October 7, 2024 • 49 mins
Are you feeling stuck in your TA career? Dr. Jasmine Escalera reveals how to reinvent yourself without burning it all down.
Dr. Jasmine Escalera is a certified career and life coach with a PhD in Neuropharmacology. She's the founder of The Courage Crew, the only free online community dedicated to supporting women in reinventing their personal and professional lives.
In this conversation, Rhona and Dr. Jasmine discuss topics such as the misconceptions about career reinvention, how to overcome burnout in talent acquisition, redefining success metrics for TA professionals, the power of micro-changes in your career, and practical strategies for pushing beyond your comfort zone. They also explore the importance of aligning your career with your values and how to build resilience in the face of industry challenges.
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//TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 INTRODUCTION
02:15 Jasmine’s Reinvention Journey
06:02 Breaking Toxic Patterns
12:33 Navigating Burnout in HR
18:12 Mindset Shifts for Transformation
24:08 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Change
30:49 Redefining Success on Your Own Terms
48:00 Brain.fm Science-backed music for your brain
****
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rhona Pierce (00:01):
When burnout and frustration become part of daily
life, whether it's from a longjob search, multiple layoffs, or
toxic work environments, burningit all down might feel like the
only option. But what ifreinvention didn't have to be so
chaotic?
Jasmine Escalera (00:17):
Reinvention does not have to look like that.
It's really about identifying ananchor point in your life, a
point or a thing in your lifethat if you transformed that
area, it would essentially havea ripple effect, and it would
create change throughout yourentire life.
Rhona Pierce (00:35):
That's doctor Jasmine Escalada, the queen of
reinvention herself. She helpswomen break out of toxic work
cycles and realign their careerswith what truly matters. In
today's episode, she's sharingher exact process for how you
can create lasting, meaningfulchange without the chaos. We
(00:57):
spoke about how to break out oftoxic patterns, mindset shifts
to unlock reinvention, regainingcontrol to avoid burnout, and
how to redefine success on yourown terms. Whether you're
navigating a long job search,recovering from multiple
layoffs, carrying the weight ofthe world on your shoulders as
(01:19):
an HR team of 1, or wanting tolearn how to set better
boundaries at work, grab anotebook because this episode is
filled with actionable adviceyou can start implementing
today.
Let's dive in to my conversationwith Jasmine. I am so happy to
be joined by the queen ofreinvention herself, Jasmine.
(01:41):
Thank you so much for being onthe show today.
Jasmine Escalera (01:44):
Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. We have
been in each other's fear onLinkedIn for so many years. I
mean, I think since I firststarted coaching, I've been
following you and, respectively,you've been following me. So
it's always great to just seeyou and to be here with you.
It's wonderful.
Rhona Pierce (02:02):
Yeah. It's always amazing, and I always love I
love all of my guests, but Ialways love when I have to when
I get to have friends or peopleI've known for years on the
podcast.
Jasmine Escalera (02:12):
I know. That's always so fun.
Rhona Pierce (02:15):
So I know your story, and I know that, like me,
you have lots of pivotsthroughout your life. Mhmm. What
made you decide to focus onreinvention?
Jasmine Escalera (02:27):
Yeah. It's kind of a whirlwind of a story
because I was career coaching,specifically career coaching,
job search coaching for quite afew years. And I felt as though
I had lost the love for it in away, and I was still doing it. I
was still having immense impactwith so many women, helping them
(02:48):
to find positions, helping themto find their passion and
purpose within their career. ButI I felt like I needed to listen
more to myself and createsomething that I think was a
little bit more hard aligned.
I feel like in business, one ofthe things that sometimes can
trick us a little bit is, youknow, you follow these business
(03:09):
leaders on Instagram, on onLinkedIn, and they talk about
these major milestones, youknow, not just the 10 k month,
but now we're talking about the100 k month. And I think we can
get lost in that shuffle a lotand forget that the reason why
we created a business was togive us freedom and flexibility
and to honor that internal voiceand passion that we have and
(03:32):
bring it to the world. And so Iwas very passionate about career
coaching, but I felt like I wasso now far removed from the
corporate world. And I hadchanged, like, so much of myself
had changed. So I wanted tofocus on reinvention because
when I asked myself, what am Ireally passionate about?
What I was passionate about washelping women to honor their
(03:54):
internal voice, listen to theirinternal voice, and start to
make decisions that more closelyaligned with not just the woman
they wanted to become, but thelife that they wanted to create.
And I wanted to help women startto prioritize themselves and
their goals. And to see thatreinvention, although a very
(04:15):
roller coaster ride of a journeybecause you are breaking down
limiting beliefs, you aretapping into old belief systems,
you are healing, You don't haveto go through that alone, and it
doesn't have to be a struggle.So reinvention coaching for me
was to pivot into something thatwas more heart aligned, but also
to go back to the root of why Istarted this business, which was
(04:37):
to create a service thatconnected to to my heart.
Rhona Pierce (04:41):
I love that. And I know also as a business owner
that once you get to that pointwhere you're not feeling it,
where your heart isn't in it,like, that comes through,
especially us who we createcontent as part of our business
strategy, business developmentstrategy. Like, you can just
start feeling it. And as soon asI start feeling it, it's like,
(05:04):
oh.
Jasmine Escalera (05:04):
Yeah. Yeah. The energy bleeds into the
content. It bleeds into themarketing, and you show up for
your clients because, obviously,you care so much about them and
their transformation, but it itends up showing up in other
places. Like, I just didn't feelas though I was as happy in my
life as when I had first startedmy business.
And I was really questioning ifI'm working this hard and doing
(05:28):
something that I'm not enjoyingas much, did I essentially just
recreate my career, you know,where I was working I was the
workhorse and I was putting inthe hours, but I wasn't happy
doing the thing that I wasdoing.
Rhona Pierce (05:40):
Yeah. So when people hear the word
reinvention, at least I know meat first, I think, okay, burn it
all down. Let's start over withsomething drastic and start
Jasmine Escalera (05:54):
from scratch.
Rhona Pierce (05:55):
Is that really what reinvention means?
Jasmine Escalera (05:58):
You know, it's so interesting. I love that
you're asking this questionbecause at first, reinvention
was that for me. And what Irecognized and noticed going
through many healing journeyswas that I was actually very
addicted to chaos and scarcity,and I was incredibly addicted to
(06:19):
fixing things. I grew up in theprojects in Brooklyn. We're
fairly, you know, we're fairlypoor.
We didn't have much. And so Iwas really used to living in
chaotic family systems andchaotic structures and chaotic
communities and with barely, youknow, anything to get by. So
when I first started reallytransforming myself, the way
(06:41):
that I did it was I would throwfreaking bombs in my life. You
know? And I would wait to fallto a rock bottom before I
finally said to myself, like, Ihave to change.
But reinvention does not have tolook like that. And in fact, the
way I teach it with with mycommunity, with the courage
crew, is it's really aboutidentifying an anchor point in
(07:03):
your life. A point or a thing inyour life that if you
transformed that area, it wouldessentially have a ripple
effect, and it would createchange throughout your entire
life. So, for example, if youreally want to be able to create
this thing called generationalwealth, you wanna get out of
debt, you wanna start to reallycreate investments for yourself,
(07:25):
You may step back and askyourself, well, where am I gonna
generate this money from? And,traditionally, it's through your
9 to 5.
So the focal point for thatindividual would be to really
build the courage, theconfidence, the strategy to
reinvent within their career tocreate or generate additional
income so that they have thedisposable income to then create
that generational wealth. So Ilike to really work with my
(07:48):
clients to understand, like, ifwe change one area of your life,
how could that essentially thenjust have a ripple effect for
other areas that naturally youstart to feel transformation so
that it doesn't have to be likewhat I used to do, which is like
boom boom boom
Rhona Pierce (08:03):
blow it all
Jasmine Escalera (08:03):
up. It can be something that really you are
thoughtful around, you'restrategic around, and you love
yourself through the process.You don't have to hurt yourself
through the process.
Rhona Pierce (08:15):
I like that you mentioned the whole addiction to
chaos and scarcity. I I identifywith that. A lot of the pivots
that I've done have been, like,burn it all down Yeah. Start
over type thing. How does thatmanifest for people who are
working a traditional 9 to 5,not necessarily business owners
(08:37):
like you and I?
Jasmine Escalera (08:39):
Mhmm. You mean, how does it how does it
manifest in terms of thetransformation? Or
Rhona Pierce (08:45):
in terms of, like yeah. Like, how do you see your
people, like clients that you'veworked with, who work a
traditional 9 to 5, who areMhmm. Burning it all down even
though it doesn't look like,okay. I'm starting a new
business. How does it look for a9 to 5 person?
Jasmine Escalera (09:00):
Yeah. So reinvention in a 9 to 5, a lot
of times for the women that Iwork with. Traditionally, I've
worked with women of color. I'veworked with women who have come
up in the career world and hadhad a lot of barriers towards
growing and growth and gettingto the place that they wanted to
be. So for a lot of my clients,reinvention actually is starting
(09:21):
with the rebuilding of theirmindset and the rebuilding of
their confidence after toxicworkplaces, after feeling like
you haven't been listened to,after feeling like you couldn't
speak up or be your authenticself in the workplace.
And I tend to believe thatmindset truly is the foundation
to anything, includingreinvention. So what I like to
(09:43):
do with my clients is we wannatake bold, courageous action
towards having the life that youdeserve. But bold, courageous
action means that you reallyhave to take action. You have to
be bold, and you have to becourageous. And that starts with
you believing that you have thecapacity to create the life you
want, believing that you deservethat life, and then really
(10:05):
believing that you can do it.
And so a lot of times, thefoundation, whether it's a 9 to
5, whether it's starting abusiness is always the mindset.
So with the women that I workwith in their career, a lot of
times it's about learning how tobring that confident version of
themselves into the workplace sothat it can have that trickle
(10:25):
effect into, I'm now increasingmy visibility in the space. I'm
now bragging about myself. I'mnow promoting myself. I'm now
asking for promotions.
I'm now really getting that payraise, or I'm not gonna tolerate
this BS anymore. I'm gonna finda work environment and just an
environment and culture ingeneral that's going to accept
(10:45):
who I am. So I think for a 9 to5 or and for anyone who's
undergoing reinvention, thenumber one thing is really to
ask yourself, what am I tryingto create? And before I try to
take any actions towardscreating that, what are
essentially the limiting beliefsor the negative thoughts that I
have towards even the creationof that? Because you can
(11:07):
implement a strategy, but you'renot gonna implement it
effectively if you don't have100% belief in it.
Now that doesn't mean that youcan't take action while creating
belief, and that's somethingthat I had to learn as well is
that I can build a businesswhile both starting to continue
to believe I can build abusiness. But you have to start
(11:29):
the process of belief.
Rhona Pierce (11:31):
Yeah. It's really all about the mindset. And I
know for my listeners and theaudience that that typically
follows my content, we usuallywork in TA and HR, which are are
roles where you're, like, takingcare of the company. It's about
people. It's about taking careof everyone else.
(11:51):
And I've seen, at least in mylife, when I was an employee, it
manifest as, like, I would go tofrom company to company, and I
would, like, go to the companieswith the biggest problems, like
red flag alert in theinterviews. I knew this was a
hot mess, and I was thinking, Ican fix this. I can come in here
(12:12):
and fix this. And, like, after awhile, you just, like, go chase
and chase that, and it's like,yeah, you get more money, you
get everything, but you yourselfstart feeling, like, the burnout
and the, like, the stress ofeveryone else's issues. Have you
worked with many people who havemanifested, like, the the whole,
(12:32):
like, burning it all down meansgoing to something that looks
shiny and new, but in the end,it's exactly the same thing you
were just running away from?
Jasmine Escalera (12:43):
Yeah. So there's so much to say here.
First off, within talent and HR,I don't think we really talk
enough about burnout for HRleaders, executives, managers,
people in that space. Theburnout is real. The trauma is
also real.
I've worked with people in HRwho are seriously have PTSD from
(13:05):
some of the experiences thatthey've had to go through change
management, laying people off. Imean, that's traumatic, you
know, to be the one in charge ofsomething like that. So I don't
think we talk enough about theburnout that HR executives and
talent acquisition executives,all of the leaders, anyone in
that space is really feeling ona day to day basis. So if you
(13:28):
are in TA, if you are in HR,please know that I I am sending
you so many flowers right nowbecause, I mean, you're right.
These are individuals who holdup organizations and typically
don't get, like, recognized forwhat they do.
I think that in in that specificspace too, you are kind of
chasing the organizations thatare a hot mess because that
(13:51):
means that you can go in thereand you can help. And
essentially, that's what you'rethere to do. Yes. So it's a
challenge here. So one of thethings that I recognized in my
own journey, and then thisbecame something that I very I
was very hard at teaching.
Like, I I wanted this to be amajor point for everyone. I
(14:11):
posted on this on LinkedIn. Thehardest position to start after
a traumatic position, after atoxic work environment, the
hardest position to start is thenew position. Right? And the
reason for that is becauseoftentimes, we are running from
one thing and we run right intothe arms of the exact same
thing.
(14:31):
And so there's a lot ofprocessing that has to happen
between you leaving thatposition and you stepping into
the next one. And a lot of ithas to happen before you even
accept that role. You have toreally identify what is it that
that company or organization didnot provide to me? What is it
that I truly need? Who do Iwanna be in this next
(14:55):
organization?
And then a tough one is, like,what am I gonna leave behind?
And if you're doing thatreflection in that middle
ground, right, like, as you'researching for the new position,
it essentially helps you toidentify the right
organizations. What I love to dowith my clients is I love for
them to map out what do theywanna see, not just in their
(15:17):
next role and position, butwithin their next organization
and within their next leader.And then to craft interview
questions that are specificallybased on those things. And so it
almost kind of allows you to dothis reflective exercise, but
then map that out so that thequestions that you're asking
during interviews are reallythoughtful around what you want
(15:40):
and what you don't wanna everencounter again based off of
your past experiences.
Now, everyone always ask me,well, you know, I could get in
this job, like, how do youreally know, like, a 100%
certainty? You don't. Right? Youdon't know with a 100%
certainty. But I can tell youthat with thoughtfulness, with
reflection, and with the courageto ask the right questions, you
(16:02):
are limiting statistically thepossibility of you starting the
cycle again.
Because really what I trulybelieve from a spiritual
standpoint is that you willcontinue to be in the pattern in
the cycle until you change it.Right? And that often requires
(16:24):
us taking a step back,recognizing the pattern which
very many of us do but thenactioning on changing the
pattern. And that's where wesometimes fall short.
Rhona Pierce (16:35):
I love that. I love the whole, yeah, we know
the pattern. We we just we knowit. But recognizing and taking
the action to me is like, okay.I see this happening.
This is what I'm going to do toget out of it. That all starts
with you shifting your mindset.
Jasmine Escalera (16:50):
Absolutely.
Rhona Pierce (16:51):
Burnout can be so draining. Yeah. What's your go
to strategy for helping people,like, rediscover their spark and
their purpose and their passion,especially after toxic
workplaces or long job searches,layoffs, things like that?
Jasmine Escalera (17:08):
Yeah. It's so interesting because burnout is a
really interesting one because,you know, I work and I'm sure
you do too, quite a lot on mybusiness. Right? I have never
experienced burnout unless I wasdoing something that wasn't
aligned with the purpose of whyI started this thing. And so,
(17:30):
burnout can have a variety ofdifferent factors.
I think there's an internalfactor, meaning, I am not
aligned with the purpose of mylife, my soul, my intention, my
career, whatever that is. I'mjust completely out of
alignment. And so I'm workingharder thinking that that's
gonna make it feel better whenit actually has the counter
(17:51):
effect. So there's that internalcomponent where if you're
experiencing burnout, it couldquite possibly be that that's a
signal that you're just out ofalignment and that requires you
to do that internal work oflike, am I in the right work
environment? Am I in in theright space?
Am I in the right business?Which was something that I had
to ask myself. Then there's theexternal component. Right? The
(18:14):
external component is you happento be in an organization where
burnout culture is just, that'sjust what it is and that's the
norm.
But you also have control ofthat too. Right? So I always
want for people to understandthat you have control over your
circumstances. You have controlover where you are. You may not
(18:35):
be able to throw up the deucesand quit this job today because
financially, that's not withinthe cards for you.
But you do have the capacity todo the things that I'm sure you
and so many of your guests havetalked about, the networking,
the starting the resume, thegetting things started. And I
can tell you that when you takeyour power back and when you
take your control back and whenyou really stand in that, I'm
(18:59):
not allowing this to happen tome anymore, the power that you
take back helps you to startsetting those boundaries. Right?
Because oftentimes, people willhave a hard time setting the
boundaries and saying no, butit's because you haven't made
the affirmation yet that this isno longer in service of you.
Once you finally tell yourself,this is no longer in service of
(19:22):
me and I am not gonna let ithappen, the boundaries just
naturally start to unfold.
So I think burnout really doesyou have to look at it from
those two kinds of lenses areof, you know, are you doing what
you are aligned or what you aresupposed to do? And then
externally, are you in the rightspaces? You know? Or are these
(19:43):
environments just essentiallytriggering you to start to work
too much, to do too much, andthat's causing you the burnout?
Rhona Pierce (19:51):
Yeah. Yeah. I can see as you're talking, I can see
so many examples and remember somany times because even when
it's not a job search, even whenit's not after a layoff, just
regular day to day of being a TAprofessional, you're working
with different hiring managers.You're working with different
candidates. All the pressure,all the expectations, usually
(20:15):
budget.
I always say budget is a triggerword for anyone in TA or HR
because we usually have nobudget, but we're expected to do
so much. So burnout creeps inreally quick if you don't know
how to set those boundaries. Ifit's like, great. You want me to
do all of these things. You'realso not giving me the money to
do all of these things, andthat's fine.
(20:37):
We don't have the money. This iswhat you're gonna get type of
thing. Those conversations arethe ones that help you not get
into that stress and thatburnout and that, like, let me
go burn this all down and startover somewhere else and do the
exact same thing.
Jasmine Escalera (20:54):
Yeah. And, you know, the career space is a
tricky one, I have to say.Because when you think about the
career environment, right, like,it would be it would be awesome
for us to all be able to say,like, no. I mean, this is how
much you pay me and this is howmuch you're gonna get out of me.
And I'm sorry, there's just noother thing that's gonna happen.
But the career space ischallenging because the career
(21:16):
space is is actually tied toyour your livelihood. So you get
paid to work, and when you getpaid, you then pay your rent,
you pay your food, you pay yourtaxes, you pay all the other
things. This is a tricky spaceto navigate because it can be
really challenging for people tosee themselves taking that
(21:38):
stance when essentially theirlivelihood is actually connected
to this position. And, if youare someone who is triggered
around money, so you grew up inscarcity or you didn't have
financial safety or financialsecurity or stability. Now
you're going into ingrained verydeep trauma around money.
(22:01):
And so it is a very tricky one,the career space, and I think
it's that's why we sometimes,you know, have clients or
friends or people or women orpeople we know who were like,
come on. Just stand up foryourself. But it just it's a
really one hard one to navigate.
Rhona Pierce (22:20):
Yeah. What are some of the biggest fears or
obstacles that people face whenthey're considering reinvention?
Jasmine Escalera (22:28):
I think the biggest one is when you decide
to change and reinvent yourlife, when you decide to walk a
different path, there's a lot ofhealing involved in that, like,
a lot of healing. You have tothe reason why we are walking
the path that we're on right nowis because it's comfortable and
it's safe. And if it'scomfortable and it's safe, that
(22:50):
means essentially your brain,your biological system,
everything is like, why would weever change? You're alive.
You're eating.
You're paying your bills. You'redoing fine. There's no need for
us to go through this thingcalled reinvention. Like, why
would we ever do that? So you'refighting biological systems, but
then you're also fighting yourmind.
(23:11):
Right? So you're fighting yourbody, which is used to doing
things in a certain way andhaving a certain chemical
balance, and you're fightingyour mind, which is used to
thinking a certain way. Sothere's a lot of healing.
There's a lot of breaking downold belief systems. Reinvention
also, which is something that noone told me about, but I figured
(23:33):
it out through the process iscan sometimes be very lonely.
Because when you start to shedall of those old belief systems
and you start to say that lifeis no longer in service of me,
I'm gonna go out and seek theone that is. Well, there's a lot
of people who are not gonna goon that journey with you. And
even people who you can't justrelease and let go of, like
(23:55):
family members, thatrelationship is gonna change,
and it's gonna look different.And so there's a lot of, like,
shifting that has to happen inreinvention. And it can
sometimes feel a little lonely.
It can definitely feel prettyuncomfortable. And so knowing
that is, I think, reallyimportant. It doesn't mean not
(24:15):
to not do it. Actually, I thinkthe best thing that ever
happened in my life was goingthrough multiple reinventions
because the calmness, the peace,the freedom that I have in
myself, I wouldn't trade thisfor the world. But it does
require that level of work.
And what I always tellindividuals is during every
reinvention, there was always apoint where I was just so sad.
(24:38):
And it was because with growthcomes grief. You have to grieve
the version of you that you arechanging. You have to grieve the
people that you are releasing.You have to grieve so much, and
it's almost kind of like yourbody is just going through a
process.
But growth is always on theother side. So when I find
(24:59):
myself getting stuck in thisplace of grief, I always know
I'm on my path to some reallybeautiful change.
Rhona Pierce (25:06):
Is there any specific, like, things that you
do to overcome these fears?Because no one likes feeling
uncomfortable.
Jasmine Escalera (25:16):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (25:16):
But we know we all know, like, if I do this, if I
get out of my comfort zone,there's change, there's growth
on the other side. But still,like you said, our body is
comfortable. Our brain tells us,why are you doing this? Are you
why are you wanting to beuncomfortable? Is there anything
that you do?
Any, like, tactical things orany specific things that you do
(25:37):
to, like, overcome that.
Jasmine Escalera (25:39):
I think there are 2 really great things to
consider and one is activators.So we often scroll through
Instagram and we look at whatother people have and we get
this trigger envy or jealousyresponse. Right? I always like
to look at what other peoplehave as a way to activate myself
(25:59):
to possibility. And so when Isee things, I always ask myself,
do I want it?
You know, do I want this? How doI get it? What can I achieve?
How do they do it? How can Italk to them?
How can I find someone who didit? So, I think it's one part is
finding activators, findingpeople who show you what's
possible when you get to theother side because it gives you
(26:20):
something to anchor into. Onething that I realized is that
because I was so used to livingin scarcity, when you're in
scarcity, your create thecreative side of your brain just
shuts off because there's nocreativity in scarcity. And so,
if you're going through areinvention, you're going
through these feelings, you'rechanging your life, the creative
(26:43):
part of your brain mightactually start to shut down. And
so what you wanna do is youwanna find creativity.
You wanna dream. You wanna openup yourself to exploration, not
your your shut yourself down toit. So finding individuals who
have what you want to create,and they don't have to be people
that, you know, are right inyour vicinity. I didn't have any
(27:04):
of those. You know, I didn'thave people who had what I
wanted in my space.
I found them through LinkedIn. Ifound them through Instagram. I
found them through other means.So I think that's one thing
because that helps you activatethat creative side, that
innovative side, that visioningside, that dreamer side. And
then I think the other part isof it is very often, I would go
(27:25):
through these things by myselfbecause I didn't understand what
I was going through, and so Iwas doing it alone a lot.
And what I always tell people isthat there are so many people
out there creating the life thatthey wanna create and having
that sense of community, thosesupporters, those cheerleaders
who are gonna help you in thosemoments where you're like, I'm
(27:46):
really feeling it today. That'sanother really great thing to
have. So I would say findingpeople who can activate that
part of your brain that helpsyou see possibility and then
getting that support. Right?That tangible, like, you're
gonna do this.
You're gonna make it through isalso incredibly, incredibly
helpful.
Rhona Pierce (28:05):
That's why I love what you're doing with your
community, and I love that it'sfree because you're surrounded
by people who are wanting to gothrough this. They're actively
going through this change, thisfree invention period. So being
surrounded by other people whoare doing it can help you
because I know when I'm goingthrough those periods, my brain
(28:27):
tells me at times, like, you'redelusional. You're never gonna
get that. It's like, oh, yes.
I am delusional, and I will bedelusional until I get exactly
what I want because this otherperson has it too.
Jasmine Escalera (28:39):
Yeah. No. I mean, I I I use that exact same
word. I mean, I wake up everysingle day and I tell myself I'm
a multimillionaire. My bankaccount does not agree.
But there is that part where youhave to anchor into the delusion
because on the other side is thereality. Right? So it's current
state, delusional state, andthen reality. You have to sit in
(29:03):
that middle ground. And thatmiddle ground is a very
important moment because if it'snot happening and, you know, in
this in this day and age, wewant everything to happen
yesterday.
We want it on Amazon Prime Time.So it's not gonna happen like
that typically, but it's gonnahappen. But that delusional
state is where you can falterback. And I think, one thing for
(29:27):
everyone to know is it's okay ifyou do. Right?
Like, I think that reinventionand transformation is a daily
process. And there are gonna bepoints during the day where
you're gonna have it. You'regonna feel powerful. You're
gonna feel strong. You're gonnafeel like the delusion is your
reality, and then there aregonna be moments where you
(29:47):
don't.
There are gonna be days whereyou falter, but always wake up
the next day and just restart.It's okay. Like, there's there's
nothing wrong with it. So thatmiddle delusional time is really
the time where you have toanchor in, but also know that
it's okay if you falter becauseyou know how to get back up.
Right?
You always know how to get backup. You have the strategies. You
(30:10):
have the toolset. You can do it.
Rhona Pierce (30:12):
Taking gears a bit, I know sometimes it's hard
for TA professionals to, like,let go of traditional success
metrics. Right? We've all beentold, go in, get this job, do
this, 401 k, all of that. Right?How can we redefine success on
our own terms?
Oh, lord. Oh my gosh.
Jasmine Escalera (30:33):
This is a a big one because I tell you,
like, there was a moment in mylife and I I can really remember
it and it's it's a tough one forme because there was a moment in
my life where I realized thateverything I was told was a lie.
Like, every single thing that Iwas taught was a freaking lie.
And, you know, my parents toldme, get the 6 figure job, the
(30:55):
401 k, you're gonna be set forlife. I was traumatized on a
daily basis. I was so unhappy.
I was just experiencingtremendous lows to the point
where I never checked myself in,but I'm pretty sure I was an
alcoholic because I there was noI couldn't handle it. Like, I
just couldn't. You know, theytold me get married, you have a
(31:17):
husband, you'll be safe, you'llbe secure. I was in a not good
marriage and I was miserable inthat too. So there was just this
point where every single thingthat everyone told me to do to
have this safe, secure, andstable life was just a facade
and it was just so fake.
And I just that was one of thehardest moments in my life
(31:41):
because then it was, you know, Iwasn't I wasn't a child. So, it
wasn't like someone could couldsay to me, like, Jasmine, this
is actually the path. Like, thisis the way you walk. I was an
adult. I had to figure it outmyself.
And that was a challenging placeto be because I was like, well,
if it isn't this, then what inthe hell could it possibly be?
(32:01):
What I had to really do was wasevery single day just tell
myself, I don't know. I don'tknow what it is, but I'm gonna
wake up today and I'm gonnacollect experiences. I'm gonna
try some things. I'm gonna talkto some people.
And at the end of the day, I'mjust gonna sit down and
reassess. What did I hear that Iliked? What did I hear that I
didn't like? You know, how am Iliving that I'm enjoying? How am
(32:24):
I living that I'm not enjoying?
And just really come face toface with the lie. And, I think
that's the biggest thing iscreating what success means to
you, you don't actually have tohave the definition. Like, it
doesn't have to be defined. Infact, all you have to do is just
(32:45):
say, well, this isn't it. I knowthat.
Like, for confirmation, this isnot it. Then all you have to do
is say, well, if this isn't it,then what can I do to just have
experiences? You know, peopleask me a lot, like, how do I
find my purpose? I think yourpurpose in life is just to give
(33:05):
yourself a shot and haveexperiences, like, just every
single day to give yourself ashot and have experiences. And
then through those experiences,assessing and asking yourself,
what's the next thing I wanna door try?
What's the next experience Iwould like to have? What's the
next thing I would like to justkind of give myself a shot at? I
(33:26):
think purpose is really aboutcollecting experiences and
knowledge of self to help youreally figure out what the next
step is. So it's the same withsuccess where it's like you
don't have to you don't have tohave it defined today. You just
have to know that that's not it.
You don't want that anymore. I'mcommitting to making change and
change just means opening myselfup to experiences and
(33:49):
possibility. Alright. What doesthat look like? Maybe I can have
a few combos with people.
I always thought maybe I wouldtry that. Let me see what that's
about. So it's just thisbeautiful research phase, but
people are really scared to bein that phase because as humans,
we need to have anchors. We needto have control. We need to know
what's next because uncertaintybiologically triggers a lot of
things within us that equalpotential death, and we don't
(34:13):
want that.
So if we can just realize thatour body is just going through a
biological mechanism and it'snot real, we are safe, we are
okay, and we can explore, wewill allow ourselves to do that.
Rhona Pierce (34:25):
Like you said, I mean, maintaining stability and
security and not activating thatdanger zone danger zone you're
about to end of the world typething is important for us as
humans. Can you share anypractical tips or any practical
steps that you can take? Like,yeah, you're wanting to do the
change. You're going to redefinesuccess. You're you're defining
(34:48):
this for you, but in the on theway there, how can you, like
Yeah.
Jasmine Escalera (34:52):
Balance and maintain that? Yeah. So there's
a few different things here. Soone thing is I'm a firm believer
in that internally, wetraditionally know what we want
to try. Like, because we weusually have that internal voice
that's telling us, like, youknow, or pointing you in a
direction.
It's that traditionally, we'rejust not listening to it or we
(35:15):
listen to it for a second andthen those fear mechanisms pop
in of, like, well, how do wemake that happen? And then we
just shut it off. So really,what it's about is it's almost
kinda like you're wearing, like,dirty goggles or dirty glasses.
You just have to start, like,desmudging your glasses so you
can see a little bit more. Andoftentimes, the desmudging
(35:36):
process really is aboutlistening to the internal
component of yourself.
It's also about digging intolike my life thus far in this
area of life, my career forexample. What have I enjoyed?
What have I not enjoyed? Whatwould I like to do or try next?
What kinds of experiences wouldI like to have?
What am I interested in learningmore about? And going through
(35:57):
that research and explorationphase. So many people are like,
I don't have time for that. Blahblah blah. Look, you can stay on
the path that you're on for thenext 30 years.
How do you think that's gonnafeel? I don't think that's gonna
feel so good. So even spending afew day a few minutes a day
doing this kind of reflection100% gets you to the space of
(36:18):
where you need to go. So in thecourage crew, we have a 30 day
challenge where we do exactlythis, where it's like set a
goal. And for 30 days, you'regonna spend a few minutes every
single day working towards thatbecause we deserve that.
But then there's also, like, onthe path, you were kinda
mentioning the biologicalcomponent. Right? Like, you're
gonna get triggered. You'regoing to experience discomfort.
(36:42):
And that's really about leaninginto mechanisms that help your
mindset and your nervous systemto relax.
So, you know, doing things likejournaling which is a baseline
wonderful practice for everyoneto do. Doing things like breath
work, doing things like taking awalk in the middle of the day
when you start to feel a littlebit stressed and just letting
(37:04):
your mind wander. You know,everybody kinda kinda like laugh
at these things, but it's likethey really help. So I think you
have to have the tacticalprocesses to help you go through
this moment, but you also haveto have the grounding processes.
And I won't call them mindfulprocesses, just grounding
processes to get you back toyou.
(37:26):
Because when you are triggered,you're just moving a little bit
further away from your bestself. So these processes just
help you move closer to thatrepresentation of you.
Rhona Pierce (37:37):
Yeah. And and I love that you you mentioned the
practical things like journalingand the breath work and walking.
I mean, I just I rediscoveredwalking Yeah. Last year because,
you know, just like me, you're aCrossFitter.
Jasmine Escalera (37:50):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (37:51):
And I love CrossFit, and I I try to go
every day. And that's a greatstress reliever. But walking
Yeah. Really, I just found it tobe, like, so peaceful. And
depending on how activated my mystress is at the moment,
sometimes I walk and listen to apodcast.
Sometimes I walk and listen to Ilike Brain FM. Anyone who's
(38:13):
heard my podcast knows I'vespoken about Brain FM, which is
like music, scientific music to,like, help you Yeah. Either
focus or de stress. Butsometimes, I just love walking
and listening to what'shappening around me.
Jasmine Escalera (38:28):
I think that's the best. I really do. And
sometimes I forget how powerfulit is because I usually always
put podcast, you know, like,podcast or music or a walking
meditation. And in those momentswhen I put nothing in my ears
and I'm just walking, I findthat I get more calm and
centered just doing that becausethe natural sounds of nature. I
(38:51):
mean, I live in a city, so it'sit depends on what what's around
me at that time.
But the natural sounds ofnature, like, when I walk on the
beach, like, that's a wholeanother experience. But that can
be really soothing. And thereare great walking meditations
that I've tapped into recentlythat are so incredibly helpful,
you know, in terms of justhelping you to regulate your
nervous system, but alsoconnecting you to who is that
(39:15):
highest version of you that youwanna really connect to right
now. So, yeah, I think those aregreat practices. And CrossFit
also is definitely a stressrelief for me.
Rhona Pierce (39:26):
Yeah. I I think CrossFit is so challenging.
Like, every day it's somethingnew new. You don't have time to
be comfortable while you'rethere. You just have time to
focus on, like, how am I goingto survive this workout and do
this right now?
Jasmine Escalera (39:43):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's really great
because I I do believe that themore you can make yourself
uncomfortable, and it doesn'tmatter in what space. It kind of
very similar to, like, what Iwas talking about earlier in the
episode about the ripple effect.Right?
If you work on your strength, ifyou work on getting out of your
(40:03):
comfort zone, if you work on,you know, stressing the body in
a healthy way, right, a healthyway in one area, you naturally
start to just move a little bitdifferently in another. And I
think that's the power ofexercise no matter what it is,
is that you really do start to,like, change your personality to
(40:25):
be more confident doing it. So,it's great. Perfect.
Rhona Pierce (40:28):
So this has been an awesome conversation. How can
listeners connect with you?
Jasmine Escalera (40:34):
Yeah. So I, you know, I'm beyond the
LinkedIn streets all the time.
Rhona Pierce (40:38):
That's where I feel like
Jasmine Escalera (40:39):
I mostly am. You can definitely connect with
me on LinkedIn. I post about theCourage Crew pretty much daily,
but if you wanna link to jointhe Courage Crew, you have any
questions for me about it,please definitely hit me up. The
Courage Crew is the only freeonline community for women who
are undergoing a reinvention,and the whole goal of that is to
(41:00):
provide community and a spacefor you to do this without
feeling like you have to do italone. It's just a wonderful
support system for anyone who'sinterested in doing this.
So, definitely hit me up there,and I would love to see you in
the crew.
Rhona Pierce (41:15):
Cool. Any last things? Anything that I didn't
ask that you think is importantfor someone considering or going
through reinvention to know?Well, I have a question for you,
actually, if you don't mind.Sure.
Jasmine Escalera (41:27):
I would love to know what what is one of the
most powerful lessons thatyou've learned in one of your
biggest reinventions? Because Iknow through our personal
conversations, I've followed youin the last few years, go
through a lot of change and alot of transformation. And so
I'm curious to know throughthose moments, like, what was
the biggest lesson thatreinvention taught you?
Rhona Pierce (41:50):
That is an amazing question. I think the biggest
lesson really is knowing that Ican do it, knowing that no
matter what, I'm going to beokay. Because even when I felt
and I'm going through areinvention right now. I just
launched a new service. It's thescariest thing I've ever done.
It's like I know I have thisamount of money in the bank
(42:13):
account and if I don't make ithappen in this amount of time
Mhmm. Something's gonna happenthat something's most likely
means I'll go get a job. I don'tknow whatever like but I know
because of everything that nomatter what
Jasmine Escalera (42:28):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (42:29):
I'm going to be okay.
Jasmine Escalera (42:32):
How did you I mean, now I'm turning the
podcast episode on.
Rhona Pierce (42:35):
That's fine.
Jasmine Escalera (42:36):
But how do you think you developed that
mindset? Because that's youknow, I didn't have that in the
earlier phase of my life. Right?That came through tremendous
trials and tribulation where Ithen was reflecting on, like,
damn, Jasmine. Like, you you gotyou.
No matter what, you got you. Butwhere do you think that sort of
(42:57):
resilience and mindset of, like,I will always be okay? Like, how
did that come about for you?
Rhona Pierce (43:03):
I think that comes from really reflecting and
looking back. I've gone in thepast couple of years since 2016.
I've gone through 4 layoffs.None of them have been any
performance related or anything.It's either the company shut
down, ran out of money, thingslike that.
So you put all into things likethat, and then you go through
(43:27):
these periods and you stillthink, like, what could I have
done better? Like, company shutdown. That has nothing to do
with me, But you still gothrough that. But then when you
get out of that period and youlook back, you're like, even
though I was scared, even thoughI was trying to find my what I
did or what I could have donebetter, You are so strong and I
(43:51):
just I like writing things downand looking back to how I was
feeling in that period. And whenI'm on the other side, I look
back and think, wow.
Yeah. You did that.
Jasmine Escalera (44:03):
Such a powerful exercise. It's one that
I tell my clients to do all thetime, like, when did you feel
the most confident? When did youfeel like you overcame the
biggest, you know, trial ortribulation in your life?
Because that's essentially whatshows you who you truly are.
Right?
My clients sometimes tell me,like, I'm going through a really
hard time. I wish I wasn't goingthrough this. But the hard times
(44:26):
are what shows you who you trulyare. That's what builds your
character. And it's not to saythat we don't all wanna be in
those good soft wonderfulmoments, but you don't really
appreciate the good unlessyou've gone through the fire.
Right? Like, you have to knowwhat good really means. And good
(44:48):
really means something specialwhen you have a journey like
yours. And it's not to say thatwe want to go through those
journeys, but those are thejourneys that truly make us who
we are. So I know I think that'sbeautiful.
Thank you so much forentertaining my questions.
Rhona Pierce (45:02):
Of course. No. I love this. I might make this
part of the podcast. Like, doyou have any questions for me?
You
Jasmine Escalera (45:08):
should because there's such a you know, I I
think you have such an amazingwealth of knowledge. I have seen
you go through journeys. I knowyour story. I mean, when I first
met you, you were helping peopledo video resumes, and video
resumes were not even a freakingthing. And now we're talking
about this all the time abouthow you have to do video and
(45:29):
blah blah blah.
You were a pioneer, so youshould for sure have people ask
you questions.
Rhona Pierce (45:36):
That's so interesting. I'm back to video
now, not video resumes, but I'mhelping my fellow TA people and
HR people really create videocontent. And I've done it in a
way that I think is although I'mnot a pioneer in it, I think
it's a way that that reallyhelps people be themselves and
be authentic, which has alwaysbeen a thing. But it was so
(45:58):
scary for me to go like becausewhen I was doing video and you
know no one was doing at thattime, I got mad hate of like,
oh, this isn't gonna work blahblah. And I'm like, look at you
people now.
All the people that were sayingnot to do it now offer the
service. Imagine that.
Jasmine Escalera (46:17):
Yeah. No. It's a huge thing. I mean, with job
seekers now,
Rhona Pierce (46:20):
one of
Jasmine Escalera (46:21):
the biggest pieces of advice that I say to
them is like, hey. Look.Everybody is doing what you're
doing, dude. Like, everybody.Everybody's doing what you're
doing.
The base, the minimum right nowis not cutting it. You gotta get
yourself a free Loom account.You gotta start doing some video
thank you notes, all of thatgood stuff. So, yeah, you were
you you started you started thatway before anybody was talking
(46:42):
about that.
Rhona Pierce (46:44):
So it's it's interesting now, all of that,
and I went back to video. AndI'm like, you know what? But
this is what I love. I lovevideo. So I was happy to find a
way to merge helping the TAcommunity, which is what I
really wanted to do.
I think the way you fix thebroken hiring process is you
(47:05):
empower the people that are inpower in the hiring situation.
You don't tell job seekers toadjust and adapt to the broken
things that the industry isdoing. You help and empower the
people, and I think just it'sjust so interesting how all my
husband told me all roads ledback to video.
Jasmine Escalera (47:27):
Well, I think it's, I mean, it's the wave of
the future for sure. And, Imean, I tell people the same
thing where it's like, look.Corporate America is is a poop
show right now, you know, but italways was. So it's really more
so about, like, what is it thatyou want? What is it that you're
looking for?
Let's take our power and controlback and reshape the narrative
for ourselves. Or else, we'rejust sitting around waiting
(47:48):
waiting for the system tochange, and that has never
worked. So I love what you'redoing. It's fabulous. Video is
the wave of the future.
Rhona Pierce (47:57):
Thanks to Jasmine for being on the show. Before we
wrap up, I wanna share somethingthat's been a huge help in my
own reinvention journey,Especially when I need to de
stress and gain clarity. It'scalled Brain FM. They create
science backed functional musicmade specifically for your
(48:17):
brain. Whether I'm taking a walkto clear my head or just trying
to reset after a stressful day,Brain FM helps me refocus and
find balance.
Brain FM isn't sponsoring theshow, but I love it so much that
I became an affiliate so I couldshare it with you. You can get a
30 day free trial by visitingbrain.fm/ronapears. That's brain
(48:44):
dotfm/ronapears. And you'llsupport this show in the
process. The link is in the shownotes.
Now as the THM market starts topick up, we're all looking to
get back in the game strongerthan ever. Over the next few
weeks, I'll be sharing episodespacked with strategies to help
(49:04):
you reinvent your approach totalent acquisition. Don't miss
out. Subscribe to Throughout thePlaybook wherever you get your
podcasts. And if today'sconversation with Jasmine
inspired you, please leave a 5star review.
Reviews help other TA folks findus. Thanks for listening, and
I'll chat with you next week.
When burnout and frustration become part of daily
life, whether it's from a longjob search, multiple layoffs, or
toxic work environments, burningit all down might feel like the
only option. But what ifreinvention didn't have to be so
chaotic?
Jasmine Escalera (00:17):
Reinvention does not have to look like that.
It's really about identifying ananchor point in your life, a
point or a thing in your lifethat if you transformed that
area, it would essentially havea ripple effect, and it would
create change throughout yourentire life.
Rhona Pierce (00:35):
That's doctor Jasmine Escalada, the queen of
reinvention herself. She helpswomen break out of toxic work
cycles and realign their careerswith what truly matters. In
today's episode, she's sharingher exact process for how you
can create lasting, meaningfulchange without the chaos. We
(00:57):
spoke about how to break out oftoxic patterns, mindset shifts
to unlock reinvention, regainingcontrol to avoid burnout, and
how to redefine success on yourown terms. Whether you're
navigating a long job search,recovering from multiple
layoffs, carrying the weight ofthe world on your shoulders as
(01:19):
an HR team of 1, or wanting tolearn how to set better
boundaries at work, grab anotebook because this episode is
filled with actionable adviceyou can start implementing
today.
Let's dive in to my conversationwith Jasmine. I am so happy to
be joined by the queen ofreinvention herself, Jasmine.
(01:41):
Thank you so much for being onthe show today.
Jasmine Escalera (01:44):
Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. We have
been in each other's fear onLinkedIn for so many years. I
mean, I think since I firststarted coaching, I've been
following you and, respectively,you've been following me. So
it's always great to just seeyou and to be here with you.
It's wonderful.
Rhona Pierce (02:02):
Yeah. It's always amazing, and I always love I
love all of my guests, but Ialways love when I have to when
I get to have friends or peopleI've known for years on the
podcast.
Jasmine Escalera (02:12):
I know. That's always so fun.
Rhona Pierce (02:15):
So I know your story, and I know that, like me,
you have lots of pivotsthroughout your life. Mhmm. What
made you decide to focus onreinvention?
Jasmine Escalera (02:27):
Yeah. It's kind of a whirlwind of a story
because I was career coaching,specifically career coaching,
job search coaching for quite afew years. And I felt as though
I had lost the love for it in away, and I was still doing it. I
was still having immense impactwith so many women, helping them
(02:48):
to find positions, helping themto find their passion and
purpose within their career. ButI I felt like I needed to listen
more to myself and createsomething that I think was a
little bit more hard aligned.
I feel like in business, one ofthe things that sometimes can
trick us a little bit is, youknow, you follow these business
(03:09):
leaders on Instagram, on onLinkedIn, and they talk about
these major milestones, youknow, not just the 10 k month,
but now we're talking about the100 k month. And I think we can
get lost in that shuffle a lotand forget that the reason why
we created a business was togive us freedom and flexibility
and to honor that internal voiceand passion that we have and
(03:32):
bring it to the world. And so Iwas very passionate about career
coaching, but I felt like I wasso now far removed from the
corporate world. And I hadchanged, like, so much of myself
had changed. So I wanted tofocus on reinvention because
when I asked myself, what am Ireally passionate about?
What I was passionate about washelping women to honor their
(03:54):
internal voice, listen to theirinternal voice, and start to
make decisions that more closelyaligned with not just the woman
they wanted to become, but thelife that they wanted to create.
And I wanted to help women startto prioritize themselves and
their goals. And to see thatreinvention, although a very
(04:15):
roller coaster ride of a journeybecause you are breaking down
limiting beliefs, you aretapping into old belief systems,
you are healing, You don't haveto go through that alone, and it
doesn't have to be a struggle.So reinvention coaching for me
was to pivot into something thatwas more heart aligned, but also
to go back to the root of why Istarted this business, which was
(04:37):
to create a service thatconnected to to my heart.
Rhona Pierce (04:41):
I love that. And I know also as a business owner
that once you get to that pointwhere you're not feeling it,
where your heart isn't in it,like, that comes through,
especially us who we createcontent as part of our business
strategy, business developmentstrategy. Like, you can just
start feeling it. And as soon asI start feeling it, it's like,
(05:04):
oh.
Jasmine Escalera (05:04):
Yeah. Yeah. The energy bleeds into the
content. It bleeds into themarketing, and you show up for
your clients because, obviously,you care so much about them and
their transformation, but it itends up showing up in other
places. Like, I just didn't feelas though I was as happy in my
life as when I had first startedmy business.
And I was really questioning ifI'm working this hard and doing
(05:28):
something that I'm not enjoyingas much, did I essentially just
recreate my career, you know,where I was working I was the
workhorse and I was putting inthe hours, but I wasn't happy
doing the thing that I wasdoing.
Rhona Pierce (05:40):
Yeah. So when people hear the word
reinvention, at least I know meat first, I think, okay, burn it
all down. Let's start over withsomething drastic and start
Jasmine Escalera (05:54):
from scratch.
Rhona Pierce (05:55):
Is that really what reinvention means?
Jasmine Escalera (05:58):
You know, it's so interesting. I love that
you're asking this questionbecause at first, reinvention
was that for me. And what Irecognized and noticed going
through many healing journeyswas that I was actually very
addicted to chaos and scarcity,and I was incredibly addicted to
(06:19):
fixing things. I grew up in theprojects in Brooklyn. We're
fairly, you know, we're fairlypoor.
We didn't have much. And so Iwas really used to living in
chaotic family systems andchaotic structures and chaotic
communities and with barely, youknow, anything to get by. So
when I first started reallytransforming myself, the way
(06:41):
that I did it was I would throwfreaking bombs in my life. You
know? And I would wait to fallto a rock bottom before I
finally said to myself, like, Ihave to change.
But reinvention does not have tolook like that. And in fact, the
way I teach it with with mycommunity, with the courage
crew, is it's really aboutidentifying an anchor point in
(07:03):
your life. A point or a thing inyour life that if you
transformed that area, it wouldessentially have a ripple
effect, and it would createchange throughout your entire
life. So, for example, if youreally want to be able to create
this thing called generationalwealth, you wanna get out of
debt, you wanna start to reallycreate investments for yourself,
(07:25):
You may step back and askyourself, well, where am I gonna
generate this money from? And,traditionally, it's through your
9 to 5.
So the focal point for thatindividual would be to really
build the courage, theconfidence, the strategy to
reinvent within their career tocreate or generate additional
income so that they have thedisposable income to then create
that generational wealth. So Ilike to really work with my
(07:48):
clients to understand, like, ifwe change one area of your life,
how could that essentially thenjust have a ripple effect for
other areas that naturally youstart to feel transformation so
that it doesn't have to be likewhat I used to do, which is like
boom boom boom
Rhona Pierce (08:03):
blow it all
Jasmine Escalera (08:03):
up. It can be something that really you are
thoughtful around, you'restrategic around, and you love
yourself through the process.You don't have to hurt yourself
through the process.
Rhona Pierce (08:15):
I like that you mentioned the whole addiction to
chaos and scarcity. I I identifywith that. A lot of the pivots
that I've done have been, like,burn it all down Yeah. Start
over type thing. How does thatmanifest for people who are
working a traditional 9 to 5,not necessarily business owners
(08:37):
like you and I?
Jasmine Escalera (08:39):
Mhmm. You mean, how does it how does it
manifest in terms of thetransformation? Or
Rhona Pierce (08:45):
in terms of, like yeah. Like, how do you see your
people, like clients that you'veworked with, who work a
traditional 9 to 5, who areMhmm. Burning it all down even
though it doesn't look like,okay. I'm starting a new
business. How does it look for a9 to 5 person?
Jasmine Escalera (09:00):
Yeah. So reinvention in a 9 to 5, a lot
of times for the women that Iwork with. Traditionally, I've
worked with women of color. I'veworked with women who have come
up in the career world and hadhad a lot of barriers towards
growing and growth and gettingto the place that they wanted to
be. So for a lot of my clients,reinvention actually is starting
(09:21):
with the rebuilding of theirmindset and the rebuilding of
their confidence after toxicworkplaces, after feeling like
you haven't been listened to,after feeling like you couldn't
speak up or be your authenticself in the workplace.
And I tend to believe thatmindset truly is the foundation
to anything, includingreinvention. So what I like to
(09:43):
do with my clients is we wannatake bold, courageous action
towards having the life that youdeserve. But bold, courageous
action means that you reallyhave to take action. You have to
be bold, and you have to becourageous. And that starts with
you believing that you have thecapacity to create the life you
want, believing that you deservethat life, and then really
(10:05):
believing that you can do it.
And so a lot of times, thefoundation, whether it's a 9 to
5, whether it's starting abusiness is always the mindset.
So with the women that I workwith in their career, a lot of
times it's about learning how tobring that confident version of
themselves into the workplace sothat it can have that trickle
(10:25):
effect into, I'm now increasingmy visibility in the space. I'm
now bragging about myself. I'mnow promoting myself. I'm now
asking for promotions.
I'm now really getting that payraise, or I'm not gonna tolerate
this BS anymore. I'm gonna finda work environment and just an
environment and culture ingeneral that's going to accept
(10:45):
who I am. So I think for a 9 to5 or and for anyone who's
undergoing reinvention, thenumber one thing is really to
ask yourself, what am I tryingto create? And before I try to
take any actions towardscreating that, what are
essentially the limiting beliefsor the negative thoughts that I
have towards even the creationof that? Because you can
(11:07):
implement a strategy, but you'renot gonna implement it
effectively if you don't have100% belief in it.
Now that doesn't mean that youcan't take action while creating
belief, and that's somethingthat I had to learn as well is
that I can build a businesswhile both starting to continue
to believe I can build abusiness. But you have to start
(11:29):
the process of belief.
Rhona Pierce (11:31):
Yeah. It's really all about the mindset. And I
know for my listeners and theaudience that that typically
follows my content, we usuallywork in TA and HR, which are are
roles where you're, like, takingcare of the company. It's about
people. It's about taking careof everyone else.
(11:51):
And I've seen, at least in mylife, when I was an employee, it
manifest as, like, I would go tofrom company to company, and I
would, like, go to the companieswith the biggest problems, like
red flag alert in theinterviews. I knew this was a
hot mess, and I was thinking, Ican fix this. I can come in here
(12:12):
and fix this. And, like, after awhile, you just, like, go chase
and chase that, and it's like,yeah, you get more money, you
get everything, but you yourselfstart feeling, like, the burnout
and the, like, the stress ofeveryone else's issues. Have you
worked with many people who havemanifested, like, the the whole,
(12:32):
like, burning it all down meansgoing to something that looks
shiny and new, but in the end,it's exactly the same thing you
were just running away from?
Jasmine Escalera (12:43):
Yeah. So there's so much to say here.
First off, within talent and HR,I don't think we really talk
enough about burnout for HRleaders, executives, managers,
people in that space. Theburnout is real. The trauma is
also real.
I've worked with people in HRwho are seriously have PTSD from
(13:05):
some of the experiences thatthey've had to go through change
management, laying people off. Imean, that's traumatic, you
know, to be the one in charge ofsomething like that. So I don't
think we talk enough about theburnout that HR executives and
talent acquisition executives,all of the leaders, anyone in
that space is really feeling ona day to day basis. So if you
(13:28):
are in TA, if you are in HR,please know that I I am sending
you so many flowers right nowbecause, I mean, you're right.
These are individuals who holdup organizations and typically
don't get, like, recognized forwhat they do.
I think that in in that specificspace too, you are kind of
chasing the organizations thatare a hot mess because that
(13:51):
means that you can go in thereand you can help. And
essentially, that's what you'rethere to do. Yes. So it's a
challenge here. So one of thethings that I recognized in my
own journey, and then thisbecame something that I very I
was very hard at teaching.
Like, I I wanted this to be amajor point for everyone. I
(14:11):
posted on this on LinkedIn. Thehardest position to start after
a traumatic position, after atoxic work environment, the
hardest position to start is thenew position. Right? And the
reason for that is becauseoftentimes, we are running from
one thing and we run right intothe arms of the exact same
thing.
(14:31):
And so there's a lot ofprocessing that has to happen
between you leaving thatposition and you stepping into
the next one. And a lot of ithas to happen before you even
accept that role. You have toreally identify what is it that
that company or organization didnot provide to me? What is it
that I truly need? Who do Iwanna be in this next
(14:55):
organization?
And then a tough one is, like,what am I gonna leave behind?
And if you're doing thatreflection in that middle
ground, right, like, as you'researching for the new position,
it essentially helps you toidentify the right
organizations. What I love to dowith my clients is I love for
them to map out what do theywanna see, not just in their
(15:17):
next role and position, butwithin their next organization
and within their next leader.And then to craft interview
questions that are specificallybased on those things. And so it
almost kind of allows you to dothis reflective exercise, but
then map that out so that thequestions that you're asking
during interviews are reallythoughtful around what you want
(15:40):
and what you don't wanna everencounter again based off of
your past experiences.
Now, everyone always ask me,well, you know, I could get in
this job, like, how do youreally know, like, a 100%
certainty? You don't. Right? Youdon't know with a 100%
certainty. But I can tell youthat with thoughtfulness, with
reflection, and with the courageto ask the right questions, you
(16:02):
are limiting statistically thepossibility of you starting the
cycle again.
Because really what I trulybelieve from a spiritual
standpoint is that you willcontinue to be in the pattern in
the cycle until you change it.Right? And that often requires
(16:24):
us taking a step back,recognizing the pattern which
very many of us do but thenactioning on changing the
pattern. And that's where wesometimes fall short.
Rhona Pierce (16:35):
I love that. I love the whole, yeah, we know
the pattern. We we just we knowit. But recognizing and taking
the action to me is like, okay.I see this happening.
This is what I'm going to do toget out of it. That all starts
with you shifting your mindset.
Jasmine Escalera (16:50):
Absolutely.
Rhona Pierce (16:51):
Burnout can be so draining. Yeah. What's your go
to strategy for helping people,like, rediscover their spark and
their purpose and their passion,especially after toxic
workplaces or long job searches,layoffs, things like that?
Jasmine Escalera (17:08):
Yeah. It's so interesting because burnout is a
really interesting one because,you know, I work and I'm sure
you do too, quite a lot on mybusiness. Right? I have never
experienced burnout unless I wasdoing something that wasn't
aligned with the purpose of whyI started this thing. And so,
(17:30):
burnout can have a variety ofdifferent factors.
I think there's an internalfactor, meaning, I am not
aligned with the purpose of mylife, my soul, my intention, my
career, whatever that is. I'mjust completely out of
alignment. And so I'm workingharder thinking that that's
gonna make it feel better whenit actually has the counter
(17:51):
effect. So there's that internalcomponent where if you're
experiencing burnout, it couldquite possibly be that that's a
signal that you're just out ofalignment and that requires you
to do that internal work oflike, am I in the right work
environment? Am I in in theright space?
Am I in the right business?Which was something that I had
to ask myself. Then there's theexternal component. Right? The
(18:14):
external component is you happento be in an organization where
burnout culture is just, that'sjust what it is and that's the
norm.
But you also have control ofthat too. Right? So I always
want for people to understandthat you have control over your
circumstances. You have controlover where you are. You may not
(18:35):
be able to throw up the deucesand quit this job today because
financially, that's not withinthe cards for you.
But you do have the capacity todo the things that I'm sure you
and so many of your guests havetalked about, the networking,
the starting the resume, thegetting things started. And I
can tell you that when you takeyour power back and when you
take your control back and whenyou really stand in that, I'm
(18:59):
not allowing this to happen tome anymore, the power that you
take back helps you to startsetting those boundaries. Right?
Because oftentimes, people willhave a hard time setting the
boundaries and saying no, butit's because you haven't made
the affirmation yet that this isno longer in service of you.
Once you finally tell yourself,this is no longer in service of
(19:22):
me and I am not gonna let ithappen, the boundaries just
naturally start to unfold.
So I think burnout really doesyou have to look at it from
those two kinds of lenses areof, you know, are you doing what
you are aligned or what you aresupposed to do? And then
externally, are you in the rightspaces? You know? Or are these
(19:43):
environments just essentiallytriggering you to start to work
too much, to do too much, andthat's causing you the burnout?
Rhona Pierce (19:51):
Yeah. Yeah. I can see as you're talking, I can see
so many examples and remember somany times because even when
it's not a job search, even whenit's not after a layoff, just
regular day to day of being a TAprofessional, you're working
with different hiring managers.You're working with different
candidates. All the pressure,all the expectations, usually
(20:15):
budget.
I always say budget is a triggerword for anyone in TA or HR
because we usually have nobudget, but we're expected to do
so much. So burnout creeps inreally quick if you don't know
how to set those boundaries. Ifit's like, great. You want me to
do all of these things. You'realso not giving me the money to
do all of these things, andthat's fine.
(20:37):
We don't have the money. This iswhat you're gonna get type of
thing. Those conversations arethe ones that help you not get
into that stress and thatburnout and that, like, let me
go burn this all down and startover somewhere else and do the
exact same thing.
Jasmine Escalera (20:54):
Yeah. And, you know, the career space is a
tricky one, I have to say.Because when you think about the
career environment, right, like,it would be it would be awesome
for us to all be able to say,like, no. I mean, this is how
much you pay me and this is howmuch you're gonna get out of me.
And I'm sorry, there's just noother thing that's gonna happen.
But the career space ischallenging because the career
(21:16):
space is is actually tied toyour your livelihood. So you get
paid to work, and when you getpaid, you then pay your rent,
you pay your food, you pay yourtaxes, you pay all the other
things. This is a tricky spaceto navigate because it can be
really challenging for people tosee themselves taking that
(21:38):
stance when essentially theirlivelihood is actually connected
to this position. And, if youare someone who is triggered
around money, so you grew up inscarcity or you didn't have
financial safety or financialsecurity or stability. Now
you're going into ingrained verydeep trauma around money.
(22:01):
And so it is a very tricky one,the career space, and I think
it's that's why we sometimes,you know, have clients or
friends or people or women orpeople we know who were like,
come on. Just stand up foryourself. But it just it's a
really one hard one to navigate.
Rhona Pierce (22:20):
Yeah. What are some of the biggest fears or
obstacles that people face whenthey're considering reinvention?
Jasmine Escalera (22:28):
I think the biggest one is when you decide
to change and reinvent yourlife, when you decide to walk a
different path, there's a lot ofhealing involved in that, like,
a lot of healing. You have tothe reason why we are walking
the path that we're on right nowis because it's comfortable and
it's safe. And if it'scomfortable and it's safe, that
(22:50):
means essentially your brain,your biological system,
everything is like, why would weever change? You're alive.
You're eating.
You're paying your bills. You'redoing fine. There's no need for
us to go through this thingcalled reinvention. Like, why
would we ever do that? So you'refighting biological systems, but
then you're also fighting yourmind.
(23:11):
Right? So you're fighting yourbody, which is used to doing
things in a certain way andhaving a certain chemical
balance, and you're fightingyour mind, which is used to
thinking a certain way. Sothere's a lot of healing.
There's a lot of breaking downold belief systems. Reinvention
also, which is something that noone told me about, but I figured
(23:33):
it out through the process iscan sometimes be very lonely.
Because when you start to shedall of those old belief systems
and you start to say that lifeis no longer in service of me,
I'm gonna go out and seek theone that is. Well, there's a lot
of people who are not gonna goon that journey with you. And
even people who you can't justrelease and let go of, like
(23:55):
family members, thatrelationship is gonna change,
and it's gonna look different.And so there's a lot of, like,
shifting that has to happen inreinvention. And it can
sometimes feel a little lonely.
It can definitely feel prettyuncomfortable. And so knowing
that is, I think, reallyimportant. It doesn't mean not
(24:15):
to not do it. Actually, I thinkthe best thing that ever
happened in my life was goingthrough multiple reinventions
because the calmness, the peace,the freedom that I have in
myself, I wouldn't trade thisfor the world. But it does
require that level of work.
And what I always tellindividuals is during every
reinvention, there was always apoint where I was just so sad.
(24:38):
And it was because with growthcomes grief. You have to grieve
the version of you that you arechanging. You have to grieve the
people that you are releasing.You have to grieve so much, and
it's almost kind of like yourbody is just going through a
process.
But growth is always on theother side. So when I find
(24:59):
myself getting stuck in thisplace of grief, I always know
I'm on my path to some reallybeautiful change.
Rhona Pierce (25:06):
Is there any specific, like, things that you
do to overcome these fears?Because no one likes feeling
uncomfortable.
Jasmine Escalera (25:16):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (25:16):
But we know we all know, like, if I do this, if I
get out of my comfort zone,there's change, there's growth
on the other side. But still,like you said, our body is
comfortable. Our brain tells us,why are you doing this? Are you
why are you wanting to beuncomfortable? Is there anything
that you do?
Any, like, tactical things orany specific things that you do
(25:37):
to, like, overcome that.
Jasmine Escalera (25:39):
I think there are 2 really great things to
consider and one is activators.So we often scroll through
Instagram and we look at whatother people have and we get
this trigger envy or jealousyresponse. Right? I always like
to look at what other peoplehave as a way to activate myself
(25:59):
to possibility. And so when Isee things, I always ask myself,
do I want it?
You know, do I want this? How doI get it? What can I achieve?
How do they do it? How can Italk to them?
How can I find someone who didit? So, I think it's one part is
finding activators, findingpeople who show you what's
possible when you get to theother side because it gives you
(26:20):
something to anchor into. Onething that I realized is that
because I was so used to livingin scarcity, when you're in
scarcity, your create thecreative side of your brain just
shuts off because there's nocreativity in scarcity. And so,
if you're going through areinvention, you're going
through these feelings, you'rechanging your life, the creative
(26:43):
part of your brain mightactually start to shut down. And
so what you wanna do is youwanna find creativity.
You wanna dream. You wanna openup yourself to exploration, not
your your shut yourself down toit. So finding individuals who
have what you want to create,and they don't have to be people
that, you know, are right inyour vicinity. I didn't have any
(27:04):
of those. You know, I didn'thave people who had what I
wanted in my space.
I found them through LinkedIn. Ifound them through Instagram. I
found them through other means.So I think that's one thing
because that helps you activatethat creative side, that
innovative side, that visioningside, that dreamer side. And
then I think the other part isof it is very often, I would go
(27:25):
through these things by myselfbecause I didn't understand what
I was going through, and so Iwas doing it alone a lot.
And what I always tell people isthat there are so many people
out there creating the life thatthey wanna create and having
that sense of community, thosesupporters, those cheerleaders
who are gonna help you in thosemoments where you're like, I'm
(27:46):
really feeling it today. That'sanother really great thing to
have. So I would say findingpeople who can activate that
part of your brain that helpsyou see possibility and then
getting that support. Right?That tangible, like, you're
gonna do this.
You're gonna make it through isalso incredibly, incredibly
helpful.
Rhona Pierce (28:05):
That's why I love what you're doing with your
community, and I love that it'sfree because you're surrounded
by people who are wanting to gothrough this. They're actively
going through this change, thisfree invention period. So being
surrounded by other people whoare doing it can help you
because I know when I'm goingthrough those periods, my brain
(28:27):
tells me at times, like, you'redelusional. You're never gonna
get that. It's like, oh, yes.
I am delusional, and I will bedelusional until I get exactly
what I want because this otherperson has it too.
Jasmine Escalera (28:39):
Yeah. No. I mean, I I I use that exact same
word. I mean, I wake up everysingle day and I tell myself I'm
a multimillionaire. My bankaccount does not agree.
But there is that part where youhave to anchor into the delusion
because on the other side is thereality. Right? So it's current
state, delusional state, andthen reality. You have to sit in
(29:03):
that middle ground. And thatmiddle ground is a very
important moment because if it'snot happening and, you know, in
this in this day and age, wewant everything to happen
yesterday.
We want it on Amazon Prime Time.So it's not gonna happen like
that typically, but it's gonnahappen. But that delusional
state is where you can falterback. And I think, one thing for
(29:27):
everyone to know is it's okay ifyou do. Right?
Like, I think that reinventionand transformation is a daily
process. And there are gonna bepoints during the day where
you're gonna have it. You'regonna feel powerful. You're
gonna feel strong. You're gonnafeel like the delusion is your
reality, and then there aregonna be moments where you
(29:47):
don't.
There are gonna be days whereyou falter, but always wake up
the next day and just restart.It's okay. Like, there's there's
nothing wrong with it. So thatmiddle delusional time is really
the time where you have toanchor in, but also know that
it's okay if you falter becauseyou know how to get back up.
Right?
You always know how to get backup. You have the strategies. You
(30:10):
have the toolset. You can do it.
Rhona Pierce (30:12):
Taking gears a bit, I know sometimes it's hard
for TA professionals to, like,let go of traditional success
metrics. Right? We've all beentold, go in, get this job, do
this, 401 k, all of that. Right?How can we redefine success on
our own terms?
Oh, lord. Oh my gosh.
Jasmine Escalera (30:33):
This is a a big one because I tell you,
like, there was a moment in mylife and I I can really remember
it and it's it's a tough one forme because there was a moment in
my life where I realized thateverything I was told was a lie.
Like, every single thing that Iwas taught was a freaking lie.
And, you know, my parents toldme, get the 6 figure job, the
(30:55):
401 k, you're gonna be set forlife. I was traumatized on a
daily basis. I was so unhappy.
I was just experiencingtremendous lows to the point
where I never checked myself in,but I'm pretty sure I was an
alcoholic because I there was noI couldn't handle it. Like, I
just couldn't. You know, theytold me get married, you have a
(31:17):
husband, you'll be safe, you'llbe secure. I was in a not good
marriage and I was miserable inthat too. So there was just this
point where every single thingthat everyone told me to do to
have this safe, secure, andstable life was just a facade
and it was just so fake.
And I just that was one of thehardest moments in my life
(31:41):
because then it was, you know, Iwasn't I wasn't a child. So, it
wasn't like someone could couldsay to me, like, Jasmine, this
is actually the path. Like, thisis the way you walk. I was an
adult. I had to figure it outmyself.
And that was a challenging placeto be because I was like, well,
if it isn't this, then what inthe hell could it possibly be?
(32:01):
What I had to really do was wasevery single day just tell
myself, I don't know. I don'tknow what it is, but I'm gonna
wake up today and I'm gonnacollect experiences. I'm gonna
try some things. I'm gonna talkto some people.
And at the end of the day, I'mjust gonna sit down and
reassess. What did I hear that Iliked? What did I hear that I
didn't like? You know, how am Iliving that I'm enjoying? How am
(32:24):
I living that I'm not enjoying?
And just really come face toface with the lie. And, I think
that's the biggest thing iscreating what success means to
you, you don't actually have tohave the definition. Like, it
doesn't have to be defined. Infact, all you have to do is just
(32:45):
say, well, this isn't it. I knowthat.
Like, for confirmation, this isnot it. Then all you have to do
is say, well, if this isn't it,then what can I do to just have
experiences? You know, peopleask me a lot, like, how do I
find my purpose? I think yourpurpose in life is just to give
(33:05):
yourself a shot and haveexperiences, like, just every
single day to give yourself ashot and have experiences. And
then through those experiences,assessing and asking yourself,
what's the next thing I wanna door try?
What's the next experience Iwould like to have? What's the
next thing I would like to justkind of give myself a shot at? I
(33:26):
think purpose is really aboutcollecting experiences and
knowledge of self to help youreally figure out what the next
step is. So it's the same withsuccess where it's like you
don't have to you don't have tohave it defined today. You just
have to know that that's not it.
You don't want that anymore. I'mcommitting to making change and
change just means opening myselfup to experiences and
(33:49):
possibility. Alright. What doesthat look like? Maybe I can have
a few combos with people.
I always thought maybe I wouldtry that. Let me see what that's
about. So it's just thisbeautiful research phase, but
people are really scared to bein that phase because as humans,
we need to have anchors. We needto have control. We need to know
what's next because uncertaintybiologically triggers a lot of
things within us that equalpotential death, and we don't
(34:13):
want that.
So if we can just realize thatour body is just going through a
biological mechanism and it'snot real, we are safe, we are
okay, and we can explore, wewill allow ourselves to do that.
Rhona Pierce (34:25):
Like you said, I mean, maintaining stability and
security and not activating thatdanger zone danger zone you're
about to end of the world typething is important for us as
humans. Can you share anypractical tips or any practical
steps that you can take? Like,yeah, you're wanting to do the
change. You're going to redefinesuccess. You're you're defining
(34:48):
this for you, but in the on theway there, how can you, like
Yeah.
Jasmine Escalera (34:52):
Balance and maintain that? Yeah. So there's
a few different things here. Soone thing is I'm a firm believer
in that internally, wetraditionally know what we want
to try. Like, because we weusually have that internal voice
that's telling us, like, youknow, or pointing you in a
direction.
It's that traditionally, we'rejust not listening to it or we
(35:15):
listen to it for a second andthen those fear mechanisms pop
in of, like, well, how do wemake that happen? And then we
just shut it off. So really,what it's about is it's almost
kinda like you're wearing, like,dirty goggles or dirty glasses.
You just have to start, like,desmudging your glasses so you
can see a little bit more. Andoftentimes, the desmudging
(35:36):
process really is aboutlistening to the internal
component of yourself.
It's also about digging intolike my life thus far in this
area of life, my career forexample. What have I enjoyed?
What have I not enjoyed? Whatwould I like to do or try next?
What kinds of experiences wouldI like to have?
What am I interested in learningmore about? And going through
(35:57):
that research and explorationphase. So many people are like,
I don't have time for that. Blahblah blah. Look, you can stay on
the path that you're on for thenext 30 years.
How do you think that's gonnafeel? I don't think that's gonna
feel so good. So even spending afew day a few minutes a day
doing this kind of reflection100% gets you to the space of
(36:18):
where you need to go. So in thecourage crew, we have a 30 day
challenge where we do exactlythis, where it's like set a
goal. And for 30 days, you'regonna spend a few minutes every
single day working towards thatbecause we deserve that.
But then there's also, like, onthe path, you were kinda
mentioning the biologicalcomponent. Right? Like, you're
gonna get triggered. You'regoing to experience discomfort.
(36:42):
And that's really about leaninginto mechanisms that help your
mindset and your nervous systemto relax.
So, you know, doing things likejournaling which is a baseline
wonderful practice for everyoneto do. Doing things like breath
work, doing things like taking awalk in the middle of the day
when you start to feel a littlebit stressed and just letting
(37:04):
your mind wander. You know,everybody kinda kinda like laugh
at these things, but it's likethey really help. So I think you
have to have the tacticalprocesses to help you go through
this moment, but you also haveto have the grounding processes.
And I won't call them mindfulprocesses, just grounding
processes to get you back toyou.
(37:26):
Because when you are triggered,you're just moving a little bit
further away from your bestself. So these processes just
help you move closer to thatrepresentation of you.
Rhona Pierce (37:37):
Yeah. And and I love that you you mentioned the
practical things like journalingand the breath work and walking.
I mean, I just I rediscoveredwalking Yeah. Last year because,
you know, just like me, you're aCrossFitter.
Jasmine Escalera (37:50):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (37:51):
And I love CrossFit, and I I try to go
every day. And that's a greatstress reliever. But walking
Yeah. Really, I just found it tobe, like, so peaceful. And
depending on how activated my mystress is at the moment,
sometimes I walk and listen to apodcast.
Sometimes I walk and listen to Ilike Brain FM. Anyone who's
(38:13):
heard my podcast knows I'vespoken about Brain FM, which is
like music, scientific music to,like, help you Yeah. Either
focus or de stress. Butsometimes, I just love walking
and listening to what'shappening around me.
Jasmine Escalera (38:28):
I think that's the best. I really do. And
sometimes I forget how powerfulit is because I usually always
put podcast, you know, like,podcast or music or a walking
meditation. And in those momentswhen I put nothing in my ears
and I'm just walking, I findthat I get more calm and
centered just doing that becausethe natural sounds of nature. I
(38:51):
mean, I live in a city, so it'sit depends on what what's around
me at that time.
But the natural sounds ofnature, like, when I walk on the
beach, like, that's a wholeanother experience. But that can
be really soothing. And thereare great walking meditations
that I've tapped into recentlythat are so incredibly helpful,
you know, in terms of justhelping you to regulate your
nervous system, but alsoconnecting you to who is that
(39:15):
highest version of you that youwanna really connect to right
now. So, yeah, I think those aregreat practices. And CrossFit
also is definitely a stressrelief for me.
Rhona Pierce (39:26):
Yeah. I I think CrossFit is so challenging.
Like, every day it's somethingnew new. You don't have time to
be comfortable while you'rethere. You just have time to
focus on, like, how am I goingto survive this workout and do
this right now?
Jasmine Escalera (39:43):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's really great
because I I do believe that themore you can make yourself
uncomfortable, and it doesn'tmatter in what space. It kind of
very similar to, like, what Iwas talking about earlier in the
episode about the ripple effect.Right?
If you work on your strength, ifyou work on getting out of your
(40:03):
comfort zone, if you work on,you know, stressing the body in
a healthy way, right, a healthyway in one area, you naturally
start to just move a little bitdifferently in another. And I
think that's the power ofexercise no matter what it is,
is that you really do start to,like, change your personality to
(40:25):
be more confident doing it. So,it's great. Perfect.
Rhona Pierce (40:28):
So this has been an awesome conversation. How can
listeners connect with you?
Jasmine Escalera (40:34):
Yeah. So I, you know, I'm beyond the
LinkedIn streets all the time.
Rhona Pierce (40:38):
That's where I feel like
Jasmine Escalera (40:39):
I mostly am. You can definitely connect with
me on LinkedIn. I post about theCourage Crew pretty much daily,
but if you wanna link to jointhe Courage Crew, you have any
questions for me about it,please definitely hit me up. The
Courage Crew is the only freeonline community for women who
are undergoing a reinvention,and the whole goal of that is to
(41:00):
provide community and a spacefor you to do this without
feeling like you have to do italone. It's just a wonderful
support system for anyone who'sinterested in doing this.
So, definitely hit me up there,and I would love to see you in
the crew.
Rhona Pierce (41:15):
Cool. Any last things? Anything that I didn't
ask that you think is importantfor someone considering or going
through reinvention to know?Well, I have a question for you,
actually, if you don't mind.Sure.
Jasmine Escalera (41:27):
I would love to know what what is one of the
most powerful lessons thatyou've learned in one of your
biggest reinventions? Because Iknow through our personal
conversations, I've followed youin the last few years, go
through a lot of change and alot of transformation. And so
I'm curious to know throughthose moments, like, what was
the biggest lesson thatreinvention taught you?
Rhona Pierce (41:50):
That is an amazing question. I think the biggest
lesson really is knowing that Ican do it, knowing that no
matter what, I'm going to beokay. Because even when I felt
and I'm going through areinvention right now. I just
launched a new service. It's thescariest thing I've ever done.
It's like I know I have thisamount of money in the bank
(42:13):
account and if I don't make ithappen in this amount of time
Mhmm. Something's gonna happenthat something's most likely
means I'll go get a job. I don'tknow whatever like but I know
because of everything that nomatter what
Jasmine Escalera (42:28):
Yeah.
Rhona Pierce (42:29):
I'm going to be okay.
Jasmine Escalera (42:32):
How did you I mean, now I'm turning the
podcast episode on.
Rhona Pierce (42:35):
That's fine.
Jasmine Escalera (42:36):
But how do you think you developed that
mindset? Because that's youknow, I didn't have that in the
earlier phase of my life. Right?That came through tremendous
trials and tribulation where Ithen was reflecting on, like,
damn, Jasmine. Like, you you gotyou.
No matter what, you got you. Butwhere do you think that sort of
(42:57):
resilience and mindset of, like,I will always be okay? Like, how
did that come about for you?
Rhona Pierce (43:03):
I think that comes from really reflecting and
looking back. I've gone in thepast couple of years since 2016.
I've gone through 4 layoffs.None of them have been any
performance related or anything.It's either the company shut
down, ran out of money, thingslike that.
So you put all into things likethat, and then you go through
(43:27):
these periods and you stillthink, like, what could I have
done better? Like, company shutdown. That has nothing to do
with me, But you still gothrough that. But then when you
get out of that period and youlook back, you're like, even
though I was scared, even thoughI was trying to find my what I
did or what I could have donebetter, You are so strong and I
(43:51):
just I like writing things downand looking back to how I was
feeling in that period. And whenI'm on the other side, I look
back and think, wow.
Yeah. You did that.
Jasmine Escalera (44:03):
Such a powerful exercise. It's one that
I tell my clients to do all thetime, like, when did you feel
the most confident? When did youfeel like you overcame the
biggest, you know, trial ortribulation in your life?
Because that's essentially whatshows you who you truly are.
Right?
My clients sometimes tell me,like, I'm going through a really
hard time. I wish I wasn't goingthrough this. But the hard times
(44:26):
are what shows you who you trulyare. That's what builds your
character. And it's not to saythat we don't all wanna be in
those good soft wonderfulmoments, but you don't really
appreciate the good unlessyou've gone through the fire.
Right? Like, you have to knowwhat good really means. And good
(44:48):
really means something specialwhen you have a journey like
yours. And it's not to say thatwe want to go through those
journeys, but those are thejourneys that truly make us who
we are. So I know I think that'sbeautiful.
Thank you so much forentertaining my questions.
Rhona Pierce (45:02):
Of course. No. I love this. I might make this
part of the podcast. Like, doyou have any questions for me?
You
Jasmine Escalera (45:08):
should because there's such a you know, I I
think you have such an amazingwealth of knowledge. I have seen
you go through journeys. I knowyour story. I mean, when I first
met you, you were helping peopledo video resumes, and video
resumes were not even a freakingthing. And now we're talking
about this all the time abouthow you have to do video and
(45:29):
blah blah blah.
You were a pioneer, so youshould for sure have people ask
you questions.
Rhona Pierce (45:36):
That's so interesting. I'm back to video
now, not video resumes, but I'mhelping my fellow TA people and
HR people really create videocontent. And I've done it in a
way that I think is although I'mnot a pioneer in it, I think
it's a way that that reallyhelps people be themselves and
be authentic, which has alwaysbeen a thing. But it was so
(45:58):
scary for me to go like becausewhen I was doing video and you
know no one was doing at thattime, I got mad hate of like,
oh, this isn't gonna work blahblah. And I'm like, look at you
people now.
All the people that were sayingnot to do it now offer the
service. Imagine that.
Jasmine Escalera (46:17):
Yeah. No. It's a huge thing. I mean, with job
seekers now,
Rhona Pierce (46:20):
one of
Jasmine Escalera (46:21):
the biggest pieces of advice that I say to
them is like, hey. Look.Everybody is doing what you're
doing, dude. Like, everybody.Everybody's doing what you're
doing.
The base, the minimum right nowis not cutting it. You gotta get
yourself a free Loom account.You gotta start doing some video
thank you notes, all of thatgood stuff. So, yeah, you were
you you started you started thatway before anybody was talking
(46:42):
about that.
Rhona Pierce (46:44):
So it's it's interesting now, all of that,
and I went back to video. AndI'm like, you know what? But
this is what I love. I lovevideo. So I was happy to find a
way to merge helping the TAcommunity, which is what I
really wanted to do.
I think the way you fix thebroken hiring process is you
(47:05):
empower the people that are inpower in the hiring situation.
You don't tell job seekers toadjust and adapt to the broken
things that the industry isdoing. You help and empower the
people, and I think just it'sjust so interesting how all my
husband told me all roads ledback to video.
Jasmine Escalera (47:27):
Well, I think it's, I mean, it's the wave of
the future for sure. And, Imean, I tell people the same
thing where it's like, look.Corporate America is is a poop
show right now, you know, but italways was. So it's really more
so about, like, what is it thatyou want? What is it that you're
looking for?
Let's take our power and controlback and reshape the narrative
for ourselves. Or else, we'rejust sitting around waiting
(47:48):
waiting for the system tochange, and that has never
worked. So I love what you'redoing. It's fabulous. Video is
the wave of the future.
Rhona Pierce (47:57):
Thanks to Jasmine for being on the show. Before we
wrap up, I wanna share somethingthat's been a huge help in my
own reinvention journey,Especially when I need to de
stress and gain clarity. It'scalled Brain FM. They create
science backed functional musicmade specifically for your
(48:17):
brain. Whether I'm taking a walkto clear my head or just trying
to reset after a stressful day,Brain FM helps me refocus and
find balance.
Brain FM isn't sponsoring theshow, but I love it so much that
I became an affiliate so I couldshare it with you. You can get a
30 day free trial by visitingbrain.fm/ronapears. That's brain
(48:44):
dotfm/ronapears. And you'llsupport this show in the
process. The link is in the shownotes.
Now as the THM market starts topick up, we're all looking to
get back in the game strongerthan ever. Over the next few
weeks, I'll be sharing episodespacked with strategies to help
(49:04):
you reinvent your approach totalent acquisition. Don't miss
out. Subscribe to Throughout thePlaybook wherever you get your
podcasts. And if today'sconversation with Jasmine
inspired you, please leave a 5star review.
Reviews help other TA folks findus. Thanks for listening, and
I'll chat with you next week.
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