Sarah Brown: Counselor To Entrepreneur
In episode #20 of My 2.0, guest Sarah Brown, Senior Director Sales Enablement at Health Carousel, shares her transition from a career in counseling to entrepreneurship.
Sarah’s journey started with a Master's in counseling. She worked in juvenile corrections with a superintendent who had been there for 20 years and was very experienced. He had a very robust intervention program that she learnt a lot from. But she was burnt out and was looking to make more money. He suggested that she apply for a training manager position. She first thought she shouldn’t, since she didn’t have the skills. But he convinced her how she had already been doing this job, and so when she got the job, she loved it, and excelled in training and development. Fast forward, she now works in a healthcare system running their leadership programs including coaching their teams and executives.
Sarah always knew that she loved variety. She also got the confidence to move into a consulting role outside the organization for 15 years. And decided to open up a blow dry bar in 2015. She invested money, time, heartache, into this and two and a half years later, she closed it and it was devastating. She had really attached personal value, her self worth to the success of the business. And she was embarrassed that people will attribute her to the failed business. At that time, she decided that she was going to separate her self-worth from what she did professionally.
When I asked her for tips on how to solve this problem, she said to start with being aware of the issue. And to take the time to notice triggers, to pause, to reflect on what drives us to feel positive or negative. She also feels that the universe has a great way of redirecting us when we are not in the right space.
Sarah’s biggest challenges during her transitions were the self-limiting beliefs in her head. And the irony that no one cared. If anything, people were envious of her ability to pivot and rebrand herself.
Sarah’s most recent endeavor is 0.0 Living, which helps people reset their relationship with alcohol. And that could look like containment, abstinence or anything else in between. This comes from a personal struggle Sarah had with alcohol and one she saw manifesting with a lot of people during the pandemic.
She created the Failing Forward podcast so she could touch people with inspiring stories of failures that people learn from, and change from. It started with being local for Cincinatians but just this January, Sarah took the podcast global, telling and sharing stories all around the world.
In debunking transition myths, Sarah thinks that we need to understand the value of our transferable skills, and articulate them into the new/next job. And to understand the importance of EQ and not just rely on IQ.
The advice she would give your pre-transition self is to bloom where you're planted, stay planted as long as you can. And move to a new location when you’re ready.
Sarah then asked me a question about what gifts the podcast has given me. To which I said it connected me to many women I learned from, that I would not have met otherwise. And it teaches me to be a more empathic and curious listener.
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