Career: My Final Value (Plus a Major Life Update)
Also, would you please take my super-short survey? You could win a book!
Greetings, friends. I have lots to tell you, beginning with discussing my final value: career.
But first, to briefly recap:
Over the course of many months, I worked with my coach on identifying my main values. Being super-conscious of these allows me to cross-check potential projects to make sure they align with how I want to be spending my energy.
The values, which I have been discussing one by one here on my Substack (thanks for indulging me!), are connection, creativity, faith (not the god-kind), family, and career (which I’ll be discussing today, along with a related announcement). My hope in exploring these has been twofold: embolden you to identify your own value systems (if that calls to you), and create self-accountability by exploring why these values are important.
Last week, I tried out Substack’s podcast feature by recording the audio file of my last Substack. For the moment anyway, I plan on continuing that (and I welcome any feedback from you regarding whether you like it and whether the interface is easy enough, so please take the survey at the bottom of this Substack).
Career as a core value
I’ve previously used this space to explore my relationship with ambition, which at times has felt imbalanced—even a little toxic. So one of the things I’ve been working on since coming to that realization is separating my drive (which is something I like) from my, uh, monomaniacal desire to succeed … whatever that happens to mean that day.
My ambition has, in the past, been very enmeshed with my anxiety; so my anxiety is at least partly responsible for some of the career highlights I’ve had thus far. But I have come to the awareness that I don’t need my anxiety in order to feel professional fulfillment. Huzzah! (Obviously, even though I’ve come to that awareness, I still need to reassess and realign my behavior around this regularly.)
Anywho. All of this is to say: I’m actually thrilled that career wound up on my value list, and even more thrilled that on a list of five, it showed up … last! How’s that for prioritizing?
To me, last is the perfect place for it, as the values that precede it (connection, creativity, faith, and chosen family) all inform it, in a way. I need to feel connected to myself and those around me (not to mention to nature) in order to succeed. I need to have creative expression in both my personal life and my profession (cubicle life is no life for me). I must let go of my expectations of the outcome (that’s where faith comes in). And my chosen family (which includes some of my bio family—don’t worry, Mom!) is all part of my team (and I am part of theirs), which will ultimately help me on the career side of things, too.
Career has always been a giant focus for me, and as I’ve tip-toed into middle age, it’s caused some existential angst. Questions like, “Am I doing what I want to be doing? Am I making a difference in the world? Am I in a professional that is creative enough, challenging enough, connected enough, sustainable enough? Is this going to lead to whatever I want to ultimately leave behind?” have rattled around in my brain, sometimes during long, sleepless nights.
But now that I’m more in touch with my values—and thus, my needs—dealing with this angst feels easier somehow.
Relatedly, some things I’m currently finessing include my mission, my primary metric, and my secondary metrics (as in, what are my measures of success?). In addition to my values, these act as guideposts, ensuring I’m choosing the right projects (as opposed to being more reactive and accepting gigs out of fear, not want).
Before I share my big news (I know, I know! Just hold on a little longer), I want to dig a bit deeper into why career is a value of mine:
I’ve always felt my career was an extension of my activism. I realize that’s a giant privilege. My career started when I was 21 and got my first post-college job as an AIDS-awareness actor/educator, paving the way for decades of “jobs” that directly tied to social justice causes.
I’ve also felt my career was an extension of my creative expression. This mostly took the form of acting, writing, and public speaking.
My career is directly connected to my community. Most of my friends have come by way of animal rights advocacy, which has of course been my main focus.
My career has played a big role in my identity and the way I relate to myself. I realize that this is a double-edged sword, and of course, one needs real hobbies (queue the tap-dancing!), but for better or for worse, this is true for me.
It’s uniquely mine. I’ve worked hard to piece together a career that works for me in all the ways. I’m used to people proclaiming that I do “so much,” but on the inside, it doesn’t feel that way. I feel like I have a good ratio of strategies, outlets, and collaboration/independent work balance. Some of my work is designed to elevate others’ stories, while some puts my own story in the center. Some is more background work, while other aspects of what I do is personality-driven. And, for the most part, creating my own schedule lets me do life on my terms (or, let’s be real, the terms of my dogs and cat).
So, for me, it’s not so much about climbing the executive ladder (though that certainly has its charms) as it is about ensuring that I am aligning my “work” with my values, and creating achievable, satisfying metrics.
Onto my big news
For the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to balance several projects. One of them has been working at Kinder Beauty, most recently as the VP of Editorial. But in my three years there, I have held multiple titles, some of which I don’t even remember.
I also am lucky enough to have been the very first employee at this fabulous start-up that, amongst other things, offers a monthly beauty subscription box (all vegan and cruelty-free, of course). I’ve been responsible for most things there at one point or another (except sourcing products). Most recently, I’ve been focused on building the company’s blog and producing the Kinder Beauty podcast, hosted by Evanna Lynch and Daniella Monet (though I host many segments in the upcoming season, so stay tuned).
If you’ve ever been a part of a company from the get-go and had the immense pleasure of watching it grow, then you can probably relate to the goosebumps I have now that the company employs a couple dozen people! I wasn’t exactly the parent here, but I feel like in a way I was the nanny or the step-parent. I definitely played a role in forming the company (the brand voice, the values, the charitable partnerships), but it was from a half-step back.
My time at Kinder has been incredibly rewarding, and I truly love this company. The ethos, the team, the fabulous founders, and the gorgeous products; they all are extra special to me. And not just to me. Basically everyone who deals with Kinder (whether as a subscriber or partner) loves them.
You probably know where I’m going with this.
I’ve decided to step down from my full-time role at Kinder Beauty in order to better align my work with my interests and skills. It’s a fascinating thing to feel that a loop has closed, and I feel that way about my time at Kinder. My skills were very needed early on when the small team I was working with was still building the company up, creating best practices, etc. I was able to manage the influencer marketing until someone was hired who specialized in that. I was able to do the emails until someone was hired who specialized in that. And I was able to run the blog entirely until SEO became the main focus and someone was hired who specialized in that.
Still, my boss at Kinder, Andrew Bernstein, continued to let Kinder be my playground, and from there, many creative projects were born. I am so grateful to him for trusting me to be innovative with the work I created and will continue to create. My hope is that there will be a future Kinder Beauty book that I will write, and that the podcast, A Little Kinder, will continue to go strong—with me executive producing it.
Maybe this timing isn’t entirely coincidental. I’ve been working with Kathleen on aligning many aspects of my life since the start of this year. They’ve run the gamut from how to better self-soothe to how to be more of a leader and many things in between.
It’s only natural that as we get real with ourselves about what it is we actually want and need, other pieces of our lives shake out the way they were meant to. I don’t mean this in some ethereal “woo” way; I mean it much more practically than that. When we stop moving forward out of habit and become more plugged in with what it is we are doing—and why—things (relationships, homes, jobs) have a tendency to shift.
So what next?
Glad you asked.
Though this is very much in process, I’m planning on shifting around some of the things I’m already doing that fit within the parameters of what I want to focus on—create media that bring stories to light that help people get in touch with who they are, in order to change the world for animals (and yes, that’s a mouthful but I told you this is a work in progress)—but in a much more intentional way than I had before.
This won’t surprise you since it’s basically what I’m already focused on, but I want to achieve that in a mix of ways that include authoring (here’s hoping), content creation (mainly writing, such as what you’re reading now … which I intentionally include separately from authoring), podcasting (hosting and production), coaching/advising (such as what I already do through Our Hen House with flock members who sign up for one-on-ones with me), and speaking engagements (which have been slim since Covid started).
As such, I have formed an LLC to capture all of the above! Admittedly, some of the reason that I started this business was for psychological benefits, since doing so adds a specific structure to my current freelance work and allows me to think of my day-to-day differently.
True: I’ve been doing this work for a while now. But having a new business, I feel very motivated to elevate the work I’m already doing and create (then scale) some new projects that I’ll tell you about in time. I’m also thrilled that the consultancy I’ll be shifting to with Kinder Beauty will fit perfectly within the mission of … my new company! Pop that champagne!
I am very excited about this next phase of my career, even though it’s also pretty scary to step away from a regular paycheck, especially in the wake of a possible recession. I’ll keep you posted about how this all shakes out, but in the mean time, I’m hoping you’ll help me gather some information by filling out my short survey.
Pretty please fill out my short survey!
If you do fill out my survey, you can win a signed copy of either of my books: Always Too Much and Never Enough or The VegNews Guide to Being a Fabulous Vegan. (Sorry, this is for US residents only.) It really means so much to me for you to take the time to do this. I’m trying to gather some information on what’s resonating with you about Jasmin’s Jargon, and what content might make sense to put behind a pay wall for just the paid subscribers. I need your thoughts!
OK, this was a long entry. Thanks for hanging in there. I appreciate you more than you will ever know.
Here’s to whatever the hell happens next!
xo,
jazz
P.S. I’m thrilled to have written another story for Yahoo Lifestyle’s environmental section, Unearthed. My article—“People are swearing off air travel because of climate anxiety”—is up. I hope you read it and share it, if you’re so inclined. Thank you!
P.P.S. Keep an eye/ear out for the upcoming audio version of this entry, coming later this week!
Best of luck in your new venture(s)
Love it!
Jasmin Singer, professional Jasmin!