Stacey Young Rivers, Ph.D. shares her approach to learning, Corey Deshon discusses his filmmaking journey, and it's about to get customized

"As the saying goes, when you do what you are passionate about, you will never work a day in your life." In this week's special edition of You've Got This, author and talent development executive Stacey Young Rivers, Ph.D. outlines her passion for learning, writing, and best advice for those looking to take the next step in their careers, special guest Corey Deshon discusses his journey towards creating his first feature film DAUGHTER , and our next guest Melissa Rubini Smith will share her approach to combining design and business.

Victoria: "How did you discover your passion for learning and career development?"

Dr. Young Rivers: "In hindsight, when I look at all the jobs I've had in my career, I realize there's been a pattern from the beginning. Throughout my management roles, I was most engaged when I had to perform training, coaching, and mentoring for my teams. Then in 2015, when I transitioned into a role focused on tech human capital management, I fell in love. It was like turning on the lights and seeing for the first time. In this role, I created three programs that set my career trajectory in learning and career development:?a) I launched a technology internship program for Turner Broadcasting, b) I developed a learning program for technology utilizing a corporate university model, and c) I designed a competency framework model to support our tech roadmap and provide a skills roadmap for employees’ career growth. These three programs' success helped increase my confidence in my abilities. For the work that you do, the passion can be apparent, but developing the expertise is another layer that is just as important.

A desire to build the expertise for my passion drove me to pursue a Ph.D. During my doctorate program, I conducted a learning study at work. I saw in the data how learning leaders can engage their employees in the future. The article I wrote for Chief Learning Officer described how learning professionals will co-create learning solutions with employees. From my experience, this collaboration creates the right approach for both the learning professional and the employee segment when the solution is designed to align with business needs and produce learning outcomes.

"Organizations must effectively prioritize development needs for their current employee base to remain competitive while planning for their future workforce. This is a huge opportunity to remake the learning journey for how people are recruited, onboarded, developed, and offboarded, creating a competitive advantage for companies that understand the value of the investment in learning. It is this enormous challenge that keeps me engaged and passionate."

I love problem-solving (hence my background in tech) and with a Ph.D., I am committed to researching solutions for people as the world forces us to think differently about how we can thrive."

Victoria: "You're a blogger, have authored three books, and also write a LinkedIn Newsletter entitled 'Level Up on Learning. '?How do you incorporate your dedication to writing in your day-to-day?"

Dr. Young Rivers: "As the saying goes, when you do what you are passionate about, you will never work a day in your life. I found my passion for writing almost ten years ago and have been penning my thoughts ever since. It started as a challenge from my career coach. I wondered what the next step in my career would be and was dumbfounded that I could not figure it out. My coach challenged me to write about three times in my life when I did work that I loved. This activity turned on a fire hydrant of thoughts, and I could not stop writing! Thoughts turned into blogs, blogs turned into articles, and articles turned into books. One of the most demanding projects I’ve ever had to write was my Ph.D. dissertation, which challenged me differently than anything I had done before. One reason for this is the rigor involved with academic writing; my default style was casual writing for my blog. When I read my early work, I can tell that my style has evolved tremendously. While blogging with AI is a topic for another conversation, here are some tactics I use for those who write naturally and want to incorporate more writing into their day.

Tools

• Download a notes or journal app to your phone – I use Evernote to capture my ideas and thoughts.
• Medium has a great blogging app that I use to create my first drafts
• Using a journal app is a great way to capture your thoughts and incorporate them in an article or blog later.

Time

• Usually, I write late at night before I go to sleep or early in the morning when I wake up. Having the apps on my phone makes this easily accessible.??
• I use whatever time I can steal when I am out taking care of errands (waiting in line, sitting at a car service center, waiting in the dentist’s office, etc.). I use these moments to capture my thoughts and create drafts.

Technique

• Write for different audiences and occasions; this can help hone your craft. To stretch yourself, use an alternative style to explore different from your norm. I write for social, business, industry, and academia…although I have not written a technical document in a long time, I may need to brush up on this one!
• Join a collaborative group to write an article or book. My last book was a collaboration. I partnered with like-minded women focused on helping people navigate career challenges in tech, and this spurred my determination. Also, receiving feedback from the group pushed me to produce better chapters than I would have if I had done it alone.
• Take a creative or business writing class for style tips or technique hacks. When you sit down to write, it may also help to pick a location that feels new or relaxing. Set the mood with candles, music, or whatever else you think gets you to a place where you can flow."

Victoria: "In today's fast-changing professional landscape, what advice would you have for those who may be impacted by layoffs or who may be looking to navigate the next best step in their work journey?"

Dr. Young Rivers: "For people in between jobs: ?Is this an opportunity to take a little time to figure out what you really want to do with your career? If you have the luxury of time, explore your options by looking at your ultimate job and assessing your gaps. Use the gaps to create a development plan. Even if it takes a year (or more) to complete your plan, you can still work at whatever job you obtain for income while you put yourself on a new career trajectory. This plan can be motivating because you know at a specified time in the future you will be in a different position than you are currently working. However, if you don’t have the luxury of time, take a job anyway and still work out a plan to transition to your desired role.

For people planning to pivot: If you are currently working and looking for your next opportunity, it's essential to be clear about your "why." Why are you looking to move? Based on your why, there are three wildcards for any job you take:

-??????You don’t know if the job as advertised is the job you will end up with

-??????You don’t know if the management style of the person you will report to meshes with your work style

-??????You don’t know if you will successfully navigate the culture and unwritten rules of the organization you are joining

These are the most common challenges people encounter, and how one overcomes these situations are unique to the individual and the environment. You must be methodical about where you move next by researching companies, building connections, and conducting informational interviews to understand the pros and cons. It’s always best to start looking 12-18 months before you transition. I suggest getting a career coach to help you map your plan.

For people who want to be their own boss: Explore what this could look like by creating your business plan and owning the dream of becoming your own boss. You can do this by starting a side project, or if you have funding to implement your business plan, get an experienced mentor in the industry. Transitioning from full-time employee to full-time boss may be one of the hardest things you ever do. Still, now may be a good time to start a partnership or collaboration. Also, exploring consulting opportunities is always a way to get your foot in the door for places looking for expertise rather than full-time roles.

This topic is a great segue to my next project. In June, I will publish my new book called 'Career Bluprint : 21 Learning Soul-lutions to Achieve Your Career Goals.' For this book, I collaborate with experienced executive coaches who have transitioned from corporate jobs to becoming successful entrepreneurs. I created the term “soul-lutions” to focus on self-coaching strategies incorporating learning activities to formulate a career plan. My big vision is to help everyone architect the career they want by building their career blueprint."

Follow Dr. Young Rivers on LinkedIn.

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I was excited to have the chance to speak with photographer, writer and director Corey Deshon around the release of his feature film film DAUGHTER , in theaters and on digital demand as of February 10, 2023. In our phone conversation, we discussed Corey's portfolio career approach to filmmaking, the impetus behind the film, and what he's found to be the best approach to nurturing creativity.

Victoria: "Can you tell us a bit about your career trajectory thus far?"

Corey: "My career trajectory began in high school, studying computer tech and engineering, and going off at 18 to work in that field. I went to the University of Central Florida, got a bachelors in information technology, and continued to work in tech, thinking that was what I was going to be doing professionally. I grew up interested in the arts, music, drawing, painting, filmmaking, but I grew up in Tampa and there isn’t really a path from Tampa to Hollywood. The film industry was an abstract thing that existed somewhere else. So the idea of being a professional filmmaker wasn’t real in that I wasn’t trying to do that, even though it was a passion of mine.

I would have said 'I want to make a film someday' back then, but it never really crossed my mind to move to Los Angeles and try to do it for real. It wasn’t until I graduated college, had been working in tech for 5 years, and I decided I wanted to make a short film for myself. I did some photography and videography for hire, but had never shot my own writing. I love creative writing as well, so I thought now that I’d graduated and could take some off of work, and decided to make a short film just because I could. I set off to make this thing. I crowdfunded, hired people from Craigslist, and this was in Orlando. And that experience opened my eyes to what this could be. I'm on this set as my own writer, director, producer, making this thing a reality. Now that I’d tasted that experience, what it really was. I realized I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life if I didn’t do that again. I couldn’t go back to a job that was not pursuing that. So it was a realization that this was what I was supposed to be doing this entire time, and when I did that, I realized I had to go do this. This was October 2012. Before that, it never occurred to me to live in LA. But by December 2012, I moved to LA. Gave my boss 2 months notice after finishing my short film, trained my replacement, moved to LA in this pursuit not knowing how I would do this, but that I had to try. I had to try and fail to do the thing that I loved, rather than not try."

Victoria: "What was the inspiration for your new film DAUGHTER that you wrote and directed??

Corey: "The inspiration is a little bit reactionary. I get into the film industry, I see how things really work around here. I was a little disappointed, to be honest. 'This is how it is?' It feels like an unnecessary restriction could be on the creative process. I don’t like the idea of a massive conglomerate telling me, as a creative, what I'm capable of, or what I’m allowed to do. Where is this artificial limit coming from? After being here for a few years, being friends with actors, they had similar experiences - telling actors they can only do this or that, because of their demographics, here’s the role they have to play. So this film came out of necessity to break out of those boxes and be experimental artists. We wanted to try an interesting, unique idea and see if it would work. Creatively, knowing if we had to make a feature film, we had to sell it to make our money back, we had to keep the budget as small as possible to market a film like this. So out of this came the restrictions I’d write to. With a small budget film, you won’t have a lot of locations, a lot of time to shoot, or a huge cast. You have to find an interesting way to engage an audience who’s watching a stage play as a film.

"So that became a challenge to me. How can I be unique, explore topics and themes I want to explore, and making it interesting for the audience. And that’s where the beauty of the horror/thriller genre comes in. Because that genre hooks the audience in, with the fun of the genre set pieces themselves you have creative liberties to play around with it. So with the practical, creative concerns, finding the best synthesis of what those things would be."

Victoria: "What do you hope audiences take away from the film?"

Corey: "It’s interesting. When I was sending the script out to the actors first, everybody who read the film had a slightly different idea about what the film actually meant. Because we were friends already, they knew me to an extent, they all had a slightly different idea about what the film meant based on the character they were reading for, or what they might have brought in from their own lives into the reading process. That was intentional. That there could be multiple interpretations of the film, based on what your experiences are, and to an extent how much you’re willing to dig into the film to figure out what it means. I know that not everyone likes to watch a film like that, but I know some people do. So I hope people who enjoy digging in, finding meanings in things, find something really rewarding, when they watch the film. And I’m curious to know what they think it means."

Victoria: "As a writer, director, and photographer, you have built what some may refer to as a 'portfolio career.' What advice would you have for other portfolio career builders, in terms of how to evaluate opportunity or finding the right balance for them?"

Corey: "I think the balance is finding the space for yourself to be creative. There’s that thought that you have to be under extreme stress or extreme pressure or it takes some kind of hardship to come up with creative expression. I think creativity can come from comfort. It comes from having your fundamental needs met, so you can be in a relaxed space where you can express yourself, and that’s all. So step one is taking care of yourself, making sure your bills are met, making sure you have stability in your life so you have time to be creative. In that space, you take pressure off your creativity, so you don’t have to use it to solve problems but you can simply explore. And that will look very different based on who you are, where you’re coming from, but I noticed a change in my writing. When I first came out here, struggling as a PA, working every few months, my writing was struggling. And my best writing is coming from when I have my career going, when I can buy space for myself, and pour all of my intention into a piece of writing. Those have been the samples that have gone out furthest for me in my career. So it’s about taking care of the most important needs first."

Follow Corey on LinkedIn.

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Our next guest: Melissa Rubini Smith

Bringing together a background of experience in psychology, photography, branding, fashion and entrepreneurship, our next guest is Melissa Rubini Smith . Most recently, Melissa coaches and uplevels women, aspirational and innovative brands, CEOs, and leadership teams, and has also started an e-commerce interior design company The Mayfair Hall . With that in mind, here's what I'll be asking Melissa:

• How has your eclectic background studying psychology, photography and fashion shaped your professional experience?
• Was the founding of The Mayfair Hall in 2021 perhaps inspired by the focus on interior design and home improvement that so many felt during the pandemic? What's your own personal lens on curation and design?
• Your work as a coach and mentor is framed through the lens of 'aligned and feminine entrepreneurship.' What does that mean to you, and how do you recommend others apply these principles towards their work to optimize and boost their success?

Interested in joining in with your own question for Melissa? Ask in the comments below— and thank you for being a part of You've Got This.?