A conversation with Laurie Hirsch Schulz, founder of LHS Coaching, Career Transition and Executive Coach. Laurie shares her own journey of leaving a successful 25-year corporate marketing career when the work no longer aligned with her core values of collaboration and connectivity.
Are you feeling that quiet whisper—or loud roar—telling you it's time for a change? In this powerful conversation, Laura Rotter welcomes back career transition and executive coach Laurie Hirsch Schulz to explore how women at midlife can recognize and navigate the inflection points that signal it's time for something new.
Laurie shares her journey of leaving a successful 25-year corporate marketing career when the work no longer aligned with her core values of collaboration and connectivity. After negotiating her own exit package and taking what she calls a "reboot year," she discovered coaching and built a thriving practice helping professionals at their own crossroads. But this episode isn't just about dramatic career pivots—it's about recognizing that we don't have to settle for "okay" and that discomfort is often where the magic happens.
Whether you're feeling burnt out, bored, or simply sensing that there must be more, this episode offers practical wisdom for building what Laurie calls your "personal compass"—a framework of values, superpowers, and purpose that helps you navigate the "shoulds" and make purposeful choices aligned with who you truly are. Essential listening for any woman ready to stop settling and start exploring what's next.
About Laurie: Laurie Hirsch Schulz is a Career Transition and Executive Coach who partners with professionals and executives at inflection points to gain clarity on what's next in their careers and lives. After spending nearly 25 years in corporate marketing strategy roles with Fortune 500 companies (including two years in Switzerland), Laurie made her own pivot when her work no longer aligned with her personal values. She took a "reboot year" to get clear on her purpose, earned her coaching certification, and launched her practice helping others do the same. Laurie specializes in working with women leaders, nonprofit executives, and professionals navigating transitions. She is also president of a nonprofit board working with teens to help them find their own personal voice and power. Laurie is a graduate of Leadership Westchester and believes deeply in experimentation, service, and the power of building your personal compass to navigate life's choices.
Key Takeaways:
💡 Inflection points deserve respect—whether they're loud or quiet: The whisper telling you something needs to change is just as valid as a dramatic life event. Pay attention when you feel bored, unsettled, or disengaged—these are signals worth exploring, not dismissing.
💡 Discomfort is where the magic happens: When you're stretching beyond your comfort zone, that's when you learn the most and build confidence. The discomfort may feel hard in the moment, but the growth and empowerment on the other side make it worthwhile.
💡 Build your personal compass to navigate the "shoulds": Get crystal clear on your non-negotiable values, what lights you up, what drains you, and your unique superpowers. This compass becomes your framework for making purposeful choices rather than being driven by external expectations or cultural norms about what you "should" do.
💡 Experimentation beats paralysis: You don't have to quit your job to explore new directions. Take on different projects at work, volunteer in areas that interest you, have curiosity conversations with people doing work you admire. Small experiments build confidence, experience, and network—creating a stronger foundation for bigger moves.
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Laura Rotter
What if that quiet voice of dissatisfaction you've been ignoring is actually your compass pointing towards something more meaningful? In this episode, I talk with Lori Hirsch Schultz, a career transition and executive coach who helps professionals navigate inflection points in their lives. After a successful corporate career, Lori found herself laying off people she respected and realized her work no longer aligned with her values.
Collaboration and connectivity. She negotiated her own exit package, took what she calls a reboot ear, and launched a coaching practice that allows her to live by her personal compass. Lori reminds us that discomfort is where the magic Athens and that we don't have to settle for, okay? No matter what our circumstances are.
If you've been feeling that tug toward change, but don't know where to start. This conversation will give you permission to listen to that voice and take the first small step. Listen in.
Narrator
Welcome to Making Change With Your Money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now, here's your host, certified financial planner, Laura Rodder.
Laura Rotter
Welcome, Lori to the Making Change With Your Money Podcast.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Hi, Laura. Great to see you. Happy to be here.
Laura Rotter
Yes. And Lorie, you've been a guest on this podcast before, so I'm gonna start with a slightly different question. As this podcast making change with Your Money has listeners, women who are in an inflection point in their lives, and I know that's a community that you work with, how do you help professionals who may be feeling unsettled, burnt out, recognize that they're in an inflection point.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah. It's funny, that's actually how I describe my clients. I work with professionals, executives who are at Prof, who are at inflection points, and sometimes it's just like a little niggle in the back of your head that you maybe you should listen to that's saying.
So things just aren't, I'm not feeling satisfied. I'm feeling bored. I'm not, it's, I'm not really that engaged with my work. So sometimes it can be really quiet and sometimes it's really loud. And those inflection points can be things like a loss, maybe a loss of a parent, or it can be your children are going off to school.
Maybe it could be going off to college, or it could even be that they're. You, they're going to kindergartner. They're just much more engaged. You and I both have kids we know by the time they're in middle school, they just don't need you your attention as much anymore. So that can be an inflection point where it really feels like now is my time.
And actually I do talk to a lot of women who they're, another inflection point can be that all of their friends and maybe their spouses or their partners are beginning to talk about retirement and. Their response is, no, I am not ready to retire. Like their inflection point is, I'm ready to do something new or I'm ready to do something that.
Is more meaningful to me than the work that I have been doing. Maybe they have a little bit more financial flexibility that the kids are out of the house, these inflection points. I do work. I, I call myself a career transition coach and an executive coach, and I work with people who are at transition points in their professional lives to figure out what's going to be next for them.
So those inflection points can be really obvious and really loud, and sometimes it's just that little voice that's talking to you.
Laura Rotter
Yes, and And you should listen. Yeah. And so much comes up when you say that because we're talking about a point, and yet from my own personal experience, it evolved over years.
Right? That still small voice as you put it. Gets louder and it can take a while. So I'm wondering if you could share, Lori, like a personal story from your experience, because perhaps you're like me in that we teach what we needed to learn ourselves.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah, no, it's a great question. I started my career, I started in PR and then I moved, I got my MBA and I moved into the corporate space and I always, and I was doing marketing strategy work and I worked for two, two big.
Fortune 500 companies and I had a great career. I had this, I have, and my opportunities just kept. They, they showed up, lucky me.
And I even had an opportunity to move to Switzerland for two years and I was like, yes. And then there became a point with the second company that I was with, I was only with two big companies at post MBA and it just wasn't working anymore.
And I was forced to be really thoughtful and purposeful about what I wanted to do next. And I ended up, I was having to lay a lot of people off and I ended up having to negotiate. I decided this is not working for me anymore. So I took the initiative to negotiate a exit package for myself, and that was really empowering.
So that inflection point for me was, although I loved the company I was working for, the job was no longer. Although I don't think I could have articulated this at that time. Now that I'm a coach, but the job wasn't aligned with my personal values anymore. It's just I was having to let people go. I'm one of my biggest PA values is collaboration and connectivity, and I was having to let go people who I had a lot of respect with, who I collaborated with.
We were changing the way that the organization went to market. We weren't collaborating with our clients as much as we used to. And there were these big gaps between my val, my personal values, and the way I was able to show up at work. And that's what was really, that was really driving that dissatisfaction.
And so that inflection point. Drove me to negotiate that exit package, and it was the first time that it was really purposeful about what do I want out of my work and how do I want, what does that look like? So for me. Then I took that time. I, I, I took what I called my reboot year. I was really fortunate that I was in a position that I could do that, and I took some time and I did work around what is it that lights me up and what gives me energy.
What really engages me, what's aligned with my personal values is I start thinking about what that looks like, and that's how I came to coaching. And I ended up getting my coaching certification and, and launched this business. And like you said. That I was at an inflection point and now I partner with other people who are inflection points to really get that clarity on where do I wanna take my skills, my passions, we can talk a little bit more about purpose if and what the impact I wanna make in the world.
And now I partner with my clients to do just that. So.
Laura Rotter
Thanks for that answer. And so a couple of questions came up for me. You did briefly talk about the inflection point of needing to lay people off. I'm curious what was going on, if you will, in your body? Like how did it present that you needed to make a change?
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
You know what, there's other things usually. It's usually not just one thing, right? I had a terrible boss. Frequently that is an infection point for people. People, right? Yes. I had a terrible boss. I was not feeling. And he actually got let go before me, but I wasn't feeling, I wasn't feeling empowered.
I was that, that weight of having, I mean, I always really, I always love to work. I have. I have two kids, and I was always the mom who felt guilty for not feeling guilty. I, I felt like I was really engaged in their, I felt like I was a, I was better when I was at, when I was working. So yes, I cannot, I didn't, I wasn't getting joy from that, from the work anymore.
And I guess you, I guess it's an interesting question, like how did my body feel? I think there was just guilt. Too, because I was having to let people go who I really respected. Yeah. Having to change my relationships with my clients who were really, those were partnerships that, again, the company I was working for, I still have a tremendous amount of respect for it, but they were changing their go-to market strategy and it didn't align with me.
Laura Rotter
Got it. And I, I, I can sense it was unease in how you were Yeah. On a day-to-day basis. I also have a question, Lori, around you, you named, and even when you said it, you said you might not have expressed it the same way that your values are collaboration and connectivity. And that does bring up the question also of how you work with people now.
How did you come to name those values?
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah, so that's one of the beauties of a coaching certification program is that you get coached too. And we did a lot of that work and so I was able to na start naming some of those things that I just had that sense of. I think I knew if somebody had asked me, what are your values, I probably could've.
Rattled them off. Yeah. But when you start, and that's part of, and that's the first exercise I do with every single client, no matter what they are coming to me for, is we start with what are your non-negotiable? Values. You get five. I give them a list of 50 and I say, oh, and maybe there's something on there that's not appropriate.
I just had a first coaching session with a client yesterday and she's, boy, that's a hard, that's a hard exercise because so many of the values sound so appealing. They're honesty. Things like all things that, like everybody, everyone, people are going to really resonate with, but to get them. To really define what it is tightly for yourself.
That's hard. So intuitively you might understand it, but like really, so that's one of the first things I did in my. Coaching program. And then I was in a leadership. I was in a leadership program, and again, it was the same. We did the same thing. Yes. We both did Leadership Westchester, right? We did. We both did Leadership Westchester.
We had to name our values. Yeah. That was one of the first things that we did. And then through Leadership Westchester, in addition, then I was lucky enough to be in a cohort with leadership Westchester for. I think it's nine months for that a year. And you spend a good portion of that year talking about what your mission is, what's your purpose, what, how do you wanna show up in the world?
What is that, what's the impact you wanna have? But when I wasn't able to name it, but uh, but uh, intuitively I knew it just wasn't working. And I just wanna add something really quick 'cause I know just knowing a true abundance in your, in your business, being able to leave my job. I was talking about with this with somebody recently was a privilege, right?
I financially, I mean I did negotiate a very nice exit package and that was so yay for me. And I had help with that. I had a good friend. I remember one day we sat on the train going down to the city 'cause we commuted down to the city and I said, I'm planning, I wanna negotiate an exit. How do I do this?
And we sat for 45 minutes and she gave me lots of great advice. She was an HR person. Always ask for help. But where I was gonna go, it is a privilege. And I was able to do that because of the way that my husband and I chose to spend our money. We in always have invested in experiences, but we're probably the only house we live in a lovely block, but we were probably the only house on this block where we have not done incremental, like we haven't added onto our house.
Laura Rotter
Yeah.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
So those are choices that we made. I know this is, I know you didn't ask me about that, but when I think about it, 'cause I was talking about it with someone this morning, like it was a privilege, but we set ourselves up for that. Not knowing, oh, maybe I'm gonna wanna take a break from work. But boy, I feel so lucky to have been able to do that.
It was lucky. Smart. Does that make sense?
Laura Rotter
It does, and I feel like I first financial planned myself when I made the similar decision in that I started to look at my expenses and we had a 6,000 square foot house on an acre of land. And though. Because I had a lucrative prior career. I did not really have a mortgage, but that wasn't the bigger cost.
It was the taxes on the house. It was the cost to heat that home. It was the cost to have someone come and mow the lawn and the, yeah. The servicing costs on that house was so expensive. That was a no-brainer, and I'm in a house now half the size. I remember when we closed on it, the person said, this is your downsized house, but I'm in a house half the size.
I had a vacation home, which was wonderful raising the kids. It was on a ski mountain and you didn't have to pack stuff up. And I sold it. I, you know that I think. I, I sold my big house first and the vacation house second, but I knew I had to have lower monthly carrying costs in order to have a life that I feel privileged to live.
And so similar to you, happy to spend on experiences and back to values. I think we've talked about this. One of the first exercises I give clients is of. Values exercise and taped up on my wall is my five values of spirituality, family, meaningful work, play, and health. Love it. And it's hard to name them and it's also hard to live by them on a daily, every spending decision basis, but it's important to remind yourself of why you're here and what you're doing.
Yeah, so we both talked about how we made the decision to walk away from a long held career identity and the money related to it. What would you tell to our listeners who may be in a place where they feel a pull, but they're scared to make a change?
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
They're scared, they may be scared or uncomfortable.
And they may have anchor challenges, right? I have a number of clients that are single moms and they are fully responsible for, or they're the primary wage earner. They're women, but they're the primary wage earner in their household. So they're feeling that pull, but they also have what they call in coaching on anchor problems, like they're real problems.
Problems you have to make. They have to make money. So how do you step into that? I think the first thing is to really understand not just your values, but understand. The value you bring and that you, and I think women sometimes don't necessarily own it as much as men. I hate to make blanket statements, but that's frequently the case and just really recognizing and.
Being really clear on what all of your skills are and what differentiate. This is where my marketing person comes in. Let's create your personal brand. How do you differentiate yourself? What stands out about you? What makes you unique? And then really looking so, and once you can start articulating that for yourself and also acknowledging all the amazing things that you've done in your career.
Then exploring and beginning to explore. How can you, where else can you apply those skills? If you wanna make a career change, where else can you apply those skills? But I also am a really big believer in experimentation. Hmm. So when you're here, it can feel super scary to go all the way over there, but there's a lot of ways to start getting over there.
It doesn't necessarily mean walking away from a paying job. It could mean once you have more, once you're more aligned, more, more attuned to your values. Once you're more attuned to like your skills and there are skills, and not just your skills, but like what lights you up. There are a lot of people who are great public speakers.
But they hate it as an example. Like they just, they find it's, and they don't wanna be doing that work or there's lots of things. I'm sure that you have skills that you're good at, but that you would rather don't need to, don't want to done it for the last 20 years. Don't wanna do it anymore. So really, so when you start defining like your personal brand and your super, your power, I call them your superpowers or your powers, and you're feeling empowered yourself.
Experimentation can look like. Taking on a different project at work, it can look like starting to have conversations even within your own organization to start making inroads with new, with in new departments or new areas. It can, experimentation can look like doing some volunteer work. Then when you do, when you, so you're still going back to what's the most scary thing about leaving a job?
Generally it's leaving security of money generally. So start when you start experimenting those little steps. Not only are you infusing yourself with confidence and you're seeing what works and what doesn't work, but you're also beginning to build that portfolio so that when you're ready. To move, to take a bigger step.
You have a lot more to, you're, you're building on a much more, a much stronger foundation as found a stronger foundation of confidence, a stronger foundation of experience, a stronger foundation of an, of network and, and support system. Because if you're doing it. If you're doing a, if you're volunteering or you and I have talked a little bit about board work, I mean that you learn so much as you go.
And the last thing I'll just say about this, I think that hope this answers your question is when you're uncomfortable, that's when the magic happens. Ah, so say more. So if you're feeling like, boy, this is feeling a little bit like a stretch for me, that's when you feel like, oh, when you're, when you've done it.
Or if you feel really, that's really empowering and that's where you learn the most. That's what I mean. So like discomfort is not a terrible thing. Discomfort may be dis uncomfortable in the moment, but when you're finished it's, it feels fabulous. I think.
Laura Rotter
It's interesting because I hope I'm not digressing, but I had a question in my mind before you said this, Lori, and now it seems even more appropriate.
First of all, I just wanna say I totally agree with you. We need to push against our boundaries in order to grow. And when you were saying, let's say you're a good public speaker, but you don't enjoy it, there's always been a tension for me personally, and hence the question, which is, I know I have so many shoulds in my head, right.
You are good with numbers and financial markets. You should use those skills in your work. You have a lot of great example. Yeah. Speak in front of people. You should do more workshops. I actually had a podcast guest who said, you should be getting on more podcasts. I'll join and yes. And. I also, I follow Lori, I, I recommend you all do on social media.
You take afternoons off and go for a hike. How many organizations should I be, should I belong to? How much networking should I do? There seems to be a tension between pushing myself beyond my boundaries and not…
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Actually, I'm gonna build on your shoulds because I think that should, is. There's also the internal shoulds, like I should, there there's, and I think those are almost more powerful than what people say to you externally.
It's so, I had this expectation that I'm, I, I wanna be CMO of a company someday, chief marketing officer of a company one day. And, but think about all the things that I would've given up if I had followed that should and done all the things to be able to get to that position. So I think there, and there's shoulds, there's cultural shoulds.
So the culture says that. You should be retiring by the time you're 65. There are lots of people who love working until they're 85. So go for it. You don't have to, you just because everyone around you is retiring doesn't mean that you have to retire. My response to that or my perspective on these shoulds, because I don't think it's just, it's around you, it's internal.
It's your childhood expectations. Oh, I really wanted to be a journalist and so I should have been doing all these things in order to be a journalist, or what, whatever it may have been. This is where I'm gonna go back to these values and your purpose. If you're really clear, and I think that this is one of the reasons why, think about everything that you just talked about.
You sold two houses and able to enable you to live the life that you wanna live on, your terms, knowing what your purpose is and how you want to show up in life. Can be a guidepost. So for me, I, I mentioned a couple of my impact is another one for me, another value. But for me, my, my mission or my purpose is.
Is really to be a catalyst to enable other individuals and organizations to find their own power so that they can then be a catalyst for growth and fulfillment and equitable experiences in the world. So my but, so in a nutshell, my, my mission is to be a catalyst to help other people find their own personal powers and find, help other organizations find their own personal powers and that.
Applies to, and now of course I'm never perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm not saying it doesn't always happen, but that framework, am I doing that with my kids? Am I doing that with my friends? Am I doing that with my community? Am I clearly that's what, how I come to coaching is that I want to partner with people to help them find their own personal powers.
And you and I have talked about this a little bit. I'm the president of a nonprofit board, and that's what the purpose of the board is, that we work with teens to give them power, to give them the power of their own personal voice and know how to make an impact in the world. So those shoulds. Become All right.
Is this aligned with, is this should aligned with how I wanna show up in the world? Now, I know this sounds very, I'm not, I'm so far from perfect, but, but that's my aspiration. It's their guide, it's a guidepost. You know, it's, gives a framework to, and I've actually, I coach a good number of nonprofit executives, and I'm gonna go back to that values work, work again.
Multiple non people who are living like nonprofit, community oriented work day after day. It's hard work. Yes. And when we do the values work, like frequently they know what their values are, but they're like, they forgot because you get so caught up in the day to day and that reminder of, oh, that's why I am here.
That's right. That's why I am here. That's why I'm doing this work because sometimes it's you get caught up and it's hard.
Laura Rotter
You are not the sum of your earnings. You are the sum of your earnings. If you are ready to use wealth to create more freedom and flexibility, let's align your finances with what matters most. Together we'll build a plan that balances your scarce resources of energy time. And money. So you move forward with clarity, confidence, and less stress towards a life of true abundance.
Learn more at www.trueabundanceadvisors.com and schedule a short conversation.
I think that's true for many of us. I'm sure it's true for you. I know for me. I have this sign next to my values, another sign that just says, only love to keep in mind before every client meeting, before every prospect meeting, that I'm coming at it from an open heart from. I love that being safe space for people to be heard.
Yeah. And to really do deep listening. And I wanna talk about service. I know this is important to you. I am currently in a mentorship to financial life planning mentorship to. Really ask deep questions and help people articulate what they truly wanna use their resources for. And not just financial, but all scarce resources, time, energy, talent.
Mm-hmm. And there's, when I look at people I work with, there's several stages of. Financial maturity, if you will. And the last stage in this particular life planning training is called Aloha, which is have people moved beyond their own fears and dreams that. Probably they learned at the age of five around money through the different stages.
I sense knowledge too. Aloha is being in a centered place, so actually you start to use your resources to give back. Mm-hmm. And I know you just mentioned that you are doing that personally. How do you work with clients to help them? Move towards that stage in their own lives. And do you think that's even an important thing to do?
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
It's important for me. Um, it may not mean, and as a coach, it is not for me to say what's important for them. And I actually, the other exercise I do when I first start working with people. People, they do two exercises for the first session. One is that values exercise. The other is something called the Wheel of Life and all that It is, it's a very, you can anyone can look it up online there.
Laura Rotter
It's a very standard I this one.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yes, but it's basically, think about it as like a pizza pie. It's divided up into eight slices and each segment has. Is has a different aspect of life. One may be work, one is work, one is health, one is relationships, and one of them is service. And there there are two, actually, there are two pieces of that pie that always.
Have very different definitions for every single person. Service is one, and spirituality is the other. And so many of my clients say just spirituality is aside. Oh, I'm not a spiritual person. And then I'll say, this isn't, how do you define spirituality? I said, it might be being out in the woods. It might be.
Whatever it is, but service is the other one because everyone defines it. It doesn't matter. There's no wrong answer. So how do you as an individual, define service? And for some people, service may be. How they are able to support their parents or their family or how they are working, what they do as a job.
And it doesn't necessarily mean that they work in a nonprofit space. It can mean that how are they of service just in supporting their staff or the people that they work with or, so I don't think this is exactly the answer that you were, you're expecting, but when you say, how do I help people get to service?
It's first by really defining how do you define service, what does that mean to you? And yeah, and so then, and sometimes it's not a priority sometimes. Their relationships with their family is a priority. Financial stability is a priority and yeah, and you can't work on it all at once. So yeah, maybe I'd like service to be a priority, but right now I've got three kids between the ages of seven and 10.
My husband is a freelancer and I'm the one who has to make sure that we've got insurance and, and so. Sure service would be, it's just not now. Right. But then, but for people who are, where service is a priority, then it's again coming back to what are your skills, what are your gifts, what lights you up, what energizes you?
And then where, and then there's so many places to, I've been in the in, and I'm in Westchester County. I've been in the nonprofit space now for six years. There's so many different pla ways to like experiment. As I talked about. You could just go out and you're curious about gardening, work in a community garden for one day and start digging up weeds and see who you meet and see how you feel and see what happens.
And so.
Laura Rotter
I love that. I agree. It's interesting. I too have a wheel of life and I do get questions about what do you mean by community or what do you mean by home? And I'm sure you say the same thing. What does it mean to you? Yeah, this is open-ended. You can define it however. You want and back to the only love I know I'm married to someone who feels like it's his job to fix the world, and I feel like if I hold the door open for someone and smile.
That's an act of service and that could change, you know Exactly. If you smile at the cashier rather than rush through, I'm making myself tear up. But you can change someone's day and I hundred percent agree with you.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
I 100% agree with you. I would also add, so this is my own personal bias as much.
Service can be what you just described, but it also can be, no matter how busy someone is taking two hours once every six months to work at a food pantry or the science and the research says that volunteering is good for your mental health, and it really, I mean it does. And so that experience. And getting out there.
I mean, we're behind computer. Look at us here. You are not. You are, and I are, we're on Zoom. We're behind our computers all day long. We're looking at social media. We're we're answering emails and getting out and just being with other people. And service is, it's really healthy. And if you mean, if again, people have kids, you do it with your kids, it's just.
Yeah. For me, having, I, I wasn't able to do nearly what I'm doing now. When I was working, when I was working in corporate for those 20, almost 25 years, I had two kids. I traveled 20% of the time I was commuting into the city. You, I did not have a lot of time. So when I took the transition that I did and I started this career, I, I started my coaching practice.
That opened up a lot of space for me. To show up in my community in a very different way, and it's been to the benefit of my business too. Like I said, I do a lot more nonprofit like leadership coaching now, and I've learned so much. Being a leader in a corporation, I'm sure you know about this, is a much different than leading in a, in the nonprofit space.
It's just, it's like just different skill sets and you learn to flex more. Hopefully be a better listener, but, but you, so I think so. There's just so many benefits. Yeah.
Laura Rotter
Can you speak to, you just said so many benefits, like a particular personal benefit that you've seen in your life. You did say that it has helped bring you work.
What's the clarity or growth that comes from. Blending stuff.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah. That's not, I'm, I am not, I, I appreciate that. It brings me work. That's not why I'm doing it.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, I know that's not, yeah.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
For me, above and beyond just having impact, which is really satisfying. I've learned a lot of new skills. I've learned how to.
Navigate and have conversations with people that are very different than me or have different backgrounds than me. They're not. I was working in a, in, in, in a corporation where most of us were MBAs or we were business, and so that, I'm wor I've met so many, I've met a lot of elected officials, which is fun and they have a different perspective.
I've met a lot of, I, I was saying to someone the other day, we were talking about. The world around us and optimism and that sometimes it's hard to be optimistic. And my experience with nonprofit leaders is that their resiliency and they're just, you know what, let's, we we're just gonna keep doing the work and they, and we're doing the work and that role modeling of.
You impact and I try to live this myself. You control, you impact what you can control and you what you control, you can control and the rest of it. So those are things that I've learned from. Seeing people who are coming from different spaces and different perspectives and, and learning how to navigate that.
The nonprofit space, I guess, and being more in service to my community, those are all, it's not just the mental health benefits itself, but just I've learned a lot about interpersonal skills and connect making connections and. Yeah, I think, does that answer the question? Yeah. Oh, and I've learned, I don't, I still don't love it.
I've learned how to become a fundraiser, which amazing skill and I, and it's not, when you have a passion for the mission of the organization you're working for, it's easy to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. So I've learned the value of being able to tell a story about the, the mission and yeah, and I learned a lot of things in corporate too, but these are, this is a very different space and then I'm able to apply that back into my coaching too, and into my, in my interpersonal life, my, my friendships.
Yeah.
Laura Rotter
That's great. I. I've been a member of a group giving organization, a women's group giving organization Impact. 100. Yep. For close to a decade now. I was treasurer for two years, not my favorite role for an organization that had no professional staff, it was a little bit too hands on for me. That being said, as a result of that role, as well as just being on grant review committees, I similar to you.
I lived in Westchester, but I basically commuted back and forth to the city, saw people that look like me all day long, and now in my role as an advisor to nonprofits that apply for grants. The needs in Westchester County, which is an affluent community, and it's made up of many communities, some, mm-hmm.
Not at all affluent. And getting to know the organizations that cater to those needs and the people that work for those organizations. As you said, it's been now a decade of. Eye-opening work and as a advisor to the nonprofits that are applying for grants, as you said, Lori. I'm always communicating the power of story.
Tell a story, bring a client in who has benefited from your organization, who's articulate. Take pictures of things you've done because just dry. Yes. People want statistics. Yes. What impact have you had statistically and. They're not gonna open their checkbooks and give money based on statistics. They want a story, they want a face, they want a person.
We want to really understand what our money is going to fund. So yeah. I love your point about the power of stories. I've come to learn that through this work.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Rotter
As we come to an end, um. What practical steps can our listeners take if, as we talked about at the beginning, there's this feeling of you are unsettled and you're searching for more respect it.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Pay attention. No, but pay attention to it. Generally, people are willing to settle for, okay. For a really long time, forever. Oh, it's okay. Yeah, it's fine. I'm getting a paycheck. I'm, I'm, it's okay. But just think about if you start getting a little uncomfortable and paying attention to that. And even just journaling, taking 10 minutes and journaling around the question of if there's one thing that I would like to have be different in my work right now, what would that be?
Just start there and just pay attention to that. What does that look like? And then. Talk to people, and I'm not saying, oh, go hire a coach. Sure, that's one way to do it. But start talking to people about, this is something I'm thinking about. What do you think about that? Where do, because then that has two benefits.
The first benefit is that. It. When you have two brains, or three brains or four brains, that is just that much more incrementally. You start thinking about more ideas and building on it. But second of all, when you start talking about these things, it turns into accountability. Oh. Hey Laura, you mentioned to me two weeks ago you were thinking about exploring an opportunity in your company or you were thinking, but to do something a little different.
What's going on with that? So it, it creates a little bit of accountability. I mentioned before experimentation. Do a little bit of experimentation and experimentation can again, be a new project at work, a volunteer opportunity, a just setting up having once a week, setting up coffee conversations online or in person and say, Hey, what are you working on?
What are you doing? I'm really, I've been really curious about your work. Another thing that I recommend people do. Is because so many people when you say, oh, what are, I have people come in when they do, they do the superpower exercise and they show up with five things on a piece of paper of what their skills are, and I'm like, I know that is not true.
Ask people. I actually have, and I'm happy to share it with your listeners. I have a. Interview, what are the, what are my gifts? What are my talents? What is something that you, you, what is one experience that has stuck with you, that we've had together? If so, there's, there's five different questions that I have people ask, and I have them ask seven or eight different people in their life, but from all different parts of their life.
From somebody they went to high school with, maybe a parent, maybe a partner, maybe a colleague or two, a colleague from their current job and a colleague from 15 years ago. And they ask the same questions. And what's really fascinating is that generally the responses are all very similar. Yes. When you're 18 and when you're 68.
You're still, your, your being is still very, there's still a core to you. So those are some things like pay attention, talk to people, don't do something about it. Don't just admire it and we don't have to settle for, okay. Even no matter what our circumstances are, there are places where you can explore some of that purpose or that that.
Calling That may be, that's just whispering right now. Oh, something. Yes. Something else that I ask people to do is, what did you wanna do when you were a kid? Because there's oh, frequently something there that, so yeah. That's great.
Laura Rotter
Yeah. So much comes up and you bring up these things. First of all, I think I did the exercise twice, I think once for leadership Westchester, and once before then when I was starting my business, I did send out questions.
To get feedback just to, yeah. And I still have the answers you do in the reminder. And yes, Lori, they're, I love it. Very similar. And then given this life planning working work I'm doing, which is around frankly asking certain questions that. Make it clear that life is not unlimited and what, what would you change if you knew that?
And I did recommend to a client, I called it informational interviewing, and I, I call it curiosity
conversations. But go ahead.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yes, I, after at the end of our conversation, Chris, there was so much. Pushback. I said, why don't you just call friends and have coffee? Oh, I could do coffee.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Yeah, exactly.
Interviewing was, what do you call it? I love that. Curiosity conversations. I love that you've reframed it. I actually hate using the word networking because I think people are like, Ugh. Yes. I, the look of fright on his face was like, I'm sorry, I just call it relationship building. It's like, just like connect and I do call it curiosity conversations.
That's what I, or so. Yeah, it's less scary. Yes, but it's a reframe.
Laura Rotter
Yes. I guess I enjoy net networking so much that it didn't occur to me that it has a certain connotations for people that it was like not the right thing to say. Lori, this has been a great conversation. What do you wanna make sure, again, that you leave our listeners with?
Keeping in mind that many of our listeners are women like us, were. Been through or going through a life transition.
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
Inflection points, we talked about them. Inflection points do not have to be, they can be big or they can be really small, but they all deserve respect and they can be. Opportunities to really launch into something new.
We have many different lives in us and we, to a certain degree, we get to choose. Yeah. And yes, there are those anchor challenges. I'm not gonna treat that lightly, but we get to choose, and I do believe that, building out that, I call it actually your personal compass. So being really clear on what are your values, what are your, what lights you up, what gives you energy?
What drains your energy? What, what are your, your, what's your brand? I call it your brand, because I come from a marketing background, but what is it? What are your power? What are your capabilities? What are the skill sets and what are actually your personal traits that make you different? So being really clear on your compass can then enable you to navigate more clearly, and then you're less going back to you're less.
Beholden to all the shoulds. I actually will tell you that Compass can help you say, no, I'm not gonna do that right now. Or, no, I'm not gonna do it at all. And yes, I am going to do that. That's where the compass, it really enables it. It does give you more personal power to be able to make purposeful choices rather than just feeling like you're always on that treadmill.
So pay attention to the inflection points. Get clear on your compass. Talk to people to help you get clarity in your compass. The people around you who know you best, and I guess embrace the fear a little bit. It's okay to be a little, be uncomfortable.
Laura Rotter
Great, and I will of course have your website in the show notes.
Anything else you wanna make sure, and I recommend people check out, Lori, on her social media. Anything else you want? Yeah,
Laurie Hirsch Schulz
You know what I'm actually offering, I know that this might be a bit before this is actually aired, but I'm offering what I'm calling a, a Journey launch mini package. And it's just a one hour, it's a one hour one-on-one coaching session, but it includes, before we coach, I've put together like a little mini assessment on you.
It's about what are the shoulds, what might be holding you back. What are the things that you might wanna change to start launching a journey forward? So it's just a little mini package. It's $97. It's not, it's just a, it's a one hour investment plus the time to complete the assessment, which probably will take like 10 minutes maybe.
So I just mention that.
Laura Rotter
I will definitely mention that as well as a resource in the show notes. Thanks so much for being my guest. Lori, this has been great. Thank you for having me.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to Making Change with Your Money Certified Financial planner. Laura Rodder specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning.
Go to www.trueabundanceadvisors.com/workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey. Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.