493: When Quitting Your Job Is The Best Move For Your Career Trajectory 

Travis Moore 00:02

I said, "you know what, I'm gonna wait tomorrow if I still feel the same way. And I'm still as fervently, you know, opposed to working here as I am at this moment, I'm going to quit." And I woke up the next day, and I still felt very fervently against working there. And I was like, "Well, I guess I'm gonna resign."

Introduction 00:21

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast, with Scott Anthony Barlow. We help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that's unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more and ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:45

Do you remember those quizzes they had a steak in middle school, or maybe for you early high school that matched us with our career path that we should probably be on forever? My results said, I should be an architect, or a dentist, or I can't even remember what else doesn't matter, right? But life would be a lot easier if we just took those results, and that was the exact career that would fulfill us for the rest of our lives. But unfortunately, that's not how it works. And the journey to figuring out our calling can take a lot longer than we expect. And it leaves us feeling pretty lost at times. If you're in one of those spots, where you're feeling lost in your career, or like you don't know what the next right step is, this episode is for you.

Travis Moore 01:35

You know, it was like the thing that I thought that I wanted, and it wasn't. It was terrible. And it was a bad experience. And it was something that I definitely didn't want. And I was defeated. I felt small. I felt inadequate. I had lost all of my confidence. And I needed to rebuild.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:56

That's Travis Moore. Travis had been all over the map working in healthcare, but still felt like he was called to do more and kept getting pretty bored in every role he held. He is a registered nurse, board certified healthcare leader and holds a doctorate in nursing and health innovation. Yet he still felt like he was lacking his "why", and thought that if he could just figure out that one thing, then he would finally feel like he'd reached his career goal. Spoiler alert. These days, Travis finally feels at peace with where his career is. But it's not because he found that one single thing that he's going to do for the rest of his entire life. He did land a really awesome opportunity. But we're gonna get to that. Pay attention to how Travis got to the core of what he truly wanted out of life and overcame his limiting beliefs. Here's Travis talking about where his healthcare career originated.

Travis Moore 02:44

I grew up in a pretty rural town in central Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And then I became an EMT when I was 16. And right at high school, I got a job in the emergency department working as an EMT as an ED Tech. And that's kind of like how it all my career started really.

Scott Anthony Barlow 03:01

Interesting. So that's where your career started if we go way back. Then what happened from there? What was the next step?

Travis Moore 03:09

Yeah, so after I became an EMT, and my first job was working in the emergency department, I wanted to be a paramedic. That was the only thing I ever wanted to do when I was, like, in high school. So I became a professional firefighter paramedic for a while and really felt this like, I don't know, like this sense that I wanted to do more than I felt like, I was… I had gotten really good at what I was doing. And I wanted to expand my horizons, think a little bit further outside of the box and go a little bit further upstream in healthcare. So I looked at nursing opportunities, because there were transition programs to transition from a paramedic to an RN in a shorter amount of time. And it was a defining moment that really has established the foundation for, like, the rest of my career, which is deeply founded in being a nurse right now.

Scott Anthony Barlow 03:48

Clearly, there has been so much that has happened since that point in time. That's a really fun start. What led you down the road of deciding that healthcare was no longer for you? Something happened along the way. What happened in between there and now?

Travis Moore 04:07

There's really not a single defining moment. It's an evolution. It's a progress. It's a journey. And I got into, eventually became a nurse worked in the emergency department, worked in a couple intensive cares and consistently felt like I had gotten good at the skills that I would get out of being a nurse and I really enjoyed, loved taking care of patients. But I felt like I was in a box and that I was doing the same thing over and over every day. So it caused me to kind of continue to move upstream. And so I took a job as a Director of Nursing at a home care company. And that was a really defining career move for me because it really... it was my first taste in entrepreneurship and getting into a business. And we had like 400% growth in the first two years being with the company, acquired two more agencies rolled out a bunch of service lines, and I really enjoyed that. But again, I hit that ceiling where I was like, "I'm ready for more." And I really want to diversify my experience and how I can execute on things. And so then I went and became a management consultant. And that was probably the first or the farthest away from health care, like, actual patient care that I've ever been. And I was bringing this wealth of experience and knowledge and background in the healthcare world and this education. And I'm trying to figure out how I can use this in like a meaningful way to be able to drive sustainable changes in health systems. And I was quickly bogged down by the business of healthcare, and the business of consulting and really didn't feel like I was able to deliver the kind of impacts that I wanted to make and didn't feel like I was able to had the spaces of autonomy that I'd really was used to in that startup world, in this new consulting role. And I had a really hard time communicating with my superiors the vision that I had, and the strategic thought behind some of the decisions that we were making. And at the end of the day, the work that we were doing was so much higher level and not closer to the problem where I really thrived in being and it really left me super, super, super frustrated.

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:10

So when you say impact, is that what you're referring to that it wasn't close enough to the problem to really feel that connection in the way that you want it to? Tell me about that.

Travis Moore 06:21

I think, yeah. I think that is a part of it. I think that moreover, I really wasn't able to align my company's incentives with my incentives, or the things that I feel like we're going to be value drivers in our health system. And a lot about being a business consultant is about providing a perspective. And that is sometimes just a perspective, and it doesn't matter if it's a good perspective or not. It's a perspective, they're paying for something. And that didn't drive with me. And I did not want to provide perspectives, because based on a timeline, if I didn't feel like we had enough information or had enough insight to be able to truly give a perspective, and that seemed to take a backseat and a lot of the conversations that I had during my time in that world. And it was really frustrating not to be able to dive deep enough into these problems to really thoroughly understand them to then be able to provide the recommendation. And it seems like we started with recommendations, and they would figure out how to back into the solution later, which was incongruent to the way that I think about things and that I think, on a very personal level, think things should be done. And trying to reconcile that was like, just an arduous challenge that I was not successful doing. And I was not able to really find alignment between my value set and my value structure, and my personal mission, vision and values to with what the company was doing on a day to day practice. And it was extremely frustrating. And to be completely transparent, it was like the first time in my life that I had things like the Sunday scaries and that I had no freaking clue what I felt like my job was or how I could deliver effectively and be able to prove my value. I have all this education, all this experience, and I can't figure out how to use it in this context. Because every time I tried to use it, I'm told, "No, that's wrong." Or "No, that's not what we're looking for. We need something more." And it was like I equivocate to playing battleship with, like, no feedback. And it's like, "A seven." "No, that sucked." "Okay, great." "How about B five?" You just throwing stuff out to the point where you just throwing stuff out that you don't even know, you don't have any strategy behind the mortgage just like, well, I use strategy, and it didn't get me anywhere, then it just this again, not something that I aligned with, because I feel like the product I was delivering was not useful, and it wasn't meaningful. And ultimately, I could see that in a lot of the conversations that I had with clients. And really the perception that business consultants get when you walk into, especially health care organizations, and they're just like, eyes roll, immediately. And I completely felt that and I was like, "I don't want to be one of those guys. Like I don't wanna be part of the problem. I want to fix the problem." And so it was a tough time for me personally. And it was also, to give it some context, this is also during the pandemic. So I got offered this job the week that the world locked down. And so I didn't have the normal onboarding, I was working completely remote. I had all of my previous jobs have been working in person surrounded with people, interacting with people, I am an extremely extroverted person, they get a lot of my energy from that interaction. And then moving from that kind of world into a world where I don't feel successful, I don't feel heard, I don't have that energy, the world is on lockdown, so I can't even do like the normal things that I would do outside of my job. And I'm working from home for the first time in my career. And I was just like, completely done after working there for about a year and a half. And I was on antidepressants for the first time in my life. I was in therapy. And I was just like, "this is just not good." And even when I had these conversations with my doctor about getting on like antidepressants, she was like, "Do you feel like your job might have anything to do with it?" And I'm like, "I don't know. It's a job I've got to learn. And these are things that I don't know and it's a new environment." And I just got to continue to trudge through and all eventually figure it out to now looking back, where I was like, absolutely, that had a lot to do with it. Because I think most people, and especially nurses, really resonate with the work that they do. And it's part of like your calling, or part of who you are. And it's an outward expression of what you do and who you are as a person and your value to the world. And when you're not able to express that, and you don't feel like the value you're delivering is like, meaningful or what you want to do, it really breaks into who you are as a person, and especially in this environment and the pandemic, where you ain't got nothing else going on, because you can't do anything else, like work, and then maybe some zoom sessions with your friends to try to keep your quote unquote, social connections to the world, it was just super, super hard.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:45

That is hard in so many different ways. And I'm also curious, what took place between, where you're having that conversation with your doctor, and you're like, "Well, I don't know if my job has anything to do with it. Or I'm not really sure. Maybe... I don't." to the point where you learned. What caused you to begin to recognize and then begin to do something about it? What took place?

Travis Moore 11:12

So I think it was something that I thought I was like, sure, for sure my job has something to do with this. But is this a reason, like, am I just going to quit because it's hard? And that was the bigger piece for me to try to come to terms with. And I recently read a book that was called 'The Dip' by Seth Godin. And that really exemplified where I was at in that job. "Okay, do I need to quit and protect myself? Or do I need to go through the dip because of what's potentially on the other side?" And that was like the question that I asked myself every single day. And I started to reach out to people because it's like, okay, I'm struggling, I need some movement. So I started to reach out to the resources and started to establish additional resources to really help me figure out like, "Do I stay? Or do I go?" Like, that's the question at this point. What's the value that I'm going to get if I stay past this dip? Or what part of me am I losing by staying through this? And how is that gonna ultimately impact my trajectory in 10, 15., 30 years from now? And I sort of started reaching out to people inside the company that I knew I had been assigned a mentor, and I had developed relationships with people that understood the value of my perspective, and was going to them and be like, "This is the struggle I'm having." A lot of people related with me and the challenges that I was having at that time. And I built some really strong relationships that I still have to this day, and then going outside of the company and talking to people that are competitors that have similar roles and asking them, are they feeling the same way, and a lot of them did. What are things that I can focus on to make this a better experience for me or to really capitalize on my time here, so that this is not just like a black hole in my life where it was just like, oh, that sucked. I don't want to go back there. But to really try to turn this into what's the value, maybe it's not a positive experience, maybe I'm not going to be here for long, what's the value that I'm going to be able to take away from this experience and seeing if I can, in fact, turn this around. And if I can stay through the dip. And that's really part of that whole process is when I started... when I reached out to HTYC. And initially started coaching with you guys was really out of that despair, desperation. I've got to figure this out. Because, like, this is supposed to be like the best experience in my life and is going to be like a big builder and is going to be a game changer for the trajectory of my career, and it sucks. So I've got to figure out how I'm going to either work through this or figure out what the heck I want to do with my life. And so that's... I originally started listening to your podcasts, and that's what kind of got me hooked and listening to some of the other people that have had similar experiences and what they had done to mitigate their challenges and their transitions out of one career to the next. And I wasn't really sure that I wanted to leave, like, I love being a nurse. And I wasn't really sure that I wanted to leave nursing or leave healthcare. But I knew that I didn't want to be a bedside nurse. And I didn't want to be any one of the traditional nurse leaders or managers or directors. I remember very distinctly when I was in grad school, it was my second semester, and I did an internship. Going into the program, I was like, "I'm going to be a CEO of a hospital, or I'm going to be a CNO, chief nursing officer, at least" that's where my ambitions are. And I got into the program in my second semester, and I did a shadowing experience with the chief nursing officer and was like, "oh my god, your job sucks. I would never do this. This is terrible. I don't want to do this at all. This is like what I do at times 1000. And this is not the kind of position that I want to do with my life." And so I remember after that experience going to my advisor and being like, "This is... I think I'm going to change into the nurse practitioner program because this is not... I thought I wanted to be a CNO or CEO and I've seen that now and no thanks." And I remember she sat back and she's like, "Well, my goodness, that's amazing." She was like, "It sounds like grad school has already paid off for you." And I was like, that's not the response I was expecting. And she's like, "Well think about it." She was like, "Imagine, you had spent your career a couple more years as a manager, a couple of years as a director, a couple more yours as the vice president, and then finally you got into this role 25 years down the line. And that's when you realize that you didn't want it." You know, she was like, "So you've saved maybe 20 years of your life and two semesters of grad school", she's like, "It's a pretty awesome ROI, if you think about it." And I was just like, blown away by that and had to sit back and chew on that and was like, "Okay. Alright, maybe you're right. Maybe I do need to continue to think more broadly on what it means to be a leader and what it means to be an innovator and how I can use my background and my experience to really create the kind of impact that I want to create in the world." And so all of these things coming together, that's when I originally reached out.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:38

As you got to the point where it's like, "Okay, I know that I need to do something about this." You started taking a number of steps, you were reaching out to people inside-outside your company, you started working with us, you have all of these different areas to create traction, we'll call them. What was the hardest part for you in going through and identifying, "hey, do I want to stay? Do I want to go? What does an amazing next step look like?" What was the hardest part for you in making this type of career change?

Travis Moore 16:08

I think the unknown of, what am I giving up and trying to understand what am I giving up if I leave? And then thinking about that on the other foot of, what am I giving up if I stay? And trying to forecast what you think the value of what you're doing is into your future, because I have done a lot of hard things in my life, I completed nursing school in one year, and I didn't die during that. I can do anything, is what I tell myself. And I'm willing to put in the work and the stress and the effort to get towards a goal. But I also have to know that that goal exists and that this is actually driving towards that. And it's going to be a value to me. And I'm going to have ROI for this sweat equity that I'm putting into this. And so that was the framework in which I was approaching this decision. But I had no idea, like, what is the value of staying here for three years, five years versus one year? What am I actually going to learn and I had to break it down into little tangible things of, like, "alright, I can get better at facilitating communication or conversation. I can get better at telling a story to a client. I can get better at utilizing data to support my communication." Those are little specific things that I was, like, that's what I'm going to focus on and try to get out of this experience. And at the end of the day, ultimately, I remember I had my first conversation with my first coach at HTYC. And I essentially was like, "Hi, I'm Travis. I need to quit my job. And I need someone to tell me that it's okay." Was I think basically what I was trying to get. And I was like, I could... I was like just, like, dying to get the conversation started, because I wanted someone to tell me, "Yeah, it's okay, you can quit. It's gonna be fine. We'll find you something better." And that wasn't the response that I got from the first coach. And it really, it was good, because it then pushed it back on me. And it was like, nobody's going to make this decision for you. Which is ultimately what I was, I think I was aiming for with someone to tell me "yes, it's okay, you can make this decision, and we support you and you're making the right decision." And I needed to come to that decision to myself, and I needed to be able to make the determination, like "Yeah, no, this sucks. And you're not getting out of it, what you want to get out of it. And furthermore, it's really deteriorating your mental health, which is the foundation for everything else that you do in your career, and in your personal life." So ultimately, after that original conversation, I did resign from my job. And I had no idea, I did not... I just woke up that day and was like, "Yeah, I can't do this anymore. This is not working." I tried many different teams, I tried many different clients. And that's what I kept saying to myself, it's like, "Oh, maybe it's the team, maybe it's the leader I'm working with, maybe it's a client I'm working with." And ultimately, I changed again, and I was like, "This is the exact same." And my last project was like, really in my wheelhouse. And I still felt terrible. And so I was like, "It's time to go." And I remember thinking to myself, like, "Okay, well, I've been toying with this decision for like, I don't know, six months to leave. So this is not like a new and I'm not being reactive." And I know that looking at my career history, like I think the longest job I've ever had to date is two years. So like, I know, I have a propensity to like leave positions, but I really, I said, "You know what, I'm gonna wait and tomorrow if I still feel the same way, and I'm still as fervently, you know, opposed to working here as I am in this moment, I'm going to quit." And I woke up the next day, and I still felt very fervently against working there. And I was like, "Well, I guess I'm gonna resign." I had no idea what I was going to do, what my next job was, I knew that I was a nurse, and that I could always fall back on that, I could always go back to caring for patients at the bedside. And maybe that's what I needed to do. And I started looking at, like, travel nurse positions and per diem positions again, and of course, I had been away from the bedside for a little too long for most places to be like, oh, yeah, come on back. So that was a bigger challenge than I thought but then someone had connected me with a leadership and interim leadership opportunity out in California and I interviewed for that, and it went well, and so that's ultimately what I took. But I didn't take the job until like, I think I got it... I accepted the job on my last day at my previous company. So I had like a solid two weeks where I was like, "Man, I know I'm gonna do it. But anything is better than this." So I ended up taking that position. And it was such a great opportunity for me, because it was definitely... It was in a leadership position working directly with the team, and it was building a new program. And it was that amazing opportunity for me to be able to come in, work with a team, build rapport, build a team up, build a system and a process and implement it. And I got very positive feedback, it was very well received by the organization and really needed that opportunity to kind of, like, build myself back up and kind of dust myself off and be like, "yeah, no, you're worth it. You're an OK guy. You have some things to offer."

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:57

Let me ask you about that, though, and just insert a comment here. I cannot tell you the number of conversations, probably, over 1000 at this point of conversations that I've had with people that we've worked with where they have talked to me about the impacts of staying in the situation, like you did, that had you questioning everything. And then I just heard you say I really needed that experience in that contract role, or you call it a temporary role, to be able to build yourself back up. And so I have two questions about that. One, do you feel like it needed to happen the way that it did for you? The length of time you've been thinking about it for six months. Or do you feel like looking back there was an opportunity to prevent that? Or do you feel like that experience actually allowed you to come out better off than if it hadn't happened? Tell me just a little bit about how you're thinking about that, first of all.

Travis Moore 21:52

Yeah. So I do not regret my decisions. And I do not regret going and working there. And I do not regret the opportunity, the time. I mean, I think that's just my general framework in approaching life, like, you're in each moment of your life for a specific reason and to learn something, and you are the only person in the world that has your unique set of experiences, which is what makes you who you are, and provides the value that you can provide to this world. And if you don't have those really challenging and really hard times in your life, you're never going to be able to hit the mark that you could make. And looking back in the context of like, knowing what I know now, could I ever approach that differently? And the answer, I think, is no. I think that if I had known now what I knew then, I would have never done it. And then who knows what I had to learn during that time of my life, that gives me the ability to do what I'm doing right now and even more exciting what I'm going to do in the future, and allowed me to have connections. And just having that kind of experience on your resume opens a lot of doors. And between those experiences and just like the resume fodder, who knows how that impacts my trajectory in the future. So I think that, you know, as with most hard things in life, if you knew they were going to be hard, you might not start them. So it's best you don't know so that you work through them, instead of dancing around it. So I don't think that I would have changed anything. But looking back, I have a colleague that's going through a similar situation right now. And she and I talk frequently. And so I've had an opportunity to really reflect back on this and like, "what could I have done different? What advice can I give her that would have made her situation different than mine? What things can I tell her to do to try?" And I keep coming up with, like, "I don't know what to tell you. This was my experience. This is what I did. This is what I tried, maybe you should try it and see if you have a different outcome." But it is... at the end of the day, it is all part of making me who I am. And giving me the perspective that I have and the experiences that I have, I think it's healthy honestly to have bad experiences. Because if you don't have the bad experiences, your perspective, you'll never be able to resonate or connect with or relate to people that have had really bad experiences. And it gives you just like this appreciation and this better ability to empathize with people that are going through tough times, and is humanizing. And I think that especially in the world that we live in, humanizing things is important and having shared experiences and even if they're crappy shared experiences, being able to connect with those people that are going through stuff like that, or have been through stuff like that and and give perspective or advice, and most of the time I'm trying not to be a silver liner and just be like "yep, it sucks and I'm here" and that's it to kind of like wade through all the malarkey with people. So I think it gives you an invaluable lens and a valuable experience and gives you an ability in the future to do things just you don't necessarily see how they're connected, and may never see how they're connected.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:57

That's one of my favorite things about the work that we get to do with people is we get to, in some ways, come in and help people put together all of those sets of experience, the great stuff, the bad stuff, but all experiences and tying it together in a really useful way to proceed forward. And that's one of my favorite things, like, that's one of the reasons why I love this type of work for what we're talking about right now. Also, on the flip side, to comment about something else that you mentioned, in many ways, you have to go through these bad experiences. We get many, many emails and questions about like, "Hey, have you ever considered going into high schools or things like that?" And while I think there's a ton of value in helping change the mindsets around what work is and what work can be in high schools, ultimately, I think that the work that I love to do personally, and the impact that we have to make it happen to your career, I think a lot of people have to go through some bad times in order to really leverage those experiences fully for the future of their life. And I think that's part of what you're getting at. So I fully appreciate that. And then I'm also curious about what don't work really well to be able to make that transition for you.

Travis Moore 26:15

So when I first started working with Liz, there was this definite, like, there was a brokenness to be completely honest. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. I had gotten into this new career that I was like, "This is it. I'm making great money. I've got all this opportunity. I get connected with all these high level people." It was like the thing that I thought that I wanted. And it wasn't. And it was terrible. And it was a bad experience. And it was something that I definitely didn't want. And I was defeated. I felt small. I felt inadequate. I had lost all of my confidence. And I needed to rebuild, essentially, which is why I left the organization and did something that I felt was in my wheelhouse to kind of rebuild myself, rebuild my confidence. But at the same time, I also had this new framework of thinking and was like, "Alright, I've got it. I'm gonna project manage myself. And I need to set up specific milestones or I need specific milestones so that I can get to where I'm going. So what I want out of coaching is, I want to figure out where my Northstar is, and I want a 15 step plan on how to get there." And that's kind of like how I entered this. It was very operational, very tactical, and was just like, I'll just get over it, the kind of like, emotional aspects of making this transition and leaving this specific workforce and enjoying another, figuring out what the heck I want to do with my life. And I feel like working with Liz, like, really, she... the biggest value she gave to me was she gave me space. And she let me heal. And she let me explore and think and she gave me guardrails, because I am the... one of the funny things that we would talk about as she gave me the analogy of drilling wells, and she was like, "you're all over your front yard drilling wells," she was like, 'but if you don't continue to dig, you're never gonna find water." And just like I was all over this place, because I was acting really out of fear and out of insecurity, it was like, "I want to do this. No, I want to do that. No one thinks about this." And I think the ideas ranged from like, I want to start my own coaching consulting firm, which I did to, like, I'm gonna buy a hotel and run that, or I'm going to join my dad's business, which I also actually did. This was just like a couple of ideas came out every single time. And she was like, "Whoa, let's back up, pump the brakes a bit. And talk about why we want to do these things, or maybe focus on one thing and go deep before we come back up and go into something else." So she provided that safe space for me to be able to do that in a very non judgmental, very loving, supportive way of helping direct my thoughts, and helped me figure out what it is that I... what direction I wanted to go. Not even like the question was never answered and still hasn't answered of what I want to be when I grow up. It's a journey on where I'm supposed to be right now. But it was realizing that and leaning into the journey, and leaning into, this is... I don't know what step 10 is, but I can see the next step. And that's the step that I have to take right now.

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:13

That's awesome. Okay, so after all of this wonderful work to define what you wanted– all of the drilling wells, and exploring and trying to find the right well, or a combination of wells, even. Tell me a little bit about where you're currently at, that is the right space for you right now.

Travis Moore 29:34

So as I'm making this transition, I launched my own business and we're going through multiple iterations of that, I'm trying to figure out that one of the other deficits that I saw is that I really needed to learn more about running a small business and my dad was running a small business, and he was hitting some growth walls. And so I found an opportunity to join his organization as a co-owner of a welding and fabrication company in Central Washington. And I joined that really to start to build those little leadership skills, things like accounting and payroll and the other mechanics that I had not done in my leadership background that were more entrepreneurial, and really learning the business of running a business. And then I don't know, fate comes knocking on my door and somebody in my network reaches out to me, he's like, "Hey, I have the perfect job for you. Will you consider taking this position?" And I'm like, "Oh, thank you. Not really interested. I'm kind of like focused in this area of my life and growing my businesses." Now mind you, I had like, no, like investors or capital to speak of, I was just had like, a prayer and a good attitude that it was just all going to work out. And that somehow I was going to be able to fund my lifestyle this way. And so they're like, "Would you just have a conversation?" And so I had a series of conversations with different leaders for this position. And the position is to lead the health care category for indeed.com, which is a large jobs board, and the leader in healthcare job seekers, the largest provider of healthcare job seekers in the US market. And so they were looking for someone who had experience both in business consulting, as well as operational leadership, and was also had a clinical background. So I had been in the space of the people that were actually looking for these jobs, the job seekers, and also the other side of the market, the two sided market is the working with employers and being the hiring manager. So they were looking for someone who had this, like, experience on both sides of the market, as well as some consulting background. And because of my background, I was like a unicorn for that position and fit really well. And so I had some really good conversations with the hiring team about what I wanted to do and what I was experienced in and what the value that I could bring was and what I was not willing to do, very aggressively. And they were like, "Yes, that's great. We love it." Every single step of the way. At one point, the hiring manager was like, "Hey, you know what? Why don't you take a look at the job description and just like, cross out anything you're not comfortable with? And then send it back to me." And I was just like, blown away by this opportunity that I was being pursued so hard, because of my experience, and how everything in my life had kind of led up to this point of, "Wow, I am being aggressively pursued for this position that I really feel like I can make a difference in and really feel like I could drive an impact. And I had to weigh that against, but I'm running my own businesses. This is my world, right? I've got these two businesses, and I'm trying to get off the ground and grow. And that's what I want to do with my life." So it was really hard, it felt like I almost had to pick one or the other. Because I knew if I took this job, I wouldn't have as much time to devote to my businesses. And I don't want them to die off. But I also saw this huge opportunity to work with this amazing company to really change the way that we hire healthcare workers in the United States and potentially globally. And I felt that because of the way the process happened, because of the way the interviews happened, because of the way that I was kind of brought into this opportunity, that it really aligned with my own personal value set, and how I would want things to happen. And it was like things don't just line up like this without like it being meant to be. And so I ultimately decided to take the position with indeed to help influence the way that we kind of market for job seekers in our current climate, which is ever changing, especially after the pandemic. And even still, after joining, it's getting into the organization being the first of my kind. I feel like I'm like, on Game of Thrones– Travis Moore, first on the... And trying to figure out what is my space in this world? Where do I fit in with people that don't have similar backgrounds, and I'm the first nurse that the organization is hired to help lead some of these programs, and now the challenge is figuring out how do I meaningfully insert myself? What is the value that I add? How can I add that, and build these relationships to be able for me to actually execute on some of the ideas and opportunities that I've been able to see? And that's been fun and exciting and also ambiguous in a lot of places, opportunity to kind of find my way in this kind of new world.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:59

I think that is something that's really fun about that and listening to it is that had you not done some of the other work to be declarative in what you wanted and needed, then you either would have completely passed on the opportunity. Or let's say that you had even taken it and allowed other people to convince you to just take it because they thought it was perfect for you, then it would have been very, very different than "Hey, go and pick out what you want." Essentially like, choose your own situation, choose your own career, choose your own job opportunity. And so kudos to you.

Travis Moore 34:35

Thanks. It was, you know, you're exactly right. And I think that all the experience if I had not gone through the things that I had been through and had that opportunity, had that experience, really to even get this job, and then had the experience with working through what I wanted in my career and my life, and being able to reconcile that against taking this job or not like it gave me so much clarity and direction. And knowing that I made a very intentional choice, and not just like, I happen to get this or I happen to stumble into this opportunity, it was a very clear choice. And then when it gets challenging, it's like, "No. I chose this. I wanted this. I thought about this. I know how this fits into my life. And this is absolutely what I'm going to do. So let's just put those thoughts to bed and continue to do the work, continue to show up in this job and deliver the impact that I'm meant to deliver here." And then I get excited around, what is that? The journey and the excitement of discovery and figuring out what it is that I'm going to do, and what's the impact that I'm going to make, and how can I change somebody's life today is kind of a motivating thing that really inspires me. And when I'm having these days, where I'm like, "Oh my God, I don't want to show up. I don't want to get up. I don't want to be involved." It gives you this new breath of fresh air and a little wind under your wings as it were to be able to get up and show up. So I think that my biggest advice is to show up for yourself, know that you're worth it and know that your value in the world is important. And we need you to authentically show up as yourself in order to change the world.

Scott Anthony Barlow 36:06

Hey, something I don't want to let you know, the seemingly impossible career change stories that you hear on the podcast are actually from people just like you who are listening to this podcast, and decided to take action and have a conversation with our team. If you want to implement what you heard, and you want to completely change your life and your career, then let's figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest, just take your phone right now, open it up, go to your email app, and type me an email– Scott@happentoyourcareer.com just put a 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to the right person on our team and you can have a conversation with us. We'll try and understand your goals and what you want to accomplish in your career no matter where you're at. And we can figure out the very best way that we can help you and support you in your situation. So open that up right now and send me an email with 'Conversation' in the subject line to Scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Alyssa Barlow 37:08

I feel like it is really hard to write big goals and goals that are different when you're sitting in your house that you sit in every evening, or you spend every weekend there or you're in your office that you work in every day.

Scott Anthony Barlow 37:23

Over the past few years, we've had one episode that got so much positive feedback. So back this year by popular demand is another one of those exact same episodes where I bring on my wife, Alyssa, and we discuss our goals from the previous year– what worked, what didn't work, and our goals for the next year. Now, I have very much grown to look forward to these meetings and these episodes and the goal setting process in general. But that wasn't always the case. Our goal setting initially started from a place of fear. Fear that we weren't going to be able to afford the life that we wanted and fear that really pushed us to get very intentional and set some pretty big goals. And once we started hitting those goals, I realized, "hey, this actually works and it can be pretty fun." So now I get excited to have these yearly chats and go through this yearly process with Alyssa. And this year we sat down to have that conversation. We once, again, decided to let you be a part of it. My hope in doing this is that you can see what really goes into our annual planning, specifically the parts that went well and what we want to do differently and then use some of our tactics to make your 2023 year– the year that you hit some huge goals. Some, maybe, that you thought were impossible.

Scott Anthony Barlow 38:46

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.