Kickstart Your Life with Sami Gardner, Career Coach and Author – Issue #283

She redesigned her career to travel the world

My guest for this episode is Sami Gardner. She is a career coach who specializes in helping creative and technical professionals develop their dream careers.

Sami redesigned her own career to travel the world and has helped job seekers from San Francisco to São Paulo.

Sami believes that if you kickstart your career, you kickstart your life. She shares her career journey from librarian to a career advisor, digital nomad, and published author.

She talks about the reality of degrees and job security. No matter what your degree and how great you are at your job, you’re always at the mercy of the people at the top who control budgets and make decisions that eliminate positions. 

She was tired of being at the mercy of an employer, so she started her own business. She was also totally free at that time and decided to travel the world, work remotely, and spend time with family.

We also discuss how she balances her time as a business owner with being an active published author. Because, when Sami isn’t coaching, she writes sci-fi/fantasy novels!

Key points from our conversation

I want to call out a few points from my conversation with Sami to help you if you’ve ever considered becoming a digital nomad, exploring a career change, or pursuing a passion.

Remember your why

Sami enjoyed her career coaching business, launching courses, and traveling, but she was burning out. She was a digital nomad and exploring the world, but she was trying to do too much. She couldn’t even enjoy her time in new cities.

She took a step back to think about her “why.” She remembered why she started her business in the first place.

Her goal wasn’t to have a business. Her real goal was to have freedom. She wanted more freedom and flexibility in her lifestyle. She got lost somewhere in the middle of building it and got caught up in hustling 24×7. 

We all need to take a step back occasionally and reflect on why we are doing what we do. Are we still on the right path, or have we drifted off course?

Overcome your fears

Sami had already written a great deal of content for her books. But, she realized that she was scared to put her work out there. That’s why she had been sitting on her writing for years and not publishing anything.

She had the good fortune to attend a writing retreat in France for a month. It gave her the time to focus and think about her goals as a writer.

She realized that she had a goal she hadn’t done anything with; she wanted to publish her books. The time at the retreat helped her overcome her fears, put her work together, set up her author brand, and publish.

There’s probably something that you’ve been scared to try. You may have fears that are holding you back from taking action. But, regret is worse than fear. Trust me.

Make time for introspection

The pandemic forced Sami to stand still for a while and be more introspective. When she was constantly traveling, she never had the time to reexamine her business, review how it was operating, and decide if it was still what she wanted.

I understand the challenge she experienced. When you are working so hard every day in your business, it isn’t easy to find time to work on your business.

She reevaluated how she was working, how she set up her business, and if she wanted to continue the way things were going. She decided that she was stuck in a loop, and something had to change.

She was working so much that she couldn’t enjoy life. She traveled to these amazing places and couldn’t even take a break to go to the beach or spend time with friends.

Business owners talk about making time to work on your business instead of only working in your business. The same is true for employees and their careers.

You can get stuck in a cycle of working so hard in your job that you don’t make time to set goals for your career, make plans, and take action to achieve what you want. It really is necessary to set aside dedicated time to focus on you, your career, and your life.

Don’t wait until you’re feeling frustrated and burned out!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to our full conversation and hear where you can find Sami, her coaching service, and her books! 🎧

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This week’s professional development challenge

⭐ Get More out of LinkedIn
This challenge helps you leverage one of the most focused networks that you probably have. LinkedIn tends to be the best place to connect with current coworkers, past colleagues you enjoyed working with, and like-minded people from your profession and industry. But, most people aren’t taking control of their experience to squeeze more out of the platform…

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who also hosts:

• A free Slack community for people who want to create an invincible career.

• A professional mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs.

• A free community for independent creators who want to make a living doing more of what they love.

He lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice that can help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.