Janine Esbrand (00:00)
if you've ever looked at the person ahead of you on the career ladder and thought to yourself, I don't really want that life, today's episode is for you because that moment, that...

unsettling realization that the path that you have been on isn't the path that you want to continue on. It's not a problem, it's more a signal, a signal that you want to read and pay attention to. So in today's episode we're going to talk about what it really means when you don't want your boss's job and exactly what you should be thinking about doing next.

Janine Esbrand (01:23)
Before we dig into today's episode, I wanted to share with you what I am building. I'm going to be working with a small group of women who feel like they have outgrown their role that looks brilliant on paper. They know that they've got more in them than their corporate job is giving space for, and they wanna figure out how they can start using and leveraging their expertise beyond their role, not instead of it.

If you're listening to this and you're thinking, sounds interesting, that's me. I want you to send me a message over on LinkedIn so I can share more information with you. So go over to LinkedIn, search Janine S Brand, send me a message with the word start and I'll share more information about what I am building. We're gonna get started at the end of June and I'm super excited about it.

Janine Esbrand (02:14)
I remember sitting at my desk when I was a junior corporate lawyer and looking around at the partners and thinking to myself, I don't know if this is what I want. When I was looking at the hours that they were working, the politics they were navigating, the pressure that they were experiencing, particularly the female partners, I was thinking that...

the lifestyle that I desire for myself and the way that I see myself working and juggling family life doesn't quite align with what I...

seeing and at first that felt really scary to admit because it meant that all of the work that I've been doing and that I've been putting in could be wasted. I've been working really hard to get to this point in my career and what does it say about me to say actually I don't want to continue moving towards the top I just want to stop here. Was I being ungrateful? Was I being lazy?

All of those thoughts were coming to mind had I really wasted my time. But what I didn't first acknowledge or realize then was that My experience, my thinking, my expertise, it didn't necessarily have to be channeled in this one direction. I didn't necessarily have to stay on this path and make partner in order to be successful.

all

of that experience, all of that exposure, didn't have to stay in one company or under one job title or on one trajectory. I just hadn't been shown what was possible in terms of alternatives. so in today's episode, I really want to talk to you about what it looks like to step off the ladder.

and stop striving for reaching the top and instead look at building a portfolio career that gives you the level of impact and income that you want to achieve without some of the things that you are not desiring when you look at your boss and you look at their experience is So when you think about

what we have been sold as mid-career professionals in terms of the career trajectory. We are told that we are to go to university, we study, we qualify in our respective fields, then we work hard and we get promoted and we work hard some more, get promoted again, work hard some more, get promoted again and eventually you will make it to partner or director or executive. And when you make it to partner, director or executive, the work that you're doing at that level is very different from the work that

you have trained to do because as you climb the ranks you're more involved in people management, you're more involved in strategy and not necessarily in the day-to-day work that you have qualified and prepared to do. And for some people that works right, for some people it works to be moving into that leadership seat and doing things differently and having an experience which doesn't really look like the experience of a junior in your field but for some people

the ambition that they have doesn't really align with the lifestyle that is waiting for them when they...

climb the ranks and that was me. I was looking at it and I was saying the lifestyle that I want to have and the way that I want to manage things doesn't align with what I am seeing so I started thinking about other ways that I could build and when I realised that I could build a portfolio career that allows me to leverage my skillset as a lawyer and my skillset as a speaker and a coach and

other things, I recognised that my desire was really around impact. My desire was to make as much impact as I could by leveraging the skill set that I had and that didn't mean that I had to be at the top of the ladder in terms of my organisation. That meant that I could look sideways and I could look at different ways that I could build alongside my career. I didn't want to step away from the career that I worked so hard to build over the years but I did want more.

I did want more. I wanted to make impact in a different way. And so I built alongside my corporate career and

Know that for you, your experience is already bigger than your job description. If you think about everything that you've known, every problem that you've solved, every insight that you've developed, there's value that you have created way beyond your current role and you can leverage that and monetize that.

Janine Esbrand (06:42)
Most people only ever use their expertise in one direction and that's upward within one organization. But your knowledge is portable and scalable and monetizable in multiple ways. So you can be building out a career that allows you options, that allows you to channel your energies in different directions and ultimately earn money from different places.

put you in the driving seat where you get to control what it is that you do and where you expend your energy to get the maximum ROI. So if there are spaces that you could be in that allow you to be more creative or

allow you to share your thought leadership in a way that isn't possible within your organisation, you can do that.

And it doesn't have to be hard. So you can look at what you're already doing, what you're already saying in meetings, the advice that colleagues come to you for, the problems that you already solve without being asked and see that as your inventory. that that knowledge that you have, that insight that you have, the things that you share, can view those as assets and really think about how you are sharing them more widely. So you're building out your personal brand whilst you're also

creating impact for the people on the receiving end of your awesome insights and experience. I hope this is helping you see that you don't have to walk away from your career in order for you to be.

creating more impact and creating more income streams. You can build beyond your role right now. You don't have to quit. You don't have to walk away from the career that you've worked hard to build.

you can go ahead and build on top of or alongside of the foundation that you have already built and you can be somebody who is wearing multiple hats. And because you're wearing multiple hats, you're able to channel your ambition in different directions. And it doesn't just have to be all about what you do within your role and within your company. And quite honestly,

It becomes an insurance policy for you. The way that things are moving right now and the way that so many companies are making layoffs and restructures and changes, having other forms of income and other spaces where you are able to demonstrate your work can mean that you have a safety net. So if for whatever reason you were to lose your role, you've already started building on the side. You've already started.

investing your time and energy in positioning yourself as the expert that you are outside of your organization. So if you're thinking, okay, that sounds good, but how do I get started? It doesn't have to be hard. One speaking opportunity, one piece of content, one conversation with someone outside of your organization.

You can start there and over time you can build. So if you're sitting with that feeling right now that I don't want my boss's job, don't dismiss it. It's not that you're not being grateful. It's not that you lack ambition. It's that your ambition has outgrown a single track and a single environment. And now you are in a position where you get to leverage all of the years that you have already invested and you get to redirect some of your...

insight, time, energy and internal resource to something else and you get to build something for yourself alongside what you're already doing.

If this resonates with you, want to let you know that I am offering 10 women the opportunity to join the upcoming cohort of a program that is going to help you to start building beyond the office.

you are going to learn how to start building alongside your career and position yourself for multiple income streams using the expertise that you already have. If this piques your interest, head over to LinkedIn right now, send me a message with the word start and I will share more information about the program.

We get started at the end of June. So, I'm Jolene Esperant on LinkedIn. Go over there, send me a message, and let's start a conversation around how this program can help you.

That's all I wanted to share with you today. Until next time, look after yourself and keep moving toward your career goals.