September 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Kendall Berg sits down with Kelly Poquiz Burke, a former Doritos brand manager who walked away from Super Bowl campaigns, corporate titles, and nonstop promotions to build a life that actually aligned with her values. Kelly’s story begins at the peak of success—meeting celebrities, managing billion-dollar brands, and collecting promotions—but underneath, she was burning out while holding it all together as a new mom and cancer survivor.
In this conversation, Kelly explains why passion isn’t enough for lasting fulfillment, how over-identifying with your career keeps you stuck, and why she believes Life-Work Alignment is a more sustainable framework than the outdated idea of balance. She shares the moment her three-year-old daughter asked her not to leave again, the Apple Watch notification that confirmed her stress levels, and the four pillars that now guide her work and life. If you’ve ever wondered whether your career is defining too much of who you are, this episode will shift your perspective.
In this episode, we discuss:
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How do you know when it’s time to walk away from a dream job?
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Why is purpose more sustainable than passion in your career?
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What are the early signs of burnout most people ignore?
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How does Life-Work Alignment work in practice?
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Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/
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About Kelly Poquiz Burke
Kelly Poquiz Burke is an Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, Podcast Host, and the Founder & CEO of Career Slay®. After beating breast cancer while pregnant during the pandemic, she found purpose in helping high performers develop their careers with courage and authenticity. Before launching Career Slay, Kelly spent over a decade in marketing, leading Super Bowl campaigns for brands like Doritos, Avocados From Mexico, Nestlé, and GameStop. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, a BBA from the University of Notre Dame, and is an ICF Level 1 Certified Coac
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (00:00):
If you're at a cocktail party and instead of asking people what do you do, ask them what do you like to do?
Because I think that takes away so much pressure of attaching our identities to our careers.
And then you can start to talk to people about what actually lights them up.
Like, is it the underwater basket weaving?
And I think that we as a society need to start shifting the conversation because we put so much pressure on.
(00:28):
On our careers to be our everything that when it doesn't work out or when life happens or throws you a curveball, it can feel like devastation.
When your career isn't panning out to what you had expected it.
Kendall Berg (00:40):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, cleverly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
And on this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
(01:05):
Welcome back, my lovelies, to another fabulous episode.
Today we have a very special guest who, if you checked into my limb's episode a few weeks ago on the charisma and the risk factor, is actually a connection that I made through him.
And I'm so excited to have her on the show.
This is Kelly Pokies Burke, and she is an executive coach.
(01:26):
She's a keynote speaker.
She's a podcast cast host of the Career Slave podcast, which we will go to at some point.
And she has such an amazing journey.
She beat breast cancer while pregnant during the pandemic and basically flipped her career on its head and went from a very successful career building brands and leading super bowl campaigns to launching career slay and motivating others to live their lives authentically.
(01:54):
So, Kelly, we are super excited to have you on today's show.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (01:58):
Thank you so much, Kendall.
I'm excited to be here.
I've been such a huge fan and I'm excited to have the conversation.
Kendall Berg (02:05):
It's going to be great.
We were chatting before we started recording, and already I'm like, it's going to be so good.
So why don't you tell people a little bit about your backstory because you have such a powerful journey of how you got to career slay with.
Why don't you get people up to speed a little bit on, like, what was your professional background?
What was that turning point and where are you now so that they know kind of what we're working with today.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (02:29):
Absolutely.
So I'd like to sum up my career.
The first part of my career was building brands that touch people's lives every day.
So I spent the first part of my career on the advertising agency side working on big campaigns like super bowl and the Olympics.
I got to work on Nestle and Gamestop and Chick Fil A.
And I had so much fun with just the combination of creativity and merging that with business problem solving.
(02:54):
And at some point I decided that, hey, I'm going to go back and I'm going to be a graphic designer, because that's always been my passion.
So I think it was.
I was 23 years old and I was going to quit my job, and I spoke to this design principal at my agency about, hey, I'm going to go do this thing.
I'm going to go back to portfolio school.
(03:15):
And he was like, hey, wait, wait.
Before you just blow up your career, why don't you come work for me?
We have this need to have a brand manager in house, and you can build your design skill set get be exposed to more creativity, and then at the same time, you can decide whether or not this is the right choice for you.
So I go and I start working for this design firm, which was awesome because I'm a creative at heart, but I'm also a very, like, analytical person as well.
(03:44):
And I realized pretty quickly that I am not a designer.
While I have a huge appreciation for pretty things and beautiful spaces, which is why I loved the design of your office and was just, oh, my gosh, fangirling over it, I realized that I am much more of a person who is a connector and a collaborator.
(04:05):
And so I decided at that point in time to go back, get my mba.
And getting my MBA actually fueled me into the next opportunity, which was to work at Frito Lay.
And ultimately I ended up becoming the brand manager on Doritos.
So I was working on big super bowl campaign ads.
I think one week in my career.
(04:26):
I had met Post Malone, Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott all in one week because were shooting a bunch of commercials.
Yeah.
And it was just like, what is my life?
This is so cool.
This is my dream job.
And it was at the height of my career and at the height of getting my dream job that I suddenly found myself in a nightmare situation.
(04:52):
And it was the beginning of 2020.
I had just gotten back from a big work trip, and I found this bump on my breast.
And my doctor had gone in for an appointment.
They basically called me While I was walking into a work meeting, and they said, hey, I'm sorry, Kelly, but it's breast cancer.
And so at 30 years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
(05:15):
But then top it all off, I had just found out a couple of weeks prior to that I was pregnant with my first child.
And so I hadn't even told my parents yet that I was pregnant.
And I had to break the devastating and joyful news all in one sitting.
So it was completely just, you know, a nuclear bomb, like, falling into my life.
(05:39):
And a few weeks after that happened.
So that was at the end Of February of 2020, beginning of March 2020, the pandemic broke out.
So I was battling cancer while pregnant, going to multiple doctor's appointments a week, trying to navigate both work and life, and just trying to figure out, like, how do I survive?
(06:00):
How do I keep doing my job, and how do I, you know, like, have a healthy pregnancy?
And so what I realized through that experience was just how intertwined our personal and our professional lives are.
And it made me realize that, you know, life is too short to not be fulfilled in your career.
(06:21):
And that was one of the reasons why I really came out of that experience and wanted to find work that, like, brought me joy.
And so, long story short, spoiler alert, I'm okay, and I beat breast cancer.
I have a beautiful baby girl.
She's about to turn five.
And, you know, now looking back, I realized that was one of the biggest parts of my journey that really catapulted me into this new career phase that really felt scary at the time to make that change.
(06:53):
But I realized that there's just so much at stake.
We don't know how much time we have on this earth, and so we have to live each day with intention.
Kendall Berg (07:03):
Thank you so much for sharing your story, because I do think you have a lot of, like, unique perspective in this, right.
That.
I'm so glad you're okay, and I'm so glad your daughter is happy and healthy as well.
But I can't imagine the terror of all of that happening at the same time.
Like, my heart goes out to you because just getting pregnant is scary enough, let alone, like, you're on top of it.
(07:28):
Like, also, I will simultaneously be battling cancer, and, yeah, two for the price of one.
So I think you.
You bring such a unique perspective and also such.
Just an incredible overcoming story.
And it's so funny to hear you talk about wanting to go into graphic design.
I have this conversation with clients all the time because, like, oh, I'm passionate about this.
Or, like, so I want to do this for work.
(07:49):
I'm like, do you, though?
Do you?
Because I love interior design.
We were talking earlier about my office.
Those of you don't know, my office in my house is like a giant fishbowl conference room.
Like, the whole thing is enclosed in glass.
And it was, like, a big win for me.
I haven't had my own office since I started working from home in 2019.
(08:10):
This is my first, like, real big girl office.
And I love interior design.
And people come to my house like, oh, you should do this for a living.
No, I should not argue with people like, no, that's ugly.
We're not doing that.
We're doing this thing that I want to do.
It's not fun life for me.
And shout out to the interior designers out there who do, because that's good for you, girl.
But I do think that there's this unique intersection of, like, what we're really good at and what we're really passionate about that leaves us feeling fulfilled.
(08:37):
And I know that this is something that you talk about as well.
So what would you say when it comes to, like, hey, we only have so much time on this earth?
Life can shift at any moment.
You want to feel satisfaction in your career.
What does that look like?
How does somebody find that satisfaction if they're listening to this and thinking, I don't feel it now.
This isn't it.
Like, what is that next step?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (08:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
And so the first part of my career, I was always chasing that passion.
I was always chasing, like, I want to find my dream job.
And I felt like when I got to Doritos and I was leading brand marketing for Avocados for Mexico, I was doing all of these things that felt like, oh, this is what I'm passionate about.
(09:21):
I'm so good at marketing.
I'm.
I'm such a marketing girly.
What I realized was that passion alone doesn't create fulfillment.
Sure, it creates fun, and you can have a lot of engagement and a lot of, you know, gain a lot of great skills.
Skills.
But what I found as.
As I've gone through this, the phases and evolution of my career is that it's.
(09:43):
Instead of chasing passion, it's about chasing purpose and when you find your purpose.
And for me, as I started to look inside and reflect on what.
What was it that my unique skill set can contribute to the world and what's my deeper reason for why.
Why do I want to work and why do I want to do this?
(10:04):
Work.
It was because I wanted to motivate people to live their lives authentically.
And I wanted people to feel like they had the agency to overcome fear and go after that career that they want to go after.
And so instead of it being about passion, I think purpose is a much more sustainable pursuit when you are trying to look for career fulfillment.
Kendall Berg (10:29):
I love this on snaps for that.
This is my.
This is my biggest Internet pet peeve.
You're all going to sit down while I soapbox for just 2 seconds.
Is when these career coaches are like, follow your passion.
You should do, you know, be that rock climber, underwater basket weaver of your dreams.
Like, no, because.
(10:52):
And I've talked about this before.
I talked about this on my LinkedIn podcast episode.
I don't believe in a dream job.
I don't think it exists.
I think there are really great jobs that are a good alignment of what you're good at and to your point, what your purpose is, joy, what you want to give back to the world.
But I don't think a dream job exists unless you're making it yourself, frankly.
(11:12):
And so what ends up happening is we can be really hard on the role we do have because we're focused on this dream job that may or may not exist necessarily, and one that brings us more dissatisfaction in our current circumstances.
Right.
Especially if you're early on in your career and you're like, oh, I want.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:32):
To climb a ladder and I want.
Kendall Berg (11:33):
To get to that next role, and you're just, like, constantly in the grind.
That's not going to bring you fulfillment.
It's not going to bring you happiness.
And so I love this broader perspective of, like, what is the purpose behind what I do?
What's the value of that purpose?
And what I would add to that is, like.
And then where does that intersect with what you're really good at?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:50):
Yeah.
Kendall Berg (11:51):
Where you lean in.
Because I could want a purpose of saving baby dolphins.
Love that.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:59):
Yeah.
Kendall Berg (12:00):
But if I'm not a very good swimmer, it's probably not the right intersection for me from, like, a job perspective.
Right.
And so finding where you have overlap, I think is so key.
And you did a big switch.
Right.
From marketing, which is no easy feat.
I always joke, like, 60 of my clients are marketers because a rough vertical to career coaching and authenticity coaching and, you know, purpose alignment for you.
(12:30):
What was that shift that took place where you were like, okay, yes, I'm in my dream job.
Yes, it's great.
Yes.
I have now beat cancer and had a baby and my life Is wonderful.
I'm gonna pivot all the way over here.
Like, what was that moment for you?
Or what was that purpose light bulb off that you were like, okay, now's the time and I'm going to make this switch.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (12:52):
Yeah.
I wish I could tell you that after I had cancer I had this epiphany and, you know, didn't go back to my old bad habits, but that is not the case.
So instead you would think I'd slow down, but instead of slowing down, I actually doubled down and had just this like fire inside of me that like I got to accomplish everything that I possibly can because I have this like one life.
(13:16):
And ended up getting like promoted three times after, you know, being on the Doritos brand manager role and then just completely worked myself into burnout, quite frankly.
And it culminated in this one moment where I'd been traveling a lot for work and going to conferences and speaking on industry stages and, you know, going to production shoots.
(13:39):
And I got home and I was tucking in my three year old daughter into bed.
And I ask her this question, I say, how can I be a better mommy?
And she looks at me with her big brown eyes and she says, don't leave us.
And that moment really just put everything into perspective for me.
I thought this entire time I was trying to prove to her that you can be an ambitious career woman and still have like a beautiful family and do all of these things.
(14:11):
And what I realized was I was over correcting in the wrong direction.
And I was really needing to find that alignment in my life.
And what I mean by finding life work alignment is finding alignment with the vision that I had for my life, with my values, with my passions and my purpose.
Because I was really just trying to grind and hustle so hard for what I thought was success and it didn't actually turn out to be success.
(14:38):
What looked really shiny on the outside felt really crappy on the inside.
And so that moment when she and I had that interchange, it really changed my perspective on what does success mean to me.
And I had to look inside and redefine that definition of success that I had held onto for so long, which was previously achieving, climbing the ladder, getting the title, the status, the salary.
(15:04):
And now I've redefined that into being having the freedom and the flexibility to do work that I truly love.
And so from that moment, I decided I was gonna take a career break.
At the end of 2023, I just left my full time job.
I didn't have anything lined up.
It was scarier than quitting my job was scarier than getting my cancer diagnosis because it was something that I was choosing, not something that just happened to me.
(15:32):
And so a lot of people were questioning my choices.
My mom was like, are you crazy?
But I knew I needed that space.
I needed to remove myself from the situation so that I could really understand what.
What did I want next?
How did I want to contribute to the world next?
And so when I started to really think back through my career experiences, the one thing that rose to the surface was doing my career Slate podcast where I was interviewing these people who loved what they did and they just lit up inside.
(16:04):
And I knew that I could find that too.
And so how could I turn that into a full time career?
And.
And that's what naturally led me into coaching.
Kendall Berg (16:13):
There's two things that you mentioned, Kelly, that I want to double click on because I think they're really important, especially in the context of your story.
So the first is so much of our identity gets wrapped up in our job and the idea of quitting and walking away, or the idea of doing a career shift, or the idea of turning down a promotion because it doesn't align with that vision of our lives or it doesn't align with that purpose for ourselves is terrifying because we see that as a reflection of who we are and we take that very deeply into our person.
(16:47):
Right?
And you and I have kind of talked about this when we first connected on.
It's hard to go from introducing yourself to strangers with a corporate title to introducing yourself as like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm a coach and I run a podcast.
Even that shift, it has an identity impact because you're like, is that who I am?
Like, is this a reflection of me?
(17:09):
And so, you know, I think it's a great takeaway for anybody who's listening that as scary as a no to your career might be, if it's in alignment with your purpose, your vision, where you want your future to be, it is okay to say no to that role, to that job, to that company, to that career path, and to make a shift for yourself.
(17:30):
It's so easy to be terrified of it.
Trust me, as somebody who has worked a corporate job and been a coach for the last three years, it's terrifying.
I know, literally on a regular basis.
And it's funny because now when I meet people, I introduce myself as a coach and speaker.
I don't introduce myself with my corporate title anymore, but that took two years for me to feel comfortable doing.
(17:50):
So it is A journey.
And so give yourself some grace.
If you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, I want to make a change, but like, yo, I got kids.
I got responsibilities.
Like, it is possible.
Kelly is living proof.
And so I just think it's important to spend some time in that because identity is really challenging.
I feel like sometimes with your career.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (18:08):
Absolutely.
And one piece of advice that I tell people is if you're at a cocktail party and instead of asking people, what do you do?
Ask them, what do you like to do?
Because I think that takes away so much pressure of attaching our identities to our careers.
And then you can start to talk to people about what actually lights them up.
(18:29):
Like, is it the underwater basket weaving?
And I think that we as a society need to start shifting the conversation because we put so much pressure on our careers to be our everything, that when it doesn't work out or when life happens or throws you a curveball, it can feel like devastation when your career isn't panning out to what you had expected it to be.
Kendall Berg (18:53):
Yeah, I love that question and that flip, too, because we all do it, right?
We all.
We joked.
I used to live where Kelly lives, and one of the reasons we moved is because my husband came home one day and was like, I cannot have the.
What do you do for a living?
Is there any money in that conversation?
One more time.
He's like, I'm done.
I'm done.
(19:14):
No, there's no money in it.
I'm poor.
I live in a box.
Can we all please move on?
Like, I'm so sick of having this conversation.
So I love that.
What do you like to do instead?
The second thing that you mentioned that I want to double click on, I want to get your perspective, because I know you have some really great advice here, is that you said you were nearing burnout and working towards burnout.
And especially when I work with high performers, to your point of like, I survived cancer, doubling down on my career success, high performer mentality of like, I almost died.
(19:41):
That must mean it's time to be CEO.
Like, that's such a high performer type a type thing, and I love it.
But you're right.
We can push ourselves to a point of burnout or to a point where it's no longer sustainable.
So I'd love to hear from your perspective.
One, what are some things that we can do to prevent nearing ourselves towards burnout that we can be aware of?
(20:02):
And two, if we feel like we're nearing burnout, what are some things we should Evaluate or should do to kind of recover from it.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (20:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I will share just a very personal experience.
So after I doubled down and kind of wanted to grow my career and be like superwoman in that sense, one of the aha's and moments that I was realizing that this, you know, my burnout is not a badge of honor, is I was so stressed out that I had started to get these headaches and they would last for weeks.
(20:34):
And I think I had reached out to my oncologist because I was still seeing him for checkups, making sure I'm okay.
And he said, let's get it checked out, just to be safe.
So I am in an MRI machine, and they are rolling me back through the MRI machine, and the technician presses a button.
He goes, Mrs. Burke, how's it going in there?
(20:57):
And I'm like, good.
Aside from the fact that you're skating my brain for cancer.
And it was that moment.
I know I make fun of it now, but it was literally that moment that I was like, this is not worth it.
I need to.
Turns out my brain was clear.
I did not have cancer again.
But it was just the realization that our bodies signal to us when we are approaching burnout or where we.
(21:21):
When we are at burnout.
And so we have to listen to those signals.
The other story that I'll.
I'll share with you is that when I left my corporate job five weeks after leaving, my Apple watch pings me, and it says, your resting heart rate is trending lower.
And so I Google it because I'm like, oh, my God, am I dying?
Like, what does that mean?
And it turns out to be a good thing.
Kendall Berg (21:44):
She's like, am I dying again?
Is this.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (21:47):
Yeah.
And it was a good thing.
And so I had told my doctor, he was floored.
The only change I had made was I had left my job.
And so it was just this.
My body signaling back to me that, like, hey, you gotta manage your stress.
You gotta manage your burnout.
(22:07):
Don't let it get to that point of your body sending signals and you thinking that, you know, the sleepless nights, the, you know, skipped workouts, the eating junk food and on the go is going to not catch up to you.
It absolutely will.
So you had asked, like, what do you do when you're at that point of burnout?
What do you do when you're at that point where you are trying to manage your stress level?
(22:30):
I did a couple of things.
The first was that I sought out help.
So one thing that had really helped me and my journey in my career was I've.
I've always had a coach and I've always had a therapist.
And I feel like the combination of the two really helped me kind of look at my situation and find the agency in the moments that I could take charge of.
(22:53):
What could I change?
How could I set better boundaries?
Do I need to be in that meeting?
Can somebody on my team take over that meeting?
What can I say no to?
And be very confident in creating those boundaries and saying that no, because what was at stake was my health.
And if you are not running, if you're not taking care of yourself, like, how are you able to take care of others?
(23:14):
And I think that's especially true for mothers and any parents or caregivers.
So that would be the first thing is, like, get help.
I would also, you know, I created a, you know, list of, like, all the activities that I did and what percentage of my day was attributed to each of these activities.
(23:34):
So, for example, like, how much time am I spending with my husband?
How much time am I spending in meetings?
How much time am I actually.
So I did a, an audit of my time and I thought to myself, like, what percentage do I actually want my time to be?
And how can I start to shift things around so that I'm the one who's creating the schedule and the schedule's not taking over my life?
(23:57):
So a couple of those things.
And the other thing that I would incorporate back into that is movement, you know, getting that daily exercise in.
I know it's.
I sound like a.
Sound like a doctor, but it makes, it's such a game changer.
It changes your energy, it changes how your brain functions.
And I think for me, after leaving my corporate job, I spent the entire year just working on getting my health back to optimal, like an state.
(24:24):
And I tell you that it's unlocked so much more from a professional and a personal standpoint just because I decided to take care of myself.
Kendall Berg (24:33):
These are all such great things that you should do.
I especially love a good time audit.
I make most of my clients do this when they start working with me, because you mentioned boundary setting.
And I think that sometimes setting boundaries can be really easy, but maintaining them can be really hard.
Of, like, it's easy to say, I'm gonna log off at five and set that boundary, but then when it's five o' clock and your boss pings you and asks for something else, do you end up staying?
(25:00):
And like, how do you maintain that over time?
And so being Able to see where your time is going and on what type of tasks and what type of work.
I think can be really powerful both to avoid burnout, but also just to manage yourself effectively.
And I want to connect this back with something that you said at the top of the episode is you had said, oh, now I can't remember how you said it.
(25:20):
Work life integration.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (25:22):
Work life work alignment.
Kendall Berg (25:24):
Life work alignment.
See, there we are.
I want really quickly, before we start to wrap up, I want to hear about life work alignment.
Because I think this is something, in my opinion, due to social media has kind of spun out of control as everyone's like, work, life balance.
Work life.
There's, in my opinion, no such thing as work life balance.
Yeah, there is sometimes work and sometimes life, and they all go together.
(25:45):
But I'd love to hear your take on life work alignment.
And what does that mean and how can somebody kind of start to find that?
Because I think when it comes to setting boundaries, avoiding burnout, recovering from burnout, these things are all interconnected.
So I'd love your 2 cents on that as well.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (26:01):
Absolutely.
This is such a big passion point of mine.
I also don't think that work life balance is real.
And that concept actually originated back in the 1800s with a Welsh manufacturer, Robert Something, but he had advocated for eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, and eight hours of recreation.
(26:21):
And so when you think about that concept of work life balance, you are essentially equating equal parts time of work to life.
And life just doesn't happen that way.
So a concept that I like to introduce to my clients is life work alignment.
Which is, instead of taking it as like equal parts life and work, what we're doing is we are aligning the most important priorities in our life.
(26:49):
And so when you're aligned, think about it like a spine.
When you're aligned and you have gone to the chiropractor, everything is.
Everything is in the right spot.
You're placing things in the right position in your life.
And so that enables greater flexibility, mobility and longevity overall.
And so what do I mean by aligning the things?
(27:11):
It means aligning your values.
Are you in a job that the leadership team and the culture at that organization aligns with your personal core values?
Because if that stuff doesn't work, yes, you can do that job for a short period of time, but long term, something is going to cause friction.
Also, we had talked about vision.
(27:31):
What is the vision that you have for your life?
What is that big goal, big dream that you have for your Life.
And is the job that you're in working towards that, is it enabling that vision, or is it actually detracting from it, or is it taking over that vision completely?
So how do we think about our life?
Not just as what career or title we have, but also what are the other parts of our life that we want to nurture and flourish?
(27:58):
Like, how do we want to spend our time outside of work?
And then the last two things is our, you know, our passions and our purpose.
We had talked a little bit about purpose already about, like, that drive, why we exist, why we are doing what we're doing.
But I want touch on passion, because passion is important.
It does.
It is that intrinsic interest that we have that fires that motivation that we already have.
(28:24):
So whether it's design or interior design or maybe it's hiking or whatnot, we have to make room for those things in our life.
We actually have to plan those things in our life so that we're not just all work all the time, that we are taking our vacation, that we are not responding to emails while we're are.
(28:47):
And I think when we have alignment, it just creates more of a synergy.
In our entire life, there is more flow, there is more integration.
I know.
I think there's a lot of different concepts that have come across that replace the idea of balance.
But I think ultimately, balance is just a construct that is really impossible to achieve.
(29:10):
And so if we continue to use that narrative, it's.
It's going to constantly set us up for failure.
So we need to find a different narrative and a different way to talk about it.
But that holistically captures the beauty of everything in our life, not just one piece.
Kendall Berg (29:28):
Such good advice.
And I 1000% agree with everything that you're saying, Kelly, because it is finding alignment more so than finding balance.
Right.
I always say there's times where I work more and there's times where my personal life gets more attention and it's going to ebb and flow, and that's seasonal.
And it depends on lots of factors, like summertime, when my kids aren't in school, they get a little more attention.
(29:48):
Right.
And my work's gonna be a little less.
So I think it's great about finding out what that.
That alignment, that integration is gonna look like for you.
So before we wrap up, I always like to ask, what's one tactical thing you would tell listeners?
If they're like, hey, I do want to get my life in more alignment, I don't want to burn out what's one thing you would say, like, hey, tomorrow, go do this thing.
(30:08):
And it will help them at least kind of kickstart that process.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:12):
Absolutely.
So I like to tell people to build a board of directors, a personal board of directors.
So you're the CEO of your life.
You want to build a personal board of directors that includes people who really trust that you really trust, that know you well, that can reflect back to you what your values are.
Because when you are in those moments of discernment, of transition and you need to bounce ideas off of people, you go to, you know, that personal board of directors to really help you triangulate that decision and make sure that you're moving in the right direction.
Kendall Berg (30:45):
Such a good tip.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:46):
I love it.
Kendall Berg (30:47):
We could do a whole separate episode on being the CEO.
That's something that I talk about a lot, but I love this.
So, Kelly, if people were listening to this and they absolutely loved it, where can they go to find out more about you?
To find out more about Career Slay?
Where do you want to send them?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:59):
Yeah, find me on careerslay.com and feel free to follow me on Instagram @careerslay.
Kendall Berg (31:06):
Awesome.
We'll put all that in the show notes below as well.
But if you like today's episode, go ahead, leave us five stars.
If you have any question for Kelly or myself, please leave them in the comments.
We'll get back to you guys.
But otherwise, Kelly, thank you so much for coming on the pod.
We love the chat.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (31:19):
Thank you so much for having me, Kendall.
I loved it.
Kendall Berg (31:22):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, clever, overly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
If you're at a cocktail party and instead of asking people what do you do, ask them what do you like to do?
Because I think that takes away so much pressure of attaching our identities to our careers.
And then you can start to talk to people about what actually lights them up.
Like, is it the underwater basket weaving?
And I think that we as a society need to start shifting the conversation because we put so much pressure on.
(00:28):
On our careers to be our everything that when it doesn't work out or when life happens or throws you a curveball, it can feel like devastation.
When your career isn't panning out to what you had expected it.
Kendall Berg (00:40):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, cleverly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
And on this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
(01:05):
Welcome back, my lovelies, to another fabulous episode.
Today we have a very special guest who, if you checked into my limb's episode a few weeks ago on the charisma and the risk factor, is actually a connection that I made through him.
And I'm so excited to have her on the show.
This is Kelly Pokies Burke, and she is an executive coach.
(01:26):
She's a keynote speaker.
She's a podcast cast host of the Career Slave podcast, which we will go to at some point.
And she has such an amazing journey.
She beat breast cancer while pregnant during the pandemic and basically flipped her career on its head and went from a very successful career building brands and leading super bowl campaigns to launching career slay and motivating others to live their lives authentically.
(01:54):
So, Kelly, we are super excited to have you on today's show.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (01:58):
Thank you so much, Kendall.
I'm excited to be here.
I've been such a huge fan and I'm excited to have the conversation.
Kendall Berg (02:05):
It's going to be great.
We were chatting before we started recording, and already I'm like, it's going to be so good.
So why don't you tell people a little bit about your backstory because you have such a powerful journey of how you got to career slay with.
Why don't you get people up to speed a little bit on, like, what was your professional background?
What was that turning point and where are you now so that they know kind of what we're working with today.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (02:29):
Absolutely.
So I'd like to sum up my career.
The first part of my career was building brands that touch people's lives every day.
So I spent the first part of my career on the advertising agency side working on big campaigns like super bowl and the Olympics.
I got to work on Nestle and Gamestop and Chick Fil A.
And I had so much fun with just the combination of creativity and merging that with business problem solving.
(02:54):
And at some point I decided that, hey, I'm going to go back and I'm going to be a graphic designer, because that's always been my passion.
So I think it was.
I was 23 years old and I was going to quit my job, and I spoke to this design principal at my agency about, hey, I'm going to go do this thing.
I'm going to go back to portfolio school.
(03:15):
And he was like, hey, wait, wait.
Before you just blow up your career, why don't you come work for me?
We have this need to have a brand manager in house, and you can build your design skill set get be exposed to more creativity, and then at the same time, you can decide whether or not this is the right choice for you.
So I go and I start working for this design firm, which was awesome because I'm a creative at heart, but I'm also a very, like, analytical person as well.
(03:44):
And I realized pretty quickly that I am not a designer.
While I have a huge appreciation for pretty things and beautiful spaces, which is why I loved the design of your office and was just, oh, my gosh, fangirling over it, I realized that I am much more of a person who is a connector and a collaborator.
(04:05):
And so I decided at that point in time to go back, get my mba.
And getting my MBA actually fueled me into the next opportunity, which was to work at Frito Lay.
And ultimately I ended up becoming the brand manager on Doritos.
So I was working on big super bowl campaign ads.
I think one week in my career.
(04:26):
I had met Post Malone, Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott all in one week because were shooting a bunch of commercials.
Yeah.
And it was just like, what is my life?
This is so cool.
This is my dream job.
And it was at the height of my career and at the height of getting my dream job that I suddenly found myself in a nightmare situation.
(04:52):
And it was the beginning of 2020.
I had just gotten back from a big work trip, and I found this bump on my breast.
And my doctor had gone in for an appointment.
They basically called me While I was walking into a work meeting, and they said, hey, I'm sorry, Kelly, but it's breast cancer.
And so at 30 years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
(05:15):
But then top it all off, I had just found out a couple of weeks prior to that I was pregnant with my first child.
And so I hadn't even told my parents yet that I was pregnant.
And I had to break the devastating and joyful news all in one sitting.
So it was completely just, you know, a nuclear bomb, like, falling into my life.
(05:39):
And a few weeks after that happened.
So that was at the end Of February of 2020, beginning of March 2020, the pandemic broke out.
So I was battling cancer while pregnant, going to multiple doctor's appointments a week, trying to navigate both work and life, and just trying to figure out, like, how do I survive?
(06:00):
How do I keep doing my job, and how do I, you know, like, have a healthy pregnancy?
And so what I realized through that experience was just how intertwined our personal and our professional lives are.
And it made me realize that, you know, life is too short to not be fulfilled in your career.
(06:21):
And that was one of the reasons why I really came out of that experience and wanted to find work that, like, brought me joy.
And so, long story short, spoiler alert, I'm okay, and I beat breast cancer.
I have a beautiful baby girl.
She's about to turn five.
And, you know, now looking back, I realized that was one of the biggest parts of my journey that really catapulted me into this new career phase that really felt scary at the time to make that change.
(06:53):
But I realized that there's just so much at stake.
We don't know how much time we have on this earth, and so we have to live each day with intention.
Kendall Berg (07:03):
Thank you so much for sharing your story, because I do think you have a lot of, like, unique perspective in this, right.
That.
I'm so glad you're okay, and I'm so glad your daughter is happy and healthy as well.
But I can't imagine the terror of all of that happening at the same time.
Like, my heart goes out to you because just getting pregnant is scary enough, let alone, like, you're on top of it.
(07:28):
Like, also, I will simultaneously be battling cancer, and, yeah, two for the price of one.
So I think you.
You bring such a unique perspective and also such.
Just an incredible overcoming story.
And it's so funny to hear you talk about wanting to go into graphic design.
I have this conversation with clients all the time because, like, oh, I'm passionate about this.
Or, like, so I want to do this for work.
(07:49):
I'm like, do you, though?
Do you?
Because I love interior design.
We were talking earlier about my office.
Those of you don't know, my office in my house is like a giant fishbowl conference room.
Like, the whole thing is enclosed in glass.
And it was, like, a big win for me.
I haven't had my own office since I started working from home in 2019.
(08:10):
This is my first, like, real big girl office.
And I love interior design.
And people come to my house like, oh, you should do this for a living.
No, I should not argue with people like, no, that's ugly.
We're not doing that.
We're doing this thing that I want to do.
It's not fun life for me.
And shout out to the interior designers out there who do, because that's good for you, girl.
But I do think that there's this unique intersection of, like, what we're really good at and what we're really passionate about that leaves us feeling fulfilled.
(08:37):
And I know that this is something that you talk about as well.
So what would you say when it comes to, like, hey, we only have so much time on this earth?
Life can shift at any moment.
You want to feel satisfaction in your career.
What does that look like?
How does somebody find that satisfaction if they're listening to this and thinking, I don't feel it now.
This isn't it.
Like, what is that next step?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (08:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
And so the first part of my career, I was always chasing that passion.
I was always chasing, like, I want to find my dream job.
And I felt like when I got to Doritos and I was leading brand marketing for Avocados for Mexico, I was doing all of these things that felt like, oh, this is what I'm passionate about.
(09:21):
I'm so good at marketing.
I'm.
I'm such a marketing girly.
What I realized was that passion alone doesn't create fulfillment.
Sure, it creates fun, and you can have a lot of engagement and a lot of, you know, gain a lot of great skills.
Skills.
But what I found as.
As I've gone through this, the phases and evolution of my career is that it's.
(09:43):
Instead of chasing passion, it's about chasing purpose and when you find your purpose.
And for me, as I started to look inside and reflect on what.
What was it that my unique skill set can contribute to the world and what's my deeper reason for why.
Why do I want to work and why do I want to do this?
(10:04):
Work.
It was because I wanted to motivate people to live their lives authentically.
And I wanted people to feel like they had the agency to overcome fear and go after that career that they want to go after.
And so instead of it being about passion, I think purpose is a much more sustainable pursuit when you are trying to look for career fulfillment.
Kendall Berg (10:29):
I love this on snaps for that.
This is my.
This is my biggest Internet pet peeve.
You're all going to sit down while I soapbox for just 2 seconds.
Is when these career coaches are like, follow your passion.
You should do, you know, be that rock climber, underwater basket weaver of your dreams.
Like, no, because.
(10:52):
And I've talked about this before.
I talked about this on my LinkedIn podcast episode.
I don't believe in a dream job.
I don't think it exists.
I think there are really great jobs that are a good alignment of what you're good at and to your point, what your purpose is, joy, what you want to give back to the world.
But I don't think a dream job exists unless you're making it yourself, frankly.
(11:12):
And so what ends up happening is we can be really hard on the role we do have because we're focused on this dream job that may or may not exist necessarily, and one that brings us more dissatisfaction in our current circumstances.
Right.
Especially if you're early on in your career and you're like, oh, I want.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:32):
To climb a ladder and I want.
Kendall Berg (11:33):
To get to that next role, and you're just, like, constantly in the grind.
That's not going to bring you fulfillment.
It's not going to bring you happiness.
And so I love this broader perspective of, like, what is the purpose behind what I do?
What's the value of that purpose?
And what I would add to that is, like.
And then where does that intersect with what you're really good at?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:50):
Yeah.
Kendall Berg (11:51):
Where you lean in.
Because I could want a purpose of saving baby dolphins.
Love that.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (11:59):
Yeah.
Kendall Berg (12:00):
But if I'm not a very good swimmer, it's probably not the right intersection for me from, like, a job perspective.
Right.
And so finding where you have overlap, I think is so key.
And you did a big switch.
Right.
From marketing, which is no easy feat.
I always joke, like, 60 of my clients are marketers because a rough vertical to career coaching and authenticity coaching and, you know, purpose alignment for you.
(12:30):
What was that shift that took place where you were like, okay, yes, I'm in my dream job.
Yes, it's great.
Yes.
I have now beat cancer and had a baby and my life Is wonderful.
I'm gonna pivot all the way over here.
Like, what was that moment for you?
Or what was that purpose light bulb off that you were like, okay, now's the time and I'm going to make this switch.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (12:52):
Yeah.
I wish I could tell you that after I had cancer I had this epiphany and, you know, didn't go back to my old bad habits, but that is not the case.
So instead you would think I'd slow down, but instead of slowing down, I actually doubled down and had just this like fire inside of me that like I got to accomplish everything that I possibly can because I have this like one life.
(13:16):
And ended up getting like promoted three times after, you know, being on the Doritos brand manager role and then just completely worked myself into burnout, quite frankly.
And it culminated in this one moment where I'd been traveling a lot for work and going to conferences and speaking on industry stages and, you know, going to production shoots.
(13:39):
And I got home and I was tucking in my three year old daughter into bed.
And I ask her this question, I say, how can I be a better mommy?
And she looks at me with her big brown eyes and she says, don't leave us.
And that moment really just put everything into perspective for me.
I thought this entire time I was trying to prove to her that you can be an ambitious career woman and still have like a beautiful family and do all of these things.
(14:11):
And what I realized was I was over correcting in the wrong direction.
And I was really needing to find that alignment in my life.
And what I mean by finding life work alignment is finding alignment with the vision that I had for my life, with my values, with my passions and my purpose.
Because I was really just trying to grind and hustle so hard for what I thought was success and it didn't actually turn out to be success.
(14:38):
What looked really shiny on the outside felt really crappy on the inside.
And so that moment when she and I had that interchange, it really changed my perspective on what does success mean to me.
And I had to look inside and redefine that definition of success that I had held onto for so long, which was previously achieving, climbing the ladder, getting the title, the status, the salary.
(15:04):
And now I've redefined that into being having the freedom and the flexibility to do work that I truly love.
And so from that moment, I decided I was gonna take a career break.
At the end of 2023, I just left my full time job.
I didn't have anything lined up.
It was scarier than quitting my job was scarier than getting my cancer diagnosis because it was something that I was choosing, not something that just happened to me.
(15:32):
And so a lot of people were questioning my choices.
My mom was like, are you crazy?
But I knew I needed that space.
I needed to remove myself from the situation so that I could really understand what.
What did I want next?
How did I want to contribute to the world next?
And so when I started to really think back through my career experiences, the one thing that rose to the surface was doing my career Slate podcast where I was interviewing these people who loved what they did and they just lit up inside.
(16:04):
And I knew that I could find that too.
And so how could I turn that into a full time career?
And.
And that's what naturally led me into coaching.
Kendall Berg (16:13):
There's two things that you mentioned, Kelly, that I want to double click on because I think they're really important, especially in the context of your story.
So the first is so much of our identity gets wrapped up in our job and the idea of quitting and walking away, or the idea of doing a career shift, or the idea of turning down a promotion because it doesn't align with that vision of our lives or it doesn't align with that purpose for ourselves is terrifying because we see that as a reflection of who we are and we take that very deeply into our person.
(16:47):
Right?
And you and I have kind of talked about this when we first connected on.
It's hard to go from introducing yourself to strangers with a corporate title to introducing yourself as like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm a coach and I run a podcast.
Even that shift, it has an identity impact because you're like, is that who I am?
Like, is this a reflection of me?
(17:09):
And so, you know, I think it's a great takeaway for anybody who's listening that as scary as a no to your career might be, if it's in alignment with your purpose, your vision, where you want your future to be, it is okay to say no to that role, to that job, to that company, to that career path, and to make a shift for yourself.
(17:30):
It's so easy to be terrified of it.
Trust me, as somebody who has worked a corporate job and been a coach for the last three years, it's terrifying.
I know, literally on a regular basis.
And it's funny because now when I meet people, I introduce myself as a coach and speaker.
I don't introduce myself with my corporate title anymore, but that took two years for me to feel comfortable doing.
(17:50):
So it is A journey.
And so give yourself some grace.
If you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, I want to make a change, but like, yo, I got kids.
I got responsibilities.
Like, it is possible.
Kelly is living proof.
And so I just think it's important to spend some time in that because identity is really challenging.
I feel like sometimes with your career.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (18:08):
Absolutely.
And one piece of advice that I tell people is if you're at a cocktail party and instead of asking people, what do you do?
Ask them, what do you like to do?
Because I think that takes away so much pressure of attaching our identities to our careers.
And then you can start to talk to people about what actually lights them up.
(18:29):
Like, is it the underwater basket weaving?
And I think that we as a society need to start shifting the conversation because we put so much pressure on our careers to be our everything, that when it doesn't work out or when life happens or throws you a curveball, it can feel like devastation when your career isn't panning out to what you had expected it to be.
Kendall Berg (18:53):
Yeah, I love that question and that flip, too, because we all do it, right?
We all.
We joked.
I used to live where Kelly lives, and one of the reasons we moved is because my husband came home one day and was like, I cannot have the.
What do you do for a living?
Is there any money in that conversation?
One more time.
He's like, I'm done.
I'm done.
(19:14):
No, there's no money in it.
I'm poor.
I live in a box.
Can we all please move on?
Like, I'm so sick of having this conversation.
So I love that.
What do you like to do instead?
The second thing that you mentioned that I want to double click on, I want to get your perspective, because I know you have some really great advice here, is that you said you were nearing burnout and working towards burnout.
And especially when I work with high performers, to your point of like, I survived cancer, doubling down on my career success, high performer mentality of like, I almost died.
(19:41):
That must mean it's time to be CEO.
Like, that's such a high performer type a type thing, and I love it.
But you're right.
We can push ourselves to a point of burnout or to a point where it's no longer sustainable.
So I'd love to hear from your perspective.
One, what are some things that we can do to prevent nearing ourselves towards burnout that we can be aware of?
(20:02):
And two, if we feel like we're nearing burnout, what are some things we should Evaluate or should do to kind of recover from it.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (20:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I will share just a very personal experience.
So after I doubled down and kind of wanted to grow my career and be like superwoman in that sense, one of the aha's and moments that I was realizing that this, you know, my burnout is not a badge of honor, is I was so stressed out that I had started to get these headaches and they would last for weeks.
(20:34):
And I think I had reached out to my oncologist because I was still seeing him for checkups, making sure I'm okay.
And he said, let's get it checked out, just to be safe.
So I am in an MRI machine, and they are rolling me back through the MRI machine, and the technician presses a button.
He goes, Mrs. Burke, how's it going in there?
(20:57):
And I'm like, good.
Aside from the fact that you're skating my brain for cancer.
And it was that moment.
I know I make fun of it now, but it was literally that moment that I was like, this is not worth it.
I need to.
Turns out my brain was clear.
I did not have cancer again.
But it was just the realization that our bodies signal to us when we are approaching burnout or where we.
(21:21):
When we are at burnout.
And so we have to listen to those signals.
The other story that I'll.
I'll share with you is that when I left my corporate job five weeks after leaving, my Apple watch pings me, and it says, your resting heart rate is trending lower.
And so I Google it because I'm like, oh, my God, am I dying?
Like, what does that mean?
And it turns out to be a good thing.
Kendall Berg (21:44):
She's like, am I dying again?
Is this.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (21:47):
Yeah.
And it was a good thing.
And so I had told my doctor, he was floored.
The only change I had made was I had left my job.
And so it was just this.
My body signaling back to me that, like, hey, you gotta manage your stress.
You gotta manage your burnout.
(22:07):
Don't let it get to that point of your body sending signals and you thinking that, you know, the sleepless nights, the, you know, skipped workouts, the eating junk food and on the go is going to not catch up to you.
It absolutely will.
So you had asked, like, what do you do when you're at that point of burnout?
What do you do when you're at that point where you are trying to manage your stress level?
(22:30):
I did a couple of things.
The first was that I sought out help.
So one thing that had really helped me and my journey in my career was I've.
I've always had a coach and I've always had a therapist.
And I feel like the combination of the two really helped me kind of look at my situation and find the agency in the moments that I could take charge of.
(22:53):
What could I change?
How could I set better boundaries?
Do I need to be in that meeting?
Can somebody on my team take over that meeting?
What can I say no to?
And be very confident in creating those boundaries and saying that no, because what was at stake was my health.
And if you are not running, if you're not taking care of yourself, like, how are you able to take care of others?
(23:14):
And I think that's especially true for mothers and any parents or caregivers.
So that would be the first thing is, like, get help.
I would also, you know, I created a, you know, list of, like, all the activities that I did and what percentage of my day was attributed to each of these activities.
(23:34):
So, for example, like, how much time am I spending with my husband?
How much time am I spending in meetings?
How much time am I actually.
So I did a, an audit of my time and I thought to myself, like, what percentage do I actually want my time to be?
And how can I start to shift things around so that I'm the one who's creating the schedule and the schedule's not taking over my life?
(23:57):
So a couple of those things.
And the other thing that I would incorporate back into that is movement, you know, getting that daily exercise in.
I know it's.
I sound like a.
Sound like a doctor, but it makes, it's such a game changer.
It changes your energy, it changes how your brain functions.
And I think for me, after leaving my corporate job, I spent the entire year just working on getting my health back to optimal, like an state.
(24:24):
And I tell you that it's unlocked so much more from a professional and a personal standpoint just because I decided to take care of myself.
Kendall Berg (24:33):
These are all such great things that you should do.
I especially love a good time audit.
I make most of my clients do this when they start working with me, because you mentioned boundary setting.
And I think that sometimes setting boundaries can be really easy, but maintaining them can be really hard.
Of, like, it's easy to say, I'm gonna log off at five and set that boundary, but then when it's five o' clock and your boss pings you and asks for something else, do you end up staying?
(25:00):
And like, how do you maintain that over time?
And so being Able to see where your time is going and on what type of tasks and what type of work.
I think can be really powerful both to avoid burnout, but also just to manage yourself effectively.
And I want to connect this back with something that you said at the top of the episode is you had said, oh, now I can't remember how you said it.
(25:20):
Work life integration.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (25:22):
Work life work alignment.
Kendall Berg (25:24):
Life work alignment.
See, there we are.
I want really quickly, before we start to wrap up, I want to hear about life work alignment.
Because I think this is something, in my opinion, due to social media has kind of spun out of control as everyone's like, work, life balance.
Work life.
There's, in my opinion, no such thing as work life balance.
Yeah, there is sometimes work and sometimes life, and they all go together.
(25:45):
But I'd love to hear your take on life work alignment.
And what does that mean and how can somebody kind of start to find that?
Because I think when it comes to setting boundaries, avoiding burnout, recovering from burnout, these things are all interconnected.
So I'd love your 2 cents on that as well.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (26:01):
Absolutely.
This is such a big passion point of mine.
I also don't think that work life balance is real.
And that concept actually originated back in the 1800s with a Welsh manufacturer, Robert Something, but he had advocated for eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, and eight hours of recreation.
(26:21):
And so when you think about that concept of work life balance, you are essentially equating equal parts time of work to life.
And life just doesn't happen that way.
So a concept that I like to introduce to my clients is life work alignment.
Which is, instead of taking it as like equal parts life and work, what we're doing is we are aligning the most important priorities in our life.
(26:49):
And so when you're aligned, think about it like a spine.
When you're aligned and you have gone to the chiropractor, everything is.
Everything is in the right spot.
You're placing things in the right position in your life.
And so that enables greater flexibility, mobility and longevity overall.
And so what do I mean by aligning the things?
(27:11):
It means aligning your values.
Are you in a job that the leadership team and the culture at that organization aligns with your personal core values?
Because if that stuff doesn't work, yes, you can do that job for a short period of time, but long term, something is going to cause friction.
Also, we had talked about vision.
(27:31):
What is the vision that you have for your life?
What is that big goal, big dream that you have for your Life.
And is the job that you're in working towards that, is it enabling that vision, or is it actually detracting from it, or is it taking over that vision completely?
So how do we think about our life?
Not just as what career or title we have, but also what are the other parts of our life that we want to nurture and flourish?
(27:58):
Like, how do we want to spend our time outside of work?
And then the last two things is our, you know, our passions and our purpose.
We had talked a little bit about purpose already about, like, that drive, why we exist, why we are doing what we're doing.
But I want touch on passion, because passion is important.
It does.
It is that intrinsic interest that we have that fires that motivation that we already have.
(28:24):
So whether it's design or interior design or maybe it's hiking or whatnot, we have to make room for those things in our life.
We actually have to plan those things in our life so that we're not just all work all the time, that we are taking our vacation, that we are not responding to emails while we're are.
(28:47):
And I think when we have alignment, it just creates more of a synergy.
In our entire life, there is more flow, there is more integration.
I know.
I think there's a lot of different concepts that have come across that replace the idea of balance.
But I think ultimately, balance is just a construct that is really impossible to achieve.
(29:10):
And so if we continue to use that narrative, it's.
It's going to constantly set us up for failure.
So we need to find a different narrative and a different way to talk about it.
But that holistically captures the beauty of everything in our life, not just one piece.
Kendall Berg (29:28):
Such good advice.
And I 1000% agree with everything that you're saying, Kelly, because it is finding alignment more so than finding balance.
Right.
I always say there's times where I work more and there's times where my personal life gets more attention and it's going to ebb and flow, and that's seasonal.
And it depends on lots of factors, like summertime, when my kids aren't in school, they get a little more attention.
(29:48):
Right.
And my work's gonna be a little less.
So I think it's great about finding out what that.
That alignment, that integration is gonna look like for you.
So before we wrap up, I always like to ask, what's one tactical thing you would tell listeners?
If they're like, hey, I do want to get my life in more alignment, I don't want to burn out what's one thing you would say, like, hey, tomorrow, go do this thing.
(30:08):
And it will help them at least kind of kickstart that process.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:12):
Absolutely.
So I like to tell people to build a board of directors, a personal board of directors.
So you're the CEO of your life.
You want to build a personal board of directors that includes people who really trust that you really trust, that know you well, that can reflect back to you what your values are.
Because when you are in those moments of discernment, of transition and you need to bounce ideas off of people, you go to, you know, that personal board of directors to really help you triangulate that decision and make sure that you're moving in the right direction.
Kendall Berg (30:45):
Such a good tip.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:46):
I love it.
Kendall Berg (30:47):
We could do a whole separate episode on being the CEO.
That's something that I talk about a lot, but I love this.
So, Kelly, if people were listening to this and they absolutely loved it, where can they go to find out more about you?
To find out more about Career Slay?
Where do you want to send them?
Kelly Poquiz Burke (30:59):
Yeah, find me on careerslay.com and feel free to follow me on Instagram @careerslay.
Kendall Berg (31:06):
Awesome.
We'll put all that in the show notes below as well.
But if you like today's episode, go ahead, leave us five stars.
If you have any question for Kelly or myself, please leave them in the comments.
We'll get back to you guys.
But otherwise, Kelly, thank you so much for coming on the pod.
We love the chat.
Kelly Poquiz Burke (31:19):
Thank you so much for having me, Kendall.
I loved it.
Kendall Berg (31:22):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, clever, overly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
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