Adam Torres and Diana Stephens discuss career transition.
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Show Notes:
Launching a new career and dealing with transition can be challenging. In this episode, Adam Torres interviewed Diana Stephens, Founder and CEO of Mindful Job Alignment. Explore what it takes to successfully transition in a career and the book Diana will be launching with Mission Matters.
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About Diana Stephens
Diana is a problem solver. Building collaborative partnerships that allow her to listen deeply to what clients say, and sometimes don’t say, is the key to finding powerful solutions that address the real issues holding people and companies back. She loves to connect with people and businesses to help make life better. This dedication to client satisfaction is the passion that drives Diana.
Combining her multi-industry background with my analytical approach enables her to read and understand people so that she can create practical solutions to product and business challenges.
About Mindful Job Alignment
Mindful Job Alignment was launched to fill a void in the job search process – Emotional Support to job seekers, whether currently employed or unfortunately downsized.
They have an online program that introduces individuals to the concepts of space clearing in home or office, mindfulness, journaling, meditation, values assessment, vision creation and law of attraction. They have reading resources to share for career transitions and mindfulness.
They offer team coaching through their Vision Accountability Groups and also 1:1 coaching support. If needed, they also have affiliates who can assist you with the tactical side of job search for ATS proof resume writing and Linked In profile enhancement. However, their main focus is emotional mindfulness support.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so did I have Diana Stevens on the line and she is. Founder and c e o of Mindful job Alignment, and also I’m proud to announce she’s also an author in our upcoming Mission Matters business leaders book.
Diana, first off, I wanna say welcome to the show and welcome to our community. It’s awesome to have you. Thank you very much. I’m excited to be part of the community and really excited to be in the book and doing the podcasts and, and it’s, it’s all good. It’s all a great launch for my business. Fantastic.
And Diana, I excited to get into today’s topic too. So career transition and job search. So a whole lot of people be watching this and we’ll want to know more. But before we get into today’s topic and learn more about your business as well, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute.
So, Diana, we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. Mm-hmm. Diana, what mission matters to you? Well, I think a very important mission, very near and dear to my heart, is really to help support people going through job transitions with the emotional side of what those changes are.
I think there’s a huge opportunity for this because I think in our current structure with outplacement and a lot of different structures that there are, they, they really work very well with the tactical part of job search, with the interviewing, the resume, the ats, et cetera, et cetera. But there is a huge opportunity to work with people on the emotional side.
What are they going through? What is this? Loss mean to them and what effect is it gonna have on their lives. Mm-hmm. So, um, I’m very excited to work with this Launch the Business and, uh, it is a mission that is very near and dear to my heart. Ah, it’s wonderful. Love bringing mission-based individuals on the line to share, you know, why they do what they do, how they do it, and really what we can all learn from that so we all grow together.
So the whole point of the Mission Matters platform is we all wanna grow together. Absolutely. Alright. So let’s go a little bit further back at maybe in your career. So how did you, you know, get into being, you know, an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship? Like, where did all that start for you? Well, it’s actually started very recently.
Yeah. And, um, it’s really been an outgrowth of a number of downsizings that I’ve been through throughout the year. Corporate America. I have a background in software as a service in the retail industry, and then prior to that I was a national account manager representing a number of different manufacturers to national retailers.
So my, my experience runs across cpg, fashion, retail, and general merchandise. Uh, but through all of that, there was the personal side of learning what it was like to go through multiple companies that decided to either downsize dramatically or they went out of business completely. And through my experience of going through out placement and looking for jobs five times in 10 years mm-hmm.
Is what it amounted to. I thought if I ever have a chance to put this into some kind of a platform and write about it, I’m gonna try to help other people. Mm-hmm. So the timing I think is just right at the stage. I am in my life right now and I. Completed my, uh, PhD in holistic coaching. Mm-hmm. During Covid, it was a covid project, and I received my degree in March of 2021.
But my, my dissertation was on a mindful approach to job search. Mm-hmm. So it is really exactly what my company is doing, and all of the content for my company is coming from that, that body of work I did at my dissertation. Mm-hmm. So it’s all about using mindfulness techniques to help support the emotional side of job search.
You shared some of your story, of course, in terms of, you know, how your journey was with, with job search and career transition as an entrepreneur and going out there and, you know, looking at ideas, a lot of different routes you could have went. Why did you ultimately land on this one? Like, what did this one spoke to you?
I think this one, I, I felt it had the most opportunity. To connect with a lot of people. I think it’s something that just about everyone goes through in, in one way, shape, or form. Mm-hmm. And it’s not necessarily limited to certain age ranges, although people who’ve been in the career force over 25 years tend to be harder hit.
Honestly. My other, uh, avenue that I looked at was elder care because I had 16 years of elder care with my mother, but it just didn’t call to me as much as the, the job search mission. Yeah. And so as you’re, you know, embarking and, and launching this business, and I love talking to entrepreneurs that are, you know, at different stages in their business, whether they’re, you know, in the earlier stages of starting it or whether they’re, you know, far off on the other end of things, and they’re already looking at and exiting what’s next.
What are some of the things that are on your roadmap as you start, as you continue to build this platform? Uh, well really building out the content and then the vehicles that I want to impart the message. I’m looking at the avenue of podcasts. I’m more of a talker than a writer with my educational background and music and voice.
Mm-hmm. And I think that would be a lot of fun and bring in different subject matter experts and interview. I’m looking at putting together a six part course that will bring people across the, the introduction of the subject matter of what I wrote about in terms of processing the transition and then creating mindful space in the home, working on learning meditation, and then identifying core values that could be crafted into a career vision, and then working on the law of attraction and manifestation to bring that in.
Hmm. Tell me a little bit more about maybe some of the, the content and what somebody goes through during this transition, because I think it’s an interesting approach I’ve had, you know, I’ve interviewed others in the recruiting space and maybe in other parts of the ecosystem of what it looks like during career transition, but this is the first time I can recall interviewing someone that’s dealing with the mindful and kind of some of the emotional.
Things that go through mm-hmm. That, that an applicant or you know, someone that’s been, you know, downsized or otherwise goes through when looking for a new, a new role or a new, a new position, maybe talk to me a little bit more about the content side of things. Well, in terms of the, the mindfulness, I think it’s really important that while people are going through this is to keep hope up.
Hope and motivation because it’s very easy to get knocked down with the rejections or this or that. Or the resume didn’t go through ATS or, or whatever. Mm-hmm. Or interviews getting stopped after the second round or whatever. Mm-hmm. So there is a certain part where an individual, if you just have the.
The techniques, the mindfulness, the supporter. You have supportive reading, uh, reading references or website references where you can go to and just read them and feel the hope. That’s really what I did. I started collecting books and I started learning more about mindfulness and reiki and meditation and literally I tend to be.
Rather goal oriented and Yeah. And be hyper when I’m really going for something. So what I really did was I wanted to slow down and by learning all those things and incorporating and, and really literally just reading some of the resources that I found, it did give me hope and it put things into perspective of why this happens, why this happens to some people and not other people, why it happens more frequently.
Mm-hmm. And I was dealing with some other things on top of the job. Losses when I was going through it, so I really needed deeper. Just deeper resources to dig into it. And that’s why I chose to go down this route because, and you know, it’s, it’s not for everybody. Some people sail through job search.
They’re not affected by it. They go work for a competitor and they make more money and they’re very happy. Uh, there’s other people that they’re having this happen while they’ve had a health diagnosis while they’re maybe going through a divorce, they’ve lost a parent. You know, you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life.
At the same time, and that’s why I put these particular items together. There’s other avenues I could go deeper into with this in terms of, uh, the study of reiki, the study of feng shui. There’s a lot more things that could, that I eventually make it into deeper, but mm-hmm. I wanted to start off with things that were very available mm-hmm.
And that were low cost because you don’t want to spend a lot of money when you’re in a job search. Mm-hmm. And, uh, that were, that were easily accessible. And then, and then help people pull them all together. That’s really what I’m, what I see my role. As you mentioned, doing your dissertation on, on this and that, that being, you know, some of the basis of what this business was built on in terms of the IP or the content side of things.
When you were going through that dissertation process, was there anything that you learned or, or some things that you’d like care to share that maybe kind of surprised you that you’re like, oh, you know, I wasn’t expecting that when I embarked on this originally. Some of the things around processing through transitions and processing through the grief.
Mm-hmm. And tying in using grief for the loss of a loved one, I think, I think most people are familiar with that. Mm-hmm. But tying that back to the idea of a job loss, I thought was, was pretty profound. And I came across some that is studies from, uh, McKinsey, which helped tie it to the corporate. You know, space.
And I’ve actually shown a number of my friends and colleagues the dissertation, and every single one of ’em came back to the grief section and they said, how interesting is that to overlay grief and the concept of the study of grief over transition and why? Why that’s so important is if people don’t take time to process what’s happened.
Mm-hmm. Mentally and emotionally, they will carry the leftover emotions into the interview. They’ll carry it over into the networking, or in some cases, I’ve seen some people through the networking groups that I’ve been in be completely immobilized. Mm-hmm. And they don’t try to interview, they don’t try to move forward.
So that’s why it’s so important to process the change when it happens. Yeah, and when you really think about it and I was, you know, preparing for this interview and thinking about your content and looking at your work, I thought about it and I’m like, you know, it’s a pretty intimate relationship that we’re now realizing, you know, post covid, that you know, to work for somebody to spend more time many times at an employer or at an office or you know, with individuals that you work with.
And sometimes some of your loved ones are your. Family. Exactly. And then all of a sudden to have that, you know, taken from you, especially if it wasn’t by your choice because they downsized or maybe the business went not a business like you mentioned, or something else like that. Like that’s, that’s traumatic and it’s not, you know, in the past I feel like maybe we just said, ah, you know, you just, you just get over it.
It’s just, Part of it, it’s part of the work, it’s part of the business we’re you’re an adult, right? Like in the past. Mm-hmm. That’s maybe kind of some of the things, but now that we’re, I feel as a society, we’re evolving. We’re thinking more about our mental health. Right. Um, we’re thinking more about like our interactions and connections with people, especially as, you know, technology advances.
Like that’s more of a relevant conversation that now there’s, I feel like this is, there’s a good space for this. Right. Absolutely. And you’re seeing mindfulness come more to the forefront in companies and in hr, and they’re starting to take a look at that offering mindfulness time for people. I know that one of my mindfulness teachers does a lot of work in corporate America.
Mm-hmm. And I, and I’ve seen a lot of people on LinkedIn. Starting with this. And so it is very, very important. And I think that, I think out placement, that’s the next opportunity for out placement. You know, there’s, there’s a lot of faith-based job search groups that churches start up, they start up the job search circles and whatnot.
And I think that’s wonderful. And most of the time they do refer people back to their minister or priest or or whom, or rabbi or whomever for the coaching, spiritually and everything. But this goes much deeper than that. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it, there’s a, a whole list of a whole environment that one can create with this.
And, and it’s also something, what I’m talking about in, in my, uh, mindful job alignment doesn’t just apply to the job area. Mm-hmm. It applies to e someone’s life in general, because once you start slowing down and putting mindfulness techniques in mm-hmm. You kind of don’t want to go back to running a huge rat race.
Yeah. At an unmanageable pace. Yeah. And I feel like that was, um, that was kind of the, the brand of the American way for a long time. And cuz you know, there’s other cultures and others that, you know, there’s other views in this world, right. In terms of the relationship to work or to the, the land around, right.
So it’s interesting and I think it’s, it’s hopeful for me to see that kind of evolve to a more, you know, holistic approach. Yep. Yeah, mindfulness and putting numbers on the board and profit and loss don’t necessarily go together in the corporate workplace, but we have to find a happy medium mm-hmm. Where they both can be respected.
Yeah. Because you have to have numbers to have, uh, good margins and good ROIs, so Yeah. And they can, it’s not necessarily a, like one versus the other, it’s just figuring out that formula. Right. Yeah. It’s because there, there is a cost on the other side always. Yes, absolutely. As you continue to kind of go down this path, you continue to build, build the business, what are some of the ways that you plan on maybe delivering the content?
You did mention podcast. What are some of the other things that you plan on doing? Um, I’m, I’m in the process of, in addition to the, the book that I’ve written with you, the chapter of course, I am going to put this into a book, take the dissertation and publish that, if not, and embellish it and add to the chapter.
So that’s, that’s in my future as well, uh, getting that up on Amazon. And then I’d like to do, uh, one-on-one with people as well as speaking to groups and connecting with people who are really in outplacement in those types of firms that. I could be of some service in terms of coaching and, and whatnot and bringing this perspective in.
Yeah, because I, I just think it’s very important to get the word out there about it. Mm-hmm. I would love to be involved in dialogues with people who are already, you know, working in something similar or looking for this as a novel idea. Mm-hmm. A new point of view coming in. But, uh, that’s what I really see.
No, that’s great. It’s a great concept. And so speaking of the book, you did mention that. Mm-hmm. And we won’t go in just for everybody watching this, as I mentioned, like we won’t go too far into it because we will be bringing Diana back on the show for a full, for a full interview, and we’ll just dive deep into, into a writing at that point.
But mm-hmm. Even at high level, Diana, what are some of the things you plan to propose in the upcoming book? Well, there’s, there’s some interesting things that I loved working with your writing staff with Hillary on this because there was some good perspectives brought up about. It’s really that transitions are not one size fit all.
Mm-hmm. And they’re different for a lot of different people. Somebody who’s been in the workforce for 25 or 30 years in one position is in a completely different space than someone who’s, this is their first job outta school, and unfortunately they’re got caught up in a, a downsizing. I think also looking, like I said at the McKinsey work with the seven types of losses that they identify.
Also looking at the need for processing the transitions on the sorrow that I. Cited Steven Levine’s work in unattended sorrow. And then also what’s interesting is a new piece of work that I just recently came across. Mm-hmm. Uh, actually from the Modern Elder Academy, they cited some work by Bruce Fler and he distinguishes between life quakes and disruptors and the difference of each of those when these types of things happen that a disruptor.
You know, it disrupts your life, but you can basically go on. Mm-hmm. But a life quake really kind of decides that really describes the situation. Like I was talking about a few minutes ago where you’ve got the job lost, then you’ve got a divorce, you’ve got, you know, maybe something with a foreclosure on the house.
You’ve got, uh, a, a health diagnosis, so mm-hmm. Where you have three or four things that are major compounding at one time, that would be prob defined as a life quake. I found that concept very interesting and I’m gonna explore that a little bit deeper. Going. All right, I’m gonna cut you off there. I’m gonna cut you off there.
Cause we do, we do sell books, Diana. So, you know, we gotta, when we bring get back, and just for everybody watching, there’ll be a, there’ll be a link in the next interview with, uh, to the book. So you can pick up a copy there when it’s obviously out. But for today, Diana, first off, it’s. Been, uh, great having you on the show and getting to know more about Thank you, your career, you starting out as an entrepreneur and, uh, your plans for the future.
But I just have to ask, I mean, what’s next? I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for mindful job alignment? Well, we’re gonna get it launched. I had the website completed last night. It is now live. Woo woo. Yes, I’m excited. Congrat, hold on. First off, congratulations, and I’m not gonna let you glance over that one.
That’s always difficult, so congrats. Especially when you do it yourself, like I did. Yeah. So I’ve been learning about it for over a year, but yes, and I, and shout out to my designers that that really helped me with it. And were available for questions, but it’s up and running. Very much looking forward to hearing from people and getting comments on the blogs.
I have nine blogs up already. Wow. That, uh, follow the first part of the dissertation and love to get some feedback on that. And then just start meeting people, uh, through this and seeing where the next path and the journey lies. From all us. We’re excited. And so, and so, you know, I have to ask, I mean, if somebody wants to connect and they wanna follow up, first off, how do they get to that website and, and how do they connect with you?
Well, the website is, uh, mindful job alignment.com. And they can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn, Diana C. Stevens, and that would be the best way to get ahold of me. For right now. I’m gonna get my Twitter going. I have a Twitter account. I’ll get, I’ll put that on the website too. But right now it’s LinkedIn and the website are the two best ways to get ahold of me.
Fantastic. And I’ll have our team put, you know, put those links in the, in the show notes. Yeah. So that our audience can just, you know, click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters or engaging in episode or listening to one, we’re all about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs and executives, and having them share.
Their mission. You know, the reason behind their mission, why they do what they do, how they’re doing it, and really what we can all learn from that so that we can all grow together. Whole point of the Mission Matters platform is we all want to grow together. If that’s the type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you Hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing.
And Diana, really it has been a pleasure. I’m looking forward to seeing the continued, uh, Progress and mindful job alignment. I’m looking forward to checking out that site. I didn’t know you were already live yet on that one, so I’m gonna check that out after this, you know, really, and, and we’re more than, um, related to have you and the Mission Matters community and part of the book.
So again, thank you for coming on the show. Well, you’re welcome and I’m so pleased to be a part of your community as well. This has been a wonderful journey. I have enjoyed meeting everyone.
