Episode #25 - Creating Professional Value At All Stages Of Development

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

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Welcome back to episode number 25 of Speaking from the Heart.

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Today we're going to talk about another service that my business

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offers, Your Speaking Voice, LLC, which is available to clients that are

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interested in partaking in it, and that is professional development coaching.

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Now, this isn't your "run in the mill" high school guidance counselor session

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or even career advisor at college.

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This is actually detailing some of the ways in which we might be working through

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problems that we have individually when it comes to our work performance or even

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things that are said by our boss and even working through some career transition

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services that might be helpful from moving from one industry to another, particularly

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when you're going through some different types of things that might be available

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or offered to you as a result of the work that you've already accomplished.

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I think that we often think about professional development as this

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big overarching term, which I wanted to spend some time today to talk

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about, and then get into what I actually provide to my clients when

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it comes to professional development.

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Professional development, in its very core, means having some techniques,

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some skills, knowledge and abilities, and also additional training beyond

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what your formal education is to help you continue to grow in your way of

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which you provide certain things on the job, and even throughout the different

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types of career choices that you make.

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Oftentimes, people confuse this with being another session in which we

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have to go to a boring class, maybe even virtual, or even hybrid, or

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even in person, and we have to learn so many different types of things.

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That is not the case.

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As a matter of fact, going through this means understanding what might be

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holding you back from being able to make that next move in your career, being

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what are some of the facets that might be holding you

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back from a professional standpoint so that it helps you to become a much

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better worker in the eyes of others?

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Now, that is to say that for some people there's a lot of self-critique that comes

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along with it, along with individuals that are critiquing you based on your

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job performance that happens, but I think that we have to take a big step back and

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think about it in the context of where your direction is that you want to go in.

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In a previous episode, we talked about life coaching and what I provide as an

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offering through that sort of lifestyle experience that you want to change,

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but this is a little bit more focused because it works on the dissatisfaction

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that you might have on the job, addressing problems that work that have

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a longer term solution that you might need to address, but more importantly,

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having some of those combinations of all those items above to help you be

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able to take it to the next level.

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Professional development does not mean that you are going through

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these different types of courses or different types of things to

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ultimately end to a dead end path.

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I cannot stress that enough that all the things that we do in our lives

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all have applicability and roll over into the different types of things

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that we might want to eventually do to find quote unquote our calling.

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Now, I get it.

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To be able to do certain things, you have to be able to be certified or

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get a professional license to do.

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I certainly do not want to help other people on the fine art of understanding

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or learning how to operate on a human body, so I am not a medical professional.

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I could not educate you on the real estate laws, or even estate planning or

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even divorce, or anything of that nature to change your career path to become

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a lawyer in any one of those fields.

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Even more importantly, I would not be the one to teach you how to be a civil

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engineer to work on bridges, road design, and all kinds of other infrastructure

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that is needed to help support society.

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All of those things are definitely off the table, and I highly encourage you

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to seek out a professional college to do all those things because you need to

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have the formal education, along with the requirements of testing, to become

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proficient in, but I have to say that for some people, being able to move into

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those fields, whether you want to be a medical doctor or a lawyer, or even an

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engineer, often can be confusing and often temperamental, especially if you're

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already 15 years into your current career, and that is what the heart of professional

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development coaching is all about.

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It's about taking what you already have and utilizing it and

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applying it into different things.

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I'll give you a perfect example in my own personal life.

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For many years, I actually wanted to be a lawyer.

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I wanted to see people be defended in the court of law, maybe even

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be a public defender myself, to be able to represent and be able to

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go through the different types of things that we have in our own life.

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We want to be able to say that we have those skill sets that allow us

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to challenge and even create some of those best opportunities in our own

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life if we're willing to be able to change and pivot into that direction,

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which does that sound familiar to you?

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It does for me, and that's why being a lawyer for the longest time in my

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life was my passion, but I learned that as I went through school graduating

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from Alvernia University, located in Reading, Pennsylvania, I could use some

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of the skills that I was learning and being able to pivot into a completely

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different career, which is why then I decided, 13 years ago, to enter into

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the state civil service, and I've been able to expand my skills into multiple

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formats, which includes information technology, database management, helping

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other people being entrepreneurs in their own right, especially if they

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were blind, which is what I worked with, but also deal with legal compliance,

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procurement, and even budgeting and reporting on various figures and numbers.

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That's just the cream of the crop of what I've been able to do to expand

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my knowledge and abilities to create some of the opportunities that I have,

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and continue to have, in my life, but that is exactly what this is all about.

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Being able to take what you currently have and being able to move it into a

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new direction, but it also means facing some of the existing realities that you

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often have, and I often pair professional development coaching even with public

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speaking coaching, which I've talked about in the previous episode, because

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for many of us, they're all interconnected with the ways in which we expand,

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clearly communicate, and even provide some of the skill sets that we want to

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work on to be able to be transferred to those different industries, and to

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give you a perfect example of this, we have to go back number of years ago

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in which I started in Toastmasters.

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Now for those that are listening for the first time, Toastmasters is a great

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organization that allows you to work on your communication and leadership skills

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in a group setting, which I have often talked about in previous episodes with my

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guests, which if you're interested, I'll leave a link in the episode notes to check

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out a local Toastmasters club near you and to learn more about the organization

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itself, which will soon be celebrating its 100th anniversary, but Toastmasters

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allowed me to understand a little bit more in my mid twenties, of the importance

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of being able to create those things in my life that were not being created by

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other existing facilities or activities for that matter, because what it really

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did for me was realize that I was lacking in being able to provide presentations.

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It was lacking in me to be able to communicate with my boss.

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It was lacking in me to have a basic structure of how to move forward when it

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came to all those different things that are needed in the workplace, and that's

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what makes this so important to be able to work on those different skills so that

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you're able to be in front of your boss, maybe even your senior management, and to

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convey different points of information, which no matter what industry you're in,

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whether that is a blue collar or white collar one, you always have to have

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the ability to communicate effectively, be able to work through problems that

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come up with coworkers, and be able to address a bigger longer term solution

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that might be needed for a particular set of problems or issues that you face.

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That's what makes this completely different from going to a career

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center, which in Pennsylvania, there are many organizations that do basic

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resume writing, which I offer as well, in addition to the different types

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of things that you might be going through in your own career development.

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They have job tracking software, they have different things

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that you can go and shadow.

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They can help you with apprenticeships.

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There's a variety of governmental and non-governmental resources available

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at your fingertips, often for free, but this goes a step beyond all of that and

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to help somebody, or a group of people, go through a particular situation,

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often through organizational or even strategic planning for that matter, to

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help get to that end goal, which in a future episode, I will talk more about

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that sort of service, which is called business coaching, but when it comes

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to even professional development, we're focusing more on the individual itself;

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what you are specifically dealing with in order to help you see the light that

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might be at the end of the tunnel that you don't see right now, because we

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often have these problems of seeing what is right in front of us, and that's the

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value of having a coach when it comes to professional development, because they

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can help you and diagnose and see things that you often might not see in itself.

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I have worked with a variety of different people since I've opened this year, to

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be able to understand with them what are some of the things that they are looking

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to do, what do they wanna focus on to get from point A to point B in their

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goals which we set, but we also help them to go and explore some of those

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opportunities, whether that's through networking, whether that is through

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some sort of communication plan, whether that is just working on what are some of

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the obstacles or some of the mind traps that we set up so that we're not able to

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become the best versions of ourselves.

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I can't stress enough the value of having somebody to help you when it

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comes to this realm of coaching because it allows you to see what your existing

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skill sets are, or even the abilities that you have, and to be able to move

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from that sort of point in the next juncture of your next potential future.

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I know that for many people that can be often difficult.

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It can be often scary.

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It can be often something that creates that opportunity for all

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of us to help see deep inside what we're truly capable of doing.

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I know for many of us to see that can be so stressful.

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It can be often scary and fearful in itself, especially if we're thinking

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about changing careers altogether.

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It means taking a big risk on some of the things that we've already

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done and possibly starting over.

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I know many people in my life that have done just that, including even myself,

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your podcast host, in which I have completely pivoted my life and being

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able to provide the services that I provide today after seeing that awakening

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happening in my life, which in tomorrow's two part episode, you're going to hear

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quite a lot about how even one individual was able to change their life completely,

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but I think that for many of us, just seeing and experiencing what we're

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potentially capable of doing oftentimes means seeing the light at the end; being

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able to say to ourselves that even though that this is going to be very difficult

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to go through, we are every ounce capable of being able to do this, to make this

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happen in our lives, to create some of the best versions of maybe the future self in

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the multiple paths that we're exploring.

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Professional development does not always mean getting a whole new

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set of skills every single time.

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Those are called trainings.

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Those are specific to what you're providing and even getting developed on

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to be able to have the career that you want to explore, but I think professional

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development goes so much more beyond what we often think in layman's terms.

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It means seeing deep down inside of yourself of what the capabilities

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are for you to objectively work together, not only with different

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people, but with the different career opportunities that exist in this world.

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Especially in the last two to three decades, the explosion of information

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technology, let alone the Internet itself, with the variety of different

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services that it provides, along with the on-demand content that our world

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has created, has certainly shown the vast realms of possibilities that many

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different influencers, even different types of people, have expanded into to

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help fill the void of often a need that we never thought we would ever need, and

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I think professional development helps to do just that: to expand into those

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vast new worlds, vast opportunities, to be that lighthouse at the end to help

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us see and create some of those best versions of what we could potentially be.

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Being able to see our value at any stage of development can be a tireless,

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thankless exercise, because it often means looking beyond what you are.

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It's almost having an out of body experience to know what you could share

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to the whole world, and I think that for many of us, we don't take that time

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because of the many different demands, different things that happen in our life,

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let alone the different sort of choices that we make, but it doesn't mean that

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you're a failure because you're seeking help to solve a problem that you can't

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solve by yourself, and you're not a failure to understand the simplicity

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of the solution that you might already have and just need that validation.

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Coaching has always been about for me, understanding how we can move to the next

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level without sacrificing what we have already gained, because no matter what

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experience that we've gone through, there is always something to learn from it.

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We are always capable of being able to do more than what we were ever able to

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do in high school, let alone college, and even if you didn't go through

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high school or college and you have equivalent degrees, this is why it's

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even more important to be able to know that you have value in this world, and

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having someone to show you that, and to unlock that potential, especially if

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you're doing something that you don't like, will help you to achieve the

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success that you often are looking for.

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You can look at what is underneath the surface of it all and be able to translate

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this to whatever possibility that you want to become, because we all have that

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hidden potential inside of ourselves, and it means being able to show what's

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on our chest; to be able to see what's in our brain, but more importantly, it isn't

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just about the physical aspects of it, it's about the emotional, the knowledge

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that we all bring to the table, and the qualities that make us unique, because

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we're all unique in one way or another, and I believe in you being able to change

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from where you are right now and move to that next destination that you are in your

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work career, because we all have something that we can potentially offer, and all

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that means for you is to just have that second voice, to have the voice of reason

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in your life, to be able to help you to get to that next plateau, to be able to

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help you get to the point on the very top where you have achieved the ultimate

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pivotal point in your whole entire existence, and that is self-actualization

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because when you are self-actualize and you're fulfilled with the opportunity

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that you have been destined to do, nothing will ever stop you, or stand

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in your way, in becoming the next awesome person, because you are awesome.

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You just have yet to see what's truly inside of you.

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Thanks for listening to episode number 25 of Speaking from the

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Heart, and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

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Thanks for listening.

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For more information about our podcast and future shows, search for Speaking From

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The Heart to subscribe and be notified wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Visit us at www.yourspeakingvoice.biz for more information about potential

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services that can help you create the best version of yourself.