The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Ariel Rosita King brings on a variety of International guests from various countries, cultures, organisations, and businesses to talk about turning
problem into possibilities! Let's turn our challenges in opportunities together!
The Business of Life with Dr King
From Burnout to Bold: Breaking the Career Hamster Wheel for Good with Hulya Kurt (Turkey & Switzerland)
Feeling the slow grind of effort without progress is not a personal flaw—it’s a signal. We sit down with Lady Huyla Kurt—career master coach, author, lecturer, and Toastmaster—to map a clear route out of the hamster wheel and into work that aligns with your values, energy, and ambitions. Julia brings two decades of corporate leadership and hands‑on coaching to show how small, honest actions can open doors you thought were sealed.
We start with the inner work that most of us skip: three powerful prompts to surface moments of pride, fulfilment, and happiness. From there, Julia explains how to turn hidden wins into visible value using the STAR framework, making interviews, performance reviews, and salary conversations more grounded and confident. You’ll hear how one client escaped a toxic environment and landed a marketing leadership role in Zurich through focused networking, LinkedIn optimisation, and targeted preparation. Another, a highly introverted job‑seeker, found momentum with adapted methods—visual anchors, gentle outreach, and steady, realistic targets.
Beyond career transitions, we dig into the skills that move careers forward: real communication, constructive conflict, and resilience. As a business school lecturer, Julia designs phone‑down classrooms where students practise critical thinking and live debate. She shares practical strategies to raise your voice respectfully, advocate for your impact, and use Toastmasters as a safe lab for public speaking, leadership, and feedback. We also unpack SMARTER goals—adding Exciting and Rewarding to keep progress meaningful in a volatile, uncertain world.
If you’ve wondered how to recognise burnout early, align job choices to values, and build a network that actually works for you, this conversation is your field guide. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs career clarity, and leave a review with the one change you’ll make this week. Your next step could be the one that changes everything.
Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King
Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
+1-202-827-9762
DrKingSolutons@gmail.com
DrKingSolutions.com
Welcome to another episode of The Business of Life. Today we have a very special guest, Lady Julia Kurt. Welcome.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much, Dr. King. Appreciate the invite.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. So could you please introduce yourself to our audience and also our topic for today?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, absolutely, with pleasure. So coming from a solid corporate background after 32 years, where I was made redundant, I thought, you know what, I'm going to create my own company, which is called Inkick, you can see. So I kick your inner self, your passion, your full potential, your clarity to live a fulfilled professional life. A bit about me, origin Turkish, grew up in Germany like any other Turkish person, then moved again back to Istanbul, young age, really not bachelors, etc. At that time part at that time, then typewriting, started as a secretary, moved into multinational, moved up the letters, traveled around the world, did certifications, married, got a kid, and as an expert, I arrived in Geneva, Switzerland. This is where I'm living now. So I've got to do a citizenship and I'm a proud owner of my own company. I'm lecturing as well at a private business school here in Geneva. I'm an author. I wrote two books. I love speaking on stage. I'm part of Toastmasters. Some might know about this wonderful community where we exhibit practice, you know, public speaking. And that's more or less me. And because I'm a career accredited master coach, executive leadership, and I do my workshops, what I would like to talk about today is about break free from your hamster wheel. That's the book, that's the title of my book for the professionals who feel stuck. And that happens a lot, specifically in the middle of your career. You question yourself, where am I now? I'm running and running, but I don't get promotion. I don't enjoy anymore. The values of the company do not resonate anymore. It's a toxic environment. Or maybe you have been made redundant and you're looking for the new opportunity and you don't know where to start. So this is where I kick in, and with that, I hand over to Dr. King.
SPEAKER_00:Love that introduction. Thank you so much. So let's talk more about this quote-unquote hamster wheel. What does it mean? Um, and when we find ourselves on it, what can we do to make it better or to either get off of it or enjoy the wheel that we're on? What do we do next?
SPEAKER_01:What do we do? That's always a very difficult starting point. And how do you know that you are actually running, running, running, and you don't go anywhere? It's about feeling frustrated in the morning. You don't want to get up, you don't have any kind of desire to do anything extraordinary. You actually feel drained. Maybe it's also going and sliding into burnout. So when you have these symptoms, it's time to question yourself. And how to start is always with ourselves and no one else, with you. Who are you? What are your values? What is your passion? What are your growth areas? Your anchors, your life priorities, and ask yourself as well the following three questions that I always tell my clients is remember the time when you felt the last, really proud about yourself. What have you been doing? Where have you been? What were the skills you used? Remember the time when you felt the most fulfilled and satisfied. Again, the same question. And another thing, which is when was the last time you really felt happy? So these are the questions difficult to answer. And if you are really bold with yourself, and that's what is an invitation to everyone, be bold about yourself, question yourself, write it down. Because what we write, we invite, and that's crucial. So you have it black and white, whether it's on your computer or like old-fashioned writing, you choose. But the first step is always to analyze yourself.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. I think it's so important. Could you give us some examples of some of the clients that you've had that started out, um, what you would say either frustrated or on hamster wheels or in a burnout, and what that process looked like, and then perhaps what the resolution was for a client or two.
SPEAKER_01:Wonderful, good examples. And of course, as a master coach, you've got many, many, many, many examples. So one that really struck out was about a wonderful person, really professional, very passionate, but she felt so down because she was working for a toxic company. It became toxic. In the beginning, it was okay, but it became toxic. So she really desperately wanted to get out. And as we started, I saw her energy level completely down. Depression, frustrated, dragging along. You know how it is when you drag along and it's like a never-ending day, and you're just happy that you don't need to go back maybe the next day because it's weekend. We started with her. She reached out to me. She said, Maybe you can help me. I said, Okay, let's start our journey. So I've got my framework, my workbook that I created. Of course, nothing goes according to the book as well. I mean, people are unique, people are human. So we deviate if need be, but we've got a framework. Again, starting with your strength, what are these? Your passion, your values, and that's another thing I love. I love to say. Whenever you're in doubt, get your values out. What is important for you in life? Whom do you admire to want? What legacy do you want to leave behind? What would you not like to regret when you are age, 80 years old, sitting on a bench and thinking, oh, I should have done this? What would you say to a friend who's in your shoes? What would the advice that you would give? And then we dive into something else, which is success stories. And you know what, Dr. King, that's always so difficult for my clients to answer because it's I don't have any success stories. And I think, of course you have. You've done so much, you've accomplished so much. So just let's dig them out, let's write them out, let's spell them out, let's name it. Because everyone thinks what they're doing is actually day-to-day. I mean, there is nothing special, etc. So we deep dive into success stories and we apply the star model for guilt-free promotion because these professionals feel as well guilty when they start or need to promote themselves. Then afterwards, we go into the networking wheel, we see how the spider is linking with networking. Let's face it, your network is your net worth, therefore, we need to invest on that. And my client did follow everything that we discussed, took action points, took that action as well, was networking like crazy, creating and updating her LinkedIn profile as well, because that's important in Europe. Your LinkedIn profile needs to be top-notch. And also started to post. We updated her CV, she started to apply, we did interview techniques, we did hacks and everything, and she got a wonderful job that is for her the dream job in Zurich. She wanted to move to Zurich in a very big multinational corporation where she's heading the marketing team. And she is really happy with her partner living in Zurich. So that was a great success story. And you can, of course, read all the testimonials over my website or on LinkedIn under recommendations.
SPEAKER_00:I really love that. Can I ask, is there a is there a difference between men and women that come to you?
SPEAKER_01:Guess what? No, it's not. They feel intimidated. But actually, it's the same process. And when we go over it, they are also humans at the end of the day. And they feel the same. They don't always admit, they always try to hide, they don't show, but at the end of the day, my clients have the same struggle, men or women, whatever it is. I call it more inclusive humans now.
SPEAKER_00:I understand that. I guess I'm asking because um sometimes we uh show our frustration in different ways. So, can you give us an example of a male client that you worked with, no matter which country, and what was the issue and what was the resolution for that particular person?
SPEAKER_01:No, absolutely. Uh, one of my male clients, uh based actually in Sweden, um, he had difficulties to find a job. And he was, he's very introvert, very introvert. Not much network either. And honestly, I had to adopt a bit the process here. So we skipped the self-analysis part, and I gave him a bit more creative homework about analyzing what's his life priorities, what is the anchors, really doing a bit more drawing. Because sometimes you need to adopt to the client. It's not only your framework, actually, always you need to tune in into the client and coach what's in the room and not coach what you think the client should do. And therefore, it's only sometimes listening, listening about the stories and digging more with open questions and guiding. As coaches, we don't give direct advice, but giving experiences or sharing my experiences, because I then do a mix of mentoring and coaching. And now he feels much better, he feels clear about his goals, he started to apply, he started to do outreach over LinkedIn as well to companies he wants to work for. It goes slower, however, he's on the right track and he feels much, much better.
SPEAKER_00:This is wonderful. So, what what did he decide to do, and where is he now at this point in trying to find something that gives him um not just clarity, but something that gives him joy in terms of work?
SPEAKER_01:Um, well, he knows what he wants because he's got a specialty and niche. The thing is, he's got also goals for himself that I cannot reveal here, obviously. And he has now received a job offer, and he's working on that. Might be not the ideal solution, but the goal that he had in mind is a good way to achieve that. So it's a middle way. Sometimes we set goals for ourselves, you see, Dr. King, and it does not work according to plan. You know, I know I was a project manager, we do projects, and the project never goes according to plan. Never, never, never. So therefore, we deviate, we go with the flow, we see what life brings us. And sometimes life also comes in our way. We've got kids, we've got responsibilities, sometimes we can't advance as we want. Absolutely fine. Ebracing the process and not losing the focus is important. Even if you pick it up two or three weeks later, it does not matter actually. It's important for the client himself, herself, to decide what they want because I cannot act on their behalf. I can give them all the tools, I can ask the open questions, we can create an action plan, but then we need to see how much we can achieve from that and what's realistic. Therefore, we say it's smart boards, right? Specific, measurable, attainable, time bound, and realistic. But at the same time, I add always two more letters to it. E, for exciting. It needs to excite you. Then you take action. And R, it needs to be rewarding, rewarding for you to see the end of whether you want to lose 10 kilos, whether you want to run the 20k marathon or semi-marathon, or whether you find you want to find a job or change or create your own company.
SPEAKER_00:I love this. This is wonderful. And I know that you're also um a professor and you're teaching within the business school. Can you tell us more about young people and how do you adapt what you do to young people? So I'm talking about, according to the United Nations, people under 35 years old.
SPEAKER_01:Yo, no, absolutely, absolutely. That's a different story. Of course, there I'm the professor, so we've got a curriculum with syllabus that we need to follow. It's not culture. Though, what I see as a difference is with the young generation, and I'm going to tackle the generation between 18 and 25, that we see more often, quite often, loss of faith, loss of hope, loss of purpose, even not giving or caring about the school itself or accomplishing anything. Only rare examples who are really passionate you can identify. And more about 70% is in the spacket of, you know what, whatever I do will have no impact whatsoever either. Why should I do this, etc.? So as professors, we have got a big responsibility. And one is what? Of course, motivate them, of course, energize them, and teaching in a way that makes sense to them. So there, thanks God, our Swiss School of Business Management gives us a bit more flexibility. Of course, we follow the syllabus, but we can teach in a modality that makes sense. And me, I quite often say to them when they come to class, put your phones aside, no phones on the table. They hate me for that. Honestly, they hate me for that. I'm no false professor. Are you kidding me? Yes, I'm really goddamn serious. We put that aside. You listen to me because you can learn everything from ChatGPT. However, I'm sharing my experience, and my experience is not in ChatGPT. So you're going to get some business cases to reflect critical thinking, come up with solutions for the business cases I'm going to give you. So I really use old style traditional way of teaching, get them up in groups. They have a flip chart, they need to have a pen in their hand, and they need to write, and they need to think, and they need to discuss. Because that's what we see also quite often, Dr. King, and I'm sure you have also observed that. Humans don't speak anymore to each other. Everything is like on WhatsApp. They pick up the phone. In the past, we picked up the phone. You know, we we had a phone, we talked to each other. It was easier resolved. Because what we see on WhatsApp and perceive as a message might be not the message that the person wants to give to you as well. So talk. So that's a bit changing, of course. It's not coaching, it's teaching, but also in the education field, we need to be agile, flexible, innovative, creative with the modalities we use to teach our young generation and our emerging professionals.
SPEAKER_00:I love what you're talking about, but it seems that in some ways, I mean, all of your experience really does help the young people to adjust to a life of critical thinking, talking to each other, working with each other rather than being on their telephones and actually engaging and having that human contact. So even when you're talking about frustration or feeling like you're stuck or feeling somehow like you're not going anywhere, I think that that technology helps them, unfortunately, to be in that space. So in that way, believe it or not, I think that there's some kind of um uh polarity to it. It's quite interesting. Quite easy.
SPEAKER_01:It is, yeah, it is, it is indeed. We try our best. Of course, we cannot prevent of not using technology. Of course we shall use technology, of course we are going to use AI, and that's normal, even with the essays that they're going to give us. I mean, I can also easily identify if it's written by AI or not. So I invite them kindly to write from their heart. Yeah, just give me your blur. You know, this is something that I want to learn about you. What you think, what is it that is going in your mind about this topic that can be controversial as well, and that's good because we should be okay to have difficult conversations and to agree to disagree or to compromise. And what I observe more often, Dr. King, is that the young generation, emerging professionals shy away from conflict, they don't want to address any different ideas, want to reflect or say something contrary. So they don't say anything. And therefore, that's sad because where are you going to climb up the ladder then in the career? The professional landscape is a minefield. You need to prove yourself, you need to showcase, and sometimes you need to sit across your manager and say, um, according to the last accomplishments of mine, I really think that I remained a salary increase. If you don't see it, no one will give you anything. That's the reality. Because me, I was a manager as well. If someone says nothing, they say, okay, good, that's perfect, love it. Because I've got enough, you know, people and employees who are saying, I want to have this, I want to have a promotion, I want to have a bonus. I'm happy with the rest. So please, please raise your voice in a nice, in a kind, in a polite, in a courtesy manner. You can't do that. And that's not wrong.
SPEAKER_00:That is that is such a good point. I love the way that you speak about that. May I ask, um, in today's society, do you think um, and what we're talking about, of course, um, not just young people, but people in mid-career, that organizations like Toastmasters or those that actually help you to speak to um to events to to be able to communicate, because right now, as you're saying, we're having a very hard time using our voice, our body language to communicate, and everything is through a text. Um, you know, almost almost everything is through the text, even if we're sitting eating dinner with each other, everybody has their phones at the table, you know, texting each other or in the same house, texting each other. Do you think something like this actually helps with what you're also talking about with um with just uh career advancement with life advancement, the the idea of communication and learning how to communicate better?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, Dr. King. Absolutely. Toastmasters, I don't know how many people would know about it, but it's a public, it's a non-governmental, public institution all around the world, which is where you can practice your public speaking. And literally they have Toastmasters in every city. So just Google Chat GBT, you will find the whation that you need. And Toastmasters is a wonderful safe circle where you can practice in reality, in real, in front of an audience, your public speaking. So you've got the audience, you've got your speech, prepared speech, and your talk. And then you will receive an evaluation. It's not only talking, you will receive an evaluation. I call it feed forward. So someone will tell, hell, uh, hi Julia, I love your structure of the speech, I love the topic, your tone was nice. Well, I see you can improve. It's non-judgmental, it's not accusing, it's a constructive way of giving feed forward, the sandwich model, so to say, and that helps the speaker to improve next time and to improve next time. And you've got projects going on there as well. And you can be judges and you can take different roles. So, what it will lead will teach you is leadership, public speaking, evaluation, giving feed forward, um, listening skills, absolutely listening skills, and standing in front of an audience and raise your voice.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much. Can you tell us a little bit more about your um two books? I think we have uh some time left. Can you tell us about your books and any last uh any last thoughts you might have for our audience? Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Dr. King. Well, the first book I wrote was uh Breakfree from Your Hamster Wheel, and that really came from the experiences I got from professionals, and I thought I would like to leave something as a legacy that people can check out, read. It's a real workbook with experiences of myself, with interviews of people and professionals. So it's a mix between both of mindset, practical tool, and also storytelling. And then the second book I co-authored with my peer, dear peer, where we're going to have a workshop as well in November, The Resilient Professional. Because in this BUCA world that we are at the moment, uncertain, we don't know what's going on, we can't even plan anymore. Mind me, we cannot plan anything, anyways. We need to be more than ever resilient. That does not mean we shall be naive, that does not mean we shall not be feeling bad or energy drained. Yes, embrace, face it, embrace it, and see what you can do in your circle of influence to have an impact. So being resilient, like nurturing the positive side of things, being solution-oriented, results-oriented. So this is again a practical book that we have written together with mindset tools and setting boundaries, raising your voice, asking for help, getting support, asking for support. Because this is what we are. We are humans and we need to be together. We need to share. And as last remarks, Dr. King, I would say determination is key to success. Whatever you have in mind, please do it consistently. That will bring you success.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much for being with us here today. It was absolutely wonderful. And for our audience, remember if I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That was by the philosopher Hillel. And I've added, if not me, then who? Thank you so much for joining us.