How To Survive and Thrive In Your Career

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Today our topic is how to survive and thrive in your career. A lot of people that I've been talking to lately have been struggling with this. I thought this would be a great topic. And my guest today is Christy Holt. Welcome to the show, Christy. I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today. [00:00:38] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. And just a very quick intro, I guess, a little bit about who I am and why I'm here to have a conversation about this topic. [00:00:49] Speaker B: Sure. [00:00:50] Speaker C: Just to set the stage, as you mentioned, my name is Christy and I call myself the Happiness Hussy. And that is because I am an expert at helping people to create healthy, happy, loving relationships. And I am on a mission to spread happiness across the world. So, yeah, I am really excited to dive into this juicy conversation and hopefully provide a lot of value to your listeners that they can take and implement right away. [00:01:16] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. How are things going with you? What's new in your world? What's happening? Give us the deets, the tea, give us it all. [00:01:22] Speaker C: Oh, well, the most exciting thing happening in my world right now is my next book coming down the pipes, if you will. It is in the editing phase of being prepared for launch this fall. So I am very excited about Love Unstuck being released sometime in the next couple of months. I don't know when this will air or the exact date of my launch for the book, but we'll just safely say fall of 2024. I am so excited. It is jam packed with so many insights and tools to help people create healthy, loving relationships. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Nice. [00:01:56] Speaker C: I just literally can't wait to get it out into the world. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Nice. I can't wait to. I can't wait to check it out. It sounds like it's going to be a. A really good one. If anybody has had a chance to. If you haven't had a chance to check out Christie's videos on YouTube, I definitely would recommend it. She's a sensational speaker, speaks with hurt and passion, which is what drew me to her and what drew me wanting that. What drew me wanting to have her on as a guest. So I'm super, super excited. For what? For what you have on top. [00:02:27] Speaker C: Thank you so much for those kind words. I really appreciate that. [00:02:31] Speaker B: You're very welcome. Before we get to the meat and bones in this conversation, I always have a fun, thought provoking question to ask my guests to get things going. Are you ready for yours today? [00:02:42] Speaker C: I'm ready. Bring it on. [00:02:44] Speaker B: So my question is, if you were a kitchen appliance, which one would you be and why? [00:02:49] Speaker C: Oh, this is fun. Okay. Kitchen appliance. I think I would be. And I'm just thinking through my own kitchen. What appliances do I have in my kitchen? I'm going to go with the Keurig. And while fun fact about me, I switched to decaf about a year and a half ago and I'm not regretting it because I love the taste of my coffee, but I don't love feeling jittery and sweaty. But I'm choosing the coffee pot, I think, because it's like the. The place that feels most uplifting in the morning to me. It's the place that I go to get my, my warm cup of comfort. And so, yeah, I think that's why that just feels best to me. [00:03:32] Speaker B: The place that feels most uplifting. I love that. It's a, it's a, it's a. Almost, almost like you're, you know, everyone has their regular routines in the morning and that's kind. That sounds like you're like, okay, it's my get up and go, how I start my day, what gets, you know, helps me get motivated and my ideas and stuff like that. So I love that. I love that. Great answer. [00:03:55] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:03:55] Speaker B: I was not expecting that one, but that's good. [00:03:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:58] Speaker B: And you. And, and you were quick on that, so I love it. I love it. Thanks for having so much fun with me, Chris. I really appreciate you doing that. So you did explain your business a little bit, but I'd like you to tell us a little about yourself and your why. [00:04:16] Speaker C: Well, my big why is actually just through my own experiences of life. A lot of it comes from a relationship that was not healthy, that did not feel very good for me in a period of my life where I was living in constant overwhelm and anxiety. So a lot of that plays into my why of what I do today. I've also just been through a lot of different things. I actually began my adult life by going to business school and becoming a professional accountant, which maybe, as you listen to this conversation going on, you will think that is quite entertaining because I don't really fit the personality of very many accountants. And the truth Is. And this will tie into our conversation quite nicely today. The truth is, when I first started this job, I remember doing some sort of. And I think, I think I've since been told it might be the disc assessment, some sort of personality assessment. It was colors. That's all I recall from it. And let me just tell you, one of these things was not like the other. And that thing was me. I was over here and everyone else was over there. I specifically remember being in the yellow color, which was like very nurturing and very friendly and outgoing. And the rest of my colleagues were all. I can't remember what color they were, but they were in the analytical, logical, these are the black and white facts and rules category. And I just remember thinking like, oh, boy, like, I am not like these people. Huh? And so a long story short, to kind of cut ahead, and I'm sure we might piece some parts of this back into the magic, but I. That was not a fit for me. I mean, the signs were there. It wasn't a fit. And after I had my children, I decided not to return to that, that line of work specifically, and chose something that just felt a little bit more me, which is why I'm here now writing books and hosting a podcast and doing all of the fun things that I'm doing today. [00:06:30] Speaker B: It's so interesting that when you talk about business school and accounting, you know, some people, like, for myself, you know, I always say, God love people who can work with numbers all day, use spreadsheets and balancing spreadsheets, God love them. It is just not for me. But God love the people who love to do that. I know there's, I know several people who I love that adore that, have a passion for it, and we need people to do that stuff. So I, I love it, but it's just, it's just not for me either. I'd rather be, I'm more of the, the people orientated person. I rather be having conversations and, and, and collaborating and consulting with people rather than sitting in, you know, and, and tabulating, you know, figuring out and balancing stuff and adding and subtracting. It's just not, it's just, it's not my bag of tea. So I just love that. And, you know, it took, it took you a little bit of time to kind of figure out, you know, what worked for you, what best fit you. And, and it sounds like you did for sure. [00:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah. And you know what, Andrew? I'm not gonna lie. I do enjoy a spreadsheet. [00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:40] Speaker C: And it's actually very Convenient for my, my business now that I am able to manage all of the bookkeeping and all the taxes and all those things that go along with it. So that's great. Great. [00:07:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:50] Speaker C: And, you know, there were glimmers, glimmers of things that I really was skilled at and things that I really did enjoy, even in that job that I didn't on the whole enjoy or feel like I was a fit for. I'm sure we'll get round to talking a little bit more about that as we get on. [00:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So, so let's get into the meat and bones of this. So we're talking about surviving and thriving at work. What does it mean in your mind or in your experience, what does it mean to survive and thrive at work? [00:08:23] Speaker C: Well, to me, surviving and thriving are two very different things. Surviving is getting by kind of, you know, bare minimum, probably not feeling great about it, maybe feeling okay, ish about it, but not feeling great, not feeling particularly happy, but, you know, managing on some level. Whereas thriving for me is a whole nother level of really enjoying what you're doing, really experiencing life to the max, really moving way past that sort of rote, automatic autopilot type of survival living and into consciously creating the life that you want for yourself, both, you know, at work, at home, in, in every area of life. And so to me, and to tie this back in a little bit to the previous thing, there were parts of my job in which I thrived. And those parts for me were mentoring, which will come at no surprise given what I do now, mentoring and teaching and working with the new students as they were coming up. And actually, after I left my job as a professional accountant, I did teach some accounting as well at a post secondary level, which I really thoroughly enjoyed. So there were some glimmers of those pieces of what it would look like for me to thrive built in there all along. But unfortunately, in the world of accounting, those are not billable hours and are not nearly appreciated by everyone at the same level. So we'll just, we'll leave that one there. But I think thriving is a matter of you finding something that really lights your being on fire, something that lights you up to do something that, you know, you have no problem rolling out of bed to do in the morning. Whereas what I was doing was really slithering, slithering out of the bed very slowly and having a hard time not thinking. It just sucked. And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners out there that can relate to that, not wanting to get out of Bed in the morning, not enjoying their work, feeling like they're tethered to it, feeling. Feeling like they're in a cycle where they're not sure how they can get out of it because you need the money to pay the bills and, you know, you got the job to get the money. And so what if it's soul sucking? [00:10:50] Speaker B: Right, Right. No, I, I am in agreement with you on that. I am a firm believer and people have heard me say this several times. I am a firm believer in passion. And I feel like you have to have passion for what you do. And I could, you know, you. When I can hear somebody on the other end and I can't see their face and I can hear them talking about what they do, you can almost hear the passion in their voice of what they. What they're doing, that for me is amazing because that just means that they're fully engaged and engulfed in what they're doing. And they enjoy it. They love it. It's what powers them and what motivates them. You talked about what's the most uplifting thing is your Keurig. This is. These are things that you. The job is. It's uplifting for them and it's, you know, they, they're inspired every day and they look forward to the new challenges that they have every day. So I, I fully agree with you and I'm on board with you on, on everything that you had said there. [00:11:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's. Life is just much better when we are living in alignment with what feels good for us because life is too short to go through it suffering, and yet so many of us are. That is essentially what the survival mode is about. It's about staying in the familiar, quote, unquote comfort zone where you know what to expect. And that can lead to a lot of autopilot living where you're not really in control. You're just going through the motions. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:23] Speaker C: We deserve way better than that. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Yep. And passion also forgot to mention as well, too, it also helps us pursue our journey. So we all have careers and we all have, you know, stepping stones and things that we want to do and we want to. What we want to accomplish. And it's passion that helps us to. And drives us and motivates us to. To get to those milestones that we. That we want to achieve. For sure. [00:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So why do you think that people. I'm sure you might see this in your line of work a lot. Why do. Do people struggle to strive and thrive in their careers? [00:13:01] Speaker C: Well, okay. So I saw something very recently that I'm going to sort of tweak for the purpose of responding to your question. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:10] Speaker C: And what they had said was that the quality of their relationships is reflected in their happiness. I countered her by saying, your happiness is reflected by the quality of your relationships, because I believe that happiness is an inside job and happiness is your intended state of being. That's. That's the first piece. That's the cause. Right. Not the effect. And so the same thing is true when it comes to really thriving in your experience as a human being. Whether we're talking about work or relationships or hobbies or other side passions. The point is the same. It's this. Happiness is an inside job. And when we. And then let's take that even one further step back. The key to happiness is being authentically you. Because if you're trying at any point to be anyone, but wholly, unapologetically authentically who you were meant to be, you are kneecapping your ability to be happy. So this authenticity piece plays into the happiness piece, which plays into the success that you experience in those other areas of your life. It's like this relationship with yourself and this internal intention of being happy is the foundation. [00:14:29] Speaker B: I was reading something as well, and what I was reading is, which kind of made me think when I was kind of preparing today, is that, you know, I think people. Or that people struggle because they feel like they. They've gone through the motions of going through their proper education channels, figuring out what they want to do, studying, and then getting into it and doing the job and then realizing that it just wasn't for them, and they did all that time studying, and then they realized, oh, my God, I don't really like what I'm. What I'm doing. So I. I feel like a lot of. And. And this article is saying a lot of cases that, you know, people didn't choose correctly. So because of that, they. They str. They're trying to figure out ways to. To. To. To move forward or to. Or. Or to. To thrive in their career and figure out what their career is going to be, if they're going to stick with that or they're going to move on to something else. So it was an interesting article and an interesting take on that. [00:15:34] Speaker C: Yeah. And are you speaking to me? Because I just told you that story about how I had that very experience. [00:15:42] Speaker B: So. [00:15:42] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. Very relatable. Like the, the wisdom that I would love to impart on that topic. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:50] Speaker C: Would just be that there is no wrong Choice, There is no wrong path. Everything is leading you to where you are meant to be, right here and right now. [00:15:57] Speaker B: Correct. [00:15:57] Speaker C: So to be extremely blind, you really can't totally it up. [00:16:02] Speaker B: No, you can't. [00:16:03] Speaker C: You either you get the intended result or you learn what doesn't work right. Those are the two options. And like, failure is not really a thing to be worried about. Mistakes are literally just missed takes and they are directing you. Failure and mistakes are necessary part in directing you to your success. It's just a matter of flipping the script and how you understand and interpret those quote, unquote wrong choices or mistakes or, you know, quote unquote failures. And I think that even for me, like I said, there was a glimmer of the whole thing wasn't right. I knew that, I knew that that wasn't quite the right fit, but there were pieces that drew me to it. And so instead of focusing on the parts that I didn't like, the parts that I didn't feel were a fit, I shifted my focus onto the things that were a fit that did feel like me, that did light me up. The things that I willingly put my hands up and said, I would love to lead this training session, right, and really focus on how I can create a life with more of those opportunities. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Y. You, you, you took your, you, you thought about what you wanted to do and it, you, you realized that, you know, failure is, you know, if we don't take opportunities and we can't, you know, we're not going to, you know, we don't fail, we're not going to make mistakes if we don't try. And we're, if we're not innovative and creative, we're not going to, we're not going to move forward. So you took the opportunity, you asked a lot of questions, you were curious, and because of that, you figured out, you know, what you really like and enjoy. So. Yeah, absolutely. [00:17:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And ironically enough, after I had kids and I, I took, by the time they went to school, I think I had been out of accounting for probably about seven or eight years at this point. I took a completely different turn and just followed my heart and followed my passion into fitness and nutrition coaching, which was ultimately my foray into coaching and mentorship. But it wasn't new to me because I had been coaching and mentoring new students in accounting. And I actually, my first business that I started when I was 14 years old was teaching piano lessons. So teaching and sharing my wisdom comes very easily and naturally to me. So of course it made sense that As I was very passionate about fitness at that stage of my life, to go down that road and bring that passion into the skills that I had, I love it. [00:18:36] Speaker B: So having conversations. I know you, you have lots of conversations. You talk about all kinds of stuff with your clients and, and you've talked a lot about stuff on podcasts that I've listened to. I'm interested to hear your take on this and what it is, is, you know, as far as the pandemic and as far as our topic, striving and Thriving, do you feel that the pandemic changed the mindset or the workplace behaviors of individuals? [00:19:09] Speaker C: I mean, I think you'd be blind if you thought it didn't have any impact, right? It is impacted everything from top to bottom. And whether you interpret those impacts as positive or negative really largely depends on where you. Because, you know, if you look for the things that made your life better and easier, you'll find them. And if you look for the things that you didn't like, you'll find them. For me personally, this was a big shift because at that point when the pandemic hit, I was a health coach and I was teaching fitness and meeting personal training clients and all of these things that were much more in person. And then it all shut down one fateful Sunday afternoon, like, literally shut right down to nothing. And so I had to do a very quick pivot to move things online. I began teaching online fitness classes as a result, and this really was my first step into more of an online only business model. And I love it. We were joking before we started recording about the online business model. And my favorite perks are that, like, I only have to do the front of my hair, which bonus, that saves me a lot of time. And the pants are optional. So to me, there are huge numbers of perks about things shifting in the pandemic. I love that employers generally became more flexible and what once used to be a hard line of no, that can't be done all of a sudden proved possible as a result. My spouse works from home and he's still working from home Even now in 2024, long after, you know, the, the requirements to be home are here. And I am so grateful for that because that gives us an opportunity to just be around each other that much more. [00:20:54] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think conversations I've been having, not all organizations have changed their behavior. Unfortunately. They've. I think a lot of them have pretty much gone back to, you know, this is the way that it was and things are over and we've gotten through it. Now we need to go back to the regular stuff and the regular ways. And I'm not sure that there is any regular ways. Right. I think when, when stuff happens, I think we have to kind of look at things, situations and go, okay, this situation has changed us a little bit or the situation has changed a little bit and we need to figure stuff out. So, for example, you know, my. Both my parents have. Have. Have passed away and they have left us and my mindset has changed for. Since that. So my thinking or my ways of thinking are different and I've adjusted my thinking because of that. And I know a lot of organizations are not doing that and they, you know, old school is not always the right way. I'm a huge believer in what I call, you know, diversity of thought. I feel that there's different ways of doing things. There's just not one way to. To do something. There's different ways to look at stuff. As long as we're open to here other people's ideas and thoughts and not bash them and not say, oh, that's a terrible idea. Just listen, hear people out and listen to what their thoughts are. And if you need to make adjustments to it, then make adjustments to it. So I think again, through conversation I've had, I think they need to be a little bit more open to. To the way that things have changed and be adaptable and understand everybody's not everyone's gonna be different. So there's gonna be people that are gonna be okay going back to work and going back into their regular routine and striving and working to. To thrive in their career. And then there's people who are gonna go back to work and not that they're not thriving, but they're okay to do what they're doing before. They don't need to have any extras. They don't need to have the bells and whistles. They just need to go in at 8, finish at 4, and go home to their families. And then there's the people who want to stay at home. So I think we need to, you know, make adjustments. Not every person is going to like the same things or is motivated for the same things. So that's kind of what I've been kind of hearing on me, you know, on me and in through conversations that I've been having. [00:23:57] Speaker C: I mean, absolutely. And I mean, here's the thing. Change is hard for everyone, right? Whether it's positive or not. And so like you say, this shift requires people to take a look at what's going on for them. Right. There is no regular ways, no normal quote, unquote. There's no one way, one size fits all. There are so many different ways. And the real question is, how can we shift? How can we make that work for us? And innovation requires an open curiosity to explore different perspectives, different ideas, different opinions. And the more we can lean into that curiosity and that open willingness to learn from other people, the more we're going to be able to grow together. We are stronger together. But, you know, we have to listen to one another to really get that understanding so that we can build together. [00:24:55] Speaker B: What is one takeaway that you want our audience to get from this episode in this conversation? [00:25:03] Speaker C: Oh, well, this may feel like it's coming out of left field, but I will circle it back and make sure it connects to this. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:11] Speaker C: The most important relationship that you ever are going to have is the one that you have with yourself. This is foundational. And if that felt like it came out of left field, because I'm talking about relationship and like loving and appreciating yourself, here's why. Because that relationship with yourself is then mirrored in your relationships with everything else. With other people, with your work, with your business, if you have a business. Your relationship with food or the media or with your government or anything really outside of yourself is a reflection of that internal state, bringing this back to the happiness. Because happiness has the in the house, we want to choose things that are really aligned for us. Happiness is our intended state of being, which means we don't actually have to work for it like we've been led to believe. [00:26:05] Speaker B: Right? [00:26:05] Speaker C: We have been led to believe that we need to chase it, that we need to attain it, that we need to become someone else in order to experience it. And I call on all of that happiness is your state of being your natural state, your intended state. What happens, though, is we get all of this other stuff in the way. We get distractions, we get traumatic experiences, we get other people's perspectives. We have all of this stuff we have. Attachment to different outcomes gets in our way. We have maybe complicated relationships with other people. And this can all leave us believing that our problems are out there, out there somewhere, that they're a relationship problem or a money problem or government problem. It's not true. All of those problems seem like they're external problems. The root of them is within you. The real problem is that you're suffering from what I call it an identity problem. And this is knowing who you are. And the process of knowing who you are means Unlearning, releasing, forgetting all of the stuff that you are not, releasing the suffering, releasing the pain, releasing the expectations and the shoulds and the I must in order to let that true light of yourself shine through and for you to operate in this intended space of happiness. And if happiness isn't a word that resonates with you, you can sub that for love, peace, joy, bliss, freedom, whatever feels really good to you. That's your starting point. And the more time we can spend centered in that space of our true nature, the more we are going to actually experience the ways of being that most of us would say that we long for. Right? So instead of getting distracted and getting sucked down into external things, which is basically an illusion, creating suffering for us, we can stay steady in that home based state of happiness, love, peace, joy, and then, and then act from that space which allows us to create the life, the love, the legacy that we truly want in our heart. [00:28:30] Speaker B: I love everything that you said there and I, I knew, I kind of had a feeling where you were going when you talked about self and then you, I kind of felt like you were kind of going in the direction. And I'm a firm believer that everything is kind of intertwined as well. Yeah, things are intertwined with ourselves, our conversations are intertwined, situations are intertwined and topics are intertwined as well. So I really feel you hit the nail on the, on the head right there on that. And I'm a firm believer in everything that you, that you, that you said there. And it was such a great way to, to close out final thoughts and that I, I love that. Thank you so much. I want to take the time to thank you. This was a really good conversation, I think was in depth. I think we hit everything on, on the button here and I think people will kind of have a little bit better understanding as far as, you know, what this means and, and what we can, and why we struggle and what we can do to, to, to get out of that, that rut that we kind of feel. So I want to thank you so much for your time. I mentioned earlier that, you know, I am a big fan of yours. I really admire, I've listened to a lot of your stuff and a lot of your work that you do and I was drawn to a lot of the stuff that you'd said and I was drawn to you because of your compassion and your, your overall vulnerability. So, so again, thank you so much for your time today. It's really appreciated. [00:30:06] Speaker C: Thank you so, so, so much for first of all creating a platform for people to share their wisdom, because the world needs that. And the world needs every individual voice. That's. That's what the diversity is about, right? Showing up as our unique, authentic selves and sharing literally what only we can share from our own experience and perspective. So thank you so much for creating a platform. And thank you so much for inviting me to be one of the people who gets to share on your platform. I am so grateful for the opportunity. [00:30:39] Speaker B: The honor was mine, Christy. On behalf of myself and my girls, Christy, I would like to thank you all for listening today and until next time, be safe. And remember, everyone, that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you. [00:30:53] Speaker A: Have been listening to. 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