September 18, 2025 • 49 mins
What happens when a federal program manager leaves government service and turns her insider knowledge into a business that helps others thrive?
In this episode of Your Next Success, Dr. Julia Barzyk shares her transition from managing a $6M+ geoscience and engineering research portfolio at the U.S. Army Research Office to founding Wise Investigator—a strategic coaching practice for university researchers seeking funding.
You’ll hear about:
- The moment Julia realized it was time to make a change
- The behind-the-scenes realities of federal research funding
- What most scientists misunderstand about proposal strategy
- How she built a business around a gap she saw in academia
- How career transitions affect identity—and what helped her find peace with leaving a prestigious role
- Her perspective on authentic success now, as a business owner and mentor
Julia’s story is a powerful example of how technical expertise, when paired with vision and empathy, can be reshaped into something deeply fulfilling—and wildly impactful.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-barzyk/
https://www.youtube.com/@wiseinvestigator
https://wiseinvestigator.beehiiv.com/
Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode.
Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/
Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
What becomes possible when deepexpertise meets a clear need and
you choose to build what's beenmissing?
Today, I'm joined by Dr.
Julia Barzyk.
She's an amazing individual.
Julia is a research strategist,former federal program manager,
and the founder of WiseInvestigator.
(00:28):
During her decade at the US ArmyResearch Office, she managed a
high impact portfolio ingeoscience and civil
engineering, leading all phasesof the basic research funding
process, from setting strategicpriorities and shaping
multimillion dollar topic callsto evaluating outcomes and
influencing the direction ofnational science investments.
(00:51):
Now through Wise Investigator,she equips academic researchers
with the strategic insight andskills they need to pursue
funding successfully.
Her one-on-one programs arebuilt from the inside out,
directly shaped by herexperience navigating the
federal system, and designed tofill a gap that many researchers
(01:14):
don't even realize is holdingthem back.
Caroline (01:17):
This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your
host, Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
I'm a life first career coachand strategist on a mission to
normalize questioning yourcareer because I believe each of
us is made on purpose for apurpose only we can fulfill.
The longer we live out ofalignment with who we are, what
(01:38):
we do best, and why we're here,the more we miss out.
And the more the world missesout on what only we can give.
The Your Next Success Podcast iswhere we explore how to build a
career that truly fuels yourlife.
We talk about self-discovery,smart job, search strategies,
(01:59):
professional growth, and you'llhear stories from people who've
navigated big career transitionsthemselves so you can see what
it's really like to make boldchanges and feel inspired to
create your own version ofauthentic success.
One that is aligned, meaningful,and truly yours.
(02:21):
In this episode, Julia and Italk about her unique path from
geology to national researchstrategy.
What it was like shapingscientific direction at a
federal level.
The moment she saw a clear gapin researcher development and
chose to address it, how shebuilt Wise Investigator with
(02:42):
clarity, focus, and a commitmentto real impact, and why
understanding the system fromthe inside out changes
everything.
If you've ever seen somethingmissing in your field and felt
the nudge to do something aboutit, you'll appreciate this
conversation.
Welcome, Julia, for the Your Next Success podcast.
I'm super excited to have youhere and to be able to share
(03:05):
more of your story.
Julia Barzyk (03:07):
Thank you.
Good to be here.
Caroline (03:09):
I'd love to start with some of your career story,
career journey, and then we'llget into what we're doing now,
how you help people.
And maybe even some listeners onthe podcast would love to be
able to work with you.
But when you were little, whatis it that you thought you
wanted to do?
Julia Barzyk (03:26):
I had no idea.
I was a child who liked manydifferent subjects, often
dependent on having a reallygreat teacher or something just
catching my attention, whetherit was history or math or
english or wood shop.
These were all things that Ienjoyed at various stages of
childhood, and I was not a childwho had an idea in mind of what
(03:53):
she wanted to do.
So there was really nothing thatwas speaking to me when I was a
very young person.
Caroline (04:00):
But nothing but yet everything at the same time.
So it seems like you had a lotof curiosity and a lot of
interest, but you didn't confineyourself.
Wood shop, what did you make inwood shop?
Julia Barzyk (04:11):
I really enjoyed making the bowl as well as a
cutting board.
Yeah, I like hands-on activitiesand so that did end up playing
out.
Maybe we'll talk about geologyand then lab work.
So it was that hands-on aspectthat I enjoyed, not being stuck
in a chair at a desk, but movingaround.
I enjoyed that.
Caroline (04:31):
Nice.
That's cool.
Do you still have your bowl?
Julia Barzyk (04:35):
No, but we have the cutting board.
Caroline (04:38):
That's awesome.
I want to see it sometime.
So then as you got into highschool, did the interest change
or still kind of wide open?
Really
Julia Barzyk (04:48):
wide open.
It wasn't until I was abouthalfway through college and I
decided on a geology major, soit was geology that spoke to me,
and it wasn't even because of alove of science, which surprises
a lot of people.
It was because I loved beingoutdoors, and why would I want
to sit in a classroom copyingthings off the blackboard or
(05:10):
just have my head buried inbooks when I could be on a
camping trip in upstate New Yorkand I could be sitting in a
quarry.
Examining rock after rock, youknow, smashing'em open to look
for really cool fossils or goingout to the Adirondacks to look
for garnet.
So that was what drew me to whatI ended up pursuing for, you
(05:33):
know, a significant amount of myeducation.
It was the love of beingoutdoors and love of rocks and
geology that got me going.
Caroline (05:41):
If part of your class or part of your lab work could
be going and smashing openthings, who wouldn't love that?
So you then got your undergradin geology and then what was it
that made you want to continueon with school?
Julia Barzyk (05:56):
Yeah, so because I only found geology about halfway
through college, I was reallyjust kind of getting going with
it.
So for that reason, I decided topursue the master's because I'd
found something I reallyenjoyed.
I seemed to be pretty good atit.
I had encouragement fromprofessors.
So it made sense to justcontinue on those studies.
So it was really just gettinggoing at that stage.
(06:17):
So I did pursue a Master's.
Caroline (06:20):
Did you know anybody beyond your teachers and
professors?
Did you know anybody that had ageology related career?
Julia Barzyk (06:28):
This is an interesting answer.
It's yes and no.
So my mother stayed home with meonce I was born.
She did not go back to work andshe stayed home with me and then
my sister for the remainder ofher childhood.
But my mother had a master'sdegree in geology.
Caroline (06:49):
That's cool.
Julia Barzyk (06:50):
so there is that connection and she did have a
cool rock collection.
Actually.
It was a lot of fossils that Ienjoyed looking at, but she
wasn't working and didn't talkmuch about her education or
career.
But of course I knew she was ageologist and she had that
training.
So yeah, that was with me as agirl who grew up in that next
(07:13):
generation.
In a way, I feel like I was ableto carry on with my education
and career further than she was.
Although there were people ofher generation who did carry on
their careers, it was morecommon to to stay home, and
that's what she did at thattime.
Caroline (07:30):
Did she take you on cool field trips?
Julia Barzyk (07:32):
Not really.
I mean, we always enjoyed beingin nature, but we didn't do
extreme, like you see familiesout now doing all kinds of maybe
overnight camping or, you know,hiking or that kind of stuff.
Backpacking, no.
Just enjoyed being in our yard.
Gardening, being out withanimals like dogs and other
(07:55):
little critters we might havehad.
And just enjoying the outdoors,enjoying nature.
But it was pretty tame.
Yeah, nothing real extreme.
Caroline (08:04):
As you were getting your Master's, what was it that
made you say, let me get a PhD.
And did the school you got yourmaster's, did it also have a PhD
program or'cause you moved,right?
Yeah.
What happened
Julia Barzyk (08:16):
was I went down to University of Florida to do a
master's and my field work wasactually in southwest Montana.
So that was really cool.
A beautiful part of the country,of course.
And then I was thinking aboutgetting a job.
So what happened was I startedto realize that a lot of the
jobs that people were gettingwith the master's in geology.
(08:40):
Were not jobs that wereparticularly appealing to me.
So I decided to do anothermaster's in the area of
environmental science and policybecause I felt like that would
prepare me for the workforcemuch better.
I didn't necessarily want to bein like a lab technician type
role.
'cause going back to my earlierinterests, I had lots of other
(09:01):
things I was interested in andthe policy aspect, I was
interested in learning moreabout that.
So I went to another school todo that at University of
Chicago, and as part of thatprogram, I had to take geology
or geoscience, say coursework,which I was already very
familiar with.
I mean, there was still a lotmore to learn, a lot courses I'd
(09:23):
never taken before, et cetera.
But, I just thought, oh, that'spart of the requirement, but
really what I'm doing is gettingthis policy education and
preparing for a job in eitherthe private sector, like
environmental consulting orpublic sector perhaps, but no
more grad school.
I was thinking this was it, andI just loved the coursework and
I had one really good professorthere that when I was back in
(09:45):
geoscience, I realized this isactually my home, at least for
now, and decided to pursue thePhD at that point because there
was just too much interestingstuff going on and too many
great opportunities to engagewith research there.
Again, with such excellentfaculty and mentorship available
that it would've been crazy tonot pursue that when I had that
(10:08):
opportunity, and I really lovedthat.
Caroline (10:12):
And then after you got your PhD, then what?
Julia Barzyk (10:17):
Yeah, so that was a move for our family because my
husband, who I met in themaster's program at Chicago.
Caroline (10:25):
Tell us this, because here's the thing, folks.
We have our, what we think we'regoing to do, and then sometime
we meet this amazing person andthen we have to consider others.
Julia Barzyk (10:37):
Yeah, well he and I met as grad students at
Chicago.
He also pursued the PhD ingeoscience.
He graduated, I believe, onequarter ahead of me.
So he was offered a job at theUS EPA down here in North
Carolina.
And I did not want to stay in acold region if I didn't have to,
(11:01):
and at that point we had ourson, he was born in a, let's say
my last year of grad school, orour last year of grad school.
So when Tim got offered thatposition at EPA down here, I was
encouraging him to stronglyconsider that'cause I liked the
idea of moving to NorthCarolina.
So we moved with a, not quite,yeah, about six month old, maybe
(11:23):
six.
Caroline (11:25):
Wow.
6 month
Julia Barzyk (11:25):
old baby.
And that's when we started ourlife in North Carolina.
And then I was able to get a jobat the EPA as well, not working
with him, but that was meetingthe right person and learning
about an opportunity that wasopen and that was very
fortuitous because I needed ajob at that point.
(11:46):
I had graduated and it was timeto get to work.
We had a child to support and alife to start.
So that was some lab work andwas more of an environmental
type project, not a geoscience,you know, it's related, right?
But it was something that I wasgrateful for the opportunity to
(12:07):
pursue because it opened myexperience up to a new
organization, working more withchemists working in a federal
agency.
So all of that was a newexperience for me and as we
talk, you'll probably see that Iam someone who's very high
(12:30):
openness to experience, right?
So when i'm presented with a newopportunity, even if I don't
really understand what it'sabout fully, if I feel like
there's something I can learnhere, I see this as a quality
environment.
I see there could be mentorship.
I'm going to generally want topursue that or maybe, maybe I
wouldn't right now at thisstage.
But in the past, right, for thefirst half of my career, I
Caroline (12:52):
Yeah.
Definitely
Julia Barzyk (12:53):
jump on those opportunities.
So the opportunity to do thepostdoc at the EPA was like all
in.
Like, let's go ahead and givethis a go and see what it's like
because I didn't have theexperience to assess it.
I hadn't worked in a federalagency before, so I just had to
go with it and, and see what itwas all about.
Caroline (13:11):
And then so postdoc was a set amount of years of
time that you committed to aheadof time, or how did that
actually
Julia Barzyk (13:17):
I think it was renewing
Caroline (13:17):
work?
Julia Barzyk (13:18):
year to year, and I ended up being there for about
three years, and then I saw theposition open at a editing
company, which at that pointthey were calling themselves a
startup, but they had dozens ofemployees.
So it wasn't that tiny, but theyhad grown quickly and it was a
remote work even though it waslocal to the area.
(13:38):
And that was at a time when thatremote, those remote jobs were
not so common.
So that was another thing that Ijumped on to say, Hey, I've
never worked in the privatesector.
This is a small company.
This sounds interesting and it'sdifferent than what I've done
before.
So why don't I give that a go?
And that's how I ended up inthat role, which I was only in
(13:59):
for about 18 months, but likemany things in life you learn
later that even a short stintlike that could provide you very
valuable experience because whenI, a decade plus later was
thinking about starting my ownbusiness.
Even that short amount of timethat I worked at that company
(14:22):
gave me very useful perspectiveon how you might go about
starting a business thatprovides a service to the
academic community, workflow,remote, a distributed team, all
that kind of stuff.
Definitely it put that in mymind, right?
For all those years that I hadthat experience, and I know that
(14:42):
that helped me to know, to havethe confidence and understanding
of how I could assemblesomething many years later on my
own.
Caroline (14:50):
And when was your daughter born?
Julia Barzyk (14:53):
She was born when I was in the position at the
EPA.
Caroline (14:58):
Then having this remote position, you didn't have
two kids at home, did you?
Julia Barzyk (15:04):
Well, we,
Caroline (15:05):
Or did you?
Julia Barzyk (15:06):
My mother-in-law is
Caroline (15:06):
us that.
Yeah.
living
Julia Barzyk (15:08):
with us and she was providing
Caroline (15:10):
Okay.
Julia Barzyk (15:10):
a lot of childcare.
So even though I was in a remoteposition, that job was extremely
demanding and the workload wasvery high.
So it's one of those exampleswhere people are thinking
they're wrong, right?
If they're thinking, oh, you'reworking remotely, you know, it's
all comfortable.
Some remote positions are, canbe the most grueling, if we want
(15:34):
to use that word, because youcould just be tied to the
computer all day.
It doesn't really matter thatyou're home.
Caroline (15:41):
How did that work then?
So your mother-in-law was justamazing at keeping your kids
occupied and you know, even nowI have challenges of, working at
home with family around, becauseI guess I just set myself up to
be the person that you go to
Julia Barzyk (16:00):
Yeah.
That was
Caroline (16:01):
yeah.
Julia Barzyk (16:01):
And they did go to preschool, so they had
activities, so they weren't justhome all day.
They were in and out fromactivities, or she would take
them to her church and keep themoccupied that way.
So they were busy.
Yeah.
Caroline (16:17):
And so you were able to focus on this extremely
demanding job
Julia Barzyk (16:21):
Yes.
Caroline (16:22):
So why did you leave that or tell us the story of
leaving that and then whathappened?
Julia Barzyk (16:27):
Yeah.
Well, I decided to move on fromthere because I saw that the
direction I would've gone interms of growth or, you know,
moving up, wasn't really thekind of position that I was
interested in, and I actuallyfound that later in my career as
well, because sometimes we aredoing well in a role.
(16:50):
We have that potential to bepromoted or move in some way,
and we may even be encouraged tobe doing that, but if you can
see what those responsibilitiesare in that next position, and
it's not aligning with what youthink you want to be doing, then
it's maybe not a promotion thatyou want to take or pursue.
(17:12):
So I filled out an application,'cause I started looking for
other opportunities just on jobboards and all that, like
everybody else just starting tobrowse around and I filled out
an application for a positionthat was as a contractor, so it
was with a private company, butit'd be working on site at the
US Army Research Office.
(17:34):
And I filled that out.
I did not understand much aboutwhat the job would be, but you
can always fill out a web form,upload your resume, and soon
after I got a call from thehiring manager, started talking
to him about what is this actualjob?
And it sounded really great.
So I pursued that through aseries of interviews and ended
(17:56):
up in that position and that'swhere I really grew my career.
That was a very important stepfor me and responsible really
for where I am right now withthe years I spent first as a
contractor and then as a federalemployee at the US Army Research
Office.
Caroline (18:13):
So you got this opportunity and so what was that
job though?
Julia Barzyk (18:17):
Yeah.
Caroline (18:17):
Like?
'cause it seems kind ofnebulous.
Like there's the government,there's money, there's research
and what?
Julia Barzyk (18:23):
Each of the three services, meaning Army, Navy,
and Air Force, has what's calleda research office, and so this
is an office of people who arenot doing lab work.
Of course, Department of Defensehas many scientists and
engineers that work in labs, butthe people at these research
offices, including Army ResearchOffice, manage research that's
(18:43):
performed at universities.
So the government, includingDepartment of Defense and Army,
make grants to universityfaculty because they're running
their labs, they're teaching,and they have students and
they're doing research and theyhave to support these students
and that research by winninggrant money.
(19:04):
And these grants are a veryimportant part of higher
education overall.
This is how research gets done.
It's largely funded by thefederal government.
(19:59):
So I came in bringing myexpertise as a geoscientist to
manage a portfolio of theseresearch projects in geoscience
and that expanded into civilengineering.
So I would learn what are theArmy challenges related to
things like, for example, groundvehicle mobility.
How are vehicles moving acrossthe terrain?
(20:21):
And how are the environmentalconditions in an urban
environment affecting soldiersthere or drones?
Things like that.
So there's many different needsthat the Army would have related
to geo and environmentalproblems.
So I would go around todifferent sites, Army labs and
(20:44):
learn what are their challenges,what are they working on?
And then I would also travelaround to universities and learn
what's the cutting edge researchthat our faculty are working on
in the university.
And then I'd talk to them aboutthe opportunities to get funding
from the government.
Of course, faculty are alwaysvery interested to hear about
that because they're underpressure to get these funds.
(21:05):
So I served as a bit of amatchmaker to find the
challenges that Army was facing,find out where that new cutting
edge research is happening, andthen managing the process of
talking to those researchersabout their ideas, encouraging
them to submit a proposal wherethey have to write a formal
(21:27):
document up and propose whatthey want to do with the budget
and all that.
Then I would manage the processof getting expert reviewers on
that.
So we'd send that out to subjectmatter experts.
They comment and provide theirrecommendation, should this be
funded or not?
And I would assemble all ofthat, synthesize all that
information.
Take what I knew about the Armyneeds and how relevant this
(21:49):
could be to addressing those.
And then I would make myrecommendation, I recommend to
fund this project, or Irecommend not to fund the
project that goes through anapproval process and
contracting, and those awardsare made.
Caroline (22:03):
Wow.
So your first exposure to theArmy Research Office was working
on behalf of a company that hada grant or something and then
you worked at another one, andthen you worked at the Army
Research.
So let's clarify that a tiny,
Julia Barzyk (22:19):
Okay.
A tiny bit.
Yeah.
Many places in the federalgovernment will have short term
staffing needs, and you couldalmost, it's not contractually,
it's not, say temp services,right?
Temporary employees.
If you think back to the olddays, you could hear about
people working as a temp, right?
A temporary employee.
Caroline (22:38):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (22:39):
So, oh, this person is out on maternity
leave, so we're gonna bringsomebody in for three months and
they're gonna fill that role.
So this is not exactly that likethat, but it could be similar in
that it takes a long time forthe government to hire people,
or they may need people on ashort term basis, don't want to
commit to having a full-timeemployee forever.
(23:00):
So they contract with defensecontractors largely, who will
provide staffing these people toserve as subject matter experts.
And they oftentimes are workingin the building.
Like at EPA, there would beenvironmental consulting
companies that are on site atthe EPA and they have offices
and they work in the lab there.
And that contract may be upevery five years or so.
(23:24):
They compete that contract.
So this was a similar typescenario.
There were others that wereworking with this company in the
building, and actually partwaythrough the time I was there,
the contract did change.
So I was working for a differentcompany.
So I technically worked for twocompanies.
Caroline (23:39):
Oh
Julia Barzyk (23:40):
when I was a contractor.
And this is a good thing forlisteners to know because there
can be kind of like back doorsinto opportunities because you
may not be able to get a job atthe big tech company, for
example, that you're aspiringto, but they very well can have
contractors that they work withand you can learn who are they.
(24:05):
Is there an opportunity there?
And it could serve as a step togetting a job with the bigger
organization perhaps.
Caroline (24:14):
So you were at technically two different
companies, but really it was onelarger project that kind of
continued and then how did youfind out about the full-time
permanent job at the ArmyResearch Lab?
How'd that work out?
I was
Julia Barzyk (24:29):
what they call direct hired into the federal
position.
So if you meet certain criteria,perhaps it could be having an
advanced degree, veryspecialized subject matter
expertise, which I had as havinga PhD in geoscience.
Then they may be able to use aspecial mechanism to hire you.
(24:54):
And so I went through thatprocess and I had to be
evaluated and it had to beapproved at many different
levels, but it was, and so I wasable to be hired on as a federal
employee.
Caroline (25:06):
And so then you were there for, you know, a little
over technical as the full-timeemployee for a bit over seven
and a half years.
How did your career develop andcontinue to grow while you were
there?
And then what made you startthinking about other things?
Julia Barzyk (25:24):
It was a fantastic opportunity.
I'm very grateful for theopportunity that I had there.
I had really great mentors and Idid not know much about the
military at all.
I had not had much exposure tothe military.
Some family members had servedin the military, but more in the
distant past.
(25:45):
I had a lot to learn, you know,culturally and the conventions.
And I had, again, excellentmentors who supported me through
that.
So the opportunity to becomefamiliar and then become an
expert with DOD over time.
And I also, because I startedthere as a young woman and at
(26:08):
that point too, not just young,but appearing, probably even
younger than I was at thatpoint, being a small person,
again, looking young at thatpoint.
The fact that I had a title thatwas important, right?
Quote unquote.
It helped a lot at that stage ofthe career because I would
travel to universities andexplain what my role was and
(26:32):
people really paid attention.
Of course, there would besometimes comments where people
would say, Oh, you look tooyoung to have this job or
something like that, which I'msure you've experienced
Caroline (26:43):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (26:44):
And it's weird, but I had a lot less of that I
think because people understood,oh, there's money here.
This person's in a position ofauthority.
And so that made my life easierand it let me grow into that
position I believe more quicklythan some young women who can be
(27:05):
qualified and you know, verywell qualified, but still be
kind of fighting to be seen orheard or taken seriously.
Or they're 35 years old andpeople think they're 25.
Right?
Caroline (27:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (27:16):
That was very fortunate that I had that going
for me in the position and Igrew so much because I was
constantly learning.
Every time I talked to newfaculty I would be learning
about new research areas and Iwas the only person for a long
time in environmental orgeoscience in that organization.
(27:40):
So that meant everything thatcame to me, whether it was on
something related to ice sheetsor atmospheric science or
surface processes, seismology,like these are all very distinct
disciplines within earth andenvironmental science, and no
one would be expected to be anexpert on all of them, but I was
(28:00):
the point person for all thosetopics and more so I was just
constantly learning about newscience, new ideas, and that
just helps anybody grow.
So.
I was very, again, fortunate.
I can't really overstate thatand the gratitude I have for
having that experience now astime went on, we went through
(28:24):
the COVID years, we were allworking remotely, and that was
with a workforce that didn'thave a culture or established
ways of working remotely.
We were really all in the officefive days a week or we were on
travel.
So that was a change that wasvery abrupt and everybody had to
figure out how to make thathappen.
And I think during that time, itwas because of it, but also
(28:47):
because of other changes,reorganization, different things
happening.
We started to get a lot moreresponsibilities that were of an
internal nature.
So more internal reporting, moremeetings that were internal with
other Army people rather thanwhat I really enjoyed, which was
(29:08):
going to on the Army site visitsand working with the faculty.
So at the same time, I saw thatadvancement there meant moving
more into internal management.
I keep saying the word internal,but,
Caroline (29:24):
Right, right.
Julia Barzyk (29:25):
Going,
Caroline (29:26):
But there's themes here.
There's themes of, even as achild, you loved learning about
lots and lots of things.
Regardless, you could get intoit and get excited.
And so then throughout schooland in your jobs, you have this
opportunity to keep learningabout new and different things.
Plus also with this externalfacing, getting to communicate,
(29:49):
talk with people, traveloutdoors as needed, all of these
things help utilize your giftsand talents.
So then when it started tobecome more internal facing,
meaning not getting out, meetingnew people, learning a lot of
new things, having thoseinteractions that drove you, you
started questioning whether youwanted to continue.
(30:12):
Is that fair?
Julia Barzyk (30:14):
it.
And yes, I had been, again, ahands-on person that went into
the field.
Did that work.
Then I was working withinstrumentation in the lab,
which, you know, is also veryhands-on and then grew into,
like you said, the travel, so,and the novelty.
So that had been a theme thatthen between staying home for
COVID and changes within theorganization.
(30:35):
I just didn't know that it wasfitting me as well as it had in
the past, and I wasn't havingany problems at all.
In fact, I was doing quite well.
So that's where you might thinkabout pursuing a promotion, like
I said before, but if you'relooking at what that new role
would be because you wantsomething new and you're saying,
well, that's not really movinginto the duties that I feel most
(30:58):
aligned with.
It could leave you confused orquestioning well, what would be
the right step?
So at the same time, I had beenhaving conversations with PI's,
and by PIs I mean the faculty,the researchers.
So where could they learn moreabout the research funding
process?
(31:18):
And I would Google for things,where can they get information?
Because I could see they werestruggling to know how to
interact with our organization.
And I realized, well, they don'thave any training on how to do
this, and I'm googling I'm notfinding resources to point them
to.
And I was in a position as afederal employee where I had to
spend the same amount of timewith everybody.
(31:39):
I had to be fair with everybody.
So I couldn't take somebody andsay, I'll meet with you for a
day and we'll go over all this.
I just had to point them toresources.
I could answer their questionsand move on to the other
inquiries that I needed toaddress.
So that's where things startedmoving in my mind to say, wow,
maybe I'm the person who issupposed to create these
(32:01):
resources.
Go, and you're saying, well, whydon't we have this?
Why don't we have that?
Caroline (32:05):
Yeah.
Then
Julia Barzyk (32:06):
it might hit you.
Well, we don't, but maybe youcould create that.
So that's where I got the ideato go off on my own and, and
start a business.
Caroline (32:14):
Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah.
So you realize there was a need.
Man, I wish you know God oruniverse, how come you didn't
have this done?
And it's like, ha ha ha.
Guess what?
You get to be that person.
How?
Hard was it?
Or how long did you think aboutleaving before you strategically
(32:37):
planned it out?
Like when, when did thesethoughts first start to come?
And then how long was it beforeacting type of deal.
Julia Barzyk (32:44):
Just about six months.
Caroline (32:46):
You're so quick.
Julia Barzyk (32:47):
Yeah.
Caroline (32:47):
You're so quick.
Julia Barzyk (32:48):
I am.
Caroline (32:49):
You don't mess around.
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (32:50):
Yeah.
Caroline (32:51):
So you decided maybe you wanted to make your own
company and maybe you wanted toleave this stable at the time,
government job.
How did your family or friendsreact to that?
Julia Barzyk (33:08):
Well, my father was self-employed.
He was in the area of marketresearch.
Basically not his whole career.
He had started out working in adagencies, stuff like that.
But for most of my life, he hadsupported our family through
self-employment.
So he worked primarily on hisown.
(33:29):
You know, he had team of peoplehe worked with, but not
employees.
So I think that must have beenin my mind, that you could earn
a living this way, even thoughit was a totally different
industry.
I think that that helped me haveconfidence that it could be done
again, even
Caroline (33:46):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (33:46):
working in a totally different kind of role,
different industry, all of that.
But I know that was in my mind.
My husband is very supportiveand he knows I'm a very hard
worker, so when I said, Ibelieve I can do this, meaning
that I'll do the work to get itgoing.
He did understand that I reallywould.
(34:09):
I was not gonna say, oh, I havethis idea.
I'm going to quit my job andthen try to figure out if I'm
really gonna do it or look forother positions.
He knew I had that commitmentand that I'd narrowed in on what
I wanted to do.
So he was extremely supportive.
And of course, I want to saythis here because people have
(34:31):
given me a lot of praise forstepping out and doing this, and
I understand that it's inspiringperhaps to see somebody take
that risk and make it work out.
But my husband has beensupporting us for the last
couple years you know,emotionally with me, right?
(34:52):
And financially because hestayed in his position.
So that's really important too,that support.
And it may not be seen, but hissupport, which comes in many
forms, did allow me to take thisrisk.
Caroline (35:08):
Yeah.
Yes.
When somebody wants to quit astable job and just dive in the
deep end, not even sure if thereis a flotation device, having a
spouse who's supportive, stable,and has that ability to be
supportive in all ways really,really does make it possible.
So tell us, what is your companycalled and what do you do?
(35:32):
Who do you serve?
Julia Barzyk (35:34):
The business is Wise Investigator, and we chose
that name, or I chose that namebecause we want to support
investigators, meaning principalinvestigators, they can be
called, or we could just callthem faculty researchers who are
at an early stage of theircareers and they need to learn
many soft skills as well as hardskills that are related to
(36:00):
getting their research fundedbecause while they do a lot of
teaching and they have manyresponsibilities, this funding
is expected of them at mostschools and even at universities
that may be smaller and they'remore teaching focused, they're
still encouraged to win thesefunds and we want to prepare
(36:21):
them to have success with thisby imparting this wisdom and
helping holding their handsthrough acquiring this wisdom
because they're at a stage oftheir careers where it's not
like you want to be a goodstudent anymore where, oh, I
just need to accomplish allthese things on this checklist
and I'm gonna get my good gradeand I'm going to move on.
You have to use discernment.
You have to have a perspectiveof a mature professional to
(36:44):
figure out how should I investmy time?
What's the best strategy here?
So that's why we want to helpthese people become wise to the
ways of winning funding.
So how we do this is we bringthem on, we have a fully
one-on-one program where weprovide coaching, we put them
through a curriculum ofmaterials to get what they need
(37:05):
under their belts as far asacquiring those skills.
And we support them inpreparation and submission of a
proposal.
So this is a very comprehensiveprogram.
We're not just focused in onwhat some people call grant
writing, where you just say,look, let me try to make this
document as strong as it can be.
Now grant writing skills aresuper important, but we're
looking at the holisticperspective of everything from
(37:27):
getting a LinkedIn profileoptimized to learning how to
contact and have meetings withthe people you need to be
talking to, all that stuff.
So that's what we offer.
Caroline (37:39):
So kind of like that behind the scenes concierge
almost of here's how youactually want to, or like a wise
mentor.
Let me tell you how it reallyworks, because I imagine at
universities, even if there areestablished professors who've
had lots and lots of ability toacquire grants, they may not
(38:01):
have the time or desire to put anew person under their wing.
So you provide that missinglink.
Julia Barzyk (38:09):
Yes.
And there are not to get too inthe weeds, but there are very
talented people who work at theuniversities who help with these
in these roles.
And they can provide thismentorship, but they don't have
bandwidth because there may be astaff of five of these talented,
wonderful people and they'reserving hundreds of faculty.
Caroline (38:30):
I see.
Julia Barzyk (38:31):
Yeah.
I
Caroline (38:31):
see.
So your program allowsindividualized attention,
completely focused on them andtheir needs and walking them
through the process.
Like you see them through oneor, and then what happens?
Julia Barzyk (38:48):
So they go through coursework.
I have a series of videos thatI've recorded that cover various
topics that relate to this wholeprocess and they do assignments
with that.
And concurrently that's wherethey're getting kind of their
general education on that.
But then at the same time,they're also identifying a
particular opportunity they wantto apply for drafting that
(39:09):
proposal, using what they'velearned from these recordings
and working with a coach to getthat in good shape.
Then that goes off to a languageeditor who edits it, and that
will be then submitted by theirinstitution.
But we work with them to walkthem through that process once,
and the institution knows that,Hey, we're getting a submission
(39:30):
out of this because everysubmission that's made, that's a
chance for money to come intothe institution.
So we're giving them thattraining that they need for the
long haul.
But we're also making sure thata submission goes in and that
they can have the chance to winthat funding soon.
Caroline (39:47):
How have the recent news things about changes in
funding or changes in grants,how has that affected your
business?
Julia Barzyk (39:58):
It's not affected it in an obvious way as far as
the number of clients that we'reserving and I would say that I
find ourselves very fortunateright now to be independent, be
a small business, because forevery client that comes on, all
we need to focus on forsupporting them is what is going
(40:19):
on for them right now.
And many of them are applying toprograms that are still open
that do have money and they maynot have had any grants
canceled.
So we can proceed with themfairly normally, even though
it's not a normal situation.
So we're working very granularlyto say, what is the situation
(40:41):
for this individual?
How can we support them?
And of course, because I'm inthe industry, I listen and I'm
on list serves to keep up withthose, the big news and what
direction things may be going inthe years ahead.
So I am aware of that, but thatdoesn't impact greatly day to
day how we're supporting theclient.
Caroline (41:03):
I see, I see.
What advice would you have forsomebody who is outwardly
successful but inwardly startingto question and feel like, Hmm,
maybe this isn't it.
Julia Barzyk (41:15):
I think, to be honest with themselves.
So really ask themselves thosequestions and get yourself to
answer as best as you can evenif you don't know the answer
exactly what you want to bedoing.
Caroline (41:32):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (41:33):
And it's an easy question to ask, but it may not
always be easy to answer,especially honestly.
And I think speaking from myexperience related to this
question, I saw a turning pointwhere in the past, I had often
wanted to challenge myself, so Iwould take coursework that
(41:57):
sounded hard and that maybewasn't my biggest strength, but
I felt like I want to master orat least become proficient if we
can't master something
Caroline (42:08):
in these
Julia Barzyk (42:09):
areas because I think I can do my job better.
I can do science better.
If I push myself to learn thingsand become proficient in areas
where I maybe don't have mybiggest strength and up until a
certain point, maybe halfwaythrough my career, if I'm a
little more than halfway throughnow, I think that did serve me
(42:31):
because I didn't stay in thecomfort of just, oh, there's
some things I'm really good at,i'm only gonna do that.
But now that I transitioned towhere I am now, I really want to
leverage my strengths.
So that's where I can actuallyengage other people to help do
(42:51):
some of that work that doesn'tcome as easily to me, but it is
work that I know how to do, andI could do it if I needed to.
So getting back to yourquestion, when that person is
feeling like something isn'tquite right.
I would encourage them, behonest with themselves about
what they want to do that'sprobably going to be aligned
(43:13):
with their strengths and thinkabout maybe dropping some of
those things that there may havebeen very good reason why they
were doing them up until thatpoint.
So it's not a mistake, but maybethey've gotten what they needed
to out of those experiences,focusing in on what feels most
aligned, what they want to bedoing.
(43:36):
And then I would also say afteragain, being honest with
themselves about where they areto go ahead and take those
steps, like even the first steptowards what they want and
understand that from myexperience, and I can only speak
from that but you will have totake that first step in faith,
(43:56):
and I do believe
Caroline (43:57):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (43:57):
the universe will then meet you.
But from my experience, you'vegot to take that step and then
you'll be met and then you'lltake the next step.
So just think about the firststep that you want to take
rather than waiting for thequote unquote perfect
conditions, just like there'snever a perfect time to have a
(44:17):
baby.
There's never a perfect time totake a new job.
So that would be my advice.
Caroline (44:26):
So take the first step.
So what's the future hold foryou?
As far out as you can plan, whatis it that you'd love to have
happen?
Julia Barzyk (44:34):
Well, I would love to continue growing the business
to involve more team membersbecause when we have engaged new
coaches, the collectiveexpertise that we offer has
grown so much.
So not only do I want to havemore team members to share the
(44:56):
workload, which of course has tohappen so that I stay sane,
Caroline (45:01):
But much
Julia Barzyk (45:02):
more important than that really is the value
that they bring becauseeverybody has their own
strengths.
Everybody has their ownexperience where someone's
worked in this type oforganization, or they have this
technical expertise, they dothis thing really well.
And when you can engage justmore people with that kind of
(45:23):
expertise, what we can offer,it's not just additive, right?
It's just snowballing in termsof the value that we can provide
to people.
So I would like to continuedoing that, and I don't know
where that's going to go in themany years ahead, but for the
next few years, I can say thatgrowing our team to offer more
(45:44):
to the clients we serve, thatreally excites me because so
many times you're working withsomebody new explaining a
problem, they're going toaddress it, you know?
And so you don't have to dothat.
And then you look at the workthat they've done, and it's so
much better, you know, than whatI would've done.
Right?
So you think, wow, this is justsuch a win-win because we're
(46:07):
really contributing somethingvaluable.
Caroline (46:11):
Awesome.
So how do people find you?
Julia Barzyk (46:15):
Well, I'm on LinkedIn, so that would be a
great place to look forB-A-R-Z-Y-K.
There's not many Barzyk's there,and I also have a YouTube
channel and I have a weeklyemail newsletter.
So the newsletter, if somebodyis engaged in research at all, I
would encourage them to checkthat out, because even though
(46:37):
it's really geared for facultyresearchers, especially any kind
of students or other people thatsupport research in any way or
are involved in research aregonna find useful guidance in
there for their career.
Caroline (46:52):
I'm big on success and authentic success.
So authentic success to me ishowever you define it for what
you want your life to look like,what you want your career to
look like, to fuel that life.
How do you define your authenticsuccess in this moment?
Julia Barzyk (47:07):
Right now I would say that when most of my days
are good days, and when I knowthat I'm leveraging my talents
to serve others and help themgrow into their best version of
themselves, then I'm having asuccess that day, that week,
(47:28):
that year.
Caroline (47:30):
That's amazing.
Well, thank you so much, Julia,for sharing all this insight and
wisdom.
I wish you nothing but the bestand so any researchers, please,
please go take a look at WiseInvestigator or look up Julia
Barzyk on LinkedIn and that'llalso be in the show notes.
Thank you Julia, so much foryour time today.
I appreciate it.
Thank
Julia Barzyk (47:49):
you, Caroline.
It was a lot of fun.
Caroline (47:51):
Thanks.
Julia's work is a powerfulexample of what happens when
deep expertise, clarity ofvision, and a desire to
contribute come together.
She didn't leave her rolebecause something was wrong.
She moved forward becausesomething important was ready to
be built.
That kind of decision doesn'trequire burnout or crisis.
(48:15):
It comes from awareness,integrity, and purpose.
You can learn more about Juliaand the Wise Investigator
program at Wiseinvestigator.com.
All the links are in the shownotes.
And if you are exploring whatyour next success might look
like, whether that's launchingsomething new or realigning with
what matters most to you,download the Free Navigating
(48:37):
Career Transitions workbook atNextsuccesscareers.com.
Thanks for being here.
Until next time, stay curious,stay intentional, and trust what
you've built.
Your next success might beexactly what someone else is
waiting for.
Thanks for listening to Your Next Success with Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
(48:57):
Remember, authentic success isyours to define and includes
aligning your career to supportthe life you want.
What becomes possible when deepexpertise meets a clear need and
you choose to build what's beenmissing?
Today, I'm joined by Dr.
Julia Barzyk.
She's an amazing individual.
Julia is a research strategist,former federal program manager,
and the founder of WiseInvestigator.
(00:28):
During her decade at the US ArmyResearch Office, she managed a
high impact portfolio ingeoscience and civil
engineering, leading all phasesof the basic research funding
process, from setting strategicpriorities and shaping
multimillion dollar topic callsto evaluating outcomes and
influencing the direction ofnational science investments.
(00:51):
Now through Wise Investigator,she equips academic researchers
with the strategic insight andskills they need to pursue
funding successfully.
Her one-on-one programs arebuilt from the inside out,
directly shaped by herexperience navigating the
federal system, and designed tofill a gap that many researchers
(01:14):
don't even realize is holdingthem back.
Caroline (01:17):
This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your
host, Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
I'm a life first career coachand strategist on a mission to
normalize questioning yourcareer because I believe each of
us is made on purpose for apurpose only we can fulfill.
The longer we live out ofalignment with who we are, what
(01:38):
we do best, and why we're here,the more we miss out.
And the more the world missesout on what only we can give.
The Your Next Success Podcast iswhere we explore how to build a
career that truly fuels yourlife.
We talk about self-discovery,smart job, search strategies,
(01:59):
professional growth, and you'llhear stories from people who've
navigated big career transitionsthemselves so you can see what
it's really like to make boldchanges and feel inspired to
create your own version ofauthentic success.
One that is aligned, meaningful,and truly yours.
(02:21):
In this episode, Julia and Italk about her unique path from
geology to national researchstrategy.
What it was like shapingscientific direction at a
federal level.
The moment she saw a clear gapin researcher development and
chose to address it, how shebuilt Wise Investigator with
(02:42):
clarity, focus, and a commitmentto real impact, and why
understanding the system fromthe inside out changes
everything.
If you've ever seen somethingmissing in your field and felt
the nudge to do something aboutit, you'll appreciate this
conversation.
Welcome, Julia, for the Your Next Success podcast.
I'm super excited to have youhere and to be able to share
(03:05):
more of your story.
Julia Barzyk (03:07):
Thank you.
Good to be here.
Caroline (03:09):
I'd love to start with some of your career story,
career journey, and then we'llget into what we're doing now,
how you help people.
And maybe even some listeners onthe podcast would love to be
able to work with you.
But when you were little, whatis it that you thought you
wanted to do?
Julia Barzyk (03:26):
I had no idea.
I was a child who liked manydifferent subjects, often
dependent on having a reallygreat teacher or something just
catching my attention, whetherit was history or math or
english or wood shop.
These were all things that Ienjoyed at various stages of
childhood, and I was not a childwho had an idea in mind of what
(03:53):
she wanted to do.
So there was really nothing thatwas speaking to me when I was a
very young person.
Caroline (04:00):
But nothing but yet everything at the same time.
So it seems like you had a lotof curiosity and a lot of
interest, but you didn't confineyourself.
Wood shop, what did you make inwood shop?
Julia Barzyk (04:11):
I really enjoyed making the bowl as well as a
cutting board.
Yeah, I like hands-on activitiesand so that did end up playing
out.
Maybe we'll talk about geologyand then lab work.
So it was that hands-on aspectthat I enjoyed, not being stuck
in a chair at a desk, but movingaround.
I enjoyed that.
Caroline (04:31):
Nice.
That's cool.
Do you still have your bowl?
Julia Barzyk (04:35):
No, but we have the cutting board.
Caroline (04:38):
That's awesome.
I want to see it sometime.
So then as you got into highschool, did the interest change
or still kind of wide open?
Really
Julia Barzyk (04:48):
wide open.
It wasn't until I was abouthalfway through college and I
decided on a geology major, soit was geology that spoke to me,
and it wasn't even because of alove of science, which surprises
a lot of people.
It was because I loved beingoutdoors, and why would I want
to sit in a classroom copyingthings off the blackboard or
(05:10):
just have my head buried inbooks when I could be on a
camping trip in upstate New Yorkand I could be sitting in a
quarry.
Examining rock after rock, youknow, smashing'em open to look
for really cool fossils or goingout to the Adirondacks to look
for garnet.
So that was what drew me to whatI ended up pursuing for, you
(05:33):
know, a significant amount of myeducation.
It was the love of beingoutdoors and love of rocks and
geology that got me going.
Caroline (05:41):
If part of your class or part of your lab work could
be going and smashing openthings, who wouldn't love that?
So you then got your undergradin geology and then what was it
that made you want to continueon with school?
Julia Barzyk (05:56):
Yeah, so because I only found geology about halfway
through college, I was reallyjust kind of getting going with
it.
So for that reason, I decided topursue the master's because I'd
found something I reallyenjoyed.
I seemed to be pretty good atit.
I had encouragement fromprofessors.
So it made sense to justcontinue on those studies.
So it was really just gettinggoing at that stage.
(06:17):
So I did pursue a Master's.
Caroline (06:20):
Did you know anybody beyond your teachers and
professors?
Did you know anybody that had ageology related career?
Julia Barzyk (06:28):
This is an interesting answer.
It's yes and no.
So my mother stayed home with meonce I was born.
She did not go back to work andshe stayed home with me and then
my sister for the remainder ofher childhood.
But my mother had a master'sdegree in geology.
Caroline (06:49):
That's cool.
Julia Barzyk (06:50):
so there is that connection and she did have a
cool rock collection.
Actually.
It was a lot of fossils that Ienjoyed looking at, but she
wasn't working and didn't talkmuch about her education or
career.
But of course I knew she was ageologist and she had that
training.
So yeah, that was with me as agirl who grew up in that next
(07:13):
generation.
In a way, I feel like I was ableto carry on with my education
and career further than she was.
Although there were people ofher generation who did carry on
their careers, it was morecommon to to stay home, and
that's what she did at thattime.
Caroline (07:30):
Did she take you on cool field trips?
Julia Barzyk (07:32):
Not really.
I mean, we always enjoyed beingin nature, but we didn't do
extreme, like you see familiesout now doing all kinds of maybe
overnight camping or, you know,hiking or that kind of stuff.
Backpacking, no.
Just enjoyed being in our yard.
Gardening, being out withanimals like dogs and other
(07:55):
little critters we might havehad.
And just enjoying the outdoors,enjoying nature.
But it was pretty tame.
Yeah, nothing real extreme.
Caroline (08:04):
As you were getting your Master's, what was it that
made you say, let me get a PhD.
And did the school you got yourmaster's, did it also have a PhD
program or'cause you moved,right?
Yeah.
What happened
Julia Barzyk (08:16):
was I went down to University of Florida to do a
master's and my field work wasactually in southwest Montana.
So that was really cool.
A beautiful part of the country,of course.
And then I was thinking aboutgetting a job.
So what happened was I startedto realize that a lot of the
jobs that people were gettingwith the master's in geology.
(08:40):
Were not jobs that wereparticularly appealing to me.
So I decided to do anothermaster's in the area of
environmental science and policybecause I felt like that would
prepare me for the workforcemuch better.
I didn't necessarily want to bein like a lab technician type
role.
'cause going back to my earlierinterests, I had lots of other
(09:01):
things I was interested in andthe policy aspect, I was
interested in learning moreabout that.
So I went to another school todo that at University of
Chicago, and as part of thatprogram, I had to take geology
or geoscience, say coursework,which I was already very
familiar with.
I mean, there was still a lotmore to learn, a lot courses I'd
(09:23):
never taken before, et cetera.
But, I just thought, oh, that'spart of the requirement, but
really what I'm doing is gettingthis policy education and
preparing for a job in eitherthe private sector, like
environmental consulting orpublic sector perhaps, but no
more grad school.
I was thinking this was it, andI just loved the coursework and
I had one really good professorthere that when I was back in
(09:45):
geoscience, I realized this isactually my home, at least for
now, and decided to pursue thePhD at that point because there
was just too much interestingstuff going on and too many
great opportunities to engagewith research there.
Again, with such excellentfaculty and mentorship available
that it would've been crazy tonot pursue that when I had that
(10:08):
opportunity, and I really lovedthat.
Caroline (10:12):
And then after you got your PhD, then what?
Julia Barzyk (10:17):
Yeah, so that was a move for our family because my
husband, who I met in themaster's program at Chicago.
Caroline (10:25):
Tell us this, because here's the thing, folks.
We have our, what we think we'regoing to do, and then sometime
we meet this amazing person andthen we have to consider others.
Julia Barzyk (10:37):
Yeah, well he and I met as grad students at
Chicago.
He also pursued the PhD ingeoscience.
He graduated, I believe, onequarter ahead of me.
So he was offered a job at theUS EPA down here in North
Carolina.
And I did not want to stay in acold region if I didn't have to,
(11:01):
and at that point we had ourson, he was born in a, let's say
my last year of grad school, orour last year of grad school.
So when Tim got offered thatposition at EPA down here, I was
encouraging him to stronglyconsider that'cause I liked the
idea of moving to NorthCarolina.
So we moved with a, not quite,yeah, about six month old, maybe
(11:23):
six.
Caroline (11:25):
Wow.
6 month
Julia Barzyk (11:25):
old baby.
And that's when we started ourlife in North Carolina.
And then I was able to get a jobat the EPA as well, not working
with him, but that was meetingthe right person and learning
about an opportunity that wasopen and that was very
fortuitous because I needed ajob at that point.
(11:46):
I had graduated and it was timeto get to work.
We had a child to support and alife to start.
So that was some lab work andwas more of an environmental
type project, not a geoscience,you know, it's related, right?
But it was something that I wasgrateful for the opportunity to
(12:07):
pursue because it opened myexperience up to a new
organization, working more withchemists working in a federal
agency.
So all of that was a newexperience for me and as we
talk, you'll probably see that Iam someone who's very high
(12:30):
openness to experience, right?
So when i'm presented with a newopportunity, even if I don't
really understand what it'sabout fully, if I feel like
there's something I can learnhere, I see this as a quality
environment.
I see there could be mentorship.
I'm going to generally want topursue that or maybe, maybe I
wouldn't right now at thisstage.
But in the past, right, for thefirst half of my career, I
Caroline (12:52):
Yeah.
Definitely
Julia Barzyk (12:53):
jump on those opportunities.
So the opportunity to do thepostdoc at the EPA was like all
in.
Like, let's go ahead and givethis a go and see what it's like
because I didn't have theexperience to assess it.
I hadn't worked in a federalagency before, so I just had to
go with it and, and see what itwas all about.
Caroline (13:11):
And then so postdoc was a set amount of years of
time that you committed to aheadof time, or how did that
actually
Julia Barzyk (13:17):
I think it was renewing
Caroline (13:17):
work?
Julia Barzyk (13:18):
year to year, and I ended up being there for about
three years, and then I saw theposition open at a editing
company, which at that pointthey were calling themselves a
startup, but they had dozens ofemployees.
So it wasn't that tiny, but theyhad grown quickly and it was a
remote work even though it waslocal to the area.
(13:38):
And that was at a time when thatremote, those remote jobs were
not so common.
So that was another thing that Ijumped on to say, Hey, I've
never worked in the privatesector.
This is a small company.
This sounds interesting and it'sdifferent than what I've done
before.
So why don't I give that a go?
And that's how I ended up inthat role, which I was only in
(13:59):
for about 18 months, but likemany things in life you learn
later that even a short stintlike that could provide you very
valuable experience because whenI, a decade plus later was
thinking about starting my ownbusiness.
Even that short amount of timethat I worked at that company
(14:22):
gave me very useful perspectiveon how you might go about
starting a business thatprovides a service to the
academic community, workflow,remote, a distributed team, all
that kind of stuff.
Definitely it put that in mymind, right?
For all those years that I hadthat experience, and I know that
(14:42):
that helped me to know, to havethe confidence and understanding
of how I could assemblesomething many years later on my
own.
Caroline (14:50):
And when was your daughter born?
Julia Barzyk (14:53):
She was born when I was in the position at the
EPA.
Caroline (14:58):
Then having this remote position, you didn't have
two kids at home, did you?
Julia Barzyk (15:04):
Well, we,
Caroline (15:05):
Or did you?
Julia Barzyk (15:06):
My mother-in-law is
Caroline (15:06):
us that.
Yeah.
living
Julia Barzyk (15:08):
with us and she was providing
Caroline (15:10):
Okay.
Julia Barzyk (15:10):
a lot of childcare.
So even though I was in a remoteposition, that job was extremely
demanding and the workload wasvery high.
So it's one of those exampleswhere people are thinking
they're wrong, right?
If they're thinking, oh, you'reworking remotely, you know, it's
all comfortable.
Some remote positions are, canbe the most grueling, if we want
(15:34):
to use that word, because youcould just be tied to the
computer all day.
It doesn't really matter thatyou're home.
Caroline (15:41):
How did that work then?
So your mother-in-law was justamazing at keeping your kids
occupied and you know, even nowI have challenges of, working at
home with family around, becauseI guess I just set myself up to
be the person that you go to
Julia Barzyk (16:00):
Yeah.
That was
Caroline (16:01):
yeah.
Julia Barzyk (16:01):
And they did go to preschool, so they had
activities, so they weren't justhome all day.
They were in and out fromactivities, or she would take
them to her church and keep themoccupied that way.
So they were busy.
Yeah.
Caroline (16:17):
And so you were able to focus on this extremely
demanding job
Julia Barzyk (16:21):
Yes.
Caroline (16:22):
So why did you leave that or tell us the story of
leaving that and then whathappened?
Julia Barzyk (16:27):
Yeah.
Well, I decided to move on fromthere because I saw that the
direction I would've gone interms of growth or, you know,
moving up, wasn't really thekind of position that I was
interested in, and I actuallyfound that later in my career as
well, because sometimes we aredoing well in a role.
(16:50):
We have that potential to bepromoted or move in some way,
and we may even be encouraged tobe doing that, but if you can
see what those responsibilitiesare in that next position, and
it's not aligning with what youthink you want to be doing, then
it's maybe not a promotion thatyou want to take or pursue.
(17:12):
So I filled out an application,'cause I started looking for
other opportunities just on jobboards and all that, like
everybody else just starting tobrowse around and I filled out
an application for a positionthat was as a contractor, so it
was with a private company, butit'd be working on site at the
US Army Research Office.
(17:34):
And I filled that out.
I did not understand much aboutwhat the job would be, but you
can always fill out a web form,upload your resume, and soon
after I got a call from thehiring manager, started talking
to him about what is this actualjob?
And it sounded really great.
So I pursued that through aseries of interviews and ended
(17:56):
up in that position and that'swhere I really grew my career.
That was a very important stepfor me and responsible really
for where I am right now withthe years I spent first as a
contractor and then as a federalemployee at the US Army Research
Office.
Caroline (18:13):
So you got this opportunity and so what was that
job though?
Julia Barzyk (18:17):
Yeah.
Caroline (18:17):
Like?
'cause it seems kind ofnebulous.
Like there's the government,there's money, there's research
and what?
Julia Barzyk (18:23):
Each of the three services, meaning Army, Navy,
and Air Force, has what's calleda research office, and so this
is an office of people who arenot doing lab work.
Of course, Department of Defensehas many scientists and
engineers that work in labs, butthe people at these research
offices, including Army ResearchOffice, manage research that's
(18:43):
performed at universities.
So the government, includingDepartment of Defense and Army,
make grants to universityfaculty because they're running
their labs, they're teaching,and they have students and
they're doing research and theyhave to support these students
and that research by winninggrant money.
(19:04):
And these grants are a veryimportant part of higher
education overall.
This is how research gets done.
It's largely funded by thefederal government.
(19:59):
So I came in bringing myexpertise as a geoscientist to
manage a portfolio of theseresearch projects in geoscience
and that expanded into civilengineering.
So I would learn what are theArmy challenges related to
things like, for example, groundvehicle mobility.
How are vehicles moving acrossthe terrain?
(20:21):
And how are the environmentalconditions in an urban
environment affecting soldiersthere or drones?
Things like that.
So there's many different needsthat the Army would have related
to geo and environmentalproblems.
So I would go around todifferent sites, Army labs and
(20:44):
learn what are their challenges,what are they working on?
And then I would also travelaround to universities and learn
what's the cutting edge researchthat our faculty are working on
in the university.
And then I'd talk to them aboutthe opportunities to get funding
from the government.
Of course, faculty are alwaysvery interested to hear about
that because they're underpressure to get these funds.
(21:05):
So I served as a bit of amatchmaker to find the
challenges that Army was facing,find out where that new cutting
edge research is happening, andthen managing the process of
talking to those researchersabout their ideas, encouraging
them to submit a proposal wherethey have to write a formal
(21:27):
document up and propose whatthey want to do with the budget
and all that.
Then I would manage the processof getting expert reviewers on
that.
So we'd send that out to subjectmatter experts.
They comment and provide theirrecommendation, should this be
funded or not?
And I would assemble all ofthat, synthesize all that
information.
Take what I knew about the Armyneeds and how relevant this
(21:49):
could be to addressing those.
And then I would make myrecommendation, I recommend to
fund this project, or Irecommend not to fund the
project that goes through anapproval process and
contracting, and those awardsare made.
Caroline (22:03):
Wow.
So your first exposure to theArmy Research Office was working
on behalf of a company that hada grant or something and then
you worked at another one, andthen you worked at the Army
Research.
So let's clarify that a tiny,
Julia Barzyk (22:19):
Okay.
A tiny bit.
Yeah.
Many places in the federalgovernment will have short term
staffing needs, and you couldalmost, it's not contractually,
it's not, say temp services,right?
Temporary employees.
If you think back to the olddays, you could hear about
people working as a temp, right?
A temporary employee.
Caroline (22:38):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (22:39):
So, oh, this person is out on maternity
leave, so we're gonna bringsomebody in for three months and
they're gonna fill that role.
So this is not exactly that likethat, but it could be similar in
that it takes a long time forthe government to hire people,
or they may need people on ashort term basis, don't want to
commit to having a full-timeemployee forever.
(23:00):
So they contract with defensecontractors largely, who will
provide staffing these people toserve as subject matter experts.
And they oftentimes are workingin the building.
Like at EPA, there would beenvironmental consulting
companies that are on site atthe EPA and they have offices
and they work in the lab there.
And that contract may be upevery five years or so.
(23:24):
They compete that contract.
So this was a similar typescenario.
There were others that wereworking with this company in the
building, and actually partwaythrough the time I was there,
the contract did change.
So I was working for a differentcompany.
So I technically worked for twocompanies.
Caroline (23:39):
Oh
Julia Barzyk (23:40):
when I was a contractor.
And this is a good thing forlisteners to know because there
can be kind of like back doorsinto opportunities because you
may not be able to get a job atthe big tech company, for
example, that you're aspiringto, but they very well can have
contractors that they work withand you can learn who are they.
(24:05):
Is there an opportunity there?
And it could serve as a step togetting a job with the bigger
organization perhaps.
Caroline (24:14):
So you were at technically two different
companies, but really it was onelarger project that kind of
continued and then how did youfind out about the full-time
permanent job at the ArmyResearch Lab?
How'd that work out?
I was
Julia Barzyk (24:29):
what they call direct hired into the federal
position.
So if you meet certain criteria,perhaps it could be having an
advanced degree, veryspecialized subject matter
expertise, which I had as havinga PhD in geoscience.
Then they may be able to use aspecial mechanism to hire you.
(24:54):
And so I went through thatprocess and I had to be
evaluated and it had to beapproved at many different
levels, but it was, and so I wasable to be hired on as a federal
employee.
Caroline (25:06):
And so then you were there for, you know, a little
over technical as the full-timeemployee for a bit over seven
and a half years.
How did your career develop andcontinue to grow while you were
there?
And then what made you startthinking about other things?
Julia Barzyk (25:24):
It was a fantastic opportunity.
I'm very grateful for theopportunity that I had there.
I had really great mentors and Idid not know much about the
military at all.
I had not had much exposure tothe military.
Some family members had servedin the military, but more in the
distant past.
(25:45):
I had a lot to learn, you know,culturally and the conventions.
And I had, again, excellentmentors who supported me through
that.
So the opportunity to becomefamiliar and then become an
expert with DOD over time.
And I also, because I startedthere as a young woman and at
(26:08):
that point too, not just young,but appearing, probably even
younger than I was at thatpoint, being a small person,
again, looking young at thatpoint.
The fact that I had a title thatwas important, right?
Quote unquote.
It helped a lot at that stage ofthe career because I would
travel to universities andexplain what my role was and
(26:32):
people really paid attention.
Of course, there would besometimes comments where people
would say, Oh, you look tooyoung to have this job or
something like that, which I'msure you've experienced
Caroline (26:43):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (26:44):
And it's weird, but I had a lot less of that I
think because people understood,oh, there's money here.
This person's in a position ofauthority.
And so that made my life easierand it let me grow into that
position I believe more quicklythan some young women who can be
(27:05):
qualified and you know, verywell qualified, but still be
kind of fighting to be seen orheard or taken seriously.
Or they're 35 years old andpeople think they're 25.
Right?
Caroline (27:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (27:16):
That was very fortunate that I had that going
for me in the position and Igrew so much because I was
constantly learning.
Every time I talked to newfaculty I would be learning
about new research areas and Iwas the only person for a long
time in environmental orgeoscience in that organization.
(27:40):
So that meant everything thatcame to me, whether it was on
something related to ice sheetsor atmospheric science or
surface processes, seismology,like these are all very distinct
disciplines within earth andenvironmental science, and no
one would be expected to be anexpert on all of them, but I was
(28:00):
the point person for all thosetopics and more so I was just
constantly learning about newscience, new ideas, and that
just helps anybody grow.
So.
I was very, again, fortunate.
I can't really overstate thatand the gratitude I have for
having that experience now astime went on, we went through
(28:24):
the COVID years, we were allworking remotely, and that was
with a workforce that didn'thave a culture or established
ways of working remotely.
We were really all in the officefive days a week or we were on
travel.
So that was a change that wasvery abrupt and everybody had to
figure out how to make thathappen.
And I think during that time, itwas because of it, but also
(28:47):
because of other changes,reorganization, different things
happening.
We started to get a lot moreresponsibilities that were of an
internal nature.
So more internal reporting, moremeetings that were internal with
other Army people rather thanwhat I really enjoyed, which was
(29:08):
going to on the Army site visitsand working with the faculty.
So at the same time, I saw thatadvancement there meant moving
more into internal management.
I keep saying the word internal,but,
Caroline (29:24):
Right, right.
Julia Barzyk (29:25):
Going,
Caroline (29:26):
But there's themes here.
There's themes of, even as achild, you loved learning about
lots and lots of things.
Regardless, you could get intoit and get excited.
And so then throughout schooland in your jobs, you have this
opportunity to keep learningabout new and different things.
Plus also with this externalfacing, getting to communicate,
(29:49):
talk with people, traveloutdoors as needed, all of these
things help utilize your giftsand talents.
So then when it started tobecome more internal facing,
meaning not getting out, meetingnew people, learning a lot of
new things, having thoseinteractions that drove you, you
started questioning whether youwanted to continue.
(30:12):
Is that fair?
Julia Barzyk (30:14):
it.
And yes, I had been, again, ahands-on person that went into
the field.
Did that work.
Then I was working withinstrumentation in the lab,
which, you know, is also veryhands-on and then grew into,
like you said, the travel, so,and the novelty.
So that had been a theme thatthen between staying home for
COVID and changes within theorganization.
(30:35):
I just didn't know that it wasfitting me as well as it had in
the past, and I wasn't havingany problems at all.
In fact, I was doing quite well.
So that's where you might thinkabout pursuing a promotion, like
I said before, but if you'relooking at what that new role
would be because you wantsomething new and you're saying,
well, that's not really movinginto the duties that I feel most
(30:58):
aligned with.
It could leave you confused orquestioning well, what would be
the right step?
So at the same time, I had beenhaving conversations with PI's,
and by PIs I mean the faculty,the researchers.
So where could they learn moreabout the research funding
process?
(31:18):
And I would Google for things,where can they get information?
Because I could see they werestruggling to know how to
interact with our organization.
And I realized, well, they don'thave any training on how to do
this, and I'm googling I'm notfinding resources to point them
to.
And I was in a position as afederal employee where I had to
spend the same amount of timewith everybody.
(31:39):
I had to be fair with everybody.
So I couldn't take somebody andsay, I'll meet with you for a
day and we'll go over all this.
I just had to point them toresources.
I could answer their questionsand move on to the other
inquiries that I needed toaddress.
So that's where things startedmoving in my mind to say, wow,
maybe I'm the person who issupposed to create these
(32:01):
resources.
Go, and you're saying, well, whydon't we have this?
Why don't we have that?
Caroline (32:05):
Yeah.
Then
Julia Barzyk (32:06):
it might hit you.
Well, we don't, but maybe youcould create that.
So that's where I got the ideato go off on my own and, and
start a business.
Caroline (32:14):
Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah.
So you realize there was a need.
Man, I wish you know God oruniverse, how come you didn't
have this done?
And it's like, ha ha ha.
Guess what?
You get to be that person.
How?
Hard was it?
Or how long did you think aboutleaving before you strategically
(32:37):
planned it out?
Like when, when did thesethoughts first start to come?
And then how long was it beforeacting type of deal.
Julia Barzyk (32:44):
Just about six months.
Caroline (32:46):
You're so quick.
Julia Barzyk (32:47):
Yeah.
Caroline (32:47):
You're so quick.
Julia Barzyk (32:48):
I am.
Caroline (32:49):
You don't mess around.
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (32:50):
Yeah.
Caroline (32:51):
So you decided maybe you wanted to make your own
company and maybe you wanted toleave this stable at the time,
government job.
How did your family or friendsreact to that?
Julia Barzyk (33:08):
Well, my father was self-employed.
He was in the area of marketresearch.
Basically not his whole career.
He had started out working in adagencies, stuff like that.
But for most of my life, he hadsupported our family through
self-employment.
So he worked primarily on hisown.
(33:29):
You know, he had team of peoplehe worked with, but not
employees.
So I think that must have beenin my mind, that you could earn
a living this way, even thoughit was a totally different
industry.
I think that that helped me haveconfidence that it could be done
again, even
Caroline (33:46):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (33:46):
working in a totally different kind of role,
different industry, all of that.
But I know that was in my mind.
My husband is very supportiveand he knows I'm a very hard
worker, so when I said, Ibelieve I can do this, meaning
that I'll do the work to get itgoing.
He did understand that I reallywould.
(34:09):
I was not gonna say, oh, I havethis idea.
I'm going to quit my job andthen try to figure out if I'm
really gonna do it or look forother positions.
He knew I had that commitmentand that I'd narrowed in on what
I wanted to do.
So he was extremely supportive.
And of course, I want to saythis here because people have
(34:31):
given me a lot of praise forstepping out and doing this, and
I understand that it's inspiringperhaps to see somebody take
that risk and make it work out.
But my husband has beensupporting us for the last
couple years you know,emotionally with me, right?
(34:52):
And financially because hestayed in his position.
So that's really important too,that support.
And it may not be seen, but hissupport, which comes in many
forms, did allow me to take thisrisk.
Caroline (35:08):
Yeah.
Yes.
When somebody wants to quit astable job and just dive in the
deep end, not even sure if thereis a flotation device, having a
spouse who's supportive, stable,and has that ability to be
supportive in all ways really,really does make it possible.
So tell us, what is your companycalled and what do you do?
(35:32):
Who do you serve?
Julia Barzyk (35:34):
The business is Wise Investigator, and we chose
that name, or I chose that namebecause we want to support
investigators, meaning principalinvestigators, they can be
called, or we could just callthem faculty researchers who are
at an early stage of theircareers and they need to learn
many soft skills as well as hardskills that are related to
(36:00):
getting their research fundedbecause while they do a lot of
teaching and they have manyresponsibilities, this funding
is expected of them at mostschools and even at universities
that may be smaller and they'remore teaching focused, they're
still encouraged to win thesefunds and we want to prepare
(36:21):
them to have success with thisby imparting this wisdom and
helping holding their handsthrough acquiring this wisdom
because they're at a stage oftheir careers where it's not
like you want to be a goodstudent anymore where, oh, I
just need to accomplish allthese things on this checklist
and I'm gonna get my good gradeand I'm going to move on.
You have to use discernment.
You have to have a perspectiveof a mature professional to
(36:44):
figure out how should I investmy time?
What's the best strategy here?
So that's why we want to helpthese people become wise to the
ways of winning funding.
So how we do this is we bringthem on, we have a fully
one-on-one program where weprovide coaching, we put them
through a curriculum ofmaterials to get what they need
(37:05):
under their belts as far asacquiring those skills.
And we support them inpreparation and submission of a
proposal.
So this is a very comprehensiveprogram.
We're not just focused in onwhat some people call grant
writing, where you just say,look, let me try to make this
document as strong as it can be.
Now grant writing skills aresuper important, but we're
looking at the holisticperspective of everything from
(37:27):
getting a LinkedIn profileoptimized to learning how to
contact and have meetings withthe people you need to be
talking to, all that stuff.
So that's what we offer.
Caroline (37:39):
So kind of like that behind the scenes concierge
almost of here's how youactually want to, or like a wise
mentor.
Let me tell you how it reallyworks, because I imagine at
universities, even if there areestablished professors who've
had lots and lots of ability toacquire grants, they may not
(38:01):
have the time or desire to put anew person under their wing.
So you provide that missinglink.
Julia Barzyk (38:09):
Yes.
And there are not to get too inthe weeds, but there are very
talented people who work at theuniversities who help with these
in these roles.
And they can provide thismentorship, but they don't have
bandwidth because there may be astaff of five of these talented,
wonderful people and they'reserving hundreds of faculty.
Caroline (38:30):
I see.
Julia Barzyk (38:31):
Yeah.
I
Caroline (38:31):
see.
So your program allowsindividualized attention,
completely focused on them andtheir needs and walking them
through the process.
Like you see them through oneor, and then what happens?
Julia Barzyk (38:48):
So they go through coursework.
I have a series of videos thatI've recorded that cover various
topics that relate to this wholeprocess and they do assignments
with that.
And concurrently that's wherethey're getting kind of their
general education on that.
But then at the same time,they're also identifying a
particular opportunity they wantto apply for drafting that
(39:09):
proposal, using what they'velearned from these recordings
and working with a coach to getthat in good shape.
Then that goes off to a languageeditor who edits it, and that
will be then submitted by theirinstitution.
But we work with them to walkthem through that process once,
and the institution knows that,Hey, we're getting a submission
(39:30):
out of this because everysubmission that's made, that's a
chance for money to come intothe institution.
So we're giving them thattraining that they need for the
long haul.
But we're also making sure thata submission goes in and that
they can have the chance to winthat funding soon.
Caroline (39:47):
How have the recent news things about changes in
funding or changes in grants,how has that affected your
business?
Julia Barzyk (39:58):
It's not affected it in an obvious way as far as
the number of clients that we'reserving and I would say that I
find ourselves very fortunateright now to be independent, be
a small business, because forevery client that comes on, all
we need to focus on forsupporting them is what is going
(40:19):
on for them right now.
And many of them are applying toprograms that are still open
that do have money and they maynot have had any grants
canceled.
So we can proceed with themfairly normally, even though
it's not a normal situation.
So we're working very granularlyto say, what is the situation
(40:41):
for this individual?
How can we support them?
And of course, because I'm inthe industry, I listen and I'm
on list serves to keep up withthose, the big news and what
direction things may be going inthe years ahead.
So I am aware of that, but thatdoesn't impact greatly day to
day how we're supporting theclient.
Caroline (41:03):
I see, I see.
What advice would you have forsomebody who is outwardly
successful but inwardly startingto question and feel like, Hmm,
maybe this isn't it.
Julia Barzyk (41:15):
I think, to be honest with themselves.
So really ask themselves thosequestions and get yourself to
answer as best as you can evenif you don't know the answer
exactly what you want to bedoing.
Caroline (41:32):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (41:33):
And it's an easy question to ask, but it may not
always be easy to answer,especially honestly.
And I think speaking from myexperience related to this
question, I saw a turning pointwhere in the past, I had often
wanted to challenge myself, so Iwould take coursework that
(41:57):
sounded hard and that maybewasn't my biggest strength, but
I felt like I want to master orat least become proficient if we
can't master something
Caroline (42:08):
in these
Julia Barzyk (42:09):
areas because I think I can do my job better.
I can do science better.
If I push myself to learn thingsand become proficient in areas
where I maybe don't have mybiggest strength and up until a
certain point, maybe halfwaythrough my career, if I'm a
little more than halfway throughnow, I think that did serve me
(42:31):
because I didn't stay in thecomfort of just, oh, there's
some things I'm really good at,i'm only gonna do that.
But now that I transitioned towhere I am now, I really want to
leverage my strengths.
So that's where I can actuallyengage other people to help do
(42:51):
some of that work that doesn'tcome as easily to me, but it is
work that I know how to do, andI could do it if I needed to.
So getting back to yourquestion, when that person is
feeling like something isn'tquite right.
I would encourage them, behonest with themselves about
what they want to do that'sprobably going to be aligned
(43:13):
with their strengths and thinkabout maybe dropping some of
those things that there may havebeen very good reason why they
were doing them up until thatpoint.
So it's not a mistake, but maybethey've gotten what they needed
to out of those experiences,focusing in on what feels most
aligned, what they want to bedoing.
(43:36):
And then I would also say afteragain, being honest with
themselves about where they areto go ahead and take those
steps, like even the first steptowards what they want and
understand that from myexperience, and I can only speak
from that but you will have totake that first step in faith,
(43:56):
and I do believe
Caroline (43:57):
Yeah.
Julia Barzyk (43:57):
the universe will then meet you.
But from my experience, you'vegot to take that step and then
you'll be met and then you'lltake the next step.
So just think about the firststep that you want to take
rather than waiting for thequote unquote perfect
conditions, just like there'snever a perfect time to have a
(44:17):
baby.
There's never a perfect time totake a new job.
So that would be my advice.
Caroline (44:26):
So take the first step.
So what's the future hold foryou?
As far out as you can plan, whatis it that you'd love to have
happen?
Julia Barzyk (44:34):
Well, I would love to continue growing the business
to involve more team membersbecause when we have engaged new
coaches, the collectiveexpertise that we offer has
grown so much.
So not only do I want to havemore team members to share the
(44:56):
workload, which of course has tohappen so that I stay sane,
Caroline (45:01):
But much
Julia Barzyk (45:02):
more important than that really is the value
that they bring becauseeverybody has their own
strengths.
Everybody has their ownexperience where someone's
worked in this type oforganization, or they have this
technical expertise, they dothis thing really well.
And when you can engage justmore people with that kind of
(45:23):
expertise, what we can offer,it's not just additive, right?
It's just snowballing in termsof the value that we can provide
to people.
So I would like to continuedoing that, and I don't know
where that's going to go in themany years ahead, but for the
next few years, I can say thatgrowing our team to offer more
(45:44):
to the clients we serve, thatreally excites me because so
many times you're working withsomebody new explaining a
problem, they're going toaddress it, you know?
And so you don't have to dothat.
And then you look at the workthat they've done, and it's so
much better, you know, than whatI would've done.
Right?
So you think, wow, this is justsuch a win-win because we're
(46:07):
really contributing somethingvaluable.
Caroline (46:11):
Awesome.
So how do people find you?
Julia Barzyk (46:15):
Well, I'm on LinkedIn, so that would be a
great place to look forB-A-R-Z-Y-K.
There's not many Barzyk's there,and I also have a YouTube
channel and I have a weeklyemail newsletter.
So the newsletter, if somebodyis engaged in research at all, I
would encourage them to checkthat out, because even though
(46:37):
it's really geared for facultyresearchers, especially any kind
of students or other people thatsupport research in any way or
are involved in research aregonna find useful guidance in
there for their career.
Caroline (46:52):
I'm big on success and authentic success.
So authentic success to me ishowever you define it for what
you want your life to look like,what you want your career to
look like, to fuel that life.
How do you define your authenticsuccess in this moment?
Julia Barzyk (47:07):
Right now I would say that when most of my days
are good days, and when I knowthat I'm leveraging my talents
to serve others and help themgrow into their best version of
themselves, then I'm having asuccess that day, that week,
(47:28):
that year.
Caroline (47:30):
That's amazing.
Well, thank you so much, Julia,for sharing all this insight and
wisdom.
I wish you nothing but the bestand so any researchers, please,
please go take a look at WiseInvestigator or look up Julia
Barzyk on LinkedIn and that'llalso be in the show notes.
Thank you Julia, so much foryour time today.
I appreciate it.
Thank
Julia Barzyk (47:49):
you, Caroline.
It was a lot of fun.
Caroline (47:51):
Thanks.
Julia's work is a powerfulexample of what happens when
deep expertise, clarity ofvision, and a desire to
contribute come together.
She didn't leave her rolebecause something was wrong.
She moved forward becausesomething important was ready to
be built.
That kind of decision doesn'trequire burnout or crisis.
(48:15):
It comes from awareness,integrity, and purpose.
You can learn more about Juliaand the Wise Investigator
program at Wiseinvestigator.com.
All the links are in the shownotes.
And if you are exploring whatyour next success might look
like, whether that's launchingsomething new or realigning with
what matters most to you,download the Free Navigating
(48:37):
Career Transitions workbook atNextsuccesscareers.com.
Thanks for being here.
Until next time, stay curious,stay intentional, and trust what
you've built.
Your next success might beexactly what someone else is
waiting for.
Thanks for listening to Your Next Success with Dr.
Caroline Sangal.
(48:57):
Remember, authentic success isyours to define and includes
aligning your career to supportthe life you want.
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