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Can You HAVE It All If You Try to DO It All?

Can You HAVE It All If You Try to DO It All?

Can You HAVE It All If You Try to DO It All?

I’ve been trying to do everything for my online business on my own and I tell you I’m getting tired. It’s tough and time consuming. As so many of you are doing also, I’ve been trying to tackle every aspect of my business from promotion, to content creation, to social media, etc.

Why have I been doing this?

Because I’ve watched so many people’s catchy ads on FB and freebie presentations telling me that it’s really easy to be an expert at FB, and Instagram, and Twitter and Pinterest and… you name it!

It’s all about your sales funnel and your lead pages and you don’t even have to sell if you do it right (except just buy what they are pitching at the end of the freebie, right?).

And I tell you, for the first time this year I’ve allowed support. I allowed the support of someone setting up my website design to move me back to WordPress which google seems to love, apparently.

I hired an editor and handed over 300+ pages of material to her for feedback because I was so engrossed in the project that I couldn’t remember if I was repeating myself or not.

What came of each is a website I love and a book writing process that has not only been challenging me in a good way, but it’s fun to have someone to talk with who understands what you are trying to say and do. Instead of one 300-page book, we’ve separated it into a guide, a memoir, and a really fun experiment that I don’t know yet how it will come out.

All this got me thinking, can we really do it all?

 

And just because we CAN, does that mean we SHOULD?  

 

I’m going to tell you “No.”

The thing is, we all have things we excel at. And those are the things we should be doing a majority of the time.

I am better at content creation/editing and career coaching than I am at scattering my thoughts all over social media (which isn’t a good strategy anyway).

But what I spend most my time on is spinning my wheels trying to figure out, “Do I want to be on FB, Instagram, or Twitter?” “Do I want to automate and schedule things to be on all three?”

Now I know we don’t all start out with a big budget to outsource, but I do tell my clients who are currently employed but ready to jump ship to consider saving up for outsourcing before they quit. IT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!

What do you think? Are you buying into all the advertising that you just need to buy someone’s program and your business will explode? Watch their freebie and turn around and do it? That you can do it all yourself lickety-split?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve received a lot of amazing information online. But the thing I’ve discovered is that it works best if you have 100% clarity on your vision, know which is the low hanging fruit to try for, and know when to get help like my website goddess who knew how to put in the bare bones so that I could be my own editor going forward.

You may also find Public Relations people that know the ins and outs of getting your writing into magazines. For instance, I just learned that when you pitch to magazines there is a time window usually related to the seasons. So when all the “decluttering for spring” posts are coming out, people have pitched that idea six months in advance. Six months!

Which is just not something that comes naturally, but someone who has been in the business can clue you in before you receive rejections for the submitting at the wrong time of year.

Many of us who pursue awakened professions do so because we just want to help people. Which may mean selling, pitching, doing FB lives, and blogging may or may not be our thing.

Which means we may want to use our gifts and for goodness sake not burn out before we have the chance.

It’s important to allow support where you know that you need it so you can do what you do best!

Let’s say it together:

“I ALLOW MYSELF TO BE SUPPORTED.”

How about you? Are you allowing yourself to be supported? If not, are you getting burned out trying to do it all?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

XOXO,

nicole strychaz

Looking for support in your writing? You can view my Soul-to-Soul marketing & Copywriting support HERE.

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Ignite the Sacred Feminine in the Workplace with These 5 Unexpected Books!

Ignite the Sacred Feminine in the Workplace with These 5 Unexpected Books!

Ignite the Sacred Feminine in the Workplace with These 5 Unexpected Books!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

I recognize this seems like an odd collection of books, but I hope you bear with me as I explain why I would say that these five books can ignite your sacred feminine in the work place!

I should also preface this by saying I’m not against the masculine in the workplace, only that for too long it’s been running the show! I believe women’s voices are largely overlooked, unheard, and the idea that we have to push for results (masculine) rather than allow (feminine) is a way we no longer have to be.

It should be a balance.

In order to come to balance, it’s time for the sacred feminine to enter the workforce and allow for the sacred masculine to meet her. It may not be quick and it may shock many of the men in the room, but it’s necessary.

If you haven’t read my post on Why You Should Cry at Work, it’s a helpful read to understand my position on why I feel holding emotions in, trying to operate from the traditional masculine that we’ve gotten used to, is outdated – and well, just plain boring.

When I first entered the corporate work place so many moons ago, I quickly discovered that my ideas went largely unheard. Which is okay considering I was a newbie and didn’t understand the ways of business yet and had a lot to learn.

But as time went on, I began to see something more concerning. As I become more knowledgeable, more of an expert in my field, more educated in business with even the coursework to back it up, my voice still went largely unheard.

My voice was unheard while my male counterparts, with the equivalent or less experience, were largely supported.

I would have an idea that was shot down in minutes only to be brought up a day later by a male colleague and it would be a great idea when coming from him. No one would seem to remember that I had already brought it up!

Now, several years of awakening later and really learning to OWN my energy and power, I know that this had more to do with me than with them.

Thankfully times they are a changing and these books were beyond significant to my stepping into my Sacred Feminine when it comes to work.

I am no longer willing to blend to fit in.

I am no longer willing to pretend that my values aren’t my family, my sense of self, and my intuitive gifts.

I am no longer willing to be in an energetically dense environment and have to lower my vibe to do my job rather than be able to shine my light brightly.

I’m no longer afraid to say that shining my light matters more to me than anything else.

I give the authors of each of these books credit for reaching me at a time when I really was ready to have their words support me. To have them be the way showers for me to really OWN what I feel is my right to be happy. My right to be happy in all areas of my life, including work.

Not only be happy, but I feel completely aligned with my life purpose. My reason for being on this planet.

Which really, what more can you ask for???

Well, maybe a million dollars, but the book for that is included in this post too, lol.

How about you? Are you ready to embrace your feminine side and allow it to bring harmony to your work life? Are you ready to truly trust your intuition rather than go against it because that’s the way it’s always done?

Here is why I think everyone woman rising, and every male who is finding themselves wanting to do things in a different way, should consider reading these books!

1. The Sacred Six. JB Glossinger.

The Sacred Six. JB Glassinger. Define your values!

First off, this book is instrumental to providing a process for you to determine what you REALLY want in your work life. What do you value? What is most important? For example, if you say you really value time with your family and then you take a job with a 2-hour commute and 60-hour workweek, you will feel unfulfilled. Developing your Sacred Six helps you make decisions when opportunities arise to make sure your values are always at the forefront.

2. Rise Sister Rise. Rebecca Campbell.

Rise Sister Rise. Great book to be supported by others!

Awww… Rebecca Campbell is vulnerable and honest in holding space for the Sacred Feminine to rise. Not only with this book, but with her online FB group Rise Sister Rise. This is a guidebook to honoring your natural rhythms, visiting sacred places, understand the role of the feminine in the world and so much freaking more. I found it inspiring and a natural fit if you would like to step out of the spiritual closet – even if you don’t know you’re in one, lol. This book made me feel like I was not alone and that I should never compromise.

Anita Moorjani’s heartfelt account of what she learned from her Near Death Experience and subsequent miraculous healing is such a power-freaking-ful look at what happens to our soul when we hide. When we dim our light. When we allow ourselves to be silenced. She did what she was “supposed” to in terms of her family upbringing and culture but it was so painful and so out of alignment with who she was. I do not want to suggest she gave herself cancer, but I do want to say that her NDE was a gift to the world on why it’s important to really do what it takes to shine. She came back and has used her voice to help others through her books, speaking engagements and Hay House Radio. I hope you read her story and her wisdom.

Lisa Lister. Can I just say “Wow” and leave it at that? Lol. No, I can’t because some people connect to this book and some have a reaction to this book.

I think this book is important for women to read because it’s so many of our spiritual history as to why we can be afraid to speak up and be heard! It’s written in such a way that at first it can feel jarring, but as you continue it’s empowering.

It’s empowering because the energy of the witch hunts has not yet been healed. Women were forced to turn on other women, mothers on daughters. Women were killed for no reason other than someone thought you were conspiring when really you may have just been chatting with a friend.

Worse still, sacred rituals and our ability to connect to nature and the moon cycles was severely impacted by this killing spree.

Lisa Lister shares not only the history but how to come back into our voices and our Magic.

In my story I shared of not being heard in the office, I’ve wondered was it them or me? Was I afraid to be heard or was I not heard for other reasons?

Well, I’m no longer afraid and I credit this book with waking something inside me that has really allowed me to step into a space where I am proud to be female and embrace the sacred feminine in my work where traditional masculine used to be what I followed to be successful.

Last but not least, often if we are on a path to really help people heal or somehow shine our light, we can tend to think of money as unimportant or even negative.

I LOVE that Kathrin Zenkina is shattering these beliefs. The world needs abundant people shining our light rather than broke and crumbling. Right?

What I really love most about this book is her Day 17: Squashing Limiting Beliefs chapter. It is great for your money beliefs, but also for ANY limiting belief you may have. Any! I’ve used it for so many barriers I’ve faced to help me get to the next level, and the next one, and the next one.

To me, my focus is always on raising my vibration. I figure the better I feel, the more I can help others and the healthier I am. This book has helped me not only with my money mindset, but in my whole life as well.

If you’ve read, or you do read any of these books, please let me know how you like them in the comments. I hope they are as helpful for you as they’ve been for me.

XOXO,

nicole strychaz

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Is High Vibe Work Sustainable?

Is High Vibe Work Sustainable?

High vibe work is that work that leaves you feeling on a high after you are done. It can be anything from an amazing conversation about marketing to finishing a project that feels like stars aligned to make it happen. 

But after coming across this idea that amazon might be implementing a wristband that tracks people’s productivity, I’ve been thinking high vibe work and what it means if you don’t have the freedom in your day to support the highs and the lows.

It reminds me of when I used to do in-house Human Resources and managers would come in my office to say that their employees talked too much. “They walk around,” or “They’re always talking” was what I heard pretty frequently.

Thankfully, I wasn’t your typical HR person, even back then. I would sit with the manager and try to understand where the harm was. Was the person getting his/her work completed?

If it turned out they were getting the work done, I would ask the manager to let it go. I would explain how we spend so much time at work that we need those breaks and those connections or we would go crazy.

If the person was not getting their work done, then it was another story. Then it became about making the goals clear so they could manage their time and their own productivity.

But truly, back then something in me knew that we needed to have those breaks.

Once I began working from home, I really became a student of energy and productivity – namely my own! I discovered that I was 100 times more productive at home because I took more breaks. Which sounds backwards right?

I worked less hours and was more productive!

The reason for this was that I would get phone calls or emails with problems and rather than have to keep up with my work without stopping, I would take a walk in nature. While walking I wouldn’t think about work and by the end of the walk I had several solutions to multiple problems. I could walk back in my house fresh and totally clear minded to tackle the issues. Taking a break from thinking about it, created more solutions. I had clarity.

It wasn’t until I took a tour of a Waldorf-inspired elementary school that I understood that we have natural rhythms and when we go against those is when we seem to need the extras. Extra coffee – or in my case I used to need afternoon sweets – to keep us going.

When, you work from home, you can go take a break on the couch with some solfeggio and recharge in a more natural way, but in a workplace it can be VERY challenging.

This is not to say you all should walk out of the office environment so you can work from home (we aren’t all meant to work from home), but pay attention to your ups and downs.

 

Here are some tips you can implement in your work place (wherever it may be!) to support your body AND mind:

 

LISTEN TO MUSIC

Consider using different music tempos to help with the times of day when you have more energy and focus, and for the parts of the day where your mind needs a break. Calm and relaxing Tibetan gong music is one of my favorites to calm my mind and I love choosing Eddie Vedder on YouTube for my high energy support.

 

GROUP YOUR WORK

If your focus is best in the morning, take on your most detailed work in the morning.

If you find by afternoon you are so over talking to people, make sure your meetings and phone calls aren’t scheduled in the afternoons when possible.

 

GET OUTSIDE!

Talking a walk, or even going outside for 10 minutes to chill, will make a world of difference. If you can do yoga at lunch, that would work too!

 

ADD SOME RITUAL

Make a ritual out of having your favorite tea somewhere with a view. Set your phone off to the side and allow yourself some peace to recharge. Those 10 minutes here and there will be what you need to sustain your energy rather than burn out!

 

Food

Pay attention to your food choices. Some foods can make us sleepy and if you’re having a long day, choosing foods that sustain your energy can really help.

 

STRETCH

Your body will love you for taking time to stretch. Try this video on how to use Therapy balls for your hands and wrists. You’ll feel like you stepped out to the spa because it feels so good.

Find ways to work with who you are naturally rather than try to fit into a mold. You should find that you are actually more productive when you honor your natural rhythm than when you push through it. Pushing through is when it’s so easy to make mistakes or take twice as long to do something.

Also know that your most high vibe work has a refractory period. You need to recoup from really high vibe, intense work.

To answer my own question as to whether or not High Vibe work is sustainable, I say it depends on your ability to understand and support the highs and the lows. We can’t run on adrenaline and cortisol all day every day, we just can’t. What goes up must come down!

If you truly are in a situation where your boss is looking over your shoulder and there’s just no way to manage your energy, I get it! I once had a job where the only break I got was to go sit in the bathroom! That’s how I know you and the universe can co-create a better job for yourself and am happy to share these tips with you on how to do just that.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments about how you recharge your batteries without losing productivity. Do you have a boss looking over your shoulder?

nicole strychaz

 

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5 Free Meditations to Cleanse Your Energy + Karma that Are AWESOME

5 Free Meditations to Cleanse Your Energy + Karma that Are AWESOME

5 Meditations to Cleanse Your Energy

5 Free Meditations to Cleanse Your Energy + Karma that Are AWESOME

It is time my friends. It’s time to let go of what no longer serves us and make sure you are not an energy magnet for energetic clutter. You do not need to hold on to what is no longer serving you! There is too much to be done to let the murkiness weigh you down and have those invisible tethers keep you from feeling great.

Let’s let it go.

Let’s let go of all that no longer serves us.

These are some of my favorite AND FREE meditations to cleanse your energy, your karma, and leave your troubles behind.

I love to do a midday meditation to keep myself in a good place, and these are some of my go-to’s for my energetic maintenance depending on my needs. I hope you enjoy them!

KARMA CLEANSING

When something feels off, feels blocked, just doesn’t feel like it belongs to me this Karma cleanse is my go-to. In fact I give it to all my clients and friends on a regular basis. When I first found Ask-Angels.com I didn’t know what to think about it, but after one meditation I was hooked! I’ve even done this one in an Epsom salt bath when my energy was particularly frenetic and let me tell you, it felt AMAZING. You can find it HERE.

FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness can sometimes get a bad rap. Forgiving isn’t condoning or agreeing with someone. It’s lightening your load and setting yourself free. This meditation by Melanie Beckler offers forgiveness across the lines of time and space for yourself and others. Forgiveness can set you free and I use this meditation any time I find myself having trouble letting go of something someone has done. I always feel so much lighter after! You can find it HERE.

INNER TEMPLE REJUVENATION

Start your day with a cleansed feeling with Rebecca Campbell’s Inner Temple Rejuvenation. It’s also great in the afternoons as a pick-me-up if you are feeling a little low energy or just energetically depleted.  Love it! You can find it HERE.

INNER PEACE

Ready to leave your troubles behind you as you cross a beautiful bridge? This meditation for Inner Peace has you doing just that. I can’t describe how beautiful the music and MayLynne’s channeling of Adona are in this one. It’s a great pick me up on a challenging day and has you visually carry the peace out into the world. You can find it HERE.

free chakra clearing meditation

Full Chakra Cleanse

This is the perfect guided cleanse for morning, noon or night! You can find it HERE.

I’d love to hear about your experience with these meditations in the comments!

If you love them as much as I do, please share this post so we can get these tools out into the world. An energetically lighter us can probably move mountains!

XOXO,

nicole strychaz

 

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Is Your Resume Great or Sad by Comparison?

Is Your Resume Great or Sad by Comparison?

In my former Human Resources profession, I saw 1000’s of resumes. Today, I still have friends and family ask for help with their resumes so I want to give some “do’s” and “don’ts” for those of you who are dusting off your resumes and ready to make them shine!

I know it sounds harsh to say so many resumes look like crap, but after over 10+ years of weeding through them I often find myself wondering, “What is this person thinking?” and “Are they even trying to get this job???

There is no reason in this age of internet technology and resources to have a crappy resume. NO REASON. Recruiters know this, which means if your resume isn’t amazing, unless there are absolutely no other candidates, you are not getting your foot in the door to show how great you are in person.

The most frustrating part is that I think you can do a great job but you aren’t selling yourself in the resume or have a “one-size-fits-all” approach to your paper representation of you.

Maybe you are writing your resume how you think it should look rather than really thinking about Every. Single. Item. On. It.

And then wondering why no one is calling you or saying things like It’s so hard to get a job right now.” It may be hard to get a job, but if you are applying to open positions and you aren’t getting phone interviews, then you may want to do a complete overhaul of your resume and see if you can get better results.

Don’t think of your resume as a formality.

It should be the absolute best representation of you! It should be your sales pitch in a very small window of time to shine, on paper no less, which means it needs to your absolute best effort.
A great resume is what makes you stand out in a pile of applicants.

I can’t tell you the countless typos I’ve seen (I usually forgive 1 but 3 is really pushing it), and the rambling resumes or list of skills that don’t even seem remotely connected to the job I’ve advertised for. I’ve often found myself wondering “Why in the world did this person even apply with such a different skill set?”

I see objectives like “to be a detail-oriented accountant for your firm” and then they apply to a human resources position. I see all different types of job experience listed and no explanation as to what the person is wanting to do for a living. Many people still submit resumes without a cover letter, or they put the wrong company name in the “Dear ________” of the cover letter. Overall, there is such a lack of explanation for what that person has even done in their work life listed.

Stop throwing away your opportunity with a mediocre resume!

It’s hard enough to get noticed and get your foot in the door with a great resume so your resume better also be nothing shy of great.

Every company you apply to, you should spend the time to make sure your resume and cover letter shows why you are a fit for their position. Gone are the days where you just blindly apply with a one-size-fits all cover letter and resume. DON’T DO IT!

Here are some tips to help you get your resume to the top of the “phone interview” pile where it belongs:

DO – Explain anything that doesn’t make sense in the cover letter.

If you are changing careers explain why you have 15 years as a lawyer and are now applying to be an administrative assistant. Maybe you had kids and you want less hours? Maybe you don’t want the stress of being a lawyer? But if you blindly apply the recruiter has absolutely no idea why a lawyer wants to be an admin (I’ve seen this a lot!) and probably assumes you just applied everywhere and didn’t even mean to apply to this job.

Do- Think about your audience. 

Think about who is seeing your resume. Often times it’s an in-house staff member who is not an expert in every position, but who is an expert in finding qualified candidates. He/she is the gatekeeper you need to impress. He/she is your key to getting to the next level -interviewing with the manager. Your resume needs to impress the person weeding through the resumes! Don’t just throw in a list of technical terms and think it’s enough.

Do – Use action words for each bullet if possible.

Google “action words for resumes” and you’ll have pages to choose from.

Do – Show progression.

No matter what your career is, you should be getting better at it and gaining more responsibility as you go. Make sure it reads like a career if you’ve had a few jobs. It doesn’t matter if you are an admin or a manager, you should be progressing and getting better at what you do. You probably are, but make sure it’s demonstrated on your resume.

Do – Keep ongoing track of your accomplishments while you are working at any job.

I always added something I was proud of to an ongoing copy of my resume so that if I ever switched jobs I could remember the highlights. Often times if we are at a company for many years it’s hard to remember the award we got, the system we implemented, or the turnover we reduced. Have it handy.

Do – Use metrics and demonstrated financial savings anywhere you can.

You didn’t “perform in-house recruiting,” you “Reduced expenses by $100,000 per year by bringing recruiting in-house” for example. Make sure you know how to calculate any metrics you include, like in the in-house recruiting example get prior costs and subtract your salary and time from the metric for the true savings.

Do – look at several job descriptions for the type of position you want and make sure your resume shows you have the experience for it.

Do – find someone with the job you are going for and ask to see their resume or look at their linked in profile to see how they did it.

Don’t copy but get an idea how they summed up their experience in a succinct way.

Do – Use this checklist before you apply:

You may be willing to take any job, but the person doing the hiring wants someone who has the skills, will do a great job, and will stay for a few years so that they aren’t always training a newbie. Turnover is expensive and companies are sensitive to that.

Early in my career I used to sort into “call,” “maybe,” and “no” piles. My “maybe” pile had the few typos, didn’t quite make sense, and was iffy. I’ve found, through experience, that if the resume isn’t great, the phone interview wasn’t any better and here’s why:

The person who took the time to really put effort into EVERY SINGLE BULLET knows their resume really well and can take you through specific examples of what they did.

The wishy washy resume usually has a wishy washy phone interview full of “we hit our goals” instead of “I took the project and ran with it” (please stop saying “we” in your interview by the way, we want to know what you specifically did!). This is the person who usually asks you to remind them what company you work for and which position they applied to. You should never tell a company that you don’t know who they are if you applied!

Each bullet on your resume should explain something really amazing you did. Did you “process payroll?” Or did you “Ensure employees were paid accurately and on time,” for example.

You resume should look like you would expect someone’s web presence to look. When you are looking for a doctor, massage therapist, dentist, or a place to eat, anything – you expect to find it enticing and professional. If it isn’t, you probably don’t go to that place or person, right?

Make your resumes count. Spend a lot of time on them! Etsy has great resume formats for sale for less than $5 that look really sharp. There are free templates online as well.

Your resume is your place to exude confidence and really shine! What are you most proud of? What did you do that was really hard but you kicked butt at? You didn’t just “handle travel arrangements” you were an expert at multitasking and making things happen, right?

Don’t make your resume vague or boring! Keep it professional but stand out with your skills.

Recruiting is like dating. There are so many factors to getting the right fit. The best thing you can do is stand out with your resume. Have it be confident, but not arrogant. Visually appealing. Clean. Show progression. Have skills that match the position or do an amazing explanation of why they don’t in the cover letter.

Don’t be the bottom of the pile! I’ve never once made it to the bottom of the pile and have always had a hire more toward the top.

A great free resource is head hunters or staffing agencies. They will give you feedback as they want to place you in a position. They may find you a job in the meantime, which is an added bonus.

I know people don’t really mean to have bad resumes, I think it’s probably a case of “deer in the headlight syndrome” where there’s so much information and so much is riding on it that they are afraid to get it wrong. But your resume has to be meaningful. It has to be a great representation of you!

And “you” want to be confident, show you can get the job done, and stand out. Because if you don’t believe in you, why would someone else be expected to?

If you really struggle with confidence, get a coach! People earn a million more in their lifetime when they have the courage to negotiate salaries. Just. By. Asking. They aren’t better, they believe they should be paid more so they get paid more. They know their worth!

Same goes for your resume. If you aren’t impressed with your skills someone else won’t be either.

But I’m here to tell you there are things you excel at. There are things you do better than anyone. MAKE THAT CLEAR on your resume!

Believe me, when you look at resumes all day you can tell who spends time and who doesn’t. You want to call the one who goes the extra mile because who doesn’t want top talent?

If you still struggle, hire a resume writer. There are many good ones out there and the investment is worth it if it reduces the amount of time you’re unemployed or allows you a new position where you negotiate more pay.

Invest time in your resume because it’s the most important part of your job search. Even if you network they will eventually ask for your resume!

Make it amazing.

XOXO,

nicole strychaz

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