Episode 198: Navigating Career Change, Growth & Building Momentum for 2026 ft. Teegan Bartos

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast. I’m your host, Johanna Dahlman. This week as we inch closer towards the end of the year, I know it is a season of transition from fall to winter. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, it’s from winter into spring. And I wanted to. Embrace this by bringing on Teegan Bartos, who is a specialist for career advancement, for women’s leadership, and just career transition in general. Especially for executives and all different levels of people, women especially looking to change and potentially this may find you here. She has a lot of wisdom to share and at some point we’ve all been there, whether it’s a career job, going into retirement or coming back from maternity leave or maybe looking for that pay raise or looking for a better job that suits us, fulfills us.

And so I wanted to bring her in and so that she can talk to you all about having this sector of life, which is a big chunk of our life. If you think about it, they say you sleep one third of your life, but we also live and work in careers, in jobs with people for over a third of our lives as well. We spend over 8 hours a day, if not more, in some circumstances, or potentially even less, but still. That quality of life should be so fulfilling that either we wanna stay or we’re not looking to move. And, sometimes that transition does call upon us. And so again, I wanted to bring it in Teagan’s wisdom and expertise, but I also wanted to talk to you guys first about a couple things.

First, there’s been numerous emails and text messages. This week alone for all my people who have just started the Hair N’ Heal program. The feedback is incredible in terms of seeing drastic hair loss stop, seeing hair growth come about for those with alopecia totalis, areata and universalis. For those with telogen effluvium, diffused, like the hair loss is already stopping and I have those interviews coming up, so I’m really excited to share those. If you are new to the podcast, I would say start from the beginning because there are many interviews, so much tips, information and wisdom to be garnered from each podcast episode. More so too, I wanted to start off the giving season with a raffle.

So now is October and we’re almost mid-October, and so I wanted to give away a raffle. A $100 Amazon gift card to wherever you live. And if it’s not Amazon where you live, then it could be something else, no worries. Or just straight PayPal, whatever you’d like. All you need to do is subscribe to the podcast and to the YouTube channel. Leave a review for the podcast on Apple Podcast. Send a screenshot in and then email us with

this information so we have it, and then we can use it for the raffle. You can email us at hello@alopeciaangel.com

By the end of the month, by November 1st, I am going to be picking out the winner. I will be contacting you directly and then we can also have this free raffle a hundred dollars gift card or cash, however you’d sent to you directly.

And just as a bonus, I’m gonna throw in a free consultation with me, which is also $97 value. So that’s $200 now a value of the gift card, plus a free consultation so that you can talk to me and we can develop a strategy around your hair loss, around your situation. Maybe it’s for you or maybe it’s for a loved one, so I’ll throw in that as well. I love the giving season. My favorite time of year is probably Autumn right now, and it’s been this way now for the last maybe 5- 10 years now. And I love it. I love the changing of the seasons, I love the getting cozy, I love the, just that hibernation mode ever so slightly because it allows us to rethink, recalibrate, review if there’s something that I will be stressing for the next couple podcasts.

And, till the end of the year is reviewing the results, reviewing how far we’ve gotten, reviewing where we’re going, reviewing, where we are in the hair loss journey, but then also where are we going after that? And then not just that, but then also how about reviewing, you know what it is what you’re doing. If you’re not working with me, what it is what you’re doing is working or is not working. Because a lot of times people are stuck in this loophole of things that are not working. It was a couple days ago, I was talking to a lady and she was telling me that she’s been on Nutrafol and she’s been on this and she’s been on that and nothing’s working, and she’s had already more than 12 months postpartum hair loss, and it just continues to come out.

That’s not normal and that needs to stop. And so the only one who can make that stop is her once she takes action and comes inside the Hair N’ Heal program. And for those of you taking neutrophil, I’m going to be posting this, I’ve already posted it once before, but Women’s Health Magazine came out this year with an article sharing that Neutrophil caused liver damage to a 26-year-old. I wanted to say that loud and clear because I always love showing research and magazine articles. And then also what headline news showcases in terms of alopecia meds, their side effects, their detrimental effects to mental health. Suicide and so much more. But Nutrafol again, was correlated to having liver damage to this 26-year-old. And it’s all showcased in this Women’s Health magazine, which is a prominent magazine here in the US and probably in other parts of the world for liver damage and disease.

So I wanted to showcase that because again, that’s not me saying this. These are outlets that I’m sharing with you. I will be posting that this week to Instagram so you could see it because it caught my eye and I’m sure a lot of you don’t know. And that’s the problem a lot of times. We consume things, we do things, we eat things that we think are good for us and they’re not good for us. We think that they’re helping our hair loss situation and they’re not helping our hair loss situation. We’re wasting money and

time on this quote unquote solution when in reality it’s actually, damaging a certain area of our lives and we are unbeknownst to this.

This is, concerning of course, but then also it’s not making headline news because all the other stuff is making headline news. And so I’m here for you as a resource. We also have free resources, PDFs on my website where you can download prescriptions that cause hair loss. Also medications that cause hair loss, whether or not it’s hair loss meds or something else. There’s a full list and there’s a lot of other products and things that are on these PDFs that would be so helpful for you too. So those are all free. You can just grab grab them online at alopeciaangel.com. Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing all your raffle entries. And again, November 1st, we’ll be picking up the winner. So here’s this episode with Teegan. Thanks so much. Take care.

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Johanna: So welcome to the show, Teegan. I’m so happy that you are here at the Alopecia Angel Podcast. Awaken Hair growth. Here recently we’ve been discussing different topics, not just about hair loss, but many times about overcoming adversity or climbing Mount Everest or even bone health or menopause or other topics of health. And a lot of times we don’t look at our career or work life as an aspect of our health when in reality it is.

Teegan: Yeah, I think, research shows for career-driven women. We spend one third of our life at work. That’s a lot of our life spent at work, so of course it’s gonna impact our health. Are we sitting at a desk all day? Are we eating? Are we staying hydrated? All the way through the mental health aspects of it. Are we in a toxic environment? Do we have boundaries? And so on and so forth. And with the executive women that I work with on a regular basis, the answer a lot of times is: No, we are not taking care of ourselves. And so I’m glad I can join your show and we can encourage more women to live a healthier, holistic life, including professionally.

Johanna: Yes, absolutely. I’ve seen this with a lot of clients where sometimes work isn’t the healthiest situation for them and it’s impeding on their health. It’s creeping up and crouching into their quality of life, which at the end of the day, that’s what life is all about, is having the best quality, not just your health, quality of life in every area of your life. Because if something is not balanced or not going well, it’s gonna show up in some way or some form in another area. This is where you’ve seen it firsthand with the executives that you work with. But I’ve seen it with my clients and I’ve seen it in myself. I’ve seen it in so many other women family members, relatives or even people in the news, right?

Teegan: Yeah. How many of us get put on a project or we’re up for promotion and then we give it our absolute everything and as a result, we’re not giving ourselves anything that we need to sustain that level of a functioning.

Johanna: It’s so true. What would you say are some of the takeaways that you’ve seen from working with these top level executives?

Teegan: I think that when someone gets to the point where they’re coming to me and probably coming to you, something bad has happened. They’re at their wit’s end, they are literally losing their hair from stress or an autoimmune disease that they developed from things that are happening in their environment. I think that the key takeaway that I see and that I wanna advocate for is know the warning signs before you get to the broken jaw, to the divorce or whatever it is that finally makes you reach out and get help and change your lifestyle. Because at that point things have gotten pretty bad and we don’t have to get to the point where things are that bad to make a difference.

I’m all for ambition, I’m all for putting in the work. Absolutely. That’s just a part of who I am. I’m energized by it. And I also know that if our cup isn’t full, we can’t give our all. And so I guess the second takeaway that I’ve seen is just the nature of women. And this is a gross generalization, but we are nurturing, we are caring, we are givers. And it’s really easy to put ourselves last when we’re trying to accomplish a goal, especially when we feel the weight of our teams or our company success. What have you. And if we aren’t prioritizing self and find that balance as we’re achieving that success, it just won’t be sustainable. That’s a hard pill to swallow because so many of us are raised. If we work harder, we will get the results. But a lot of times what happens is if we work harder, we burn ourselves out and we have nothing left to give or somehow our personal life is impacted by it. That is the wake up call of: All right, something’s gotta change.

Johanna: Yes, and burnout has so many different facets to it. It has the health component, it has the family component. Where I was actually talking to somebody the other day and, we were discussing how during COVID it was such a phenomenon in many ways where families were either coming apart or coming together or people were moving or moving out, or there was a lot of family personal life shifts just because people had time to think, to realize: Hey, do I wanna live this way? If I had to be cooped up with somebody for so many months, do I really want it to be this person or that person? And so there was a lot of aha moments and a lot of clarity for a vast majority of people making these life changes and living in the moment and saying: No I wanna live life.

I need to create it and create the life that I want because if not something can happen and then I’m stuck or I’m in a rut, and then you have nothing but the mirror to look at and to show for everything that you are currently accepting and settling for. And I think that’s the biggest pill to swallow, is when you look around and you start taking notes of your life and you realize: Oh, I settled in this area and I settled in that area and in here and there. And then there’s no one else to blame but ourselves.

Teegan: What a cruel taste of what life could look like. When COVID hit and the world shut down, because now companies are all about return to office and that freedom and flexibility and work life balance, even though research has shown that people who work virtually put in way more hours than people who work in an office. It’s difficult to now deal with, especially for the type of professional women that I’m working with, because they may want their team to still be able to be remote, but the board says: No, we’re

coming into office because of trust, because of whatever what their traditional philosophies on what work looks like, on what collaboration is and so on and so forth.

And that dichotomy of values of what they want life and work to look like is a hard pill to swallow that we may or may not have control over. But at the end of the day, we do, to a certain extent, have control because we could always go elsewhere. But a lot of people choose to stay where they’re at and deal with what they know.

Johanna: What is your take on generational patterns of either employment or executives? And also to add onto that, like the hindsight 2020, like what would you tell your younger self or somebody who’s up and coming in their career and wants career advice on how to excel in a healthy way and how to see the signs, like you mentioned some warning signs. What are some of these signs that we could start looking at to see, what’s going on? Because, for example, I know my listeners, the ones who follow me more than likely have the hair loss. And so because of that is their warning sign where it’s relentless, it won’t give up, it won’t give in.

There’s nothing that they’ve tried that will help this or, modify it at any point, including the autoimmune. The autoimmune is a little more vicious. But there’s people with androgenic hair loss who’ve been accepting it and dealing with it on and off for 20, 30 years, and it just gets worse. That to me, right there is a bad relationship. If you already see something, we need to do something about it. But sometimes for whatever reason, we like submit to it.

Teegan: I love that question. And I think that hindsight is a gift for your younger listeners, say those who are in their 20s. I think that your 20s that decade is the hardest decade that anyone can experience for a couple different reasons. Primarily because you’re probably broke, right? You’re young, so opportunities professionally are limited in terms of earning potential. If you went to college, you may have an obnoxious amount of debt that you’re dealing with and you lack exposure. One thing that’s amazing about aging is the wisdom that you gain through different experiences.

And so for the listeners who may be in their 20s and experiencing such a challenging time in life when going from having tons of friends in high school and college to now being out in the real world and it’s, you gotta schedule 8 months out to find time to be with friends or you’re looking for your life partner, or you’re trying to figure out how to navigate all kinds of relationships and you’re trying to navigate how politics at work, you know, how to deal with them it’s just messy. And it takes those experiences and hopefully a great mentor to help you learn how to deal with them. A lot of times mentors will say, keep your head down, work harder, pay your dues. And I think at times that isn’t always the healthiest advice.

I think for your listeners who are more mature in their experience, me speaking from like corporate professional lens of the people that I work with and gain exposure to. It’s our job to help clear the way. Just because something was challenging for us or they put us through it, doesn’t mean we have to put them through it. Sure, there are things that

people need to learn the hard way, but also there are systems, tools, mentorships, and so on that can support the younger generation. And so if you’re in your 20s, try to find someone who doesn’t just say. We went through it and we survived. We had to work 80 hour weeks, you can do it. Because that is a quick path to burnout and resentment.

I also think that regardless of your age, it’s really helpful to be mindful of how you’re truly feeling. I learned this in my 30s, that if you take the time to reflect and really think about what you want, you’re more likely to have the life that you want, the health that you want, the partnerships and friendships that you want, the hobbies that you want, because you’ll will take the time to make space for them and you potentially are able to juggle your finances a little bit better to make those a reality. In hindsight, some of the things that I wish I would’ve listened to is: Yes, I am ambitious. Yes, I wanna have stretch assignments. Yes, I want to climb the ladder and grow into these roles. And it does require work, and it does require exposure to the right people, but it doesn’t require me being on 24/7

It doesn’t require sacrificing holidays with family that are really important to me. It doesn’t require working a low paying job because that’s the first thing that you landed in working 3 other part-time jobs just to pay the bills. No, you keep looking so you can have the life that you want and reflecting and being honest about what it is you want. And in your current state, what is preventing you from getting those things? Or what could. If you amplify certain activities, what would help you get there faster that we can all benefit from? Does that make sense?

Johanna: It does make sense, you have me thinking a little bit. So let’s pretend it’s the end of the year or close to it. What are some of the questions that you prompt your clients with to help someone to forecast, to understand, to gain this clarity, this self- reflection, which I love doing this at the end of the year. I think starting from October on Thanksgiving on this type of time is a reflective time because we’re gonna go into 2026. It just so happens that we’re in full moon energy right now too. So that’s another insider scoop as to bring in something new and to let go of stagnant energy as well.

But going back to the practicalities of a new year 2025, moving into 2026, what are some of the questions that for people who are looking to change careers, potentially retire or maybe start a new career switch industries or anything else, what are some of those tips or reflective prompts or questions that you would ask them?

Teegan: From a corporate perspective, some of the things that I look at are not just my professional career, but my holistic life. So I always start with values. My values have shifted over the years back to COVID. I didn’t realize that community was one of my top values. Prior to COVID, prior to having community being taken from me. And what I see a lot with the job seekers that I work with is we typically run from something instead of running to something. And so when we’re doing these annual reviews, we always wanna be running to that next version of what we want, what we’re gonna find fulfilling. So I always start with values just to pressure test it, and then I assess how my actions have aligned with my values or where I’ve been living outside of integrity.

So family is really important to me, and I was raised that a woman is predominantly in the home to take care of the home. And the irony of that is because all of the women that I know, even my grandparents. They were working women, they weren’t just managing a household, they also managed a career, but they still had all the household obligations. And so I always felt for some time when I first started doing this, a dichotomy there of: Okay, family is a value of mine, but how I was raised, how I was taught, what that looked like was different from how I was living. And it took some work, it took some self-reflection for me to realize that my version of success for a family doesn’t mean I have to be the one cleaning my home. I can outsource that and I can still be a proud mother and feel like my values are in alignment with the family category.

But something I didn’t wanna outsource, something that, a ball that I didn’t want to drop was being present at a certain amount of sports games and things like that. I can vividly remember as a child being involved in certain activities and not having my mom there because she was a single mom and she had to work and it was so hard not to have her there. And so for me, for my kids, I wanted to be able to give that to them. Mom, I love you. I hold no resentment towards you not being there. I understand you had to do what you have to do, but I wanted to be able to do that. I wanted to find a way to do that.

And so was I going to those activities that did feel like an alignment. And then looking into other things like integrity. WW was I having a say high do ratio? And when I wasn’t having a say, a high say, say, do ratio. Why and how did I address it? How did I pivot moving forward? And so me, I’ve got kids, a lot of your listeners may have children when they get sick. Do you have to cancel your calls for the day? Probably. I said I was gonna be on that call, but yet I had to cancel it. And that to me hurts. And is another one of those dichotomies between my professional ambitions and my family responsibilities.

And so one of the things that I had to come to terms with mentally was reminding people as a part of my authentic brand, is that I am a family woman. I am an ambitious family woman. And if something happens, I have to reschedule. And I do wanna honor your time, and I’ll let you know as soon as possible. And I just had to let go that would be enough. So I go through my values, where I felt in alignment, where I felt not in alignment, and then painstakingly and honestly reflected on why.

Johanna: But the thing is, things change. And I don’t think too many people realize that. I still feel and think like I’m in my early 30s in many ways because I have lots of energy, because I’m still on this, go situation and nothing really ties me down. And it’s I just take it and let’s go, let’s do this. And so I think in many ways when you start to get into, you know, your 40s and your 50s and your 60s that’s statistically that’s when we start to see diagnoses of any sort. Whether it’s high blood pressure, diabetes or whatever it is. With hair loss, it’s a little different, but you can see it at different times, right? Of when we start to inch closer to menopause or, before like me with my autoimmune or even in children or even, when you’re at a retired post-retirement age, post 60+.

And so it doesn’t matter, it, any health issue or concern can affect us in one way or another. And I think that has been my biggest value since alopecia and it’s really hard to be perfect in every box, across the spectrum of what quality of life or what success looks like for us as women, as mothers, as granddaughters and sisters and caregivers more than anything. Because when parents are falling ill or having issues, it tends to fall on the other women of the family, right? The daughters and the granddaughters. It’s not necessarily the sons or the grandsons. It could, but it’s not the norm.

Teegan: Let’s face it. Most of the time all of that kind of stuff falls on us. Not always, but a lot of times we do have to sacrifice where we’re at to support others.

Johanna: So what’s some of the advice that you’ve given to your clients when they’re in between, let’s say, helping their elderly parents, also trying to help themselves and also trying to help their kids that are still potentially maybe in college or in high school or, still transitioning, because kids these days, they still, they’re 30 years old and they’re still your kid and they’re still needing you.

Teegan: I love my mom’s philosophy on this. And she remarried a few years ago and she says: I will always be their mother and they still need me every day and every day she still calls us. And not every relationship is like that with people’s parents. I understand that. But as we go through different seasons of life, different people need different things from us, and we want to, or feel called to support different people in different ways. And so as I’m working with individual clients, I really assess what their realities are because it’s so different for everyone. I’ve got a client right now who’s in her late 30s.

Her mother retired to care of her mother, who’s in her 90s and then she got early onset dementia. And so now my client is caring for both her mother and grandmother, both of whom have dementia, and they’re at different phases of the anger and the violence that comes along with that. And it is physically ruling for my client, but also emotionally exhausting. And so when we were evaluating everything, she ultimately decided she was ready to take a step down in her career. She was ready to show up and contribute, but she didn’t want to keep climbing and she didn’t wanna have those advanced responsibilities and that worked for her. And I’ve got other clients who get support, who outsource what they don’t want to do personally, and that works for them and there’s zero judgment either way people go.

But what I really encourage my clients generically to do is to really evaluate. What drains them and what lights them up? What do they feel like is in alignment with their values and what feels like a betrayal to their true self? And each person is so different, even at the executive level, even when people have reached the peaks of their careers. Different people want different things. I can tell you right now, many of my clients are in their 60s and they’re not trying to retire. They may have been forced out of their organization because they get paid the most and there’s different age discrimination things that could be at play, but they don’t wanna retire.

¿They feel like they have so much more value to contribute to corporate America. And that’s what we do. I have so many clients who chose never to become never to have children because that was not what was in alignment with how they wanted to live their lifestyle and have helped some of my clients travel around the world seeking new opportunities because they loved to travel. Working as an expat was their way to get paid to travel around the world and really learn about cultures and being able to be immersed for an extended period of time. And so I feel really honored to get to do what I do and to be able to help women who typically are in very compromising positions. Realize that it’s not the end of the road.

I’m sure very similar to how your clients come feeling like they’ve tried everything and then they find you and they’re like: Holy sh*t, I can get my hair back quickly, this is possible. And get to start the next phase of their life with such renewed energy alignment, vitality. It’s beyond an honor to be part of that journey.

Johanna: Thank you. What would be some tips for new job seekers or people wanting to transition that you would give them right now as it stands? The industry, the work sector for 2025? because I know this looks so different year to year, decade a decade. It, it really just depends on the climate.

Teegan: It’s so interesting the world of work right now, especially in the United States. Because we have been in a flat job market for the past 2 years, and starting in August, 2025, we entered into a frozen job market, according to economist standards. So not in a recession, but the next closest thing to a recession, which is really scary, especially for people who are new into the workforce or trying to transition into the workforce. So people who are new into the workforce, my best advice is to attend office hours and network as much as you can if you choose to go to college. If you’re not going to college, I still recommend you meet as many people as possible because it’s cheesy, but your network is your net worth.

And so if you go into the trades or what have you, whatever you decide to do as you’re entering the workforce, try to meet as many people as possible because the more mentors you can get earlier on in your career, that easier it is for you to bypass some really painful lessons and skyrocket the opportunities and the exposure that you have to you. If you are going the college route, get as many internships as you can because currently new grad unemployment rate is at 6% and a lot of new grads are massively unemployed. So maybe somebody went to school as a finance major and they end up working as a cashier in retail. That’s not something that you paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go and do.

So get as many internships as you can because at this phase of where we’re at in corporate America, being qualified is expected. And how do you do that as a new grad? You try to get as many experiences as you can, try to do as many case studies or labs or project works as you can. For those transitioning industries, it’s a little bit different. AI has disrupted so many different organizations, call centers. I don’t even know if they will exist in the next couple of years because it’s so easy to automate it with a chat box. It

can sound like you’re speaking to a human being, but you’re not. Technology has advanced so much in so many different industries.

And so if you’re transitioning industries that are being impacted, especially by advances in technology, I would encourage you to figure out what makes you irreplaceable in a role. And so lead with the value that you bring to the business. Every business at the end of the day is here to make money. How do you create value? How do you save time? How do you save money? How do you how do you grow revenue? So on and so forth. If you’re leading with how you create value, it’ll be a lot easier to transition industries than if you’re just focusing on hard skills. I know how to accounts receivable, accounts payable, whatever. Okay, great. But pretty soon aI is gonna be able to do that and do it a lot faster and a lot better than you.

So now what? Okay. Maybe it’s your ability to get site managers to understand what their budgets are and how it impacts their bonuses and, ultimately the top line for the organization. And then you went from a bookkeeper to a strategic finance partner, cross-functional divisions. That’s something that’s very different. So yeah, it’s not easy. This late 2025 and early 2026 job market probably isn’t going to be easy based on economic predictions, but that does not mean people are not hiring. That does not mean that you can’t pursue a career that is going to light you up. That does not mean that you should not have standards of how you are treated or what you get paid at work. It just means we are all going to have to show up a little bit differently be more diligent when it comes to our research and our standards of how we’re presenting ourselves and controlling what we can control because we all deserve fulfillment at the end of the day.

Johanna: Yeah, absolutely. I have some people who, absolutely love their job, love what they do, and get so much from it. For all the facets, whether it’s the clients, the travel or anything else that’s involved. With it and they’re so fulfilled. And then I have other friends who are I just like my paycheck and I like going home and I like clocking out. They’re okay with the 8 to 5 doing their work and then checking out once they go home and they’re really happy. They don’t want to climb the ladder, they don’t want more responsibilities. They don’t. They just like receiving their paycheck and then, going home and going to sleep with no stress or no excess.

Teegan: That is fulfillment though, like knowing that you go to work to collect a paycheck so you can live the rest of your life the way that you want with that paycheck. That’s fantastic. There’s no judgment whether you’re okay with clocking in clocking out or whether you wanna, grow and advance. Everybody has different values and as long as we’re staying true to our values, I think that’s what’s important because that’s what impacts our health. Because what we’re out of alignment with what we want out of life. We feel it in every aspect of our life.

Johanna: What would be your top 3 tips to somebody, more executive level who, let’s say, is looking to transition and it’s been, 10 months, 12 months plus that they’re looking for a new position?

Teegan: Number #1 step in any job search at any level is clarity. We need to know who we are at our core. Otherwise, hiring teams will see through it. So anybody who says: I don’t know, I want any job, not good enough. Anybody who says: I just wanna be a CMO, not good enough. What lights you up? How do you wanna contribute value? What is your unique leadership style? Clarity on who you are and what drives you is number #1. Without that clarity, you truly can’t have an aligned search. All of those factors play impact. What kind of positions you target, what kind of companies you target, who you network with, what opportunities you say yes or no for.

And above and beyond that impact how you’re going to present yourself. We have a brand, whether we take ownership of it or not. A lot of people feel really grossed out when I say professional brand, but we do have a professional brand. And so I would say the #3 would be controlling the narrative around our professional brand. And so if we wanna be known as the turnaround architect who comes in and saves a rainy day, then maybe private equity is right up your alley when they’re buying up distress companies and you have to come in and you have to figure it all out. Then own that.

Maybe you’re the person who’s a wartime leader, where something is not working. Maybe it’s a union dispute or a big crisis that’s happened. Gosh, the first thing that comes to mind is like Tyson Chicken. How often are there recalls? Because there’s metal shards or something in the chicken. Whoever does that job, cannot have thin skin. You really have to go in that company after how many scandals they’ve had and know that is probably what you’re getting yourself into. And then there’s peace time leaders, who really like to go in and really focus on maintaining what’s working and keeping employee satisfaction high. And if that’s you, own it. Because when we try to position ourselves for everybody, we position ourselves for no one. And no two people are alike.

And while you may be able to come in and solve all 3 of those issues, what do you really wanna be doing? I can tell you people who love turnaround efforts. Once that company is in smooth shape, they get bored and they jump ship. And so look back and think about themes about yourself in that clarity phase so you can really brand yourself and position yourself for the type of opportunities that your appealing to.

So step #1 Crystal clear clarity. Step #2 Alignment with your job search strategy. You are not open to everything you are specifically targeting. What is going to make you happy? What is going to work with your lifestyle? Whether that’s remote, hybrid, traveling, requirements, company size, what have you.

And then #3 Owning your professional brand because that is ultimately what is going to attract opportunities to you and what is gonna help you close and offer where they are going to truly appreciate and compensate you for the value that you’re ultimately going to bring.

Johanna: I love that. Thank you. So what do you think and at what point do you think. Or do you encourage and say: Yeah, it’s okay to go back to school. For example, I have

a friend, she’s maybe 40, 41 ish, and she decided to go back to school and get her master’s degree. At what point do you say maybe education is that route for you? And maybe this would be better for you in the long run, not just as an investment, right? Because all education is an investment, but also for opening up more doors.

Teegan: So my husband recently went back to school. He just graduated in May from Harvard University with his master’s degree and it was a awesome.

Johanna: Congratulations.

Teegan: I’m very proud of him. It was a big sacrifice for our family. The time commitment, the project work, flying to Boston, it was a lot and in it took 2 years. That is something you really wanna weigh out. If you have a family to consider, will this be detrimental or is this something that is sustainable knowing that it’s temporary? I think is the honorable thing to do. If you have other people depending on you, knowing that, especially if you’re working full-time and juggling an advanced degree program, the time commitment involved there. From there I think about finances. What is the ROI? Are you going to get your investment back financially and during economic hard times, more people will go back to school for advanced degrees.

Because they weren’t able to find employment and they think that the lack of advanced degree was impacting that when in reality the market was just bad. And that may or may not have contributed at all. What happens is a lot of times they will get this advanced degree, and by the time their degree is over, the economy is doing a little bit better and they get paid the same, maybe a little bit more. And so, evaluating the true ROI of, okay, if I go back to school and I get a biology degree, are there gonna be more job opportunities? Is the finances going to pay off?

Finances is not a motivator for everyone. It is for me, and so that’s something that I take into consideration. And if it’s more so you’re returning to work just because you feel called to do that work. If you decide: Okay, I wanna go to seminary school, you may make less if you’re a consultant now, but if that’s going to be in alignment with you, then by all means go and become a priest or a pastor or whatever you wanna do. But I think that it is wise to look at the financial ROI to make an educated decision if that investment is worth it. So I would take all of those factors into consideration before deciding if going back to school is right for me. And if you do decide going back to school is right for you, I would encourage you to get your employer to pay for it.

Johanna: Huge. Do you happen to have any statistics that you can share about, let’s say job market, people transitioning, anything that’s relevant to now to 2025?

Teegan: I just attended Indeed’s Future Work Conference. And so, indeed you think of it, it’s more of a high volume job board. It’s not an executive job board. And they are global. They have a global footprint. So something that is interesting is that the average job posting on Indeed is there for 4 weeks, where the average job posting in France is there for 2 weeks, and they do all kinds of surveys and stuff on the candidate

experience as well. And that most job seekers begin to get uninterested in the role or disengage after 2 weeks of being in process with an organization. Indeed’s data has found that in 2025, there’s been a 3% increase of jobs requiring AI skills. That’s all you hear in the media. They’re only seeing 3%, which I found fascinating.

Unemployment, we in the United States get 6 months of unemployment because that is the average job search time. I don’t remember the exact statistic but I believe the job seekers that they were pulling there were unemployed for closer to 3 to 4 extra weeks of unemployment, which is in alignment with the government surveys for long-term unemployed, which is voluntary to report that. So it’s vastly underrepresented in terms of quality of data. There’s that.

In the executive circles that I’m involved with, the different associations and whatnot, the average executive search takes a year. The average board seat search takes 2 years. Companies typically have anywhere between 43 to 72 days to hire for an executive role, but the job seeker themselves is closer to a year and that has now been extended. A couple of the surveys that came out from the organizations that I’m involved with even had rates as high as 18 months. I’ve personally worked with clients who have had even longer job search because they weren’t implementing strategic job search strategies like tapping into their network or being specific about what their goals were or being explicit about the value that they brought or leaving out key metrics and things like that. Little tweaks that make a really big difference. So those are the ones that come to mind. Do you have any specific questions? because I am a data nerd.

Johanna: I love data too. And so I’m always asking my podcast guests if they have any statistics, because I love them and I love how much impact they can give somebody who potentially was thinking: Oh maybe I do wanna get out of this job, but let’s see what happens here. I also wanna add in, leap and the net will be there. Have a little faith in yourself wherever you are going in your job career or life trajectory. Because for example I’m thinking of this one client in particular, and he came to me for hair loss of course, but throughout the hair loss transition, he also transitioned and he moved to a new state and he got a new job and he did all these things.

And it’s just like one piece. It was almost like one crump led to another crumb, led to another crumb. And yes, he has his hair back, but at the same time, he also has a whole new life, living in a totally different state with a new job, a new, area code, everything. And so it’s just all brand new for him and it’s revolutionized him into what he wants. Once we get really clear, as you said, but also once we have that trajectory laid out and we’re like, we need to do this, and all these things will lead to this, which is what we want, boom. It’s just like he was taking massive action and he was being rewarded for it each step of the way.

Teegan: That’s key. Massive action when we. Start with the end in mind and then take action, daily action to get us towards that goal. There is no other possible outcome except success. It’s so sad to see so many people who just won’t take the action, who continue to live in that stressful environment to the point where they’re losing their hair.

On one hand I understand it to a certain extent because that’s how we’re hardwired to be fearful of change. But on But on the other hand, we have so much more power if we just take aligned action.

Johanna: It’s quite astounding because, maybe listeners out there are thinking, oh, this client probably has lots of money, has no issues, has no, this, has no that. I’ll tell you he’s young. Yes. But he literally left with just the clothes on his back to this new place. I even like coached him on like how to do this and that. because I myself have been in transition a gazillion times, state to state, country to country. And sometimes you have to be scrappy, sometimes you have to be like very I don’t know any other word for scrappy, but you have to be very resourceful in order to get to that next step. But then once you do, boom, you are so rewarded and it’s absolutely incredible, to be able to look back and see your journey and be like: I did that.

Teegan: Yeah, and ultimately that’s what we want. Especially as we begin to reflect on end of the year or new year. How do we live this year and what do we want for next year and how are we gonna get there? It’s transformative when we take our power in manifesting or taking action, into ensuring our version of a fulfilling life, of a holistic, healthy, balanced life. And sometimes we can’t have it all. Sometimes there are balls that are gonna drop or sacrifices that are made to get to certain places. I can’t tell you how many clients have taken a step back to take a step forward, especially those transitioning industries. They would rather take a step back, learn the lay of the land, and then go towards certain things. Same thing with health and fitness.

Johanna: There’s a lot of pros and cons to everything. And at the end of the day, I think that the biggest takeaway is that we have a choice. This is where we create change by our choices that we make now or that we make in the foreseeable future. And so this podcast episode deliberately will be done in November so that you have a month in advance to start forecasting thinking, getting inspired. What is it that I want? What is it that I wanna change? What are the areas of my life that I want to improve, even if it’s just by 1%. But improve just ever so slightly or even in a bigger scale because there are people out there who can help you.

For me it’s your hair and it’s your health. For Teegan it’s your career, it’s your resume, it’s your job your transition. It’s all of these things and more, and that’s just it. Like we can change by our choices and create that fabulous life that we want, but will there be some, uncomfortable change potentially. Will there be some times where we doubt ourselves for sure. Will there be some times where we’re not guided? But again, that’s all a choice.

Teegan: It’s the journey. A beautiful journey that is ours to claim.

Johanna: Anything else that you’d like to leave our listeners with where they can find you? Any last words?

Teegan: Yeah, so anybody can find me on LinkedIn, just send me a connection request saying that you found me from Johanna’s podcast. And if you are on search, if you need support with anything, let me know. I have so many different resources that I can send you to support whatever your goals are at the time. And as you are thinking about the life that you’ve lived this year, I encourage your you to give yourself grace and as you’re thinking about what you want for next year just live with intention and courage that you can do hard things and change, although can be a little bit nerve wracking. It can also help you live the life that you want.

Johanna: Amen. Amen. Thank you so much Teegan, for your presence, your friendship, and for coming to the podcast and enlightening our listeners with your wisdom and your expertise. Thank you. Thank you.