September 15, 2025 • 46 mins
Have you ever wondered what it truly takes to stand out, move up quickly in your career, and speak confidently, especially when you’re just starting out? In this episode of Speaking with Confidence, I dig deep into the real skills that make the difference between simply doing the work and truly excelling–skills that aren’t always on the job description, but that employers look for and reward.
I’m Tim Newman, your host and a former college professor turned communication coach. My passion is helping people build the soft skills that lead to real results, whether in storytelling, public speaking, or just showing up with more confidence. This week, I’m thrilled to speak with Brianne Rush, the founder of The Independence Lab. Brianne is a powerhouse when it comes to helping Gen Z women make the leap from college to career. She rose through the ranks incredibly quickly from intern to managing editor in a year, and employee to VP in four years by learning to decode workplace dynamics, advocate for herself, and, most importantly, overcome her fear of public speaking.
We kick off the conversation with Brianne’s story—how she knew from the age of eight that she wanted to move to New York to be a journalist, and what it felt like to finally live that dream. Brianne shares what inspired her to choose New York, how her experiences in dance and performance influenced her, and why total immersion in a city full of energy was essential to her identity and early career. She explains the lessons she learned—not just about working hard and climbing the ranks, but about truly living in the moment and building genuine connections, both professional and personal.
Here’s what we cover in this episode:
- Brianne’s journey from dreaming of journalism in New York to landing and advancing in her dream role
- The importance of immersion, living in the moment, and building meaningful experiences early in your career
- Lessons about working hard, networking, and creating opportunities for yourself—even when you start at the bottom
- What employers are really looking for in hiring today: the power of soft skills like passion, curiosity, proactivity, and communication
- How to stand out authentically in interviews—using storytelling, personalized cover letters, and honest conversation instead of relying only on AI
- Practical strategies to display confidence, curiosity, and proactivity in every step of your job search
- Brianne’s advice on career advancement: emotional intelligence skills, self-awareness, handling setbacks, and the value of progress over perfection
- Navigating boundaries, learning to say no, and prioritizing projects that advance your career (with a special focus on women in the workplace)
- Gen Z’s growing focus on self-knowledge, life transitions, and ditching outdated hustle culture for a healthier approach
- The mission behind The Independence Lab and actionable resources for building emotional intelligence
If you’re looking for real advice on how to marry soft skills and confidence with actionable career moves, this episode is for you—whether you’re early in your career, managing the next big transition, or helping others find their way. Be sure to check out Brianne’s free resources and connect with us to keep leveling up your communicat
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Tim Newman (00:10):
Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, a
podcast that helps you build thesoft skills that lead to real
results Communication,storytelling, public speaking
and showing up with confidencein every conversation that
counts.
I'm Tim Newman, a recoveringcollege professor turned
communication coach, and I'mthrilled to guide you on your
journey to becoming a powerfulcommunicator.
Make sure you hit the subscribebutton so you never miss an
episode.
(00:30):
Today's guest is Breanne Rush.
She is the founder of theIndependence Lab, where she
helps Gen Z women transitionfrom college to career with
confidence.
She landed her dream job andclimbed the ladder fast from
intern to managing editor in ayear and employee to VP in four.
But it wasn't because shefollowed the traditional rules.
(00:51):
She learned how to decode theunspoken workplace dynamics,
overcome her fear of publicspeaking and advocate for
herself.
Recognized by platforms likeForbes, success and Women we
Admire, she is dedicated tounlocking career growth for a
new generation.
Brianna, welcome to the show.
Brianne Rush (01:09):
Thank you, Tim, so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Tim Newman (01:12):
Well, I'm glad because, you know, when you
first reached out to me one ofthe things that really really
stood out to me which is kind ofrare, you know when you
graduated college you truly wentfor it.
I mean, you put yourself outthere and you went for what you
had worked for and what youwanted to do.
And this is you know foreverybody.
(01:35):
Listen, this is how things turnout.
If you go for what you want andyou do the work, success
happens want and you do the work, success happens.
Brianne Rush (01:49):
That's so true.
I mean, I knew that I wanted tomove to New York and work as a
journalist since I was eightyears old, and if I didn't do
that, I would have regretted itfor my entire life.
So I had no choice, tim, I hadto go for it.
Tim Newman (01:57):
Yeah, it's um.
Why New York, though?
Because, um, yeah, obviouslymedia and those types of things,
but why New York?
Was part of it to truly getaway and immerse yourself in
your career and in the cultureof what you wanted to do.
(02:22):
And what did you learn fromthat overall experience of truly
immersing yourself in what youwere doing?
Brianne Rush (02:29):
So when I say journalist, I am a trained
journalist.
However, I wasn't like thehardcore news.
I wasn't interested in writingabout breaking news and politics
or the murder down the street,like I wanted more so to do the
human interest stuff, and I alsowas a competitive dancer.
So these elements of my lifekind of came together, this idea
(02:52):
of writing, this idea of dance,theater, performance it all
seemed to blossom in New York.
That seemed to be like theMecca of all of the things that
I was interested in and I hadvisited a couple times, you know
, growing up, especially in highschool, and I just felt that
energy in my bones so I justknew that was like the place for
me and so immersing myself inthat seemed like the only way to
(03:16):
truly make that dream come trueis to go in there, combine what
was the essence of me, you know, this idea of performance and
writing and all of these thingscoming together, and it just
seemed like that was the onlyplace I could go to do all of
the things and truly be myself.
I just really felt like thatwas the answer for the first leg
(03:39):
of my career.
Tim Newman (03:40):
Right.
And what did you?
What'd you actually learn fromthat?
From not only a professionalperspective, but a personal
perspective, because you knowthe whole idea.
I think where we're at now insociety is the idea of work-life
balance, which you know.
That's a different discussionfor a different day.
I think there's some validitythere to get your career started
(04:02):
.
Obviously, that's what youthought you had to do and it
worked out.
But what did you learn comingout of that?
Brianne Rush (04:12):
as you started to grow your career and get a
little bit older.
There's so much learning thereand I won't say that I didn't
enjoy it.
I worked really hard.
In fact.
I remember my boss coming overto my desk at 7 PM and being
like what are you doing Go home?
You know like I worked hard.
I really did put in the effort,but I was also in this brand
new place where I got to explore, and so every day I would get
off the subway at a differentstop and go explore the city.
(04:34):
Oh, my God so yeah, and I thinkit was this.
This balance to what you'resaying is I worked really hard
to get where I was and that wasso important because I was able
to get you know.
I moved there as an unpaidintern and within three weeks I
was offered a full-time positionand then I got a promotion,
another promotion to that dreamrole, and so that hard work it.
(04:57):
You know, I went there notknowing anybody and so that was
a huge lesson for me.
Right, there is, when you putyourself in the right places and
you work really hard and you,you know, do the things that
you're really passionate about,you can move up.
You don't have to necessarilyknow the right people or you
(05:17):
know, you can start at thebottom and make your way to the
top if you work really hard.
But I also developed a lot offriendships and got really close
with the people in that officeand developed this love for this
city, and so the other side ofthat was to really be in the
moment and I actually wroteabout this in one of my posts is
I part of my job was actuallygoing to Broadway shows like how
(05:40):
Lucky Am I?
Tim Newman (05:41):
Oh, my God.
Brianne Rush (05:42):
And yeah, and so one night I'm walking home and
it happens to be this path, youknow, from the Broadway theater
to my apartment, through TimesSquare, and I yes, there's this
negative connotation of TimesSquare and Taurus, I get it, but
like I'm living my life, mybest life, walking from Broadway
to my apartment in New YorkCity through Times Square.
And I just stopped and I lookedaround and I was like holy mo,
(06:05):
moly, this is my life.
And I just soaked it in.
And this was before smartphones, so I didn't, like you know,
take a video with my phone oranything.
I literally just absorbed it.
And that has been a huge lessonin my life is to actually
absorb and enjoy the moments.
And you know, I I'm so thankfulfor that.
But it, you know, as far as,like, career goes, as far as
(06:29):
putting yourself out there goes,it was, it just taught me that
you have to do it, you got to gofor it, there's no choice.
Tim Newman (06:36):
Yeah, you know, I, I love that for you and I love
that the whole idea that youwere living in the moment and,
you know, didn't pull out thephone and take pictures and
those other types of things, youknow, and I think that that's a
that's a big difference, ingenerations too, because I don't
, that's not my first go to isto pull up my phone and take a
(06:57):
picture or take a video andpeople say, well, why didn't you
take a picture?
I said that thought nevercrossed my mind.
I was just there, I was justexperiencing whatever it was was
, you know, and um, and now wehave to document everything.
But I, I gotta tell you, youknow, when you just said that
you're, you got off a differentsubway stop every, every night.
My dad vibes kicked in.
(07:18):
It's like, oh my god, thatwould have driven me nuts as
your father.
No, no, you get on.
This is where you go.
You stop get.
You go from your office to home.
You don't make any stops inbetween.
Um, I don't know if you heardme go gasp, because I thought,
oh my God, you know, that's,that's just me as a, as a dad.
But but anyway, I, I love thatyou did that because it's so
(07:39):
important and, um, we, we haveto if we're ever going to get
anywhere in life.
We have to take chances, wehave to put in the work and we
have to actually do the thing,whatever that thing is for each
individual, and if we don't,there's going to be regrets down
the line.
So let's fast forward a littlebit in your career now, as again
(08:01):
I got tears coming down my face.
I'm so happy for you.
Sorry, I'm so happy for you.
It's sorry, I'm so sorry.
It's allergies and and itreally is.
You know, my kids say, um, whenI because I do, I am an
emotional person and especiallywith my kids and and uh,
something emotional going on, Ijust tell them I'm sweating, my
eyes are sweating, it's hot in.
(08:22):
But anyway, let's fast forwardto your current career.
You know the position thatyou're in you.
You tend up to tend to beinterviewing and hiring a lot of
people.
What are you seeing in thisprocess and how has that changed
over the course of your career,from the time you know, from
you being an intern, being onthat side of the table, to where
(08:45):
you're at now?
Brianne Rush (08:46):
Yeah, so absolutely, In my day job, I am
VP of operations for a digitalmarketing agency and we hire
different specialtiescopywriting, design, SEO or rev
ops and I get to talk to allthese people and when they apply
, when they upload their resumeand their cover letter, our AI
(09:08):
on the background now can tellus, you know, they match 60% or
70% or 100% of your jobdescription and, in my position,
what I would love to see abetter combination for a hire,
in my opinion, is somebody thatmatches 60, 70, 80%, but when
you talk to them, they have somuch passion.
(09:31):
They have so much curiosity it'scoming through that they are a
self-learner and want to growinto this role, versus somebody
who matches 95 or 100%, and theyjust don't have that drive,
that curiosity to want to learnand grow.
So the first combination is muchmore desirable on the
employer's end, in my opinion,than the other side, and what
(09:55):
that breaks down to me to meanis that your hard skills are
important, of course, but it'sthose soft skills that are maybe
sometimes even more important,and what I like to say is that
confidence and curiosity isgoing to outrank your
credentials, especially in thesefirst time roles coming out of
(10:16):
college or early in your career.
So it's so important to letthat shine in your resume.
Show how you have started doingthese different programs or
learning certifications on yourown, not necessarily even
through school, just somethingthat you've decided to do In
your cover letter.
Let your voice shine through.
Don't make it sound like arobot, because man, anybody can
(10:39):
have a robot.
Write their cover letter nowthese days, and then, in that
interview, make sure people knowyou love to learn, you are
curious about things, you arewilling to put in the extra
effort to learn and to grow.
Tim Newman (10:53):
Yeah, and I'm glad you said that AI is such a it's
such a great.
It's a great tool.
It really is, and the more thatI'm using it, the more that I'm
learning about it.
It tool it really is, and andthe more that I'm using it, the
more that I'm learning about it.
It it really is a good tool andit's making some things very,
very easy.
But on the back end, you know,because it's very, very easy to
(11:15):
take a job description, pop itinto chat, gpt and give it a
really good prompt to tell youto write a really good cover
letter for that job description.
But the fact of the matter isyou can, you can shoot that off
to you and then you and I aregoing to talk about it and that
cover letter is not going tomatch what's coming out of my
mouth.
Brianne Rush (11:34):
Exactly, and there's some clues now where
people are starting to say oh,that must be written by AI and
you don't want that.
That's the exact wrong thing tohave happen.
So if you can use it as, say,an editor or something to bounce
your ideas off of something, toamplify your work, your
strategy, your thoughts, it's agreat tool and if you're not
(11:55):
using it for that, you'reprobably behind.
But if you let it do yourstrategy or your thinking for
you, if you let it be your voice, you've already lost.
Tim Newman (12:05):
And to follow that up.
You know that when you talkabout you know being curious and
and and being proactive.
That's going to shine throughtoo, because if that's doing
that you're, you're number one.
You're not being curious at alland you're not being proactive.
You're not showing thatenthusiasm to do the work to do,
to comes back to doing thething.
Whatever that, whatever thatthing is for anybody right To to
(12:28):
get ahead to, to be good atwhat you do actually do, and
that that's just going to.
People are going to see throughthat real easy and that's
that's what I think, from myperspective, is so hard, you
know, to get you know youngerpeople to understand.
It's real obvious when, whenobvious, when you're not being
(12:48):
authentic, it's real obvious.
It comes through really, reallyquick.
Brianne Rush (12:51):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you used the word proactive
, because every employer wantssomebody who is proactive.
They would much rather hiresomebody that is in that mid
range of hard skills but isproactive and will learn, versus
somebody who's just going tocome in and check off some you
know their to-do list and gohome, even if they're working
from home.
(13:11):
But like that, proactiveness issuch a key factor in hiring so?
Tim Newman (13:16):
so how do you show?
How would you suggest?
Brianne Rush (13:18):
you know, gen z shows that they're proactive I'm
glad we're getting there, causeI think in the interview you
know we're we're speaking withconfidence here and that's such
a big place.
You know in your life where youare speaking and you need to
have confidence.
But it is so easy to be nervous, it is so easy to lose yourself
(13:42):
during those interviews andlose that confidence, and so the
biggest thing that you can doto actually show up confidently
and show that you are curiousand proactive during those
interviews is to prepare storiesthat align with the job
description bullet points.
So what do I mean by that?
(14:02):
I mean print out that jobdescription that you're going to
apply for and for each one ofthose bullets of their
responsibilities.
Think about a time in your pastwhere you can tell a story
about how you actually did that.
So in my case, I'm talking alot about.
You know, people who are justgraduating from college.
They probably did not have afull-time job prior to this that
(14:25):
they can pull from.
However, you may have apart-time job, you may be
bagging groceries, you may bedoing volunteer work, you may be
the head of your newspaper atyour college or part of clubs.
You may just babysit yoursiblings.
Whatever it is, you havesomething that you can pull from
to showcase that and the best,best way to show that you are
(14:48):
proactive and curious andactually be remembered during
those interviews is to tell astory.
So you know, if the jobdescription says you must be
organized, don't just say I'morganized, I'm a type A person.
Tell the story about how youare.
The editor of the newspaper andeverything you know collapsed
(15:09):
during COVID and so you had toreorganize everything.
Tell whatever that story is.
Tell it and that will beremembered in a way that's much
more impactful than just sayingI'm X, y and Z those adjectives
aren't going to mean a whole lotto them than just saying I'm.
Tim Newman (15:25):
X, y and Z those adjectives aren't going to mean
a whole lot to them.
Right, and just using thatexample, if you think about it,
you know, in talk aboutorganization, what you know the
person on the other side of thetable can deduce from that is
wow, this person cannot organizethings, but they can organize
their thoughts in a completethought, rational sentence that
(15:45):
makes sense.
That is really kind of what weneed and what we're lacking in
for a person in this role andthat checks off another box that
you don't even know that you'rechecking off yet.
Brianne Rush (15:58):
Yes, those emotional intelligence skills
are so, so important, tim, it'sunbelievable how you can be so
valuable in your hard skills butif you can't talk about it, if
you can't communicate the valueof those skills and what you're
doing on a daily basis, it's notgoing to come through your
interview.
If you happen to get the job,it's not going to come through
(16:20):
in a way where you're going tobe on everybody's minds for
promotions or raises.
You have to be able tocommunicate in a way that is
going to showcase the value ofwhat you and your team is
working on.
Tim Newman (16:33):
Yeah, and so let's take that and take another step
backwards now.
Okay, yeah, you advance reallyquickly in your career.
Okay, what do you attributethat to and how can we relate
that to Gen Z today goingthrough the same type of career
(16:53):
progression that you wentthrough?
Because, again, you're highlymotivated, you're in this dream
job space and, yes, you moved onreally quick no-transcript.
Brianne Rush (17:16):
Yes, and so obviously it is to develop your,
your core skills.
Right, you want to keeplearning in those things, that
goes without being said.
But what you should also befocusing on is improving what
I'm referring to as emotionalintelligence skills, or soft
skills, and this is the perfectplace, you know, speaking with
(17:37):
confidence, because that is onecore pillar of it is being able
to communicate well.
But that's what I did, is Ireally focused on a couple areas
.
One was self-awareness.
So when I fumble or get nervous, I need to really understand
what that means.
What is it that made me nervous?
What is it that made me kind ofstumble in that case, and how
(18:01):
do I fix that for next time?
So I like to tell the story ofhow I completely bombed my very
first interview that ended uplanding me that New York
internship we talked about, butit was my first interview.
I just I really didn't know howto prepare for it very well,
and the person asked me aquestion and I did not have an
answer.
My head went blank and Istarted to panic, but what I
(18:26):
actually ended up doing wastaking a couple deep breaths and
I really just thought okay, howcan I come out of this without
you know, completely losing thisjob.
So I asked the interviewer.
I just said can we come back tothat question?
So we continued on with theinterview.
She asked the rest of herquestions.
I quickly did a little researchand then at the end of the
(18:48):
interview I said you know I'mready to come back and answer
that question.
I did, we got off the phone.
I'm like no way am I gettingthat job?
But what actually happened isshe was so impressed with how I
handled myself that she createdthat internship for me.
That position didn't exist.
Created that internship for me.
That position didn't exist.
She created it for me andthat's how I ended up moving out
(19:10):
to New York and getting thatrole.
So that's kind of that secondpart of it.
You understand what sets youoff.
But then the self-regulationpart is second.
So knowing how to calm yourselfdown.
If you do get into one of thosenervous bits or you stumble
over your words or whatever itis that's going to tee you off,
how do you actually handle thatnow and regulate your body and
(19:32):
your system to come back to aplace where you can calmly and
confidently keep going.
So that's number two is I reallyworked at that and figuring out
what that meant for me.
And then communication skillsare the biggest, biggest thing
here for a lot of people, andmore so as AI comes to.
You know, quote unquote, takeour jobs.
(19:53):
Ai can't necessarily get in theroom and lead a team, it can't
necessarily lead a presentationto a client, it can't do
customer service in a way that'sgoing to calm somebody down.
So speaking, having thosecommunication skills, those
presentation skills, that isgoing to be really helpful and
(20:14):
that's something that I reallyreally worked on for myself,
because I used to be terrifiedto speak in front of people.
Or if you put a camera in frontof my face, I would panic.
Obviously, you and I arechatting here on camera.
So I have overcome that and it'sbecause I practiced.
I put myself in the room tokeep doing it over and over
again, even when I was feelingnervous about it or thought that
(20:36):
I wasn't good at it, and so Iwould highly recommend anybody
coming up in their career to putthemselves in the room or put
themselves in the situationwhere they are a little bit
nervous, but in outside of theircomfort zone, but do it anyway.
So something that I did to yourpoint was at our digital
(20:57):
marketing agency.
It wasn't really anybody's jobto take sales calls.
We didn't have a an actualsales person at the time, and so
I said an actual sales personat the time, and so I said, well
, I'll do it.
And I was terrified and nottrained as a sales rep, but I
got on these calls, got on theseZooms and I just did it.
I learned how to go in there,speak with confidence and
(21:20):
communicate our value, and sothat is something that, with
time, doing it over and overagain, I got pretty good at and
ended up having you know thebest numbers at our firm of
closing.
And so now people are lookingat me like, oh, she can do these
things, she can do these skillsets and speak well.
Hardly anybody else can do it.
(21:42):
If you can get good at thesethings, Right.
And that doesn't mean, tim, youand I talk about this.
We don't have to be perfect.
It's okay for you to say thewrong word or fix your sentence
or whatever it needs to be.
You don't have to be perfect,but you just have to be good
enough to do it and get yourselfin the room and do it
confidently, that people aregoing to start looking at you in
(22:04):
a different way, and that'swhat's going to make them say,
oh, he or she is ready for thatpromotion, he or she can lead
that team.
And that's exactly what I did.
Tim Newman (22:13):
Yeah, and I talk about, you know, progress, not
perfection, progress, notperfection.
And you know if, if you're, ifyou're going to allow the whole
idea of you have to be perfectbefore you do anything, we don't
get out of bed, right?
I mean you don't get out of bedbecause you're not going to do
(22:36):
anything perfectly.
And you know I'm a systemsperson and you know I function
very well with okay doingsomething.
You know the same way everytime.
If it works, if it works, if itdoesn't work, obviously change
the system.
But even even doing you knowsystem work it doesn't come out
the same every time, but you're,you're, you're do this, this,
(22:57):
this, this and this, and andhowever it comes out, it comes
out.
But you know you've got to findways to get over that, that
perfection piece, whatever it is, for everybody, because we all,
we all, we're all different, weall.
You know you, you've got tofind ways to get over that, that
perfection piece, whatever itis for everybody, because we all
, we all, we're all different,we all, you know, succeed
differently and progressdifferently.
But find a way that you can getover that, that whole idea of
perfection, and just makeprogress to get better every day
(23:20):
, you know, five or 10% betterevery day, and I liken it to the
sports industry, right, youknow as an athlete, nothing's
ever done perfectly, but thebest, the best athletes in the
world have always gone back tofundamentals and practice
fundamentals over and over andover again.
Um, so so you'll understand from, you know, the young
(23:43):
professionals perspective.
Guys, you just put yourself outthere.
It's okay to be, to feeluncomfortable.
Brianne Rush (23:50):
Yeah, I'm not a big sports person, but I do know
some of the best baseballplayers in the world are only
batting 300, which is 30%.
Right, that's the right math.
So if they are getting paidmillions to do that, it's okay
to not be perfect, but putyourself out there.
Tim Newman (24:06):
And so, as you're volunteering to do things that
put you outside the comfort zone, what else comes with that?
Because there's also good andbad.
Because we don't want to be theperson that's the yes person
all the time either, We've gotto start developing some
boundaries and say, okay, youknow, if you want me to work on
(24:26):
this, I can't do those otherthings.
So how did you manage thosetypes of expectations,
Especially and you know I don'ttalk about this a lot, but
especially from being the femaleperspective, because the
females are generally the onesthat are the ones that say yes
to everything, just becausethey're people pleasers.
So how did you manage thosetypes of issues?
Brianne Rush (24:48):
Yeah, I kept my eye on the things that were
going to advance me.
So, instead of raising my handto plan the office party, that
was not.
That was not going to advanceme, that was not.
That was going to take up mytime and I was not passionate
I'm.
I didn't even like planning myown wedding.
So you know that planning isjust not something that I'm
passionate about.
(25:09):
I didn't see that as helping mycareer grow.
Tim Newman (25:11):
Right.
Brianne Rush (25:12):
So I didn't raise my hand to plan the party.
I didn't raise my hand tonecessarily clean out the
refrigerator in the communalkitchen.
Those are the things that I waslike.
You know I'm willing to helpand do my part, of course, but
I'm not going to raise my handjust because I'm a woman in the
(25:33):
place that I'm willing to cleanor plan the party.
So I think, keeping your eye onthe ball and really being able
to determine this you know thisproject over here is kind of
messy and nobody's role and it'snot my role.
But I can see how, if I do this, I could see the next couple of
steps that's going to help mewith, and so I'm willing to
raise my hand for that.
But over here, this one is justkind of there and somebody,
(25:57):
without necessarily my zone ofgenius can, can accomplish that.
That's something that maybesomebody else can raise their
hand for.
It's not something that I needto feel like I have to take on
just because somebody's asking.
So just trying to determinewhich lanes are going to work
out for you and which ones aregoing to have the biggest payoff
(26:19):
for the company that'ssomething that's important is
the impact on the company.
That party probably isn't goingto have the same impact as you
jumping into sales and makingthose numbers, so where should
you try to apply yourself?
That's an important part ofthat.
Tim Newman (26:35):
Yeah, and and understand, truly understand,
that there's there's adifference between being, like
you said, being a team playerand doing your part and doing
the things that are going toadvance not only you know you
(26:55):
and your role with the company,but also is going to advance the
company taking your time.
If you're the number onesalesperson, why are you going
to take some time away fromdoing that, from generating
revenue for the organization toto plan a party, and I'm not you
know, that is what it, is rightit's those things are important
(27:16):
as well, but from the bigpicture, I I need to be focusing
my time over here.
I need to make sure that thatwe're intentional with what we
want and be able to haveintentional conversations with
supervisors about these types ofthings.
Brianne Rush (27:34):
Exactly.
Tim Newman (27:35):
Because there's a right way and a wrong way to
have difficult conversations.
Brianne Rush (27:40):
Yeah.
Tim Newman (27:40):
As well.
Brianne Rush (27:41):
Yeah, you're right , and you still have to be
somebody that people want towork with.
Like I wasn't leaving dirtydishes in the sink, that's not
what I mean by this.
I just mean that you know usingyour now you, let's say, you've
done all this work to build upyour communication skills and
you're really good at that yourboss, your company, they would
rather you utilize that in a wayto impact the bottom line,
(28:04):
somebody who's really good atteam building.
They should be in that, theirzone of genius for that party.
So, just understanding yourstrengths and their strengths
and how that should work, yeah,it it, it, but then again it
gets.
Tim Newman (28:16):
It gets back to something that you and I talked
about before as well.
You know, knowing who you areas an individual.
You know you, you have, youhave to truly understand who you
are, um, and what you're goodat, what you need to work, work
on.
You know your value system,what makes you tick all those
types of things you.
You have to know that goinginto it and you know, in your,
(28:39):
in your current, current role,where do you think we are from?
From the younger generations,in knowing who they are as
individuals.
Where do you think we are inthat stage?
Brianne Rush (28:49):
You know, I actually think that the younger
generation is probably doingbetter than we are in that
instance.
Yeah, that's my opinion.
You know this is kind of asilly thing, but you know,
watching some of these realityTV shows, these younger people
are asking well, what's yourlove language?
I would have never asked that,you know, when I was dating, I
(29:10):
would have never asked that.
And so I think that they aretaking the time to really
evaluate who they are.
They are meditating more.
You know, I have done aninterview with this young man
named Jack Wagner.
An interview with this youngman named Jack Wagner.
He is say you know, we had thiswhole conversation about how it
used to be kind of like thiswoo, woo, people look at you
(29:30):
silly if you said you meditate.
It's not like that anymore.
A lot of people are gettinginto that to have that quiet
space.
Whether it's, you know, sittingthere like this or not, it's
having that quiet time toyourself to really think through
who you are, what you value,like you said.
Time to yourself to reallythink through who you are, what
you value, like you said.
And I think people are beginningto be a lot more in tune with
that.
(29:50):
So you know they're askingabout love languages, they are
meditating, and I'm reading allthe time that Gen Z is saying
they don't actually want thosemid manager jobs anymore because
it's just not worth thetrade-off to their mental health
or their social health.
And so I really do think in mytime when I was coming through
(30:12):
my career, it was just go, go,go, hustle, hustle, hustle, get
to the top as fast as you can.
And I don't necessarily thinkthat people are saying that's
the only path anymore.
So in my opinion, you know thatmight be a hot take, but I do
think Gen Z is taking the timeto know themselves a little bit
more.
Tim Newman (30:30):
Well, you know, I I number one.
I think, if, if, if that's, Ithink it's great, whether I
think it's right or not, I mean,if you're, if that's what
you're seeing.
Brianne Rush (30:40):
I think that's awesome, I think I think.
Tim Newman (30:41):
I think it's great and I think they're.
You know, as they get older,just like anything else.
You know, we talked about howyou know you got to a point
where, okay, what's the nextstep in my life, what's the next
professional step, what's thenext step in my personal life?
And I think you know, really,my generation and the generation
(31:04):
before me there was no nextstep.
This is what you were going todo and that's what you were
going to do, right.
So so people my generation areare starting to have, starting
to have, you know, second andthird professional lives.
And you know, as, as the youngergeneration start start coming
up, you know they're going to,they're.
My guess is they're going tosee okay, this is where I was in
(31:33):
this season of my life.
Now it's time to move on toanother season, and that next
season is going to mean that Ido things differently, or I want
different things, or I'm goingto have to work differently, or
or, or do those whatever we needto do to make our life, to be
happy in the life that we'reliving.
And if that's what they'redoing now, that's awesome
because it's going to make thatnext transition for their life
(31:53):
even easier.
Brianne Rush (31:55):
Absolutely.
I think it's all around knowingyourself but not trapping
yourself, right?
So for me, I knew I wanted tobe a journalist and live in New
York.
That's what I wanted to do.
But it was a really harddecision for me, for after a
couple of years I kind of youknow, missed my family who lived
(32:16):
in Ohio and I wasn't aspassionate about the role I was
in anymore.
You know, dance the magazine Iworked for was a dance magazine
and and I, like I said, got togo to these Broadway shows and
stuff.
But there was just I.
I looked at it and I said, isthis it for the rest of my life?
Am I going to be talking aboutdance?
And I was like I don't think so, right.
Tim Newman (32:38):
So, I.
Brianne Rush (32:39):
So I ended up moving back to Ohio and really
taking a year to reevaluate andI ended up in content marketing,
which what I mentioned is thatthrough line I was still using
my writing skills and tellingstories, but it was in a
completely different way, in acompletely different place, and
I was able to grow that careerand so I never felt trapped.
(33:00):
And I think that's importantbecause you know my, my dad.
He was an accountant and workedat the same place for 40 plus
years.
He's still working there, eventhough he's supposed to be
retired.
That's, you know.
That's, I think, onegeneration's kind of view of
career.
Mine has been more so freedomto pick and choose, but we, you
(33:21):
know, kind of made at leastthose decisions to just do a
couple of things or maybe tojust make a couple of pivots.
You know, gen Z is kind of seen,kind of known as this job
hopper generation, where they'regoing year after year getting
new job, new job, new job.
And that's something that theyhave to kind of overcome and
figure out for themselves iswhen is it appropriate to take a
(33:42):
new job?
Maybe you know, increase thatsalary, or you know, get into AI
, get into tech or get intothese new things that are
developing all the time, whichis great and you shouldn't make
those moves in your career butwhen is it maybe good to stay
Stick?
it out Because you like the workculture, you like your role and
you can have the freedom, or atleast the pathway, to move up
(34:03):
and continue to make an impact.
And that's going back to thatidea of self-awareness and
what's going to be best for youand your career.
But it's yeah, it's definitelychanged throughout the
generations, for sure.
Tim Newman (34:15):
Yeah, and I also think that you know the whole
idea of job hopping is from anHR perspective and a hiring
perspective.
It's, you know, to a certaincertain extent it's not penal
anymore, you know it's.
It seemed as natural, it's okay.
Okay.
So you know, I I think we'rewhere you really get into
problems.
If every year, you know you're,you're staying in place for a
(34:38):
year, that that to me, you knowyou enjoy it for four or five
years in a row, that to me thatis where it becomes problematic.
But you know, every couple ofyears, why not?
I mean if, if, if there'sgrowth, if there's salary, if
there's you know what interestchange.
You know, like you said, and Ithink you know, in all honesty,
(34:59):
you know I I've had, I've gonethrough through changing jobs
and the stress I knew it wastime to leave, but the stress of
actually making the decisionand following through on the
decision.
It was hard.
(35:20):
As opposed to now.
You know it's okay, it's timeto leave, so we're going to
start doing things to leave and,like I said, just do the thing.
And I'm applying that to myselftoo.
Why didn't I just do the thinginstead of causing all the
stress?
Right, and you?
know, so, like the first time,the first faculty job, I was
(35:42):
there almost 20 years and I knewafter 15, it was time to go.
So I stayed.
And you know, for whateverreasons and and it was I mean I
I would go back there in asecond, you know, cause I love
the people and those types ofthings but you know when, when
you get to a point in yourcareer that you feel stale, that
you know there's something elseout there, it's okay to start
exploring what those things are.
(36:03):
Don't don't follow it up.
And that's for, for really ourmy generation, the younger
generations have seemed to havea pretty good handle on that.
Brianne Rush (36:12):
Yeah, I have a similar situation, tim.
When I was trying to decide ifI was going to leave that dream
job that I had in New York.
I worked myself up and had thisball of pain in my stomach for
weeks where, like you couldtouch it and I would just like
kind of double over in pain andone day I just I couldn't take
it anymore.
(36:33):
I literally like had to rollmyself out of bed and get myself
into a taxi and go to the hotthe ER in New York by myself.
I know nobody.
Nobody can come to the hospitalhelp me, like literally taking
a taxi to the hospital because Iam in so much pain.
I remember the person doing myintake.
She said, okay, on a scale ofone to 10, what's your pain?
(36:54):
And you know me trying to notnecessarily like be a crybaby
about it.
I'm like, oh, seven she goes,I'm going to give you an eight.
Like it was that bad.
And so they did all these testsand they could not figure it
out.
I just had this random ball ofpain.
But what happened to him was,after I made the final decision
(37:14):
to be like, yeah, I'm movinghome, I'm quitting this job.
Guess what Went away, like howbad is that?
That's terrible.
People should not getthemselves worked up into a ball
of pain over a job.
It just shouldn't be that bad.
Tim Newman (37:28):
Right, and you know and I'm listen, don't take this
the wrong way A lot of times wedo it to ourselves.
Now, there are times thatyou're in a toxic environment
and that's that's.
I'm not talking about that, buta lot of times we do that to
ourselves.
I'm not talking about that, buta lot of times we do that to
ourselves.
We're the ones who've workedourselves to that point.
Because if we're in, if we'rein a good professional
(37:51):
relationship, just like a goodpersonal relationship, whoever
that, whoever that relationshiponly one is what's best for you.
They want to help you, theywant you to grow, they want you
to be healthy and be successful,and for whatever reason, we do
these things to our, toourselves no-transcript said I
(38:35):
wanted to be and now I'm goingto just check it.
Brianne Rush (38:38):
All you know.
Tim Newman (38:38):
But we learn from it and again, hopefully these
types of conversations helpthose younger generations and
and again, like I said, theyseem to have a much better
handle on it at this point intheir life and hopefully, as
they, as they go through theirdifferent life stages and they
(39:00):
have families, kids and otherresponsibilities they can, like
they can, look back on thesetimes and say you know what?
I'm in a different life stage,but the same ideas still apply.
Let's have a plan and moveforward with that.
With that plan, I'm not again,I'm not advocating anybody to do
(39:20):
things on a whim either.
That's the, that's the otherside right.
Brianne Rush (39:23):
Yeah, you gotta to think through it, do what's
best for you, but there's noneed to get worked up the way
that you and I did, and I thinkthat it may even be a little bit
switched now.
You know, the tech companiesare doing massive layoffs.
That used to be anembarrassment, now it's kind of
like a badge of honor thatthey're doing these layoffs.
So people are being forced todo these job changes or career
(39:46):
changes too, and so they may bestruggling in a different way
than you and I did, but it'simportant to remember that this
is your career.
It is not you, it is not youressence, your value as a human.
Tim Newman (39:57):
Right, exactly so.
Talk about the Independence Lab, because I love the whole setup
with that, what you're doing.
Tell everybody what you'rewhole setup with that, what
you're doing.
Tell everybody what you'reactually doing with this and how
you're helping people.
Brianne Rush (40:10):
So when I look back at my job and connected
those dots in my career and whathelped me move up, and then
again, like we talked about, I'mdoing these interviews now to
bring people into the companyand I'm just looking at it, I'm
saying, man, the people who arereally shining, the way that I
shown in my career was throughemotional intelligence.
You know, I wasn't the bestwriter, I wasn't the most tech
(40:32):
savvy, I was never the bestdancer, but the way that I moved
up and made these steps wasthrough the things that we've
been talking about here.
So through self-awareness,through self-regulation, through
communication skills, empathyskills, through that motivation.
Those are kind of the fiveelements that make up this idea
of emotional intelligence.
(40:53):
And so what I want people torealize through the Independence
Lab is that they can build acareer foundation on building
that skill set there, those fivethings, and moving those.
That part of the needle iswhat's actually going to move
your career needle and sobuilding that foundation
(41:14):
directly out of college, in thebeginnings of their career,
they're going to be way ahead ofpeople, because I didn't
necessarily learn those lessonsuntil I was looking backward and
I'm seeing these people comethrough the interview process
where they either don't havethose skills or they might have
the beginning of those skills,but they don't necessarily know
how to talk about it.
(41:35):
So that's what I'm hoping theIndependence Lab does for these
young women is to really givethem the resource to understand
that anybody can learn emotionalintelligence.
It doesn't, it's not somethingthat you have to be born with so
you can learn it and give themthe skills to do that.
It's all free content.
So we've got a blog, we've gota weekly newsletter that you can
(41:56):
sign up for and it just showsup in your inbox once a week and
it's super easy to get throughand read some sort of takeaway
from that.
And then, most recently, I'vebeen interviewing really
successful women and talkingabout how they've used emotional
intelligence to build theircareers.
So it's all availabletheindependencelabcom for you to
go and just learn.
Start learning this idea ofemotional intelligence.
Tim Newman (42:19):
That's amazing and obviously it's good work and
needs to, needs to be shared andpeople need to do that.
I think I think it's awesome,and I'm sure you know,
interviewing some of thesereally successful women.
It is powerful and you'relearning things and your, your
(42:40):
community, is going to learn,learn a ton of things.
It's sharing.
Sharing stories about how we've, how we've gone from point a as
a, as a young professional notknowing in from out, right from
wrong, up from down, whateverand seeing that you know
(43:01):
progression and growth to peoplethat we see or or think that we
think they, that they've got itall together, and noticing some
of the, some of the storiesthat they tell.
It just gives you so much moreconfidence to say you know what.
It's not a straight line, it'san up and down.
There's good, there's bad,there's there's good things
happen, there's bad things thathappen, but you got to navigate
(43:23):
it and eventually, if you keepdoing the work, this happened.
Brianne Rush (43:26):
There's bad things that happened, but you got to
navigate it and eventually, ifyou keep doing the work, this is
where you're going to end up.
It's so true.
It's so true, you know, andwhat I love about these
interviews, and even what I'vebeen writing about my own self,
is not one of us is perfect.
We've all been successful orhad promotions or gotten our
dream jobs, or whatever it isfor that person.
But what I like to ask aboutour mistakes, surprises, things
(43:50):
that they've experienced alongthe way that show it's okay to
fall down or make a mistake.
It's all about how you handleit.
So if somebody is listening andthey're thinking, man, I've
already kind of messed it upfrom the start, or I don't have
these skills, well, guess what?
You can get back up, you canlearn these skills, you can
develop them and build thiscareer, and so I love to have
(44:11):
that out there.
It's like, yep, superembarrassing, did this, but I
still was able to get promotedafter that, and so I think
that's really important.
Not any of this is unachievableor out of your realm of
possibility.
It's all something that you canjust build and work on every
single day to get better, andit's enjoyable.
It's not like you're, you know,out there digging a ditch.
(44:32):
It's something that you couldjust talk to people and and that
happens to get better.
You know you happen to getbetter at things by just talking
to people.
Tim Newman (44:40):
Yeah, that's amazing and I appreciate the work that
you're doing there.
Where can people find you andconnect with you besides the
Independence Lab lab?
On Instagram, and then Tim, ifit's okay with you.
Brianne Rush (44:50):
I know this is all a little abstract, but I put
(45:13):
together this guide that Iusually you know it's on the
site for $19, but for yourlisteners, I would just give it
to them for free to learn and gothrough some of these prompts
and questions and quizzes justto help them understand this
idea of emotional intelligence.
So if you want to put it in theshow notes, they can go to
theindependencelabcom backslashplaybook and get it for free.
Tim Newman (45:32):
Brianne, that's awesome.
I would love to put that inthere.
I think, that would be a greatresource for the listeners and I
can tell you how much Iappreciate you doing that.
That's awesome.
I'll make sure that I put thatin the show notes.
Could you just text me or emailme that that link to make make
sure I get it right?
That's great and that's awesome.
Brianne Rush (45:52):
Yes, absolutely, I will do that.
Tim Newman (45:54):
That's great.
Thank you so much for spendingsome time with us today.
I really do appreciate it andwe'll talk to you soon.
Brianne Rush (46:00):
Tim, thank you so much for having me.
Tim Newman (46:02):
Take care.
Be sure to visitspeakingwithconfidencepodcastcom
to get your free ebook Top 21Challenges for Public Speakers
and how to Overcome them.
You can also register for theForum for Public Speaking.
Always remember your voice hasthe power to change.
We'll talk to you next time,take care.
Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, a
podcast that helps you build thesoft skills that lead to real
results Communication,storytelling, public speaking
and showing up with confidencein every conversation that
counts.
I'm Tim Newman, a recoveringcollege professor turned
communication coach, and I'mthrilled to guide you on your
journey to becoming a powerfulcommunicator.
Make sure you hit the subscribebutton so you never miss an
episode.
(00:30):
Today's guest is Breanne Rush.
She is the founder of theIndependence Lab, where she
helps Gen Z women transitionfrom college to career with
confidence.
She landed her dream job andclimbed the ladder fast from
intern to managing editor in ayear and employee to VP in four.
But it wasn't because shefollowed the traditional rules.
(00:51):
She learned how to decode theunspoken workplace dynamics,
overcome her fear of publicspeaking and advocate for
herself.
Recognized by platforms likeForbes, success and Women we
Admire, she is dedicated tounlocking career growth for a
new generation.
Brianna, welcome to the show.
Brianne Rush (01:09):
Thank you, Tim, so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Tim Newman (01:12):
Well, I'm glad because, you know, when you
first reached out to me one ofthe things that really really
stood out to me which is kind ofrare, you know when you
graduated college you truly wentfor it.
I mean, you put yourself outthere and you went for what you
had worked for and what youwanted to do.
And this is you know foreverybody.
(01:35):
Listen, this is how things turnout.
If you go for what you want andyou do the work, success
happens want and you do the work, success happens.
Brianne Rush (01:49):
That's so true.
I mean, I knew that I wanted tomove to New York and work as a
journalist since I was eightyears old, and if I didn't do
that, I would have regretted itfor my entire life.
So I had no choice, tim, I hadto go for it.
Tim Newman (01:57):
Yeah, it's um.
Why New York, though?
Because, um, yeah, obviouslymedia and those types of things,
but why New York?
Was part of it to truly getaway and immerse yourself in
your career and in the cultureof what you wanted to do.
(02:22):
And what did you learn fromthat overall experience of truly
immersing yourself in what youwere doing?
Brianne Rush (02:29):
So when I say journalist, I am a trained
journalist.
However, I wasn't like thehardcore news.
I wasn't interested in writingabout breaking news and politics
or the murder down the street,like I wanted more so to do the
human interest stuff, and I alsowas a competitive dancer.
So these elements of my lifekind of came together, this idea
(02:52):
of writing, this idea of dance,theater, performance it all
seemed to blossom in New York.
That seemed to be like theMecca of all of the things that
I was interested in and I hadvisited a couple times, you know
, growing up, especially in highschool, and I just felt that
energy in my bones so I justknew that was like the place for
me and so immersing myself inthat seemed like the only way to
(03:16):
truly make that dream come trueis to go in there, combine what
was the essence of me, you know, this idea of performance and
writing and all of these thingscoming together, and it just
seemed like that was the onlyplace I could go to do all of
the things and truly be myself.
I just really felt like thatwas the answer for the first leg
(03:39):
of my career.
Tim Newman (03:40):
Right.
And what did you?
What'd you actually learn fromthat?
From not only a professionalperspective, but a personal
perspective, because you knowthe whole idea.
I think where we're at now insociety is the idea of work-life
balance, which you know.
That's a different discussionfor a different day.
I think there's some validitythere to get your career started
(04:02):
.
Obviously, that's what youthought you had to do and it
worked out.
But what did you learn comingout of that?
Brianne Rush (04:12):
as you started to grow your career and get a
little bit older.
There's so much learning thereand I won't say that I didn't
enjoy it.
I worked really hard.
In fact.
I remember my boss coming overto my desk at 7 PM and being
like what are you doing Go home?
You know like I worked hard.
I really did put in the effort,but I was also in this brand
new place where I got to explore, and so every day I would get
off the subway at a differentstop and go explore the city.
(04:34):
Oh, my God so yeah, and I thinkit was this.
This balance to what you'resaying is I worked really hard
to get where I was and that wasso important because I was able
to get you know.
I moved there as an unpaidintern and within three weeks I
was offered a full-time positionand then I got a promotion,
another promotion to that dreamrole, and so that hard work it.
(04:57):
You know, I went there notknowing anybody and so that was
a huge lesson for me.
Right, there is, when you putyourself in the right places and
you work really hard and you,you know, do the things that
you're really passionate about,you can move up.
You don't have to necessarilyknow the right people or you
(05:17):
know, you can start at thebottom and make your way to the
top if you work really hard.
But I also developed a lot offriendships and got really close
with the people in that officeand developed this love for this
city, and so the other side ofthat was to really be in the
moment and I actually wroteabout this in one of my posts is
I part of my job was actuallygoing to Broadway shows like how
(05:40):
Lucky Am I?
Tim Newman (05:41):
Oh, my God.
Brianne Rush (05:42):
And yeah, and so one night I'm walking home and
it happens to be this path, youknow, from the Broadway theater
to my apartment, through TimesSquare, and I yes, there's this
negative connotation of TimesSquare and Taurus, I get it, but
like I'm living my life, mybest life, walking from Broadway
to my apartment in New YorkCity through Times Square.
And I just stopped and I lookedaround and I was like holy mo,
(06:05):
moly, this is my life.
And I just soaked it in.
And this was before smartphones, so I didn't, like you know,
take a video with my phone oranything.
I literally just absorbed it.
And that has been a huge lessonin my life is to actually
absorb and enjoy the moments.
And you know, I I'm so thankfulfor that.
But it, you know, as far as,like, career goes, as far as
(06:29):
putting yourself out there goes,it was, it just taught me that
you have to do it, you got to gofor it, there's no choice.
Tim Newman (06:36):
Yeah, you know, I, I love that for you and I love
that the whole idea that youwere living in the moment and,
you know, didn't pull out thephone and take pictures and
those other types of things, youknow, and I think that that's a
that's a big difference, ingenerations too, because I don't
, that's not my first go to isto pull up my phone and take a
(06:57):
picture or take a video andpeople say, well, why didn't you
take a picture?
I said that thought nevercrossed my mind.
I was just there, I was justexperiencing whatever it was was
, you know, and um, and now wehave to document everything.
But I, I gotta tell you, youknow, when you just said that
you're, you got off a differentsubway stop every, every night.
My dad vibes kicked in.
(07:18):
It's like, oh my god, thatwould have driven me nuts as
your father.
No, no, you get on.
This is where you go.
You stop get.
You go from your office to home.
You don't make any stops inbetween.
Um, I don't know if you heardme go gasp, because I thought,
oh my God, you know, that's,that's just me as a, as a dad.
But but anyway, I, I love thatyou did that because it's so
(07:39):
important and, um, we, we haveto if we're ever going to get
anywhere in life.
We have to take chances, wehave to put in the work and we
have to actually do the thing,whatever that thing is for each
individual, and if we don't,there's going to be regrets down
the line.
So let's fast forward a littlebit in your career now, as again
(08:01):
I got tears coming down my face.
I'm so happy for you.
Sorry, I'm so happy for you.
It's sorry, I'm so sorry.
It's allergies and and itreally is.
You know, my kids say, um, whenI because I do, I am an
emotional person and especiallywith my kids and and uh,
something emotional going on, Ijust tell them I'm sweating, my
eyes are sweating, it's hot in.
(08:22):
But anyway, let's fast forwardto your current career.
You know the position thatyou're in you.
You tend up to tend to beinterviewing and hiring a lot of
people.
What are you seeing in thisprocess and how has that changed
over the course of your career,from the time you know, from
you being an intern, being onthat side of the table, to where
(08:45):
you're at now?
Brianne Rush (08:46):
Yeah, so absolutely, In my day job, I am
VP of operations for a digitalmarketing agency and we hire
different specialtiescopywriting, design, SEO or rev
ops and I get to talk to allthese people and when they apply
, when they upload their resumeand their cover letter, our AI
(09:08):
on the background now can tellus, you know, they match 60% or
70% or 100% of your jobdescription and, in my position,
what I would love to see abetter combination for a hire,
in my opinion, is somebody thatmatches 60, 70, 80%, but when
you talk to them, they have somuch passion.
(09:31):
They have so much curiosity it'scoming through that they are a
self-learner and want to growinto this role, versus somebody
who matches 95 or 100%, and theyjust don't have that drive,
that curiosity to want to learnand grow.
So the first combination is muchmore desirable on the
employer's end, in my opinion,than the other side, and what
(09:55):
that breaks down to me to meanis that your hard skills are
important, of course, but it'sthose soft skills that are maybe
sometimes even more important,and what I like to say is that
confidence and curiosity isgoing to outrank your
credentials, especially in thesefirst time roles coming out of
(10:16):
college or early in your career.
So it's so important to letthat shine in your resume.
Show how you have started doingthese different programs or
learning certifications on yourown, not necessarily even
through school, just somethingthat you've decided to do In
your cover letter.
Let your voice shine through.
Don't make it sound like arobot, because man, anybody can
(10:39):
have a robot.
Write their cover letter nowthese days, and then, in that
interview, make sure people knowyou love to learn, you are
curious about things, you arewilling to put in the extra
effort to learn and to grow.
Tim Newman (10:53):
Yeah, and I'm glad you said that AI is such a it's
such a great.
It's a great tool.
It really is, and the more thatI'm using it, the more that I'm
learning about it.
It tool it really is, and andthe more that I'm using it, the
more that I'm learning about it.
It it really is a good tool andit's making some things very,
very easy.
But on the back end, you know,because it's very, very easy to
(11:15):
take a job description, pop itinto chat, gpt and give it a
really good prompt to tell youto write a really good cover
letter for that job description.
But the fact of the matter isyou can, you can shoot that off
to you and then you and I aregoing to talk about it and that
cover letter is not going tomatch what's coming out of my
mouth.
Brianne Rush (11:34):
Exactly, and there's some clues now where
people are starting to say oh,that must be written by AI and
you don't want that.
That's the exact wrong thing tohave happen.
So if you can use it as, say,an editor or something to bounce
your ideas off of something, toamplify your work, your
strategy, your thoughts, it's agreat tool and if you're not
(11:55):
using it for that, you'reprobably behind.
But if you let it do yourstrategy or your thinking for
you, if you let it be your voice, you've already lost.
Tim Newman (12:05):
And to follow that up.
You know that when you talkabout you know being curious and
and and being proactive.
That's going to shine throughtoo, because if that's doing
that you're, you're number one.
You're not being curious at alland you're not being proactive.
You're not showing thatenthusiasm to do the work to do,
to comes back to doing thething.
Whatever that, whatever thatthing is for anybody right To to
(12:28):
get ahead to, to be good atwhat you do actually do, and
that that's just going to.
People are going to see throughthat real easy and that's
that's what I think, from myperspective, is so hard, you
know, to get you know youngerpeople to understand.
It's real obvious when, whenobvious, when you're not being
(12:48):
authentic, it's real obvious.
It comes through really, reallyquick.
Brianne Rush (12:51):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you used the word proactive
, because every employer wantssomebody who is proactive.
They would much rather hiresomebody that is in that mid
range of hard skills but isproactive and will learn, versus
somebody who's just going tocome in and check off some you
know their to-do list and gohome, even if they're working
from home.
(13:11):
But like that, proactiveness issuch a key factor in hiring so?
Tim Newman (13:16):
so how do you show?
How would you suggest?
Brianne Rush (13:18):
you know, gen z shows that they're proactive I'm
glad we're getting there, causeI think in the interview you
know we're we're speaking withconfidence here and that's such
a big place.
You know in your life where youare speaking and you need to
have confidence.
But it is so easy to be nervous, it is so easy to lose yourself
(13:42):
during those interviews andlose that confidence, and so the
biggest thing that you can doto actually show up confidently
and show that you are curiousand proactive during those
interviews is to prepare storiesthat align with the job
description bullet points.
So what do I mean by that?
(14:02):
I mean print out that jobdescription that you're going to
apply for and for each one ofthose bullets of their
responsibilities.
Think about a time in your pastwhere you can tell a story
about how you actually did that.
So in my case, I'm talking alot about.
You know, people who are justgraduating from college.
They probably did not have afull-time job prior to this that
(14:25):
they can pull from.
However, you may have apart-time job, you may be
bagging groceries, you may bedoing volunteer work, you may be
the head of your newspaper atyour college or part of clubs.
You may just babysit yoursiblings.
Whatever it is, you havesomething that you can pull from
to showcase that and the best,best way to show that you are
(14:48):
proactive and curious andactually be remembered during
those interviews is to tell astory.
So you know, if the jobdescription says you must be
organized, don't just say I'morganized, I'm a type A person.
Tell the story about how youare.
The editor of the newspaper andeverything you know collapsed
(15:09):
during COVID and so you had toreorganize everything.
Tell whatever that story is.
Tell it and that will beremembered in a way that's much
more impactful than just sayingI'm X, y and Z those adjectives
aren't going to mean a whole lotto them than just saying I'm.
Tim Newman (15:25):
X, y and Z those adjectives aren't going to mean
a whole lot to them.
Right, and just using thatexample, if you think about it,
you know, in talk aboutorganization, what you know the
person on the other side of thetable can deduce from that is
wow, this person cannot organizethings, but they can organize
their thoughts in a completethought, rational sentence that
(15:45):
makes sense.
That is really kind of what weneed and what we're lacking in
for a person in this role andthat checks off another box that
you don't even know that you'rechecking off yet.
Brianne Rush (15:58):
Yes, those emotional intelligence skills
are so, so important, tim, it'sunbelievable how you can be so
valuable in your hard skills butif you can't talk about it, if
you can't communicate the valueof those skills and what you're
doing on a daily basis, it's notgoing to come through your
interview.
If you happen to get the job,it's not going to come through
(16:20):
in a way where you're going tobe on everybody's minds for
promotions or raises.
You have to be able tocommunicate in a way that is
going to showcase the value ofwhat you and your team is
working on.
Tim Newman (16:33):
Yeah, and so let's take that and take another step
backwards now.
Okay, yeah, you advance reallyquickly in your career.
Okay, what do you attributethat to and how can we relate
that to Gen Z today goingthrough the same type of career
(16:53):
progression that you wentthrough?
Because, again, you're highlymotivated, you're in this dream
job space and, yes, you moved onreally quick no-transcript.
Brianne Rush (17:16):
Yes, and so obviously it is to develop your,
your core skills.
Right, you want to keeplearning in those things, that
goes without being said.
But what you should also befocusing on is improving what
I'm referring to as emotionalintelligence skills, or soft
skills, and this is the perfectplace, you know, speaking with
(17:37):
confidence, because that is onecore pillar of it is being able
to communicate well.
But that's what I did, is Ireally focused on a couple areas
.
One was self-awareness.
So when I fumble or get nervous, I need to really understand
what that means.
What is it that made me nervous?
What is it that made me kind ofstumble in that case, and how
(18:01):
do I fix that for next time?
So I like to tell the story ofhow I completely bombed my very
first interview that ended uplanding me that New York
internship we talked about, butit was my first interview.
I just I really didn't know howto prepare for it very well,
and the person asked me aquestion and I did not have an
answer.
My head went blank and Istarted to panic, but what I
(18:26):
actually ended up doing wastaking a couple deep breaths and
I really just thought okay, howcan I come out of this without
you know, completely losing thisjob.
So I asked the interviewer.
I just said can we come back tothat question?
So we continued on with theinterview.
She asked the rest of herquestions.
I quickly did a little researchand then at the end of the
(18:48):
interview I said you know I'mready to come back and answer
that question.
I did, we got off the phone.
I'm like no way am I gettingthat job?
But what actually happened isshe was so impressed with how I
handled myself that she createdthat internship for me.
That position didn't exist.
Created that internship for me.
That position didn't exist.
She created it for me andthat's how I ended up moving out
(19:10):
to New York and getting thatrole.
So that's kind of that secondpart of it.
You understand what sets youoff.
But then the self-regulationpart is second.
So knowing how to calm yourselfdown.
If you do get into one of thosenervous bits or you stumble
over your words or whatever itis that's going to tee you off,
how do you actually handle thatnow and regulate your body and
(19:32):
your system to come back to aplace where you can calmly and
confidently keep going.
So that's number two is I reallyworked at that and figuring out
what that meant for me.
And then communication skillsare the biggest, biggest thing
here for a lot of people, andmore so as AI comes to.
You know, quote unquote, takeour jobs.
(19:53):
Ai can't necessarily get in theroom and lead a team, it can't
necessarily lead a presentationto a client, it can't do
customer service in a way that'sgoing to calm somebody down.
So speaking, having thosecommunication skills, those
presentation skills, that isgoing to be really helpful and
(20:14):
that's something that I reallyreally worked on for myself,
because I used to be terrifiedto speak in front of people.
Or if you put a camera in frontof my face, I would panic.
Obviously, you and I arechatting here on camera.
So I have overcome that and it'sbecause I practiced.
I put myself in the room tokeep doing it over and over
again, even when I was feelingnervous about it or thought that
(20:36):
I wasn't good at it, and so Iwould highly recommend anybody
coming up in their career to putthemselves in the room or put
themselves in the situationwhere they are a little bit
nervous, but in outside of theircomfort zone, but do it anyway.
So something that I did to yourpoint was at our digital
(20:57):
marketing agency.
It wasn't really anybody's jobto take sales calls.
We didn't have a an actualsales person at the time, and so
I said an actual sales personat the time, and so I said, well
, I'll do it.
And I was terrified and nottrained as a sales rep, but I
got on these calls, got on theseZooms and I just did it.
I learned how to go in there,speak with confidence and
(21:20):
communicate our value, and sothat is something that, with
time, doing it over and overagain, I got pretty good at and
ended up having you know thebest numbers at our firm of
closing.
And so now people are lookingat me like, oh, she can do these
things, she can do these skillsets and speak well.
Hardly anybody else can do it.
(21:42):
If you can get good at thesethings, Right.
And that doesn't mean, tim, youand I talk about this.
We don't have to be perfect.
It's okay for you to say thewrong word or fix your sentence
or whatever it needs to be.
You don't have to be perfect,but you just have to be good
enough to do it and get yourselfin the room and do it
confidently, that people aregoing to start looking at you in
(22:04):
a different way, and that'swhat's going to make them say,
oh, he or she is ready for thatpromotion, he or she can lead
that team.
And that's exactly what I did.
Tim Newman (22:13):
Yeah, and I talk about, you know, progress, not
perfection, progress, notperfection.
And you know if, if you're, ifyou're going to allow the whole
idea of you have to be perfectbefore you do anything, we don't
get out of bed, right?
I mean you don't get out of bedbecause you're not going to do
(22:36):
anything perfectly.
And you know I'm a systemsperson and you know I function
very well with okay doingsomething.
You know the same way everytime.
If it works, if it works, if itdoesn't work, obviously change
the system.
But even even doing you knowsystem work it doesn't come out
the same every time, but you're,you're, you're do this, this,
(22:57):
this, this and this, and andhowever it comes out, it comes
out.
But you know you've got to findways to get over that, that
perfection piece, whatever it is, for everybody, because we all,
we all, we're all different, weall.
You know you, you've got tofind ways to get over that, that
perfection piece, whatever itis for everybody, because we all
, we all, we're all different,we all, you know, succeed
differently and progressdifferently.
But find a way that you can getover that, that whole idea of
perfection, and just makeprogress to get better every day
(23:20):
, you know, five or 10% betterevery day, and I liken it to the
sports industry, right, youknow as an athlete, nothing's
ever done perfectly, but thebest, the best athletes in the
world have always gone back tofundamentals and practice
fundamentals over and over andover again.
Um, so so you'll understand from, you know, the young
(23:43):
professionals perspective.
Guys, you just put yourself outthere.
It's okay to be, to feeluncomfortable.
Brianne Rush (23:50):
Yeah, I'm not a big sports person, but I do know
some of the best baseballplayers in the world are only
batting 300, which is 30%.
Right, that's the right math.
So if they are getting paidmillions to do that, it's okay
to not be perfect, but putyourself out there.
Tim Newman (24:06):
And so, as you're volunteering to do things that
put you outside the comfort zone, what else comes with that?
Because there's also good andbad.
Because we don't want to be theperson that's the yes person
all the time either, We've gotto start developing some
boundaries and say, okay, youknow, if you want me to work on
(24:26):
this, I can't do those otherthings.
So how did you manage thosetypes of expectations,
Especially and you know I don'ttalk about this a lot, but
especially from being the femaleperspective, because the
females are generally the onesthat are the ones that say yes
to everything, just becausethey're people pleasers.
So how did you manage thosetypes of issues?
Brianne Rush (24:48):
Yeah, I kept my eye on the things that were
going to advance me.
So, instead of raising my handto plan the office party, that
was not.
That was not going to advanceme, that was not.
That was going to take up mytime and I was not passionate
I'm.
I didn't even like planning myown wedding.
So you know that planning isjust not something that I'm
passionate about.
(25:09):
I didn't see that as helping mycareer grow.
Tim Newman (25:11):
Right.
Brianne Rush (25:12):
So I didn't raise my hand to plan the party.
I didn't raise my hand tonecessarily clean out the
refrigerator in the communalkitchen.
Those are the things that I waslike.
You know I'm willing to helpand do my part, of course, but
I'm not going to raise my handjust because I'm a woman in the
(25:33):
place that I'm willing to cleanor plan the party.
So I think, keeping your eye onthe ball and really being able
to determine this you know thisproject over here is kind of
messy and nobody's role and it'snot my role.
But I can see how, if I do this, I could see the next couple of
steps that's going to help mewith, and so I'm willing to
raise my hand for that.
But over here, this one is justkind of there and somebody,
(25:57):
without necessarily my zone ofgenius can, can accomplish that.
That's something that maybesomebody else can raise their
hand for.
It's not something that I needto feel like I have to take on
just because somebody's asking.
So just trying to determinewhich lanes are going to work
out for you and which ones aregoing to have the biggest payoff
(26:19):
for the company that'ssomething that's important is
the impact on the company.
That party probably isn't goingto have the same impact as you
jumping into sales and makingthose numbers, so where should
you try to apply yourself?
That's an important part ofthat.
Tim Newman (26:35):
Yeah, and and understand, truly understand,
that there's there's adifference between being, like
you said, being a team playerand doing your part and doing
the things that are going toadvance not only you know you
(26:55):
and your role with the company,but also is going to advance the
company taking your time.
If you're the number onesalesperson, why are you going
to take some time away fromdoing that, from generating
revenue for the organization toto plan a party, and I'm not you
know, that is what it, is rightit's those things are important
(27:16):
as well, but from the bigpicture, I I need to be focusing
my time over here.
I need to make sure that thatwe're intentional with what we
want and be able to haveintentional conversations with
supervisors about these types ofthings.
Brianne Rush (27:34):
Exactly.
Tim Newman (27:35):
Because there's a right way and a wrong way to
have difficult conversations.
Brianne Rush (27:40):
Yeah.
Tim Newman (27:40):
As well.
Brianne Rush (27:41):
Yeah, you're right , and you still have to be
somebody that people want towork with.
Like I wasn't leaving dirtydishes in the sink, that's not
what I mean by this.
I just mean that you know usingyour now you, let's say, you've
done all this work to build upyour communication skills and
you're really good at that yourboss, your company, they would
rather you utilize that in a wayto impact the bottom line,
(28:04):
somebody who's really good atteam building.
They should be in that, theirzone of genius for that party.
So, just understanding yourstrengths and their strengths
and how that should work, yeah,it it, it, but then again it
gets.
Tim Newman (28:16):
It gets back to something that you and I talked
about before as well.
You know, knowing who you areas an individual.
You know you, you have, youhave to truly understand who you
are, um, and what you're goodat, what you need to work, work
on.
You know your value system,what makes you tick all those
types of things you.
You have to know that goinginto it and you know, in your,
(28:39):
in your current, current role,where do you think we are from?
From the younger generations,in knowing who they are as
individuals.
Where do you think we are inthat stage?
Brianne Rush (28:49):
You know, I actually think that the younger
generation is probably doingbetter than we are in that
instance.
Yeah, that's my opinion.
You know this is kind of asilly thing, but you know,
watching some of these realityTV shows, these younger people
are asking well, what's yourlove language?
I would have never asked that,you know, when I was dating, I
(29:10):
would have never asked that.
And so I think that they aretaking the time to really
evaluate who they are.
They are meditating more.
You know, I have done aninterview with this young man
named Jack Wagner.
An interview with this youngman named Jack Wagner.
He is say you know, we had thiswhole conversation about how it
used to be kind of like thiswoo, woo, people look at you
(29:30):
silly if you said you meditate.
It's not like that anymore.
A lot of people are gettinginto that to have that quiet
space.
Whether it's, you know, sittingthere like this or not, it's
having that quiet time toyourself to really think through
who you are, what you value,like you said.
Time to yourself to reallythink through who you are, what
you value, like you said.
And I think people are beginningto be a lot more in tune with
that.
(29:50):
So you know they're askingabout love languages, they are
meditating, and I'm reading allthe time that Gen Z is saying
they don't actually want thosemid manager jobs anymore because
it's just not worth thetrade-off to their mental health
or their social health.
And so I really do think in mytime when I was coming through
(30:12):
my career, it was just go, go,go, hustle, hustle, hustle, get
to the top as fast as you can.
And I don't necessarily thinkthat people are saying that's
the only path anymore.
So in my opinion, you know thatmight be a hot take, but I do
think Gen Z is taking the timeto know themselves a little bit
more.
Tim Newman (30:30):
Well, you know, I I number one.
I think, if, if, if that's, Ithink it's great, whether I
think it's right or not, I mean,if you're, if that's what
you're seeing.
Brianne Rush (30:40):
I think that's awesome, I think I think.
Tim Newman (30:41):
I think it's great and I think they're.
You know, as they get older,just like anything else.
You know, we talked about howyou know you got to a point
where, okay, what's the nextstep in my life, what's the next
professional step, what's thenext step in my personal life?
And I think you know, really,my generation and the generation
(31:04):
before me there was no nextstep.
This is what you were going todo and that's what you were
going to do, right.
So so people my generation areare starting to have, starting
to have, you know, second andthird professional lives.
And you know, as, as the youngergeneration start start coming
up, you know they're going to,they're.
My guess is they're going tosee okay, this is where I was in
(31:33):
this season of my life.
Now it's time to move on toanother season, and that next
season is going to mean that Ido things differently, or I want
different things, or I'm goingto have to work differently, or
or, or do those whatever we needto do to make our life, to be
happy in the life that we'reliving.
And if that's what they'redoing now, that's awesome
because it's going to make thatnext transition for their life
(31:53):
even easier.
Brianne Rush (31:55):
Absolutely.
I think it's all around knowingyourself but not trapping
yourself, right?
So for me, I knew I wanted tobe a journalist and live in New
York.
That's what I wanted to do.
But it was a really harddecision for me, for after a
couple of years I kind of youknow, missed my family who lived
(32:16):
in Ohio and I wasn't aspassionate about the role I was
in anymore.
You know, dance the magazine Iworked for was a dance magazine
and and I, like I said, got togo to these Broadway shows and
stuff.
But there was just I.
I looked at it and I said, isthis it for the rest of my life?
Am I going to be talking aboutdance?
And I was like I don't think so, right.
Tim Newman (32:38):
So, I.
Brianne Rush (32:39):
So I ended up moving back to Ohio and really
taking a year to reevaluate andI ended up in content marketing,
which what I mentioned is thatthrough line I was still using
my writing skills and tellingstories, but it was in a
completely different way, in acompletely different place, and
I was able to grow that careerand so I never felt trapped.
(33:00):
And I think that's importantbecause you know my, my dad.
He was an accountant and workedat the same place for 40 plus
years.
He's still working there, eventhough he's supposed to be
retired.
That's, you know.
That's, I think, onegeneration's kind of view of
career.
Mine has been more so freedomto pick and choose, but we, you
(33:21):
know, kind of made at leastthose decisions to just do a
couple of things or maybe tojust make a couple of pivots.
You know, gen Z is kind of seen,kind of known as this job
hopper generation, where they'regoing year after year getting
new job, new job, new job.
And that's something that theyhave to kind of overcome and
figure out for themselves iswhen is it appropriate to take a
(33:42):
new job?
Maybe you know, increase thatsalary, or you know, get into AI
, get into tech or get intothese new things that are
developing all the time, whichis great and you shouldn't make
those moves in your career butwhen is it maybe good to stay
Stick?
it out Because you like the workculture, you like your role and
you can have the freedom, or atleast the pathway, to move up
(34:03):
and continue to make an impact.
And that's going back to thatidea of self-awareness and
what's going to be best for youand your career.
But it's yeah, it's definitelychanged throughout the
generations, for sure.
Tim Newman (34:15):
Yeah, and I also think that you know the whole
idea of job hopping is from anHR perspective and a hiring
perspective.
It's, you know, to a certaincertain extent it's not penal
anymore, you know it's.
It seemed as natural, it's okay.
Okay.
So you know, I I think we'rewhere you really get into
problems.
If every year, you know you're,you're staying in place for a
(34:38):
year, that that to me, you knowyou enjoy it for four or five
years in a row, that to me thatis where it becomes problematic.
But you know, every couple ofyears, why not?
I mean if, if, if there'sgrowth, if there's salary, if
there's you know what interestchange.
You know, like you said, and Ithink you know, in all honesty,
(34:59):
you know I I've had, I've gonethrough through changing jobs
and the stress I knew it wastime to leave, but the stress of
actually making the decisionand following through on the
decision.
It was hard.
(35:20):
As opposed to now.
You know it's okay, it's timeto leave, so we're going to
start doing things to leave and,like I said, just do the thing.
And I'm applying that to myselftoo.
Why didn't I just do the thinginstead of causing all the
stress?
Right, and you?
know, so, like the first time,the first faculty job, I was
(35:42):
there almost 20 years and I knewafter 15, it was time to go.
So I stayed.
And you know, for whateverreasons and and it was I mean I
I would go back there in asecond, you know, cause I love
the people and those types ofthings but you know when, when
you get to a point in yourcareer that you feel stale, that
you know there's something elseout there, it's okay to start
exploring what those things are.
(36:03):
Don't don't follow it up.
And that's for, for really ourmy generation, the younger
generations have seemed to havea pretty good handle on that.
Brianne Rush (36:12):
Yeah, I have a similar situation, tim.
When I was trying to decide ifI was going to leave that dream
job that I had in New York.
I worked myself up and had thisball of pain in my stomach for
weeks where, like you couldtouch it and I would just like
kind of double over in pain andone day I just I couldn't take
it anymore.
(36:33):
I literally like had to rollmyself out of bed and get myself
into a taxi and go to the hotthe ER in New York by myself.
I know nobody.
Nobody can come to the hospitalhelp me, like literally taking
a taxi to the hospital because Iam in so much pain.
I remember the person doing myintake.
She said, okay, on a scale ofone to 10, what's your pain?
(36:54):
And you know me trying to notnecessarily like be a crybaby
about it.
I'm like, oh, seven she goes,I'm going to give you an eight.
Like it was that bad.
And so they did all these testsand they could not figure it
out.
I just had this random ball ofpain.
But what happened to him was,after I made the final decision
(37:14):
to be like, yeah, I'm movinghome, I'm quitting this job.
Guess what Went away, like howbad is that?
That's terrible.
People should not getthemselves worked up into a ball
of pain over a job.
It just shouldn't be that bad.
Tim Newman (37:28):
Right, and you know and I'm listen, don't take this
the wrong way A lot of times wedo it to ourselves.
Now, there are times thatyou're in a toxic environment
and that's that's.
I'm not talking about that, buta lot of times we do that to
ourselves.
I'm not talking about that, buta lot of times we do that to
ourselves.
We're the ones who've workedourselves to that point.
Because if we're in, if we'rein a good professional
(37:51):
relationship, just like a goodpersonal relationship, whoever
that, whoever that relationshiponly one is what's best for you.
They want to help you, theywant you to grow, they want you
to be healthy and be successful,and for whatever reason, we do
these things to our, toourselves no-transcript said I
(38:35):
wanted to be and now I'm goingto just check it.
Brianne Rush (38:38):
All you know.
Tim Newman (38:38):
But we learn from it and again, hopefully these
types of conversations helpthose younger generations and
and again, like I said, theyseem to have a much better
handle on it at this point intheir life and hopefully, as
they, as they go through theirdifferent life stages and they
(39:00):
have families, kids and otherresponsibilities they can, like
they can, look back on thesetimes and say you know what?
I'm in a different life stage,but the same ideas still apply.
Let's have a plan and moveforward with that.
With that plan, I'm not again,I'm not advocating anybody to do
(39:20):
things on a whim either.
That's the, that's the otherside right.
Brianne Rush (39:23):
Yeah, you gotta to think through it, do what's
best for you, but there's noneed to get worked up the way
that you and I did, and I thinkthat it may even be a little bit
switched now.
You know, the tech companiesare doing massive layoffs.
That used to be anembarrassment, now it's kind of
like a badge of honor thatthey're doing these layoffs.
So people are being forced todo these job changes or career
(39:46):
changes too, and so they may bestruggling in a different way
than you and I did, but it'simportant to remember that this
is your career.
It is not you, it is not youressence, your value as a human.
Tim Newman (39:57):
Right, exactly so.
Talk about the Independence Lab, because I love the whole setup
with that, what you're doing.
Tell everybody what you'rewhole setup with that, what
you're doing.
Tell everybody what you'reactually doing with this and how
you're helping people.
Brianne Rush (40:10):
So when I look back at my job and connected
those dots in my career and whathelped me move up, and then
again, like we talked about, I'mdoing these interviews now to
bring people into the companyand I'm just looking at it, I'm
saying, man, the people who arereally shining, the way that I
shown in my career was throughemotional intelligence.
You know, I wasn't the bestwriter, I wasn't the most tech
(40:32):
savvy, I was never the bestdancer, but the way that I moved
up and made these steps wasthrough the things that we've
been talking about here.
So through self-awareness,through self-regulation, through
communication skills, empathyskills, through that motivation.
Those are kind of the fiveelements that make up this idea
of emotional intelligence.
(40:53):
And so what I want people torealize through the Independence
Lab is that they can build acareer foundation on building
that skill set there, those fivethings, and moving those.
That part of the needle iswhat's actually going to move
your career needle and sobuilding that foundation
(41:14):
directly out of college, in thebeginnings of their career,
they're going to be way ahead ofpeople, because I didn't
necessarily learn those lessonsuntil I was looking backward and
I'm seeing these people comethrough the interview process
where they either don't havethose skills or they might have
the beginning of those skills,but they don't necessarily know
how to talk about it.
(41:35):
So that's what I'm hoping theIndependence Lab does for these
young women is to really givethem the resource to understand
that anybody can learn emotionalintelligence.
It doesn't, it's not somethingthat you have to be born with so
you can learn it and give themthe skills to do that.
It's all free content.
So we've got a blog, we've gota weekly newsletter that you can
(41:56):
sign up for and it just showsup in your inbox once a week and
it's super easy to get throughand read some sort of takeaway
from that.
And then, most recently, I'vebeen interviewing really
successful women and talkingabout how they've used emotional
intelligence to build theircareers.
So it's all availabletheindependencelabcom for you to
go and just learn.
Start learning this idea ofemotional intelligence.
Tim Newman (42:19):
That's amazing and obviously it's good work and
needs to, needs to be shared andpeople need to do that.
I think I think it's awesome,and I'm sure you know,
interviewing some of thesereally successful women.
It is powerful and you'relearning things and your, your
(42:40):
community, is going to learn,learn a ton of things.
It's sharing.
Sharing stories about how we've, how we've gone from point a as
a, as a young professional notknowing in from out, right from
wrong, up from down, whateverand seeing that you know
(43:01):
progression and growth to peoplethat we see or or think that we
think they, that they've got itall together, and noticing some
of the, some of the storiesthat they tell.
It just gives you so much moreconfidence to say you know what.
It's not a straight line, it'san up and down.
There's good, there's bad,there's there's good things
happen, there's bad things thathappen, but you got to navigate
(43:23):
it and eventually, if you keepdoing the work, this happened.
Brianne Rush (43:26):
There's bad things that happened, but you got to
navigate it and eventually, ifyou keep doing the work, this is
where you're going to end up.
It's so true.
It's so true, you know, andwhat I love about these
interviews, and even what I'vebeen writing about my own self,
is not one of us is perfect.
We've all been successful orhad promotions or gotten our
dream jobs, or whatever it isfor that person.
But what I like to ask aboutour mistakes, surprises, things
(43:50):
that they've experienced alongthe way that show it's okay to
fall down or make a mistake.
It's all about how you handleit.
So if somebody is listening andthey're thinking, man, I've
already kind of messed it upfrom the start, or I don't have
these skills, well, guess what?
You can get back up, you canlearn these skills, you can
develop them and build thiscareer, and so I love to have
(44:11):
that out there.
It's like, yep, superembarrassing, did this, but I
still was able to get promotedafter that, and so I think
that's really important.
Not any of this is unachievableor out of your realm of
possibility.
It's all something that you canjust build and work on every
single day to get better, andit's enjoyable.
It's not like you're, you know,out there digging a ditch.
(44:32):
It's something that you couldjust talk to people and and that
happens to get better.
You know you happen to getbetter at things by just talking
to people.
Tim Newman (44:40):
Yeah, that's amazing and I appreciate the work that
you're doing there.
Where can people find you andconnect with you besides the
Independence Lab lab?
On Instagram, and then Tim, ifit's okay with you.
Brianne Rush (44:50):
I know this is all a little abstract, but I put
(45:13):
together this guide that Iusually you know it's on the
site for $19, but for yourlisteners, I would just give it
to them for free to learn and gothrough some of these prompts
and questions and quizzes justto help them understand this
idea of emotional intelligence.
So if you want to put it in theshow notes, they can go to
theindependencelabcom backslashplaybook and get it for free.
Tim Newman (45:32):
Brianne, that's awesome.
I would love to put that inthere.
I think, that would be a greatresource for the listeners and I
can tell you how much Iappreciate you doing that.
That's awesome.
I'll make sure that I put thatin the show notes.
Could you just text me or emailme that that link to make make
sure I get it right?
That's great and that's awesome.
Brianne Rush (45:52):
Yes, absolutely, I will do that.
Tim Newman (45:54):
That's great.
Thank you so much for spendingsome time with us today.
I really do appreciate it andwe'll talk to you soon.
Brianne Rush (46:00):
Tim, thank you so much for having me.
Tim Newman (46:02):
Take care.
Be sure to visitspeakingwithconfidencepodcastcom
to get your free ebook Top 21Challenges for Public Speakers
and how to Overcome them.
You can also register for theForum for Public Speaking.
Always remember your voice hasthe power to change.
We'll talk to you next time,take care.
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