Lane Change

It's been a while since our last episode of Lane Change, but many of you might've noticed how many Lane Changers used their COVID time to build an audience, a personal brand, and ultimately a new direction. So I've launched a new show and it's called Creator Habits. It's about the habits that help you discover new ideas and build and grow an audience. Please check it out and subscribe!  Most episodes are under 20 minutes, and Season 1 features podcasters & writers. It's available wherever you find your podcasts.  Web: http://creatorhabits.club/podcast Apple: https://apple.co/3H5Q4ih Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3CbLAmJ Google Pod: https://bit.ly/3wxjJMd undefined

That's a wrap! Thanks for listening to season 2! We are taking a summer hiatus but excited to come back in a few months with something new. Stay tuned to this feed to check it out!

Making a lane change from corporate work to the startup ecosystem is just the tip of the iceburg for today's guest. After founding a startup, and working for countless others across diverse industries, Adam Oskwarek found himself trying to figure out what was next during COVID. Having spent 4 years researching climate change as a personal hobby, Adam took this time to translate his research into writing. In the process, he became an accidental “creator” of Zopeful, a course that makes climate knowledge bite-sized and accessible to all. In this episode Adam shares tips on continuous learning, creating habits that support going through transition & uncertainty, and the work of simplifying complex topics like climate change. Adam shares what it looks like to launch a climate email course from creation to promotion. About Adam Adam is a dad of two, lives in London, and loves learning, exploring, fixing broken stuff and uncertainty. On the work front he's invested 10 years working in startups and scale-ups across a range of sectors including edtech, fintech, SaaS and e-commerce. He's worn many hats but mostly in Ops, Growth, Marketing and Product. Prior to that he worked in large corporations until he could stand no more. He believes that intentional culture and people are main competitive advantages for 21st century companies. Most recently he's been digging into all things climate related, following 4 years of trying to reduce his own footprint and connect the dots on how we, as a society, dig our way out of the challenge we've created. Always hopeful, he aims to bring energy, calmness under pressure, care, thoughtfulness and light-heartedness to everything he does. Still a work-in-progress. Follow Zopeful Website Instagram Twitter Follow Adam Twitter LinkedIn

Making a lane change from management consulting to tech may not seem like a huge stretch. But today’s guest took her next big offer to become a senior product manager and traded it in to become a creator. Based on her own lane change into product management, Linda Zhang started writing a newsletter to help early-stage product managers learn product lessons and navigate getting a foot in the door as a PM. Soon enough, her newsletter grew into a paid toolkit. In this episode Linda shares valuable tips on managing a career transition, from positioning to job applications, as well as tactical insights from her journey as a creator. She discusses growing out her newsletter, as well as validating, pricing, and growing her product toolkit offering. About Linda Linda Zhang is the creator behind the Product Toolkit and the Product Lessons newsletter, both of which help individuals learn about and become product managers. Linda started her career as a consultant at Bain & Company before transitioning into a role at Snap and eventually becoming the Group Product Manager at Faire. She turned down a senior Product Management offer at Instagram to strike out on her own as a content creator. Product Lessons & Product Toolkit provide examples, actionable tips and templates to fast-track a product management career. Follow Linda Website Newsletter Twitter LinkedIn

Jas spent 5 years as a private banker in Sydney. After a series of burnouts, Jas turned to modeling and later acting, spending hundreds of hours preparing casting call videos & traveling to shoots around the world. When COVID hit, Jas was living in Germany and his life ground to a halt. He asked himself, “What can I do to take more control over my life?” As he began posting some of the videos he created about managing mental health, followers started asking him about his seemingly professional video set up. It just so happened that all those casting call videos had shown him how to create a professional look regardless of the setting and equipment! Thus began Joy with Jas, a course and community helping creators and small business owners create home studios, be more confident on camera, and build relationships over video. This podcast is not only a lane-changing story but also includes some of Jas’s actionable tips on working in front of the camera. Follow Jas: Website: https://joywithjas.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/joywithjas Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joywithjasvideo/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joywithjasvideo

Sara No Socks Sara spent almost 20 years in healthcare - switching jobs from administrator to nurse to corporate innovation and amassing degrees all along the way. But while working on the innovation team, she realized she’d rather be doing the job of the designer on the team. So she quit her job without a plan, only to find that building up a new skillset and trying to get clients at the start of COVID was not going to plan. Sara knew that she couldn’t be the only person in this position but she couldn’t find anyone else being open and vulnerable about it. So many creators claimed to be self-sustaining. So she decided to share her journey online, first on Instagram, then on Twitter and YouTube and in her podcast Talks With SaraNoSocks, where she has honest conversations with other creatives about their emotional, mental and financial struggles. Her journey chronicling her own struggles, led her to start an entire community helping emerging creatives. A self-described “chronic re-starter”, Sara, like many of our guests on the podcast, sees her career as additive, not a straight line. Follow Sara Website Twitter Podcast Community

Every creator and brand relies on building out an audience in order to grow their business. But what about a community? Creating a community goes one step deeper, helping audience members create bonds with each other. Communities also create deeper loyalty, can drive insights for the kinds of products or content to produce, and becoming a big point of differentiation. Danielle Maveal is a former goldsmith who became one of the first community managers at Etsy, before creating engaged communities for organizations like Airbnb and Lyft. In this episode, she shares tips and tricks for starting, growing and measuring a community. Follow her at: https://www.daniellexo.com/

Mindset Fitness expert Lissy Alden shares tips and frameworks on managing and improving your mindset while going through a career transition. As CEO and Founder of MYNDY, a mental fitness company, Lissy Alden helps professionals build confidence, optimism, resilience, and energy into their lives so they can thrive both personally and professionally. In this episode you'll learn that Mental Fitness is the practice of strengthening your mind to deal with the ups and downs of your life. We discuss: How to start crafting a mental fitness practice that works for your life. How to incorporate insights from psychology to help motivate and overcome your lows when you are going through a career transition. How to use mental fitness as a way to explore and make decisions about your career. What types of small steps help you make meaningful change in your day-to-day experience.

We’re kicking off our expert series with storytelling coach Anna Darian who shares tips on telling your story while going through a career transition.

Before becoming a podcaster, Laura Joyce Davis spent over a decade as a memoirist, writer, and stay-at-home mom. She was already familiar with the life and discipline of a creative, but when she turned to making a daily podcast during the pandemic, creating content became the family's main business and source of revenue.

Before becoming a filmmaker, Serena Schuler worked in New York in the tech industry for start-ups as well as companies including IBM and Yahoo! But an after-hours interest in screenwriting and witnessing the questionable treatment of bright, ambitious women in the industry helped inspire her to move to San Francisco and join a film incubator. These days, as an award-winning writer, director and creator, Serena's films have been screened at festivals internationally, winning multiple audience awards. Recently she has taken the insights from her previous work experiences into her newest project, Makeshift Society, an original TV comedy series about a rising star who’s been booted from the tech bro world. In this episode, we not only discuss changing lanes from tech to filmmaking, but talk about carving out an innovative path as an independent creator. From building an audience to financing her own work, Serena has used some of the strategies of the tech industry to push her vision forward without waiting for a studio or network to give her the green light.

V. Tiarrá was a successful doctor and the medical director at a large primary care organization in South Florida, but divorce and a diagnosis with Lyme disease led her to rediscover her passion for music. Since then she has developed a smart and soulful R&B/hip hop/pop sound, with lyrics that reflect on the social conditions of the world, ranging from politics, money, feminism, to love. In this episode, Tiarrá talks about finding her true voice, following her passion, and gaining the courage to step away from the path that was expected of her, even when the people around were asking her to get a “real job”.

For many of us, COVID was a career wake up call. Companies pivoted, laid-off employees urgently looked for how to make a living, and it seemed like everyone started writing, podcasting, making TikToks, and looking for new ways to marry their passions with their careers. This is Lane Change, a show about the messy process of switching careers, pivoting businesses, and owning your story. In our second season we celebrate rich, complex careers, focusing on musicians, filmmakers, influencers and everything in between - many of whom transformed their 5-9 into their 9-5. Subscribe to Lane Change Pod wherever you get your podcasts. Lane Change season two drops February 11th.

For many of us, COVID was a career wake up call. Companies pivoted, laid-off employees urgently looked for how to make a living, and it seemed like everyone started writing, podcasting, TikToking, and looking for new ways to marry their passions with their careers. This is Lane Change, a show about the messy process of switching careers, pivoting businesses, and owning your story. In our second season we celebrate rich, complex careers, focusing on musicians, filmmakers, influencers and everything in between - people whose 9-5 just didn’t cut it. Subscribe to Lane Change Pod wherever you get your podcasts. Lane Change Season Two drops February 4th.

Alina Serebryany started hosting Lane Change and thinking about what it means to work on your story as she was pivoting her startup through COVID. In this episode, we talk about what it looks like to support people working behind the scenes, recognizing the importance of having voice, and why there’s no shame in changing directions.

Hailey Swartz was taking a sabbatical from her high stress career managing product for the likes of Alibaba and AOL, when she started exploring different opportunities for new businesses. When COVID hit, she found herself at the helm of not 1, but 2 of these new ventures!

We're taking a short break for Thanksgiving & giving our thanks to all of you. As we work on our second season, we'd love and appreciate your feedback and stories. Go to our website to take our survey or nominate a lane changer! www.lanechangepod.com

Shimite Obialo was running an art-focused membership community for diverse creatives and professionals in New York City while balancing her day job as a corporate lawyer. As Shimite was set to launch the first physical location of Anoko House, COVID lockdowns started rolling in. In this episode, we talk about building communities for people of color, using community as the driving force for inspiration, and the difference between taking time to rest versus giving up on what matters to you.

Amanda Signorelli was the managing partner of one of the oldest and most iconic steakhouses in Las Vegas when COVID hit. It also happened to be her own family’s business. When the restaurant shut down, Amanda moved quickly to re-envision what fine dining could look like in a socially distanced world. In this episode we talk about navigating family dynamics, establishing your own identity as a leader, retraining restaurant staff for ecommerce, plus Amanda shares her framework for decision making.

Danielle Payton was running a PR firm for beauty salons and fitness studios. Rachel Siegel was helping major fashion brands and startups with their digital strategy. When COVID hit and their clients were directly impacted, the two former colleagues teamed up to create a new kind of fitness experience. In this episode we talk about finding a cofounder during COVID, lessons of resilience from early career challenges, and creating a community that empowers independent trainers.

Maren Kate was building her 3rd tech-enabled company when COVID hit and she realized that the funding landscape was unstable. So she set out to write a book supporting remote workers instead. In this episode we talk about the power of starting small, doing one thing at a time, and the process of writing a book!

Jen Saxton was wrapping up an M&A deal when COVID hit. The same week as the transaction was set to close, she launched a second company into a quickly changing and uncertain landscape. In this episode we talk about dealing with uncertainty, downsizing and subsequently growing a remote team, and finding ways to juggle both family and professional pursuits.

When COVID hit, Marina was running a boutique recruiting firm and working with some of Canada’s most elite companies. Her initial social media posts after COVID hit helped uncover a career direction she wasn’t expecting. In this episode we discuss strategies for finding a new direction, telling your story and relying on your community to find a new way.

Rachael Kim was just getting her company Project Untaboo off the ground when COVID hit. In this episode, we talk about what it looks like to recommit to your mission / vision even when as the path to revenue & fundraising becomes less clear.

Inbal Baum had a successful culinary tourism company. When COVID hit, bookings suddenly evaporated and she was faced with the question of what to do next. In this episode we explore how she suddenly found herself building a technology company with her husband and what she's learned as a repeat lane changer.

Introducing Lane Change, a show about entrepreneurs & individuals making radical changes during COVID.