Overview

In this episode, I’m excited to be joined by my good friend and mentor, Philip VanDusen, whose been on the podcast with me two times before. Philip comes back to join me for this 5-part series on Building a Work Life after Corporate Life. How do you leave corporate and move into self-employment or starting a business? Our intent with this series is to create a guide to going out on your own.

This became a topic for The Sustainable Ambition Podcast based on a listener request, and I thought who better to discuss this with than Philip. Both of us have had 25+ year careers in Corporate and then went out on our own and even have a shared journey on our post-Corporate path that we’ll share along the way.

The series will be aired here on The Sustainable Ambition Podcast, as well as on Philip’s podcast, Brand Design Masters.

In Part 1 of the series, we talk about the importance of building your personal and professional brand before you go out on your own.

In this conversation, we discuss why this topic is of interest, our own personal experiences with leaving Corporate despite loving our experience working on the inside, the importance of lifting your head up and considering the outside world even while you’re still employed, and how to think about building your professional and personal brand. Or, if the “branding” terminology makes you uncomfortable, just think about it as building your reputation and how you want people to think about you as your best self.

Philip - as always, I love being in conversation with you. Looking forward to Part 2 in the series! Next up: Recognizing it’s time to go and how to go.

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Overview

Today I’m joined by Sarah Moore, a partner and Director of Brand Strategy at Mission Minded, a brand strategy firm that works exclusively with nonprofits and foundations. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation.

I wanted to have Sarah on the show for a couple of reasons. First, I’m interested, as always, in people’s career journeys, and Sarah shares her experience with pivoting from for-profit to non-profit. And second, I’ve had listeners ask how to bring philanthropy, giving back, and volunteering into one's life to make it more fulfilling and to find purpose outside of one’s professional life. Sarah shares tips on how to start this exploration of giving back in your own way.

And I couldn’t let Sarah go without hearing more about the best practices that Mission Minded has learned from being a virtual, remote company for 20 years. What has the company done to make remote work work, and what can individuals do to support themselves in successfully working from home? Sarah weighs in.

Thank you so much, Sarah, for the work you do and for sharing your journey and insights with us!

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Overview

Today I’m joined by Jinny Uppal, author of the new book, IN/ACTION: Rethinking the Path to Results. In this conversation, Jinny shares how the book was written for people who are ambitious and that there is a better way to drive results than to always lean into the prevalent cultural bias for action. She encourages us to find the courage to embrace reflective thinking and strategic inaction, which offer a less stressful and more efficient way of achieving more by “doing” less.

Test it out and put in/action into action and see how this powerful strategy can help you get the results you seek.

I really enjoyed this conversation, Jinny! Thank you so much for championing an easier way for us to find nonlinear paths to better results.

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Overview

In this episode, I’m thrilled to be joined by my good college friend, Dominic DeMarco (who you’ll hear also goes by Mimo in friend circles), who is a small business owner and an adventure traveler who successfully hiked the 2100 mile Appalachian Trail, hiked the 2600 mile Pacific Crest Trail, and bicycled the 4000 mile TransAmerica Bike Route.

I wanted to have Dominic on for 2 reasons: 1) I want to learn from people who have engaged in activities that require endurance and resilience and understand if there is learning from those experiences to apply to how we might lead more sustainable lives+work; and 2) Dominic followed a non-traditional career path from early on and now runs a successful small business.

In this conversation, we hear life lessons from Dominic’s long-distance treks, a redefinition of success for the 99% of us, the importance of embracing a growth mindset and “micro-tries” as adults, and what it takes to carve out space for yourself if you run a business.

Mimo - thank you so much for being on and being willing to share your personal experiences with us. So many good gems in this conversation!

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Overview

In this episode, Kathy Oneto, founder of Sustainable Ambition, builds on the series that kicked off the year on planning and living a more sustainable+ambitious year. This episode is about checking in on your Q1 progress. How have things gone? What worked? What didn’t work? What do you want to practice next? It’s time to Assess and Adapt to help you both stretch and sustain yourself in your life+work in the months ahead.

This series coincided with the launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner: Your Life+Work Resilience Rx. The workbook+planner offers inquiries, exercises, and planning tools to help you lead a fulfilling, sustainable, and ambitious life+work. Learn more at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

If you’d like to do this work with others, consider creating a circle of friends or professional colleagues to plan and learn together over the year. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. Find guides for a Planning Circle or Workshop at Work at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

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Overview

In this solo episode, host Kathy Oneto shares her personal experience with setting the pace in her life to not fall into the “I’m so busy” frantic narrative that often surrounds us. You’ll learn 5 tips that have helped Kathy create boundaries around how she experiences her time. This has been a topic that has held Kathy’s attention for months now, and she continues to play with her own practices to not let the external world command her personal, day-to-day experiences.

How do you want to experience time? What pace do you want to set?

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Overview

Today I’m joined by Dr. Sahar Yousef, a cognitive neuroscientist and faculty member at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Sahar researches and teaches busy leaders and their teams how to be more productive and effective at work, runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab, and teaches one of the most popular MBA classes, called “Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance.”

In this conversation we discuss how our future self can help us make decisions today and for our future, cadencing career possibilities across our lives, how to avoid “reckless ambition!,” and tips to becoming superhuman to get work done in less time and with less stress so you can get back to your life. There are so many smart, practical tips in this conversation that you can implement today, right now!

Thank you for being on, Sahar, and for the work you are doing to uncover new insights to help us care for and sharpen this powerful tool we all carry with us (our brain) to support us in achieving Sustainable Ambition!

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Overview

I can’t believe I’m already at Episode 50 🎉. It’s really been such a joy to be in conversation with experts, authors, and friends over the last 15 months. I’m so grateful for all my guests who have been on and shared their knowledge, insights, and experiences. And I’m so grateful for all of you listening in!

In honor of my guests and all of you, in this solo episode I’m sharing 10 themes and common wisdom insights we’ve heard from all these wonderful guests and what I’ve learned over the last year about living and working with Sustainable Ambition.

Sustainable Ambition is aspirational. And that admittedly means it isn’t easy! These insights will help us all on our journey to find fulfilling work, while also living a fulfilling life, from decade to decade. The end goal—experience more joy and ease in your professional and personal lives and less angst and guilt, while still being ambitious.

Here’s to the next 50 episodes and more learning ahead! Thank you for listening and being a part of my community!

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Overview

Today I’m joined by Annie Auerbach, an expert in cultural trends and co-founder of Starling, an agency which keeps brands relevant through understanding cultural change. She is also the author of *FLEX: reinventing work for a smarter, happier life,* which came out pre-pandemic, but is so relevant as we rethink our world and how we live today as we enter a new stage of the pandemic. Is it any wonder that Annie was on top of this trend? It wasn’t just because she tracks cultural trends; it’s also that she has been living, modeling, and championing a “flex” life for 20 years.

In this conversation, Annie shares how living flexibly is ambitious and that now is the time to reimagine how we live our lives more flexibly to make it all more sustainable. She advocates to first look within to what you need now and then to think big and muster the courage to craft and ask for what you want. One of the things I love about Annie’s approach is that it is multi-faceted; flex is not one thing and not just about work. Rather, Annie shares how flex applies also to home, mind, body, and future and is really a holistic philosophy: “It should be about a more progressive way of living and a more progressive way of society working.” Listen in to learn more, and pick up Annie’s book. So good!

Thanks so much for putting your beautiful book into the world, Annie, and for sharing your insights with us and championing flex for us all!

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Overview

Today I’m joined by one of my favorite people and someone who has been an inspiration for my career and business, Jenny Blake. Jenny is the author of three books; her latest “Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business” comes out on March 22, 2022. Jenny is also the author of “Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One,” an important life+work book that won the Axiom award for best business book in the careers category in 2016 and is for anyone who wants to be “high net growth” and successfully manage change throughout their career in today’s ever-changing environment.

In this conversation, we talk about the new book and also how Jenny finds the courage and conviction to build her business her way and create Free Time for herself. After 10 years of running her own business and sharing her lessons with her private community, now called BFF, Jenny shares her lessons for eliminating business stress through systems and non-traditional ways of running one’s business, like following your intuition and a Jenny-ism I love, “Let it be easy, let it be fun.”

If you are already a small business owner, someone looking to go out on your own, or a creative person looking to find more spaciousness to your best work, check out the book and Jenny’s podcast of the same name, Free Time with Jenny Blake.

It was such a joy to have you on, Jenny! This podcast wouldn’t exist without your generosity in sharing your knowledge and wisdom. Thank you for continually showing us the way to more freedom to do our best work, while, as you say, “serving the highest good for all involved.”

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Overview

I was pleased to be joined by Mark Herschberg author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, for a conversation on the importance of career planning and its ROI, assessing role and culture fit when job hunting, and the benefit of learning these essential skills throughout one’s career and with others in peer learning groups.

Mark is a model of being a multi-hyphenate, someone with a serious day job, an established "side gig," and many additional talents. He's certainly not one note and has a lot to share on career management from his 20 years of teaching at MIT's "career success accelerator."

In his book, via the accompanying app, and resources on his website, Mark offers a highly practical and insightful guide to the tools you need to manage a successful career over time. It's a toolkit you can pick up at any stage to support you in where you might be going next.

Thank you so much, Mark, for sharing all your great insights and learning with us!

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Overview

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Tammy Gooler Loeb, career and executive coach and author of Work from the Inside Out: Break Through Nine Common Obstacles and Design a Career That Fulfills You. She is also the host of the podcast of the same name.

We discuss Tammy’s new book that addresses the main obstacles that many people face in career transitions that keep them from reaching fulfillment. Tammy shows us how to break through these barriers. The book is really a wonderful mix of awareness building, storytelling through others’ experiences, and reflection and exercises to move you forward.

In our conversation, we also talk about the importance of intuition, surrounding yourself with positive people when making career transitions, and to always be learning to foster a sustainable, regenerative career.

This was a great conversation with an expert in career reinvention. Thank you for being on with me, Tammy!

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Overview

Join Kathy Oneto, host and founder of Sustainable Ambition, for a 4-part series to help you plan a more sustainable+ambitious year ahead. We’ll explore what will be stretching for you and what will sustain you.

This series coincides with the upcoming launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner: Your Life+Work Resilience Rx. The workbook+planner offers inquiries, exercises, and planning tools to help you lead a fulfilling, sustainable, and ambitious life+work. Learn more at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

First, Sustainable Ambition is aspirational. It asks us to hold two opposing ideas—sustain and stretch—at the same time. How can we sustain ourselves (sustainable), while stretching ourselves (ambition)? That implies it is a practice that calls for perspective, personalization, pacing, and patience. And that admittedly means it isn’t easy! That is where this series comes in.

Over 4-weeks, Kathy will guide you through exercises to create a plan to help you manage a more sustainable life+work over the coming months. The goal is to create awareness and structures that foster the ability to dance in our dynamic world, learning how to both stretch and sustain ourselves. How? By knowing ourselves better, defining our own Life+Work Resilience Rx (prescription), creating a plan, practicing, and progressing over time.

Here’s a review of the series and this episode is Part #4:

• Part #1: My Ambitions: My Next 12 Months - In this first episode, Kathy shares exercises to help you set a vision and your intentions for the coming year. What are your ambitions?

• Part #2: My Sustainable: My Life+Work Resilience Rx - In the second episode, we’ll explore what would make your life+work sustainable—what is your personal Life+Work Resilience Rx?

• Part #3: My 12-Month Planner + 6-Month Horizon - In the third episode, we’ll pull out our calendars and create a 12-month plan considering what you need on your calendar to allow you to stretch and sustain yourself.

• Part #4: Quarter 1 + Monthly Planning - We’ll close the series in episode four creating our aim for the first quarter of the year and setting you up to act and then assess and adapt as you reflect at the end of the first quarter to keep you operating at your best throughout the year.

Kathy will come back each quarter to do a review with you and will come back at the end of the year for a 12-month review to see what we learned about building our own life+work resilience.

While a sustainable and ambitious life+work is aspirational, the journey may not always be easy along the way. Yet, we believe we can do it and find our way. We can take back control and be in choice to build a more sustainable life+work.

Here’s to a sustainable+ambitious 2022!

P.S. If you’d like to do this work with others, consider creating a circle of friends or professional colleagues to plan and learn together. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. Find guides for a Planning Circle or Workshop at Work at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

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Overview

Join Kathy Oneto, host and founder of Sustainable Ambition, for a 4-part series to help you plan a more sustainable+ambitious year ahead. We’ll explore what will be stretching for you and what will sustain you.

This series coincides with the upcoming launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner: Your Life+Work Resilience Rx. The workbook+planner offers inquiries, exercises, and planning tools to help you lead a fulfilling, sustainable, and ambitious life+work. Learn more at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

First, Sustainable Ambition is aspirational. It asks us to hold two opposing ideas—sustain and stretch—at the same time. How can we sustain ourselves (sustainable), while stretching ourselves (ambition)? That implies it is a practice that calls for perspective, personalization, pacing, and patience. And that admittedly means it isn’t easy! That is where this series comes in.

Over 4-weeks, Kathy will guide you through exercises to create a plan to help you manage a more sustainable life+work over the coming months. The goal is to create awareness and structures that foster the ability to dance in our dynamic world, learning how to both stretch and sustain ourselves. How? By knowing ourselves better, defining our own Life+Work Resilience Rx (prescription), creating a plan, practicing, and progressing over time.

Here’s a review of the series and this episode is Part 3:

• Part #1: My Ambitions: My Next 12 Months - In this first episode, Kathy shares exercises to help you set a vision and your intentions for the coming year. What are your ambitions?

• Part #2: My Sustainable: My Life+Work Resilience Rx - In the second episode, we’ll explore what would make your life+work sustainable—what is your personal Life+Work Resilience Rx?

• Part #3: My 12-Month Planner + 6-Month Horizon - In the third episode, we’ll pull out our calendars and create a 12-month plan considering what you need on your calendar to allow you to stretch and sustain yourself.

• Part #4: Quarter 1 + Monthly Planning - We’ll close the series in episode four creating our aim for the first quarter of the year and setting you up to act and then assess and adapt as you reflect at the end of the first quarter to keep you operating at your best throughout the year.

Kathy will come back each quarter to do a review with you and will come back at the end of the year for a 12-month review to see what we learned about building our own life+work resilience.

While a sustainable and ambitious life+work is aspirational, the journey may not always be easy along the way. Yet, we believe we can do it and find our way. We can take back control and be in choice to build a more sustainable life+work.

Here’s to a sustainable+ambitious 2022!

P.S. If you’d like to do this work with others, consider creating a circle of friends or professional colleagues to plan and learn together. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. Find guides for a Planning Circle or Workshop at Work at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

Get the Recording & Show Notes

Find the recording and check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned.

Overview

Join Kathy Oneto, host and founder of Sustainable Ambition, for a 4-part series to help you plan a more sustainable+ambitious year ahead. We’ll explore what will be stretching for you and what will sustain you.

This series coincides with the upcoming launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner: Your Life+Work Resilience Rx. The workbook+planner offers inquiries, exercises, and planning tools to help you lead a fulfilling, sustainable, and ambitious life+work. Learn more at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

First, Sustainable Ambition is aspirational. It asks us to hold two opposing ideas—sustain and stretch—at the same time. How can we sustain ourselves (sustainable), while stretching ourselves (ambition)? That implies it is a practice that calls for perspective, personalization, pacing, and patience. And that admittedly means it isn’t easy! That is where this series comes in.

Over 4-weeks, Kathy will guide you through exercises to create a plan to help you manage a more sustainable life+work over the coming months. The goal is to create awareness and structures that foster the ability to dance in our dynamic world, learning how to both stretch and sustain ourselves. How? By knowing ourselves better, defining our own Life+Work Resilience Rx (prescription), creating a plan, practicing, and progressing over time.

Here’s a review of the series and this episode is Part #2:

• Part #1: My Ambitions: My Next 12 Months - In this first episode, Kathy shares exercises to help you set a vision and your intentions for the coming year. What are your ambitions?

• Part #2: My Sustainable: My Life+Work Resilience Rx - In the second episode, we’ll explore what would make your life+work sustainable—what is your personal Life+Work Resilience Rx?

• Part #3: My 12-Month Planner + 6-Month Horizon - In the third episode, we’ll pull out our calendars and create a 12-month plan considering what you need on your calendar to allow you to stretch and sustain yourself.

• Part #4: Quarter 1 + Monthly Planning - We’ll close the series in episode four creating our aim for the first quarter of the year and setting you up to act and then assess and adapt as you reflect at the end of the first quarter to keep you operating at your best throughout the year.

Kathy will come back each quarter to do a review with you and will come back at the end of the year for a 12-month review to see what we learned about building our own life+work resilience.

While a sustainable and ambitious life+work is aspirational, the journey may not always be easy along the way. Yet, we believe we can do it and find our way. We can take back control and be in choice to build a more sustainable life+work.

Here’s to a sustainable+ambitious 2022!

P.S. If you’d like to do this work with others, consider creating a circle of friends or professional colleagues to plan and learn together. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. Find guides for a Planning Circle or Workshop at Work at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

Get the Recording & Show Notes

Find the recording and check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned.

Overview

Join Kathy Oneto, host and founder of Sustainable Ambition, for a 4-part series to help you plan a more sustainable+ambitious year ahead. We’ll explore what will be stretching for you and what will sustain you.

This series coincides with the upcoming launch of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook+Planner: Your Life+Work Resilience Rx. The workbook+planner offers inquiries, exercises, and planning tools to help you lead a fulfilling, sustainable, and ambitious life+work. Learn more at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

First, Sustainable Ambition is aspirational. It asks us to hold two opposing ideas—sustain and stretch—at the same time. How can we sustain ourselves (sustainable), while stretching ourselves (ambition)? That implies it is a practice that calls for perspective, personalization, pacing, and patience. And that admittedly means it isn’t easy! That is where this series comes in.

Over 4-weeks, Kathy will guide you through exercises to create a plan to help you manage a more sustainable life+work over the coming months. The goal is to create awareness and structures that foster the ability to dance in our dynamic world, learning how to both stretch and sustain ourselves. How? By knowing ourselves better, defining our own Life+Work Resilience Rx (prescription), creating a plan, practicing, and progressing over time.

Here’s a review of the series:

• Part #1: My Ambitions: My Next 12 Months - In this first episode, Kathy shares exercises to help you set a vision and your intentions for the coming year. What are your ambitions?

• Part #2: My Sustainable: My Life+Work Resilience Rx - In the second episode, we’ll explore what would make your life+work sustainable—what is your personal Life+Work Resilience Rx?

• Part #3: My 12-Month Planner + 6-Month Horizon - In the third episode, we’ll pull out our calendars and create a 12-month plan considering what you need on your calendar to allow you to stretch and sustain yourself.

• Part #4: Quarter 1 + Monthly Planning - We’ll close the series in episode four creating our aim for the first quarter of the year and setting you up to act and then assess and adapt as you reflect at the end of the first quarter to keep you operating at your best throughout the year.

Kathy will come back each quarter to do a review with you and will come back at the end of the year for a 12-month review to see what we learned about building our own life+work resilience.

While a sustainable and ambitious life+work is aspirational, the journey may not always be easy along the way. Yet, we believe we can do it and find our way. We can take back control and be in choice to build a more sustainable life+work.

Here’s to a sustainable+ambitious 2022!

P.S. If you’d like to do this work with others, consider creating a circle of friends or professional colleagues to plan and learn together. Doing this work as part of a community can support you in setting intentions, holding yourself accountable, providing encouragement, and learning together along the way. Find guides for a Planning Circle or Workshop at Work at: sustainableambition.com/planner2022

Get the Recording & Show Notes

Find the recording and check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned.