Let’s not kid ourselves here – we both know figuring out what’s next has never been more confusing, frustrating and disheartening.  

You’ve probably told yourself for months: “Next week, I'm going to buckle down. I'm gonna focus on those online applications and reach out to recruiters and my network.” 

But despite your best intentions, you’ve gotten stalled. While time can be a challenge, your biggest hurdle is knowing what you really want next. As a result, you’ve had few meaningful discussions with prospective employers, and even trusted confidants don’t know how to help you. 

Want to know what’s missing? Vision and Accountability. 

When you know what you are looking for AND consistently take steps towards it, change will come.

When you design a job-search strategy based on YOUR ideal career experience, amazing professional opportunities will become apparent, and within reach. 

Just imagine….

• Identifying practical career options that could actually make you happy. 
• Connecting with industries, prospective employers and leaders that “get you,” and value your skills and talents.
• Having a resume that powerfully communicates your expertise, successes and credentials.
• Having a memorable LinkedIn profile that helps YOU stand-out from your peers – and gets you noticed by more prospective employers.
• Knowing exactly how to build and leverage your network to support your career goals.
• Feeling confident about your value in today’s shifting job market.  
• Translating your past experience into a lucrative, fulfilling career that makes you excited about going to work!
• Designing a work life that works better for you AND your family! 

You can only get this level of clarity, results and forward momentum when you start investing in YOU the same way that you’ve invested in your COMPANY and JOB for years!

I thought a “career coach” would be a relentlessly cheerful, find-your-spirit-animal-and-ride-it-all-the-way-to-your-dream-job kind of person. Stacey is not that person. She IS smart, sensible, sympathetic, and totally down to earth. (She also has a great sense of humor.) Having lived through many of the same challenges her clients have, Stacey empathizes and strategizes from a place of hard-won experience. But she’s also gifted at zeroing in on stumbling blocks and helping uncover strengths to guide clients toward overcoming the former and capitalizing on the latter. While my own next chapter is still a WIP, I’m much better armed—and better aimed—thanks to Renovate Your Career and Stacey.

-Andrea Messina, RYC Spring 2019 

When I saw the words "Valley of Despair," I instantly relaxed and smiled. According to a chart in Stacey's class, the Valley is a low point in your transformation journey, a place I'd steadfastly remained for too many months to discuss. Seeing this interesting chart label helped me realize I was part of a complex process—and that I wasn't remotely alone. To me, this is the embodiment of Stacey's work. She takes one of mankind's most grueling and joyless processes, and turns it into a compelling mental and spiritual journey to find out who the hell you are and what you really want to do. Oh, and you'll be joined by six or seven fellow travelers, all in the same boat, who will help you take this career crap less seriously.  

Any time during my job search that I needed her feedback, Stacey showed up—with always-honest feedback, a new written exercise related to my issue, the right TED speakers to watch, or a direct challenge to get out of my comfort zone. She crushed it every time.  

I just noticed a document on my desktop called "stacey_story." Had no idea what it was. I can't remember if it's a comment she made to the class or something addressed directly to me on our Facebook page. It says "So the big questions are, what story are you in most of the time? A story to success? Or a story of failure? The stories, the words, the thought loop matters." I saved it because I wanted to think about it more, which I will now. On another note, I have exited the Valley of Despair and entered into a great new job.

- Brook Lundy, RYC Spring 2019 

When I exited the print magazine industry after 26 years, working in publishing was all I had ever known. Deep down I knew that I needed to find a new path, but the prospect felt totally overwhelming. Two different friends in my network suggested an exploratory call with Stacey, but I was initially hesitant because I consider myself a pretty self-sufficient person and wondered what she could do for me that I couldn’t do for myself. After a few too many mind-numbing days spent surfing LinkedIn, The Muse, Glassdoor and Indeed with no forward motion whatsoever, I decided to make the call.  

As it turned out, there was a TON that Stacey could do for me that I couldn’t. Some of it was purely tactical: for instance, she helped me completely revamp my resume and exponentially increase my LinkedIn network. But even more importantly, Stacey politely but pointedly got me to crystallize my priorities and really imagine what various futures could look like. The weekly sessions also provided a great framework for staying cognizant that time was passing—not working in an office, I often felt like I wasn’t sure what day it was. My weeks started to revolve around the Tuesday night sessions, which was helpful.  

In the end, Stacey and her RYC program helped me focus on figuring out what needed figuring out. The group dynamic was great too, I loved the ‘we’re all in this together’ vibe and it made me feel accountable to invest time in the weekly homework. I very highly recommend Stacey to anyone ready to get serious about getting unstuck professionally.

- Jonna Gallo, RYC Winter 2019 

I created Renovate Your Career for accomplished professionals like you who want want to get “unstuck” and rewrite the rules of their career.  

We are in one of the most disrupted and rapidly evolving times in business. Globalization and technology are creating waves of evolution across nearly all industries. I know you see it. While some of it is scary, we are in a time of tremendous opportunity. With the right support and due diligence, YOU can rewrite the rules and design a career that works best for YOU instead the company, the job and the industry.

Can’t I just do this all on my own — by reading a book or looking things up online?

No. You can’t. And I suspect you’ve tried that already.  

Renovate Your Career is a facilitated group program specifically designed for the unique circumstances facing established, successful professionals who are burnt out. This program provides streamlined guidance, accountability and group support – to accelerate the changes you are seeking. And the mentorship I provide is grounded in real world experience from my 20+ year corporate career – which means you will move beyond theory and concepts into actions and results.

Then: Depleted and pissed off.

That’s how I felt for all too often during the last few years of my hotshot New York City advertising career. For years, I worked with the world’s biggest brands on their advertising campaigns. I created partnerships between global media, like Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, CNN Networks, Fast Company and brands like Lexus, Hilton, American Express, and LVMH. For years, the work was thrilling, energizing, and even glamorous.

I rose up the ranks by creating innovative deals that made tons of dough for everyone involved. I navigated airports, recessions, tech bubbles, and industry disruption on a regular basis. Most of the time, I was crushing it – nimbly putting out fires, appeasing grumpy clients and babysitting frazzled colleagues. And while I was lauded for making sense of the chaos, I started to feel like I was being crushed – by politics, 24/7 demands, endless meetings, a brutal commute and a nagging sense that my work had no meaning. <sigh>

Then, it got worse. I stopped sleeping. And when I did sleep, I broke teeth grinding through the stress of my job. I had no time for hobbies and barely knew the community I’d lived in for 5 years. Every day I would wake my daughter just before 7am so I could say goodbye before slogging through my commute. My husband seemed like an old friend I ran into every once in a while, over a pile of laundry or school forms. I swear my cleaning lady spent more time at my house than I did. My career had become painful. I was missing so much of my life working my ass off.

Then one day as I sat listening to a guest speaker at my umpteenth global team meeting, a light bulb went on. Our speaker closed his remarks saying: “the future does not fit into the containers of the past.” Those words hit me like ton of bricks. He was speaking about the advertising business, but to me it was a crystal-clear call to make some changes in my life.

I’ll admit my immediate inspiration faded — as I let the pressure cooker corporate world consume me again. But I kept coming back to that quote again and again. (I even had the quote imprinted on a set of mugs for my team.)

For months, I tried to “will” myself into finding a new career path in my “spare” time – until I finally realized I couldn’t do it alone. So, I built a support system. I worked with a trusted mentor and surrounded myself with new people and new ideas. I read books and steeped myself in TED talks. I worked on my mindset and confidence because I knew there would naysayers who might push me off course. I leaned on anything that fostered forward action towards my goal of a new “container.”

Now: Energized and Inspired

Today, I have a career that energizes and inspires me every day. Many of my skills and expertise areas have translated to my new career vision. In all things (career and otherwise), I strive to honor my core values: discovery, authenticity and connection. When I look back, I can track all of my successes to these three loves, and all my failures to ignoring what matters to my soul. Today, I live my values by helping others discover and design their own blue print for happiness, fulfillment and reward in life and work. 

Can I help you break out of your container and discover what’s next for you?

Stacey