85. On Ditching Hustle Culture & Thriving Again with Jennie Blumenthal

Overview

Today I’m joined by Jennie Blumenthal, author of the new book, “Corporate Rehab: ditch the hustle culture and thrive again.” After 20 years as an executive in Corporate America, Jennie chose to leave during the pandemic pivot after realizing that she had lost herself and was no longer leading the life she wanted to live.

In this conversation, Jennie shares her career journey and what led her to make her pivot, why it’s easy to fall into hustle culture, how it’s important to step back and re-evaluate and align our values with our work, and how her REHAB methodology can help put people on a more fulfilling path. Where is Jennie on the other side? Having reached her goal of putting more life in her life.

Jennie - thank you so much for being on and sharing your experiences, insights, and REHAB method with us. We champion your personal purpose of helping to heal the C-suite across Corporate America to have a positive impact across all organizational ranks. We’ll be cheering you on as you take each step, one at a time.

More About Our Guest

Jennie Blumenthal spent 20 years as an executive in Corporate America counseling Fortune 500 companies on growth strategy and digital transformation and left during the pandemic pivot. She is now the CEO and Founder of Corporate Rehab and coaches executive women looking to reach the next level of leadership without losing themselves in the process. She also serves as a professional speaker, an Adjunct Professor in Strategy, and a Board member. She is the author of the new book, “Corporate Rehab: ditch the hustle culture and thrive again.”

Topics Covered

  • We start by hearing about Jennie’s career story that took her from our shared alma mater, the University of Virginia, to non-profit consulting to an MBA to ultimately becoming a partner at one of the big four consulting firms.

  • Jennie shares what ultimately led to her pandemic pivot and how easy it is to get lost and find oneself on autopilot. Jennie brings up a theme we talk about a lot here on the podcast, which is to pay attention and the need to pause to hear oneself. She shared that she had felt something calling her ten years earlier but had pushed those feelings down. What I appreciate about what Jennie shares, too, is how she notes the importance of taking responsibility for the decisions we make for ourselves and thinking about being intentional about what we craft for our lives.

  • Jennie is honest about both her role in losing herself, but also the systemic structures in place that contribute to women falling into the hustle culture.

  • While Jennie’s book is focused on women, she acknowledges that anyone can lose themselves in their ambitions and in their work, not realizing and stepping back to know what they really want for their lives. They make choices and trade-offs without realizing it.

  • She shares what we’ve noted, too—that our lives (life+work) are an endurance event, and too many of us are running marathons at a sprint. It’s just not sustainable.

  • Jennie talks about how it is important to step back to re-evaluate and align our values to our jobs. As Jennie says, “What is the job of your job?”

  • I ask Jennie about what she sees as the big lies we are told about approaching our careers. She says: “We can do it all, and we should do it all. There's not enough, and I'm not enough.”

  • Jennie shares how her REHAB methodology can help you step out of hustle culture:

    • “And that's really what became the rehab process, which stands for R is recognize your life's decisions and the context for your values. E is evaluate some of your patterns and relationships, including energy, time management, and boundaries. H is heal across the mind, body and spirit doing any of the work on yourself that you can actually start to reconnect and heal some things that that you might not have ever known that were there. But also reconnect with your body as you start to move forward. Arise and grow is the fun part. You get to add play back and experiment with things and really focus on things that light you up. And then build is basically we end with a roadmap of new dimensions of your life or career.”

  • I ask Jennie how she thinks about ambition now, and I really appreciated her response. It aligns with how we’re starting to think about Right Ambition. And she shares her personal ambition for the book and her continued work in this space.

  • Jennie has a great picture of herself at the back of her book that is joyous. It’s my inspiration to ask her—how do you think about your life now? While she shares more in the episode, in short, she has more life in her life. Love it!

Resources Mentioned

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85. On Ditching Hustle Culture & Thriving Again with Jennie Blumenthal

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2022-2Kathy OnetoRight Success, Right Effort