Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. Welcome everyone to the podcast from now to next, a stepping stone, which is our smaller version with yours truly, Erica Rooney. And today, I want to talk about what you should do if you feel stuck in your career. So let's dive in. I wanna know, do you feel stuck, stalled, or stagnant in your career?

Erica: Like, you're on autopilot, just going through the motions, but you're not seeing the growth or the return that you are craving? Maybe you have expressed your desire to learn more and take on more challenging opportunities, but it falls on deaf ears. Well, listen in. I am about to walk you through what I did to remove myself from my sticky floor to skyrocket my career to the c suite. So first of all, I wanna fill you in a little bit about my background.

Erica: So I started my career in health and fitness, and I thought that I was going to be in that career for the rest of my life. I literally have a memory of thinking about how lucky I was to have my very first job out of college be my dream job and the job that I was going to retire from. No joke. I thought I would be there my entire professional career. Now we all know I am not a health and wellness instructor anymore, but that was my dream job for a long time, for almost eight years, and it served me so well.

Erica: And health and fitness to this day is one of the core values and one of the foundations of my life. But being a growth minded individual and someone that is so passionate about learning and growing and advancements, it just became really clear that it wasn't going to be a career that I could retire from. So after eight years, I just felt stuck. I recognized very quickly that there was no more room for growth and that at the ripe old age of gosh, I think I was 25. I had reached my peak.

Erica: Yes. Big, long dramatic pause. My peak at 25, I was feeling frustrated. I was bored. And quite honestly, I was getting very annoyed at my job that I once loved.

Erica: Right. So I knew I needed to change. And I wanted to go somewhere that I was gonna be able to grow, but that I was also going to be able to continue to help people, which is my passion. And that is the decision that ultimately led me to HR and changed the entire trajectory of my career and my life. So how did I do this?

Erica: How did I make the career pivot from fitness and wellness to human resources? Now, the first step to getting unstuck is to stop what you're doing and take stock of your career. You need to ask yourself the questions. What are you skilled at? What are your strengths?

Erica: What are you passionate about? More importantly, what do you wanna continue to do for the rest of your life? What is important to you? What do you never want to do again? You know, I knew that I was skilled at working with people.

Erica: I knew I was skilled at helping people achieve their goals. I knew that I was passionate about helping people. And I knew that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. It didn't have to be in health and wellness arena, but as long as I was helping people, I would be happy. There are so many times that you can build your career by things that you're good at, but maybe you don't love.

Erica: I also wanna talk about that. And then take HR, for example. I am really good at doing employee relations and investigations, but I do not love it. In fact, I absolutely cringe whenever that comes up for me, but I know that there are others out there who thoroughly enjoy investigating and finding the truth out. But remember, just because you're good at something doesn't mean you enjoy it.

Erica: And you can work to build a career that is based on your strengths and your passions, that is going to prevent you from getting stuck in a rut and from dwelling on the negative. So you need to pay attention to those things that you hate. Those things that you hate will also guide you. So maybe you're sitting there and you're like, I don't know what I wanna do. I don't know what I wanna be when I grow up, but do you know what you don't wanna do?

Erica: K? The next thing you need to do is create a career that creates opportunities for you. Now I am all about the law of attraction, putting it out there into the universe, but I'm also about putting in the work. I believe in the power of networking. And when you put those things together, opportunities will just start to show up for you.

Erica: So when I started putting in the work by networking on LinkedIn, reaching out to people who had roles that were more elevated than mine were and putting content out there that served others, opportunities started flying my way. I was asked to speak at national health and wellness conferences. I was asked to mentor individuals. I was asked to interview for other position. I was even asked to be a panelist all in my current role that I felt stuck in.

Erica: So I took those opportunities and I marketed them. And when I was ready to get out there and start applying, I found that interviews came easier. The conversations started happening all around me with key players in the HR space. People were impressed by the work I was doing and by what I had already accomplished. Now the point here is that even if you are stuck, you can create opportunities for yourself that will help lead you to your next step.

Erica: You can't sit there and be stagnant. You have to act. You have to create. And as much as people cringe when I say this next thing, guys, I am a firm believer that it is not what you know. It is who you know.

Erica: Now if you're gonna get yourself out of the sticky floor, you have to network. You have to foster relationships. Relationships are the top way that you can expedite your success. Now I'm a say it louder for the people in the back. Relationships are the top way that you can expedite your success.

Erica: There are different types of relationships that are very critical to your success, and there are the people that you work with every single day that can speak to your work ethic, what you do, how you do it day in, day out, your skills, your expertise. Right? They're important to have in your corner. Then there are also people outside of your day to day network such as coaches, mentors, role models. Those are key to have in your network as well.

Erica: But the one key relationship that I want to focus on today is the role of a sponsor. Now a sponsor is someone who has a level of influence to move you from where you are now to where you wanna be. They have the power to take you from where you are now to where do you wanna go next? Maybe they invite you to the room where important people are sitting, right, so that you can share your ideas. Maybe they have the right connections to plug you in.

Erica: K? These people exist. These are the people that come in and they say, you need to go apply for this role that's about to open up because they have the insider scoop. You need to have a sponsor in your corner. Now I get asked a lot, how do you form relationships in today's remote world?

Erica: Especially since we're just everybody has Zoom fatigue. Everybody is exhausted by doing all of these online meetings. And I do think that it is extremely important to connect with people remotely the same way that you would connect with them in the real present world. So ask them for coffee. Even if it's a virtual coffee, ask them for a fifteen minute call.

Erica: Send them a $5 Starbucks gift card if you feel inclined, but make that effort to connect. Right? Big point here, people love to talk about themselves. And I'm not saying this to make it sound like everybody's vain and especially to anyone I might be reaching out to, but people love to talk about what they're doing. And they want people to ask them about the project that they're working on.

Erica: So I often reach out and slide into people's DMs and, you know, just ask them, like, hey. I loved your post about x y z. Like, do you have fifteen minutes so I can hear more about what you're doing or how you did it? And more often than not, they will say yes. So if you make a goal every week about how many people you wanna reach out to and how many people you wanna form connections with, you will start to see those numbers rise.

Erica: So I usually try to connect with at least five people on LinkedIn and connections that matter for me, for my growth, for my network. They need to be meaningful. Right? And then I try to at least have one scheduled conversation with one person that I don't know. Right?

Erica: Sometimes these relation these fifteen minute conversations turn into friendships. They turn into very great business opportunities. You just never know. Right? You have nothing to lose by reaching out and having a fifteen minute call.

Erica: Now another thing that you can do if you are feeling stuck or stalled after you have really examined your values, your strengths, what you love, what you hate, is create some sort of plan. It can be a one year plan, a two year plan, a five year plan, ten year plan. Right? It's whatever your situation calls for. Sometimes it makes sense to just be like, I'm going to get through this year.

Erica: This is my plan. Other times, it makes more sense to say, you know what? I've got a five year plan. This is what I'm gonna do. But your plan needs to be super flexible.

Erica: And I say that because the only thing that stays the same is change itself. So you have to be adaptable to change. Do you guys remember when I thought I was gonna be a fitness professional for the rest of my life? Yeah. That didn't work out so much.

Erica: Right? And if you had asked me then, I would have never placed myself as a chief people officer or a podcast host. Never. So I want you to take your flexible plan and think about what are the gaps that you have in your skills and in your resume that you need to close. For example, let's say you're a leader of people or you're not you want to be a leader of people, but you have zero experience being a manager.

Erica: Right? That's one of the hardest transitions to make is from being someone who's never been a manager to being a manager. What can you do to close that gap so that when you are ready to be a manager, there's no question that you were the right person for the job? So when I wanted to transition from fitness and wellness into human resources, I started taking online classes in HR management. I went and got my human resource certification.

Erica: I started exposing myself to different aspects of human resources while still in fitness and wellness so that I could start to get experience that could translate into human resources. You should always be thinking, what do I need to be doing every three years to reach my goal? And, yes, I said every few years because it does take time to add these skills and experience to your resume. You can't just do it once and tack it on there. Keep adding these tools to your toolkit little by little.

Erica: Remember how I told you to stay flexible? If you change your mind, that's okay. Just update your path. Switch up to GPS. One thing I didn't tell you is in my journey from fitness and wellness to human resources, I thought, hey.

Erica: Why don't I go into project management? They make good money. Seems like they're needed everywhere. So you know what I did? Went out there and earned my PMP.

Erica: Now for those of you that are not familiar with this certification, it is the project management professional certificate, but it is super hard to get, has a very high fail rate for first time test takers. But I was just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. And, you know, long story short, I ended up passing the test, slap that baby on my resume, and guess what? Even though I don't have the desire to be a true project manager, most jobs all have some sort of project management aspect to it. And voila, I've got a wonderful transferable skill that is highly sought after.

Erica: So as much as you plan your career, you do have to leave some room for some of those beautiful unexpected things. And I don't want you to forget that. You can plan all day, all night, and you can work hard for things, but the best laid intentions do not always work out. Just take those moments, reflect, and pivot. Now, if you feel stuck in your career, you need to optimize what you can get out of that current role.

Erica: Do not just throw your hands up in there and say, oh, this is terrible. I give up. Not every job you have is going to be rainbows and unicorns and butterflies. Sometimes you have to put in your time. I had to put my time into employee relations investigations and learning how to do a good job there in order to be a chief people officer.

Erica: So if the job you're in is you feeling stuck and you start thinking like, what do I need to do to get out of this role? Start thinking about how can I learn a new skill here? Can I take on something different? Start forward thinking so that you can optimize and leverage your current role as shitty as it may be that there is something good in that role and in that opportunity. Start thinking about what you can take from it and put it on your resume.

Erica: Get all the tools and the education that you can and harness it for your next role. A critical piece that you have to figure out is how to start marketing those past experiences and how those are gonna parlay into the future role that you want. Now one wouldn't think that I had the skills to be in HR after being a fitness and wellness coordinator for almost eight years. Right? I'm teaching boot camps, yoga.

Erica: How is that gonna translate? But when you peel back the layers and you look at it, I was a people leader, so I had skills in management. I've been doing interviewing, so I had skills there. I've been working with c level leaders and strategic business partners so I could also leverage my communications with executives and leaders. And all of that translated into my role as an HR business partner.

Erica: So you also have to figure out how to take those past experiences and play them into the role that you want while being a good storyteller. So this is like going above and beyond and is that extra tip. But when you are going through those interview processes, you have to paint a picture for the person who's interviewing you to really showcase your skills. Maybe it's not that typical linear change, just like mine from fitness to human resources, but you have to create stories that can shape and showcase your skills and expertise. If the person who's interviewing you leaves an interview and can't retell the stories you told, you probably didn't interview strong enough.

Erica: So the last little tidbit that I wanna leave you with, and I think is super important, is that if you are feeling stuck or stalled in your current role, please do not just jump to the next thing that comes along. Not all opportunities are created equally, and you don't wanna make the wrong move. The grass is not always greener on the other side. I promise you. I can tell you so many times when people have left a role because they see a shiny new object and then they ask to come back because it's not what they thought it would be.

Erica: So often we feel stuck that when that opportunity comes along, we feel like we just have to take it. You know, but I want to challenge you to truly evaluate what that move is. And if it's going to take you closer to where you want to go next, or is it just a move? You don't want to make a move. That's just going to shuffle you around.

Erica: You wanna make a strategic move. K? You want to take intentional steps and make intentional career moves that are going to help you go from where you are now to where you wanna go next. So if you're feeling stuck, I implore you to please follow some of these steps that I outlined earlier in the podcast. Figure out what you love, what you hate, what you're good at, and what you are not so great at.

Erica: Create your plan. Remain flexible while doing it, close those career gaps, get yourself unstuck from the sticky floor of being stalled and stagnant in your career so that you can move on up from your now to your next.