Episode 257 Tiana Sanchez Bouncing Back After Transitioning Careers Transcript
This transcript is from episode 257 with guest Tiana Sanchez.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today my guest is Tiana Sanchez. Tiana is an author and CEO and has an inspiring career transition story that while it’s not military related, I think it may help some of our listeners listeners who have transitioned out of the military.
Scott DeLuzio: Oftentimes deal with the stress of redefining themselves, letting go of the past, and figuring out who they are all over again. Tiana joins us today to talk about how she used kickboxing and journaling to help her manage the stress during her own prayer transition. So welcome to the show, Tiana.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:01:00] I’m glad to have you
Tiana Sanchez: here. Well, thank you so much. I’m happy to be here. Thank you for having me as a guest.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your back.
Tiana Sanchez: Oh gosh. Yeah. Well, I like to say that I am an ex hot dogger. You know, I don’t know if people know what that means, so I’ll explain it a little bit.
Tiana Sanchez: I used to work at a gourmet fast food restaurant, and if you’re from California, from the States, it was hotdog on a stick. It was a, it’s like in and out, but with hotdogs. And so I was an ex hot Dogger turned CEO back in 2011. You know, I started my career. early on at the age of 16 years old, just kind of climbed the career ladder, if you will.
Tiana Sanchez: Worked in retail, worked in clothing, and then landed in the financial industry. And so you kind of know where I’m going with this story. So in 2000 6, 7, 8, we had that financial crisis similar to what a lot of people are experiencing now. A lot of people got laid off, A lot of people were losing their.
Tiana Sanchez: And I was one of those people I got laid off and I had to figure [00:02:00] out what my next chapter was going to be. And those are some of the things that I’m hoping to share with your listeners today of how I was able to 90 days later start what is now known as my business and had some success with that.
Tiana Sanchez: But it certainly was a journey. And so, but I’m hoping to share some of my nuggets with your audience.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And so again, just for the listeners, just for clarification, you know, this is not a military related journey that you were going through, but there’s a lot of similarities that I see that.
Scott DeLuzio: That took place from your story. And we’ll get more into that in just a minute to what people might experience as they’re getting out of the military as they’re transitioning out. Because sometimes it’s unexpected, right? We have people who get medically discharged from the military and you know, these things are not always on the radar.
Scott DeLuzio: Something happens and it’s like, Few months later you’re no longer in the military, you’re no longer wearing the uniform, and now what do you do with your life? And you know, what do you do? So in your situation, [00:03:00] like you mentioned you, it was a more of a corporate situation, a corporate layoff And while the listeners may not relate necessarily with that sort of career transition I’m sure there are many service members, like I said, who unexpectedly found themselves getting outta the military for one reason or another.
Scott DeLuzio: And so what were some of the challenges that you faced when dealing with this layoff?
Tiana Sanchez: Well first it was unexpected, so I think we can all appreciate that there are certain situations that happen that you cannot plan for and you know, especially if you’ve had a pretty successful career or you thought this was gonna be your last stop right on the career train and all of a sudden the landscape changed the situation that you were in changed, and you’re on the receiving end of a notice.
Tiana Sanchez: You know, whether it was a riff, a reduction in force, or a layoff or, you know, your you know, time was up in that particular position. And I think the unexpectedness is really what hits people, because they’re not. Prepared for it. Especially if this is your last stop or this is where you think you’re gonna retire, this is where I’m gonna build my family.
Tiana Sanchez: I’m gonna have my pension, I’m gonna, you know, live out the rest [00:04:00] of my days in this particular career. So you find yourself at what I like to call the intersection of oftentimes it’s uncertainty and sometimes it can be a level of excitement if you are thinking about. This gives me an opportunity to figure out what I wanna do, but oftentimes people lack on the excitement part.
Tiana Sanchez: So it’s definitely that that feeling of uncertainty. So for me, I had to take in inventory, take stock of what those skill sets and things that I did well, and I heard someone once say, they called it a talent. Stack, and it’s a t it’s a stack of your talents, your gifts, your natural inherent abilities.
Tiana Sanchez: And so if you know, what did you do while you were in your position? Were you a leader? Were you a self initiator? Were you someone who could execute really well? What is that talent stack? So you identify those unique gift. And collectively they create this kind of stack, this jumble that makes you [00:05:00] uniquely you.
Tiana Sanchez: And once you assess that, then you start to say, okay, well what can I do that really keeps me in this area and this kind of gifting? And so for me, I’d always managed. Scott, I’d always been in a leadership position. I’d always ran teams. I had, you know, ran projects I hired, and so for me, I said, let me pursue a career or let me, you know, this next chapter where I can do those things.
Tiana Sanchez: And so that is where I started. Now, that was the what, the how is kind of the next. Piece that we’ll talk about, but that’s a good start. It’s that uncertainty that we have to wrestle with and then assessing what is the natural gifts and talents that I have and what can I then pursue in this next season to match that.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and I like the idea that this could actually be an opportunity because. Maybe this wasn’t the career that was meant for you. Maybe you’re working it and it’s, you know, it’s okay. It’s it’s the [00:06:00] job you’re working, but it’s maybe not as fulfilling as you had hoped it to be. And maybe it maybe you could think of something bigger and better that you.
Scott DeLuzio: Can be doing. And so maybe this is an opportunity to give you a nudge in that direction. Where previously maybe you were just comfortable with where you were and it wasn’t a anything pressing that made you want to go and look for something else, but now you’re in this discomfort of not having a job.
Scott DeLuzio: No income benefits none of that coming in. And so, You have this opportunity available to you to now go out and look for something that really is going to be more fulfilling and and lead you in the right direction. So, so you basically had to identify, like you said the talent stack, all of the things that you had done in your previous roles.
Scott DeLuzio: All the Ba basically the resume bullet points, you know, things that you would put on the resume to talk about your career and the types of things that you did, the types of people that you led as maybe a manager or some sort of [00:07:00] leader in your organization types of projects maybe that you worked on and just translating some of that, you know, the, obviously a lot of that is corporate type way of thinking, but translating that to the military, you know, if you.
Scott DeLuzio: Ever were in charge of anybody. This is for the listeners in charge of anybody in the military. That’s some leadership experience there. And you have that, that you can now think about, okay did you enjoy doing that? Or did you enjoy things that you’re maybe a little bit more off on your own to, to take care of things as opposed to leading a team of people?
Scott DeLuzio: You know, if you enjoyed that, well maybe that’s a direction that you can look into as well. And think about the different types of work that you did. You know, obviously there’s not. One-to-one correlation from military experience to civilian world for every job. You know, there’s not a whole lot of infantry men who are needed in the civilian corporate America world, right?
Scott DeLuzio: But But there are things that you’ve done as far as leadership abilities and things like that might be translatable to a civilian career as well. So, so I like how [00:08:00] you mentioned, you know, identifying all of the talents that you have. It’s really a good brainstorming session to just sit down and just write down everything that you could think of that you’ve done and what your talents are.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Tiana Sanchez: And there are transferrable skills. There really are. Sure. And I think I, I wanna dispel. The myth, if we think that there is not a direct tie to what could potentially be, you know, working in the military and working in corporate, I actually have worked with quite a few veterans. I’m a certified women business owner, and part of that I get Invited to different organizational meetings, and I get to interact with organizations, people that have been disabled, that veterans minority owned businesses and all of these.
Tiana Sanchez: And one of the conversations that have happened is talking about the transferrable skills that you have acquired that are absolutely necessary in a civilian or corporate environment. If you’ve ever, if you. Ever had to solve a problem if you had to be disciplined, if you had to [00:09:00] be a self-starter, an initiator, if you had to you know, again, be a part of a team.
Tiana Sanchez: Team built. A lot of these do transfer over into other areas. You know, I was a kid now, my dad served in the Army many years ago, and I remember when he had to transition, you know, I was just a kid. But I remember that being a struggle for him. And then you have to deal with the aspect of what you saw when you were in the military to now having to wrestle with kind of your mental health in that vein.
Tiana Sanchez: And so, there are some, again, transferrable skills that absolutely carry over into that environment. And it’s identifying them is, again, a step if you’ve been laid off and you’re trying to transition and looking at is. Really the career path that I wanna choose. And now that I’m out of this, you know, what else could I do that would still be beneficial, that would still give me that zeal that, that zest for life or what I was doing previously?
Tiana Sanchez: A lot of people use the word passion. Some people [00:10:00] use purpose and some people may feel like, Hey I, my purpose is, was left over here on, you know, in that particular career. But you can reinvent, you can reestablish, you can evolve. Into something different or in a new career path. So there are some transferrable skills, and I wanna say that, so that people will have a good understanding of that.
Tiana Sanchez: Right. And I
Scott DeLuzio: like those some of the ones that you mentioned as far as problem solving, team building the discipline that’s required. Like all of those things are great to be able to focus on Your military experience could translate over to the civilian side in, in terms of those transferrable skills.
Scott DeLuzio: Now you mentioned the how, like that you were gonna get into that, the, how did you go about doing this? So let’s touch on that.
Tiana Sanchez: So during the time, so this is what we’re talking 12 years ago or so, and at the time I was, I’d never been laid off before. I, this was my first, you know, firing if you will, you know, or being laid off.
Tiana Sanchez: And it was [00:11:00] really rough for me. It was tough, and I can imagine for people that it is, you know, everybody goes through a different, it’s a grieving process really. It’s like you’re grieving the loss of something. That you once had that is no longer there it is. It is dead. If you know, say it in that way.
Tiana Sanchez: And so just like grieving, we go through different stages, right? We go through denial. You know, we go through sometimes resistance and we kind of try to capture, recapture what was lost. You know, sometimes we. Becoming indifferent. We get angry about the situation and then we start lashing out. We might get angry about the person that had to make the decision to lay us off.
Tiana Sanchez: We get angry with close family and friends. And so there was this grieving process. But one of the things that helped me, and this was very instrumental, so I had started kickboxing years ago and I’ve been kickboxing on and off for seven years at the time. And it was this kind of correlation between.
Tiana Sanchez: You know, like a kick, like someone in a boxing ring, like there’s a match. And so for me, I was looking at this new season of my life as like this [00:12:00] match. And I’m like, okay, so my opponent I’m fighting is this idea of now what am I, who am I if I’m not in my job? Because we’re often defined by our jobs and our roles, especially if we’ve been in them for so long.
Tiana Sanchez: So I was kind of fighting this mentally, this opponent of who am I? How am I gonna be defined? And it was like, okay, well I have. Mentally get myself back in shape. This conditioning of self-confidence of self-worth of valuing myself. So again, in a, not only the talent stack of my skills, but even deeper than that is again, that worth that self-value that we attach to our jobs and our positions.
Tiana Sanchez: And so I’m kind of in this, you know, ring and I’m thinking, okay, you know, I’m battling, what do I need to do? And so I’m kind of conditioning myself and I’m, you know, Overcoming these challenges and these negative thoughts of, you know, I can’t do this and thinking of I can. So I created this exercise that I did with which I wrote in one of my books, which is [00:13:00] called Blockers and Builders, because I do think there’s oftentimes blocks in front of us and we either have to break through them, sometimes people go around them.
Tiana Sanchez: But I also feel like blocks when you stack them on top of each other, then you’re building something, right. So you can. Visually speaking like, like a brick wall right in front of you that you may have to go through or around. But then if you think of those individual bricks, one by one, They’re building something.
Tiana Sanchez: And so I do this exercise called blockers and builders. And on one side I have the word blockers, like two columns, right? And the only other side, I have builders. And then I say, okay, well what is the thing that is stopping you from pursuing whatever it is? And you kind of fill in the blank, what is blocking me from blank?
Tiana Sanchez: And you kind of fill in the blank and you list all of these things. And oftentimes what you hear, Scott, is money. You know, people resources, education, opportunity, right? You hear all of these different things kind of on the blockers, and [00:14:00] honestly, the top three are usually like money, time, you know, or resources or something like that.
Tiana Sanchez: Then you go on the other side. So once you list all those things, and usually the list is long, but I don’t give anybody longer than a minute to do that. Then on another side I say, okay, what are the things that are what we call builders, the things that you already have, not what you don’t have, but what you do have.
Tiana Sanchez: And so we start to list things like, well, I have really good family support. I have. 15 years of, you know, experience, military experience. I have created problem solving skills. I have, I may not have a degree, but I have, you know, real life experience in education. And so you see that usually on the blocker, on the builder side, we have more of these intangible, not easily broken, not based.
Tiana Sanchez: External things, but more of these really rooted, grounded internal things that we can lean on. And then we find that, okay, well I may not have. The degree, but I have real life experience and is that more valuable for me [00:15:00] than, let’s say, going out and pursuing this degree. At this stage I may not have, you know, a ton of money, but I have access to opportunities where I may be able to acquire some additional funds or things like that.
Tiana Sanchez: So then you cancel out, you kind of begin to cancel out some of the blockers with the builders and it’s a great exercise. If nothing else, Scott is, Really get kind of in tune with what might be blocking us, you know? So we’re not defeated, and that’s a word that I used that we’re not defeated. So it’s walking through that step in the process.
Tiana Sanchez: So as you can see, there’s a lot of up here work that we need to do before we actually go out. And then the other part of the how, which I’ll talk about is if you are going to. Your next chapter, whether it’s in civilian world, whether it’s a consultant, whether it’s writing a book or anything like that.
Tiana Sanchez: Then it’s about defining and having a plan. Who do I need to get in front of? What relationships do I need to [00:16:00] establish? What. Associations or organizations might I need to align myself with in order to get in front of those opportunities. One of them, my favorite books is behind me, and it’s actually by two Navy Seals and it’s called Extreme Ownership.
Tiana Sanchez: I don’t know if you’ve ever read that book. Oh yeah. Love, love that book, and it is fantastic because the two authors, they literally. The battlefield into a business plan. In a sense. They give you these kind of real, tangible ways of how you can incorporate what we learned here in this environment, which is really life and death.
Tiana Sanchez: To, you know, a business or a career or workforce environment. And the two just really align nicely. So we can talk more about that, but I just kind of wanted the blockers and builders, that defeated mindset really helped me before I could actually go in front of someone else. Right, because
Scott DeLuzio: those blocks that you’re talking about they could build something.
Scott DeLuzio: Right in, in, [00:17:00] in terms of let’s just say like a brick wall or something like that, that could build something useful or it could stand in your way. And it really depends on how you’re thinking about it and you know, whether or not you need to break through those, go around them or use them to your advantage.
Scott DeLuzio: And there’s a lot of things that as you were talking I was thinking about how. I know in the military, and I probably dismissed this as even something that was even worthwhile to mention to anybody. But you mentioned education and like teaching and things like that came to mind.
Scott DeLuzio: And I don’t know how many classes I’ve taught while I was in the military. I have no formal training as a teacher or anything like that. I mean, But I’ve taught various classes on, you know, medical related things and you know, I was not a medic. I was not a doctor or anything like that, but I still taught the classes on certain things like that.
Scott DeLuzio: And it still, like, now I’m starting to think about it like, There are a lot of things. I was very adaptable and flexible. I was able to teach [00:18:00] things that were out of my comfort zone, but I still was able to kind of go over the material, learn it myself, then be able to turn around and teach it.
Scott DeLuzio: And so that type of thing is something that might be an opportunity for somebody and they can use that as you know, a way to say, Hey, I’m capable of training teams, even if I. The subject matter expert on this particular topic, I could still teach the class and train the team on whatever the subject is.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, just give me the material, let me look over it and let me educate myself. I’m pretty flexible as far as that goes. So, no, there, there are lots of different ways that, that this type of mentality can help people and not be a hindrance to their future prospect.
Tiana Sanchez: and let me get, let’s get away from the idea that you, like you say, you’re saying, I don’t have any formal training.
Tiana Sanchez: Maybe I didn’t get a degree in this. I didn’t go to school for this. Right. Let me just say, I, while I truly think education is important, I do think we, it’s overrated. I think there’s [00:19:00] a huge emphasis on that where I believe experience. Outweighs that in many cases, and here’s not Tiana saying it, but if you go online and you hit the goog and you know, look up, it’ll tell you how many graduates that get these degrees do not even pursue careers that they’ve graduated, that they’ve gotten a degree in.
Tiana Sanchez: Because guess what? Companies want experience. So they might say, do you have a bachelor’s degree? But also where’s your experience? And so if you’ve had 10 years of experience, Scott, in a particular area, I would count that as a level of expertise because you have real life experience, real world experience in classroom experience, that a book and that theory.
Tiana Sanchez: Is not going to teach you. So you know, I want people this, that they say, Hey, I didn’t go to school. I don’t have formal education. I didn’t get this. That right there will be a first step. You need to start leveraging that and not say, here’s what I don’t have, here’s what I have. When [00:20:00] someone asked me, that used to be a toughest question for me because I don’t have a degree yet.
Tiana Sanchez: I run a very thriving organization where we work. Companies all over. Okay. I used to hate when people ask me that question, it made me feel some kind of way because I knew I didn’t have a degree. And so they’re like, oh, where’d you graduate from school? And I’m thinking, I know they’re not talking about high school.
Tiana Sanchez: They’re probably talking about college. So I’m like and so I, for the longest time, I, it was very difficult for me to respond to that question. And so he say, oh, where’d you go to school? And so now when I, and I don’t even get that question asked very much, but when I get that question asked anymore, I say, well, you know, I spent some time in school, but most of my experience that I.
Tiana Sanchez: I acquired through real world experience and I literally respond that way, and that is how I was able to kind of get over that, but it used to bother me for a while. So I wanna just encourage anyone listening that says, I’m not qualified cuz I don’t have a degree. I didn’t have formal education. You have more than you think you do and [00:21:00] if you can tap into that, like you said, Hey, I’ve been teaching, I’m agile, I am adaptable.
Tiana Sanchez: Can I tell you, working in the civilian. Corporate environment, working with nonprofits, I’ve worked with lo local government. Those are precisely the skills that we need. Did we not see the last two years, were we not witness to all of the pivots and the things that we had to adjust and adapt to?
Tiana Sanchez: And if you think about, you know, again, your military experience, you’re in a moment’s known, you don’t. Hours, you know, days to prepare. You got seconds to make a decision and you gotta pivot. You gotta go from here to there in a moment’s notice, not react in a certain way, because that could be life or death, and you gotta keep it moving.
Tiana Sanchez: So those kinds of skill sets are absolutely what is needed in a lot of workplaces.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, that couldn’t be more true. I think, Just from my own personal experience, I have a degree in accounting [00:22:00] and like the only accounting work I do right now is I file my own taxes and I don’t even want to do that anymore.
Scott DeLuzio: like, that’s the closest that I get to doing accounting. And so, you know, just because I have a degree in something doesn’t mean that I necessarily do that all the time. And when I first started, my, my first job out of college was in accounting. But I realized just how little I actually did know after getting that degree when I first started that job.
Scott DeLuzio: You get so much more experience on the job, and of course, there’s certain jobs you have to have a certain degree. You’re not gonna become a doctor without your medical degree, right? Like it’s just right, not gonna happen. You know, so, so I’m not trying to say, oh, school is not for, you know, everyone, but you know, for certain careers you may not need it.
Scott DeLuzio: You. The experience that you have whe whether it be military experience or other on the job experience that you might have acquired along the way that might be sufficient for what it is that you’re trying to do. And so don’t discount your background or your abilities [00:23:00] when you’re looking at your peers.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, I had a friend recently who got out of the military, went to high school together, and he was talking about you know, Just, you know, what’s next for me? And, you know, he, you know, I have to imagine it’s pretty intimidating when you get out of the military and you see all of your peers, people that you went to high school with and stuff who are now, you know, in their college graduates.
Scott DeLuzio: A lot of them they have their professional careers or they have all these things going for them. And he’s sitting there thinking, okay, what’s next for me? I almost feels. Maybe he’s just starting off. You know, I, and I don’t, I’m putting words in his mouth. I, you know, he hasn’t said that specifically to me, but I gotta imagine that’s gotta be some of the thoughts going through his head.
Scott DeLuzio: But he’s a lot further ahead. I would imagine than he, he might think he is. And that, that’s true for I think anybody getting out of the military is you have a lot of experiences and those experiences are worth. . And oftentimes to an employer, they’re worth a heck of a lot more than a piece of paper that said, you spent four years at a certain college or [00:24:00] whatever,
Tiana Sanchez: you know?
Tiana Sanchez: Absolutely. And I love, I just have to piggyback off, I love that you said they’re worth something and that is you have to place a value. Cuz guess what? When you go work for something, they’re gonna place a value on what they think. You should, you know, your skillsets or your talent stack is worth, you gotta beat ’em to the point, you gotta place a value on what you believe.
Tiana Sanchez: Hey, I’ve spent 10, 15 years doing da-da-da-da-da. I spent another five years over here. Again, whether it’s experiential or through an acquired degree of some sort but you need to place a value, so, , you know, step one, assessing your talent stack. What are those unique things that I do really well?
Tiana Sanchez: Number two is, again, Overcoming any doubts and concerns and things that you may think. Your talent stack by doing the blockers and the builders exercise. What is blocking me and what can I use to help build, like you said, you can see a brick wall as a hindrance or it could be something that you can leverage, that you can use cuz you can stack again these bricks and you can [00:25:00] climb, you know, so you can use it different ways.
Tiana Sanchez: If you were coming out, and this is the third again, speaking about the how there are associations and organizations. Veterans. If you get connected in your local community, your city, to these associations, and they’re usually sponsored by, you know, whether it’s local government or something like that, but they have programs where you can acquire, build on your skill sets, get connected to opportunities, have a community of people that are just like you.
Tiana Sanchez: Cuz I sometimes you feel like you’re an island alone. Especially when you’re unemployed, you’re like, am I the only one going through this? And it’s nice to have a community. Of people that are going through the same things and you can, you know, share and support one another and, hey, I got this opportunity.
Tiana Sanchez: Hey, oh, do you have one for me? You know, and it’s really helpful and to not get discouraged, but there are organizations, there are so many programs. I’m a certified women-owned business that is actually a [00:26:00] certification. I’m not just saying it. There is a certification for veterans. If you wanna establish, become an entrepreneur, start a business, cuz maybe that’s your path and you wanna do that.
Tiana Sanchez: You could become a certified veteran owned business. And what that means is, let’s say. Scott, you wanna consult with people about how to facilitate and how to train because that’s what you did for so long. Or you wanna help a team understand the importance of being agile in an ever-changing landscape.
Tiana Sanchez: Again, I’m just kind of making this up, but let’s say you, they wanna consult with you. You get a, you become, I’m gonna become a consultant, but I’m gonna become a certified. Veteran owned business. When you go to partner with these org organizations, they are encouraged, when I say encouraged, I’m using that nicely.
Tiana Sanchez: Strongly encouraged to hire and procure vendors that are diverse, meaning veteran owned, dis disabled, women owned, minority owned indigenous, so on and so forth. And yeah, I wanna say it’s. [00:27:00] 10 to 15%, or 20 to 25% of their vendors, consultants, or what have you. They want them to be diverse. So it actually is to your advantage to have that, let’s say that certification or that, you know, listing after your name.
Tiana Sanchez: So there are programs, so accessing those within your city, your c. Would be a step number three. That I would say that you can do that. All the other things, helping brush up your LinkedIn profile, getting your resume revised, if that’s the path you wanna take. If it’s entrepreneurship, LinkedIn is great.
Tiana Sanchez: If it’s, Hey, I wanna go work for someone else or do something else, you know, maybe it’s a resume and local government, We’ll hire you too. You know, so there’s still opportunity there, but those would kind of, I could narrow it down to some kind of real tangible steps. Those would be the top three
Scott DeLuzio: that, and those are great steps, I think and to help people just get the.
Scott DeLuzio: The [00:28:00] action steps in their mind, in what they should be doing. They should kind of follow that those steps. You know, just those simple things. And I know when you’re facing this big challenge, right, you’re facing a career change and you don’t know what to do next. You know, there’s a lot of things that you need to.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, you have to start applying for jobs. You need a resume, you need to do this, you need to do that. You all these things. That’s a lot. It’s like drinking from a fire hose. It’s like you’re not gonna get it all in. And so having just, okay, here’s a few simple steps that you can do just to right off the bat and you can do these things right now.
Scott DeLuzio: Not knock these things out, and that will set you up for success going forward when you are starting to get into these the application process and all that kinda stuff, right? But it, but without that, it’s, it starts to become this real big task that you’re now faced with and it’s hard.
Scott DeLuzio: Get [00:29:00] around what is next, right? When you have so many things coming at you that you know, you need to do. So, you know, just coming up with a checklist of the first three to maybe six things that you might need to do might be the best way to tackle this. And then, Take it piece by piece. There’s a saying, what’s a, the best way to eat an elephant?
Scott DeLuzio: And it’s one bite at a time. Like , it’s a big task. Like if you’re gonna eat that thing, it’s gonna be a big task, but you gotta do it. You gotta start somewhere. And so one bite at a time, right? And so same thing with this is it may seem like a big, daunting task, but take it one step at a time.
Tiana Sanchez: And you’re not doing it. You don’t have to do it alone. The fact that you’re listening to this podcast tells me you’re a step in the right direction. One of the first things might be, Hey, I wanna, you know, get someone, you know, like if we wanna get in shape, we hire a personal trainer, right? Or, you know, if our marriage is on the rocks, we go to a marriage.
Tiana Sanchez: Counselor or therapist, Lisa. I hope that’s what one might do. You know, so guess what? That’s asking for help. And we have to get over the fact that asking for help is a weakness. We have to see it as, [00:30:00] no, I’m asking because either I don’t know how, or I figured out how and it and the how tells me I need some support and some assistance in this and.
Tiana Sanchez: Even if the steps that we described, you may have accomplished one or two, or you may say, well, maybe I can do a little bit of that, but I wanna focus on something else. It’s customizing it to you and it’s having someone maybe come alongside you and helping to create that plan. When I left, when I started my own business, I simultaneously worked for a career management firm, and this career management firm worked with people that were laid off.
Tiana Sanchez: They literal. Their companies had given them this as, I guess as a parting gift, Hey, we’re gonna set you up with this company. They’re gonna help read you your resume, they’re gonna coach you . And I was literally a career coach for about four years with this firm, simultaneously while working in my business.
Tiana Sanchez: So that also tells you can do multiple things. There’s not necessarily one thing that you have to do and that’s it. You might wanna explore and kind of figure out stuff you know, in this process. But I worked [00:31:00] with so many people. Had never been laid off, who had just had gone through this horrendous reduction in force and having to take care of their family, concerned about their, you know, their house.
Tiana Sanchez: Is it gonna, you know, are they gonna, you know, what’s gonna happen? Do they have to move? And, you know, and all of this. And I tell you, having someone, and I do believe, The impact or the support that I was able to provide them through that very delicate time. I do believe it was beneficial, and I do believe it helped them.
Tiana Sanchez: So don’t think that you have to go through this alone, and the fact that you’re listening to this tells me that you’re making the right decision already, that you’re realizing there’s something that I don’t know that someone else does that I need to tap. Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: absolutely. And that thing that you might be really passionate about you might have a, I dunno what, whatever it may be, that, that thing that you’re, that just burns you inside, it’s like, gets you up in the morning and you’re thinking about it constantly.
Scott DeLuzio: You may not have the business for it yet. You may not have a You know, the audience the [00:32:00] reach or the sales or anything like that to be able to make that your full-time thing. But like in your case, you had a full-time job, you had the job that you were working. But in the meantime, you’re building your other business on the side and that’s perfectly fine to do too.
Scott DeLuzio: People do that all the time. You know, that’s, you know, you use your free time, you use nights, weekends, use whatever time that you have and yeah, for a few years that, that might. Eat away at all of your free times. You’ll be working towards something and building something. Going back to that, that example of, you know, building the, with the blocks you might be building something as opposed to being blocked from doing something, right?
Scott DeLuzio: You talk about finances being a blocker in some cases. Well, in this case, you have this job that enables you to keep a roof over your head, keep food on the table, keep your car going, gas in the car, all that kind of stuff. But in the meantime, it also gives you the flexibility and the free time to be able to work on what you are passionate about, which will eventually [00:33:00] lead you to be a, being able to possibly do that full-time.
Scott DeLuzio: And that’s a great way to build that thing that you’re doing. You know, you may be working something that you’re not totally passionate about. Hopefully you have some interest in it, obviously. But it may not be that thing that, that really burns you inside that gets you moving.
Scott DeLuzio: Eventually you’ll be able to do work on that full time. If you focus on it and it’s, you know, obviously a good idea and, you know, the execution has to be there too. But if you really want it I, my experience has been that most people have been able to figure out a way to make something like that work, you know?
Tiana Sanchez: Yes. You know, I was thinking of, and as we were talking and there’s a military term I wanna say. It’s for, you know, The Air Force, but OODA Loop, have you heard of that term before? Yes. Yes. So, and there’s actually a Ted talk on it, but it really speaks to this where you observe, orient, decide, and act.
Tiana Sanchez: You know, you’re looking at your environment, your surroundings, and you’re having to make, you know, that’s kind of game time decisions, but, if it [00:34:00] helps to think about that, Hey, this is a big decision I’m making in my life. Before I act on it, before I even come to a conclusion around, let me observe, let me look at, let me orient myself to the situation.
Tiana Sanchez: I’m now laid off. Okay, this is what’s happening. Okay, let me get my bearings, let me kind of figure it out. Okay, now what do I need to do? That kind of thinking actually helps to organize your next steps, cuz it can feel very jumbled. It can veer very chaotic. It can feel like a battlefield. It can feel all of that.
Tiana Sanchez: And so you have to. Okay, let me settle into this. Let me figure out where I am. Let me get clear. Let me do, okay, what blockers builders, da-da-da-da. Okay. Who, where am I? What kind of skillsets? Okay. Now what’s the next step that I need to do? And then you act on it. But I do think, you know, that could be a helpful tool in organizing this, these steps that provided you in this process.
Tiana Sanchez: And you can Google it if you wanna learn more about OODA loop . Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: hopefully for the listeners they’re somewhat familiar with that, but not everyone may be familiar with that particular term. So, yeah, definitely you know, Google that and check it out. You also used [00:35:00] journaling during this time, right?
Scott DeLuzio: How did that help you?
Tiana Sanchez: Yes. So I’m not actually one for a huge lot of journaling, but I started right after I got laid off and I started capturing some of my thoughts. Interestingly, at the time that I was laid off, I’m gonna say maybe a year later my sister was hospitalized and she almost p died and that.
Tiana Sanchez: That situation makes you reevaluate life in many different ways. And so I started writing the experience that I was going through with her as she was recovering in the hospital for almost a month and where I was in my life. And again, just the preciousness of life in general and how we may. Take for granted a lot of things.
Tiana Sanchez: And then we start to put things in perspective. And so started thinking about my own situation, about what I was going through and the grieving, the loss of this job and how it defined me. And I started writing out my feelings and I started thinking about that word defeat cuz I was kickboxing. And and I just kept journaling.
Tiana Sanchez: And kept journaling. [00:36:00] And I’m like, you know, I think this could be a. And it and it was actually my first book, which is called Undefeatable Conquering Self Defeat. And it literally, Scott is based on my experience of going through the, having a career. Not having a career and then redefining my career by becoming my own boss and running my own business.
Tiana Sanchez: And it’s filled with hope and inspiration. Having faith and all of that was kind of wrapped in there, but again, it wa it, it was very cathartic. It helped me to get things out of my head and onto a piece of paper to write things down, even if it was just a couple words. Even if it was just like, Hey, today’s date and this is what’s going on.
Tiana Sanchez: And I. If this can help someone else through what I went through, then this is, then I’m happy for that. Then that brings me great joy, and that literally was the first book that I wor wrote published in 2000 and I think it was [00:37:00] 2013. Yeah. And
Scott DeLuzio: just the act of just writing things down when you have so much going on in your head trying to figure out what that next step is, trying to figure out what you’re good at, what.
Scott DeLuzio: What you maybe don’t want to do, cuz that’s probably equally as important as what you do want to do. You know, all these things that are going through your head. Sometimes just writing it down is useful. I’m not saying that everyone needs to write a book necessarily from what they’re going through although, you know, nothing wrong with that either, but, but just jotting down some notes and saying like, this is what I’m going through. This is what I’m dealing with. And Action of just writing stuff down. Just sometimes you process the, you slow down and process things a little bit better. You know, I’ve found sometimes thoughts just race through my head and it’s hard to keep up with that with all those thoughts that are racing through my head.
Scott DeLuzio: But if I slow down and I write down what those thoughts are, I have to slow down because I can’t write as fast as my brain can think. And. I slow down and [00:38:00] that gives my brain a chance to catch up and maybe come up with some other ideas that might be worthwhile. Right. And help me solve whatever the problem is I’m going through.
Scott DeLuzio: So, yeah, I mean, journaling is a great tool. I mean, it’s a tool. It’s something that’s useful in certain circumstances. It may not be useful all the time, but you know, just like a hammer or a screwdriver they’re very useful if. You know, trying to build a house or something, but they’re not always useful if you’re changing a tire.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. But they’re tools that are out there that, that are available to people. You just have to start using them and that might be helpful to help you process what it is that you’re going through. And it doesn’t even have to be career related. It could be anything that you’re going through.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Just writing stuff down and you know, it’s a pretty good habit to get into if you are struggling with some of your thoughts and you know, just trying to wrap your head around. Is going on in your own life. So that’s pretty awesome. And I’m glad. So you said that the book undefeatable Conquering Self-Defeat is the title of the book.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:39:00] So encourage people to go check that out. And I’ll have a link to that in the show notes as well. And I know you have a, another book as well too. Could you tell us about that book?
Tiana Sanchez: Yeah, so kind of a follow up to undefeatable, because I talked about defeat and. Defeat is when we fail or when we experience failure.
Tiana Sanchez: Cuz I like to say failure is an experience. It’s not. It’s not a a permanent state and it’s called fta, the upside of Failure. So it’s not using cuss words, but it’s failing up, failing forward. And so it was kind of a a follow up from the first book and it really explores how. our relationship with that word and it’s can be very taboo.
Tiana Sanchez: And we talk about a little bit about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset with Carol Dweck who really is kind of the author of talking about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. And so that’s what that book is about. And both of them, you know, have. Are tackling the mind really are tackling our thoughts are challenging us with our behaviors and actions.
Tiana Sanchez: And in both books, Scott, I [00:40:00] actually have because I wanted this to be a working solution, and so in both books there’s some exercises. So, and Undefeatable in the back of the book, it kind of gives you 31 days of quote conquering self-defeat. And so it asks you some questions, it gives you some things to.
Tiana Sanchez: Probe you to think about your situation and then it. Blockers and builders. So you actually do the exercise every day and it becomes your 31 day journal. So it’s actually already in there. And then in the F’ed Up book, in the very back we have it where, hey, I wanna join with someone and kind of do this group discussion on this chapter.
Tiana Sanchez: And so we dive deep at the end of the book. It gives you some guidance of how to, let’s say you wanna bring this to a group of friends or people or whatever and teach it, you know, then it gives you the ability to do that. So both of them have that weaved. Inside of the book, and I think you were spot on.
Tiana Sanchez: Just to go back, my best ideas literally come in the morning or at late, late at night. And so I constantly have to have a journal or something and a pen near me, or I even use my voice notes. [00:41:00] I could be driving. I have great ideas and I don’t have time to jot them down, but I wanna capture them.
Tiana Sanchez: You know, we have our, these wonderful, smart devices. Grab out your phone and create a folder of notes that you can record also. So whether. The physical journey with a pen and paper, or whether it’s a voice note or whether it’s, whatever it is. But I don’t be limited by not capturing those things because that creativity can come at any moment, at any time and Right.
Tiana Sanchez: You know, jotting some of that down could be helpful. .
Scott DeLuzio: And the other nice thing too that I found with the voice notes is that depending on the app or the phone that you have or whatever they can transcribe the words that you dictate into the device. And so you can actually go back and read it.
Scott DeLuzio: So later on, if you are in a situation where you don’t want to have your voice going and you know, if you’re. Your spouse is sleeping and you wanna go back, it’s like, oh, I had that idea and I want to go back and like, re rethink about that or whatever. You can go back and read what you said and it’s actually pretty cool how it’ll do that.
Scott DeLuzio: So technology has gone so crazy and with so many different things it’s [00:42:00] pretty amazing what we’re capable of doing. And it, I know it’s something simple as just a voice recorder, which, you know, you always could have done with, you know, a tape recorder or something like that, but, You know, now having all these abilities to file them, organize them on digital files, you can access them on multiple devices all over the place.
Scott DeLuzio: It’s pretty amazing what we’re capable of doing. So, yes. Before we wrap up if you had one piece of advice that you have for other people out there who. Unexpectedly find themselves in a career transition period, whether it’s military transitions or a corporate layoff or you know, anything like that.
Scott DeLuzio: What would that one piece of advice be?
Tiana Sanchez: Don’t count yourself out. . And what I mean by that is there may be a new chapter that you haven’t even explored yet. Don’t count yourself out of that. There may be something else that is revealed through this process about you. Maybe by taking this time off, you realize, hey, my health isn’t at the greatest, and I need to kind of reevaluate that.
Tiana Sanchez: Don’t count yourself out. Of [00:43:00] doing something different or thinking that, Hey, I’m 65 years old. What do I have to offer to this young new generation or to these, you know, I’m working in a place with 20 year olds. Don’t count yourself out because people need wisdom. They need people with experience and advice and wisdom and someone who can, you know, give.
Tiana Sanchez: There’s a lot of information that gets lost across generations, so I would say don’t count yourself all out, especially if you feel like you’re seasoned. And I like to say, you know, kind of the seasoned, older generation you are still of value, you are still needed, and there’s someone out there that needs what you have like a fine
Scott DeLuzio: wine that gets better with age.
Tiana Sanchez: Yes. Yes. .
Scott DeLuzio: Well, Tiana, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you today. I love that advice, and I loved everything that you were talking about. It’s really great information for those who are finding themselves in this transition period in their lives. It doesn’t matter, like you said, it doesn’t matter what age you’re at.
Scott DeLuzio: It doesn’t matter what [00:44:00] job you’re coming from or going to. We all find ourselves in these transition periods where we’re grieving. The loss of who we were, what we identified as in the past and looking forward to what is coming ahead. Where can people go to not only get a copy of your books, but also to find out more about you and what you do.
Tiana Sanchez: Well, thank you for asking. They can go, it’s super easy. Tiana sanchez.com and that’s with a z sanchez. You can find me on LinkedIn, but the website, tiana sanchez.com has a ton of information. It has resource, has some free stuff, some goodies over there. And LinkedIn. I would love to connect with you.
Tiana Sanchez: Send me a quick note, message DM me, say Hey, heard your episode on drive on would love to connect and I will gladly connect with you. So hope you reach. And thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
Scott DeLuzio: All right. Yeah, likewise. It’s, it was a absolute pleasure speaking with you, so thanks again. Thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on [00:45:00] Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.