Career Transition Story - Anita

What do you want to do when you grow up? The dreaded question. Do I have to give an answer?

What I love about Anita’s story is that she had a different answer and what she wanted to do changed every single day - which I know so many of you will resonate with. Anita also shows grit, determination and drive to fulfil that one thing she new she wanted to do all while constantly exploring, asking powerful questions and being guided by intuition… THE BEST!

Tell me, what did you want to do at the very early stages of your career? What was your big career goals then? 

As a teen, I was always asked, what do you want to do? Just pick something and do that they said, the problem was - what I wanted to do changed every single day from being a back up dancer to biologist to interior designer, I just knew that working for someone else, was not for me, somewhere along the line the dream was to always work for myself. After I took a year off I realized that I could turn something that I enjoyed doing – organizing event, into a job – I jumped into a uni degree and started down that path. I ended up getting a full time job before I finished Uni and then built my event management experience from there – step by step learning as much as I could, for me this was more valuable than a degree to saying I was qualified on paper and gave me the experience that far outweighed the paper a degree was written on.

Then at each job interview, the question turned to “So where do you see yourself in 5 years” and I found my answer always repeated itself, to have my own business and work for myself. 95% of the time, I got those jobs because they could see I was determined to learn and do the work, but 100% of the time, I left those jobs – because deep down I knew, I could never be an employee and I needed to start a business journey of my own. It took just over 10 years to get to a point where enough was enough and I couldn’t ignore the push from the universe to get me to take the leap.

What are you doing now? 

Currently, I find myself dabbling in a few different things, working on events with women in business, studying part time in Health Science and being mum to two lovable but crazy kids!

Was there a pivotal moment when you decided to change your career direction? Or what made you decide to change your career? 

For a few years now I have wondered, what is next for me – wondered, is this all I know or is this all that I am good at? Is event management the only skills I have. About 2 years ago, I had just completed managing a large 2 day conference and I was exhausted, over managing events, tired from being mum and trying to work out who I was amongst all of this – made me think, lets chuck it all in and go back to study, I had always had a passion for natural health and intuitively knew that naturopathy would be a great fit for me. It wasn’t to be, I got swept back up into the events and kept putting one foot in front of the other. The timing wasn’t right. Hello 2020, the year of going with the flow I decided. Early in the year, the biz was getting back up and going after taking 6 months off from maternity leave, I had an entire calendar of events, I had contracts in the pipeline and all was getting back to a normal level.

Then…March 13 – COVID hit the event industry with a big fat wrecking ball, restrictions came in – over night, my 2020 of events had been taken away. I was left with nothing – no plans, no income, no emails, no events. Nothing but free time and nothing to do. So, I remembered my 2020 mantra – just go with the flow, so I jumped in, I decided if not now, then when am I going to get this opportunity to FINALLY do something for myself and get myself that education in the field I wanted to do 2 years ago. Within 24 hours of deciding to jump on back to study, I had enrolled and jumped into my first subject – the timing was right this time, everything flowed and there was no roadblocks in my way.

So now, whilst I keep doing events, to give me some cashflow – I am studying to eventually have my own clinic as a naturopath.

Did you know it was what you wanted to do or did you have to do some exploring to find your passion? 

I knew, intuitively, I had been doing this kind of self guided research my entire life and doing it for fun. It is just like event, why not turn something you enjoy doing, into a career.

Was there any key steps you took to help navigate you towards your new direction? 

Other than just jump right on in the deep end and learn how to swim!! Going back to study at 33 with 2 young kids, is a daunting prospect. I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to write assignments or that I wouldn’t have enough time or I wouldn’t enjoy it, but it has been so great to use the brain again and exciting to be learning something new!

What has changed for you since transitioning your career (feelings, well-being, life in general) - and what do you see yourself doing for the next 5 years / career goals now? 

Knowing that I am future proofing my career is comforting; I know that I will still be able to work my own hours and continue to work to live – not live to work.

In 5 years, hopefully I will have that little paper in my hand that does say I am qualified in naturopathy and will be a couple of years into owning my own naturopathic clinic OR starting my own herbal farm with an apothecary store or running wellness events. I still change my mind over what I want to be when I grow up – I am sure I will settle on one thing… one day.

What advice would you give someone who is deciding to move through a career transition? 

Actually, I received something today that said – if the direction that you want to take, feels right both in your head and your heart and the scariest parts are just the first few steps or actions – just get them over and done with, it is the hardest part to just go for it. So go for it, you will be in a no worser place than where you are now and I am sure where you are now – isn’t that bad.

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Make sure you touch base with Anita over on her Insta HERE or on Facebook HERE or on her website HERE

Thank you Anita for sharing your story and being an example of how you can simply walk towards the things that you love and explore, question and change your mind. And that is great.

If you would like to have a conversation around how you can transition your career, build confidence in your direction with clear actionable steps, I would love to chat - you can find out more here