In this inspiring episode, Anna Urnova, owner of Anna Urnova Executive Coaching, shares how she gained world-class experience as a corporate leader and used this to help her clients navigate transition and change.
You will discover:
– The joy in pursuing a better way
– Why so many men and women feel stuck in their career
– How entrepreneur and employee are no longer your only two options
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach. And I am here with yet another high demand coach. It is the one and only, Anna Urnova. She’s an award winning career coach, and she helps mid career professional men break free from being stuck feeling undervalued and burning out in unfulfilling jobs by empowering them to pivot successfully and thrive without having to start all over. Getting her business up and running took a lot of trial and error, but still, thanks to her commitment in the career transition method that she’s developed, she fully recovered from her losses and even tripled her investments in just three years. Now, the same colleagues who initially doubted her decision to start her own business come asking to asking her for advice on taking their careers away from their nine to five. So Anna, I’m really excited to have you here in my book that was written for founders, I actually start the very first stage is what I call the dissatisfied employee. There’s this, this kind of moment that folks reach, and it might be a dissatisfied student, but there’s this level of dissatisfaction that builds up, and I heard so much of that in your intro and as I was researching the site, watching the webinars that you’ve put together. But I want to dive into this a little bit and really take a look at why is it so, particularly men, particularly kind of mid career. Why is it that so many men feel stuck in their career?
Anna Urnova
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Scott, first of all, thank you for having me on your show. I’m really excited to speak to your audience. And yes, why? Mid career is often the point where, not just men. All of us find ourselves dissatisfied with being an employee, having a boss, following someone else’s guideline right, building and growing someone else’s business. And we are thinking of maybe we want to, you know, have our own thing. Well, actually, there are a lot of there’s a big body of work and research about mid career and midlife, basically what happens to people in midlife. But to cut it short, I would say that in midlife, it’s about actually releasing the expectations of be carrying so far, or having fulfilled them, releasing them and becoming our own man, our own men, our own woman, our own person. And this is becoming your own man, right? This is often why people want to run their own project or their own business, right? So this is the the short answer, so to say. And of course, this is what people are missing often in, you know, environment, corporate environment, for instance, like a lot of my clients, come from there or working for someone else because they are it’s never your own right. No matter how hard you work, you always working for someone else. You always a part of their system, their agenda, and you know, all that comes with it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So one of the things that ala used to kind of help people kind of determine, am I just frustrated with my job, or am I kind of a pre founder in the making, is to try something else, right? Try another job. Or if you have a really lousy boss that’s not a midlife crisis, that’s just a really lousy boss, right? Or if you’re in a company that that doesn’t really that’s not a culture fit, or if you are in a job that’s just not challenging you anymore, sometimes the route is a more challenging job, and I think what we’re searching for in that is, is this idea of fulfillment, right? Getting something, you know, where we’re not showing up just for a paycheck, but we’re showing up for work that actually matters. Do you have to start your own thing to have your own thing? Do you have to be an entrepreneur to achieve that?
Anna Urnova
Well, I believe there are many different ways to start your own thing. Entrepreneurship is one of the areas, which is, you know, the one we know a lot about, but there are many others. And I believe the past maybe decade, and especially maybe fast last five years made a whole range of options available to people that don’t just fit very neatly into either you’re employed or your entrepreneur or founder. Like the whole spectrum is opened, where people are self employed or freelancers or running their own projects on the side, which is now a big thing, by the way, and many other things where people are running their own thing. I think that’s like, my own thing is important, how it looks like it’s less important, but it is important and and really feeling, especially what I find with my audience, with my clients, is that the feeling that you’re building your own legacy,
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah,
Anna Urnova
This is something that of has your name written on it. So to say, literally on or just like you, you feel that there is your name on it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. One of the really scary things about that is many times it feels like we have to start over to do it right. It feels like even just going to a new job, there’s a lot of just kind of hitting Re. Set and in many ways, is kind of what we’re looking for, but it can also be really scary. Do you have to start over? Is that fear founded? How could, how do you help folks really walk that out?
Anna Urnova
Well, I believe this whole starting over thing is, is a myth. It’s not true. It’s it’s a fallacy, really. And a lot, a lot of people are repeating this fallacy, because there’s a there’s there’s an idea that there’s one way to build a career, and when we are midlife, and midlife, let’s say 35 you know, 55 roughly life. So around 40 years of age plus minus, right? We’ve already had, like, we’ve already climbed the ladder, right? We’ve already had and my clients had 2025, years of experience, and we build it a certain way. There was a, you know, a choice, there was an education. Then there was the work experience and all, you know, the climbing and the failures and the winds and, you know, the gray hair and everything, right? And when we think about the next career, a lot of people assume that it’s, it’s the same way as you built this, so back to zero, and they start, you know, from there. And it’s not like that at all, because at midlife, what really matters is your experience, and it never goes back to zero, right? So, and the trick here is to think differently. And what I often suggest is a, you know, a kind of visual, visual metaphor. So to say, imagine that you build something from the Lego pieces. You know that the game we all play with kids and Lego, right? And in order to build something new, you need to deconstruct it first, right? And then you collect something new. So imagine our career is we collection all these Lego pieces and we build something. Let’s say I don’t know a logistics manager or head of logistics department, right? And it looks certain way, and but then we don’t just get rid of all the pieces and start by a new set. No, we just deconstructed. And we have all these pieces that actually are skill sets, pieces of experience, successful projects, already important parts of who you are, of your identity, and then we just put them together in a different way. So it’s never back to zero. They don’t disappear. It’s just about being creative and applying them in a new way. Yeah, and so I believe this back to zero thing is a myth, and it’s not true. You’re building on what you have. You have the opportunity of building on what you have. You never lose it. In fact, what I also find with my clients is it’s also important to integrate the personal aspect, because a lot of my clients find that in corporate for instance, they are only using part of who they are, and they may be disregarding the personal identity they may be disregarding parts of their passion, stuff like that. So at midlife, you not only you can use what you’ve acquired already in building your career, but you also can integrate those other pieces that often somehow either kept in the shadow or they you know, they’re not seen as useful, but now you can integrate. So actually, it’s not even from zero, it’s even more than maybe what you acquired so far in your corporate so it could be a much richer, fuller, whole experience. So to say.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s so true, and I’ve seen that play out so many times, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve got an interesting question for you. There’s there’s a question I’ve identified, and there’s a question that you’ve identified that I think a lot of people would mistake as the same, but I think they’re different. And so a lot of folks that are facing this kind of midlife crisis, this dissatisfied employee stage, you’ve you’ve very accurately identified, are asking the question, isn’t there more, right? Isn’t there more to this? And what I’ve found in very successful founders, you know, years after they’ve started. If we look back at this stage for them, they ask a slightly different question, not always, but most of the time, and that is, isn’t there a better way, right? And so one of the things that I’ve seen about founders who succeed is that it’s not just about more, even though that’s a huge, huge part of it, it’s a very specific version of that, of, isn’t there a better way to whatever? Now that might be a better way to treat your employees, a better way of, you know, building widgets, a better way of selling widgets, a better way. Of course, there’s lots of different reasons why, why founders are passionate about what they do, but there’s this kind of essential passion about what you do. Have you found that to be true in those that are kind of wrestling with this more strategy that end up starting their own business, nonprofit, or whatever it may be.
Anna Urnova
Yeah, I love what. I love this reframe about, is there a better way? Because I believe, when we ask, is there more when we talk more about the emotional side of things and sometimes the financial side of things, that’s what I found. More than there’s more fun to be had, there’s more freedom to be had, there’s more maybe free time. There is more happiness, the more satisfaction, right? It’s not about doing more and so there is. It’s really about a better way, because rather than maybe spending 80% doing something boring and that you don’t. Like you can actually channel your energy and spend less time doing but it will be more productive because you’re doing what you’re really good at, what you’re enjoying, and as a result, you get a better return on your investment. So to say, right? So yeah, I absolutely love it. So I do think that is there a better way? Is a very good is a very good way of putting it right? So is there a better way to be who you really are and use all your skills and abilities to achieve what you really want? That’s that’s the thing as well, many people, as you say, but I believe, generally, when we say midlife crisis, it’s a little bit an old fashioned term. It does mean dissatisfaction, but then a lot, in the old way, it all always meant, it’s almost like something wrong with you, right where I believe it’s a it’s a call, it’s a wake up call. That’s that says, Man, there’s more available to you right now. There’s an opportunity right now. And as you said, to do things better. Yeah. And think, what do you really want? What kind of legacy do you want? Because if you continue going the way you’re going, even if you’re doing a successful job, and you won’t be made redundant and all that, right? You are building someone else’s legacy. And so when you’re 65 or 70, you might be disappointed because you didn’t have time to actually build what you wanted, right? Yeah, so that’s, that’s the call that just says, Hey, man, there’s a fork on the road and there is an opportunity now, which is good news, right? To actually go somewhere when you’d be a much happier man, more fulfilled and and potentially will have a better income as well, right? Yeah, because you will, as you say, you will use your resources in the better way, right? Yeah. So I believe that’s, that’s what the crisis so called on midlife gear mid career is about and there is a new opportunity of upgrade, as I call it.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love it. What a way to reframe it. So Anna, there’s a question I’d like to ask all my guests, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna throw it your way as well, and that is, what is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Anna Urnova
Yeah, well, Scott, you know, I’ve been thinking about it really, and what I believe, I wish I known when I decided to go on my own, was that this the really key to success. The way I see it, especially as an entrepreneur, as a co running, someone running successful coaching business, is actually simplify and specialize. Because what I found is that a lot of people, for instance, when they especially like we just discussed, thinking, Okay, I want to have my own thing. They think they need to know more. For instance, coaches, they they want, you know, to be, you know, add more complexity. Maybe, you know, solve more complex problems. But it’s actually the more you specialize on solving a particular problem, it could be a complex problem, like, for instance, this midlife dissatisfaction. Mid coaching is a complex problem. But as long as you specialize, and you do just that, it’s really much easier. So to say, to success, it’s still, you know, a rough ride. So to say, but it’s you have a higher chance of succeeding, rather than when you’re trying to have a broader experience. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. The broadness is actually a way to just be distracted and overwhelmed. And I really wish I known it when I just was starting or even thinking about it, because I always thought that the more the broader you experience, then you know, the more you know, the more problems you can solve, the more different clients you can you can satisfy, the better. Well, it’s actually, turns out that it’s, I don’t know if it’s your experience as well, Scott, but that’s what I found. And I wish someone just told me, and it’s like you said, it’s about better way of doing things, isn’t it a better way? And it’s simpler, and the more you like simplify, you also, that’s the way to master because then you have your own 10,000 hours, and you kind of, you know, you’re just doing that thing over and over and over again, and that’s where you actually become, you know, the best of it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so good. That’s so good. Anna, there’s, there’s folks listening to this and and they’re just there that they feel stuck, but they’ve they’re feeling something that they haven’t felt in a while. And that’s hope, right? Hope that there’s, there’s another way, there’s that, but they know they’re at the fork in the road. They want someone to help them walk them through. How can they find out more about you and the work that you do and connect with you?
Anna Urnova
Well, the easiest way to find is my my website, which is my name annaurnova.com , and there what I recommend that you go there? Well, first of all, you can read about what I do and see, does it resonate? Does it do you recognize, you know, the profile of my clients? And then the easiest way is, like, there is a free training there, and you just can go there. And that’s my masterclass, where I summarized the essence of what I do, and I also summarized so called Five steps, or five shift of successful mid career change. I explain what the mid career is about, and explain the signs and symptoms of crisis, where, again, you can see if it resonates a lot. And then I, you know, outline the exactly five steps I’m helping my clients to make right. And if you, for instance, you read it all, you listen to it all, and you. Is overwhelmed. You don’t know how to apply the steps, because some people just able to apply them. And they then call me and they say that they’re happy, great. But if you struggle, then you also can get in touch with me. You can even book a free call if you you know qualify I specified in masterclass, and we can speak, and there’s a 45 minutes, basically free, very high coaching call, and a lot of people find it very helpful to, you know, get clarity about where they need to go next.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. That’s so good. Well, Anna, I just appreciate you being on the show. Just an honor and privilege. Having you here today, what a fun conversation. And for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Guest Name
Anna Urnova is an award-winning career coach. She helps mid-career professional men break free from being stuck, feeling undervalued, and burning out in unfulfilling jobs, empowering them to pivot successfully and thrive without starting over. Getting her business up and running took a lot of trial and error. Still, thanks to her commitment and the career transition method she developed, she fully recovered from her losses and even tripled her investments in just three years! Now, the same colleagues who initially doubted her decision to start her own business come asking for advice on taking their careers away from their 9 to 5.
Want to learn more about Anna Urnova’s work at Anna Urnova Executive Coaching and watch her free video The 5-Step Mid-Career Overhaul For Men? Check out her website at https://annaurnova.com/
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