's, you know, to a certain certain extent it's not penal anymore, you know it's. It seemed as natural, it's okay. Okay. So you know, I I think we're where you really get into problems. If every year, you know you're, you're staying in place for a year, that that to me, you know you enjoy it for four or five years in a row, that to me that is where it becomes problematic. But you know, every couple of years, why not? I mean if, if, if there's growth, if there's salary, if there's you know what interest change.

Tim Newman: 34:53

You know, like you said, and I think you know, in all honesty, you know I I've had, I've gone through through changing jobs and the stress I knew it was time to leave, but the stress of actually making the decision and following through on the decision. It was hard.

Tim Newman: 35:20

As opposed to now. You know it's okay, it's time to leave, so we're going to start doing things to leave and, like I said, just do the thing. And I'm applying that to myself too. Why didn't I just do the thing instead of causing all the stress? Right, and you?

Tim Newman: 35:36

know, so, like the first time, the first faculty job, I was there almost 20 years and I knew after 15, it was time to go. So I stayed. And you know, for whatever reasons and and it was I mean I I would go back there in a second, you know, cause I love the people and those types of things but you know when, when you get to a point in your career that you feel stale, that you know there's something else out there, it's okay to start exploring what those things are. Don't don't follow it up. And that's for, for really our my generation, the younger generations have seemed to have a pretty good handle on that.

Brianne Rush: 36:12

Yeah, I have a similar situation, tim. When I was trying to decide if I was going to leave that dream job that I had in New York. I worked myself up and had this ball of pain in my stomach for weeks where, like you could touch it and I would just like kind of double over in pain and one day I just I couldn't take it anymore. I literally like had to roll myself out of bed and get myself into a taxi and go to the hot the ER in New York by myself. I know nobody. Nobody can come to the hospital help me, like literally taking a taxi to the hospital because I am in so much pain.

Brianne Rush: 36:47

I remember the person doing my intake. She said, okay, on a scale of one to 10, what's your pain? And you know me trying to not necessarily like be a crybaby about it. I'm like, oh, seven she goes, I'm going to give you an eight. Like it was that bad. And so they did all these tests and they could not figure it out. I just had this random ball of pain. But what happened to him was, after I made the final decision to be like, yeah, I'm moving home, I'm quitting this job. Guess what Went away, like how bad is that? That's terrible. People should not get themselves worked up into a ball of pain over a job.

Brianne Rush: 37:26

It just shouldn't be that bad.

Tim Newman: 37:28

Right, and you know and I'm listen, don't take this the wrong way A lot of times we do it to ourselves. Now, there are times that you're in a toxic environment and that's that's. I'm not talking about that, but a lot of times we do that to ourselves. I'm not talking about that, but a lot of times we do that to ourselves. We're the ones who've worked ourselves to that point. Because if we're in, if we're in a good professional relationship, just like a good personal relationship, whoever that, whoever that relationship only one is what's best for you. They want to help you, they want you to grow, they want you to be healthy and be successful, and for whatever reason, we do these things to our, to ourselves no-transcript said I wanted to be and now I'm going to just check it.

Brianne Rush: 38:38

All you know.

Tim Newman: 38:38

But we learn from it and again, hopefully these types of conversations help those younger generations and and again, like I said, they seem to have a much better handle on it at this point in their life and hopefully, as they, as they go through their different life stages and they have families, kids and other responsibilities they can, like they can, look back on these times and say you know what? I'm in a different life stage, but the same ideas still apply. Let's have a plan and move forward with that. With that plan, I'm not again, I'm not advocating anybody to do things on a whim either. That's the, that's the other side right.

Brianne Rush: 39:23

Yeah, you gotta to think through it, do what's best for you, but there's no need to get worked up the way that you and I did, and I think that it may even be a little bit switched now. You know, the tech companies are doing massive layoffs. That used to be an embarrassment, now it's kind of like a badge of honor that they're doing these layoffs. So people are being forced to do these job changes or career changes too, and so they may be struggling in a different way than you and I did, but it's important to remember that this is your career. It is not you, it is not your essence, your value as a human.

Tim Newman: 39:57

Right, exactly so. Talk about the Independence Lab, because I love the whole setup with that, what you're doing. Tell everybody what you're whole setup with that, what you're doing. Tell everybody what you're actually doing with this and how you're helping people.

Brianne Rush: 40:10

So when I look back at my job and connected those dots in my career and what helped me move up, and then again, like we talked about, I'm doing these interviews now to bring people into the company and I'm just looking at it, I'm saying, man, the people who are really shining, the way that I shown in my career was through emotional intelligence. You know, I wasn't the best writer, I wasn't the most tech savvy, I was never the best dancer, but the way that I moved up and made these steps was through the things that we've been talking about here. So through self-awareness, through self-regulation, through communication skills, empathy skills, through that motivation. Those are kind of the five elements that make up this idea of emotional intelligence. And so what I want people to realize through the Independence Lab is that they can build a career foundation on building that skill set there, those five things, and moving those. That part of the needle is what's actually going to move your career needle and so building that foundation directly out of college, in the beginnings of their career, they're going to be way ahead of people, because I didn't necessarily learn those lessons until I was looking backward and I'm seeing these people come through the interview process where they either don't have those skills or they might have the beginning of those skills, but they don't necessarily know how to talk about it.

Brianne Rush: 41:35

So that's what I'm hoping the Independence Lab does for these young women is to really give them the resource to understand that anybody can learn emotional intelligence. It doesn't, it's not something that you have to be born with so you can learn it and give them the skills to do that. It's all free content. So we've got a blog, we've got a weekly newsletter that you can sign up for and it just shows up in your inbox once a week and it's super easy to get through and read some sort of takeaway from that. And then, most recently, I've been interviewing really successful women and talking about how they've used emotional intelligence to build their careers. So it's all available theindependencelabcom for you to go and just learn. Start learning this idea of emotional intelligence.

Tim Newman: 42:19

That's amazing and obviously it's good work and needs to, needs to be shared and people need to do that. I think I think it's awesome, and I'm sure you know, interviewing some of these really successful women. It is powerful and you're learning things and your, your community, is going to learn, learn a ton of things. It's sharing. Sharing stories about how we've, how we've gone from point a as a, as a young professional not knowing in from out, right from wrong, up from down, whatever and seeing that you know progression and growth to people that we see or or think that we think they, that they've got it all together, and noticing some of the, some of the stories that they tell. It just gives you so much more confidence to say you know what. It's not a straight line, it's an up and down. There's good, there's bad, there's there's good things happen, there's bad things that happen, but you got to navigate it and eventually, if you keep doing the work, this happened.

Brianne Rush: 43:26

There's bad things that happened, but you got to navigate it and eventually, if you keep doing the work, this is where you're going to end up. It's so true. It's so true, you know, and what I love about these interviews, and even what I've been writing about my own self, is not one of us is perfect. We've all been successful or had promotions or gotten our dream jobs, or whatever it is for that person. But what I like to ask about our mistakes, surprises, things that they've experienced along the way that show it's okay to fall down or make a mistake. It's all about how you handle it.

Brianne Rush: 43:58

So if somebody is listening and they're thinking, man, I've already kind of messed it up from the start, or I don't have these skills, well, guess what? You can get back up, you can learn these skills, you can develop them and build this career, and so I love to have that out there. It's like, yep, super embarrassing, did this, but I still was able to get promoted after that, and so I think that's really important. Not any of this is unachievable or out of your realm of possibility. It's all something that you can just build and work on every single day to get better, and it's enjoyable. It's not like you're, you know, out there digging a ditch. It's something that you could just talk to people and and that happens to get better. You know you happen to get better at things by just talking to people.

Tim Newman: 44:40

Yeah, that's amazing and I appreciate the work that you're doing there. Where can people find you and connect with you besides the Independence Lab lab? On Instagram, and then Tim, if it's okay with you.

Brianne Rush: 44:50

I know this is all a little abstract, but I put together this guide that I usually you know it's on the site for $19, but for your listeners, I would just give it to them for free to learn and go through some of these prompts and questions and quizzes just to help them understand this idea of emotional intelligence. So if you want to put it in the show notes, they can go to theindependencelabcom backslash playbook and get it for free.

Tim Newman: 45:32

Brianne, that's awesome. I would love to put that in there. I think, that would be a great resource for the listeners and I can tell you how much I appreciate you doing that. That's awesome. I'll make sure that I put that in the show notes. Could you just text me or email me that that link to make make sure I get it right? That's great and that's awesome.

Brianne Rush: 45:52

Yes, absolutely, I will do that.

Tim Newman: 45:54

That's great. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I really do appreciate it and we'll talk to you soon.

Brianne Rush: 46:00

Tim, thank you so much for having me.

Tim Newman: 46:02

Take care. Be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcastcom to get your free ebook Top 21 Challenges for Public Speakers and how to Overcome them. You can also register for the Forum for Public Speaking. Always remember your voice has the power to change. We'll talk to you next time, take care.