You’re in a career you no longer enjoy but feel you are limited because your skills are in that area. Transitioning may be easier than you thought and the current podcast guest tells you how she did it.
I’ve said it before that part of the reason I love podcasting is that I get to meet all kinds of really amazing people and Angela Spears definitely falls into that category. She translated a career from broadcasting into first an information Officer, then a Communications Officer for a former Mayor, and now is off and running with her own company “Angela Spears Communication”.
Angela always thought she wanted to do something that involved meeting new people. Broadcast Journalism was the perfect fit at the beginning of her career and she was good at it based on her performance on camera. When she decided she wanted to do something different she embraced breaking down the skills she learned from broadcasting to chart a new course. She realized she knew the storytelling aspect of news media and used that understanding to pivot into being an Information Officer for a Sheriff’s department to function as the spokesperson for the agency.
Following a stint doing Community Liaison for a major company she decided to support a political campaign and her work brought her to the attention of the elected Mayor, who 
selected her as a Special Assistant tasked with insuring community engagement. She admits to being surprised by this turn of events because she did not consider herself someone particularly interested in politics.
Then, it was on to forming her own company. During the podcast you’ll hear her describe how she still applies what she learned from broadcasting to sell her services and social media brand management. That more than anything is what I took away from our chat. She stopped looking at her skills as one thing (broadcasting) and began to break down all the parts that went into performing her broadcasting role. She realized that being an on-air personality meant being able to weave in storytelling to help the viewer understand the story and then found a way to translate that into a number of situations very different from her original function.
Too often we think of ourselves as only one skill when in reality we are many skills as we go about our everyday working lives. A good example is the accountant who enjoys presenting changes in the company payroll and breaking down the information to help employees understand the process. That person often does not realize they have a skill in making the complex understandable and might consider transitioning to a job as a trainer not necessarily in accounting.
Angela also makes a great point that you have to be willing to face your fears and push yourself to learn and fill in the blanks to build on the skills you already have. While in your current position, consider volunteering with a non-profit or other groups to use your transitioning skill to begin developing contacts and creating something to put on a resume that supports your new skill goals. This is why Angela’s story is so compelling, because each new position was a pivot based on parts of activities that came from her original broadcast career. She not only made it work but continues each new step with polish as she describes her progress in the podcast. We could all use a leaf out of Angela’s play book.
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