E2A 091: Career Transitions and Discovering Your Purpose with Myriem Slater 

Episode Transcript

Please note: The transcript is produced by a third-party company from an audio recording and may include transcription errors.

Scott MacMillan

You're listening to the Entrepreneur to Author podcast. 

Announcer

Welcome to the Entrepreneur to Author podcast, the podcast that brings you practical strategies for building authority and growing your business. And now, here's your host, Scott MacMillan.

Scott

My guest today is Myriem Slater. Myriem is a purposeful entrepreneur, career coach, founder of Purposeek Coaching, and the author of Career Changes Chaos, Unless You Find Your Purple Purpose. Myriem, welcome to Entrepreneur-to-Author.

Thank you so much for being here.

Myriem Slater:

Thank you, Scott, for having me here. I'm very excited to be here. I'm very excited to share with people how amazing experience it was to work with you and your team, and how happy I am to talk about my book, Career Changes Chaos, Unless You Find Your Purple Purpose.

So thank you for having me.

Scott:

Oh, wonderful. Yes, of course. I'm so excited to have you.

And, you know, I shared a little bit about you in the intro, but I'd love for our listeners, if you could provide a little bit more about your background and your expertise. And I'd love it if you could share a little bit about your own personal journey of career change that brought you to where you are today.

Myriem:

Absolutely. So as I explain in my book, I was a finance director working for big consulting firms like Accenture, EY, Deloitte, you name it. I've been everywhere, you know, because I was good at what I was doing and people were hiring me and saying, oh, I've seen her presenting to CEOs and CFOs, and she's good.

Let's give her a job. And for me, that was success, you know, from the outside, I was feeling that all I have worked for my whole life, like being a young Moroccan growing up in Casablanca and being pushed by my parents, you know, to achieve great career heights, I would say, because my parents are independent workers. You know, my mom is a pharmacist and my dad is an engineer, but he was a farmer, like engineer farming.

So they were working for themselves as entrepreneurs. But somehow they were always pushing us to become an engineer or, you know, something to do with the corporate world, because this is what they knew at that time. This is what everybody was aiming for.

So that's how I ended up being a finance director in the first place, of course, starting from a finance consultant and then going through the stages. And once I found myself as a finance director in that moment when I was, you know, you're almost 40 and you're looking at yourself, there's a little voice that starts talking to you and say, is this it? Is that what you wanted to accomplish your whole life?

You got it now, you're there, or you can be a CEO then, like, so what? And that's what I was thinking, like, so what? And that's where it hit me hard.

I was like, I worked 15 years, you know, to get to that level only to say, so what? You know, and also what's very important, I think that a lot of people are feeling the same at that level in the corporate world is no matter how successful you look on the outside, inside it's a mess. It is a chaos most of the time because we are not aligned with our purpose, but we don't know it yet.

We don't even know what purpose mean for me at that time. It was all about performance. It was all about showing my skills and getting the validation from people around me.

It was never about understanding who I am and what I really want to do and connect with my true self. And it's after I hit kind of a burnout. Unfortunately, a lot of us will wait for the sign of burnout.

We will not listen to that little voice until the sign of burnout start coming. And this is where we're like, well, now we don't have a choice. We got to listen to that little voice because otherwise it's downhill.

You know what I mean? It's like a survival mode that you have to put yourself through that chaos and face that chaos in order to overcome it. And this is where my purpose seeking journey started, my personal development journey started, and this is where thinking about a career change has started.

Scott:

Wonderful, wonderful. So that really is, I think, helpful context for the discussion that we're going to be having and really enlightens our listeners about what brought you to the place where you developed your expertise and ultimately wrote your book. And so you've recently published your book, Career Changes Chaos Unless You Find Your Purple Purpose.

And I'd love if you could share a little bit about it, if you could let us know who it's written for and what your goal is for your reader. And I think it'd be wonderful, too, if you could share with our listeners, what is a purple purpose?

Myriem:

Absolutely. Gladly. Purple purpose is my whole life right now.

So first, why I wrote this book. I wrote this book for people like me that were feeling or were at that stage where I was feeling lost and feeling that I have to face the chaos despite having a successful career. And I think there are many of us when I started doing my coaching.

This is where I realized I'm not alone in that journey. We are so many. And I wish I had a method because I come from methods, you know, working for Accenture, EY and, you know, designing for financial services and for shared services.

I had that design thinking skill that I have learned. And for me, I miss the structure. I was like, I'm leaving a structure.

I know how to apply the structure and how to shine. But when it comes to career change, there's no structure. There's nothing, no guide I can follow, you know.

And this is why I wanted to write that book. Initially, I didn't have the idea of writing the book. I was more thinking about developing a program, which I did because I felt like it's important to have people in front of me.

It was also a good way for me to learn the coaching approach because I was a finance and finance consultant. I wasn't a coach. And in my journey of learning how to become a coach and wanting to share my experience, I had to coach face to face.

And this is why I decided to go with the program and to have people that have the same experience, the same background as myself and not necessarily being in the leadership. It's just somebody going through a time of his life or her life where they're thinking that this is not where they should be. You know, there is a disconnection between them and their environment or their work or their situation.

And that brings them a lot of anxiety and feel overwhelmed and feeling of being lost. So initially, I've done it that way. To help people.

Then I realized that the coaching program is not that cheap for me to run it, you know, even as a group program and to spend the time and the energy and have a team behind me that will help me and support me, prepare for the program and the content, etc., was costly. And then I was like, initially, I've done that because I want as much people as possible to have access to my method, because when I was going through the career change, I wish I had a method, somebody to hold my hands and tells me it's OK to feel the chaos right now, but there is a way out and here's where to start. And that for me would have been an amazing thing to have.

And that's why I wrote this book and I'm sharing what I call the Purpose Seed Coaching Method, because it's a method that I have created based on my experience, based on what I lived in all my career change journey, but also based on the experience that I had of problem solving when I was working in finance and they come to me with a problem and I apply the design thinking approach in order to resolve or design a solution. And I applied exactly that same process to career coaching.

And that's why my method is unique, because it's made in a unique way by a unique approach and a unique background in the coaching environment. And talking about unique, this is where I'm going to talk to you about Purple Purpose. It leads me to Purple Purpose.

So what Purple Purpose means is actually your unique purpose. What I mean by that, the color purpose is color between red, you know, like the overwhelming red of the passion and then the blue of the calm and the easy times. And when you go through your purpose journey, it is a roller coaster.

It is periods of blue and periods of reds. So and in all that, there is you, your unique self with a unique purpose. And that's why I call it a Purple Purpose, because your purple shade is different to anybody else's purpose shade.

My purpose in life is different from yours, is different from anybody else. And whatever I have lived in my life so far to get me to that point is unique to me. And therefore, my purpose seeking journey will be also unique to myself.

Nobody's going to walk in my shoes. However, a lot of people will hurt me and hold my hand. And that's quite different.

Scott:

That's beautiful. I really love that metaphor of purple and the two shades that make it up. And I'm also glad that you talked about the idea of structure, because, you know, I talk a lot about the importance of structure and frameworks for communicating our ideas and our IP in a book.

And in your book, you talk about the four P's, right? You talk about purpose, perspective, prosperity and plan. Could you share a little bit more about this framework and why it's so useful for your readers?

Myriem:

Absolutely. So I'm going to be quite short in explaining that, because I'm usually someone who loves talking. But it's so that's that's the power of the method is to show you with a few words, it makes sense.

So purpose is the first P. The most important P is who we are, right, is our authentic self. And it's what we are meant to be, what we are meant to do and what we are meant to become.

And that shapes our purpose. And then when we kind of start to see clarity of what our purpose is, we need to change our perspective. This is where the second P comes, because usually with our old experiences, we come from a perspective.

We see things through the lens of a particular perspective that we developed with our experience. And we need to be open about, you know, changing our perspective. And it comes with changing our mindset, working on our mindset, developing a growth mindset.

I talked about the growth mindset in the book. And once you have that right mindset and that clear vision that comes from your purpose, then prosperity comes along. When people say, I'm going to sit down and manifest my prosperity.

Well, sorry, it doesn't work like that. Unfortunately, it can come from prayers. Of course, somebody was very faithful.

When I pray, for sure, I believe in things coming my way when I pray. But it comes with actions as well. And so manifesting prosperity basically come along when your purpose and your perspective are there, the new perspective.

You have a purpose that gives you a clear vision. You have a purpose, a perspective that gives you the right mindset to go after the opportunities that start to manifest. The opportunities are always there, but you don't see them.

This is what we call manifesting prosperity. It's actually just starting to see the opportunities that are all around you. And that's what I call manifesting prosperity.

And finally, when you see these beautiful opportunities coming your way, it is very important that you take actions, because if you just look at it from far, it's going to stay in the intention. It's going to stay in the dream version. It will never come into your life as being a concrete things, an opportunity to be transformed into a business and potentially to reflect into your life.

And that's why the 4P is action. Without actions, everything stays in your mind and it doesn't come to you.

Scott:

In your reality, that's what it is in a nutshell. Well, that's that's such a great framework. I love that.

And you're right. The simplicity or the benefit of a framework like that is it breaks down what can be a very complex idea into something that's very manageable and easy for your readers to understand. I'd love to shift a little bit and talk about the writing process.

How did you find the writing process to get the ideas and your experience out of your head and onto the page?

Myriem:

Oh, well, for me, it was surprisingly very easy. And that, again, comes down to discovering my authentic self. I remember when I was a child, when I went through my journey of discovering who I think I am, when I was a child, I was always drawn to writing, drawing, even writing poetry.

And I was going to my parents and say, you know what? In school, they exposed my drawing. They read my poetry, my I don't know how to say it in English, poetry, my poems.

Scott:

Yeah, poetry. Yeah, poetry.

Myriem:

And my parents was like, yeah, great, great. Congratulations. We are a science family.

You know, we are a family of doctors and engineers. So that's a very nice hobby. Well done.

You know, and I remember that. And I was like, that was my true passion when I was a child. And I never worked on that ever again because I didn't feel the support when I was a child doing what I did at that time.

And I listened to my parents and I followed the path that society was expecting from me to end up as a finance director. And then I realized, reconnecting with myself, that I have that writer in me. And that's why it was easy for me to write.

Scott:

That's wonderful, because it can go either way, right? Some people really struggle to communicate and get their ideas out of their head. So it's wonderful that that came naturally to you and that you enjoyed that process, because, you know, like I say, it can go either way.

What about the publishing process? What did you find most interesting or most surprising or challenging? What was your experience getting the book from the point where you let it go to the point where it was available in market for your readers?

Myriem:

That was an extraordinary experience for me. And that was also thanks to your team, I must say. You know, I'm someone who is always truthful.

I will say that it's great when it's great. And when it's not great, I will also say it's not great. That comes from my Moroccan background.

My Aussie husband goes like, no, people don't want to hear when it's not great. You keep it to yourself. But, you know, in the culture I was brought in, it is OK to say it's no good or there is opportunities of improvements because this is how we learn.

This is how we grow. And it's the culture. So for me, when I say it was an amazing experience with your team, I mean, and the reason why is because I have never done anything like editing before.

And going through the process with you, I felt like I've done it before. It didn't feel like a new experience to me. It didn't feel like something overwhelming.

Usually when you start something new. When I started my coaching journey, I was a bit stressed and anxious, obviously overwhelmed by it, because there's a syndrome of imposter that comes along. Obviously, everybody experiences that.

And there is a lot of uncertainties, of course, with the journey. But when you go through, again, it comes down to structure and process with somebody who knows what they're doing and make you feel comfortable inside that process. That's how you enjoy the experience.

So for me, it was, above all, an enjoyable experience. And going through the edition taught me some things about also writing, because obviously I am not a writer from, how do you say, from a training or from a profession. Yes.

Learning these little things about, you know, sometimes I would write a chapter and not do a conclusion. For me, it's OK, because I'm in the idea, I'm in the content. I'm not in, you know, there's missing a conclusion here or there is a transition here that is a bit rough.

And, you know, and this is where I learn that there is a point into editing a book, making sure that it flows in the right way. And the iteration is very important. And I'm somebody that is not very patient, I have to say, because I'm a purposeful entrepreneur and I do many things and I have a hybrid career.

Everything has to be fast and at a fast pace. And I come from that background as well. I've been conditioned by Accenture to deliver, you know, a hundred deliveries in a very short time.

And therefore, I kept that, yeah, quick, quick, quick. And actually, it didn't bother me to working with you. And I iterate and iterate and read again and redo it again.

And that tells you that it is not about me being not patient. It's about me enjoying the process. So time, repetition, all of this doesn't matter when you are doing something that you truly enjoy.

Scott:

That's really well said. And you're right. Developing a book is one of those few remaining things that that do take a little bit of time to go from start to finish.

So thank you for sharing that. I'd love to talk to you about your business goals for writing your book. We all have goals for our reader.

We want to help them in some fashion. But we also have goals for ourselves and for our business. How are you thinking about your business goals when you began writing your book?

And how are you using your book in your business today to support your objectives?

Myriem:

Well, I am an entrepreneur. So as much as I want to help people, because that's my main objective. If I hear that somebody has bought my book, I'm super happy about it.

And I never think about the money. It's afterwards. You know, when I when when it's the same for my businesses, when I conclude a business and I'm going through signing a contract and everything, it makes me really excited about, you know, the journey ahead.

And then as a former finance director, I am trained to be quite sassy and to know that finances are very important, that cash flow is very important and that to make a business sustainable, you need to have finance literacy. And in one of my podcasts, Purpose Cast, I have a podcast where I share people's experiences going through career change and being in the entrepreneurship world. I highlight the fact that I am not here to give you finance tips, right?

This is not my role as a career coach, but I'm here to tell you that it's important to have a little bit of finance literacy in order for you to be able to run your business from a passion, but also run your business from a business perspective and how you can make your business sustainable, because if you want to be out there, you want to keep sharing your content. You're going to make it sustainable. It has to be to become something that will bring you money and help you develop your content to reach even more people.

And that's basically what it is. And for me, my goal is to sell as much book as I can, because that would be helping me to prepare my next book, because I don't know if, Scott, you felt that. But once you wrote a book, you want to write again and again and again.

It's like it becomes something like that experience, a little bit addictive. Exactly. So so for me, in order to reach that level, that means I need to sell as much books as I can.

And that's the business target for me. It comes from a purpose, but also make sure that it's sustainable financially.

Scott:

Perfect. That's that's the perfect marriage, right? If if you're enjoying it and you're getting results and it all fits together very beautifully.

I wanted to ask you for those aspiring purpose seekers who maybe feel stuck in what they're doing now in their current career. What advice can you share to help give them hope?

Myriem:

That's a very good question. I have so many advice to give. That's why it's I have to think about my answers because it's all racing through my mind, many things.

I have so much to say. But if I have to pick one thing, I would say to start. Just to start with one little thing, as little as, for example, getting my book.

And reading my book. That's the first little step. Start by reading, start by seeking knowledge.

And for me, it started like that in my journey when I was completely lost and I didn't know. I didn't even know that career coaching existed. And I didn't even believe in coaching because I came from a very different background.

The thing that has helped me understand what coaching is about and get the help I need is through reading. It's through getting knowledge about, you know, people who are going through the same experience or career coaches. It's very important to get that help.

It's very difficult to go through the journey on your own. I want to say to people, you don't have to do it on your own. And it doesn't have to be to cost you money.

For example, my book, the reason I made the book for my program, it doesn't cost you much to buy a book and start reading the book. And from that, you will see the journey of purpose seeking will just open in front of you. And you don't you will not want to miss it.

Scott:

Oh, wonderful. Well, listen, we're going to put a link to the book in the show notes, but how else can people get in touch with you to learn more about what you do and perhaps also get some assistance with their career changes?

Myriem:

Sure. They can find me on LinkedIn, my favorite platform, because as a former professional, I have a quite a wide network there. And I have a newsletter that I share on a weekly basis with my purpose seekers that I call the purpose seekers, my community.

So they can find me on LinkedIn and the Myriem Slater and they contact me there or they can email me at Myriem @ purposeekcoaching.com.au or they can find us on our website purposeekcoaching.com.au. There is a form that you can fill to get in touch with the team. And of course, who wants to work directly with me, I would be notified.

Scott:

Wonderful. Well, listen, we're going to put all of those links in the show notes so that they're really easy to access. Myriem, thank you so much for joining us and for being so generous with your time.

I've found it really valuable. And I'm really appreciative, too, that you shared your experience and your expertise with us.

Myriem:

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me here.

Scott:

As we wrap up this episode of Entrepreneur to Author, remember this. Now is the time, time to write, time to publish and time to grow. I'm Scott McMillan.

Until next time.