Blake Schofield Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Bridge to Fulfillment. I’m really excited to have a special guest today to share with you some of her knowledge and experience. She’s really passionate about helping women in the career career field, and you’re gonna learn a lot from her. So my guest today is Leigh Mitchell. She’s a diverse talent recruiter and promoter and brand strategist. She’s the founder of be happy HR company. She manages the client experience and builds buzz for diversity driven brands. Be Happy HR is proudly known as the queen bees of recruiting and retrain retaining women within workplaces. Leigh supports business owners busy recruiters and HR departments to provide a variety of HR and talent promotion services with a certified team of experts in her be happy HR hive. Leigh Mitchell is also the founder of women in biz network, she coaches clients speaks with influential guests on her time to thrive podcast, curates membership initiatives, and sorry, curate mentorship initiatives, promotes women in business networks vetted diversity driven career board, and deliver skill building events to a variety of audiences. Leigh Mitchell has worked with brands such as Microsoft Canada, sage, tell us, TD Canada trust staples, Canada and Chevrolet Canada throughout her career, and has been featured in a variety of different media, as well as been a speaker at numerous industry events. Goodness gracious, what an intro, I love it. I love it when women have so much going on that it takes me several minutes to get through all of the things to share. So Miss Leigh, welcome. Would love to introduce you to the audience. Can you share a little bit about you personally and your story? Maybe give us the Reader’s Digest version?

Leigh Mitchell Sure. Yeah, I know that was certainly a mouthful, wasn’t it? When you own two businesses, it can be challenging getting it to a condensed version. Yeah, no, essentially, I am, as you so eloquently put a brand strategist and an a consultant who’s really focused on supporting women in the workplace. And through my new company, be happy HR, which I developed over the pandemic, talking about transitions. Wow, like totally flipping switches, and getting into a whole other industry has been a great opportunity for learning and growth. And I yeah, I just, you know, especially with what’s happened with a pandemic, I feel that women getting set back, like 30 years because of the workplace challenges that women are having in terms of trying to manage their lives and also have a fulfilling careers. It certainly hasn’t been an easy, easy journey for many women. So yeah, I’m just I’m here to let them know, they’re, they’re not alone. And we’re here to help. So yeah, that’s sort of my transition.

Blake Schofield And you like, you know, many of my guests have had several career transitions in your life, you balance, family and work? Can you just share a little bit, maybe a quick blurb? What are the what are the careers that you’ve held, if you had to give a quick summary of like, this is where I started, this is what I did. And here’s where I am today. And the reason I asked that is, you know, a huge part of this podcast and my passion for this podcast is really opening up the possibilities for women about what’s possible for them. And I think the more we see that this is very common, that career transitions can actually be the best thing that ever happened to you. I think the more it opens up the possibilities for our own lives, too.

Leigh Mitchell I love that. That is so true. You have to see it to believe it. And so for me, personally, I, I graduated from a program called rec leadership, which basically is, you know, I thought I was going to go into recreation. I wanted to be like a manager at a recreation facility, I wanted to work with seniors. And then my, I looked pretty youthful when I graduated. And one of the first kind of unfortunate situations in my career was that I was told I looked too young to work with seniors that they would eat me alive. So I I actually experienced discrimination in in my early career just in terms of, you know, limiting basically age discrimination, but I didn’t think anything of it because at the time I was an intern, I was doing the position and I was told that there was a very good chance that I would get this job to be able to actually take over when I was doing as an intern, which again is sort of illegal. I worked for the government and, and so I, I continue to on that path of working in government, I went back and I trained to do marketing and communications. And so then I ended up in a career where I did that for about 15 years, which was amazing, I loved it, I’m still a very active person. So it’s, it’s a part of my DNA. But once I had a family, I decided I really wanted to start over and had always had sort of a dream to be a business owner. But it was also terrified, because my, my, my family were business owners and had some serious ups and downs in that department. So while I was intrigued, I was also very scared, but I had a good motivation. And that my I, by the time I had my second child, there was really no opportunity to find qualified daycare for my child’s age that I felt comfortable with. So after having a brief stint with a nanny, who didn’t work out, I said to my husband, I need to leave the, my job. So I took a leave of absence, to test the waters and started a marketing company that I thought would focus on women entrepreneurs. And to get clients I decided to host some events. And then that just went like wild, you know, wild in that all of a sudden, people were coming up to me and saying, like, when are you going to have another event? And what type of events are you going to do, and I’m like, I’m not going to events company. But I really felt the need to help the women entrepreneurs, to gain knowledge and expertise in a variety of different fields. So not just marketing support. So that’s how women in biz network was formed, because I saw the needs. And I thought, you know what, I can do this. And my husband had run a lot of conferences, so he was really helpful in helping me to make this transition. So really supportive network is critical in in taking on a new career. And then, as I mentioned, or during the pandemic, I decided that I wanted to launch an HR focus company to help those that feel that they don’t have enough of a voice in the marketplace. So diverse individuals, whether it be someone new to the country, someone with disabilities, women, obviously are considered a diverse group, and especially women of color. So that’s the the inspiration behind be happy HR. And yeah, so now I’m learning all about the world of HR. And I work with a team to help me to fill in my areas where I don’t know everything, right, so that I think that’s the biggest takeaway for me throughout my career is that connect with people who can help you fill in the gaps of your knowledge and expertise and your strengths, and help you to play to your strengths. So I work with a wonderful woman named Sarah bib, who’s a certified HR expert, and together are skills and services really complement each other to be able to get be happy HR off the ground.

Blake Schofield Wonderful. I love that, and what you just said about really leveraging other people and their knowledge and skills to be able to fill in the gaps for you is so big. I think it’s something that as women inherently, we’re naturally gifted at it if we can get out of our own way, right. And what I mean by that is, I think there’s this image that we should be able to do at all, that we should be able to solve our own problems. And if you are someone who naturally is good at doing that, and you’re so used to doing that, there will become a point in time in your life in your career when that no longer works for you. And I think many of us stay stuck for years in a place where it’s no longer working for us because we don’t either understand the power of really getting that partnership mentorship, expert knowledge, or we have a misperception that seeking help makes us weak or incompetent. Or you know that somebody will judge us and so I love that you said that because it’s it’s such a huge part of my heart like because I was so successful in my career. And I in my you know, I spent almost six years at Target Corporation. It’s the first company I really was at where there was a lot of mentorship and I had a ton of mentors. I built a board of directors it completely opened up my perspective to mentorship and growth and all of those wonderful things. And yet Personally, I what I didn’t connect the dots between the mentorship I had at work and Personally, how seeking help guidance filling in those gaps could be that or even more, even more impactful to my life. And so I love that you said that because I think often we look at the disparity between men and women and work. And that’s a big place where women, we’re not used to doing that. We invest in everyone else, but we’re not investing in ourselves, right? We’re not really looking, we feel like we have to show up as perfect. We feel uncomfortable having some of that vulnerability, or partnering with people in that way. And to me, that’s one of the places let’s see, we’re constantly limiting ourselves that when you can shift that paradigm, and you understand it differently, you’ll have exponential better results, and not just better results. But more, more peace. Right? more joy, more confidence in who you are, and what makes you successful.

Leigh Mitchell I love that it’s, it’s so true. And yeah, I appreciate that. That amazing advice. I think that we can all learn from that for sure.

Blake Schofield Thank you. So I know, we want to talk about a topic you and I are both very passionate about, which is called she-recovery. So can you share a little bit about what that is? And why is that so important for us to know about?

Leigh Mitchell Yeah, no, I’d love to, to discuss that with you. And thank you for the opportunity. She recovery is a term that the media coined to basically talk about the mass exodus from the job market that women have experienced whether by, by choice, or, unfortunately, from being laid off, or let go because of all of the changes that was going on because of the pandemic. And there’s also the term, the great resignation as well. And so, you know, a lot of people are also looking at their lives and deciding, you know, is this fulfilling me or, you know, all of a sudden, all remote opportunities were opening up and so women and the the market, the job force, was able to really look at what they wanted, I know, I was very introspective, when the pandemic first started trying to figure out, you know, all of a sudden, I had this extra time I wasn’t running around with, you know, children going to all the lessons and when not everything was shut down. So it was a very impactful time in terms of being able to sort of think about what you want in your life. So I’m noticing that a lot of people have made big changes. And in terms of the she recovery, as we talked about, women have hit a 30 year low in the workplace, and I’m hoping that it’s starting to slowly improve. In some, I think, in the US, it was even 35 years that that’s a statistic that I read. And essentially, women were forced to make tough choices, right? So some were struggling with online school, extra responsibilities at home, maybe those that had extra support, couldn’t invite that extra support into their homes. And, you know, another statistic is that women are more than 50% responsible for the household chores. And so there’s this disconnect in in men and women and I guess that shared responsibility, the share of responsibility of household duties and child care duties fell majority on women and and so you know, now we have proof of that I think we’ve always known that I’m sure you can, you can attest to it, I know I can do, especially being self employed, I find that extra responsibilities were put on me because of the fact that I have more flexibility. So essentially, what what we’re trying to do is a part of that is really just help women to see that they have choices. And to think big, big for themselves. You know, I know I myself really struggled when my kids were young because you want to be there for them. But you know what, it never ends you’re always you always have to be there for them especially as they get older. I think in some ways as our children get older, we are forced with making decisions about our careers because you know, the issues that we’re dealing with become more intense, right? You have mental health challenges. You have like, you know, a lot more driving around responsibility. So a lot of that falls on on women. And women happen to also be in industries that were hit hardest by the pandemic, so serve related industries, hospitality, tourism, retail, things like that. So we really wanted to show women that they have transferable skills, and also help them to navigate the the new world of the you know, as we are entering into the fourth wave of the pandemic, at least here in Canada, I don’t know where if you’re experiencing the same thing where you are, but this isn’t going away anytime soon, I think we’re going to it’s going to be at least another year, while things are are sort of turned upside down. So I don’t want to see women putting up their their careers on hold for that long. So they have to, they have to learn to be strategic about what they want, and how they can go about it. And if they are going through a major transition, that there’s there’s options for them, right. So some of that is building up their confidence again, it’s it’s also knowing who’s in your network, and who you can lean on, I love that you were talking about, it’s really hard for women to ask for help. And so I think part of this recovery has to come from learning that your voice matters, being able to speak up for yourself, to negotiate things like that. And see that while this is definitely a really tough time to go through, but before leaving a job really pushing back on the employer to say like, you know, how can we take this on together? What are some options for getting through this together so that you don’t lose a great invaluable employee like myself, and I don’t lose a great and valuable employer like you. So you know, really opening up that dialogue?

Blake Schofield Yeah, I love hearing you say that I love the discussion on their choices, and definitely want to come back to that, that you have choices. And I think not only do you have choices, but I would challenge you don’t have to compromise, you don’t have to sacrifice I think that that’s a huge part of why we have this disparity, Why 14%? You know, I can only speak us because that’s the land I live in. But 14% of leaders in the C suite in the United States are women. That’s it. Yeah, right. And it’s not because we’re less talented. But many times it’s because we look and we say I’m not willing to sacrifice what it would take to get there. But I would challenge, right, that perhaps we need to change the environment, to make the environment conducive for women to be at the top that perhaps we need to actually ask for and know how to ask for what we want to create the type of change we want inside the organization. And so I love where you kind of talked about before you leave, right? Are you really asking for what you want. And I think that there’s such truth to that, you know, women come into my program and the bridge to fulfillment. Usually, you know, a lot of women burned out really like wanting to leave their job, you know, at some in some cases at wit’s end, and believe that it can’t get any better. And yet, three weeks later, I feel like entirely different people even in the same job, right. And it gives them the time, the emotional bandwidth, the ability to build a strategy and get where they want to go. And so I share that because there’s a mindset a tactics, a habits, there are elements sitting there that we lack a lot of times, right that when those gaps are filled in, create an a much better situation, and ultimately help you have the tools no longer to end up in this situation again. But there’s also an element of learning how to speak up for an ask for what you want. And a lot of times I’ve been able to see how, when women are empowered to work through the fear, or the doubt, or the lack of knowledge about how to do that. And they’re given the tools about how to show up and ask for what they want in a way that isn’t emotional, and allows them to use their emotion, but channel it in a way, right that’s well received channel in a way that’s productive channel in a way that helps the other person understand why it benefits them, that you can make significant changes inside your work environment. And that might be all that you need to be happy. Or it might not but at least then you’ll know it’s not the right place. And you’ll have the skills and tools the next time when you get to that next company or that next toxic boss or that next whatever, you can actually stand in your value and ask for what you want. So I’d love to hear a little bit more about your thoughts. If you were to give maybe two or three tips to women, that today don’t feel confident that today are really struggling with their work environment and trying to figure out what’s the right best, best next step for them. What pieces what two or three pieces of advice would you give to them in terms of how to think about that maybe differently than What they are today?

Leigh Mitchell Such a great question. So I think the first thing is that we talked about in the earlier part of our conversation was you have to see it to be it. So surround yourself with people who are doing things that that you personally love and that give you that, that encouragement and and, you know, you surround yourself with cheerleaders, essentially that that will help to encourage you to think bigger, and to, to not second guess yourself. I think reframing in our minds is also incredibly important. So reframe, reframe your frame. So when you’re having negative thoughts, you just realize their thoughts. That’s not reality, you know, I’m taking time to, to look at all of your accomplishments, I love updating my resume, I just get so pumped up when I when I’m doing my resume, because I’m just like, yeah, Iraq, I’ve done a lot of cool things. So focusing on your accomplishments, and, you know, challenging yourself to realize that why you think something maybe small, it could be huge to someone else, right, the way they perceive it. So I think, you know, know, knowing that your accomplishments may mean something more to others than what you you do, you know, and the other thing is, I think, you know, being vulnerable with someone like yourself in your bridging program, to share to the right people, right. So I often say sometimes, like, don’t go back to the same person and expect a different response, if everything you’ve been getting so far is really not uplifting to you, right? So know that know that you have different people that you can talk to, right, so like maybe having like, extensive conversations with with your spouse about your career isn’t the right tactic, maybe you have to invest in yourself and, and buy into a program where you can have those expert opinions with people that can actually help you make a difference, as opposed to just kind of saying the same narrative over and over again, and expecting things are going to change doesn’t necessarily help. So I think, also to looking at your transferable skills, right? Women really need to focus on their transferable skills, you know, even if it’s like looking at things that you’ve done in your past, and I know myself volunteering has opened up a whole set of skill set for me in terms of things that I’m really passionate about, but don’t necessarily want to do for my career. So like, for example, I love working with children. But I don’t necessarily want to do that for a career. But you know, by volunteering, I’m and working with people that I love, I’m, you know, able to increase my leadership skills, my organizational skills, my my ability to manage multiple things going on. So women tend to really get back in their communities. So there’s lots of opportunities to look at the transferable skills, even through your volunteer work. And it’s also a great way to build up your confidence again, because, you know, as we talked about, confidence, can really take a hit if you have left the workforce, especially if you’ve left the workforce on your own prerogative, right. So, you know, myself, as I mentioned earlier, I took a leave of absence and then eventually left my position within a few days ago, leaving my position, my husband was let go from his position, and I was freaking out. I was like, I just signed a $30,000 contract to put on a conference. I was terrified, but he got work right away. I managed to like just have the confidence that I needed to go forward. But, you know, by going through some of these challenges, so sometimes even the things that we perceive, maybe mistakes we’ve made are great learning outcomes. Attendees, right? So there’s been times where I’ve second guessed what I’ve done, you know, I had a really good job, I had a pension, I had benefits. And I’ve left it to go in a totally different path. And, you know, sometimes I’ve thought, oh, was that the right thing to do. And I’m sure that a lot of women who maybe have left jobs on their on their own, because they felt that they needed to have beat themselves up. So people that resigned from positions or take absences from their careers, tend to be really second guessing themselves, and also, you know, really hard on themselves, like, Why can I cut it when other women, you know, they tend to compare themselves to other people. So, stop doing that. And really focus on all the different things that you’ve done in your life and how it can benefit. whatever career you want to get back into.

Blake Schofield I love that you said that, because I think there’s so much, many times that we tie to our careers into our personal self worth and value. And you know, oftentimes I have women that come to me who I would almost describe what they’ve been through in the workforce is PTSD. really toxic environments, maybe they have always been a top performer and got put on a perform, you know, a pip a performance plan. Maybe they had a boss who bid belittled them and made them feel like they’re what they what they contributed wasn’t valuable. Or maybe right, it was just months and years of stress and anxiety that finally broke you down. But what you’re saying here, I think is really important in terms of understanding that addressing what those feelings are, what you’ve experienced, what you went through why it got to the degree that I got to write, and then being able to learn from that so that you can never be back in that situation, again, I think is incredibly important. It reminds me of when I was at my worst, emotionally, physically. And my coach actually asked me why, why was I willing to basically destroy my health and everything else for a job? And it was one of the most compelling questions I’d ever been asked because it was the first time I think I actually saw Wait a second. Why am I doing all of this doesn’t make sense, right. And so I love what you’re saying, because there’s a huge emotional component to this that I think so many people aren’t talking about. It’s why what I was talking about what we do is really different. It’s very holistic, but it’s really addressing both emotions and tactics, because you need both to really be able to to truly create what you want to be able to get those things out of your way that have been making you unhappy, make sure you won’t continue to repeat that cycle. And so I appreciate you sharing that, because I think there’s not enough conversation about that. Everything is Oh, find your transferable skills, do this resume, learn these interviewing skills? And yes, absolutely, those things matter. But if you don’t think you’re valuable, if you feel like you can’t have balance in your life, if you feel guilty about doing those things, if you are mentally unable to shut off your job, right, all of those things will not if you don’t address those things, you’re you’re gonna change job, but all the stuffs gonna follow you or keep happening, right. And so it’s important to really be able to address both, and I love you saying that, because it’s definitely obviously part of my heart. And something I’m super passionate about. Leigh and I comment on that is, yeah, so I just think what you’re saying is, is so incredibly important.

Leigh Mitchell  And as part of my journey, one thing I didn’t mention was that, I would say probably eight years into owning my business, I started to really panic about the lack of cash flow, because we own two properties. And just trying to like, manage that is can be financially really challenging. So I decided to go back to do some retainer work. And it’s interesting, but two of the clients that I had, were both older individuals, you know, into their, into their early law, one was in her into their 60s, and one was into their 50s. And they have this very kind of limiting mindset in terms of like, feeling confident and trusting their employees. And so I remember having with both of them, kind of like private breakdowns because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t like I wanted to make a change and do great work with them. But they just didn’t give me enough autonomy to make decisions. So I was in this one particular Contract I was just miserable, I was so stressed out. And so I went to this event and our our mentor, Jill Valentine, who is a social impact mentor and, and also a life coach, she did this exercise on core values. And through that, I realized I was able to narrow down what my what my most important core values were, and that is freedom, building relationships, and autonomy. And so those three things with both of those clients were not being met. And I ended up taking a course on finding voice in finding your voice for to live your values. And so they taught me app because I was so excited about understanding core values and the importance of them, that I wanted to dig deeper into that. And because it’s one thing to know what your core values are, but then it’s another thing to be able to be able to express those core values without blowing up. Or, you know, I had at one point, the I would say, even two years ago, I would say that my personality was like, repress, repress, repress blow up, right? I just like I couldn’t, I was, I had this instinctive feeling that I had to be nice all the time that I had to, like, win people over all the time. And so I would do that, and I would like pride myself in doing that, but then I my needs weren’t being met, right, because I was so busy worrying about meeting everybody else’s needs, that I wasn’t meeting my own. And I wasn’t living my own values. So I’ve learned now to speak up for myself in a more authentic and meaningful way. And then also look for opportunities to see where those values can, you know, almost like negotiating your values with the other person and seeing where, where the disconnects are, and where there are opportunities to understand each other. So now going forward, I’ve been able to get through conflicts much more effectively when my values aren’t being met. And also now and this is something that I really encourage people when they’re going through job seeking, is make sure that your values are aligned with the company and your percent and the culture, go on to Glassdoor. Look at that, you know, get some tidbits, get some feeling for what the culture is like, and whether you think it’s going to match your values and your personal beliefs. I think that’s really important and being happy, because like you said, that’s like when you said that, Matt, that made that message about how we keep making repeating the same mistakes. And I was definitely doing that I was definitely, you know, repressing my feelings, and then getting really upset. And then like leaving, leaving a position, like I always left positions, where I made sure that, you know, everything was left impeccably Well, for the next person to take over. But wouldn’t it be great if I was able to, you know, deal with some of those core value issues or not even take contracts? Like I knew with this 100? pillar? That’s

Blake Schofield Exactly what I was gonna say, there’s a lot yeah, dad. You know, what we define is broader than core values is much more in depth internally, the program, but what I describe is really uncovering the things you need in your current life to be fulfilled is what I call unlock your fulfillment framework. There’s also so much about what you talk about that kept hitting me of like, when you understand that the degree of what you need to be fulfilled and happy and you understand how you work, you will not you will not take the wrong type of job, or very quickly be able to say, wait a second, there’s a misalignment because Glassdoor at a surface level absolutely can give you some of that information. But the problem is, number one, most people don’t, you need to go deeper than that. And number two, most people don’t actually understand enough about themselves, how they work the environment that they would work best in to actually be able to identify Is this the right fit, and then ask the right questions in the interview. So you don’t have to hope the job is the right one. You know, it is and it’s the thing I love that I hear from my clients all the time is like I’m 100% confident that this is exactly the right job for me. And I think that that’s a rarity, because people don’t understand, you don’t have to hope. Right? When you understand this information, you can use it to direct your life, your career, your relationships, it just completely changes the game. So thank you for sharing that. I love how there’s synergy when you know, right? Success leaves, clues, the things that work you find consistently work. Lee, it’s been such a pleasure having you today. I know we need to wrap up because we’re just about out of time. How can the listeners find you if they’d like to learn more.

Leigh Mitchell So they can find me on women in biz network comm so that’s women in biz bi Zed network.com. Or be happy HR. So that’s the bee buzzing bee, beehappyhr.com And one little message that I would love to put out there, if you’ve taken out an extended leave in your career, and you’re looking to get back into the job market, we’re offering a free strategic strategic assessment, and some great follow up opportunities so that you can get back on that path, that journey. And the last little tidbit I want to share is just really follow your spidey senses. You know, when I was telling that story about the one person that I worked for, he was cutting me off in the job interview. And I knew I had a sense that maybe it wasn’t going to be the right fit for me, but I didn’t listen to my inner voice. And so that’s the one thing that I really hope people will walk away from this interview is just to really listen to your inner voice, as long as it’s not being directed by fear, or uncertainty. But just knowing like, knowing what you need, and it sounds like the services that you provide help people to, to get onto that path of knowing. So thank you so much for having me.

Blake Schofield Yeah, thank you so much. I love it. Like I said, it’s always fun. We never know what we’re going to talk about. But I always love it when you know, the the lesson comes out. And that’s what I was talking about. We have to learn how to trust our instincts, and the same thing, not when it’s driven by fear. But when you just happen to believe something or know something. I think as women, we are often raised to stop being so emotional. And you have to provide proof that this is XYZ. But what I have found truly is when we have gut instincts, when we believe things when we know things, right? And it’s not driven by fear. It’s right. And I think one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to learn how to trust and how to listen to yourself, because it has never steered me wrong. And it was years that I would doubt my own instinct and I would spend numerous hours weeks months trying to prove out that that was actually accurate instead of just trusting myself. But we have hindsight, hindsight is 2020 for a reason. And I think if you probably look back at the decisions you’ve made, the decisions that turned out bad you likely had a sign up front that that wasn’t the right thing. And that thing that went really well you likely knew it was the right thing. So I love that message. And I think it’s a great way to end. Thank you again, and for those of you guys listening, appreciate you joining hope you got great value from today’s call and see you again next week on The Bridge to Fulfillment.