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What do you do when that voice inside whispers to you and asks, “what do you really want out of life?” or “what do you want to be known for?” Do you brush those whispers aside and tell yourself to be realistic?

My guest this week is Michelle Ward, When I Grow Up Coach and dream career architect from Brooklyn, NY. Michelle went from pursuing her dream of being on stage to having a corporate job that gave her dry heaves to building her own successful coaching business.

Michelle has personally coached over 250 creative types to help them discover and achieve their passionate, grown-up careers. In this episode, you’ll hear her own story of letting go of one dream to follow another and the big turning points that led her to where she is today!

“You can make a grown up living doing what you love.”

We’ll also talk about turning your struggles into your purpose and how this can be a powerful path to taking the next step in your career.

I had so much fun talking with Michelle and hearing her insights and inspiration about creating your dream career. I think you’ll be deeply moved by her contagious joy and the energetic optimism she has for helping people create the work they’re meant to be doing.

Here are some of Michelle’s favorite things:

Most Influential Book

Business Super Power

  • Michelle infuses her clients with a high level of energy and optimism that they don’t have prior to talking with her.

Most Effective Strategy For Growing Your Business

  • “Being myself and presenting myself in a really authentic way.”

Favorite Business Tool or Resource

Most Recent Exciting Adventure

  • Michelle just celebrated her 5th entrepreneurversary and launched her new podcast called Grown Up Gigs. She also released her highest priced program with her friend and collaborator, Tiffany Han.

Show Highlights

  • What exactly is a “When I Grow Up Coach?”
  • How Michelle made the transition from musical theater to a corporate job to becoming a mega successful career coach.
  • Turning your struggles into an idea that helps others.
  • Coming to terms with an idea that’s run it’s course and how to make the transition to the work you really want to do.
  • Michelle completely dispels the belief that work is meant to be hard and we just need to suck it up and keep going.
  • How to deal with the opinions of family and friends as you begin to make the transition to more meaningful work.
  • Michelle shares a powerful story about creating a successful transition plan from her corporate job to her coaching business.
  • Michelle answers the big question, “Do we all have a specific calling in life?”
  • Dealing with the “oh crap balls” moments as we’re figuring out what to do with our lives.

Links for Michelle:

Mentioned in this episode:

Question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Join the fun and share your comments below.

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