February 27, 2025 • 43 mins
Navigating the corporate world as a young adult can be intimidating, especially for those who want to maintain their faith in a secular environment. In this episode hosts Allison and Claire share transformative lessons they've learned throughout their careers. Drawing from their personal experiences, they detail the essential idea that your first job doesn't have to define your career. Instead, it's a valuable learning opportunity filled with potential for growth and purpose.
The corporate landscape needs more people of faith to champion positive change within organizations. Allison and Claire wholeheartedly believe that by embracing their identities as Catholics in the workplace, they can inspire a new perspective in corporate culture. They challenge the notion that work must be a mundane necessity divorced from spirituality, encouraging listeners to see their contributions through a prayerful lens. Each moment spent in the office can, in fact, be an opportunity for worship and service.
Community also plays a crucial role in this journey. The hosts advocate for building supportive networks, urging young professionals to connect with each other for encouragement and growth. The lives they build around their careers should be infused with faith, and they emphasize that previous experiences will shape their paths, even if it feels confusing at the moment.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone.
My name is Allison.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And I'm Claire and welcome to the Corporate
Catholic Podcast.
Thank you so much to Focus andMax Studios for allowing us to
be here today.
We're really excited and thisis our first time doing a live
podcast at SEEK, so we're justso grateful to be with you all
today.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah.
So for those of you who havenever heard of the Corporate
Catholic Podcast before, ourmission is to really inspire the
joyful hustle by integrating arelationship with God into the
nine-to-five.
So just a quick show of handshere how many of you are either
majoring in business orconsidering a job in the
corporate world?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, yeah, good bit of you, and I don't know about
all of you, but when we were incollege, allison and I felt a
little nervous and anxious aboutentering the corporate world as
people of faith and we justdidn't want to lose our identity
as a Catholic in a secularcorporate world, but just didn't
really know what thatintegration was going to look
(01:25):
like or like how our faith andwork would actually interact at
all.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And yeah, yeah.
So both of us are now just alittle over three years into our
careers post-grad so we wantedto use this time today to share
with you five things we wish wewould have known before we
started our corporate jobs.
But before we do that, let's dosome quick intros so you guys
(01:49):
can get to know us a little bitbetter.
Claire, do you want to start?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, so hi everyone.
My name is Claire.
I'm originally from Columbus,ohio, and went to college at
Miami, yeah, where I studiedinformation systems, analytics
and entrepreneurship, and now Ihave a job in consulting in
Chicago and I work in healthcaremergers and acquisitions doing
(02:19):
buy side diligence, sell sideadvisory and post close work.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and as I said before, I'm Allison.
I was born and raised in Omaha,nebraska, and then I moved to
Chicago and went to college atLoyola University.
I majored in accounting andinformation systems and minored
in marketing, and I also work inconsulting, actually at the
same firm as Claire, but I workin our technology and experience
(02:45):
division.
So I help different clientsbasically implement new
technology and it helps thembetter connect and serve their
customers.
But enough about us.
Let's tell you a little bitmore about how this podcast even
came about.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah.
So my senior year of college, Igot the opportunity to take a
faith and entrepreneurship classand that was really the first
time that I had thought about myfaith, how my faith life would
look in a corporate context, andhonestly, I had been dreading
work my entire life, like I wasso worried about graduating and
just working at a desk for 40years and just like watching my
(03:24):
life pass away and I just didn'tunderstand or couldn't imagine
how work could be anything likemy amazing four years in college
until I took this class, andone of the biggest things that I
learned was that in Genesis,when God created Adam and Eve
before the fall, he gave them.
(03:44):
He gave them jobs.
Their job was to work and tendfor the garden and, um, you know
, so when the world was perfect,uh, humans still had jobs, and
so I think that was a hugeturning point for me, and really
all of the negative things thatwe see come from work are just,
you know, ways that evil hascrept in in different ways, but
(04:05):
at the core of it, our work ismeant to be a good thing and
this was really just a hugelight bulb for me and I was so
inspired.
And when I moved to Chicago, Istarted an Instagram account
called Corporate Catholic tojust bring other people along
with my consulting journey.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, and it was around the same time that Claire
and I first met, so we actuallyboth started at the same time
at our current company andthrough a mutual friend of ours,
we figured out that we not onlylived in the same apartment
building, but we were literallyone floor apart in a 34-story
high-rise apartment building inChicago.
(04:41):
So kind of crazy and definitelya God moment.
But it was really at a timewhere I was desiring to find
Catholic community, especiallyhaving just left college, and so
, as Claire was kind of tellingme about her inspiration for
Corporate Catholic, I knew thenand there that it had to be a
podcast, and so I told her thatand it took a little bit of
(05:04):
convincing.
But fast forward, two years and54 episodes later and here we
are now at Seek doing our firstlive podcast.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, so, as you can probably tell, we're pretty
passionate about this topic, butyou know, god's also passionate
about work.
The concept of work ismentioned over 800 times in the
Bible, and so this is justsomething that needs to be
talked about and it's just sucha pivotal time in your
(05:37):
transition from college topost-grad life, so we're just
really excited to dive in and aswe prep for this episode, we
were just thinking back on whenwe were in college and just
thinking like what we wish wewould have known about the
corporate world.
So you know, that's what we'reready to get into and let's get
started.
So number one is that yourfirst job doesn't define your
(05:59):
career, and I think I don't knowabout you all, but anyone know
someone that just knew what theywanted to do with their life
from like the age of five.
Like they were just like wokeup and they were like I want to
be a doctor and their whole lifethey knew they wanted to be a
doctor and they've had thiswhole plan and it's just been so
great for them and that'samazing.
(06:20):
But I was just never that person.
I was always just someone thatwas like, yeah, she's, you know,
she's good at this, she getsgood grades, she, you know I'm
okay at sports, but I was neversomeone that just really had
like a defined skill that Icould like tap into and be like
that is what I'm talented at andlike that is what I should do
for a job, and so, like comingto college, it was just kind of
(06:43):
um, kind of challenging, where Ifeel like everyone is saying,
you know, follow your passionand like, find that thing that
is uniquely you and then use it.
And it was just really hard forme to identify that.
And a professor of mine told methat he didn't really feel like
he had found his passion untilthe age of 50.
(07:03):
And I think that, you know,passion is a gift and it's a
gift that some people areblessed with.
But really what we all arelooking for is purpose, and our
purpose is to know love andserve the Lord, and that's
something that you can do in anyjob, in any situation that
you're in.
And I think if I had known that, I just would have had like so
(07:26):
much less pressure on myselfbecause, really, like your first
job, if we just reframe theexpectations of our first job,
your first job is to know how towork, just learn how to be an
employee, to gain experience insomething that you've never done
before to love your coworkers,just to and to know, love and
(07:47):
serve the Lord, and you know youcan do that wherever you are.
So if you find something thatyou're passionate about, that is
so incredible.
But that should not be aqualification for your first job
.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, and this even extends past your first job too.
Yeah, and this even extendspast your first job too.
You know, when I took thisfirst job that I have now, it
really was my dream job.
I was so excited about it, andwhen I started working I was
like I'm like going to work hereforever.
This is great.
I love it so much and I stilldo love my job.
(08:21):
But you know, the past year orso I've kind of felt this tug of
that.
You know, I'm not sure that Godhas me here forever, but I
don't necessarily know what thenext move is either, and that's
okay too.
And so one thing that I've beentrying to do is to just take
that to prayer of.
You know, take the pressure offtrying to figure out, like,
(08:41):
what's my big passion, what's myultimate purpose, and instead
ask you know what's my next step, or where does God have me next
?
And each job and each role youhave is a stepping stone to
where you're meant to be.
And another thing I wouldencourage is talk to people who
are very well-seasoned intotheir careers, or maybe have
(09:03):
that dream job that you have,and ask them about their first
or second job out of college,because I think you'd be
surprised that a lot of peoplethat have these really glamorous
jobs had jobs right out ofcollege that were vastly
different from what they'redoing now.
So I know in college we had alot of guest speakers at my
(09:26):
college and I was always blownaway by their first couple jobs
out of college and it was justso different from what they were
doing.
So it gave me a lot of hope andit kind of lessened that
pressure of needing to feel likeyou have to have it figured out
for that first or second job.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, and you know something, I want to do,
something that I'm passionateabout, but I don't think I'm in
a rush to do so and I think, asyou just start your first job,
or you know, you, through theclasses you've taken at college,
like you can see small areaswhere maybe you're like that
really interested me, or that,you know, this interested me
more than this, and you know,just lean into those areas as
(10:02):
much as you can and, you know,just follow that path and at
some point, you know, you mightfind something unique to you.
But, yeah, as we've talkedabout it, you know your first
job is just, you know, take thepressure off and just take
something that you know fitssome qualifications of, maybe
like location and, you know,maybe a pay that can support
(10:24):
your lifestyle and maybe somevalues and focus on those things
rather than maybe the jobdescription and the role itself.
All right.
So number two is that thecorporate world needs you and I
think that it's really easy tolook at corporate America as
this just large, easy to look atcorporate America as this just
(10:49):
large, you know big, bad wolf ofsorts, and I just want to stay
as far away as possible, but youknow, I'm sure we're all well
aware that the corporate worldmakes a ton of decisions for the
world that we live in today andwe're just impacted so much.
Like, for example, even justyou know, pharmaceutical
companies creating, you know,the medicine that we take, or
(11:11):
impacting the healthcareindustry.
A ton, or a lot of thecompanies that you may well
known and love are owned byprivate equity and, like those
are large corporations just witha lot of money and maybe not
always the best intentions, andso there's just a lot of
different.
You know corporate rolesimpacting the companies and you
(11:34):
know the products and everythingthat we use on a day-to-day
basis.
And you know Catholics need tobe at the board.
They need to be at the tableand being able to be there and
have an opinion and have animpact so we can make change.
I mean, no change is going tohappen if we just kind of
separate ourselves and do ourown thing and hope that and pray
(11:56):
that it'll change, like thereneeds to be some people on the
ground actually advocating forchange and doing so in a way
that you don't have to, you know, go up to the board and say I'm
Catholic, but they're going torespect you, you've worked there
and they respect your ideas andyour credentials and they say,
like this person knows whatthey're talking about and we
(12:17):
respect them and especially withwhat we talked about, being
seen, known and loved just beinga Catholic is so attractive in
a corporate world and others arejust really gravitating towards
that love and kindness that youhave and bringing that to the
corporate world.
It's just very needed.
(12:38):
And I was talking with amissionary a few years ago and
they were kind of just talkingabout, you know, whether they
should stay in mission or go tothe corporate world, and they
just said I really can't imaginemyself having any more impact
than what I already have as amissionary.
And I just really have beenthinking about that for years
(12:59):
and I, you know, I've taken itto prayer and I'm just so
convicted that I know I am amissionary in my current role.
Just the conversations thatI've had with co-workers and
just seeing them and realizingthat no one has maybe supported
them in a certain way or, youknow, remembered their birthday
(13:21):
at work or just asked abouttheir kids or just shown them
certain love, I know I'm amissionary and so I really
believe that you can be amissionary in any role and you
know we are all meant to servethe Lord in different ways, and
just because your job titledoesn't say missionary doesn't
mean it's not in your jobdescription.
(13:42):
And so if that's something thatmaybe you're dealing with, of
deciding, feeling like you havea heart for mission and not sure
where that plays, I justencourage you to keep an open
mind and take the words I'vejust said into consideration as
well when kind of making thatdiscernment process.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, totally, and it's so easy to just think that
you know all corporations andall companies are bad, but there
are good companies out there,and so you may be thinking like,
how do I find those goodcompanies that share the values
that I have is just to not justlook at their mission statement
on the website, because it's soeasy for companies to paint
(14:29):
themselves in a positive lightand say this is what we believe,
this is what we live by.
But culture is really lived outby its people, and that's
something that I've reallylearned just in our first couple
of years working, and it'ssomething that I love about the
company we work for is that theculture is so strong, and so if
you want to see what a company'sculture is like and what their
values truly are, try to talk topeople who actually work there,
(14:51):
whether it's maybe an alumniwho you can connect with on
LinkedIn or just someone thatyou can get connected with.
That's a really good way to seewhat a company actually values
and what their culture isactually like.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah, I think something that stuck out to me
about our company is that theydid a values-based interview,
which I thought was like, reallyunique and it honestly got me
thinking, as Allison was justsaying about you know, find
someone who actually cares whatyour values are, too.
Like.
Our company had a values-basedinterview because they cared
(15:28):
what our values were just asmuch as I was caring what my
company's values were, um, and I.
I think that's really importanttoo is there are companies out
there that are known for theirculture.
Maybe try some of those first,see if there's companies that
are kind of known for theirculture, people that, um, you
(15:48):
know, were you know able to uh,just find their place.
And yeah, Um, and I think, asmission, just another witness of
in corporate world you can have, mission is this podcast.
So Allison and I were coworkersand are still coworkers and, um
(16:09):
, you know, if I, if we didn'twork in our corporate jobs, this
podcast wouldn't exist.
And now we know, if we didn'twork in our corporate jobs, this
podcast wouldn't exist, and nowwe're here at SEEK hoping to
impact some of you.
So I think this is just anotherwitness is how you know, say
yes to the corporate job if youfeel called?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, all right.
Number three work is hard, butyou can do hard things.
Hard, but you can do hardthings.
So I'm going to state theobvious here.
But work is not always fun.
But Colossians, chapter 3, verse23, says whatever you do, do
your work heartily, as for theLord rather than for men.
(16:54):
And I love this verse becauseit really gives us the
opportunity to take even themost mundane things you know,
working on an Excel spreadsheetor building a PowerPoint, or
doing these things that seem tohave no meaning and giving them
meaning by offering it up as asacrifice, as a prayer, as an
intention or something that youknow it's just been on your mind
recently.
And we have that opportunity todo that as Catholics, so we can
(17:18):
find meaning and bring meaninginto things that just seem
meaningless.
And I feel like the past coupleyears I've really God has
really shown me that I can dohard things.
So I've been on a project nowfor almost two years and it just
(17:38):
wrapped up shortly before SEEK,so it's finally come to a close
, but it's been one of the mostchallenging parts of my career
and this project wasn't supposedto be two years.
You know it's not normal forconsulting, but there were a lot
of pivots and changes and avery difficult client to deal
(18:00):
with that just made this projectjust keep going on forever and
ever.
And there were so many pointsduring this project where I so
badly wanted to just go to mycareer advisor and say, hey,
like, just get me off thisproject, like I don't want to be
doing anything else but this,or even saying, okay, I should
(18:21):
just quit and just find adifferent job.
But the thing that kept me inthat job, in that project, was
the team that I worked with, theinternal team and the bonds
that we had built over thoseyears.
You know, not only did we gothrough the hardest things
together, but we saw each otherthrough people getting engaged,
(18:43):
people moving and all thesedifferent life changes that we
navigated, in addition to justbeing on this project together.
And so that's one of thebiggest gifts I think about work
is as well as just thoserelationships and the bonds that
you can build, and that trulyis a gift from God being able to
(19:04):
show up and be there for yourcoworkers in that way.
So, yeah, I think it's so easyto get sucked into the
negativity in the corporateworld and make everything about
yourself and I need to get thisdone, or this is.
You know, why is this personhaving me do this thing?
(19:25):
And one of the things that kindof helps you get outside of
that is focusing on how you canserve the people that you're
working with.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, and I was thinking about, uh, our patron
saint of this week, joan of Arc,and just how much that she had
navigated and just really feltthat resistance through
something that she was feelingcalled to do.
So the Lord was asking her tolead a battle and, you know,
(19:58):
people laughed in her facereally and she was only, like, I
think, in her teens, so she wasvery young I forget the exact
age and she was definitelyprobably, you know, one of, if
not the only, woman out there,and so I really looked to her,
as mergers and acquisitions is avery male-dominated field, so I
(20:19):
was just thinking about her.
And not only was she young, butshe also was just a minority in
the situation, and there'sgoing to be times where, in your
corporate role, you're going tofeel like the minority, and
maybe it's because you're theonly Catholic in the room, and I
just encourage you to reallythink about St Joan and how much
(20:41):
she went through and also howmuch resistance she had.
So she threw out this greatidea and it's like throwing out
a great idea to your boss ormaybe your project group or your
team and everyone is just likethat's the worst idea I've ever
heard, and there was just somuch resistance, but she knew
that God was calling her to andso she just had to keep
persisting.
And I think persistence is ahuge, a huge gift and a huge
(21:03):
virtue that you can call on theLord and just have and ask for
persistence through whateveryou're doing.
So when the Lord asks you to dosomething and you're like, you
know it'd be so much easier if Icould just stay at home.
And I think about remote work isjust so prevalent nowadays and
(21:29):
there's only so much impact thatyou can have through a screen.
And I know that for years, youknow people had to do remote
work.
But I would also encourage youthat it's going to be harder to
work in person.
It's definitely you have tocommute, you got to pack a lunch
, you got to.
You know say hi to peopleawkwardly when you like get
water or coffee, but thebenefits are just so, um, so
(21:53):
great because you end upinteracting with people in such
a new and different way than, uh, if you were just working
remotely.
And yeah, I guess that's justan encouragement too, because I
feel like working remote it justseems so glamorous, Um, just
like being at home and kind ofhaving the autonomy to do
whatever you want, but really,like you're not.
(22:15):
One, you're not going to impactpeople and two, you're not
going to learn.
Like you need to be there.
And you know, remote work hasactually impacted us as younger
consultants, because a lot ofthe older people are staying
home with their families, whichis amazing.
But also we're not getting asmuch mentorship as young people.
And you know, that's somethingI've tried to like bring up to
(22:36):
my mentors and just thank themwhen they are in person, because
I'm like thank you so much,this means so much to me.
And I'd encourage you all aswell to just to not, you know,
be complacent and not take astep back, but to take a step
forward and say, like I'm here,I want to learn as much as I can
and I want to be in person, Ilike want to ask questions, I
want to impact others and I wantto show up.
(22:56):
So I encourage you and ifyou're experiencing any
resistance, just to really askfor St Joan of Arc's
intercession, as she really hasgone through so much push and
pull through her whole story.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
All right.
Number four Forty hours of workcould be 40 hours of prayer.
So this is kind of a crazystatistic.
But and I don't like to thinkabout it too much but the
average person will spend onethird of their life at work.
I know, kind of crazy.
That's a lot of time and asignificant portion of our lives
(23:32):
.
And so it can be so easy tojust compartmentalize our lives
into okay, here's my work life,here's my personal life, here's
my spiritual life.
You know, going to mass andprayer and all those things.
But especially when it comes towork, if we truly set aside
every other part of ourself,we're missing out on a huge
(23:55):
opportunity to show up as awitness to our faith at work.
And I know you may be thinkinghow do I show up as a Catholic
at work?
Like what does that look like?
And I think you know it can bekind of a taboo topic of you
know I shouldn't talk aboutfaith at work.
Like those things should beseparate.
(24:16):
And I think my opinion of thiswas really shifted, actually
just a couple months ago.
So who here listens to Spotify?
Okay, yes, so I'm a big Spotifyperson and one of my favorite
days of the year is when SpotifyWrapped comes out, right, and
you get to see all of your topartists, your top songs, your
(24:40):
top podcasts.
And so I was at work and I wassitting with someone on my team
and you know this was a girl whowas not Catholic.
I had never brought up the factthat I do a podcast before, but
she had followed me onInstagram and you know I've
posted about the podcast before,so I imagine she heard about it
(25:01):
through that, but we'd nevertalked about it before.
And she's like hey, do you wantto watch my Spotify wrapped
with me?
And I was like sure, like Ilove to see what other people
are listening to.
And so she has her phone up andshe's going through and it gets
to the section where it showsyou your top podcast.
And number three on her listwas the Corporate Catholic
Podcast.
(25:21):
And she was like oh yeah, likeI listen to your podcast.
And I was like wow, like we'venever even talked about this
before, like I didn't even knowWe've been working together like
two years now and it was justkind of a crazy moment.
And you know there was otherpeople on my team there and they
, you know, kind of chimed in.
They were like wait, you have apodcast.
Like I didn't know this and forso long I was just not that I
(25:44):
was trying to hide it, but I wasjust scared to bring it up.
I didn't think people wouldcare and also I just felt like
it was a very vulnerable thing.
You know, like the things thatwe talk about, sometimes I'm
like I don't know if I want mycoworkers listening to that
always, you know, and but youknow, after that, you know, at a
happy hour, like everyone on myteam was just asking about it
(26:05):
and saying you know, why did youstart this?
Like, what do you talk about?
Who do you interview?
Like what do you talk about?
Who do you interview?
Like what inspired you to dothis and just express such
curiosity and interest in itthat I just was blown away.
And it really just changed myperspective and it made me
realize that you know, when youwork with people and you build
relationships with them, youwant to learn everything about
(26:28):
them, you want to understandwhat they like and what's
important to them, and you knowthat includes your faith.
And you know I would do thesame for someone else as well.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So so, yeah, yeah, and I definitely think that you
know it can be hard to kind ofbring up faith at work and I
think something that I justreally try to do is to be
truthful.
So it's like someone asked mewhat I did this weekend and I
went on a retreat.
Like I tell them, I went on aretreat because it's how I would
(26:58):
answer the question and I it'snot like I'm trying to bring up
faith, it's just that theygenuinely asked me what I did
and that is what I did.
Like my faith is a huge part ofmy life.
I'm constantly doing stuffrelated to it.
So some of my coworkers I did,like one of those on Holy
Thursday, like the seven churchbus tour, like you know, on like
(27:20):
the night of Holy Thursday andlike some of my coworkers still
talk about that, they're likeClaire and her bus tour.
She loves that.
Like, what churches did you goto again?
So it's just fun to you know,kind of just try to be yourself
as much as you can when beingwith people and even if you
don't know them that well, theymight ask you simple questions,
but you know I try really hardnot to hide, but I also am not,
(27:43):
like I say enough where they'relike, they know I'm Catholic and
if they want to ask and learnfurther than people have, and if
people you know that makes themuncomfortable, then you know,
maybe it's just something thatthey know about me, but we
haven't discussed too muchfurther.
But yeah, I also want toencourage everyone to, you know
(28:05):
one, if there's an employeeresource group at your work, to
get involved.
So there was actually like aninterfaith employee resource
group at my work to get involved.
So there was actually like aninterfaith employee resource
group at my work which wasreally amazing and just
something I didn't know existedin companies before joining one.
And but there, you know, it waskind of just an interfaith
group and you know, I kind ofjust stood in the background the
(28:26):
first year and just kind of sawwhat was going on.
But then the second year I waslike you know, there's not a
Catholic specific group.
So I just asked and said, youknow, could I start a Catholic
group?
And they said yes, and we'resmall but mighty and you know,
trying to to grow, where we eachyear and, um, we pray the
(28:47):
divine mercy chaplet every otherFriday and sometimes no one
comes and sometimes it's.
You know we get a group to comeand it's just like such a, it's
such an amazing experience thatI've actually been able to like
pray with my co-workers, youknow, on our like, on our
laptops, like on our like workcomputers, and it's like
(29:08):
actually allowed from my company, which is just such a gift and
such a blessing and other waysthat you can maybe allow your 40
hours of work to just be 40hours of prayer is just kind of
that.
Pray without ceasing, like justsay a come Holy Spirit, before
your meeting, say a decade ofthe rosary.
(29:28):
You know, I like to pray therosary on my train ride to work.
It's a great time to kind ofjust have 15 minutes to myself.
You know, maybe you're dealingwith something very specific.
Search for a patron saint.
I know there's.
You know, saint Joseph theworker, jose Maria also has a
(29:50):
lot about work and JP2 has saida lot about work.
So there's just so many peoplethat you can kind of ask for for
intercession through your workand maybe find a saint that's
close to you and and keep themclose during during your work
day.
All right.
So the last one here is that Godputs dreams on your heart for a
(30:15):
reason, and I think that themain takeaways here are that
nothing is wasted and to havehope.
You know, like we've saidbefore, it's so hard to see the
(30:36):
value in doing 40 hours a weekon Excel from your bedroom.
You know working remotely likethat is so hard and but there
are ways that we can know loveand serve God, as we've talked
about.
But also God is using theexperience that you're having in
any experience, to help shapeand write your future.
And I don't know if any of youhave ever read a book or seen a
(30:58):
movie where, like the very end,they bring in something from the
very beginning and you're like,oh, it all makes sense and it's
like all tied up so nicely in abow and it just like everything
happened for a reason.
And I really feel like Godlikes stories like that.
I just think Alice and I haveboth had several stories where
something that happened yearsago that we thought meant
(31:21):
nothing was like reallypreparing us for something that
we couldn't even dream of ordidn't have any idea existed.
And one that comes to mind forme is just, I had a random
internship my junior year andthis was COVID summer, and I was
all excited and it was, youknow, at Notre Dame and it was
(31:45):
this like Catholic acceleratorprogram for the summer, and so I
was really excited.
But then everything went remoteand so it was just me in my
bedroom, you know, so sad, butjust doing what I could, and we
had these speakers that wouldcome and talk to the
(32:06):
entrepreneurs and so, like someof the speakers that have been
here this week, and just youknow, other different business,
catholic business owners anddifferent people were speaking
to these entrepreneurs and I wasjust like, wow, this is so
inspiring, this is so great.
But I didn't really take itanywhere.
I just kind of was like thatwas great, I loved hearing them.
Um, you know, put it in mypocket, like that internship
(32:28):
seemed like such a random thing,like I've done nothing else
ever related at all, juststarted doing consulting and had
all these other experiences.
But, flash forward, years later, we've started this podcast and
I've actually contacted severalof the people that have spoken
about, you know, at thatinternship to be guests on the
(32:49):
podcast, and I just feel like I,when we started the podcast, I
already knew so much more about,maybe, the Catholic
entrepreneurship and in businessyou know some of the businesses
that were out there just fromthat internship and I was like
this is just so random, just soyeah.
So, and you know, god is justusing small things, especially
(33:10):
like at this conference at SEEKmaybe you had an idea or a talk
that sparked you and that mightlead you in a direction that you
might not think about it foryears and then it might show up
again.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Yeah, yeah.
And another example too is youknow this podcast now.
So an experience that I had wasI've actually started two other
podcasts before this one and Iwasn't exactly sure why I was
doing that, honestly, Like thefirst one was during COVID.
You know, podcasting startedbecoming kind of popular.
(33:43):
I was bored, I was at home, asmost of us were, and I was like
I'm just going to learnsomething new.
I'm just going to see if I canfigure this out.
And I had studied abroad mysophomore year of college and
traveled a ton and kept reallydetailed journals of you know
all the places I went and allthe experiences I had.
And I was like I'm just goingto start doing solo podcasts
(34:06):
about each of the differentplaces that I went, just to kind
of I don't know remind myselfof those trips.
And you know it was a difficulttime.
And so I did that and it didn'treally go anywhere, it didn't
turn into anything and you knowit just kind of ended and I was
like, okay, whatever, it wascool to learn.
And then, when I was in college, cool to learn.
(34:33):
And then when I was in college,junior senior year, I started
working for my college'sentrepreneurship incubator.
I've always kind of beeninterested in entrepreneurship.
And I got a job there workingfor this professor who kind of
spearheaded the whole programand he was like, all right, it's
still kind of COVID and youknow we can't do a lot of
in-person events, so you know weneed to still do something, but
(34:55):
it's kind of up to you tofigure out like what you want to
do.
And I was like, okay, well,maybe we could just start a
podcast and we can justinterview different alumni who
have gone on to start businessesand, you know, do different
things.
And so I took that firstexperience and started a podcast
for my college, justinterviewing different
entrepreneurs, and again Igraduated.
(35:17):
It kind of ended.
It was fun, but I had no ideathat it would then lead to you
know what we're doing now andthis podcast we have now.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
So and I also like I had a podcast in college and it
just like died.
And I had such a negativeconnotation with podcasts and I
also was.
I worked with one in ourentrepreneurship department as
well, and then with COVID itjust kind of like disappeared.
And so when Allison came to meand was like you want to do a
podcast, I was like absolutelynot.
I was like that is the lastthing I want to do, like they
(35:48):
just were failures in my mindand I think that really what was
happening was that like I had adesire to do a podcast and we
both did like early on incollege.
It just took really like yearsto for that full, you know, for
our full like vision and God'svision to like come to fruition.
(36:11):
And we both, like you know,dabbled and tried a few
different things and then foundour way here and I think, you
know, some of those things thatI thought were failures were
really just things preparing mefor what God was actually
calling us to.
And so, you know, maybe youhave something like that where
you're just like I don't want tothink about that because I
tried that and it didn't work,or like that was just such a
(36:31):
random experience and you mightnot know why God has asked you
to do that or like how you foundyourself in that situation.
But just be hopeful that God isgoing to use all of your
experiences to form your uniquepath and your unique journey in
your career.
(36:52):
And something just to keep inmind is that success for
Catholics looks different, andso for having hope in this year
of in this, you know, jubileeyear, and we're pilgrims of hope
is that if you're in a seasonof just like deciding your major
, like deciding a job or aninternship, you know some of
(37:14):
your classmates are going to belooking at things and you know,
maybe these prestigious jobs orjust other things, and their
vision of success is differentthan ours, and it's really hard
to kind of remember that andremember that we are pilgrims
marching towards heaven, but oureyes are towards heaven and
(37:35):
we're really playing a wholedifferent game than most other
people that you know, maybe yourclassmates or your coworkers
and so I just encourage you thatit's going.
The road is going to be hardbecause when we're doing the
right thing, resistance isalways going to be there.
The evil one is always going totry to stop us, and so feeling
(37:57):
resistance is actually a goodsign that you're on the right
path and you know.
I encourage you to really justkeep prayer as the center, focal
point of your discernment inyour career and throughout your
career path and just reallyremember that heaven is the real
goal, because a lot of yourcoworkers and once you get in
(38:19):
the corporate world they're like, no, what's important is
getting the next promotion, orlike what's important is that
you know you work until midnightuntil this is done, because
this is like more important thananything else you have going on
.
And I just really encourage youto like accept any hardship
that you endure, you know,through prayer, and to just
(38:41):
remember that you know successlooks different for us and just
keep that hope if you ever haveany difficult times and you'll
be okay so we can do it.
We all are in this together, asFather Mike and Troy Boland
have said.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah, and one other example and story I want to
share before we wrap up is, youknow, just allowing God to work
in ways that you wouldn't haveexpected.
So I know a lot of you areprobably maybe looking for
internships right now or havedone an internship, and I had an
internship during college thatI absolutely hated.
(39:24):
It's like I went into thisinternship and applied for it
and there were multiplelocations and I thought I was
going to be in Chicago, which iswhere I went to school, and I
put that as my preference, andit turns out they ended up
sending me to Erie, pennsylvania, which is a very small town,
(39:44):
and I just wasn't expecting tobe there.
I was very upset.
I was like, no, I wanted myfirst summer in the city.
All I wanted to do is just bein the city and experience
everything that's going on there, and so I had a lot of
resentment going into it, but Ididn't have anything else lined
up, so I was like, okay, I'll go, and so I ended up going.
(40:06):
I didn't love the work itself,but what I got out of it was so
many strong friendships and Iended up being roommates with my
current roommate now, and she'sone of my absolute best friends
, and so it's just crazy tothink that if I would have, you
know, discounted thatopportunity and just been like,
(40:27):
no, this isn't what I wanted youknow, I'm not going to do that
Like my life would be sodifferent now and I wouldn't
have this person in my life.
So so I just encourage you toyou know it may not be the
internship that you wanted orthe experience that you wanted,
but you never know how God isgoing to work through that.
So have hope with that as well.
(40:56):
All right, so as we kind of wrapup here and, you know, kind of
finish doing some reflection onkind of our own careers, I hope
you can tell that we definitelydon't have it figured out either
.
So, but what we have done isjust start the conversation, and
you know, with this podcast,like that's truly what we are
trying to do is to just havethese conversations and it's
helped us so much, and so Iencourage you to also have those
(41:20):
conversations as well aboutwork and your jobs and your
co-workers and all these thingsthat impact our lives so much as
you navigate that transition topost-grad.
And you know, as you can seetoday, like we are so passionate
about this topic and we trulybelieve that God cares about
(41:41):
your work and he cares aboutyour career, and so we hope
today this kind of eased some ofyour maybe anxieties and
worries about pursuing a job inthe corporate world and also
just encouraged you that youdon't have to work in ministry
to be a witness and an exampleof your faith in your day-to-day
life.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Yeah, so thank you all so much.
If there's a topic that wedidn't touch on today that you
were hoping that maybe we wouldtalk about, we encourage you to
maybe check out some of ourother episodes.
We do.
A lot of guests as well, andmany of them have booths here,
have been walking around, sothere may be someone interesting
(42:23):
that you might want or anothertopic that you might be
interested in, so encourage that.
And we will also be hanging outafter the podcast.
Interested in?
So encourage that and we willalso be hanging out after the
podcast.
So please come say hi, and wehave stickers and would love to
meet you.
So thank you all so much and wehope to see you again soon.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Thanks for listening to this episode recorded live at
Seek Miss the conference, orwant to relive your favorite
moments?
Seek Replay has you coveredAccess, powerful keynotes,
inspiring talks and exclusivecontent to take your faith
deeper, anytime, anywhere.
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now, and
(43:09):
don't forget to join us for Seek26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone.
My name is Allison.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And I'm Claire and welcome to the Corporate
Catholic Podcast.
Thank you so much to Focus andMax Studios for allowing us to
be here today.
We're really excited and thisis our first time doing a live
podcast at SEEK, so we're justso grateful to be with you all
today.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah.
So for those of you who havenever heard of the Corporate
Catholic Podcast before, ourmission is to really inspire the
joyful hustle by integrating arelationship with God into the
nine-to-five.
So just a quick show of handshere how many of you are either
majoring in business orconsidering a job in the
corporate world?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, yeah, good bit of you, and I don't know about
all of you, but when we were incollege, allison and I felt a
little nervous and anxious aboutentering the corporate world as
people of faith and we justdidn't want to lose our identity
as a Catholic in a secularcorporate world, but just didn't
really know what thatintegration was going to look
(01:25):
like or like how our faith andwork would actually interact at
all.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And yeah, yeah.
So both of us are now just alittle over three years into our
careers post-grad so we wantedto use this time today to share
with you five things we wish wewould have known before we
started our corporate jobs.
But before we do that, let's dosome quick intros so you guys
(01:49):
can get to know us a little bitbetter.
Claire, do you want to start?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, so hi everyone.
My name is Claire.
I'm originally from Columbus,ohio, and went to college at
Miami, yeah, where I studiedinformation systems, analytics
and entrepreneurship, and now Ihave a job in consulting in
Chicago and I work in healthcaremergers and acquisitions doing
(02:19):
buy side diligence, sell sideadvisory and post close work.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and as I said before, I'm Allison.
I was born and raised in Omaha,nebraska, and then I moved to
Chicago and went to college atLoyola University.
I majored in accounting andinformation systems and minored
in marketing, and I also work inconsulting, actually at the
same firm as Claire, but I workin our technology and experience
(02:45):
division.
So I help different clientsbasically implement new
technology and it helps thembetter connect and serve their
customers.
But enough about us.
Let's tell you a little bitmore about how this podcast even
came about.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah.
So my senior year of college, Igot the opportunity to take a
faith and entrepreneurship classand that was really the first
time that I had thought about myfaith, how my faith life would
look in a corporate context, andhonestly, I had been dreading
work my entire life, like I wasso worried about graduating and
just working at a desk for 40years and just like watching my
(03:24):
life pass away and I just didn'tunderstand or couldn't imagine
how work could be anything likemy amazing four years in college
until I took this class, andone of the biggest things that I
learned was that in Genesis,when God created Adam and Eve
before the fall, he gave them.
(03:44):
He gave them jobs.
Their job was to work and tendfor the garden and, um, you know
, so when the world was perfect,uh, humans still had jobs, and
so I think that was a hugeturning point for me, and really
all of the negative things thatwe see come from work are just,
you know, ways that evil hascrept in in different ways, but
(04:05):
at the core of it, our work ismeant to be a good thing and
this was really just a hugelight bulb for me and I was so
inspired.
And when I moved to Chicago, Istarted an Instagram account
called Corporate Catholic tojust bring other people along
with my consulting journey.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, and it was around the same time that Claire
and I first met, so we actuallyboth started at the same time
at our current company andthrough a mutual friend of ours,
we figured out that we not onlylived in the same apartment
building, but we were literallyone floor apart in a 34-story
high-rise apartment building inChicago.
(04:41):
So kind of crazy and definitelya God moment.
But it was really at a timewhere I was desiring to find
Catholic community, especiallyhaving just left college, and so
, as Claire was kind of tellingme about her inspiration for
Corporate Catholic, I knew thenand there that it had to be a
podcast, and so I told her thatand it took a little bit of
(05:04):
convincing.
But fast forward, two years and54 episodes later and here we
are now at Seek doing our firstlive podcast.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, so, as you can probably tell, we're pretty
passionate about this topic, butyou know, god's also passionate
about work.
The concept of work ismentioned over 800 times in the
Bible, and so this is justsomething that needs to be
talked about and it's just sucha pivotal time in your
(05:37):
transition from college topost-grad life, so we're just
really excited to dive in and aswe prep for this episode, we
were just thinking back on whenwe were in college and just
thinking like what we wish wewould have known about the
corporate world.
So you know, that's what we'reready to get into and let's get
started.
So number one is that yourfirst job doesn't define your
(05:59):
career, and I think I don't knowabout you all, but anyone know
someone that just knew what theywanted to do with their life
from like the age of five.
Like they were just like wokeup and they were like I want to
be a doctor and their whole lifethey knew they wanted to be a
doctor and they've had thiswhole plan and it's just been so
great for them and that'samazing.
(06:20):
But I was just never that person.
I was always just someone thatwas like, yeah, she's, you know,
she's good at this, she getsgood grades, she, you know I'm
okay at sports, but I was neversomeone that just really had
like a defined skill that Icould like tap into and be like
that is what I'm talented at andlike that is what I should do
for a job, and so, like comingto college, it was just kind of
(06:43):
um, kind of challenging, where Ifeel like everyone is saying,
you know, follow your passionand like, find that thing that
is uniquely you and then use it.
And it was just really hard forme to identify that.
And a professor of mine told methat he didn't really feel like
he had found his passion untilthe age of 50.
(07:03):
And I think that, you know,passion is a gift and it's a
gift that some people areblessed with.
But really what we all arelooking for is purpose, and our
purpose is to know love andserve the Lord, and that's
something that you can do in anyjob, in any situation that
you're in.
And I think if I had known that, I just would have had like so
(07:26):
much less pressure on myselfbecause, really, like your first
job, if we just reframe theexpectations of our first job,
your first job is to know how towork, just learn how to be an
employee, to gain experience insomething that you've never done
before to love your coworkers,just to and to know, love and
(07:47):
serve the Lord, and you know youcan do that wherever you are.
So if you find something thatyou're passionate about, that is
so incredible.
But that should not be aqualification for your first job
.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, and this even extends past your first job too.
Yeah, and this even extendspast your first job too.
You know, when I took thisfirst job that I have now, it
really was my dream job.
I was so excited about it, andwhen I started working I was
like I'm like going to work hereforever.
This is great.
I love it so much and I stilldo love my job.
(08:21):
But you know, the past year orso I've kind of felt this tug of
that.
You know, I'm not sure that Godhas me here forever, but I
don't necessarily know what thenext move is either, and that's
okay too.
And so one thing that I've beentrying to do is to just take
that to prayer of.
You know, take the pressure offtrying to figure out, like,
(08:41):
what's my big passion, what's myultimate purpose, and instead
ask you know what's my next step, or where does God have me next
?
And each job and each role youhave is a stepping stone to
where you're meant to be.
And another thing I wouldencourage is talk to people who
are very well-seasoned intotheir careers, or maybe have
(09:03):
that dream job that you have,and ask them about their first
or second job out of college,because I think you'd be
surprised that a lot of peoplethat have these really glamorous
jobs had jobs right out ofcollege that were vastly
different from what they'redoing now.
So I know in college we had alot of guest speakers at my
(09:26):
college and I was always blownaway by their first couple jobs
out of college and it was justso different from what they were
doing.
So it gave me a lot of hope andit kind of lessened that
pressure of needing to feel likeyou have to have it figured out
for that first or second job.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, and you know something, I want to do,
something that I'm passionateabout, but I don't think I'm in
a rush to do so and I think, asyou just start your first job,
or you know, you, through theclasses you've taken at college,
like you can see small areaswhere maybe you're like that
really interested me, or that,you know, this interested me
more than this, and you know,just lean into those areas as
(10:02):
much as you can and, you know,just follow that path and at
some point, you know, you mightfind something unique to you.
But, yeah, as we've talkedabout it, you know your first
job is just, you know, take thepressure off and just take
something that you know fitssome qualifications of, maybe
like location and, you know,maybe a pay that can support
(10:24):
your lifestyle and maybe somevalues and focus on those things
rather than maybe the jobdescription and the role itself.
All right.
So number two is that thecorporate world needs you and I
think that it's really easy tolook at corporate America as
this just large, easy to look atcorporate America as this just
(10:49):
large, you know big, bad wolf ofsorts, and I just want to stay
as far away as possible, but youknow, I'm sure we're all well
aware that the corporate worldmakes a ton of decisions for the
world that we live in today andwe're just impacted so much.
Like, for example, even justyou know, pharmaceutical
companies creating, you know,the medicine that we take, or
(11:11):
impacting the healthcareindustry.
A ton, or a lot of thecompanies that you may well
known and love are owned byprivate equity and, like those
are large corporations just witha lot of money and maybe not
always the best intentions, andso there's just a lot of
different.
You know corporate rolesimpacting the companies and you
(11:34):
know the products and everythingthat we use on a day-to-day
basis.
And you know Catholics need tobe at the board.
They need to be at the tableand being able to be there and
have an opinion and have animpact so we can make change.
I mean, no change is going tohappen if we just kind of
separate ourselves and do ourown thing and hope that and pray
(11:56):
that it'll change, like thereneeds to be some people on the
ground actually advocating forchange and doing so in a way
that you don't have to, you know, go up to the board and say I'm
Catholic, but they're going torespect you, you've worked there
and they respect your ideas andyour credentials and they say,
like this person knows whatthey're talking about and we
(12:17):
respect them and especially withwhat we talked about, being
seen, known and loved just beinga Catholic is so attractive in
a corporate world and others arejust really gravitating towards
that love and kindness that youhave and bringing that to the
corporate world.
It's just very needed.
(12:38):
And I was talking with amissionary a few years ago and
they were kind of just talkingabout, you know, whether they
should stay in mission or go tothe corporate world, and they
just said I really can't imaginemyself having any more impact
than what I already have as amissionary.
And I just really have beenthinking about that for years
(12:59):
and I, you know, I've taken itto prayer and I'm just so
convicted that I know I am amissionary in my current role.
Just the conversations thatI've had with co-workers and
just seeing them and realizingthat no one has maybe supported
them in a certain way or, youknow, remembered their birthday
(13:21):
at work or just asked abouttheir kids or just shown them
certain love, I know I'm amissionary and so I really
believe that you can be amissionary in any role and you
know we are all meant to servethe Lord in different ways, and
just because your job titledoesn't say missionary doesn't
mean it's not in your jobdescription.
(13:42):
And so if that's something thatmaybe you're dealing with, of
deciding, feeling like you havea heart for mission and not sure
where that plays, I justencourage you to keep an open
mind and take the words I'vejust said into consideration as
well when kind of making thatdiscernment process.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, totally, and it's so easy to just think that
you know all corporations andall companies are bad, but there
are good companies out there,and so you may be thinking like,
how do I find those goodcompanies that share the values
that I have is just to not justlook at their mission statement
on the website, because it's soeasy for companies to paint
(14:29):
themselves in a positive lightand say this is what we believe,
this is what we live by.
But culture is really lived outby its people, and that's
something that I've reallylearned just in our first couple
of years working, and it'ssomething that I love about the
company we work for is that theculture is so strong, and so if
you want to see what a company'sculture is like and what their
values truly are, try to talk topeople who actually work there,
(14:51):
whether it's maybe an alumniwho you can connect with on
LinkedIn or just someone thatyou can get connected with.
That's a really good way to seewhat a company actually values
and what their culture isactually like.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah, I think something that stuck out to me
about our company is that theydid a values-based interview,
which I thought was like, reallyunique and it honestly got me
thinking, as Allison was justsaying about you know, find
someone who actually cares whatyour values are, too.
Like.
Our company had a values-basedinterview because they cared
(15:28):
what our values were just asmuch as I was caring what my
company's values were, um, and I.
I think that's really importanttoo is there are companies out
there that are known for theirculture.
Maybe try some of those first,see if there's companies that
are kind of known for theirculture, people that, um, you
(15:48):
know, were you know able to uh,just find their place.
And yeah, Um, and I think, asmission, just another witness of
in corporate world you can have, mission is this podcast.
So Allison and I were coworkersand are still coworkers and, um
(16:09):
, you know, if I, if we didn'twork in our corporate jobs, this
podcast wouldn't exist.
And now we know, if we didn'twork in our corporate jobs, this
podcast wouldn't exist, and nowwe're here at SEEK hoping to
impact some of you.
So I think this is just anotherwitness is how you know, say
yes to the corporate job if youfeel called?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, all right.
Number three work is hard, butyou can do hard things.
Hard, but you can do hardthings.
So I'm going to state theobvious here.
But work is not always fun.
But Colossians, chapter 3, verse23, says whatever you do, do
your work heartily, as for theLord rather than for men.
(16:54):
And I love this verse becauseit really gives us the
opportunity to take even themost mundane things you know,
working on an Excel spreadsheetor building a PowerPoint, or
doing these things that seem tohave no meaning and giving them
meaning by offering it up as asacrifice, as a prayer, as an
intention or something that youknow it's just been on your mind
recently.
And we have that opportunity todo that as Catholics, so we can
(17:18):
find meaning and bring meaninginto things that just seem
meaningless.
And I feel like the past coupleyears I've really God has
really shown me that I can dohard things.
So I've been on a project nowfor almost two years and it just
(17:38):
wrapped up shortly before SEEK,so it's finally come to a close
, but it's been one of the mostchallenging parts of my career
and this project wasn't supposedto be two years.
You know it's not normal forconsulting, but there were a lot
of pivots and changes and avery difficult client to deal
(18:00):
with that just made this projectjust keep going on forever and
ever.
And there were so many pointsduring this project where I so
badly wanted to just go to mycareer advisor and say, hey,
like, just get me off thisproject, like I don't want to be
doing anything else but this,or even saying, okay, I should
(18:21):
just quit and just find adifferent job.
But the thing that kept me inthat job, in that project, was
the team that I worked with, theinternal team and the bonds
that we had built over thoseyears.
You know, not only did we gothrough the hardest things
together, but we saw each otherthrough people getting engaged,
(18:43):
people moving and all thesedifferent life changes that we
navigated, in addition to justbeing on this project together.
And so that's one of thebiggest gifts I think about work
is as well as just thoserelationships and the bonds that
you can build, and that trulyis a gift from God being able to
(19:04):
show up and be there for yourcoworkers in that way.
So, yeah, I think it's so easyto get sucked into the
negativity in the corporateworld and make everything about
yourself and I need to get thisdone, or this is.
You know, why is this personhaving me do this thing?
(19:25):
And one of the things that kindof helps you get outside of
that is focusing on how you canserve the people that you're
working with.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, and I was thinking about, uh, our patron
saint of this week, joan of Arc,and just how much that she had
navigated and just really feltthat resistance through
something that she was feelingcalled to do.
So the Lord was asking her tolead a battle and, you know,
(19:58):
people laughed in her facereally and she was only, like, I
think, in her teens, so she wasvery young I forget the exact
age and she was definitelyprobably, you know, one of, if
not the only, woman out there,and so I really looked to her,
as mergers and acquisitions is avery male-dominated field, so I
(20:19):
was just thinking about her.
And not only was she young, butshe also was just a minority in
the situation, and there'sgoing to be times where, in your
corporate role, you're going tofeel like the minority, and
maybe it's because you're theonly Catholic in the room, and I
just encourage you to reallythink about St Joan and how much
(20:41):
she went through and also howmuch resistance she had.
So she threw out this greatidea and it's like throwing out
a great idea to your boss ormaybe your project group or your
team and everyone is just likethat's the worst idea I've ever
heard, and there was just somuch resistance, but she knew
that God was calling her to andso she just had to keep
persisting.
And I think persistence is ahuge, a huge gift and a huge
(21:03):
virtue that you can call on theLord and just have and ask for
persistence through whateveryou're doing.
So when the Lord asks you to dosomething and you're like, you
know it'd be so much easier if Icould just stay at home.
And I think about remote work isjust so prevalent nowadays and
(21:29):
there's only so much impact thatyou can have through a screen.
And I know that for years, youknow people had to do remote
work.
But I would also encourage youthat it's going to be harder to
work in person.
It's definitely you have tocommute, you got to pack a lunch
, you got to.
You know say hi to peopleawkwardly when you like get
water or coffee, but thebenefits are just so, um, so
(21:53):
great because you end upinteracting with people in such
a new and different way than, uh, if you were just working
remotely.
And yeah, I guess that's justan encouragement too, because I
feel like working remote it justseems so glamorous, Um, just
like being at home and kind ofhaving the autonomy to do
whatever you want, but really,like you're not.
(22:15):
One, you're not going to impactpeople and two, you're not
going to learn.
Like you need to be there.
And you know, remote work hasactually impacted us as younger
consultants, because a lot ofthe older people are staying
home with their families, whichis amazing.
But also we're not getting asmuch mentorship as young people.
And you know, that's somethingI've tried to like bring up to
(22:36):
my mentors and just thank themwhen they are in person, because
I'm like thank you so much,this means so much to me.
And I'd encourage you all aswell to just to not, you know,
be complacent and not take astep back, but to take a step
forward and say, like I'm here,I want to learn as much as I can
and I want to be in person, Ilike want to ask questions, I
want to impact others and I wantto show up.
(22:56):
So I encourage you and ifyou're experiencing any
resistance, just to really askfor St Joan of Arc's
intercession, as she really hasgone through so much push and
pull through her whole story.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
All right.
Number four Forty hours of workcould be 40 hours of prayer.
So this is kind of a crazystatistic.
But and I don't like to thinkabout it too much but the
average person will spend onethird of their life at work.
I know, kind of crazy.
That's a lot of time and asignificant portion of our lives
(23:32):
.
And so it can be so easy tojust compartmentalize our lives
into okay, here's my work life,here's my personal life, here's
my spiritual life.
You know, going to mass andprayer and all those things.
But especially when it comes towork, if we truly set aside
every other part of ourself,we're missing out on a huge
(23:55):
opportunity to show up as awitness to our faith at work.
And I know you may be thinkinghow do I show up as a Catholic
at work?
Like what does that look like?
And I think you know it can bekind of a taboo topic of you
know I shouldn't talk aboutfaith at work.
Like those things should beseparate.
(24:16):
And I think my opinion of thiswas really shifted, actually
just a couple months ago.
So who here listens to Spotify?
Okay, yes, so I'm a big Spotifyperson and one of my favorite
days of the year is when SpotifyWrapped comes out, right, and
you get to see all of your topartists, your top songs, your
(24:40):
top podcasts.
And so I was at work and I wassitting with someone on my team
and you know this was a girl whowas not Catholic.
I had never brought up the factthat I do a podcast before, but
she had followed me onInstagram and you know I've
posted about the podcast before,so I imagine she heard about it
(25:01):
through that, but we'd nevertalked about it before.
And she's like hey, do you wantto watch my Spotify wrapped
with me?
And I was like sure, like Ilove to see what other people
are listening to.
And so she has her phone up andshe's going through and it gets
to the section where it showsyou your top podcast.
And number three on her listwas the Corporate Catholic
Podcast.
(25:21):
And she was like oh yeah, likeI listen to your podcast.
And I was like wow, like we'venever even talked about this
before, like I didn't even knowWe've been working together like
two years now and it was justkind of a crazy moment.
And you know there was otherpeople on my team there and they
, you know, kind of chimed in.
They were like wait, you have apodcast.
Like I didn't know this and forso long I was just not that I
(25:44):
was trying to hide it, but I wasjust scared to bring it up.
I didn't think people wouldcare and also I just felt like
it was a very vulnerable thing.
You know, like the things thatwe talk about, sometimes I'm
like I don't know if I want mycoworkers listening to that
always, you know, and but youknow, after that, you know, at a
happy hour, like everyone on myteam was just asking about it
(26:05):
and saying you know, why did youstart this?
Like, what do you talk about?
Who do you interview?
Like what do you talk about?
Who do you interview?
Like what inspired you to dothis and just express such
curiosity and interest in itthat I just was blown away.
And it really just changed myperspective and it made me
realize that you know, when youwork with people and you build
relationships with them, youwant to learn everything about
(26:28):
them, you want to understandwhat they like and what's
important to them, and you knowthat includes your faith.
And you know I would do thesame for someone else as well.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So so, yeah, yeah, and I definitely think that you
know it can be hard to kind ofbring up faith at work and I
think something that I justreally try to do is to be
truthful.
So it's like someone asked mewhat I did this weekend and I
went on a retreat.
Like I tell them, I went on aretreat because it's how I would
(26:58):
answer the question and I it'snot like I'm trying to bring up
faith, it's just that theygenuinely asked me what I did
and that is what I did.
Like my faith is a huge part ofmy life.
I'm constantly doing stuffrelated to it.
So some of my coworkers I did,like one of those on Holy
Thursday, like the seven churchbus tour, like you know, on like
(27:20):
the night of Holy Thursday andlike some of my coworkers still
talk about that, they're likeClaire and her bus tour.
She loves that.
Like, what churches did you goto again?
So it's just fun to you know,kind of just try to be yourself
as much as you can when beingwith people and even if you
don't know them that well, theymight ask you simple questions,
but you know I try really hardnot to hide, but I also am not,
(27:43):
like I say enough where they'relike, they know I'm Catholic and
if they want to ask and learnfurther than people have, and if
people you know that makes themuncomfortable, then you know,
maybe it's just something thatthey know about me, but we
haven't discussed too muchfurther.
But yeah, I also want toencourage everyone to, you know
(28:05):
one, if there's an employeeresource group at your work, to
get involved.
So there was actually like aninterfaith employee resource
group at my work to get involved.
So there was actually like aninterfaith employee resource
group at my work which wasreally amazing and just
something I didn't know existedin companies before joining one.
And but there, you know, it waskind of just an interfaith
group and you know, I kind ofjust stood in the background the
(28:26):
first year and just kind of sawwhat was going on.
But then the second year I waslike you know, there's not a
Catholic specific group.
So I just asked and said, youknow, could I start a Catholic
group?
And they said yes, and we'resmall but mighty and you know,
trying to to grow, where we eachyear and, um, we pray the
(28:47):
divine mercy chaplet every otherFriday and sometimes no one
comes and sometimes it's.
You know we get a group to comeand it's just like such a, it's
such an amazing experience thatI've actually been able to like
pray with my co-workers, youknow, on our like, on our
laptops, like on our like workcomputers, and it's like
(29:08):
actually allowed from my company, which is just such a gift and
such a blessing and other waysthat you can maybe allow your 40
hours of work to just be 40hours of prayer is just kind of
that.
Pray without ceasing, like justsay a come Holy Spirit, before
your meeting, say a decade ofthe rosary.
(29:28):
You know, I like to pray therosary on my train ride to work.
It's a great time to kind ofjust have 15 minutes to myself.
You know, maybe you're dealingwith something very specific.
Search for a patron saint.
I know there's.
You know, saint Joseph theworker, jose Maria also has a
(29:50):
lot about work and JP2 has saida lot about work.
So there's just so many peoplethat you can kind of ask for for
intercession through your workand maybe find a saint that's
close to you and and keep themclose during during your work
day.
All right.
So the last one here is that Godputs dreams on your heart for a
(30:15):
reason, and I think that themain takeaways here are that
nothing is wasted and to havehope.
You know, like we've saidbefore, it's so hard to see the
(30:36):
value in doing 40 hours a weekon Excel from your bedroom.
You know working remotely likethat is so hard and but there
are ways that we can know loveand serve God, as we've talked
about.
But also God is using theexperience that you're having in
any experience, to help shapeand write your future.
And I don't know if any of youhave ever read a book or seen a
(30:58):
movie where, like the very end,they bring in something from the
very beginning and you're like,oh, it all makes sense and it's
like all tied up so nicely in abow and it just like everything
happened for a reason.
And I really feel like Godlikes stories like that.
I just think Alice and I haveboth had several stories where
something that happened yearsago that we thought meant
(31:21):
nothing was like reallypreparing us for something that
we couldn't even dream of ordidn't have any idea existed.
And one that comes to mind forme is just, I had a random
internship my junior year andthis was COVID summer, and I was
all excited and it was, youknow, at Notre Dame and it was
(31:45):
this like Catholic acceleratorprogram for the summer, and so I
was really excited.
But then everything went remoteand so it was just me in my
bedroom, you know, so sad, butjust doing what I could, and we
had these speakers that wouldcome and talk to the
(32:06):
entrepreneurs and so, like someof the speakers that have been
here this week, and just youknow, other different business,
catholic business owners anddifferent people were speaking
to these entrepreneurs and I wasjust like, wow, this is so
inspiring, this is so great.
But I didn't really take itanywhere.
I just kind of was like thatwas great, I loved hearing them.
Um, you know, put it in mypocket, like that internship
(32:28):
seemed like such a random thing,like I've done nothing else
ever related at all, juststarted doing consulting and had
all these other experiences.
But, flash forward, years later, we've started this podcast and
I've actually contacted severalof the people that have spoken
about, you know, at thatinternship to be guests on the
(32:49):
podcast, and I just feel like I,when we started the podcast, I
already knew so much more about,maybe, the Catholic
entrepreneurship and in businessyou know some of the businesses
that were out there just fromthat internship and I was like
this is just so random, just soyeah.
So, and you know, god is justusing small things, especially
(33:10):
like at this conference at SEEKmaybe you had an idea or a talk
that sparked you and that mightlead you in a direction that you
might not think about it foryears and then it might show up
again.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Yeah, yeah.
And another example too is youknow this podcast now.
So an experience that I had wasI've actually started two other
podcasts before this one and Iwasn't exactly sure why I was
doing that, honestly, Like thefirst one was during COVID.
You know, podcasting startedbecoming kind of popular.
(33:43):
I was bored, I was at home, asmost of us were, and I was like
I'm just going to learnsomething new.
I'm just going to see if I canfigure this out.
And I had studied abroad mysophomore year of college and
traveled a ton and kept reallydetailed journals of you know
all the places I went and allthe experiences I had.
And I was like I'm just goingto start doing solo podcasts
(34:06):
about each of the differentplaces that I went, just to kind
of I don't know remind myselfof those trips.
And you know it was a difficulttime.
And so I did that and it didn'treally go anywhere, it didn't
turn into anything and you knowit just kind of ended and I was
like, okay, whatever, it wascool to learn.
And then, when I was in college, cool to learn.
(34:33):
And then when I was in college,junior senior year, I started
working for my college'sentrepreneurship incubator.
I've always kind of beeninterested in entrepreneurship.
And I got a job there workingfor this professor who kind of
spearheaded the whole programand he was like, all right, it's
still kind of COVID and youknow we can't do a lot of
in-person events, so you know weneed to still do something, but
(34:55):
it's kind of up to you tofigure out like what you want to
do.
And I was like, okay, well,maybe we could just start a
podcast and we can justinterview different alumni who
have gone on to start businessesand, you know, do different
things.
And so I took that firstexperience and started a podcast
for my college, justinterviewing different
entrepreneurs, and again Igraduated.
(35:17):
It kind of ended.
It was fun, but I had no ideathat it would then lead to you
know what we're doing now andthis podcast we have now.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
So and I also like I had a podcast in college and it
just like died.
And I had such a negativeconnotation with podcasts and I
also was.
I worked with one in ourentrepreneurship department as
well, and then with COVID itjust kind of like disappeared.
And so when Allison came to meand was like you want to do a
podcast, I was like absolutelynot.
I was like that is the lastthing I want to do, like they
(35:48):
just were failures in my mindand I think that really what was
happening was that like I had adesire to do a podcast and we
both did like early on incollege.
It just took really like yearsto for that full, you know, for
our full like vision and God'svision to like come to fruition.
(36:11):
And we both, like you know,dabbled and tried a few
different things and then foundour way here and I think, you
know, some of those things thatI thought were failures were
really just things preparing mefor what God was actually
calling us to.
And so, you know, maybe youhave something like that where
you're just like I don't want tothink about that because I
tried that and it didn't work,or like that was just such a
(36:31):
random experience and you mightnot know why God has asked you
to do that or like how you foundyourself in that situation.
But just be hopeful that God isgoing to use all of your
experiences to form your uniquepath and your unique journey in
your career.
(36:52):
And something just to keep inmind is that success for
Catholics looks different, andso for having hope in this year
of in this, you know, jubileeyear, and we're pilgrims of hope
is that if you're in a seasonof just like deciding your major
, like deciding a job or aninternship, you know some of
(37:14):
your classmates are going to belooking at things and you know,
maybe these prestigious jobs orjust other things, and their
vision of success is differentthan ours, and it's really hard
to kind of remember that andremember that we are pilgrims
marching towards heaven, but oureyes are towards heaven and
(37:35):
we're really playing a wholedifferent game than most other
people that you know, maybe yourclassmates or your coworkers
and so I just encourage you thatit's going.
The road is going to be hardbecause when we're doing the
right thing, resistance isalways going to be there.
The evil one is always going totry to stop us, and so feeling
(37:57):
resistance is actually a goodsign that you're on the right
path and you know.
I encourage you to really justkeep prayer as the center, focal
point of your discernment inyour career and throughout your
career path and just reallyremember that heaven is the real
goal, because a lot of yourcoworkers and once you get in
(38:19):
the corporate world they're like, no, what's important is
getting the next promotion, orlike what's important is that
you know you work until midnightuntil this is done, because
this is like more important thananything else you have going on
.
And I just really encourage youto like accept any hardship
that you endure, you know,through prayer, and to just
(38:41):
remember that you know successlooks different for us and just
keep that hope if you ever haveany difficult times and you'll
be okay so we can do it.
We all are in this together, asFather Mike and Troy Boland
have said.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah, and one other example and story I want to
share before we wrap up is, youknow, just allowing God to work
in ways that you wouldn't haveexpected.
So I know a lot of you areprobably maybe looking for
internships right now or havedone an internship, and I had an
internship during college thatI absolutely hated.
(39:24):
It's like I went into thisinternship and applied for it
and there were multiplelocations and I thought I was
going to be in Chicago, which iswhere I went to school, and I
put that as my preference, andit turns out they ended up
sending me to Erie, pennsylvania, which is a very small town,
(39:44):
and I just wasn't expecting tobe there.
I was very upset.
I was like, no, I wanted myfirst summer in the city.
All I wanted to do is just bein the city and experience
everything that's going on there, and so I had a lot of
resentment going into it, but Ididn't have anything else lined
up, so I was like, okay, I'll go, and so I ended up going.
(40:06):
I didn't love the work itself,but what I got out of it was so
many strong friendships and Iended up being roommates with my
current roommate now, and she'sone of my absolute best friends
, and so it's just crazy tothink that if I would have, you
know, discounted thatopportunity and just been like,
(40:27):
no, this isn't what I wanted youknow, I'm not going to do that
Like my life would be sodifferent now and I wouldn't
have this person in my life.
So so I just encourage you toyou know it may not be the
internship that you wanted orthe experience that you wanted,
but you never know how God isgoing to work through that.
So have hope with that as well.
(40:56):
All right, so as we kind of wrapup here and, you know, kind of
finish doing some reflection onkind of our own careers, I hope
you can tell that we definitelydon't have it figured out either
.
So, but what we have done isjust start the conversation, and
you know, with this podcast,like that's truly what we are
trying to do is to just havethese conversations and it's
helped us so much, and so Iencourage you to also have those
(41:20):
conversations as well aboutwork and your jobs and your
co-workers and all these thingsthat impact our lives so much as
you navigate that transition topost-grad.
And you know, as you can seetoday, like we are so passionate
about this topic and we trulybelieve that God cares about
(41:41):
your work and he cares aboutyour career, and so we hope
today this kind of eased some ofyour maybe anxieties and
worries about pursuing a job inthe corporate world and also
just encouraged you that youdon't have to work in ministry
to be a witness and an exampleof your faith in your day-to-day
life.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Yeah, so thank you all so much.
If there's a topic that wedidn't touch on today that you
were hoping that maybe we wouldtalk about, we encourage you to
maybe check out some of ourother episodes.
We do.
A lot of guests as well, andmany of them have booths here,
have been walking around, sothere may be someone interesting
(42:23):
that you might want or anothertopic that you might be
interested in, so encourage that.
And we will also be hanging outafter the podcast.
Interested in?
So encourage that and we willalso be hanging out after the
podcast.
So please come say hi, and wehave stickers and would love to
meet you.
So thank you all so much and wehope to see you again soon.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Thanks for listening to this episode recorded live at
Seek Miss the conference, orwant to relive your favorite
moments?
Seek Replay has you coveredAccess, powerful keynotes,
inspiring talks and exclusivecontent to take your faith
deeper, anytime, anywhere.
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now, and
(43:09):
don't forget to join us for Seek26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
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