Think you can’t leap from your steady gig? Wrong! Stuck in a rut of sameness? No need to be! Learn from Christine Fisher, CoFounder and COO of Possip, an Ed-Tech Startup. Before leaping to Possip, she lead Financial Strategy as a Procter & Gamble Finance Director.
We recently chatted on the Career Adventurer Podcast. She started her career at P&G. After 13 years, a new adventure awaited. She leapt. Christine ran for Ohio State Representative. That didn’t pan out. So, she put her financial expertise to use with Possip.
Listen to the full episode. We talk about how career experiences are like financial investments. We discuss the power of micro moments. We implore you to get outta your bubble. You’re sure to pick up a nugget or three.
Don’t have time on your commute to work? Skim the top five themes below. Then listen to the full episode on your commute home.
5 Adventurous Themes
Outta the Bubble
Sticking with your tribe is easy. It’s comfortable. I get it. When I attend a work function or conference, I instinctively desire connecting with those I know best. Staying within your bubble is career atrophy. We need variety. Stagnation happens without it. We need exposure to new things.
Christine talked about being caught in a career bubble. She connected with the same people at the same company. She felt her perspective being limited. So, she popped the bubble. She explored.
“I was living my life in my twenties and early thirties in my Procter and Gamble bubble - in my bubble of getting engaged and married and starting to have kids. It finally sort of awakened me at some point to say, ‘Hey, this is probably now the time that I need to go back to that community service side, to that political engagement side.’ So I started to go to conferences around Cincinnati or networking events that were in that space.”
Responsibility Exposure
Our field of vision expands when we pop our bubbles. We no longer see only the trees. We see the entire forest. This is critical for a career filled with meaning and intrigue.
Christine talked about how difficult it is to see job options when we’re young. We know what accountants are. We don’t know all the paths where accounting can lead other than taxes! This isn’t only a challenge in our youth. We find it difficult to see beyond the details in front of us. We limit ourselves. The solution: hearing from others. Other people’s stories show us additional paths. We no longer see a life only with debits and credits. We see ourselves as logical math experts who could leap into business analytics or marketing.
“I started to see the people ahead of me in roles more senior to me. It was even more of the same. They were still having those same conversations every year and doing those same tasks.”
Set a Quota
Treat networking like your career depends upon it. You know why? It does. I’ve talked about this before. If networking is not a habitual part of your schedule, you’re in trouble. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But at some point you will need to tap into your network.
Christine sets a quarterly networking goal. For her, it’s 10 people. That’s less than one coffee per week. You have time for one coffee per week with a mentor, friend, new colleague, old colleague, random barista…someone. Set a quota today!
“in the first 10 years at P&G, I gave out and collected a handful of business cards, maybe five. We recently moved from Cincinnati to Boston. As we were clearing out my desk, I found the stack of business cards that I've gotten since 2016 when I started on this journey. It’s almost a thousand! That's just one visible metric. I love going to an event and connecting with people.”
Micro Moments
Micro moments lead to big things. You hear mentor and you think of Yoda or Obiwan Kenobi, someone who's sage and been in your life forever.
We tend to think big career moves require big moments. This isn’t always the case. Some of the most impactful career adventures stem from seemingly innocuous connections. For example, Christine’s career has been heavily influenced from two brief connections. Two people she barely knew encouraged her to apply to P&G and to consider a startup.
“We often think of mentors or people influential in our career as these deep, long-term relationships or meaningful moments. And the two biggest influencers in my career, I would say are barely past acquaintances who I had passing conversations with.”
Careers as Investment Experience
We tend to isolate the idea of investments to our 401k’s. Money is invested and earns interest or dividends. We collect capital gains. This applies to our careers, too.
Each new experience is an investment. Each new skill gained is a bet. The more experiences and skills we collect, the greater value we offer to the market. Continuously expand your skill set. It diversifies our work portfolio. You can still pick a few focus areas, but then identify as many ways to improve as possible.
“at 21, I was running a $10 million corporation that had 500 student employees. And so I got a good taste of both the business and the political side in this amazing year.”
Listen to the Full Episode
I enjoyed talking to Christine. Her perspective and experiences are noteworthy. We can all learn a bit from her experience. She and I worked together at P&G. Plus, we reconnected in the StartUp Cincy community. We knew each other, but not extremely well. Thus, discussing her career adventures was eye opening for me. Listen to the full episode. You’ll see what I mean.
Thanks for you support!
Paul G. Fisher
I’d love to hear from you. Have any guest recommendations listeners should learn from? Shoot me a note!
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Adventurous Career Investments