Special Guest on the
Leader's Lab Podcast
Kristen Zavo is a career coach, keynote speaker, and author of the international best-seller Job Joy: Your Guide to Success, Meaning, and Happiness in Your Career. In her coaching practice she works to help high-achieving professionals land jobs, launch businesses, and build careers they love.
After nearly two decades working in top Fortune 500 companies, Kristen found herself having checked all the career boxes but feeling the unhappiest she had ever felt.
She bravely quit her finance job in New York City and within six months she had landed a job and promotion in an entirely new sector. Colleagues and professionals in her network took note and began turning to her for help to do the same.
What began as a career coaching side-hustle turned into her most fulfilling pivot to help thousands secure fulfilling jobs. Currently, Kristen helps corporate-climbing professionals clients define success on their own terms, land their dream job, and build a career they love through her 9-month live-coaching and mentorship program Find Your Job Joy.
The thought of making the transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship can be both exhilarating and terrifying. It's a big decision, and not one to be taken lightly. But if you're serious about making the switch, there are a few mindset shifts you'll need to make first. Here's what you need to know.
Making the Mindset Shift from Corporate Employee to Entrepreneur
The first shift you'll need to make is from linear thinking to exponential thinking. In the corporate world, we're taught to think in linear terms. Kristen shares more about this in today's podcast episode.
We're given a problem and tasked with finding the most efficient way to solve it. This leads us to think in terms of one plus one equals two—but that's not how businesses grow.
To be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to think in terms of one plus one equals ten or even one plus one equals a hundred. You need to be constantly looking for ways to leverage your resources and grow your business exponentially.
The second shift is from short-term thinking to long-term thinking. In corporate life, it's all about meeting quarterly targets and hitting your numbers for the month. As an entrepreneur, you need to think about the long game. You need to be patient and invest your time and energy into building something sustainable that will create value for years or even decades to come.
Finally, you'll need to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is when we believe our skills and talents are set in stone—we're either good at something or we're not. A growth mindset is when we believe that our skills and talents can be developed over time with effort and practice.
In today's episode, Kristen shared how she believes that entrepreneurship is the biggest personal development course.
Having a growth mindset helps with this shift from and is an essential mindset for entrepreneurs as it allows us to embrace challenge and failure as part of the learning process instead of seeing them as roadblocks on our path to success.
Conclusion
Making the transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur is no small feat—but it's definitely doable with the right mindset. By shifting your thinking from linear to exponential, short-term to long-term, and fixed to growth, you'll be well on your way to successful entrepreneurship.
So what are you waiting for? It's time to make the jump and Kristen is here to help!
Recognized as a thought leader in her industry who's been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo News, Real Simple and CBS News, among others, Kristen is here to help you make that switch from corporate to entrepreneur.
Beyond bringing clients job joy, Kristen loves to create her own joy which frees her up to travel, take on adrenaline-pumping adventures like skydiving (bungee jumping is next!), and trying new recipes.
Connect with Kristen Zavo
TikTok: www.TikTok.com/kristenzavo
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/kristenzavo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kristenjzavo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenzavo
Email: kristen@findyourjobjoy.com
Website: www.findyourjobjoy.com