Career Change Maker | Career Clarity, Career Opportunities, Career Pivots, Burnout, Corporate Job, Portfolio Career
***Top 1.5% Global Careers Podcast For Corporate Women***
Are you navigating a mid-career transition and wondering what’s next?
Have you built a successful corporate career but realised you don’t want your boss’s job?
Do you feel the tension between wanting more freedom and not wanting to sacrifice security?
If you’re ambitious but no longer willing to burn out for another promotion, you’re in the right place. I’m glad you’re here.
This podcast helps high-achieving mid-career women gain career clarity and confidently design their next chapter, whether that means evolving inside corporate, exploring a portfolio career, or building a hybrid path.
If you’re ready to stop default climbing and start making strategic, aligned decisions about your future, this podcast will give you the insight and tools to move forward with confidence.
Hey 👋 , I’m Janine Esbrand, corporate lawyer turned career strategist and executive coach.
For years, I had my eye on the corporate partner title. I kept my head down, worked the long hours, and chased the next big deal because that’s what success was supposed to look like.
Then I became a mother. And I realised I didn’t want to build a life around my career, I wanted to build a career around my life. So, I stepped off the default corporate path and designed a portfolio career that allows me to work on my terms, create meaningful impact, and show up fully, both professionally and personally.
Now, I help ambitious mid-career women do the same: gain clarity, challenge the default ladder, and design aligned, sustainable careers that reflect who they are now, not who they used to be.
This podcast will give you the strategy, mindset and tools to make it happen.
So grab your notebook, pour your hot drink of choice and lets design what’s next.
Next Steps:
🎙️ Explore for 1:1 Coaching: www.careerchangemakers.com/claritycall
🌐 Visit the Website: www.careerchangemakers.com
📩 Contact Us: hello@careerchangemakers.com
Career Change Maker | Career Clarity, Career Opportunities, Career Pivots, Burnout, Corporate Job, Portfolio Career
338 | From Compartmentalising Your Expertise to Landing Your First Client in 3 Months, with Priscilla Owusu
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Have you spent years building up skills and experience that you've never actually connected into a career of your own?
Do you feel like a square peg in a round hole in your current role, but you're not sure what the alternative even looks like?
Are you sitting on more expertise than you realise, but waiting to feel "ready" or "confident enough" before you do anything with it?
If any of that sounds familiar, this episode is for you.
I remember the moment my guest today told me she'd been compartmentalising nearly 20 years of experience. Treating the thing she was actually brilliant at as a "side thing," something she did for fun, separate from her "real" career. She is not alone, so many high-achieving women do the same. We do the work, we get the results, and somehow we still don't let ourselves call it what it is.
In this episode, I sit down with the brilliant Priscilla Owusu. She is a writer, editor and content strategist with over 20 years in communications. We talk about how she went from feeling stuck and unsure of her next move to building a new client pipeline for her own content strategy business, in just three months.
We talk about what it actually takes to stop compartmentalising your expertise, why confidence comes after you take action (not before), and how a shift in mindset (not just strategy) was the real turning point in Priscilla building something of her own.
What You Will Learn
- Why compartmentalising your expertise keeps you stuck. Priscilla had spent nearly 14 years running a book review site, judging a self-publishing prize, and writing literary criticism, all while treating it as separate from her "real" comms career. We talk about why high-achieving women in particular tend to downplay what comes naturally to them, and why naming your expertise is often the first real step toward building a portfolio career.
- The mindset shift from employee to business owner. Priscilla shares how she'd always seen herself as "just a freelancer" doing small jobs here and there until she reframed even her contracting work as running a business on her own terms. We talk about why this internal shift matters just as much as any external strategy when you're building additional income streams alongside (or instead of) traditional employment.
- How one networking conversation turned into a client within weeks. Priscilla walks through exactly what happened after she challenged herself to have "valuable conversations" at an industry event, from a chance conversation about content, to a LinkedIn follow-up, to a discovery call that became her first paying client, built around a content strategy offer she hadn't even planned to sell.
If you this conversation leaves you thinking about what your own first next step could look like, I currently have a few spots open for Career Expansion Strategy Sessions - 75-minute 1:1 coaching sessions where you'll get my eyes, ears and thoughts on your career, what you've already built, and how to leverage it to start expanding your career in the way that is right for you.
You'll come away with a clear picture of how to start using what's already in your toolkit and an action plan to start making moves.
Priscilla Owusu is a writer, editor, and content strategist working primarily with small organisations, charities, and independent consultants. She spent over 20 years in Communications roles across sectors including finance, real estate, and higher education, before leaving in-house work to launch her own consultancy. At the heart of her work is writing and editing: helping clients develop content that communicates clearly and consistently, and earns credibility with the audiences they most want to reach. She also offers content and communications strategy for clients looking to think more broadly about how they show up. You can find her on LinkedIn or at priscillaowusu.co.uk.
Connect with Priscilla
Visit her website
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Connect with me
Website: www.careerchangemakers.com
Email: podcast@careerchangemakers.com
LinkedIn: Janine Esbrand
Instagram: @careerchangemakerspodcast
Career Change Makers on Apple Podcasts
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